There are chefs who teach you what to cook, and then there are chefs who make you want to cook simply because they are having such a good time making soul food. Julia Child belongs firmly to the second category. Born on 15 August 1912 in Pasadena, California, Child would go on to become one of the most recognisable culinary personalities of the 20th century. Her contribution was not merely introducing American home cooks and housewives to French food.
She made unfamiliar cooking techniques feel possible, complicated recipes worth attempting, and, perhaps most importantly, mistakes feel like a natural part of the learning process. And Meryl Streep’s exquisite portrayal of the legendary lady in the 2009 Nora Ephron film Julie and Julia will make you laugh, cry, and fall in love with food and French cooking all over again.
Watching Streep as the exuberant, slightly chaotic, and completely food-obsessed Child, it is difficult not to come away from the screen without wanting to butter something, whisk a mixture, or attempt a recipe that looks considerably more complicated than your usual Tuesday desi taco dinner.
Therefore, her birthday is a fitting excuse to return to the recipes that built her reputation, not just the dishes made famous by television, but the recipes she painstakingly developed, tested, taught, and refined throughout her lifelong career.
Coq Au Vin: Julia's French Chicken Classic
If all the various meats of French cooking do not quite fit your table, then Julia Child's coq au vin is a much more suitable place to begin. Traditionally made with rooster, her recipe uses chicken, red wine, mushrooms, onions, bacon, and herbs to create a deeply flavoured braise. You can also use mutton keema in place of bacon if you do not consume pork.
Ingredients (Serves 4-6)
- 1.2kg chicken, cut into serving pieces
- 100-150g bacon, cut into small strips (or mutton keema)
- 2 tbsp butter
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 cups dry red wine
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 200g small onions or shallots
- 250g mushrooms, sliced
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 2 tbsp softened butter
- Fresh parsley, to finish
Image credit: Pexels
Method
- If using bacon, blanch it briefly in water, drain and dry it well. Now fry your keema or bacon until lightly browned, then remove and set aside.
- Pat the chicken completely dry. Brown the pieces in the bacon/keema fat and butter, working in batches so they colour rather than steam.
- Then season your chicken, return the bacon/keema to the casserole and cook gently for about 10 minutes.
- Now, add in the red wine, stock, tomato purée, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf. The liquid should come roughly halfway up the chicken instead of drowning it.
- Then cover and simmer gently for about 25-30 minutes, or until the chicken is tender.
- In the meantime, sauté your onions and mushrooms separately until lightly browned.
- Now, remove the chicken from the casserole. Reduce the cooking liquid until it is concentrated and savoury.
- Then mix your softened butter and flour into a smooth paste. Whisk this gradually into the hot gravy-like sauce and simmer until it lightly coats the back of a spoon.
- Time to return the chicken, onions and mushrooms to the sauce and warm them thoroughly.
- Finish with fresh parsley and serve with crusty bread, mashed potatoes or buttered vegetables.
Also read: The Legacy Of Julia Child: How One Chef Revolutionized American Home Cooking
Sole Meunière: The Dish That Started Her French Food Love Affair
Before she became famous for elaborate French dishes, Child experienced a meal that profoundly influenced her relationship with food. And that meal was sole meunière, eaten during her first trip to France in 1948. The dish itself is beautifully simple: lightly floured fish sautéed in butter and finished with lemon.
Ingredients (Serves 2)
- 2 whole cleaned sole fish fillets (any local white-flesh fish such as bhetki or basa will do)
- Salt and black pepper
- Plain flour, for dusting
- 60g butter
- 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
Image credit: Pexels
Method
- Pat your fish very thoroughly dry and season lightly.
- Dust with a very thin coating of flour, while shaking off the excess.
- Then heat some of the butter in a wide frying pan until foaming.
- Place the fish in the pan and cook until golden on one side, then carefully turn and cook the other side.
- Remove the fish once tender and lightly browned.
- Then add the remaining butter to the pan and allow it to foam and become nutty and golden, but without burning.
- Now, add in lemon juice carefully before spooning the resulting butter sauce all over the fish.
- Finish with parsley and serve immediately.
Tarragon Chicken: When Simplicity Gets Serious
Julia Child's poulet poêlé à l'estragon, or tarragon chicken, is another recipe that deserves your attention. The chicken is cooked very gently in a covered casserole with butter and tarragon, creating an aromatic cooking environment that keeps the meat tender.
Ingredients (Serves 4)
- 1 whole chicken, jointed
- 50g butter
- Salt and black pepper
- 2-3 tbsp fresh tarragon
- ½ cup chicken stock
- 2 tbsp cream
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- Fresh tarragon, to garnish
Image credit: Unsplash
Method
- Pat your chicken dry and season it.
- Then melt butter in a heavy casserole and brown the chicken pieces lightly.
- Add fresh tarragon and a little stock before covering tightly and cooking gently until the chicken is tender.
- Now, remove the chicken and reduce the cooking liquid slightly.
- Time to stir in the cream and lemon juice before returning the chicken to the pan.
- Spoon the sauce over the chicken and finish with fresh tarragon before serving.
Also read: A new documentary shows how Julia Child got famous in her 50s
Ratatouille: Proof That Vegetables Need Technique Too
Julia Child's ratatouille is particularly interesting because it refuses to treat vegetables as an afterthought. Instead of being simply dumped into a pot, the aubergine, courgette, tomatoes, onions, and peppers are all cooked with care.
Ingredients (Serves 4-6)
- 1 aubergine
- 2 courgettes
- 1 onion, sliced
- 1 red pepper
- 3 ripe tomatoes, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and black pepper
- Fresh parsley
Image credit: Pexels
Method
- Cut your aubergine and courgettes into slices and lightly salt them before allowing excess moisture to drain.
- Pat them dry and sauté the vegetables separately until all share a similar mildly cooked colour.
- Now, cook the onion and pepper in olive oil until softened.
- Add in your garlic and tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes begin to break down.
- Time to fold in the sautéed aubergine and courgette.
- Season and cook gently until the vegetables are tender but still retain some shape.
- Finally, finish with parsley and serve warm or at room temperature.
Tarte Tatin: The Dessert That Demands Nerve
Then comes tarte Tatin, the upside-down caramelised apple tart that looks deceptively simple until the moment you have to turn the entire thing over and plate the finished dessert. Child revisited the recipe several times and eventually considered the version published in The Way to Cook her definitive recipe because it addressed problems with sticking and collapsing during unmoulding.
Ingredients (Serves 6-8)
- 6-8 firm apples
- 100g butter
- 150g caster sugar
- 1 sheet all-butter puff pastry or prepared shortcrust pastry
Image credit: Unsplash
Method
- Peel, core, and halve your apples.
- Melt the butter in an ovenproof heavy pan and pour over the sugar.
- Now, arrange the apples tightly over the caramel-like mixture, keeping the rounded sides down.
- Cook gently until the sugar begins to caramelise and the apples soften slightly.
- Then cover with pastry, tucking the edges around the apples.
- And bake at about 190°C, until the pastry is deeply golden and crisp.
- Rest briefly before placing a serving plate over the pan.
- Take a breath, hold everything firmly and invert the tart in one decisive movement.
- If it lands perfectly, congratulations! If one apple stays behind, you have still made a very good caramelised apple tart.