Starters Archive

December 28, 2005

Tartelettes de Saint-Jacques à la Mangue

[Scallop Mango Tartlet] What do you mean, you're still trying to recover from the Christmas celebrations? Come on, New Year's Eve is just around the corner, time to hit the ground running and plan for it! If you intend to host a little dinner party but are still scratching your head about the menu, stop it: it's bad for your scalp, and my late...

"Tartelettes de Saint-Jacques à la Mangue" continues »

August 3, 2005

Ricotta Maison

[Homemade Ricotta] The minute I read Heidi's post about making your own ricotta and her comment that "this ricotta tastes and smells like the milk it is made from so use the best and freshest dairy you can find", I instantly thought what a perfect use it would be for the bottle of raw milk that Christoph and Susanne gave me for my birthday as pa...

"Ricotta Maison" continues »

June 1, 2005

Mille-feuille Artichaut et Chèvre

And today, I'd like to invite you to hop on over to NPR.org for my new Kitchen Window column! What you will find this time is a recipe for an Artichoke and Goat-Cheese Mille-Feuille -- a tasty, fun-to-make and elegant starter for your next dinner party... (Previous Kitchen Window pieces: - Asparagus Confit with Almonds and Rosemary, - Chocolate ...

"Mille-feuille Artichaut et Chèvre" continues »

May 30, 2005

Salade de Concombre au Crabe

[Crab and Cucumber Salad] Paris went through a miniature heatwave last week -- it certainly felt nice to take the skirts, tank tops and strappy sandals out of their winter residence -- and lunchtime on Saturday found me craving for something easy and fresh. The refrigerator was in dire need of replenishing, not exactly empty but certainly devo...

"Salade de Concombre au Crabe" continues »

December 11, 2004

Leek and Apricot Strudel with Pinenuts

Amongst the many riches Chocolate & Zucchini has brought me, I think it is safe to say that new friends are the most precious. In particular, a small group of us here in Paris has started gathering around potluck dinners every month or so. Some of us are bloggers, some of us are readers, all of us are enthusiastic cooks and eaters. The potlucks a...

"Leek and Apricot Strudel with Pinenuts" continues »

October 24, 2004

Pounti Auvergnat (IMBB9)

I was particularly enthused, a few weeks ago, to read that Derrick was hosting the 9th edition of Is My Blog Burning? and that the theme he had set was terrines. Reason number one : Derrick The Talented is one of my absolute favorite food bloggers, I am always in awe of his uncompromising approach and his ambitious endeavours. His was among th...

"Pounti Auvergnat (IMBB9)" continues »

October 14, 2004

Salade de Sarrasin au Pain d'Epice

[Buckwheat and Gingerbread Salad] Buckwheat (sarrasin in French) has always occupied a very special place in the "cereal" section of my heart -- no doubt because of the fabulous galettes de sarrasin (savory crepes) we used to eat in Brittany. It is a cereal that's seldom used in France (except in its flour form for said galettes), possibly bec...

"Salade de Sarrasin au Pain d'Epice" continues »

September 24, 2004

Petites Tomates au Pecorino

[Plum Tomatoes with Pecorino] The last tasty plum tomatoes of the season, a piece of pecorino cheese your parents brought back from their Florence getaway (oh how well they know you), five minutes of preparation, and here's a pretty and tasty little appetizer to bring to your neighbor-friends' place when invited for the apéro (pre-dinner drink)....

"Petites Tomates au Pecorino" continues »

August 10, 2004

Clafoutis au Bacon et au Cantal

[Bacon and Cantal Cheese Clafoutis] Clafoutis is originally a fruit dessert from the Limousin, a region roughly in the center of France (and yes, I checked, as I am direly geographically challenged). Let me go ahead and open a parenthesis here. Limousin is renowned in part for its cattle breed, a milk-chocolate cow called la vache limousine, a...

"Clafoutis au Bacon et au Cantal" continues »

August 7, 2004

Terrine de Viande à la Ricotta

[Ricotta Meat Terrine] I have a file of recipes I've clipped out from the numerous cooking magazines I read. When I'm trying to come up with a menu, this is my number one source of inspiration : I like leafing idly through the colorful pieces of paper in all shapes and sizes, I like the patchwork pattern they form, and how as a whole they reflec...

