1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (20 page)

To get the best out of celeriac, some work is required: First, its stalk, leaves, and tough darker outer layer must be peeled away with a sharp knife, preferably of stainless steel. When only ivory remains, the root must be julienned into ultrathin bite-size pieces and quickly dropped into water that has been acidulated with lemon juice or white vinegar. Once thoroughly drained, the slivers are tossed with rémoulade, creating a salad that serves as a crunchy, refreshing companion to charcuterie and seafood dishes or stands on its own as an hors d’oeuvre. It also makes a great unorthodox slaw for fish sandwiches or burritos.

Where:
In California and Las Vegas
, Bouchon Bistros,
bouchonbistro.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Bouchon
by Thomas Keller (2004);
cookstr.com
(search celery remoulade).
Tip:
Celeriac is in season between winter and early spring; choose small to medium roots that are firm, and refrigerate in a plastic bag for up to a week.

A spread, or a meal in itself.

In these days of political correctness, naming a cheese “brain of the silk worker” might cause sit-ins and other street demonstrations. Yet such is the literal translation for the addictive Lyonnais cheese spread composed of
fromage blanc
mixed with garlic, shallots, chives, and the fresh herbs that give the spread its tiny, dark pinpoint markings. The odd name dates back to the cheese’s origins in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the peak of Lyon’s silk industry. The preparation was a favorite among local housewives, who likened its mushy and splotchy appearance to the brains of the silk workers, who were also great fans of the treat. Despite the obvious slight, and although the laborers and looms of the past are now long gone,
cervelle de canut
remains.

Predictably, every family believes theirs to be the very best version. Although variations abound, all must begin with fromage blanc: the utterly fresh, slightly fermented cheese with a teasingly sour edge. (Lacking true fromage blanc, many an inventive cook has substituted fresh ricotta and proceeded from there.) Most recipes then call for chopped garlic, shallots, and chives, followed by a combination of herbs such as chervil, parsley, tarragon, and thyme; salt and pepper; and olive oil. Gently mixed, the spread is served as a snack or an appetizer, usually on buttered toasts, though many prefer to eat it straight, by the spoonful. Chilled, cervelle de canut can be an ideal cheese course and a marvelously rich end to a meal.

Where:
In Lyon
, at the market Les Halles de Lyon, tel 33/4-78-62-39-33,
halledelyon.free.fr
;
in Miami
, DB Bistro Moderne, tel 305-421-8800,
dbbistro.com/miami
.
Further information and recipes:
French Cheeses
by Kazuko Masui and Tomoko Yamada (1996);
The Complete Encyclopedia of French Cheese
by Pierre Androuet (1973).

Is there something slightly evil about eating brains? From a rational point of view, no; but our rational minds rarely govern our attitudes toward food, and that subconscious frisson may actually contribute to our enjoyment of
this classic delicacy. Who knows?

This luscious appetizer or main course begins with the soft, pearl-gray brain of a young calf or lamb. Soaked in ice water, skinned, and blanched lightly to attain a solid but still-soft form, the brain is lightly dusted with flour and sautéed in clarified sweet butter that is allowed to turn a deep coffee-black, just this side of being truly burned. Into that butter go a few shots of fresh lemon juice and a handful of minced parsley, all to be spooned over the finished dish.

If
beurre noir
seems too
noir
and acidic, try the brains
au beurre noisette
—in nut-brown butter also finished with lemon juice and parsley.
Noir
or
noisette
, a few chopped rinsed capers provide a saline finishing touch. The dish is best served on warm toast slices that become unctuously delicious as they absorb the flavorful cooking juices.

A note for the health-conscious: Diners wary of cholesterol content should know that brains pack megadoses of B vitamins and iron. Hopefully that knowledge can help tip the balance.

Further information and recipes:
Larousse Gastronomique
(2009);
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1
, by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck (1961).
See also:
Cervello Arreganata
.

Foragers can strike gold in any temperate forest.

Prized by the French as
girolles
and by the Germans as
pfifferlinge
, the tiny golden
Cantharellus cibarius
are one of several types of wild mushrooms broadly known to us as chanterelles. Growing in tiny clumps in the conifer forests of Europe, Japan, North Africa, Australia, and the United States, they have an intense orange-gold color that gives them the look of flat, unfurled apricots. These cute and cheery mushrooms keep well, and so can be found fresh in markets long after their autumn season. Although they are available both dried and canned, only fresh chanterelles are worth the price and bother, as in their preserved forms they generally become unpleasantly metallic.

The simplest quick sauté in butter or olive oil, perhaps with a hint of garlic or shallots, results in a faintly sweet but slightly earthy garnish. Prepared that way, chanterelles lend a fruity apricot-peach flavor accent to omelets or scrambled eggs and to meats. In Germany’s Black Forest region and in Alsace, in France, they’re often served as an aromatic accompaniment to fall game dishes.

