Clotilde's Favorites
Aged Gouda and Dried Pear Scones
Almond Croissants
Apricot Coffee Cake
Blueberry Coffee Cake
Blueberry Tart
Cacao & Zucchini Absorption Pasta
Canelés
Caramelized Chicken with Green Olives and Prunes
Cauliflower Gratin
Cherry Hazelnut Loaf Cake
Chocolate Chili Bites
Chocolate Frozen Yogurt
Croissant Religieuse Cupcake Wallpaper
Dinner at El Bulli
Easy Olive Oil Tart Crust
Elbow Macaroni with Comté Cheese and Baby Spinach
Flourless Orange and Ginger Cake
Flourless Poppy Seed Cake
Fregola Sarda with Zucchini and Pinenuts
Grated Carrot Salad with Avocado
Grated Carrots and Beets
Gratin Dauphinois (Potato Gratin)
Green Bean and Almond Soup
Green Pea Cilantro Spread
Green Tea and Red Bean (Matcha and Azuki) Cake Roll
Homemade Lärabars
Homemade Vanilla Extract
Japanese Inspired Quinoa
Lamb and Orange Khoresh Stew
Maple Pecan Ice Cream
Melt-in-Your-Mouth Chocolate Cake
Muhammara
Muriel's Chicken
Natural Starter Bread
Oeuf Cocotte
Orange and Rosemary Pork Tenderloin
Panzanella
Pistachio Gelato
Raspberry Dacquoise Entremets
Red Quinoa Salad with Bell Peppers and Pine Nuts
Roasted Eggplant and Yogurt Dip
Roasted Patty Pan Squash and Herbed Chickpeas
Rose and Chocolate Marshmallows
Saffron Mussels Mariniere
Squeeze Cookies (A Roasted Flour Experiment)
Strawberry Daifuku Mochi
Super Simple Nutella Ice Cream
Tips for a Green Kitchen
Warm Hokkaido Squash and White Bean Salad
Yogurt Cake
Zucchini Polenta Tart
September 8, 2009
Roasted Eggplant and Goat's Milk Yogurt Dip
A favorite from the archives, this post was originally published on September 22, 2008. When I recovered my kitchen after seven weeks (seven! weeks!) of renovation chaos -- and this was just to redo the bathroom, mind you -- the very first thing I made was a yogurt cake, to fortify us through our next mission: the meticulous cleaning of, well, t...
"Roasted Eggplant and Goat's Milk Yogurt Dip" continues »
August 11, 2009
Roasted Patty Pan Squash and Herbed Chickpeas
[Pâtissons rôtis et pois chiches aux herbes] The patty pan squash (in French: le pâtisson) is a member of the blended summer squash family. Shaped very much like a UFO with undulating edges -- each bump a tiny cockpit with an alien inside, presumably --, it can be conical or squat, and comes in shades of yellow, green, or white. The flesh inside...
"Roasted Patty Pan Squash and Herbed Chickpeas" continues »
July 28, 2009
Cherry Hazelnut Loaf Cake
[Cake Cerise Noisette] I had lunch with my friends Pascale and Caroline a couple of weeks ago, and afterward we followed Caroline back to her apartment so she could share samples of a quirky ingredient she'd just laid her hands on: hazelnut flour. I had initially thought she was referring to finely ground hazelnuts (hazelnut meal or poudre de n...
"Cherry Hazelnut Loaf Cake" continues »
July 7, 2009
Natural Starter Bread
[Pain au levain naturel] If you keep an eye on my Twitter feed or subscribe to the C&Z newsletter, you already know that I've been trying my hand at natural starter bread for the past two months. A natural starter, also called a sourdough starter, is a culture of wild yeasts and friendly bacteria that the baker keeps alive and thriving by feedi...
"Natural Starter Bread" continues »
June 23, 2009
Gratin Dauphinois (Potato Gratin)
As promised when we talked about potato gnocchi earlier this month, here is my recipe for gratin dauphinois, the king of potato side dishes, named after the former French province whence it originates. Before we begin, it is my duty to draw your attention to the fact that a proper gratin dauphinois does not involve cheese. No. It is a gloriously...
"Gratin Dauphinois (Potato Gratin)" continues »
June 16, 2009
Matcha and Azuki (Green Tea and Red Bean) Cake Roll
[Gâteau roulé matcha et azuki] The thing that happens when you buy a big pouch of anko (Japanese sweetened red bean paste) to make strawberry daifuku is that you're likely to run out of rice flour long before you use up all the azuki paste. I assume it keeps for weeks if well wrapped, but I didn't want to let it sit in the fridge for too long (...
