Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Genre Freebie (Pick a genre and build a list around it. You could do historical fiction featuring strong female leads, contemporary romance set in foreign countries, mysteries starring unreliable narrators, lyrical fiction books in verse, historical romance featuring pirates, Gothic novels with birds on the cover, etc. There are so many options!)
Recently I was honoured to be asked to co-host one of the Cook the Books selections later in the year. Cook the Books is an online book club where you read the chosen selection, but you also cook something inspired by the book. When I was looking through the books that have been chosen over the last few years I was surprised to see that I have been doing this for a while now so today I am sharing the last ten books I read for Cook the Books, as well as what I was inspired to make!
Before that, you might be curious about what book I chose? I couldn't see many Japanese books on the list, so I have chosen The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai. My selection will be up in October/November. You can see all the upcoming selections in this post
Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best. The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links. I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.
The starting point for this month is Butter by Asako Yuzuki, a book that I really want to read! Let's see where our journey takes us
My first link is based on the subtitle of Butter which is A Novel of Food and Murder. Recently I read Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge which features an amateur detective investing a murder.
For my second choice, I am focusing on the detective aspect, but fortunately there is not a body in sight. Instead, the detectives in the Kamogawa Food Detectives are searching for the perfect meal which lives in the memories of their clients
Next, I am taking a trip down my own memory lane and choosing to think about a memorable meal of my own. When we were in Paris we had a lunch at a Michelin star restaurant across the road from our hotel. So my choice is Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard
You know I wouldn't be able to resist a link to Paris. The question is which Paris book! In the end I decided to go with Mrs Harris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico.
My next link is to The Women in Black by Madeleine St John. The connection here is around high end fashion. One of the reason why this book came to mind is that there is going to be a new TV series inspired by the book. I love the movie so definitely plan to watch the TV series when it stars in a couple of weeks.
My final link is based purely on the colour of the cover, but I did like that it is from a Japanese author which ties back to the starting book for this month. My final choice is therefore Tales from the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. This is the second book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. As an aside I was very excited to see that the next book in the series recently became available to pre order. Its called Before We Forget Kindness.
Next month the starting point is Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck
Two close friends (one of whom happens to be Julia Childs)
Fabulous food
A body in the basement
A grumpy police detective
A dash of post war intrigue
Some fun secondary characters
Method
Take two American women who have become best friends after meeting in Paris. Add in a late night party, a missing knife, a body in the basement.
Add a very serious Parisian detective who turns up the heat of suspicion on our main character and then mix in a suspicion of espionage
Cook under pressure, until things begin to boil.
Sprinkle with misdirection
Season with a quest to perfect mayonnaise and lessons on how to make a perfect omelette.
When this book was announced as the current choice for Cook the Books, I was very pleased. I have been reading this author for years, following her through various identities and sub genres. I was also keen to read this because I loved the idea of having Julia Child as one of the characters.
Right from the opening paragraphs I expected this book to be fun:
Julia Child had a mayonnaise problem.
I knew all about it - every sordid detail - because, first, I was one of her closest friends in Paris, and second....well, I wouldn't be surprised if everyone in the seventh arrondisement - from the Place due Palais-Bourbon to the Tour Eiffel - had heard about the mayonnaise problem. Julia was just that kind of person. She was gregarious and ebullient and giddy and enthusiastic.
Tabitha Knight moved to Paris in 1949, and almost immediately made friends with Julia Child, who would later become known for her work on TV cooking shows. At this point, Julia is attending classes in Paris. When she is not cooking up a storm, Julia is attempting to both teach Tabitha to cook, and to encourage her to try and meet a good man!
After a late night party at Julia and Paul's apartment with Julia's theatre loving sister, Dort, Tabitha stumbles across the body of another woman who was at the party. She is found dead in the basement and most damningly, one of Julia Child's distinctive knives is found too. The French police, in the form of Inspector Merveille, are instantly suspicious that either Tabitha or Julia were involved in the murder, and so Tabitha needs to prove their innocence. Her natural curiosity soon leads her into investigating the crime, and draws her into an English speaking theatre world and a far reaching conspiracy.
