Julia Child Birthday Recipe - Crepes Suzette Video

Food lovers are celebrating Julia Child's birthday today. An in her honor the 99 Cent Chef's new palate-pleasing video, "Julian & Julia," introduces Julia Child's nephew, Julian Child. He's a real chip off the cutting board and a chef worthy of sauteing with Aunt Julia's copper-bottomed pot!

I had the good fortune to run into Julian Child at the Hollywood Farmers Market this last Sunday. We chatted about his "Aunt Julia" and the movie "Julie & Julia."

As we walked through fresh and fragrant stalls of produce Julian stopped at a stack of organic oranges and reminisced about his childhood summers in Paris, France, and how he would tug at Julia Child's apron and beg for his favorite dish: Crepe Suzette in an Orange Butter Sauce.

Aunt Julia eventually grew tired of always preparing it and soon taught it to her nephew, a budding chef. I seized the opportunity to invite Julian to The 99 Cent Chef's kitchen to cook his Aunt Julia's Crepe Suzette for everyone!

A delicious and decadent dessert made with loads of butter, this French classic is easy and of course, cheap to make. Flour, eggs, milk, orange juice, butter and a 99 cent airline bottle of cognac make up the main ingredients. (You can leave out half the butter, but then it would not be a true Julia Child culinary experience. Try it this way at least once!)

Julian & Julia - VIDEO

Play it here. The video runs 6 minutes, 20 seconds.

Click here to view or embed video from youtube.

Ingredients (about 6 crepes)

• 3/4 cup of milk
• 2 to 3 whole eggs
• 1/4 tsp. of vanilla - optional
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup of orange juice - fresh squeezed or carton pasteurize.
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 stick of butter - OK to use less
• 99 cent airline bottle of cognac (or brandy) - about 1/4 cup 

 Directions for Crepes
In a large bowl mix together flour, milk, water, salt, eggs and 1 tbsp. of melted or soft butter. Whisk until well blended, about 2 minutes. Heat your medium (about 8 inches) non-stick omelet pan and coat with 1 pat of butter or oil.

When butter is melted, add 1/4 cup of crepe batter - enough to just cover the bottom of the pan. Hold up pan and swirl to coat pan evenly. It is better to have too much batter than too little - a thin crepe will tear when turning.

Cook crepe for a minute, then loosen around the edges and continue cooking for another minute. Peek before turning to see if crepe is starting to brown. Carefully turn crepe over and cook for another half minute. As my video shows, the first crepe may stick and be unusable. Instead of throwing it away, you might as well taste it to see how tender the crepe turned out.
Don't worry, it takes a couple of crepes to get it right. Your crepes may not be perfect, but with a sweet Orange Butter Sauce no one will be complaining about the appearance. Set aside your cooked crepes to add to the Orange Butter Sauce.

Directions for Orange Butter Sauce
Use a large enough pan to dip a whole crepe into. Melt butter, then add orange juice, zest and sugar into pan, over a medium/high heat. Cook until sauce is reduced by half and thickened, about 5 minutes.

Reduce heat and add a crepe. Notice my use of a spoon and fork, in the video, to fold crepe into sauce. Fold in half once, then fold one more time and push crepe to the edge of the pan to make room for more.

I managed to fit about 3 crepes at a time to my pan. Allow crepes to heat through for a minute.


Now the fun part - cognac flambe! Have a long-handled match ready. This is when you want an audience. Your table should be set and the lights dimmed so you can serve the flaming Crepes Suzettes with a flourish!

When sauce and crepes are warm, pour in half the cognac and bring to the table. Place before your dazzled guest and strike a match, lighting the sauce.

Be careful: the cognac will flame up, so you don't want flammable items nearby (overhead curtains, paper, etc.) and your kids should not attempt this! Serve this first batch of crepes with a spoonful of sauce.

Finish saucing the other crepes, then flambe, and repeat. Bon Appetit!

If you are not familiar with the culinary icon, Julia Child, here is a scene from "Julie & Julia." Meryl Streep "chews" the scenery as larger-than-life Julia Child.

The other half of the movie is about Julie Powell blogging and cooking her way through, in one year, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" co-written by Julia Child. Both stories resonated with this Chef.

And the movie's Paris locale is intoxicating. You will find yourself leaving the theater with the booming voice of Julia Child in your head and your utterances will have her cadence. She is so fun to mimic you cannot help but bellow "Bon Appetit" every chance you get!

