Rustic French cooking

The plant-based way!

Shooting a cooking video is hard work, let me tell you. I’m not the only one involved, you see. Behind the camera is my husband, who’s trying to capture everything as beautifully as possible, telling me how to hold the spoon, pour in the stock, chop the vegetables, open the flour jar, etc., etc. It’s like having to take a cooking lesson, but purely for the sake of “making a video,” as he constantly has to remind me. And trust me, I don’t say “oui chef” when he dishes out instructions.

What you don’t see is the eye-rolling (me), the flops and the times we need to do things over again. It’s not always smooth sailing. My main objective is making sure the recipe works (even though I’ve made it a million times). So yes, we sometimes clash. In the end, however, after a day of hard but rewarding work, we wrap things up, pour a glass of wine and savor the fruits of our labor – while discussing what recipe we’ll shoot next week.

Despite those heated moments, I can’t tell you how happy and lucky I am to work with my husband. Not only on these cooking videos, but often on assignment. I write, he captures beautiful images. The realization that we are both making a living doing what we love truly fills me with joy. 

Another thing that fills me with joy is French cooking (but I guess you already knew that). Since I started eating plant-based, people often ask me about all the things I had to ‘give up.’ Like the hearty stews or more elaborate dishes which are such a major staple of French cuisine during the winter months. The cassoulets made with thick sausages and preserved duck legs, the rustic terrines with armagnac and prunes, the lentil casseroles with chunks of salted pork and bacon, the wine-infused boeuf bourguignons or the slowly simmered pot-au-feus that fill the home with the promise of something wonderful.

I’m happy to report that you can still enjoy this kind of cooking, without the need for animal products. So no, I haven’t really given anything up. I’ve just had to get more creative.

If you think about it, one of the main components of a good boeuf bourguignon isn’t the beef, and I know this sounds contradictory if you consider the name, but hear me out. It’s the SAUCE! Remember that two other Burgundy classics are made with very similar sauces: oeufs en meurette (poached eggs in a red wine sauce with lardons and garlicky croutons) and coq au vin (chicken in red wine sauce, with pretty much the same ingredients as boeuf bourguignon). These three traditional Burgundy dishes are infused with the regional pinot noir in a sauce that also contains shallots or (pearl) onions, carrots, garlic, mushrooms, stock and herbs. They’re usually thickened with flour (or if you want to keep things really authentic in coq au vin, rooster blood). 

Mushrooms have a very meaty texture, which makes them exceptionally suitable in the plant-based kitchen. If I’m making bolognese or chili, for example, I blitz them in a food processor and use them instead of ground beef. Works a treat! Portobellos can be grilled and served with a chimichurri sauce. And oyster mushrooms can be torn in pieces, sautéd with onions and served on a bun. I recently wrote an article for Reader’s Digest discussing the most readily available mushrooms and how to cook them. I also included suggestions with meat. You can read it here. 

But back to French cooking. Tomorrow’s recipe (available to exclusive subscribers) will be a mushroom bourguignon, and I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am about sharing it with you! The sauce is absolutely perfect, silky and aromatic, dark and rich.

The added benefit is that unlike the version with beef (my original recipe took three days – you can find it in My Winter Kitchen, by the way), this one is on the table in less than an hour. You can even make it in advance. In fact, this gives the flavors a chance to develop and the results are even more delicious. You can serve the mushroom bourguignon with mashed potatoes (or mashed root veg such as celeriac, sweet potatoes or parsnips), macaroni cooked in stock (they love this in France) or just crusty bread. In that case, I would serve it with mustard to put on the bread and dip into the sauce – heaven! 

I am convinced that this dish will become as much a favorite at your house as it is in mine. I also hope that it will show you how delicious and satisfying plant-based eating can be. 

Let’s make something delicious tomorrow!