Alpana & Julia

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Last year Charles gave me a copy of Julie and Julia, a memoir penned by Julie Powell who decided to escape the doldrums of her sad, ambition-less existence by cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I, in a period of 365 days. Julie started blogging about her culinary escapades which eventually landed her a book deal. I have not read the book but Nora Ephron found it interesting enough to turn into a motion picture for the silver screen. The adorable Amy Adams is playing Julie and the great Meryl Streep portrays Julia Child (the Academy should just automatically give her the Oscar). I've seen previews for the film and it looks really good!

Like so many, I grew up watching Julia Child's show on PBS and would drool over every single dish she made. In fact, my brother and I were addicted to cooking shows in general. We loved Yan Can Cook, Frugal Gourmet, Chef Cuisine, Jacques Pepin, Great Chefs of America and Graham Kerr. If it involved food, we watched it. Julia was our special favorite since we liked the way she talked and her calm and joyful demeanor was soothing to watch.



I was fortunate enough to meet Julia Child when I was 20. She came in for lunch at the restaurant I was working at in Monterey and as you can imagine it was an impressive moment. She was very tall and sounded exactly like she did on television. I remember in high school, my physics teacher showed us a video of Julia Child cooking a diamond in order to demonstrate how carbon is isolated. I was so nervous and the only that I could think of was that video and I asked her was what was it like to burn a diamond. Of all the things we could have discussed, this is what I chose. She took my hand, gave it a firm warm squeeze, smiled and recalled the experience as absolutely fascinating. She then gave me the story of how she became involved in the project and agreed to do it because she felt strongly about the importance of math and science in the education system. Well, the video worked because years later, I still remember it.

I have both volumes of Mastering The Art of French Cooking and the 40th Anniversary edition in my cookbook library. I've never followed any of the recipes, aside from a failed attempt to make Bearnaise but the recent attention on the upcoming Julia Child movie inspired me to prepare something Julia would make. The 40th Anniversary edition has an introduction from Julia Child of how she came to do the original book and the years that followed. It's a fascinating story of why and how she learned to cook and the reason she felt it was important to share the message of great food. It made me ponder what the American culinary landscape would have been like if Julia Child had never taken an interest in learning how to cook. Green jello mold anyone?

After poring through the recipes and narrowing down the choices based on ease and what I had in my pantry, I decided to make an apple clafouti dessert. Clafouti is somewhat between a pancake and a custard. In fact, this particular clafouti reminds me of the apple pancake at the Pancake House. It's really not that sweet and would be ideal as a Sunday brunch item.

The recipe was very simple to execute and the success of this dish has inspired me to have many more moments with Julia.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Lightly buttered fire proof 7-8 cup baking dish or pie plate, 1 1/2 inch deep

1 cup milk
1/3 granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tbs vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
2/3 cups sifted all purpose flour

Blend all the ingredients in a blender at top speed for 1 minute - this is your batter

Apples -

1 1/4 lbs crisp apples
3-4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup dark rum, Cognac or Calvados (apple brandy)
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar

Peel, core and slice apples lengthwise 1/4 inch thick - you should have about 3 cups, sautee apples in butter to a very light brown. Add liquor & cinnamon. Remove from heat. Let stand 30 minutes.

Pour 1/4 inch layer of batter in baking dish or pie plate. Set over moderate heat for minute or two until the batter sets somewhat on bottom of dish. Remove from heat, spread the apples and sprinkle sugar. Pour the rest of the batter over apples and smooth with back of spoon.

Place in middle position of pre-heated oven and bake for about an hour. The clafouti is done when it has puffed and browned and when a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Serve warm with powdered sugar.