Simplicity from a Monastery Kitchen : A Complete Menu Cookbook for All Occasions

by D'Avila-Latourrette, Victor

• ISBN13: 9780767906098
• ISBN10: 0767906098
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-02-01
• Publisher: Broadway
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

As good for the body as they are for the soul--America's best-known monastery cook captures the essence of culinary and spiritual simplicity in a complete collection of recipes and menus for every meal of the day. In our hectic, mechanized age, Brother Victor-Antoine's recipes have been welcomed by thousands of tranquillity-seeking readers. His most extensive cookbook to date,Simplicity from a Monastery Kitchennow brings his unique culinary spirit to every meal and occasion. As always, he draws on locally grown offerings to create a fresh range of recipes. Complemented by the influence of his French palate, each selection combines elegant flavors with natural ingredients for a satisfying yet nourishing dish. Start the day with Eggs in Potato Croustades or Avignon Banana and Raisin Bread. For lunch, try one of ten hearty soups, or a Polenta and Broccoli Casserole. Dinner could comprise Easy Spinach Croquettes and a Jerusalem Artichoke Salad, or a lavish affair featuring Asparagus Canapes, Grilled Sea Bass with Dill Sauce, and St. Peter's Zabaglione. Also including a variety of souffles, savory pancakes, crepes, pastas, a special section devoted to mushrooms, and a tempting array of more than two dozen sauces,Simplicity from a Monastery Kitchenprovides a way of cooking that truly celebrates the bounty of the Earth.

Author Biography

Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette is resident monk at Our Lady of the Resurrection Monastery, near Millbrook, New York. In addition to his duties as cook, he tends the monastery’s garden. His bestselling books include <b>Twelve Months of Monastery Soups</b><i> </i>(more than 75,000 copies sold) and <b>From a Monastery Kitchen</b> (more than 150,000 copies sold).

Excerpts

Introduction
FOOD SHOULD BE TREATED WITH RESPECT,
SINCE OUR LORD LEFT HIMSELF TO US IN THE GUISE OF FOOD.



DOROTHY DAY

F

Simplicity is a cherished virtue in monastic life. It is part of its very
essence. Simplicity is closely aligned with truth, for it allows us to
deal directly with the ordinariness of daily events and see them in their
true reality. Simplicity embraces truth and tries to escape as far as
possible from falsehood, complexity, multiplicity, tensions, conflict,
division, and all that ultimately leads to destruction.

The original Greek word for monk is monachos, which means the man that is
alone, one in himself, single-minded, simple. In entering monastic life,
the monk deliberately embraces the way of simplicity and promises to seek
God throughout his life in true simplicity of heart. His monastic journey,
therefore, consists essentially of a constant effort to attain this
perfect simplicity by letting go of the clutter and accumulations of the
past and by opening himself intimately and solely to the reality of the
present moment. In connecting with the present moment, the monk discovers
within himself the inner harmony of true simplicity, for it is in this
transparent simplicity of the present moment that he encounters the living
God.

Authentic simplicity, as commanded and inspired by the Gospel, demands
asceticism and spiritual effort on the part of every Christian and hence
of the monk. It demands the practice of self-renunciation and the letting
go of all forms of worldly illusion. Practiced this way, monastic
simplicity becomes the antithesis to the falsehood of the ways of the
world. While the wisdom of the world stresses the glorification and
exaltation of the self, monastic simplicity finds its purpose in the
practice of humility and frugality that frees the human heart for the love
of God and His Kingdom.

It is of the very essence of monastic simplicity that the inner spiritual
life and the practical ordinary tasks of daily life be woven by the same
thread. Since it is the same faith that inspires every moment and every
act of the monastic existence, a dichotomy between what is purely
spiritual and what is more secular or mundane in character would be
considered artificial and totally incompatible in monastic life. People
who visit monasteries are sometimes surprised seeing the monks or nuns
occupied with such trivia as milking cows, feeding the chickens, weeding
the gardens, scrubbing the floors, baking the daily bread, and so on. They
imagine them always at prayers in the church, singing chants or reading in
the library or in the solitude of their cells. They are astonished to
discover that for these monks and nuns, prayer and work do not conflict
with each other. Instead, they are simply two distinct parcels of the same
entity. Slowly visitors begin to realize that the simplicity and unity of
monastic life is woven throughout all of that life’s events, whether they
be liturgical or private prayer, manual or intellectual work, spiritual
reading or chanting, practicing hospitality or living in the strictest of
solitudes, shearing sheep or cooking in the kitchen. What may seem an
apparent conflict to the secular eye, it is a source of unity to the monk.
The monk’s sole concern remains that “God be glorified in all things,” as
counseled by Saint Benedict.