"Matcha and Azuki (Green Tea and Red Bean) Cake Roll" continues »
June 2, 2009
Strawberry Daifuku Mochi
A few weeks ago, my friend Estérelle and I attended a mochi cooking class held at La Cocotte, a lovely little cookbook shop in Paris. Before we go any further, I think a semantics note is in order: strictly speaking, mochi is the name of a Japanese preparation of steamed glutinous rice that is pounded to form a sticky paste*. Mochi can be boiled...
"Strawberry Daifuku Mochi" continues »
May 26, 2009
Easy Olive Oil Tart Crust
As much as I love a good short crust pastry and as simple as it is to make (really, it is, try it sometime), I have recently become enamored with another way to make savory tart crusts, one that relies on whole wheat flour and olive oil. This dough is even easier to live with: it comes together by hand in minutes, calls for pantry ingredients I ...
"Easy Olive Oil Tart Crust" continues »
May 5, 2009
Homemade Lärabars
I have never been particularly drawn to energy bars and their spooky ingredients lists, but then I discovered the hugely popular Lärabars while in New York, and they won me over quickly. If you've yet to make their acquaintance, here's what you need to know: Lärabars (I just ignore the umlaut and say "larabar") are compact but tender energy bars...
"Homemade Lärabars" continues »
April 29, 2009
Tips for a Green Kitchen, Part II
As promised yesterday, when I announced the winners of the green kitchen tip contest, I have compiled a digest of the other submissions. I want to thank you all for taking the time to share your tips. It was an exciting feeling to have all 288 of them pour into my inbox throughout the day, proving yet again how much you care about these issues, an...
"Tips for a Green Kitchen, Part II" continues »
April 7, 2009
Lamb and Orange Khoresh
I know little about Persian cuisine. I do know it is a multifaceted one, that its flavors are refined and its roots run deep, but I have never been to an Iranian restaurant nor an Iranian home -- though now that I think about it, one of the Middle Eastern groceries we went to in California may have been Iranian -- so this Persian stew (that's wha...
"Lamb and Orange Khoresh" continues »
March 10, 2009
Peacamole
[Green Pea Cilantro Spread] If you've been invited to dinner at my house lately, the odds are high that you've been greeted with a glass of chilled white wine and a platter of multigrain crackers topped with this bright green spread. "Guacamole?" you may have asked. "No, peacamole!" I'll have responded, or rather, if you and I speak French toget...
February 25, 2009
Maple Pecan Ice Cream
I don't think of ice cream as a seasonal thing. Let me clarify: I do think of ice cream flavors as seasonal things, but ice cream, as a general and cardinal food group, is very much a year-round treat for me. To give you an example, I have just returned from Deauville in Normandy, wherein I attended the Omnivore Food Festival, a two-day event du...
"Maple Pecan Ice Cream" continues »
February 3, 2009
Homemade Vanilla Extract
The idea of a DIY vanilla extract has been floating around the food blog world for a little while. When I first read about the process, the instructions seemed so fastidious that I shrugged and clicked away. (This is, in passing, one of the challenges the recipe writer faces: providing the necessary dose of guidance, but avoiding instruction over...
"Homemade Vanilla Extract" continues »
January 27, 2009
Japanese-Inspired Quinoa
As I mentioned in the January newsletter and on this forum thread, one of my current aspirations is to learn more about Japanese cooking. I have worked on assembling a good pantry of essentials -- always the most daunting step when one tackles a new style of cuisine, I think -- and now the real fun has begun, as I teach myself the basics by foll...
"Japanese-Inspired Quinoa" continues »
January 6, 2009
Raspberry Dacquoise
It all started with a store-bought dessert that we tasted at a friend's house late last summer, which consisted in a light vanilla mousse garnished with raspberries and sandwiched between two layers of a thin, crisp, and lightly chewy almond cake. Everybody loved it, and I thought, hey, I think I could make something like that, too. You see, yea...
"Raspberry Dacquoise" continues »
December 9, 2008
Flourless Poppy Seed Cake
My oven and I are going through a rough patch and frankly, I don't think it can be fixed*. You see, it has been behaving in the most erratic manner this fall, and if there's one thing a cook doesn't need, it's an unreliable oven, one that takes forrrreeeeevvver to preheat, turns itself off mid-baking, refuses to turn itself back on, or burns the...
