Cooking in French

 

Tuesday, December 18, 2012 – Cooking in French

Today we celebrated twenty-nine years of marriage.  It’s hard to believe we’ve been married that long because it seems like just yesterday that Elliott and I were standing before a glowing fire at Tiger Lilies Restaurant on Beacon Hill, exchanging our wedding vows.  Since we met in Paris and moved to France soon after our wedding, our annual anniversary celebration usually has a French connection.  We could have gone out for lunch or dinner at one of the French restaurants in the area.  But instead, I found a better option this year:  I signed us up for a French cooking class.  And since it’s the winter holiday season, the theme of the class was Fete de Noel, which immediately brought to mind the beautifully decorated buches de Noel (yule logs) we used to see in our village bakery at Christmastime. 

So not long after breakfast, we packed up our aprons, containers, camera, and rubber gloves (for dishwashing) and headed over to class.  Under the guidance of our delightful instructor, Madame Gaston, we learned how to make not only the buche de Noel, but also a velvety chestnut soup and escargots with garlic butter.  That butter (with garlic, shallots, and parsley) was so delicious on French bread that I’d be happy skipping the escargots.  The buche was a bit time-consuming to make but I’m glad I learned some techniques for making the cake and the butter cream, which we flavored with Nutella and sweetened chestnut purée.  

Making garlic butter for the escargots

Our instructor, Madame Gaston

Elliott making the cake for the buche de Noel

The sweetened chestnut purée for the buche de Noel

A completed buche de Noel

Escargots are hiding under the garlic butter

Elliott sampling the buches de Noel

It was after 2 in the afternoon when we got back from the class, and we were both suffering from a serious case of butter overload.  I think the best remedy would be a spoonful of olive oil.  (I’d forgotten how much butter is used in classic French cuisine because most of my “French” cooking is really Provençal.)