The daily rhythm of monastic life attaches great importance to the time
spent in the kitchen and food preparation, to time in the refectory and
the act of consuming food. Saint Benedict attached great importance to
these matters, and throughout the whole of monastic tradition, food
retained a sacred character, because of the importance given to it by
Christ Himself. Anyone participating today in the life of a monastery
notices the importance the monks and nuns give to their meals, their
practical and healthy method of cooking, and their reverential way of
serving food at the table and their equally reverent consumption of it.
The meal, depending on the season of the year (fasting or nonfasting), day
of the week, or celebration, may consist of several courses, prepared and
served in great simplicity, but always enhanced by a tradition of good
taste cultivated in monasteries throughout the centuries.

Across the ages monastic cooking, both in the Christian and non-Christian
tradition (Buddhist, Hindu, and so on) has distinguished itself from other
forms of cooking, for their simplicity, frugality, balance, wholesomeness,
and flavor. Monastic cooking entails much more than the just plain
preparation of ordinary good food. For instance, the monastery cook works
in collaboration with the monks in charge of the kitchen gardens, and he
relies on their help in order to assure the quality and freshness of the
produce presented at the table. The same close collaboration takes place
between him and the monk’s farmer, who helps provide the eggs, the milk,
the butter, and the cheese consumed at the monastic table. At the
beginning of his formation the future monastic cook is apprenticed to an
older, more experienced monk cook. This is so that he may be properly
trained and learn from the wise experience of the elder. It usually takes
years of experience and much imagination before the new cook is able to
develop creative, delicious, and well-balanced meals on his own. To arrive
at this point, it takes a certain experience and also a creative
thriftiness, which indeed, is very monastic.

The recipes presented in this book reflect the experience of a simple
monastic cuisine, in particular, the cuisine at Our Lady of the
Resurrection. In my experience as a monk and cookbook author, I have at
times been criticized for the extreme bare simplicity of my recipes, but
more often have been congratulated for it. I do not know how many people
have told me again and again that they were afraid to engage themselves in
the art of cooking because of its apparent complexity and were greatly
helped by the rudimentariness of my recipes, which they said helped them
overcome their fears and gave them new confidence. In response, I always
encouraged these people to stick with the ways of simplicity in the
kitchen, for simplicity itself is synonymous with elegance and good taste.
Some of the most elegant, attractive, and appetizing dishes I have ever
eaten have been prepared in humble monastery kitchens or in plain country
farm kitchens, which sometimes lacked the latest, more expensive
technological tools used in modern kitchens. But the cooks in these
kitchens had something else going for them. They were creative, efficient,
and highly industrious about how they prepared and arranged their dishes.
Moreover, they cooked with unaffected skill and great simplicity, with
great joy and loving care. The result was food of outstanding quality that
brought utter delight to the eye, to the palate, and to the soul.

In presenting these time-tested recipes to the public, my sincere hope is
that the reader who is eager to experiment in the kitchen will discover
the deep satisfaction inherent in preparing recipes that are guided by the
two important principles emphasized here: good quality and wholesome
simplicity. I encourage the cook to experiment, improve, and even make
certain changes, if necessary, but keep in mind never to sacrifice the
principles of quality and simplicity that are the guiding light of this
particular cuisine.

In completing this Introduction I wish to thank my editor at Doubleday,
Trace Murphy, who strongly supported me in the undertaking of this work. I
wish to thank also the many friends in France, Quebec, and here in the
U.S.A. who encouraged me and enlighten me along the way. I wish to thank
Brother Peter Michael Preble, Sister Ana M. Martinez, and her mother, all
of whom patiently typed these recipes. And last but not least, many thanks
to our dear friends John and Susan Conrad for typing the Introduction.