"Flourless Poppy Seed Cake" continues »
October 28, 2008
Chocolate Frozen Yogurt
An estimated 62% of my cooking begins with me lying in bed, thinking about some ingredient that needs using, and not being able to sleep because my mind is awhir, trying to devise rewarding ways to do so. These closed-eye sessions usually yield satisfactory results and, every once in a while, a plain fantastic one. I am counting this ice cream a...
"Chocolate Frozen Yogurt" continues »
October 21, 2008
Champagne and Saffron Mussels (or Not)
After posting a few thoughts on sustainable seafood and how each of us can make a difference, it grew apparent that one proactive way food bloggers can help, beyond spreading the word and trying to make responsible choices themselves, is to offer recipes featuring those varieties of fish or shellfish that are more eco-friendly. This happens to b...
"Champagne and Saffron Mussels (or Not)" continues »
October 7, 2008
Orange and Rosemary Pork Tenderloin
Why is it that no one ever told me about the pork tenderloin? Has everyone been cooking pork tenderloin all this time, licking their lips and giggling covertly as I fought to make other cuts palatable, trying my best to prevent them from turning out dry, and grey? Oh, it's not that I haven't been happy with my pork experiments, not at all. Loo...
"Orange and Rosemary Pork Tenderloin" continues »
June 30, 2008
Pistachio Gelato
When it comes to ice cream, I am hopelessly predictable. As far as I'm concerned, if the ice cream parlor, glacier, or gelateria offers dark chocolate, pistachio, and/or yogurt, he might as well not have any other flavor: I am blind to them. I always go through the motions of hesitation, though (I scratch my temple, chew my lower lip, and hum l...
"Pistachio Gelato" continues »
May 10, 2008
Edible Wallpapers
Inspired by the brush tutorials that Delphine has published on her ever delightful blog, I have whiled away a few air travel hours drawing three edible wallpapers* to be used as a background on your computer desktop**. (Please note that these backgrounds are for personal use only and not for republishing. If you wish to use them on your website,...
"Edible Wallpapers" continues »
April 14, 2008
Squeeze Cookies (A Roasted Flour Experiment)
Among the many things I learned during that memorable conference on molecular gastronomy, one idea has been whirling around my brain with particular insistence since then, and it is that of farine torréfiée*, or roasted flour. It was introduced to us by way of a truism: raw flour is bland, browned flour isn't. This is why we bother to make roux,...
"Squeeze Cookies (A Roasted Flour Experiment)" continues »
March 12, 2008
Carottes et Betteraves Râpées
[Grated Carrots and Beets] I used to think winter produce was drab, and that the cook's only option was to wait the cold months out, squinting into the distance, longing for asparagus and strawberries to appear ("Anne, Sister Anne, do you see nothing coming?"). Now I can't imagine how I could ever be so blind: what of mâche and winter squash, w...
"Carottes et Betteraves Râpées" continues »
February 13, 2008
Super Simple Nutella Ice Cream
My sister's husband has a passion for Nutella. When Ferrero put out a 40th-anniversary Nutella jar* of woolly mammoth** proportions, Christian bought one and actually spooned his way through it. Not in one sitting, admittedly, but still. I love my brother-in-law dearly, so when he and my sister came to dinner a few weeks ago, I thought I'd treat...
"Super Simple Nutella Ice Cream" continues »
February 6, 2008
Salade Tiède de Potimarron et Haricots Blancs
[Warm Hokkaido Squash and White Bean Salad] I write this from a café where I like to go and get some work done when I find it difficult to concentrate at home. Today, however, an unforeseen challenge has materialized on my path. Sitting a few tables from mine are two living clichés: a blond, middle-aged, French casting director and a young, crag...
"Salade Tiède de Potimarron et Haricots Blancs" continues »
January 31, 2008
Guimauve à la Rose et au Chocolat
[Rose and Chocolate Marshmallows] Guimauve is the stuff clouds are made of, it has the soft and cottony flavor of childhood, and resistance is futile when I spot the pretty pastel cubes in pastry shops. Rarely am I disappointed, but I do have to mention that one recent time when I bought an assortment from Pain de Sucre and got mostly weirdo f...
"Guimauve à la Rose et au Chocolat" continues »
December 5, 2007
Muhammara
[Bell Pepper Spread with Walnuts and Cashews] Sometimes, when I have a minute, I sit back and think about the world of food, how vast it is, and how many rivers, hills, and valleys remain uncharted to me: I know so little, and have so much yet to learn. I don't find the prospect overwhelming, far from it. I find it encouraging, I find it promisi...
