Tarte à la rhubarbe et aux pêches

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Meg

rhubarb peach tart1They say necessity is the mother of invention — and that goes a long way toward explaining the origin of this rhubarb-peach tart. Here’s what happened. It’s a great year for rhubarb here in France, and I’ve been bringing stalks of it back with me from my garden in the country. Friends invited me to dinner and I offered to bring a rhubarb tart. But when I went to make it, I discovered there wasn’t enough rhubarb to fill the tart shell. What to do? I had some peaches, so I added them — et voilà. Applause all around when I served the tart. By the way, this recipe is dedicated to the memory of Frank Zappa.

Tarte à la rhubarbe et aux pêches / Rhubarb tart with peaches

Now that rhubarb is flourishing, the red currants and cherries are starting to ripen. Either would make a fine substitute for peaches if you prefer. As I was reminded recently, rhubarb is more commonly paired in tarts with strawberries — in the United States. Over here in France, that would be an unlikely combination. I’ve never seen cooked strawberries in a French tart, probably because they tend to get soft and release a lot of juice.

A classic French strawberry tart has a crisp shell, a vanilla cream, fresh berries standing tall, and a bright red glaze. It’s similar to the recipe for raspberry tart that is already on this site. Both are absolutely perfect in early summer, if you feel like taking the time to produce an elegant and beautiful dessert. But they are a bit more complex than today’s rhubarb-peach confection — which is surprisingly quick to prepare. As we celebrate the summer solstice, it makes a fine tribute to the lazy, hazy days to come. Happy cooking!

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Petits pois et haricots verts en salad

Posted on June 14, 2014 by Meg

pea bean salad3The use of flowers in French cuisine used to be a relative rarity, but these days it is less unusual — if you encounter a creative cook — to find nasturtiums in a salad or violets on a cocktail canapé. This site has already featured a couple of recipes with flowers: ricotta with lavender and plums and, on Wednesday, strawberry and rose petal jam. We seem to be on a roll, so why not try this early summer salad decorated with chives in blossom?

Petits pois et haricots verts en salade / Early summer salad with fresh peas and green beans

This bright green ode to summer is not just lovely to behold — it’s also a palate-teaser. Great as a first course, or on the side. And not to worry if you cannot find flowering chives. You can add another edible blossom as a garnish, or not, and use plain chives.

Now then. You are perhaps wondering why this recipe is a day late. I must apologize, but there’s a good reason. Art.

I was so excited yesterday to head out to the wonderful Margaret Dyer’s annual pastel drawing class that I simply forgot to blog before driving to Fontaine-Fourches, where the class is held. That charming village lies about an hour and a half east of Paris — theoretically. But we are in the grips of a train strike over here in France. Which means that everybody and their dog is using a car and the roads are totally jammed. I made it in just over 2 hours, did 3 drawings and it may take me 4 days to recover. I’m going back on Monday for a second session, and if any of the drawings turn out well enough I’ll give you a peek next week. In the meantime, happy cooking.

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Confiture aux fraises et pétales de roses

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Meg

strawberry and rose petalCan you imagine a more sensual tribute to spring than jam made of strawberries and rose petals? And the best thing about it is that you can open a jar in the deep midwinter and feel transported back to June. This delightful concoction comes to The Everyday French Chef from Lindy Sinclair, a master gardener and fabulous cook who divides her time between the rugged Ardèche region of southern France and London. It is this site’s first guest recipe.

Confiture aux fraises et pétales de roses / Strawberry and rose petal jam

Lindy and I first met in Moscow, where she had arrived from Australia to work as a journalist in the heady days just before the breakup of the Soviet Union. A versatile writer and reporter with an eye for the offbeat, she also wrote a regular cooking column for the newspaper I edited, The Moscow Times. In due course those columns were collected into Lindy’s first cookbook, The Wistful Gourmet (foodies were always wistful in Moscow in those days because ingredients were so hard to get hold of).

