What to Read: Anne Willan Classics

“It’s kind of rubbery,” he said.
“Yeah, I know,” she replied.
“Is it supposed to be?”
“No, I don’t know what I did wrong,” she answered.
“Huh, did you follow the recipe?”
(Deep sigh) “No, it’s something I just came up with on my own.”
“Hmm.”
“If you don’t want to eat it, then find something else to eat.”
“Oh, no, it’s not that bad. The rice is good . . . “

I had always been a baker and sometime cook. It started in college when I was still living at home and my mom worked second shift. My repertoire was quite good and I had enough cooking creds to get me invited to potlucks and no one ever turned down a box of homemade cookies and candies during the holidays.

But then I got married and had a kitchen of my own. Sure, the old standbys of years past made it to the table, but then you get bored with the ‘same old, same old’ on a different night each week. That’s when the experimenting began, and that’s when the rubber chicken came hot out of the oven.

That was also about the time I discovered a little jewel of a book by Anne Willan amongst stacks of books at the sole mega-bookstore we had in town. Her book, Cook It Right, offers 320 pages of exactly what the title says, how to cook good food, right.

Over the past ten years, this book has been an indispensable tour guide through cooking methods and how to properly prepare various ingredients. On a case-by-case basis, Willan tackles not only how to know when and how an ingredient is ready for the table; she also provides more than 150 quick fix ideas on how to salvage an ill-prepared dish. These quick fixes include the addition of sauces, seasonings and complete transformations.

Although, there’s really not much you can do with hot, rubber chicken. (We live in the country, that’s just raccoon food.)

Not only is Cook It Right an overall cooking companion, saving many a dish gone wrong, it also helps the novice (and not so novice) home cook know why a dish may have come out perfect on the first try. Each chapter includes sample recipes, but Cook It Right is also a good building block for developing your own recipes.

The illustrations throughout Cook It Right focus on prep work, and illustrating what the cooked ingredient will look like when underdone, overcooked and of course properly prepared. In the books introduction, Willan states, “We need to clearly and accurately, in text and pictures, show how food looks, smells and feels when perfectly cooked.”

The chapters in Cook It Right include: fish and shellfish, poultry and game birds, meat and game, eggs, sauces, vegetables, pasta-grains and legumes, fruit, desserts, bread and pancakes, cakes-pastry and cookies.

Needless to say, we feel that Willan’s Cook It Right is a classic that should be included in your cookbook collection. Her chapters on eggs, sauces and fish will have you cooking like a pro in no time. On a sweet note, her recipes for baked banana pudding and chocolate caramel terrine are simply divine.

The Country Cooking of France
So, it was no wonder that ten years later, Anne Willan’s latest book, The Country Cooking of France, is another classic, go-to book on my pantry shelves these days. Obviously, there’s been growth in my culinary expertise and I was looking for a challenge. And this new, quite hefty tome is definitely the answer.

With 17 chapters and 392 pages, The Country Cooking of France is like a tour through the French countryside. I suppose at this point I should mention that I briefly met Ms. Willan once. It was as a new member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals. I am quite sure she wouldn’t remember me, as I was quite tongue-tied when I realized who was standing in front of me. She was of course one of the most gracious people I have ever met, and I remember her asking me if I had been to France yet. I think I only shook my head no, when she said, “Oh, you really must come.”

Until that opportunity arises, I’ll be happily studying and cooking my way through her latest book that probably should be on my coffee table instead of spattered about the kitchen. As a Midwestern girl, it’s been utterly fascinating learning how the country recipes of France have a similar heritage to the dishes my mother, my grandmother and now myself include in our family recipe box.

“ . . . the riches of rural France, the sights, the smells, the relish with which everyone enjoys the diversity of ingredients that change with the seasons . . . Country cooking is essentially comfort food, it nurtures, soothes, and reassures those around the table,” Willan shares in the books introduction.

The chapters in the book offer a few classic French recipes for each ingredient covered, and this includes soups, frogs and snails, eggs and cheese, fish and shellfish, fish stews, poultry, beef-lamb and veal, innards and extremities, pork and charcuterie, game and game birds, rustic sauces, potatoes-pasta and legumes, vegetables, savory vegetable tarts, breads and cakes, desserts and ices, and fruit tarts-desserts-preserves and liqueurs. Plus, there is a glossary of ingredients, techniques, base recipes and equipment.

Seasonal cooking is a constant theme throughout the book as it is estimated there are 26,000 farmers markets in France. With more emphasis in the United States on local and regional foods, a.k.a. ‘locavores,’ it is interesting to ponder how we could shape similar recipes from our own resources.

A simply delightful part of The Country Cooking of France is the gory bits most cooks shy away from, frogs, snails, entrails and other little morsels that can be a challenge to prepare, and yet quite tasty in the end. “The French eat some odd things, frogs being a notorious example,” Willan tells the readers. And once again, I’m brought back to how important frog legs played on regional pub menus in my hometown, even up until the late 1950’s and early 60’s. Suffice it to say, it shouldn’t be too surprising, since the French discovered and settled the area.

It is also interesting to see the importance of separate chapters on fish stews and savory vegetable tarts, as these are major players on the French table. Two recipes I can’t wait to try this summer are the Tomato Tart Tatin and the recipe’s variation using Belgian endive.

Interspersed throughout The Country Cooking of France are tales of ingredients and regions that will make anyone who’s planning on taking a tour of France, or who’s even been there before, feel right at home with the locals. The chapter introductions offer insight into how the French approach various ingredients and how food is an important part of their daily lives.

In an age where many of us have become ‘armchair cooks,’ making an investment in this book will not only afford hours of cozy reading, it will also grant tasty dividends when it’s put to weekly use.