September 4, 2007
Coquillettes au Comté et Pousses d'Epinard
[Elbow Macaroni with Comté Cheese and Baby Spinach] A lot can be learned about your cooking self by considering what you eat when you're on your own. I have friends who are simply not hungry when they're alone, who forget to eat (who what?), who don't consider it a real meal if there's no dining companion, or -- and I am not making this up -- wh...
"Coquillettes au Comté et Pousses d'Epinard" continues »
August 1, 2007
Birthday Chicken
I normally host a big birthday bash every year, or at least that's what I've done the past four summers, inviting friends, old and new, to celebrate the fact that it is late July and the weather is nice and Paris is empty and I'm a year wiser. But this time, no. I was a little bummed to break from this young tradition, for I really do enjoy the...
"Birthday Chicken" continues »
July 3, 2007
Salade de Quinoa Rouge, Poivrons et Pignons
[Red Quinoa Salad with Bell Peppers and Pine Nuts] I am just a few days -- three, to be terrifyingly exact -- away from delivering the manuscript for my second book*, and although it is nowhere near as stressful a time as it was for my first (why do I sound like a young mother all of a sudden?), it is still a time of waking up bright and early a...
"Salade de Quinoa Rouge, Poivrons et Pignons" continues »
April 5, 2007
Carottes Rapées à l'Avocat
[Grated Carrot Salad with Avocado] As subscribers to the Chocolate & Zucchini newsletter already know, a French publisher has purchased the rights to my very-soon-to-be-published cookbook. And because the tone of writing is very personal, I've asked to translate my own words: the recipes themselves are taken care of by a pro, while I translate -...
"Carottes Rapées à l'Avocat" continues »
January 23, 2007
Gratin de Chou-Fleur
[Cauliflower Gratin] Ever since my casual mention of my mother's cauliflower gratin a few weeks ago, requests for the recipe have been steadily pouring into my inbox. A silent protest was even organized at the foot of my apartment building the other day, with eager, apron-clad cooks walking in circles and brandishing signs that read, "Cauliflowe...
"Gratin de Chou-Fleur" continues »
November 14, 2006
Soupe de Haricots Verts aux Amandes
[Green Bean and Almond Soup] None of my friends need to be reminded how I feel about Rose Bakery, their salad plates, their assortment of British goods (including Neal's Yard cheeses), and their superb sweets that one simply must try and reproduce at home. "Where should we go for lunch in your neighborhood?" they ask. "I like Rose Bakery," I rep...
"Soupe de Haricots Verts aux Amandes" continues »
November 10, 2006
Scones au Gouda Vieux et Poires Séchées
[Aged Gouda and Dried Pear Scones] Before we begin, I would like to address the scone/biscuit question. To Americans, a biscuit is the hand-held version of a quick bread, leavened with baking powder. Usually round and savory, the American biscuit may be served in place of bread to accompany a main course, especially if said main course involves ...
"Scones au Gouda Vieux et Poires Séchées" continues »
October 3, 2006
Le Poulet de Muriel
Cookbook writing guidelines tell you that naming a recipe after someone is not a good idea: it doesn't tell the reader much about the ingredients or the process, the reader doesn't know this person, and frankly, the reader doesn't really care. This is all true of course, but I have a certain fondness for those recipes that sound like they were fo...
"Le Poulet de Muriel" continues »
August 18, 2006
Dinner at El Bulli
I remember reading about El Bulli four or five years ago in the French newspaper Le Monde. I remember the yearning, and I remember the pang that followed closely: considering the small number of guests that the restaurant could accommodate each season, the dream seemed out of reach. But a few years later, I learned from a well-informed friend tha...
"Dinner at El Bulli" continues »
May 28, 2006
Cacao & Zucchini Absorption Pasta
Chose promise, chose due*, here is my take on absorption pasta, or risotto-style pasta. The idea of this technique is to coat the pasta with a little olive oil, add just enough liquids to cover, and cook until desired tenderness. According to Virka -- who read it in the Italian paper La Reppublica so it simply must be true -- this cooking techniq...
"Cacao & Zucchini Absorption Pasta" continues »
March 6, 2006
Croissants aux Amandes
[Almond Croissants] A couple of weeks ago, as I was writing about brunches and the possibility of leftover croissants, I gave a passing mention to croissants aux amandes. Such a teaser could not go unnoticed: I received a few requests for instructions, and promised I'd share them as soon as I had a picture to illustrate the recipe. You will fin...
"Croissants aux Amandes" continues »
October 12, 2005
Gâteau au Yaourt
[Yogurt Cake] As I've mentioned before, Maxence is a big advocate of the adage "if it ain't broke don't fix it". In other words, when a classic recipe is fabulous, don't meddle with it, and just do what you're told. Obviously I have trouble following that piece of advice, and more often than not I'll surrender to the urge and tweak a little some...
