A guest was coming to dinner, a friend from the literary world. I didn’t want to have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen while he was here, yet wanted to produce a satisfying, palate-pleasing meal. What to do, what to do? After some considerable thinking, the solution appeared: Russian-style gravalax and beet-lamb’s lettuce salad followed by grilled guinea fowl, bulghur with red onion and mint, and sweet potato purée.
Boulgour aux oignons rouges / Bulghur with red onion and mint
Purée de patates douces / Sweet potato purée
The date was November 7. Without realizing it, I had concocted a menu that tipped its hat to the former USSR — on the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution! Most of the dishes were variations, with a French touch, on food served in Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. The exception was the sweet potato purée, which I never encountered there but which was on my mind with the approach of Thanksgiving. As was the bulghur dish, which pairs brilliantly with poultry of any kind. And everything could be prepared in advance, including the guinea fowl breasts, which I marinated in olive oil, garlic, cumin and ground coriander and popped into the oven while we were having the starter.
In this week’s main recipe, bulghur’s nutty flavor is enhanced by the addition of sautéd red onion rings and zesty fresh mint. It’s a dish I invented last summer and have since served many times, as it proved to be a crowd pleaser. Unlike tabbouleh salad, which uses bulghur but is served cold, this dish is best warm or at room temperature. Despite its humble nature, it may surprise you. A friend who came over during the July heatwave liked it so much that she insisted I post it on this site. Et voilà.
Moving on to the sweet potatoes, this is an ultrasimple recipe for a classic dish that is served every year in the United States in late November. But this succulent purée marries well with many dishes other than turkey and can be served throughout the autumn, or even throughout the year.
However, if you are thinking ahead to your Thanksgiving menu and would like to give it a French touch this year, you may also wish to try:
— Roast turkey, French style, a recipe kindly contributed by the three-star chef Georges Blanc, in which the turkey is stuffed with ground veal and pork flavored with thyme and walnuts and is served surrounded by roasted fresh figs;
— Pumpkin gratin, another Georges Blanc creation, in which the pumpkin is flavored with garlic, nutmeg and heavy cream and topped with grated Comté cheese;
— Pumpkin purée with parmesan, my own creation from a few years back;
— Sweet potatoes with herbs;
— Green beans, French style;
And for dessert:
— French apple tart;
— Pear tart with almond cream;
— Chestnut mousse.
Meantime, the Menus section has been updated for autumn, with new selections for everyday and weekend cuisine for all, and special pages for vegetarians and vegans.
Bon appétit, and happy cooking!
You can find quiche lorraine in virtually any bakery or deli in France, but it is even better when made at home. The rich filling of eggs, milk cream, bacon and cheese fluffs up in the oven to marry delightfully with a buttery homemade crust. Served with a crisp white and a salad of tender leaves alongside, it makes a fine lunch dish or a great starter at suppertime. If you cut it into little squares, you can also serve it with drinks at cocktail hour.
A salad of smoked fish makes a delightful lunch as the days grow cooler. In the salad pictured here, I used smoked mackerel, which is sold in France covered in crushed black pepper. Its tawny hues contrast nicely with the deep green of lamb’s lettuce and pale Belgian endive. Other options for the fish include smoked trout, smoked salmon or the perennial French favorite, smoked herring, a bistro classic that is popular here in the winter months.
oil. In my salad version, the herring is chopped and accompanied by greens. It’s a bit lighter and brighter, and can make a proper lunchtime meal.
When the days draw shorter, a warming dish like finocchio purée provides comfort. Yet it is not one of your heavy comfort foods. Light, with a delicate flavor, this purée marries well with all sorts of autumn dishes — meat, fish or poultry, grilled or lovingly simmered — and makes a spectacular pairing with game. It also makes a fine addition to a vegetarian meal. And the beauty is that the finocchio growing season is … all year round.
Sauté d’agneau is one of those great French classics that used to feature frequently on bistro menus, especially when the weather turned cool. These days this succulent lamb dish is harder to find in Paris restaurants, where current culinary fashion favors small plates of designer food. Nonetheless, it has been a personal favorite since I first tasted it many years ago at l’Entrepôt, an airy, veranda-style restaurant tucked away behind Montparnasse.
This tangy omelet hails from the French Basque country and is filled with the regional veggie dish known as piperade, a mixture of green peppers, tomatoes, onion, garlic and pepper slowly sautéed in olive oil until it reaches aromatic, spicy perfection. This is a good time of year to try it out, when peppers and tomatoes are at their prime. Unsuprisingly, the omelet is also known as omelette à la piperade. It makes a nice lunch or a light supper.
This is high season for French tomato tart, and the good news is that producing one is as easy as, well, pie. But there’s a secret ingredient without which this tart would lose its special French identity. No, I’m not talking about the garlic, thyme and olive oil that give French tomato tart the flavors of Provence. The secret ingredient from which the tart gets its zing is … Dijon mustard. Now as you may imagine there are many variations.
Fresh summer fruit piled into dessert cups with a splash of crème de cassis makes a lovely way to end a meal. Add a smattering of mint leaves, and you have a dish that is both sophisticated and simple to prepare. You can use whatever soft fruit happens to be available. For example, nectarines, fresh figs, raspberries and blueberries, as shown in the photo. Earlier this summer I used cherries, blueberries and peaches, and won applause.
This little gem of a recipe for chilled red pepper soup was inspired by a recent visit to one of my favorite Paris restaurants, Zebulon, where it was served as a surprise “palate teaser”, with a tiny savory biscuit and finely chopped black olives on top. There were only a few spoonfuls in the tiny soup cups, but — wow — did they pack a punch. The flavor is reminiscent of gazpacho, but more sophisticated. When I got home, I had to try to make it.
This is the time of year when I’m either in the country stoking up the barbecue or dreaming of being there. At the moment, as Paris swelters through its second heatwave of this young summer, I’m still dreaming. But that won’t prevent me from making grilled chicken on wooden skewers — au contraire. It’s a perfect dish for hot summer weather, even at home, as it can be prepared on the stovetop in a matter of minutes with minimal fuss.