Mail order:
Oregon Mushrooms, tel 800-682-0036,
oregonmushrooms.com
.
Further information:
Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares
by Greg Marley (2010);
The Oxford Companion to Food
by Alan Davidson (1999).

Although the supremacy of its bubbly wines is widely acknowledged, the Champagne region’s rich and creamy cow’s milk cheese is too often overlooked. Superb at almost any age, with its silky ripened body and fragrantly bloomy, edible rind, Chaource is an exceptional culinary pleasure. When very young—around two weeks old—its flaky white interior tastes extremely mild and milky. As the cheese ages, its body darkens in color and its flavor intensifies. At its prime (no more than two months old), it becomes runny, sharp, and earthy, with more complexity and depth than brie, to which it is quite similar and is often compared. Chaource is one of France’s elite name-controlled cheeses (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée), meaning that French law strictly regulates its ingredients, processing, and point of origin. Because the cheese is aged for only a short time, only the pasteurized version is allowed entry to the U.S. Look for the Lincet brand.

Further information:
Cheese Primer
by Steven Jenkins (1996);
French Cheeses
by Kazuko Masui and Tomoko Yamada (1996).
Tip:
The Musée du Fromage à Chaource offers exhibits, information, and cheese tasting, tel 33/3-25-40-10-67.

A market stall in France offers abundant choices.

Care for a plate of assorted cold cuts or a deli platter? Although its American incarnations sound mundane indeed, lucky is the diner who happens into a traditional bistro that offers an
assiette de charcuterie
as a first course. Accompanying a basket of assorted sausages will be several glazed terrines packed with both firm and softly spreading pâtés, along with a cutting board, a sharp knife, a little crock of Dijon mustard, and crusty chunks of firm-textured baguette and slices of toast. Of course, the only problem with an eat-all-you-want first course is forgetting when to stop. Which is why those most passionate about charcuterie might prefer to make a meal of it, washing it down with plenty of strong red wine before retiring for a nice, long nap.

Charcuterie shops can be an even more enticing means of delivery, for like all super-delis, they exude nose-tweaking aromas bound to drive serious eaters crazy. Such temptations were celebrated in Émile Zola’s novel
The Belly of Paris.
Florent, the protagonist, starts work at a charcuterie in the old Les Halles, where he is dazzled by the “vast quantities of rich, succulent things …
jars of rillettes, boned hams, stuffed Strasbourg tongues … great cuts of veal and pork, whose jelly was as limpid as crystallized sugar.”

Most charcuterie offerings are ready to eat, no cooking needed, and shops display other prepared and semiprepared dishes as complements to the meats. Among the most traditional are refreshing, mustard-zapped
céleri rémoulade
, slim haricots verts, or French potato salad with wine vinegar and nut-oil dressings.

Also on offer are snails, prepacked into shells and capped with parsley-garlic butter, and
coquilles St-Jacques
, scallops in ovenproof seashell-shaped dishes topped with béchamel and grated Gruyère. Both dishes are ready to be popped into the oven. A few soups and cooked stews of the day—
coq au vin
, veal Marengo,
boeuf Bourguignon
—join whipped potatoes, perhaps ratatouille, slow-simmered white beans, and a few cheeses and fruits to round out a quick meal at home.

The roots of the term
charcuterie
mean cooked (
cuit
) meat (
chair
), a designation wide enough to encompass a beautiful host of variations. Usually the meat is pork, alone or mixed with others and in varied forms and textures, but there are a number of charcuteries made solely of game birds and meats, rabbit, poultry, innards, and even horsemeat, controversial in the States but beloved elsewhere for its rich, somewhat gamy flavor.

To quickly assess the quality of a charcuterie’s products, choose a
pâté de campagne.
Once excellent wherever it was found, this country pâté has spawned mass-produced versions that are often bland and stiffly compact, oversalted, and zapped with preservatives. The good ones are heady with brandy and bay leaves, and can be nibbled on their own with a touch of mustard, plated with a garnish of céleri rémoulade, or slipped into a baguette sandwich. The meat mixture usually includes pork with some veal and/or ham, fat in the form of lard or fatback, and flavorings of onions, garlic, wine, Calvados or another brandy, and a heady haze of spices such as juniper, thyme, mace, and the beloved French mix
quatreépices
, of pepper, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.

More elegant, upscale pâtés, often enriched with truffles, pistachios, and Madeira, are the creamy, silken result of a concentration of ground livers: pork, veal, chicken, or the foie gras of ducks and geese.
Pâté Bourguignon
is worth looking for, too; it is a subtle blend of guinea hen meat, red wine, onions, bacon, and chanterelle mushrooms.