"Gâteau au Yaourt" continues »
October 3, 2005
Canelés
I tasted my first canelé some seven years ago, at Eric Kayser's boulangerie on rue Monge. Maxence had a friend who lived nearby, they often worked on school projects together, and whenever they felt like a break and a snack, this is where they would go. Maxence adored their canelés, ordered them often, and made me try them. Delicious. Simply del...
July 25, 2005
Panzanella
Authenticity can be a fine line to tread when it comes to cooking. Dishes and recipes originate in certain parts of the world and are often deeply rooted in local traditions. But then people emigrate, they travel, they adopt, they adapt, they improvise, and the same dish gets recreated in a different kitchen at a different time, with the same nam...
October 11, 2004
Chocolate Chili Bites
On Saturday night, we had the pleasure of attending the fourth edition of the Paris Potluck, hosted by Alisa and her husband Jean-Yves. This time around, Alisa had suggested that we follow a theme : no more random assortment of everyone's current food obessions! And as she (and I and pretty much everyone else) had been suffering from terrible Mex...
"Chocolate Chili Bites" continues »
October 5, 2004
Fregola Sarda with Zucchini and Pinenuts
On a night of ravenous hunger, decide that what you want is something warm soft and tasty with a little crunch, to be eaten in a bowl with a spoon, curled up on the couch and reading a magazine. No need to forage through your kitchen cabinets, you know precisely what will hit the spot. Wash and slice three zucchini thinly with your magnificent...
"Fregola Sarda with Zucchini and Pinenuts" continues »
September 10, 2004
Coffee Cake à la Myrtille
[Blueberry Coffee Cake] At La Pommeraie, the fruit farm where we picked a large amount of blueberries earlier this week, they gave out little leaflets about the different kinds of fruit they grow, giving out instructions on how to keep them, and a few, wonderfully straightforward recipes -- tarts and compotes, clafoutis and jams. This is how I l...
"Coffee Cake à la Myrtille" continues »
September 4, 2004
Zucchini Polenta Tart
I have a particular soft spot for polenta and anything cornmeal. Unfortunately, they are not at all common in France : I have occasionally seen polenta served at restaurants (and I will reliably dart onto any dish that mentions it as a component, especially if it claims to be croustillante), but it is rather hard to find in French food stores. ...
"Zucchini Polenta Tart" continues »
July 16, 2004
Tarte aux Myrtilles
[Blueberry Tart] Blueberries are by far my favorite berry, and this has been true for as long as I can remember. Something about their color (blue), their size (tiny), and their taste (tart and sweet) really appeals to me. As luck would have it, much like blackcurrant in Burgundy, blueberries are the emblematic berry in the Vosges, where they gr...
"Tarte aux Myrtilles" continues »
July 15, 2004
Coffee Cake à l'Abricot
[Apricot Coffee Cake] I am currently spending a few days with my family in the Vosges, a mountain range in the East of France where my parents have a vacation house. One of the great pleasures of being there, besides enjoying the garden, taking walks up the mountain, and sleeping soundly in the perfect quiet, is baking with my mother. This is so...
"Coffee Cake à l'Abricot" continues »
February 19, 2004
Gâteau à l'Orange et au Gingembre
[Flourless Orange and Ginger Cake] This is another cake I baked for our Goûter de Cousins last Sunday. I tasted my first flourless orange cake about a year ago at Rose Bakery, and absolutely loved it. I had tried to reproduce it then, and had made an Orange and Poppyseed version, adapting a recipe found on the web. It was really good - the orang...
"Gâteau à l'Orange et au Gingembre" continues »
December 11, 2003
Oeuf Cocotte
When I was 9 years old, I was in the last year of primary school while my sister was in junior high. On Wednesdays, I didn't have class, but she did, and my parents considered us old enough to be home without a nanny, so I would make my own lunch. Maybe my memory fails me, but I seem to remember that this involved a lot of canned beef ravioli, wa...
October 17, 2003
Melt-in-Your-Mouth Chocolate Cake
Yesterday we had a small party at my office to celebrate my company's fifth anniversary, and our pendaison de crémaillère, which is French for a housewarming party. Une crémaillère is a trammel, i.e. the metal adjustable hook that was used to hang pots in the fireplace in the days of yore, and the hanging (pendaison) of this essential piece of eq...
"Melt-in-Your-Mouth Chocolate Cake" continues »