It’s the sixth day of Christmas
and my review today is for Revolutionary French Cooking
by Daniel Galmiche. This is his second
French cookbook, you can see my review for French Brasserie Cookbook: The Heart of French Home Cooking
and a recipe here.
The motto of the French
Revolution: Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité form the three main sections of
this book. In the first section, Liberté, the recipes are released from the
shackles of traditional French cooking methods. In part two, Egalité, Daniel
brings democracy to the recipes by elevating humble ingredients to take on the
starring roles. In the last section, Fraternité, he celebrates the traditional
brotherhoods, bringing innovation to classic combinations of ingredients.
Daniel shares the twists and innovative touches that he uses to rejuvenate and
energise the traditional French cuisine. He shows how wonderful French food can
be when used as sound foundation on which to build on, taking quality
ingredients and treating them with care and respect to create a range of delicious dishes.
ingredients and treating them with care and respect to create a range of delicious dishes.
I really enjoyed reading my way
through his ideas and he grabbed my attention from the off by including
homemade stock at the start of the book, perfect. I also liked the useful
sections on home drying foods (without professional dehydrators) and smoking
foods. As usual with a new cookbook, I have made a list of the recipes I want to try and they include:
Pot-roasted cider and paprika
chicken – I might substitute Piment d’Espelette (my new kitchen friend after
our trip to the Basque region).
Butternut Squash and saffron
risotto – I’ve never thought of mashing the squash in a risotto before.
Jerusalem artichoke velouté - we
have loads that are ready to harvest.
Pumpkin and goats cheese lasagne
- using thin slices of pumpkin for the lasagne sheets.
Red onion tarte tatin – I love
cooked onions.
Chocolate cookies – what can I
say by yum, yum!
This is probably not a book for
traditional French food lovers, but one to try if you like the idea of a more
modern look at French cuisine.
Both of Daniel’s books are
available in hardback and ebook format and links to Amazon are below. At the time of writing this the kindle version of Revolutionary French Cooking is only £1.02.