Whilst I enjoyed all the characters, I think my favourites have to have been Tabitha's grandfather and her "oncle" (as in a very close friend of the family). Tabitha and the two gentleman share the house along with their adorable pets. It is inferred that the two men got up to all sorts of things in the war, and still have many contacts in all sorts of places, which come in handy whilst Tabitha is kind of sort of investigating the crime. Luckily, this is the first in a series so I am hopefully we learn more about them in future books.
I had been intending to try making a Julia Child recipe since I watched the TV series Julia last year. I still haven't actually watched the second series yet! One day.
When it came to deciding which recipe to cook, there were so many options. I did consider trying to make mayonnaise, which I have never done before, and I considered making the omelette which Julia tried so hard to teach to Tabitha in the book. I still intend to try to do both, but in the end I decided on a classic French recipe, Boeuf Bourguignon.
Here is the original recipe, as far as I can tell anyway!
Boeuf Bourguignon (Julia Childs)
8 oz bacon chopped 4 tbsp olive oil 3 lbs stewing beef, cut into 2-inch cubes. 1 large carrot, sliced 1 onion sliced. 1 pinch salt and fresh ground pepper 2 tbsp plain flour 3 cups red wine 3 cups beef stock 1 tbsp tomato paste 2 cloves garlic, smashed 1/2 tsp thyme 14 oz pearl onions, 18 to 24. 3.5 tbsp butter 1 herb bouquet (bay leaf, 2 sprigs thyme, 4 sprigs flat-leaf parsley, tied together.) 1 lb brown or white mushrooms, quartered.
Preheat your oven to 450°. Simmer the bacon lardons in a pot of water for about 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and let them drain on some paper towels.
Over medium heat, saute the cooked bacon in 1 tablespoon of olive oil for about 3 minutes. You'll want it to be lightly brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Take the beef cubes and pat them dry using a paper towel. Then, working in batches, sear the meat on all sides over medium-high heat in a large Dutch oven. Then set it aside with the bacon.
In the same Dutch oven, saute the sliced onions and carrots over medium heat for about 3 minutes. Add a little more olive oil (or butter) if necessary. Return the bacon and the seared meat back to the pot and sprinkle in about 1/2 teaspoon of coarse salt and about 1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper.
Sprinkle the flour in and toss. Place in the oven, uncovered, for 4 minutes. Remove the pot fro the oven, toss again, and place back in the oven for another 4 minutes. Then, remove from the oven and reduce the heat to 325°.
Pour the wine and the stock into the pot. You'll want enough so the meat is just barely covered. Then, stir in the tomato paste, crushed garlic, and thyme leaves. Bring this to a light simmer on the stove, then cover and place in the oven for 3 to 4 hours, until the meat is fork tender.
About an hour before you take the stew out of the oven, use a medium-size saute pan and heat 1.5 tablespoons of butter with 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the pearl onions and cook until they are golden-brown, about 10 minutes. Then stir in 1/2 cup of beef broth, a pinch of salt and pepper, and the herb bouquet. Gently saute for another 30 to 40 minutes, until the small onions are soft.
Remove the pearl onions from the pan and set aside. Discard the herb bouquet and add the remaining butter and oil to the pan, over medium heat. Stir in the mushrooms and saute for about 5 minutes until they are soft. Remove the mushrooms and set aside with the pearl onions.
When the meat and vegetables are ready to come out of the oven, place a colander over a large pan and strain the liquid from the meat. Set the meat aside and bring the pan of liquid to a low simmer for about 5 minutes. Place the beef and vegetables back into the Dutch oven, then pour the sauce over that mixture. Stir in the pearl onions and mushrooms, and bring to a low simmer for 5 or 10 minutes.
Serve at this time or allow it to cool and refrigerate for a day or two before serving. The flavor will get better and develop with a little time.
I don't think I have ever seen pearl onions in the shops here, so we ended up using shallots instead of pearl onion, but other than we stuck mostly to the recipe.
I did pick up a couple of handy hints by reading various different versions of this recipe. We have a few different beef stews that we make, some of which include mushrooms. I have never seen a recipe where you fry off the mushrooms and then add into the pot for only a short time towards the end of the cook. By doing this, you end up still having a firmish texture on the mushrooms. The other thing that we have never done before was removing all the meat and then straining the sauce. The sauce looked smooth and glossy. It was amazing.
