Cooling Trend

Finally, a break in the weather.  The rain clouds are just flirting with us this morning, but it is cool.  The possibility of something under 90 degrees in the kitchen inspired me to take a look at Richard Olney's well-regarded cookbook, Simple French Food.

Good Recipes Inside

In Provence, 1970, Luke Barr writes about the meal Richard Olney served to M.F.K. Fisher and friends in November, 1970 at his home in Provence.  Oh my.

"RICHARD OLNEY WAS PREPARING A FEAST.

He sat at the kitchen table with a small, pointy knife, painstakingly piercing each large piece of beef stew meat and inserting small strips of pork fat into the incisions.  The strips of pork belly had been covered with a paste of chopped parsley and garlic, and would add flavor to the meat from the inside out.  He put the larded meat in a bowl, poured a bit of olive oil and cognac and then a bottle of dry white wine over it, and left it all to marinate.

This was the beginning of his 'daube a la provencale'...

It was late November and raining outside.  He was alone in the kitchen.  He was happiest at moments like this."

Although Barr gives the impression that M.F.K. Fisher grew to consider some of Olney's attitudes to French cooking and wine with disdain, she had a very good time as his guest on that cold wet November night.

Richard Olney was an American ex-pat who lived in the south of France, in an old farmhouse on a steep hill overlooking the Provencal countryside.  He refurbished the house, hand-dug a wine cave into the hillside, and made Provence his home for nearly forty years.   Much has been written about Olney and I will have more to write as I learn more about him.  His connection to M.F.K. Fisher is how we ended up talking about him here.

And that is why I am taking a stroll through Simple French Food today.  There will be no  'daube a la provencale' for dinner tonight, but there will be one in a few months, perhaps on a cold wet November evening.