April 30, 2004
Maryland Delights, Act III : Old Bay Seasoning
And this is the third and last installment of the Tale of the Maryland Delights which Alicia sent me. The last item is a tin of Old Bay Seasoning, without which, I am told, no Southern kitchen is quite complete.
It is a mix of celery salt, mustard, red pepper, black pepper, bay leaves, cloves, allspice, ginger, mace, cardamom, cinnamon and paprika, very well balanced and somewhat spicy when you taste it as is. But if you look closely at the in...
"Maryland Delights, Act III : Old Bay Seasoning" continues »
April 29, 2004
Soupe de Carotte à la Menthe
[Mint Carrot Soup]
Have you ever noticed how un-photogenic soup is? Well, now you have! The very things that make soup tasty and comforting, all pureed chunks and blended veggies, make it somewhat messy close up.
In this case, I almost didn't post about the soup because I was unhappy about the picture. But then I decided that the dictatorship of beauty would not rule here, and that my soup very much deserved a post. As with pudding, you know wh...
"Soupe de Carotte à la Menthe" continues »
April 28, 2004
Crème de Calisson
On a recent Saturday morning, Marie-Laure, Ludo and I embarked on a large-scale cooking-toy shopping expedition, ostensibly to get Laurence a birthday present. It was their first time experiencing the magic of E.Dehillerin, A.Simon and Mora, and we had a grand time, which culminated in a delicious lunch at Oliopanevino, a tiny Italian restaurant a stone's throw from Dehillerin.
Among the absolute must-sees of the area is, of course, G.Detou. I...
"Crème de Calisson" continues »
April 27, 2004
Raspberry Rhubarb Grunt
On Sunday, we were invited to my sister Céline's place for lunch with my parents, and I offered to take care of the dessert. With the beautiful spring weather we've had lately, I felt like making something light and fruit-based. Rhubarb season has just begun and we are all big fans in my family, so that was the fruit of choice.
I looked around the web, and read good reviews about Nigella's rhubarb grunt. It sounded easy-breezy (but that's har...
"Raspberry Rhubarb Grunt" continues »
April 26, 2004
Deprived? Who, me?
One of the things that fascinated me about my workplace in the Silicon Valley was the very American profusion of food : the huge refrigerators in the kitchen were filled with every possible kind of soft drink (including those nasty nasty frappuccinos), the freezer was stocked with instant meals and frozen burritos (we're talking engineer food here), and the cabinets and shelves looked like a movie theater snack stand : chips, nuts, beef jerky, ...
"Deprived? Who, me?" continues »
April 24, 2004
Asparagus! Yay!
Let us rejoice, my friends, for asparagus season is upon us!
They are starting to appear on produce stalls, the really thick white ones, and the thinner pinkish white ones, and my favorite, the glorious green with purple hues, and their pretty pointy little heads, curling onto one side or the other.
Simplicity is key. I discard the tough ends, bending each stalk gently until it snaps at the natural limit of tenderness. And always, the creepi...
April 23, 2004
Brouillade de Truffe
[Truffled Scrambled Eggs]
The other day at lunchtime, I was on my own and starving. A glance in the fridge, and lunch rolled out before my eyes : I had one truffle left in its little jar, some eggs, fresh watercress, and fabulous walnut bread from the BoulangEpicier, which Patricia, the best neighbor in the whole wide world, had bought for me on her way home from work.
Upon closer inspection, the top of the truffle had grown a delicate little...
"Brouillade de Truffe" continues »
April 22, 2004
Strudel de Blettes
[Swiss Chard Strudel]
Last Saturday, I recruited a few dear friends to help me eat the Chocolate & Zucchini Cake I had baked : with Maxence away on a business trip, it was just me and that good-lookin' cake, and although I can always be trusted to do my fair share of the eating, that's exactly the problem. Plus, I needed opinions! So Ludo and Marie-Laure, and our next-door neighbors Stéphan and Patricia, were invited over for a little potluck ...
"Strudel de Blettes" continues »
April 21, 2004
Coffee and a Boggle
Last Saturday, it was my great pleasure to have two American friends over for a late morning cup of coffee. Ruth, a coworker from my California days, was visiting Paris with her partner Pia, and she had contacted me to know if I'd like to meet up. We had the loveliest time chatting together and catching up.
