Cuisine Grand-mere: Traditional French Home Cooking

In this Delightful Book We Rediscover the pleasures of traditional French home cooking, conjured from the memories of the author and her family in the good old days before nouvelle cuisine and "convenience" food began to undermine it. All the great classic recipes are included, plus many lesser-known treasures. In the 1970s France was rocked by the nouvelle cuisine movement, which advocated healthier food and smaller meals. Restaurants on both sides of the Channel strove to outdo each other with beautiful presentation, complex ingredients, and miniature portions. Traditional cooking was ignored. Recently, however, the tide has turned; and today's chefs, strongly supported by a jaded and hungry public, are now returning to the principles of traditional country cooking, still enjoyed in the majority of French homes. Cuisine Grand-mere, also known as cuisine bourgeoise or bonne femme, sums up this style of cooking; and Marie-Pierre Moine has included the best of traditional recipes, slightly improved and honed for today's health-conscious eaters. The book describes all the basic techniques, like vinaigrette, bechamel and its relatives, stocks, mayonnaises, and other sauces. The chapters then deal in turn with soups, hors d'aeuvre, famous hot entrees like quiche lorraine and croque-monsieur, fish and seafood, main courses including coq au vin, boeuf bourguignon and cassoulet, vegetables and salads, and a range of familiar and less familiar desserts -- mousse au chocolat, tarte Tatin, profiteroles, gateaux, and ice cream.