My ultimate wish and hope is that these recipes with the accompanying
quotations go a long way to inspire many to cook and to walk in the ways
of simplicity.



Brother Victor-Antoine, monk

September 14, 1999

Feast of the Holy and Glorious Cross of Christ
How to Use
This Cookbook
The preparation of a dinner, be it either the daily ordinary one or a
festal one for a special occasion, can demand a great deal of time and
energy. This is true in a home, in a monastery, or even for the person who
lives alone. It is indispensable, then, that the meals be well planned
ahead of time.

In planning a meal, one must first be guided by the two elementary
principles of quality and simplicity that I emphasized in the
Introduction. In addition, one must make sure that the meal is balanced,
tasty, nutritious, and certainly, economically reasonable. The use of
fresh seasonal ingredients is absolutely a must.

This book follows a different method of presenting the recipes from my
previous cookbooks, which tended to follow the seasonal or monthly
calendar. Here, instead, I chose to follow the principle of grouping the
recipes according to the category to which they belong. For instance, if
one is looking for a soup recipe, one will look for it under the soup
category. If one is thinking of preparing an egg dish, then one will look
for it under the egg dishes category. A keen eye will always easily find
an interesting recipe that can satisfy both his or her sense of adventure
in the kitchen and, more important yet, the pleasures of his or her palate.

Depending on the time available to the cook, the season, and the
particular occasion for the meal (a festive one or an ordinary everyday
one), I recommend the following way of choosing the recipes for a meal.

For the daily ordinary cuisine I will tend to follow this method and offer
the following courses at the table:

1. Soup (especially during cold months)

2. Main course

—Choose between a casserole or rice or pasta dish

—Or choose between an egg or fish dish

—If eggs or fish (or meat for nonvegetarians) are chosen, use as an ac-
companiment a recipe from the vegetables or mushrooms section.

3. A fresh salad course is always welcome.

4. Plain fruit or a very simple, basic dessert, depending on the season.
For instance, a warm dessert is always appetizing in winter.

For a special or festive occasion I recommend the following courses:

1. Hors d’oeuvre, appetizer, or salad

2. a.Choice of egg or fish dishes (or meat) accompanied by one or two
vegetables from their section, one vegetable and one of mushroom, from
their respective sections. (A vegetable pancake would be a nice choice.)

b. Choice of a crepe dish or one from the rice section, such as Risotto or
a Mediterranean Vegetarian Paella.

3. An appetizing salad dish, except when one is served as an appetizer.

4. A festive dessert.



Use sauces as needed to enhance certain vegetables, fish, and other
dishes. Use homemade bread to enrich your meals whenever you can.







THREE MENUS OF AN ORDINARY WEEKLY MEAL



SpringAutumnWinter

Spring Spinach SoupMonastery Harvest SoupSpicy Lentil Soup

Potato Omelet Basque StyleRigatoni with EggplantsPolenta Savoyarde with

Parsnips and Carrots ExuperyPlain Green SaladZucchini Beignets

Hudson Valley SaladPear FlanGrated Carrots and

Melon with StrawberryBlack Olive Salad

and RaspberryCountry-Style Compote







2 MENUS FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS



Spring and SummerAutumn and Winter

Melon with Yogurt and Fresh MintEggplant Terrine

Ratatouille Crepes withRodez Codfish with Potatoes

Spanish Lima BeansMushrooms à la Bordelaise

Provençal Mesclun Salad with Goat CheeseApple, Endive, and Celery Root
Salad

St. Scholastica Peach TarteEmpress Eugénie Rice Pudding







Of course, these are only suggestions on how to go about arranging a menu.
I leave it to the talent and inventiveness of the cook the task of
choosing a tasty and well-balanced meal.

---

Excerpted from Simplicity from a Monastery Kitchen: A Complete Menu Cookbook for All Occasions by Victor-Antoine D'Avila-La Tourette
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.