I am proud to have had a role in one of Lindy’s Moscow recipes. It was early spring and Lindy and I had been invited to the dacha of an acquaintance. When we went into his yard, we nearly tripped over the hundreds of huge dandelions growing in the grass. ‘Let’s make a dandelion salad!’ said I, and Lindy helped me gather up the lush leaves. We found some bacon (don’t remember how), made a vinaigrette and feasted on the salad that evening. One of these days I’ll give you the recipe for that kind of salad.

In the meantime, if you have access to roses, I highly recommend that you try this jam. It’s to die for. I know because Lindy served some to my daughter and me a couple summers ago when we made our way up the twisting road to her beautiful house and garden on a mountainside overlooking a valley. The countryside is wooded and hilly with spectacular granite outcrops and lush farmland. ‘This is chestnut and goat cheese country,’ says Lindy. ‘Perfect if you like hot summers but cold winters. And you get to play farmer in la France profonde (deepest France) but live only an hour’s drive from the cities on the Rhône.’

If you’d like to see more about Lindy, check out her web site, Fruitful Research. I’ll be back on Friday with my regular post. Until then, happy cooking!

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Poulet au miel et au thym

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Meg

chicken honey thyme1There’s something slightly wild about this chicken infused with honey, thyme and garlic. A smidgen of cumin adds a touch of the exotic. Just thinking about it sends me on a memory trip down to the Mediterranean, where thyme grows sprawling over the hills. Now that summer is nearly upon us (those of us in the northern hemisphere, that is), treat yourself to this flavorful dish, which is remarkably quick and easy to prepare.

Poulet au miel et au thym / Chicken with honey and thyme

You will of course get best results if you use a free-range chicken. The flavor is denser, and the bird healthier. I realized to what extent this is true in a back-handed way when my neighbor in the country, who raises battery chickens, told me about her line of work. Every three months she receives 10,000 baby chicks. She raises them in an enclosed space, each in its own cage, until they get large enough to sell. Then somebody comes to collect them for their trip to the slaughterhouse. I am very fond of this neighbor, but find the process to be absolutely appalling. Free-range chickens, on the other hand, wander freely about the farmyard and may eat what they find out there. Organic chickens, too.

On a different front, at some point over the next week I will be offering you my first guest post. It’s strawberry and rose petal jam, courtesy of Lindy Sinclair, an Australian friend with a fabulous place down in the rugged Ardèche region of France. She is a fantastic gardener and makes a fantastic jam. I know, because we had the pleasure of tasting it a while back. So that’s something to look forward to. In the meantime, happy cooking!

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Velouté de courgettes épicé

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Meg

zucchini soup1This zingy zucchini soup is a family favorite — healthy and incredibly easy to make. Okay, it’s not really zucchini season yet but were gearing up for summer here in Paris, especially on sunny days like today. And to be honest, thanks to greenhouses and globalization, we can get zucchini all year round, from Morocco in the winter, Spain in late spring and France throughout the summer and fall. Piping hot in winter, chilled in summer, this soup makes a perfect starter — or main course for a light meal, accompanied by a salad.

Velouté de courgettes épicé / Spicy zucchini soup

Looking ahead to my favorite time of year, when spring segues to summer and the days stretch out to 11 p.m. (Paris is as far north as Montreal), I have more warm-weather recipes coming your way in the weeks ahead, including barbecue specials. In the meantime, I’d like to share a few items from friends that have appeared in the last week.

If you haven’t yet read Ann Mah’s Mastering in the Art of French Eating, a tour de France of great cuisine with a touching personal story as backdrop, take a look at her New York Times article on her travels through France last summer to taste five signature dishes from Brittany, Lyon, Languedoc-Roussillon, Provence and Alsace. I met Ann in Paris after she fell in love with a friend who had worked with me at The Moscow Times in the early 1990s.

Ann’s article was followed, again in The New York Times, by Liesl Schillinger’s delightful memories of her childhood days in with a farm family in central France. I met Liesl, also in Moscow in the 1990s, when her mother and I became friends. Liesl is now a writer and hot literary critic for the New York Times Book Review and other top publications.