And 99 Thanks to Bob McGinness for his creative camerawork!

Pork Bourguignon - With Apologies to Julia Child

Julia Child would roll over in her Bordeaux wine cask if she could see what The 99 Cent Chef has done to her classic Beef Bourguignon recipe! And she would do a double-roll upon viewing my takeoff of her in my extra featurette video at the end of this blog post.


Now doesn't it look like Beef Bourguignon? Well, it also tastes like it. This melange of meat, red wine, mushrooms and Pearl Onions is luscious, and the most expensive entree in any high-end restaurant; however this cheapie cooking plagiarist has come up with a 21 Century classic for these Wall Street stock-crashing times: Pork Bourguignon!

My earliest food influence (besides mom) was watching "The French Chef With Julia Child" on Boston Public Television's WGBH (keep those funds flowing to public TV & radio, Obama). I was too young to copy her classic French cuisine, but her enthusiasm at the stove planted a virus that mutated into 99 Cent Chef cuisine -- cheap recipes presented with joie de vivre.

Adding insult to injury, I shortened the cooking time (when the meat is tender, why cook longer?) and substituted cheaper cuts of meat, like 99 cents per pound pork or chicken (beef stock and 99 red cent wine provide most of the flavor).

Unfortunately pearl onions do not come cheap (although I have found 99c jars of marinated ones), but I have saved you so much time and money so far, please indulge me with this one $2.49 per pound ingredient?

Slow cooking mushrooms and pearl onions in a red wine and beef stock makes for a complex flavor profile. In these waning days of winter, put on a long braising pot of The Chef's Pork Bourguignon, based on Julia Child's classic recipe, and Bon Appetit!

 
Ingredients (serves 4)

• 3-4 pounds of country style pork ribs, shoulder or butt, cubed (I've even tried this with chicken. If you have extra overtime money coming in, go for beef roast meat).
• Bacon - about 3 slices (optional)
• 10 oz. package of pearl pnions (about 20 onions) - Peel onions. Or two jars of marinated cocktail ones, drained (I have found jars in 99c Only Stores!)
• 2 5 oz. containers of mushrooms - brown or white button.
• Aromatics including: one cup each of onion, carrot, celery and bell pepper. Use any or all, roughly chopped.
• 2 tbsps. garlic - jar or fresh
• 1 tbsp. tomato paste - okay to use 1/2 cup of tomato sauce.
• 2 tbsp. flour
• Dried or fresh herbs including: 1 bay leaf and a pinch of oregano, sage and thyme. Bay leaf is the main one.
• 1 bottle of 99c red wine (or Two Buck Chuck) - minus what the chef tastes during sauteing!
• Beef stock - 32 ounces. Or 6 beef bouillon cubes dissolved in 4 cups of hot water.
• Salt and pepper to taste - plenty of salt is added with bouillon cubes or beef stock, so you may not need much.

Directions
Saute bacon with meat until brown, about 20 minutes. Remove 1/2 the meat to make room for aromatics. Saute aromatics another 5 minutes to soften. 

Add tomato paste (or sauce), herbs, garlic and flour. Cook 5 minutes. Pour in the beef stock (or bouillon dissolved in water) and all the red wine you have left.

Mix well, scraping bottom of pot to loosen and dissolve all the flavorful brown bits. Bring to a boil, then transfer to a pre-heated 350 degree oven and bake covered for 1 1/2 hours.

Peel and saute pearl onions in 2 pats of butter or oil until lightly browned, and now sweetened. Don't turn too much or they will fall apart - set aside. 

Slice mushrooms in half; if they are small throw in a few whole (I like large meaty mushroom bites), and saute in the same pan as the onions, for about 5 minutes until soft. 

Add sauteed onions and mushrooms after an hour and a half of baking Pork Bourguignon, and be careful - everything is hot! Cover and continue cooking for another hour.

After baking for about 2 1/2 hours total, meat should separate easily with a fork. The pearl onions and mushroom will be unbelievably flavorful, infused with red wine and beef stock. Serve with boiled red potatoes or rice to soak up all the rich deep-brown sauce.

 
And if you like this recipe, be sure to check out video my version of Julia Child's Crepe Suzette -- while donning a wig and pearls! 

Julia Child Birthday Recipe - Crepes Suzette Video

Food lovers are celebrating Julia Child's birthday today. An in her honor the 99 Cent Chef's new palate-pleasing video, "Julian & Julia," introduces Julia Child's nephew, Julian Child. He's a real chip off the cutting board and a chef worthy of sauteing with Aunt Julia's copper-bottomed pot!