When I went to the shops to buy the ingredients. I was quite shocked by how much I had spent on what in theory was just one meal. In the end though we ended up having this for dinner two nights and I had the last bit for lunch as well. And the dogs got a bit of the gravy on their dinner too, so it didn't work out too badly in the end. What I didn't do, is remember to take a photo but it is difficult to take a photo of a casserole that looks good!
Here's Julia cooking the recipe back in the very first episode of her TV show.
I am sharing this recipe with Historical Fiction Reading Challenge and with Foodie Reads hosted by Based on a True Story
Weekly meals
Saturday - Boeuf Bourguignon Sunday - Boeuf Bourguignon Monday - Creamy Mustard Pork with mash, mushrooms and broccoli Tuesday - Green Chicken Curry Pie Wednesday -Tomato and Rice Soup Thursday - Pork Nachos Friday - Out for dinner
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
Last week I had started reading Mastering the Art of French murder by Colleen Cambridge, which is the latest Cook the Books selection. Now I am thinking about what I might make so that I can do a post. I have a couple of ideas but no firm decision yet.
I have now started reading A Greek Island Escape by Kate Frost. Yes, I am back travelling around Europe through the pages of a book.I need to hurry up with this one as I am supposed to review it this week.
I haven't really made any progress on my audiobook. Maybe this week.
I'm watching
Not much really
Life
We actually had a pretty busy week, especially given that we only worked 3 days. It was a public holiday for Anzac Day on Thursday and then we took Friday off as well. On Friday we spent the afternoon visiting Lume which has a new exhibition all about the works of Leonardo da Vinci. It was really lovely. We spent nearly 2 hours there, and even then I could have spent longer!
On Saturday, we drove up to Bendigo and went to the Paris: Impressions of Life 1880 to 1925 and it was full of artefacts from Musee Carnavale in Paris. We love the way the Bendigo Art Gallery puts it's exhibitions together and this was no exception.
As part of the visit we listened to French-Australian chef Gabriel Gate who talked about his own food history as well as the history of French restaurants and cooking. It was a lovely day.
And then on Sunday, my stepdaughter left to move to the UK for a while. It was very emotional at the airport, but she got on the plane and is just about to land as I type this. We will be going to visit in 14 weeks or so, but who's counting.
And in case you missed it, over the weekend, I unveiled my new blog look. There are a couple of kinks but I will figure them out in due course.
I am quite sure how I had enough energy but I did finish a couple of books last week. Maybe it's the reading I am doing in the middle of the night when I can't sleep thanks to work issues.
This week I read two books that I am going to review later this week. The first was A Single Act of Kindness by Samantha Tonge. I have read a number of this author's books and this is up there with the best from her!
I also read The French Cooking School by Caroline James. It should be pretty obvious why I was attracted to this book. I mean France and foodie reads! My idea of a good read!!
Speaking of France and food, I started Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge. This is the current Cooking the Books selection and it features Julia Child as one of the characters!
I'm Watching
Masterchef Australia is back baby! I will be very interested to see how this season goes as there are three new judges this year.
Life
Whilst I am collapsing into bed each night and therefore not doing a lot, we did manage to have a fancy lunch. One of my step-daughters is moving to the UK for a while so we went to a lovely buffet restaurant in the city yesterday. There will be several other farewell events this weekend
This year as part of the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge I have been providing some stats after each month and then at the end of the year I will do an overall wrap up for the year. Today I am sharing a few stats about November.
During November there were 87 reviews shared by 27 participants. There were lots of people who shared multiple reviews, including 6 people who shared 5 or more reviews. Thank you to everyone who has shared! I am part way through visiting everyone this month, and there were some fascinating titles, and I added more than one book to my TBR list!
In terms of the books, there were 85 individual titles reviewed, written by 79 different authors, although at least one book was co-authored and I am never quite sure whether to count those more than once!
There were two books that were reviewed multiple times. The first book was Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby. Interestingly, this was the only book that was reviewed multipe times in September too, and as far as I can recall this is the only book where this has happened.
In additon, there were four other authors who were reviewed multiple times. The first is Agatha Christie (who didn't have any books reviewed last month at all), Mimi Matthews, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch and Rhys Bowen.
I will be quite surprised if we don't see Mimi Matthews near the top of the authors reviewed for this year challenge. She has made the stats post a couple of times now. It was interesting to see Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch on this list as she hadn't been reviewed at all before this month.
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