Finally, a new friend, Jonell Galloway, is offering a 4-day workshop in the food and wine of the Beauce region and the Loire Valley in September. A good way to see a lovely part of this country and learn about its culinary traditions and its vineyards. Jonell and I connected via our web sites — I love her Rambling Epicure, and she appreciates The Everyday French Chef. One of her many interests is food art. Check it out.

And in the meantime, happy cooking!

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Crêpes aux fraises

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Meg

strawberry crepes1I spent years looking for a good crepe recipe until my daughter finally presented me with one. She found it in a French children’s cookbook — and indeed, once you get the hang of it, preparing crepes is child’s play. The ingredients couldn’t be simpler: flour, an egg, milk and a little vanilla. But the proportions, ah the proportions! Too much egg will turn your crepe into an omelet. Some French crepe recipes call for water instead of milk, and the resulting pancake tastes like cardboard. These strawberry crepes, in contrast, are tender and flavorful, a delightful concoction for spring.

Crêpes aux fraises / Strawberry crepes

As you may know if you live in France, but for the benefit of those who don’t, dessert crepes and savory crepes are made here with different kinds of flour. White wheat flour is used for the dessert variety given in this recipe, while buckwheat flour is used for savory crepes. Buckwheat (which, by the way, is gluten free) is known in French as blé noir or, more commonly, sarrasin. The word — Saracen in English — was used in the Middle Ages to denote Muslims from Arabia and, later, the Moors who migrated from North Africa to Spain and then into France. Darker complexioned than Europeans, they lent their name to buckwheat and the flour and crepes derived from it.

Now then. I’d like to give hearty thanks to all of you who responded to my call for ideas about a possible Everyday French Chef cookbook (you can see the replies at the bottom of my previous post). The consensus seems to be a book on modern everyday French cuisine organized in a seasonal way. I love that idea! Thank you. Now I’ll just have to (pardon the expression) carve out enough time to write it. In the meantime, happy cooking.

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Tapenade

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Meg

The very thought of this flavor-packed spread evokes gnarled olive groves and thyme growing wild by the side of the road in southern France, where tapenade originated. Ubiquitous in Provence, it is usually made with black olives, but green olives are sometimes used. It may be made with garlic or without, with a dash of cognac or none. You can serve it on toast or as a dip at cocktail hour, and it also works well as a sauce for fish.

Tapenade / Black olive spread from Provence

Now some news. I was approached this week by an American book publisher about possibly doing a cookbook for their series. The up-side was that I would finally have accomplished my dream of publishing a recipe book. One down-side was that it would not be The Everyday French Chef Cookbook, but would bear a different title with little reference made to this site. The other down-side was that they needed the material by mid-July — 300 recipes and 150 sidebars! And photos too. That appeared to me to be a superhuman task, and in the end we decided we were not a perfect fit.

Nonetheless, this experience fired me up again for the idea of doing a cookbook. Certainly not by mid-July, but maybe in the year ahead. And once again, I’d like to ask for your feedback. Would you prefer an all-encompassing book on French cuisine à la Julia Child, but modernized and simplified? Or would you rather see a series of smaller books on specific categories of food — soups, vegetables, desserts, etc. — or perhaps four volumes on seasonal cooking? I can’t really pay you for this, but I’d like to offer a free cooking lesson to anyone who replies — next time you come to Paris. In the meantime, happy cooking!

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Bar à l’aïoli

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Meg

sea bass aioli2Sea bass, variously known in France as bar (in the north) and loup (in the south), is highly prized because of its delicate flavor and succulent flesh. It is often grilled with fennel stalks over grapevine cuttings during barbecue season. At other times of year, it may be oven-roasted and served with aïoli, southern France’s garlicky take on homemade mayonnaise. Surround it with vegetables, and you have a ready-made main course.

