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Water lilies floating in a pond and a Japanese bridge are two things Claude Monet (1840-1926) saw every day at his water garden in Giverny, France. Claude Monet was a French artist who is famous for his impressionist paintings of nature. As one of the founders of the impressionism movement, Monet used visibly small brush strokes to present his scenes and rejected the traditional approach to landscape painting. Some of his most famous works are paintings of his gardens, one being his water garden. He bought land and built a pond himself along with having a Japanese bridge built. In this pond were water lilies he planted for fun, Monet painted a series of water lily paintings including Water Lilies: Morning, Water Lilies Agapanthus, and Water Lily Pond, Water Irises. I love impressionism and Monet is one of my favorite artists. Water Lilies is my favorite piece by him. In the Musée de l'Orangerie, there are oval rooms with his continuous water lily paintings surrounding the rooms. My favorite piece by him is Water Lilies – Evening Effect that shows some water lilies on his pond and the colors illude to it being an evening setting.
It is a very calming piece and it is quite lovely. I adore the vivid brush strokes and the splashes of bright colors. While Monet adored painting, he also adored being in the kitchen. Florence Gentner wrote a book labeled The Monet Cookbook: Recipes from Giverny.
This book has 60 recipes of Monet’s French cuisine. How amazing is that? Using two recipes from this book, I cooked a meal inspired by Monet’s lovely and enchanting water lilies. I only saw a few recipes from this book but I did order it in order to cook some more! All of these recipes from Giverny where Monet lived as well as painted. I chose to cook the cheese souffle and stuffed tomatoes. Both came from Gentner’s cookbook. I was excited to cook French cuisine since I do not cook French meals often. The recipes say around 50-60 minutes in time but if your eyes are like mine when it comes to shallots, it may take longer. For both dishes together it took around 2 ½ hours. Mainly prep took up the most time because I am pretty articulate when it comes to cutting. The tomatoes involved the cutting and it also involved scooping the insides of the tomatoes out. There were twelve tomatoes and it took around 30-45 minutes to do those two things. Sautéing and everything else preceding for the tomatoes was very simple. I added panko breadcrumbs on top to make it look prettier. I am not a fan of soggy bread and that is what was included (soaking the bread in vegetable broth). However not only did it add flavor, but you also did not even feel the consistency considering the other ingredients cover-up that feeling. The cheese souffle was also very nice. There are two versions of her book: a French one and an English one. I actually used both and used the French one for the cheese souffle. Since I know French, it was
pretty easy to translate the recipe especially with this one being pretty simple. However, I will be providing an English translation as well! I replaced regular milk with almond milk because I realized I do not have regular milk in my house. I am very much of a non-dairy milk kind of girl but due to this, the souffle did not have a puffed-up rise that we normally see.
Overall, the meals tasted lovely. The flavors in the stuffed tomatoes were exquisite. The bacon added the saltiness and the broth added a plethora of flavors. The cheese souffle didn’t have as much flavor and I had to season a little more especially with salt. I believe that maybe adding a little more cheese will enhance the flavor. However, after adding more flavor to the dish, the cheese souffle was amazing especially if you ate it with the tomato. Cooking these dishes allowed me to be in Giverny with Monet and his lovely gardens. It aided me in gaining a connection to him, his art, and his cuisine. The meal would have probably tasted even better if I was eating it in his gardens looking at his water lilies and seeing what inspired him.
French Recipe Translated:
2 eggs
60 g of butter and 10 g for the mold
60 g flour
25 cl of milk
60 g grated Emmental
Salt ground pepper
Butter a soufflé dish. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Melt the butter over low heat. Off the heat, add the flour, whisking until it has absorbed all the butter. Put the saucepan back on the heat and let this base cook, gradually pouring in the milk, without stopping whipping. You must get a rather thick sauce.
Break the eggs by separating the whites from the yolks. Off the heat, add the egg yolks to the sauce twice: wait until the first is well incorporated before adding the second. Finally add the cheese, salt, and pepper.
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then introduce them delicately into the preparation, without turning the mixture but lifting it upwards. Pour the whole into the souffle mold, filling it with only three quarters. Leave to cook for about 20 minutes, without opening the oven door: the souffle is cooked when it is well inflated and of a beautiful golden brown, Serve immediately
Hopefully, I will be cooking more French cuisine on this journey!
Very uplifting, informative, great representation of form and function. Good job
This is terrific! Monet is one of my favorite Impressionists. i enjoyed reading about him. Thanks for the recipe.