Menu français, simple

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
Albert Einstein
Take our cassoulet, for example, you simply need to nestle some of our confit duck legs, Peads and Barnetts’ butifarra sausages, and Nueske bacon into our cassoulet beans (slow-cooked flageolets in a rich bean broth), then top with breadcrumbs and bake it until it’s bubbling around the edges with a golden crust on top. We’re even selling terra cotta cazuelas, a versatile casserole dish that’s perfect for baking and serving cassoulet. This dish is a show stopper, but each component can stand on its own or be frozen for another time.  

The (vegan) beans would be delicious on garlic-rubbed toast with sauteed greens. The sausages are great in a bun or taken out of their casing and cooked crumbled. The duck confit is salt-cured and gently cooked in duck fat for hours. All you need to do is reheat it. If you crisp the skin, that’s even better. We’ll walk you through a couple different ways to serve it. Nueske’s smokiest of bacons comes in a slab and can be enjoyed in countless ways, but consider cutting it into lardons and making a salad lyonnaise with the frisée and eggs that will be in this week’s box.

It’s wintery as I write this, but there are a couple of 80º days in the forecast, so we’re making some tuna confit, getting Niçoise olives, and putting potatoes and greenhouse blue lake beans in the box for an LA winter Niçoise salad. Jason Kim from Forage is making a classic dijon vinaigrette to dress your niçoise or lyonnaise salads, or other farm box vegetables. There are also whole free-range chickens, grass-fed hangers (our favorite bistro steak), and wild, local halibut

Save some baguette for one of our favorite cheeses, la tur. It’s not French, but its mix of textures and milks make it complex enough to hold your interest, yet so easy to eat that it’s hard to stop. And Jordan Maseng (of dosa kit fame and fury- only because there are never enough) is canning a batch of marmalade that you can marry with your baguette and la tur or we’ll give you guidance on how to turn some of it into a sweet-tart sauce for your rich duck.

We are making and freezing Pâte à Choux. You bake them off and decide their destiny. This is the airy, tender pastry of cream puffs and eclairs. But you could also top them with parmesan, gruyère, and black pepper for cheesy gougères. Or fill them with a scoop of your favorite ice cream and drizzle our hot fudge, made with Strauss dairy and Valhrona chocolate, all over them for profiteroles. 

And we still have a few bottles of Dom de Fontsainte’s rosé from our friends at Small Town, --to help wash everything down.

It couldn’t be simpler without being oversimplified.