"Julie and Julia" Movie Inspired Potato Leek Soup

We had a busy Memorial Day weekend with a wedding and a few other occasions to attend, and yesterday my husband took a day off so we could catch a movie. One of the movie previews we saw was for a new movie expected to be released in August of 2009 called "Julie and Julia."

The movie is produced by Nora Ephron and stars Meryl Streep as the iconic French chef Julia Child, and Amy Andrews in the role of Julie Powell, a blogger who was inspired to cook every recipe in Julia Child's first cookbook "Mastering The Art of French Cooking." The movie is based on two true stories.

The first theme of the movie is about Julie Powell, an American author best known for the book "Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen" which was published in 2005.
Living in Queens, New York, and feeling trapped in a dead end job, Powell began her blog called The Julie/Julia Project in August of 2002, chronicling her attempt to cook all the 524 recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in one year. The blog quickly gained a large following, and Powell eventually signed a deal with Little, Brown and Company to turn her blog into a book.

The other theme of the movie is based on Julia Child's autobiographical book My Life in France, where she was the wife to a US diplomat in France in the 1950's, and while there attended the prestigious French cooking school Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. It goes on to show her being a cowriter of the cookbook "Mastering The Art of French Cooking," which demystified French recipes for an American audience, which lead to her of immensely popular cooking TV shows, beginning in the 60's, called "The French Chef."


You can watch the official movie trailer at this YouTube link
(I'm sorry that it does not allow it to be embedded, so I can't display the video clip here.)



The movie appears to be absolutely charming, with Ms. Streep acting in her usual superb way as Julia Child, and Amy Adams portraying a cleaned up version of the sometimes expletive speaking Julie Powell. Adams, as an actress, reminds me a lot of a young version of Meg Ryan, the ingenue type that quickly wins your heart.

I especially laughed at the lines spoken by the Powell character in the trailer: "I can blog --I have thoughts!" and Julia's line when her husband asked what she was good at, and she replied exuberantly: "Eat!" I can identify with both of these sentiments 100%!

My version of "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking" is a book club edition I bought second hand, but it has always been a pleasurable cookbook for me to peruse and learn from. I was a fan of those 1960's "The French Chef" shows when I was a young girl and I followed Julia Child's more recent appearances in the 1990's with chef Jacques Pépin. Ms. Child died two days shy of her 92nd birthday, on August 13,2004.

I loved how Ms. Child always made everything she cooked look so easy to do, and how she bantered along in her unusual, high pitched warbly voice, with her unpatronising and unaffected manner. I think she influenced me to believe I could cook anything, as long as I could read and follow a recipe, and she also inspired me to not be afraid to try substituting, or adding to, ingredients in a recipe. To Julia, a cooking disaster was only a learning experience, and one which sometimes lead to a better composition of the recipe the next time she made it.

One of the staple recipes I use frequently from her cookbook is for -

Potage Parmentier -- Leek and Potato Soup.

For two quarts, serving 6 -8 people

Ingredients:

1 lb potatoes, peeled and diced
3 cups leeks, thinly sliced (white and tender green parts only)
2 quarts water
1 tablespoon salt
4-6 tablespoons whipping cream or 2-3 tablespoons softened butter
2-3 tablespoons minced parsley or chives

Directions:

1} Simmer vegetables, water and salt together, partially covered, 40-50 minutes until vegetables are tender.

2) Mash the vegetables in the soup with a fork, or puree in blender. Taste and correct the seasoning to your preference.

3) Off heat and just before serving, stir in cream or butter by spoonfuls. Pour into a tureen or soup cups and decorate with the herbs.

4) Good hot, cold or room temperature. Served cold it is often referred to as Vichyssoise.

I use an immersion blender -- a wonderful gadget to use if you like to make pureed or creamed soups.

Look how smooth and thick the final results are!

There are many variations that can be added to this soup, and you can use a chicken or vegetable stock in place of the water if you desire a richer base.

The following ingredients may be simmered along with the potatoes and leeks at the start:

Sliced or diced carrots or turnips or cauliflower
Peeled, seeded or chopped tomatoes or strained, canned tomatoes.
Half-cooked dried beans, peas, or lentils, including their cooking liquid.