Bar à l’aïoli / Sea bass with garlic mayonnaise

This dish is a variation on le grand aïoli, another full course meal with vegetables and fish, generally cod, as well as eggs, olives, tomatoes and chick peas. Both of these dishes may be served warm or at room temperature, but personally I prefer my sea bass nice and hot. Total cooking time is about half an hour. In the recipe, I also explain how to bone and fillet a fish, French-style. No video on this yet, but maybe one of these days…

Meantime, I had dinner last night with a couple of visiting American friends at one of my favorite restaurants, Le Repaire de Cartouche, where the chef Rodolphe Paquin has just redecorated. Imagine my surprise when my friend Bob announced he had become a vegan. He’s an athletic all-American type guy from Iowa. Never imagined he’d give up meat, fish, eggs, butter, cream and cheese — rather a challenge when dining out in France. As it turned out, it was not a problem. He chose white asparagus with truffle oil. When the food arrived, his asparagus was so thick that two spears filled an entire plate, each more than an inch (2.5 cm) in diameter! The spears were sprinkled with finely chopped black olives and shallots, and bathed in the truffle oil. I had a taste — quite delicious.

Site news: With the advent of spring, I have updated the Everyday Menus for omnivores, vegetarians and vegans, and will continue with the Weekend Menus over the next couple of days. We’ve been having alternately sunny days and rainy days here in Paris, but it’s generally been a beautiful spring. As they say in France, ‘En mai, fais ce qu’il te plaît‘ (‘In May, do as you please’). One of the reasons I love this country. Happy cooking!

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Mousse aux groseilles

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Meg

red currant mousse2Ethereally light, delicately pink and pretty as a picture, this red currant mousse makes a lovely finish to a meal. And the beauty of it is not just that it brings to your table the first blush of summer days to come, but also that it takes only 15 minutes to prepare. The red currants are cooked with a little sugar and strained before being added to beaten egg whites. That’s the whole thing. Refrigerate for a while, then sit back and wait for applause.

Mousse aux groseilles / Red currant mousse

groseillesThis recipe may be adapted for use with raspberries, strawberries and other soft fruits of summer. As for red currants, it’s still a little early in the season for them here in France, although they can already be found at good markets and green grocers. In my garden, the red currant bushes have flowered, but I will have to wait until around mid-June for my first burst of flavor from the beautiful red fruit. Something to look forward to. In the meantime, happy cooking.

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Tarte fine aux poireaux et lardons

Posted on April 25, 2014 by Meg

Leek bacon tart7This fine-crust savory tart with leeks and bacon is what you might call French ‘pizza.’ It is a relative of the more commonly seen flammekueche from Alsace, in which bacon and finely sliced onions are placed on thin dough covered in crème fraîche. That very popular dish is also known as tarte flambée because it is traditionally cooked over flames in a wood-burning oven. Happily, culinary techniques have moved on, and you don’t need to set your kitchen on fire these days to produce a French savory tart.

Tarte fine aux poireaux et lardons / French ‘pizza’ with leeks and bacon

In fact, thanks to huge improvements in the quality of supermarket products, this tart may be made with packaged pizza dough, meaning you can produce an elegant starter or lunch dish in a matter of minutes. Or you can make your own pizza dough, or go to your local bakery — as may be done here in France — and buy a lump of bread dough to use as the crust. The rest is child’s play, but (warning) don’t let your kids near the kitchen. This tart is so popular with the younger set that it may well be devoured before reaching the table.

With this recipe, I am inaugurating a new category on The Everyday French Chef: Savory Tarts and Tartines. There is a world of savory tarts beyond quiche in France, from pissaladière in the south to flammekueche in the north to what we call make-your-own-pizza here at home, with inventive combinations of whatever we happen to have in the fridge or pantry. As for tartines — the ubiquitous open-faced sandwiches that have been served in this country forever — they are creative, quick and easy to prepare. I plan to begin offering recipes on this site in the weeks ahead. Both the tarts and the tartines are classic French fast food with an elegant touch. Perfect fare for everyday French cooking.

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