"Terrine de Viande à la Ricotta" continues »

May 31, 2004

Cuisses de Grenouille aux Herbes

[Herbed Frogs' Legs] A lot of the things the French are notorious for eating, like frogs' legs or snails, kidneys or horse meat, aren't really that common in everyday food. In the case of frogs' legs, I personally tasted them for the first time just a year ago, in a three-star restaurant no less, during a week-end getaway in the Perigord. And t...

"Cuisses de Grenouille aux Herbes" continues »

March 7, 2004

Tartine Chèvre et Pousses (IMBB2)

[Goat Cheese and Sprouted Seeds Tartine] And today is the day of the Tartine Edition of the world famous Is My Blog Burning? distributed blogging event! Please meet the tartine I made as my contribution : a tartine with goat cheese, ham and cherry tomato jam, decorated with sprouted seeds and served on a bed of watercress. As with most tartine...

"Tartine Chèvre et Pousses (IMBB2)" continues »

March 1, 2004

Salade Tiède de Charlottes

[Warm Potato Salad] The other day, when my Campanier basket included a bag of Charlottes, Jackie mentioned that her favorite use for these small potatoes, tender-fleshed and sweet, was a warm potato salad. This stuck in my mind so much that I couldn't think, for the life of me, what else any one could possibly choose to make with these beauties....

"Salade Tiède de Charlottes" continues »

February 5, 2004

Salade Figue et Poire à la Bresaola

[Fig and Pear Salad with Bresaola] While planning the menu for our Saturday night dinner party, I realized I hardly ever serve salad as a first course. I'll often use salad to accompany the star item, like a tartlet or a bruschetta or a mousse or a slice of terrine or what-have-you, but it is rarely a salad in its own right. I'm sorry. I guess ...

"Salade Figue et Poire à la Bresaola" continues »

December 30, 2003

Crumble de Courgettes aux Champignons

[Zucchini and Mushroom Crumble] On Christmas day, Maxence and his mother joined us for lunch at my parents'. My mother and I cooked for this meal too, preparing most of it the day before. As a first course, we served a Zucchini and Mushroom Crumble, a recipe we had come up with a week before, during our Christmas-menu-brainstorming session. Ela...

"Crumble de Courgettes aux Champignons" continues »

December 21, 2003

Mousse de Chèvre Frais à la Confiture de Tomate Cerise, Chips de Lard

[Fresh Goat Cheese Mousse with Cherry Tomato Jam and Bacon Chips] Yesterday, we had two of Maxence's oldest friends, Baptiste and Jérémie, over for dinner. The occasion was to finally open the bottle of St Julien that Baptiste had given us a while ago, a 1996 Sarget du Château Gruaud-Larose. As I have done in the past, I will tell you about the ...

"Mousse de Chèvre Frais à la Confiture de Tomate Cerise, Chips de Lard" continues »

December 17, 2003

Bruschetta

I remember very well the first bruschetta I ever had, served at the San Francisco vegetarian restaurant "Herbivore". We had arrived in the US about two months before, it was the night of my 21st birthday, we were with our friend Jérémie, and after dinner we went to see Arling & Cameron play. The barman wouldn't give me a free drink even consideri...

"Bruschetta" continues »

December 7, 2003

Petits Rouleaux d'Aubergine Farcis

[Stuffed Eggplant Mini-Rolls] Last night, Maxence and I threw a little dinner-party for my two dear friends, Marie-Laure and Laurence, and their respective boyfriends, Ludovic and Jean-Christophe. Over the next few days, I will post the menu for this dinner... You can see us pictured here in our living-room : from left to right, Marie-Laure, L...

"Petits Rouleaux d'Aubergine Farcis" continues »

November 13, 2003

Oursins From Outer Space

Or : Maxence the Fearless Eater Maxence loves sushi. It is hard for him to decide which type is his favorite (I know, I asked), but it could very well be Uni, sea urchin sushi, which is somewhat hard to find in France. So when we spotted sea urchins at the rue Lepic fish market (which we don't like very much apart from the good shellfish selecti...

"Oursins From Outer Space" continues »

November 9, 2003

Petits Gris à la Bourguignonne

Last week, Maxence and I were at the Poissonnerie Bleue, the fish market at the bottom of the rue des Martyrs, a.k.a. fish lover's paradise : they have a very wide and very tempting selection of sea food. It is always pretty crowded, but the service is friendly and fast. As we were standing in line to pay, we noticed they also sold frozen garlic ...

"Petits Gris à la Bourguignonne" continues »