The following may be simmered for 10-15 minutes with the soup after it has been pureed:

Fresh or frozen diced cauliflower, cucumbers, broccoli, Lima beans, peas, string beans, okra or zucchini.
Shredded lettuce, spinach, water-cress, sorrel, or cabbage.
Diced, cooked leftovers of any of the preceding vegetables.
Tomatoes, peeled, seeded, juiced and diced.

As Ms. Child says in the cookbook: "Proportions are not important and you can use your imagination to the full. Many of the delicious soups you eat in French homes and little restaurants are made this way, with a leek-and potato base to which leftover vegetables or sauces and a few fresh items are added."

As Julia would also say with gusto: "Bon appetit!"

Edited on 8/13/09 --I am adding this blog post to the Julia Child birthday event going on at Lisa's blog Champagne Taste that will take place on August 15, 2009. Thank you Lisa for remembering Julia in such a nice way! Be sure to check Lisa's blog for links of all the blogs participating in the event on August 15.

Moonstruck --- Dinner and a Movie

 The 1987 Norman Jewison film Moonstruck is a delightful romantic comedy and features excellent ensemble performances and an Oscar-winning performance from Cher. She plays a 38-year-old Italian-American widow named Loretta Castorini who says "yes" to her longtime boyfriend Johnny Cammareri's (Danny Aiello) marriage proposal, then falls in love with his estranged brother Ronny Cammareri (Nicolas Cage) when she has to visit him at his bakery to invite him to their wedding.

Moonstruck has always been one of my favorite movies because it portrays a true slice of life in Brooklyn, New York, the place where I have lived my entire life.

Although I'm not Italian, I'm married to a native-born Italian and have many friends of Italian-American descent who live in the Brooklyn Heights and Carroll Gardens neighborhood where scenes from the movie were filmed. When I first saw Moonstruck in the theater years ago I laughed and cried and elbowed my husband with bouts of recognition during a few scenes when something being portrayed was uncannily true to people we knew or situations we've seen happen!
Throughout my 34+ year marriage I've experienced the unconditional love of "alla famigilia," and the Italian- American's love affair with love, food, opera and music, and respect for family and friends. It's always passionate, never dull!

To see more about Brooklyn Heights you can read some of the blog posts I did about the neighborhood here and here.

It's a historical neighborhood with incredible views across the East River to lower Manhattan.

Brooklyn Heights neighborhood.

This is the beautiful house on Cranberry Street that was used as the Castorini family home in the movie. It sold a few years ago for almost 4 million dollars!

photo source

There was actually once a Cammareri Brothers Bakery located in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, located at Henry and Sackett Streets. Recently the Cammareri's paired with Monteleone, a pastry shop at 355 Court Street, between Union and President Street, to sell their bread along with the pastries ... another marriage made in heaven!


Because I think Moonstruck's Johnny Cammareri was a "baccala" --which is also known as an Italian slang word for a less than smart person -- for letting Loretta's love slip from his life in the movie to his brother Ronny, I prepared my version of "Baccala Florentine" as my dinner recipe.

First I purchased a nice two-pound piece of baccala -- preserved salt codfish.

Since it is salted, all baccalà requires soaking before it can be used. I usually soak it for at least three days, keeping it in the refrigerator and changing the water often.

There are many ways to prepare baccala and this is one of our favorites.

Baccala Fiorentina - A LA MOONSTRUCK

2 lbs. of salt cod --soaked in water at least 48 hours

6 boiled potatoes, peeled, cubed, and kept warm

2 cloves of garlic chopped

1 bunch of scallions (green onions) rinsed and chopped

two celery stalks chopped

1 cup black oil-cured olives or green Sicilian olives

1 cup vinegar cured green and red peppers chopped

1 tablespoon capers

3 tbs. of tomato paste

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup of water

1 tablespoon dried oregano --more or less to taste

2 teaspoon dried basil or handful of fresh basil leaves if available --more or less to taste

