Tonight I was savoring a delectable casserole when I had an inspiration. I’ve decided to take a different tack this year. I’m covering a cookbook instead. Wini Moranville has compiled a surprising collection of recipes from France.
When we think of French cuisine we probably picture complicated dishes-heavy sauces-lots of calories. I was delighted to find out that Moranville’s “Bonne Femme Cookbook” is filled with cooking ideas that allow readers to “cook simply, yet dine splendidly, night after night.”
The author explains that “bonne femme is French for ‘good wife.’ But in French cuisine, the expression refers to a style of cooking. It is fresh, honest, and simple cuisine served every day in French homes. It’s called this no matter who does the actual cooking, whether the bonne femme herself, her mari (husband), or her partenaire domestique (significant other).”
It begins with our appetizers. There’s a lovely recipe here for “tapenade noire,” a spread made from black olives. Slather it on a cracker. Pour a glass of wine. Our meal begins. We then transition straight into the cocktail section where there are concoctions such as cognac juleps, lemony pear sparkling sangria, and a drink named “Is Paris Burning?”
Salads are next. Here we can create green bean salad with tomatoes, tarragon-white bean salad, roasted red potato salad with aragula, summer corn and radish salad, sirloin and heirloom tomato salad, and turkey salad veronique.
Moving right along to the soups we find rustic vegetable soup with cheese toasts, roasted butternut squash bisque with sweet curry, silky and light potato soup, and a mouthwatering recipe for French onion soup.
Main dishes are divided into two sections, the first one offers quicker fare for those busy weeknights. The second section contains what the author describes as the “braise, stew, or roast chapter. These recipes may take longer, but none are difficult; after some initial prep, most of the kitchen time is hands-off cooking in the oven or on the stove-top.”
Here’s Normandy beef stroganoff, juniper pork chops with dry vermouth, and fish with buttery parsley and garlic in the first section. In the second section we have braised pork Marengo, roasted salmon with Pernod sauce, and beef stew with orange and balsamic vinegar. There are two dozen chicken recipes in these sections.
And we are only half way through the book. Moranville continues with extensive chapters on casseroles, pasta, side dishes, pizzas, savory tarts, eggs, cheese, and desserts. Along the way we receive plenty of food preparation tips as well as anecdotes from the author’s many years spent in France.
This lovely cookbook concludes with the basics. The bonne femme knows how to prepare sauces. With this book you should be able to cook like a bonne femme, too.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Friday at 1:30 p.m. and on Sundays at 11 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, go online to www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
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