One of my favorite Saturday morning rituals is to wake up and watch PBS. Sounds corny, I know, but in a household without cable it’s the best thing on TV all week. For four hours straight PBS runs cooking shows and on those precious Saturday mornings, the few lucky enough to escape prior engagements, this is where you can find me. And by find me I mean don’t call because I’ll likely be lounging in front of the TV in my pajamas, coffee in hand (freshly French pressed of course) writing down recipes in my homemade cookbook; deliberately not answering the phone. I usually start around 9:30 a.m. with Rick Bayless, an American chef living in Chicago who playfully brings you easy-to-make Mexican cuisine with exotic ingredients that you wouldn’t normally pick up at the market. Thanks to Rick I can successfully cook with cactus. Nopales scramble anyone? After that its America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) where one learns the best grill pan to buy and the most effective way to roast a chicken. ATK are the brains behind the quarterly Cooks Illustrated; that beautifully photographed magazine that is too expensive to buy at the market, but worth picking up to stand in the longest line for a free flip-through. Week after week ATK proves that price doesn’t predict quality and lucky for me this program has saved me from buying some high-ticket items just because they will look good on my counter top.
My favorite chef by far, and the one man on PBS who actually makes me a little giddy, is Jacques Pepin. His easy gourmet style and full circle menu has guided me through hosting many a dinner party. His thick French accent and best friendship with the late, great Julia Child make me wish I was his niece. While not directly his fault, he also happens to be the catalyst to one of my most embarrassing experiences. I’m sure if I were related to Jacques Pepin he’d find a cleverly sweet way to tell me, in his adorable French accent; ‘doun’t vorree oney, happen to zee best off ass’. Truth be told in this confessional story, it likely doesn’t happen to zee best off ass, but it did happen to me and now that a few months have passed and my cheeks have lost the blush, I think I’m ready to share what happened.
It began, obviously, on a Saturday morning. I had no plans and my boyfriend had just left for the day, leaving me all alone with my PBS; my recipe to a perfect morning. I had a birthday dinner to host the following weekend so I was eagerly awaiting the menu Jacques would deliver that morning. The program began and as anticipated his menu was perfect: Tomatoes Provencale for starters, then Chicken Cassoulet would be the main course and for dessert, the Pièce de résistance, would be a simple unbaked chocolate cake; for people who like dense assertive chocolate desserts. Mmm, yes please. Commercial break, I grab my homemade cookbook and get prepared.
Writing down recipes while watching them demonstrated in unison is a somewhat difficult task. I imagine 90 years down the road when my grandchildren find this old cookbook in some dusty box, they’ll likely believe it less a cookbook and more scribbles in a foreign language; but it’s my system and it hasn’t failed me yet. The commercial is over and Jacques is ready to begin cooking.
OK, here we go. He begins with the tomatoes. I start writing: cut in halves, olive oil, parsley, thyme. s and p, toss, garnish, done. Easy enough. Onto Chicken Cassoulet, a bit more difficult. Bone a chicken, navy beans, water onions celery, salt boil, ahhh slow down Jacques. I’m a little lost. Asterisk*, note ingredients and look up later online. Another commercial, this one’s a call for PBS donations. Good. Enough time to refill my coffee cup and go to the bathroom. I jump back on the couch in time for the chocolate cake. My scribbling resumes: line a loaf pan with parchment paper, mix in bowl-1 tsp rum, (mmm, liquor, I like the cake already) 1tsp vanilla, bittersweet chocolate, sugar, stick butter and an 8 oz can of chefsnet purée. Mix, pour in pan and chill for four hours. Ok, that’s really easy and looks amazing, but chefsnet purée, what’s that? He magically hears my inquiry. “Chefsnet purée, or zomtimez called chefsnet spread, can uzually be vound at zee specialty food stores. Tiz in zee bakeen department and it vreally makes zis chocolate cake delectable”. Perfect, that’s what I like about Jacques, he knows all these little tricks. I’ll be sure to get my supplies at Whole Foods, it may be more expensive, but I’ll save myself the extra trip as they really do have the best selection.
