November’s main selection for cookbook club was Jacques Pépin Heart & Soul in the Kitchen. It was a favorite for many of the members, and we were pleasantly surprised by how easy the recipes we tried came together.
WordPress highlighted the typo in the publisher’s description – “locovore” instead of “locavore.” I don’t think Jacques Pepin thought the locavore movement was crazy (loco) but I do know he implied as much about molecular gastronomy!
We started off the cookbook club meeting, which was a mix of virtual and in-person, by all watching the seven-minute trailer for this cookbook, which was published as a companion book to the TV show of the same name, while those of us who were physically present filled our plates to taste the dishes people had brought.
I made and brought in Rice Pudding with Dried Cherries and Blueberry Sauce, although I used the substitution offered of dried cranberries instead of cherries.
Next time I would wait until just before serving to put the blueberry sauce on, because it bled into the rice pudding pretty quickly, messing up the food photography. I thought the rice pudding was too bland, but others said they liked it – one even said it was the best rice pudding she had ever had, so there you are.
The recipe calls for cooked white rice, which I had cooked the day before, and said you could use leftover rice from takeout Chinese food. I don’t think I cut the salt, but I thought reading through the recipes that the amount of salt in them was high, so maybe I did and that’s why it turned out bland.
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