Sarah got me this 1930 Edouard de Pomiane book for Christmas. I highly recommend it. I say this without having cooked anything from the book, but it looks great. It comes with a recommendation from MFK Fisher, so it has to be good. The general notion is that with proper planning (and simple menus) it is possible to cook a multi-course meal in just 10 minutes. Meals that would be appropriate if you came home for lunch. A lot of the recipes are for one, so you would need to adjust if cooking for more people, but who says you can’t make yourself French food for lunch.
Here is a sample menu:
– Velout soup with tarragon
– Chicken sauted with mushrooms
– Green salad
– Cheese
– Cream puff
There you have a five course meal which theoretically could be prepared in 10 minutes. The recipes all include tips for speedy preparation.
The book is also well suited for those of us living in areas where fresh produce is not available year round (there are only a few things I think ship well enough to eat out of season) because in 1930 if something wasn’t in season it wasn’t available fresh. The recipes call for canned goods, many of which can probably be substituted with frozen if you so desire. I’ll let you know how some frozen substitutions go.