It should be said that Ruth and I have been through special times together : she and a few other coworkers (namely Marni, Geoffrey and Mar...
"Coffee and a Boggle" continues »
April 20, 2004
Maryland Delights, Act II : Baking Mixes
Last week I told you about the Chocolate Cremes that Alicia had sent me in her Foods From Maryland parcel. This parcel, neatly packed up in a large box of chicken bakes, also contained three boxes of assorted baking mixes.
We do have baking mixes in France of course (yup, got 'em about the same time as electricity, early last year), but they are mostly for French specialties : crêpes, madeleines, gâteau au chocolat, entremets, crème renversée....
"Maryland Delights, Act II : Baking Mixes" continues »
April 19, 2004
My Father's Vinaigrette
In my post about Pissaladière, I alluded to my father's signature vinaigrette. Such a teaser could not go by unnoticed, and many of you expressed an eager curiosity. The request for more information was passed on to my father, and I will now step aside, and let you read his reply :
Yes, perhaps the time has now come for the secret recipe of CDV ("Clotilde's Daddy's Vinaigrette") to be revealed to the astonished (and expectant) world. To be se...
"My Father's Vinaigrette" continues »
April 18, 2004
Chocolate & Zucchini Cake
Today is the third edition of the collaborative food blogging event "Is My Blog Burning?". The first edition, hosted by Alberto, was all about soup. The second edition, hosted by yours truly, had a tartine theme.
Today's event is hosted by the lovely Singaporean foodie Renée, and the theme is Cake Walk. As Renée explains, a cake walk is a sort of lottery organized at local fun fairs, in which the prizes are cakes baked and donated by people f...
"Chocolate & Zucchini Cake" continues »
April 17, 2004
Maryland Delights, Act I : Chocolate Cremes
After I posted about the American food items I sorely missed, C&Z reader Alicia, from Maryland, offered to do a little food swap with me. Me? Food? In the mail? I happily accepted. I received her package just last week, and will now, ladies and gentlemen, before your startled eyes, proceed to uncover its content, in three installments.
The first item was a package of chocolate cremes, made by Berger Cookies, a bakery founded in Baltimore in th...
"Maryland Delights, Act I : Chocolate Cremes" continues »
April 15, 2004
Tomates Mi-Séchées
[Semi-Dried Tomatoes]
Remember how I mentioned buying a bottle of balsamic vinegar and some coriander anchovy tapenade at the balsamic vinegar tasting the other day? Well, I lied.
I also got a little bag of semi-dried tomatoes, moist and plump.
They come in a sealed package which seems to protect them well because the best-by date is in June -- of 2005. The suggested uses include adding them to sandwiches, salads, pasta, risotto, stews, ter...
"Tomates Mi-Séchées" continues »
April 14, 2004
Pissaladière
Pissaladière is a specialty from Nice, in the South of France. It's an onion tart with black olives and anchovies, on a thin pizza-like dough. The name comes from "pissalat", a condiment made with pureed anchovies, cloves, thyme and bay leaves, which was spread on the tart before baking.
The name has taken on a somewhat looser meaning in my family, and we use it to mean any Mediterranean-style onion tart, not necessarily involving anchovies. M...
April 13, 2004
Hot Cross Buns
My family has always been very fond of British baked goods. Marks & Spencer's has sadly closed off all their French stores, but when it was still around [deep sigh of nostalgia], we were their most faithful customers for English muffins, crumpets, mince-meat pies and hot cross buns, to be enjoyed with tea in the afternoon.
Only recently did I find out that hot cross buns were a traditional Easter pastry. Since I was spending the week-end with ...
April 12, 2004
Punk Leek
It might have become apparent by now that leek is pretty high on my top-5 list of vegetables.
The playful way in which it hides lumps of dirt between its leaves, reminding you how freshly from the earth it comes ; the distinctive sound of the knife, cutting through the layers when you chop the whites ; the sweet oniony taste, so good it hardly needs any seasoning ; the soft, moist, velvety texture it takes on when you cook it over gentle heat...
April 11, 2004
Joyeuses Pâques!
In my family, we don't celebrate Easter in a religious way. Unless, of course, you consider a strong taste for chocolate to be a religion of sorts. Which I do.
