This week we’ve been cooking from Mastering The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. Julia was, from what I can tell the “Elizabeth David” of America. She’s portrayed in the film Julie and Julia by the truly amazing Meryl Streep. In the film the protagonist, Julie, undertakes something not dissimilar to our own Cookbook Shelves journey, in that she decides to cook every recipe from within The Art of French Cooking. I’ve not seen the film for a few years – perhaps we should rewatch it. The book is a good six to seven hundred pages of tight text and line drawings showing techniques, how to’s and recipes by the hundreds. Its a great little book and we enjoyed cooking and eating this weeks recipes which started with a lovely light Coquilles St. Jacques À La Provençale – scallops gratineed with wine, garlic and herbs. Next up was Fricassée De Poulet À L’ancienne – Old Fashioned Chicken Fricassee with Wine-flavoured Cream Sauce, Onions and Mushrooms. This was really tasty, simple to do and the book had really nice clear steps to execute it. The final dishes of the week was Côtes De Porc Poelees – Casserole Sauted Pork Chops with Chou-Fleur Aux Tomates Fraîches – Cauliflower Gratineed with Cheese and Tomatoes. These last two dishes were super simple and really tasty and complemented each other nicely. The pork chops were really just pan-fried with garlic, finished in the oven with some wine to make a sauce. The cauliflower was cauliflower, tomatoes, breadcrumbs and then cheese on top (Cheddar and Parmesan if memory serves). Our foray with Julia was pretty successful – we enjoyed all the dishes and will go back to this little gem of a cookbook in the future. We’re away on hols for a bit so we’re taking a break but will keep you all in the loop of what meals we enjoy whilst we’re away. When we’re back we are with another great cook – Keith Floyd and the classic Floyd on France!