A Bastille Day Feast

In celebration of Bastille Day, Chef Francois Payard will cook up a classic French "Provencal" feast. Payard spent $60 for six guests to mark France's Independence Day.

The Menu:
Petit Farci Nicoise Au Basilic (stuffed zucchini)
Red Snapper with Fennel and Artichokes
Charlotte of Apricots

Food Definitions:
Farci: Means "stuffed."

Nicoise: Means "as prepared in Nice," a city on the French Rivera. The cooking style is identified with hot and cold dishes that include the integral ingredients of tomatoes, black olives, garlic, and anchovies.

Charlotte: This classic molded dessert begins with a mold, lined with sponge cake, ladyfingers, or buttered bread. The traditional Charlotte mold is pail-shaped, but almost any mold is acceptable. The lined mold is then filled with layers (or a mixture) of fruit and custard or whipped cream that is generally fortified with gelatin.

Entree: In America, "entree" refers to the main course of a meal. In parts of Europe, it refers to the dish served between the fish and meat courses during formal dinners. In Australia, the entree is the first course or appetizer.

Bastille Day: On July 14, 1789, the storming of the Bastille, the French state prison, brought an end to the monarchy and marked the beginning of the First Republic. It is France's Independence Day and symbolizes for all citizens of France: liberty, democracy, and the struggle against all forms of oppression.

The Recipes:

Petit Farci Niçoise Au Basilic
Serves 6

Ingredients:
6 oz ground pork
5 oz ground beef
3 small white onions
3 tomatoes
2 zucchinis
2 garlic cloves
18 branches or 1 bunch Swiss chard -chopped
3 oz Parmesan, grated
3 small whole eggs
10 basil leaves - chopped
¼ cup Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Method:

1. Cut the tomatoes, the onions, and the zucchini in half.
2. Hollow out tomato, onions, and zucchini. Reserve the shells of the vegetables. Boil hollowed out portions of zucchini, tomato, and onions until tender. Use strainer to remove vegetables, proceed to chop the vegetables.
3. Combine ground pork and beef to make meat filling, like a meatball. Add garlic, Parmesan and Swiss chard.
4. Add the chopped, strained vegetables to meat. Stuff the shells of the tomato, onion, and zucchini with small portions of meat to fill.
5. Top with a sprinkle of bread crumb,s if you like. Drizzle top with olive oil and a sprinkle of basil.
6. Place in oven for 15-20 minutes at 380 degrees.
7. Let cool. Place three on a plate
8. Can be served hot or cold. Also, you can add rice to the vegetable filling.

Red Snapper with Anchoiade, Fennel, and Artichokes
Serves 6

Ingredients:
6 portions of Red Snapper of approx. 5-6 oz. each
8 artichokes -- baby. If not, you can buy 2 regular-sized artichokes
Fennel -- one large fennel bulb or 3 baby fennel bulbs

Sauce a l' Anchoiade
Serves 6

Ingredients:
8 tbs olive oil
20 olive Nicoise
4 oven dried Tomatoes
4 chopped anchovies
2 teaspoons of capers
1 lemon (only the pulp)

Method:

1. Add olive oil to pan, add red snapper.
2. Sear red snapper on both sides until brown.
3. Add artichokes to a separate pan - fry artichokes for a few minutes.
4. Sauté fennel in the pan with the fish. Cook until tender and avoid browning it.

   For The Anchoiade:

5. Remove the skin of the lemon, and dice up the lemon "meat" -- does not have to be even segments
6. Mix 8 Tablespoon olive oil with 20 Nicoise olives.
7. Add 4 oven-dried tomatoes to mixture.
8. Add four chopped anchovies and 2 tbs. capers.
9. Mix ingredients with the olive oil. Add the diced lemon last.

   Oven Dried Tomatoes:

10. Slice your tomatoes into 1/2" thick slices. Place them on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with some olive oil and you can add herbs such as Rosemary if you have some. Put in the oven at 380-degrees. It will take approimately 3 hours.
11. Place the fish in the center of the plate and add the anchoiade dressing. You can serve the dressing warm or cold. You then top it off with two slices of tomatoes on each fish.

Charlotte of Apricots
Serves 6

Ingredients:
5 slices of white bread, diced into 1/2"- inch thick toast. Bake half of them (just place them on a cookie sheet, bake at 380-degrees just until they are brown) and reserve the remaining half
6 ring molds buttered and sugar
Molds should be 3"-inches wide and 1" tall. You can also use aluminum cups if you prefer.
5 apricots, reserve two and dice up the remaining three initially
1 egg
1 oz. white sugar
1/2 Cup of Whole Milk
1 Drop of Vanilla Extract

Method:

1. To butter and sugar the molds, combine about 2 Tablespoons of butter and 1 Tablespoon of sugar.
2. Combine the egg and sugar together.
3. Add the whole milk.
4. Then add one drop of vanilla extract.
5. This will create the custard.
6. Take the 3 diced apricots and cook them in a pan with teaspoon of butter until they get nice and soft.
7. Combine the cooked apricots and the custard together.
8. Now press along the inside of the mold with pieces of toasted bread.
9. Fill the ring, garnish with untoasted bread.
10. Bake for approx. 5-7 minutes 380-degrees.
11. If you take a toothpick and insert it in the middle of the custard, it
    should come out clean. That will tell you it is done.
12. Remove from heat. Place on a dessert plate. You can garnish with the remaining apricots, which also should be diced. You can serve those fresh or also sauté them until tender. Take a small paring knife and run along the inside of the mold. The custard should not run when the mold is removed. It's ready to eat.

Francois Payard is a third-generation pastry chef born in Nice on July 16, 1966. He grew up in his grandfather's pastry shop, "Au Nid de Friandises," on the French Riviera. He refined his art of pastry at school in Paris. Since the late 1980s,he has been the pastry chef at various multi-starred restaurants in Paris and New York and has shared a kitchen with such famous chefs as Alain Ducasse and Daniel Boulud. In 1997, he opened his own patisserie and bistro named "Payard's" in New York and subsequently opened restaurants in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and on Long Island.