Let's Just Say, I am no Julia Child

After inviting the ‘in-laws’ to dinner, I figured I better pull out the big guns and prepare something memorable. How better to impress, than with some traditional French cuisine? I had recently received Julia Child’s ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking” collection as a birthday gift and was dying to tear into a few recipes. And after watching the “Julie and Julia” movie a while back, I was chomping at the bit to try to be the courageous Julie.

With a trip to Santa Monica’s Farmers Market and Santa Monica Seafood and a pantry filled with fresh produce, I was ready and eager to take on this new culinary challenge.

We choose an entrée consisting of traditional French Risotto and Coquilles St. Jacques A La Provence (scallops gratineed with wine, garlic and herbs) served with Asperges Au Naturel (boiled asparagus).
They say, one should never prepare a meal for the very first time and invite guests to enjoy... now I know why.

We planned ahead and prepped all ingredients the day prior, since it was Sunday and we had time, rather than rushing home after work on Monday evening and having little time to prep. We wanted to take our time to do this just right. Julia’s book had helpful hints as to what could be prepared ahead of time and what needed to be done at service time.

Julia recommends peeling the asparagus but by using a sharp knife and not a peeler. That lasted all of 10 minutes with utter frustration- that method just didn’t seem to be working. She also suggests not snapping the ends of the asparagus off. Another huge mistake, as these ends are completely fibrous and inedible. After preparing, the asparagus stalks were bland and tasteless so I had to spruce them up with a drizzle of good EVOO and grated lemon zest.
 

The scallops turned out like bullets. They were as hard as rubber pucks due to being overcooked in the pan before broiling with a cheese gratinee. Even though we followed the recipes to a T, they definitely needed a cooks’ knowledge to know when to remove items from the heat, etc.
 

The risotto was just to die for on Sunday when we made it, we literally couldn’t stop eating it and had to remind ourselves that we needed to leave some for our guests the next day. Julia recommends reheating the risotto in a double boiler, which we did. This proceeded to change the consistency of the entire dish! The rice was completely dried out and turned into more of a pilaf than a risotto.
 

What a disaster!
 

Thank goodness our guests were courteous and understanding as we presented them with our failed concoctions. We have now learned the well known lesson of never trying something new when welcoming guests into your home.
 

Bon appétit!

-Jean