A favourite French cookbook, scratch-and-sniff baguette stamps, and a recipe for the green beans you’ll be cooking all summer long, plus this week’s market haul.
Surely that's Plascassier, not Placassier? I know, because I lived there for 3 years in the late 1990s... I didn't know about the Child connection then. And that's a good choice of cheese. Love a tomme.
Love the post as always. Can I ask what are you going to do with the cheese? Maybe a daft question but was in Monoprix yesterday and bought a piece of Comte. Had it at a party two days previous and enjoyed it so much I had to buy my own piece.
Always interesting to hear thoughts on to who and how recipes are attributed.
My father, of French ancestry, used to make us haricot verts in sauce tomates with beans from the garden when I was a child. But it was ,as others have said, always olive oil that was used. I look forward to giving your recipe a go.
I can never resist a scratch and sniff stamp. I remember the French chocolate themed ones in 2009? and have enjoyed rose scented stamps from India too. Thank you.
lovely column this week xx probably a bit too late to the postage stamp postcard party (try saying that after a sherry!) but if not I will swap you a postcard painting ! posted from sunny stroud!
Great recipe, Debora. Thank you. I swear to God, the best green beans I ever had were cooked by a Frenchman. From memory, I think they were cooked very slowly in a pan with lots of butter, garlic, and salt. (Not sure if the lid was on or off). I've tried to cook them like that myself but never quite got the texture right. They were quite soft, not mushy, and delicious with roast chicken, a crunchy green salad, and no doubt a litre of wine. So simple, but so effective. Â
I missed my chance for a baguette-stamped postcard! Nevermind, I loved this post anyway—very amusing to learn that Olney thought MFK Fisher "pretentious". What's life without a bit of pretention anyway?
I love seeing your market haul each week..... The thick slices of ham always look amazing... there's nothing better than a chunk of fresh baguette with a big piece of ham and juicy tomato... drizzle of olive oil and black pepper.... Always such delicious inspiration. Thank YOU 🤗
I look forward to your posts Deborah and I hadn’t come across Olney before. What a great story! The recipe looks very tempting. I do love a cookery book so seeing that wonderfully evocative cover I thought I’d buy it. Sadly that cover does not appear to be available (on a certain website anyway) and the one I could get very dull by comparison. I know inside will be the same but now I’ve seen it my heart is lost…my husband will be relieved he is not seeing yet another package delivered…😂
Hello Debora, thank you for the weeks post and your recipe, I will definitely try your version, and if I have to use more than one pan I will live with that, but I do have to tell you that this morning I made Osso Bucco and once that was transferred into a casserole I just wiped out the Le Chasseur pot and commenced making Pea and Ham Soup. Which reminds me I had better go and check it and cut up the meat off the ham hock. Love seeing your weekly shop and those huge tomatoes are just like the ones we can now buy in our supermarket, and they have the most amazing flavour.
I know this recipe from Olney and have made it a couple of times - love it. But to be honest I usually just make a simple Spanish version of the Turkish 'taze fasulye’ and don’t blanch the beans first. I do cook them first quite a while as I love the farinaceous quality of a slow cooked bean.
Love reading your articles and always hope to bump into you when we visit Marseillan, but never have so far. Love the idea of bagette stamps but I am sure to be too late. X
Oh dear. I think most Turkish housewives (and a few house husbands) may have fallen foul of Olney, since this recipe is almost a dead ringer for 'taze fasulye' (produced in every single household, including mine, during the summer). Or perhaps Olney may have taken his inspiration from points east, who knows? What I do know is that the Turkish version (almost the same) is brilliant with any kind of bean, from skinny French beans to runner beans, to broad beans, either podded or (in their tiny Spring format) complete with their pods. Long live the bean.
I tell you what is interesting. I am very familiar with taze fasulye and this tastes entirely different. Perhaps it is sauteing the beans in butter first, and briefly warming them in very dry, intense tomato sauce, but it honestly tastes nothing like it. It is so interesting that using the same ingredients in a slightly different way can produce a very different result.
Actually, you are so right - taze fasulye doesn't have butter, of course, it's an olive oil dish, and you would cook the beans slowly in the sauce, rather than introducing them to each other at the end, which would result in a very different product (though nicely related). Now needing to try this immediately! Except it's gone midnight and, errr, no beans. Vive l'haricot. Or fasulye, or something like that.
Ah, too late for a baguette stamp. My timekeeping is obviously on par with French post offices! Thanks for talking about Richard Olney, his books were a key signpost in my food journey. I'm in the middle of writing about his opening my eyes to wild rocket flowers..
Ah, just send me your address - I would be so glad to send you one. I think the easiest way is probably just by replying to the newsletter email. I am so glad share my admiration for RO and his work.
