This section highlights some of my favorite ways to embellish a dish or meal with accompaniments that can be served alongside fish and meats, and additions that can be stirred right into soups and stews or used to creatively expand all sorts of leftovers.
I’m such a believer in applying accompaniments to more than one recipe, that I offer them à la carte on my menu at Ouest for customers who want to choose another dish to round out their meal. Accompaniments are fun. When served family style, they enhance the communal experience of dining as the platter or bowl is passed from person to person and everyone helps him- or herself to a portion. A well-chosen accompaniment takes the meal to a whole new level; for example, I love starchy accompaniments including Mashed Potatoes and Polenta that soak up any extra sauce on the plate.
I separate out accompaniments in my restaurants and in this book because they’re not absolutely essential, but they are appealing. My taste here runs to the traditional, but I make all of my accompaniments in my own style; the cream for my Potato Gratin, for example, is infused with black pepper and thyme so the gratin’s flavor is unusually complex. In other words, even though their names might be familiar, the recipes that follow are a bit different from others you might have seen.
When I talk about additions, I usually mean grains and pasta, which I add to most of the soups and stews I cook at home, either to bring another texture or flavor to the bowl, or to expand leftovers into another main course. I also like turning leftover braised meats into something new by making them the basis for a pasta dish. In the pages that follow, you’ll learn how to do this as well. Also included in this section are some helpful tips for precooking grains and pastas so you can have them ready to be reheated in whatever dish you’ll be adding them to, rather than waiting for them to cook from a raw state.
Finally, I should explain that accompaniments and additions aren’t absolute categories. Obviously, most grains and pastas can be served as accompaniments, and while the converse isn’t always true, it can sometimes spark great innovations, like using Mashed Potatoes as an addition to Potato and Leek Soup. I don’t find these overlaps confusing; in fact, I adore them because they remind me how infinitely flexible home cooking can be.
Technically speaking, grains are the fruits of grasses, which we adopt in many ways for cooking. Whole grains (also called kernels, berries, or groats) have the bran and germ intact, while coarsely ground kernels are referred to as meal. Barley is a grain, as is cornmeal. There are also a number of foods which are not, strictly speaking, grains, but which are considered grains in the culinary world, including millet (a seed) and couscous, which is actually tiny bits of semolina pasta.
Given this variety, it’s important to note that some grains are more appropriate as additions; others more suitable as accompaniments. The following list includes my favorite grains and methods for cooking them.