1 cup of water

1/2 cup of olive oil

1/2 cup of flour

pinch of red pepper if desired

Cut fish into 4-inch pieces, and roll it in flour. Heat oil in a skillet, and brown fish on both sides. Set fish aside on a platter and keep warm; add garlic, scallions, and celery to the skillet and saute till soft adding more olive oil if needed. When vegetables are soft add the tomato paste. water and white wine and stir well until paste is dissolved. Add olives, capers, and peppers and stir well. Place fish on top and simmer slowly for about 15 minutes. Turn fish over and simmer another 10 minutes making sure the sauce is not sticking to the skillet -- add a little more water or wine if needed. Season with oregano and basil and red pepper flakes to taste. Since the fish was salted I don't add salt to this dish but you can add some to taste if desired.

Serve over boiled, cubed potatoes.

We usually have baccala as part of the Italian tradition of the "Feast of the Seven Fishes" on Christmas Eve, but it is good to eat anytime!

I seem to be doing a lot of cooking lately. Next blog post I'll be back in Manhattan with more interesting sights to show you!

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The Road and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Do you like to give recommendations to family and friends for books and movies that you have enjoyed, feeling fairly safe in your opinion that they will also enjoy them? I usually have no problem doing that, but I have been literally haunted lately by both a book and a movie that I'd like to tell you about that both come with a caveat recommendation of "read or see at your own risk."

Why?

They are not the type of feel good, happy ending stories that I think most people enjoy, yet I think they are worthwhile because they will make you think about your perceptions of life for a long time afterwards. They both contain events that shatter the concept of normalcy and introduce an element of survival under the most adverse conditions, which will have you questioning your own strengths as well as the power of hope.

The book is the novel "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where we follow a father and son as they travel toward the coast, fleeing the onset of winter. They must survive by any means possible, but they are determined not to enter into the ultimate acts of horror where starvation has led others.
McCarthy's writing skillfully compels you to keep reading, and he keeps the language simple and the chapters fast moving, but also fills them with both poignant and powerful imagery. He makes you feel compassion for the nameless father and son so much that you must know what happens to them. I could not put the book down and felt the need to finish it almost entirely in one sitting.
Can love survive in a brutal world, can we make the ultimate sacrifice for it? Are all our realities so frail and so easily destroyed?
This is an unforgettable book, and one I believe will become a classic. The Road was the winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Literature, and is in production to be made into a movie starring Viggo Mortensen for release in 2009

The movie is "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," a drama released in 2008, based on the 1921 short story of the same name written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film was directed by David Fincher, written by Eric Roth, and stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.

Eric Roth almost completely rewrote Fritzgerald's short story which can be read in its entirety here. What he kept was the main premise of the story about what it would be like to age in reverse.
The movie synopsis the Paramount Pictures web site:

"We follow his story, set in New Orleans from the end of World War I in 1918, into the 21st century, following his journey that is as unusual as any man’s life can be. Benjamin Button is a grand tale of a not-so-ordinary man and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds, the joys of life and the sadness of death, and what lasts beyond time."

I found it to be an enthralling fantasy, well acted, beautiful in its detail, with a cinematography that had a dreamy sepia quality about it that made me feel as if I was watching an vintage film. There were many quiet little subplots within the story, little gems of wisdom which could easily be missed, but which somehow all come together in the end. I was literally in tears many times watching it, especially at the end, but I went away feeling enriched by the experience. It is a movie that requires you to pay attention, to feel, to think. It made me appreciate the normal process of aging, and the realization that although "we live our lives forward, but understand them backward," as observed by the Danish philosopher Kierkeguard, that process is a gift which would not serve us well in reverse.

However, this is not to say the movie is not without its critics. As I left the theater I heard many a grumble from the departing audience that it was "one of the worst movies they ever saw," and many complained about the length, which is close to three hours. I do repeat that you should see it at your own discretion, as it is an unusual and reflective tale, but I feel somewhat vindicated in my favorable impressions of it due to the fact that it received 13 Academy Award nominations today!

I'd love to know what your opinions are if you read the book, and or saw the movie, and I hope I piqued your interest if you haven't.