Surely that's Plascassier, not Placassier? I know, because I lived there for 3 years in the late 1990s... I didn't know about the Child connection then. And that's a good choice of cheese. Love a tomme.
i would adore a postcard with a baguette stamp from you!
merci!
deb
Love the post as always. Can I ask what are you going to do with the cheese? Maybe a daft question but was in Monoprix yesterday and bought a piece of Comte. Had it at a party two days previous and enjoyed it so much I had to buy my own piece.
Always interesting to hear thoughts on to who and how recipes are attributed.
My father, of French ancestry, used to make us haricot verts in sauce tomates with beans from the garden when I was a child. But it was ,as others have said, always olive oil that was used. I look forward to giving your recipe a go.
I can never resist a scratch and sniff stamp. I remember the French chocolate themed ones in 2009? and have enjoyed rose scented stamps from India too. Thank you.
lovely column this week xx probably a bit too late to the postage stamp postcard party (try saying that after a sherry!) but if not I will swap you a postcard painting ! posted from sunny stroud!
Great recipe, Debora. Thank you. I swear to God, the best green beans I ever had were cooked by a Frenchman. From memory, I think they were cooked very slowly in a pan with lots of butter, garlic, and salt. (Not sure if the lid was on or off). I've tried to cook them like that myself but never quite got the texture right. They were quite soft, not mushy, and delicious with roast chicken, a crunchy green salad, and no doubt a litre of wine. So simple, but so effective. Â
I missed my chance for a baguette-stamped postcard! Nevermind, I loved this post anyway—very amusing to learn that Olney thought MFK Fisher "pretentious". What's life without a bit of pretention anyway?
I love seeing your market haul each week..... The thick slices of ham always look amazing... there's nothing better than a chunk of fresh baguette with a big piece of ham and juicy tomato... drizzle of olive oil and black pepper.... Always such delicious inspiration. Thank YOU 🤗
I look forward to your posts Deborah and I hadn’t come across Olney before. What a great story! The recipe looks very tempting. I do love a cookery book so seeing that wonderfully evocative cover I thought I’d buy it. Sadly that cover does not appear to be available (on a certain website anyway) and the one I could get very dull by comparison. I know inside will be the same but now I’ve seen it my heart is lost…my husband will be relieved he is not seeing yet another package delivered…😂
Hello Debora, thank you for the weeks post and your recipe, I will definitely try your version, and if I have to use more than one pan I will live with that, but I do have to tell you that this morning I made Osso Bucco and once that was transferred into a casserole I just wiped out the Le Chasseur pot and commenced making Pea and Ham Soup. Which reminds me I had better go and check it and cut up the meat off the ham hock. Love seeing your weekly shop and those huge tomatoes are just like the ones we can now buy in our supermarket, and they have the most amazing flavour.
I know this recipe from Olney and have made it a couple of times - love it. But to be honest I usually just make a simple Spanish version of the Turkish 'taze fasulye’ and don’t blanch the beans first. I do cook them first quite a while as I love the farinaceous quality of a slow cooked bean.
Love reading your articles and always hope to bump into you when we visit Marseillan, but never have so far. Love the idea of bagette stamps but I am sure to be too late. X
Oh dear. I think most Turkish housewives (and a few house husbands) may have fallen foul of Olney, since this recipe is almost a dead ringer for 'taze fasulye' (produced in every single household, including mine, during the summer). Or perhaps Olney may have taken his inspiration from points east, who knows? What I do know is that the Turkish version (almost the same) is brilliant with any kind of bean, from skinny French beans to runner beans, to broad beans, either podded or (in their tiny Spring format) complete with their pods. Long live the bean.
I tell you what is interesting. I am very familiar with taze fasulye and this tastes entirely different. Perhaps it is sauteing the beans in butter first, and briefly warming them in very dry, intense tomato sauce, but it honestly tastes nothing like it. It is so interesting that using the same ingredients in a slightly different way can produce a very different result.
Actually, you are so right - taze fasulye doesn't have butter, of course, it's an olive oil dish, and you would cook the beans slowly in the sauce, rather than introducing them to each other at the end, which would result in a very different product (though nicely related). Now needing to try this immediately! Except it's gone midnight and, errr, no beans. Vive l'haricot. Or fasulye, or something like that.
There must be a bean-and-tomato dish for every southern European country. It would be interesting to explore them all.
Definitely going to make those green beans. How long will the stamps be on sale?
I think until they run out. I understand they printed 600,000.
Ah, too late for a baguette stamp. My timekeeping is obviously on par with French post offices! Thanks for talking about Richard Olney, his books were a key signpost in my food journey. I'm in the middle of writing about his opening my eyes to wild rocket flowers..
Ah, just send me your address - I would be so glad to send you one. I think the easiest way is probably just by replying to the newsletter email. I am so glad share my admiration for RO and his work.
Thank you so much, email bounced so I’ve sent you a message here.
Great!
Just slightly too late! Love the stamps though - what a fun idea! I love seeing stamps from different places.
Kate, just send me your address (just reply to the newsletter email) and I will gladly send you one.
Thanks Debora, that's so kind of you!