My sister and I have received chocolate gifts from our parents for Easter every year since we were little. The traditional gift in France is a hollow chocolate shell, shaped like an egg, hen, duck, rabbit or bell, and filled with other confections : small pieces of chocolate shaped lik...
"Joyeuses Pâques!" continues »
April 9, 2004
Pounti
When we were at the Marché d'Aligre the other day, I noticed a charcuterie with a sign that said : "Ramenez votre pain et je réalise votre sandwich avec mes produits fermiers." ("Bring your own bread, I'll make you a sandwich with my farm products.") I thought the idea excellent : a truly outstanding sandwich is made of the best ingredients on the best bread, and it is quite rare to find a vendor who has both. I also liked the fact that this ch...
April 8, 2004
Goose Eggs and Truffles
Last Saturday, while we waited for the balsamic vinegar tasting to begin, Maxence and I seized the opportunity to explore the covered part of the Marché d'Aligre, where the tasting took place. The stands (butchers, cheese stores, charcuteries, bakeries, produce stalls...) are more upscale there than in the open-air area, and the products tend to be pricier, but the displays are sure tempting.
We browsed around the alleys and bought a few thing...
"Goose Eggs and Truffles" continues »
April 7, 2004
Lait Ribot
Lait ribot is a traditional fermented milk that has been made in Brittany for thousands of years, dating back to the Gauls. It is in fact fermented babeurre, or bas-beurre (litterally "low-butter"), which is the white liquid that remains after you've beaten cream to make butter. Ribotte, besides sounding cute, is an old word for churn, hence the name of the milk (laez ribod in Breton).
Because it was nutritious and cheap, it used to be widely ...
April 6, 2004
Sticky Toffee Pudding à l'Abricot
[Apricot Sticky Toffee Pudding]
This past Sunday afternoon, we had decided to throw a little surprise birthday party for my dear friend Laurence. This sounded like the perfect occasion to try and recreate my own sticky toffee pudding miracle.
Among the different recipes that I had dug out or that you kindly recommended, my favorite was the one by Jill Dupleix, in part because it involved way way way less butter than the others. While hers cal...
"Sticky Toffee Pudding à l'Abricot" continues »
April 5, 2004
A Taste of Balsamic Vinegar
Wine tasting? That is so yesterday, haven't you heard? Balsamic vinegar tasting is all the rage!
On Saturday afternoon, Maxence and I attended such a tasting, organized by the Bastille Slow Food convivium. It was held at Sur Les Quais, a spice and oil store in the covered area of the Marché d'Aligre. I've always been very fond of the taste of balsamic vinegar, but the wildly varying prices of what you find in stores are confusing, so I was de...
"A Taste of Balsamic Vinegar" continues »
April 4, 2004
Pink Buffet : More Pics
If you would like to see more of the pictures I took while preparing the Pink Buffet last week, here is a little pink gallery!...
"Pink Buffet : More Pics" continues »
April 3, 2004
Sticky Toffee Pudding
See this? Doesn't it look just scrumpalicious, nested in its little takeout box? See how the sticky caramel coating has rubbed off a bit on the right side, where the little pudding's shoulder was leaning, as I carried it home?
I had walked to Rose Bakery for lunch, armed with a magazine and a notebook, my personal treat when I'm home on a weekday. Usually, after I'm done with the yummy and copious lunch (an assortment of their salads, a main ...
"Sticky Toffee Pudding" continues »
April 2, 2004
Fruits Déguisés
[Dressed-up Fruit]
And what are fruits déguisés you ask? Most people would tell you that they are a traditional Christmas confection, in which dried fruits (dates and prunes mostly) have their pit replaced with a piece of brightly colored pâte d'amande (almond paste).
To me however, fruits déguisés are much more than that : they are one of my earliest culinary joys. When I was five, my kindergarten teacher had us make some as a gift for our ...
April 1, 2004
Pink Buffet!
Yesterday was an exciting, if exhausting, day : I went and helped my friend Keda Black, a fellow cook and writer, with the creation of a buffet for the opening of an art show, at a gallery named La Périphérie. This gallery is a really great place, roomy and bright, setup in a rehabilitated workshop just outside of Paris. The show features illustrations by Carlotta, an illustrator who works for French and Japanese magazines. The theme for the sh...