I had the good fortune to run into Julian Child at the Hollywood Farmers Market this last Sunday. We chatted about his "Aunt Julia" and the movie "Julie & Julia."

As we walked through fresh and fragrant stalls of produce Julian stopped at a stack of organic oranges and reminisced about his childhood summers in Paris, France, and how he would tug at Julia Child's apron and beg for his favorite dish: Crepe Suzette in an Orange Butter Sauce.

Aunt Julia eventually grew tired of always preparing it and soon taught it to her nephew, a budding chef. I seized the opportunity to invite Julian to The 99 Cent Chef's kitchen to cook his Aunt Julia's Crepe Suzette for everyone!

A delicious and decadent dessert made with loads of butter, this French classic is easy and of course, cheap to make. Flour, eggs, milk, orange juice, butter and a 99 cent airline bottle of cognac make up the main ingredients. (You can leave out half the butter, but then it would not be a true Julia Child culinary experience. Try it this way at least once!)

Julian & Julia - VIDEO

Play it here. The video runs 6 minutes, 20 seconds.

Click here to view or embed video from youtube.

Ingredients (about 6 crepes)

• 1 cup of flour
• 3/4 cup of milk
• 3/4 cup of water
• 2 to 3 whole eggs
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 1/4 tsp. of vanilla - optional
• Pinch of salt

Orange Butter Sauce

• 1/2 cup of orange juice - fresh squeezed or carton pasteurized
• Zest of 1/2 orange - optional
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 stick of butter - OK to use less
• 99 cent airline bottle of cognac (or brandy) - about 1/4 cup 

  Directions for Crepes
In a large bowl mix together flour, milk, water, salt, eggs and 1 tbsp. of melted or soft butter. Whisk until well blended, about 2 minutes. Heat your medium (about 8 inches) non-stick omelet pan and coat with 1 pat of butter or oil. 

When butter is melted, add 1/4 cup of crepe batter - enough to just cover the bottom of the pan. Hold up pan and swirl to coat pan evenly. It is better to have too much batter than too little - a thin crepe will tear when turning. 

Cook crepe for a minute, then loosen around the edges and continue cooking for another minute. Peek before turning to see if crepe is starting to brown. Carefully turn crepe over and cook for another half minute. As my video shows, the first crepe may stick and be unusable. Instead of throwing it away, you might as well taste it to see how tender the crepe turned out.

Don't worry, it takes a couple of crepes to get it right. Your crepes may not be perfect, but with a sweet Orange Butter Sauce no one will be complaining about the appearance. Set aside your cooked crepes to add to the Orange Butter Sauce.

Directions for Orange Butter Sauce
Use a large enough pan to dip a whole crepe into. Melt butter, then add orange juice, zest and sugar into pan, over a medium/high heat. Cook until sauce is reduced by half and thickened, about 5 minutes.

Reduce heat and add a crepe. Notice my use of a spoon and fork, in the video, to fold crepe into sauce. Fold in half once, then fold one more time and push crepe to the edge of the pan to make room for more. 

I managed to fit about 3 crepes at a time to my pan. Allow crepes to heat through for a minute.

Now the fun part - cognac flambe! Have a long-handled match ready. This is when you want an audience. Your table should be set and the lights dimmed so you can serve the flaming Crepes Suzettes with a flourish! 

When sauce and crepes are warm, pour in half the cognac and bring to the table. Place before your dazzled guest and strike a match, lighting the sauce. 

Be careful: the cognac will flame up, so you don't want flammable items nearby (overhead curtains, paper, etc.) and your kids should not attempt this! Serve this first batch of crepes with a spoonful of sauce. 

Finish saucing the other crepes, then flambe, and repeat. Bon Appetit!

If you are not familiar with the culinary icon, Julia Child, here is a scene from "Julie & Julia." Meryl Streep "chews" the scenery as larger-than-life Julia Child.

The other half of the movie is about Julie Powell blogging and cooking her way through, in one year, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" co-written by Julia Child. Both stories resonated with this Chef.

And the movie's Paris locale is intoxicating. You will find yourself leaving the theater with the booming voice of Julia Child in your head and your utterances will have her cadence. She is so fun to mimic you cannot help but bellow "Bon Appetit" every chance you get!

And 99 Thanks to Bob McGinness for his creative camerawork!