An earthy soup of red lentils with coconut milk will brighten your table in these dreary days of November. In Paris, where’s its been gray and cold for weeks, we actually had November in October and now we’re having December in November. My neighbors across the way have already strung out their Christmas lights, and I’m seriously considering lighting a fire in the fireplace tonight. Just to create some cheer in this dismal season…
Soupe aux lentilles corail / Red lentil soup
The funny thing about red lentil soup is that neither the lentils nor the soup are actually red. The French for ‘red lentils’ — lentilles corail, or ‘coral lentils’ — is more accurate for the uncooked lentils. But when cooked they turn ochre, and in this recipe the addition of turmeric heightens the yellow. The soup is also flavored with fresh ginger, cumin, coriander, cayenne and coconut milk. Fresh cilantro adds another burst of flavor.
This healthy soup is similar to India’s masoor dal, but here the lentils are briefly pulsed — you pulse the pulses (sorry, couldn’t resist) — and you add the coconut milk. It makes a great lunch dish on a raw day, perhaps accompanied by a watercress salad (also vegan) or melted cheese on toast, or followed by roasted winter vegetables or a cauliflower gratin.
I was surprised just now to find that I have posted very few Indian-style recipes on this site. This is odd, because Indian cooking is very popular here at home and appears quite often on our table. My go-to book is Mahdur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery, which was given to me many years ago by a British friend and is now out in an updated 40th anniversary edition. Favorite recipes include tandoori-style chicken, Gujerati carrot salad (with black mustard seeds, delicious), rogan josh (spicy lamb stew) and prawns with courgettes.
While I love Indian and other Asian cuisines, and post about them occasionally, most of the recipes here are French or French-inspired — because that’s what this site is about. Yet one need only walk the streets of Paris to see how passionately the French have embraced the food of other cultures. Within a 250-meter (yard) radius of my home, there are restaurants featuring the cuisines of Thailand, Italy, Spain, Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, Russia, Cuba, the Antilles and, yes, India.
Very often these far-flung cuisines are presented with a French touch. Wine is always on offer, and the dishes follow each other in typical French style — starter, main course and dessert. The price of a three-course meal at lunchtime can be as low as 15 euros. In this chilly global season of conflict, I feel blessed to live in a city with such abundance and openness to things foreign — a city that, at least for now, remains at peace with the world.
Happy cooking.
A quiche brings out the best in the humble leek. Sautéd in butter to tenderness, bathed in a mixture of eggs, milk, cream and a dash of nutmeg, piled into a savory crust and topped with grated cheese, the leek rises from peasant status to nobility. And the beauty is that this quiche can be prepared very easily, especially if — as I did on a lazy Sunday (blush) — you use store-bought puff pastry (pâte feulletée) instead of making the crust from scratch…
The quiche can make a meal in itself, accompanied by a salad — for example, in autumn, a 
The beauty of a vegetable gratin is that it can be made with virtually any veggies you wish. I made a gratin of potatoes, carrots, leeks and baby spinach last month when the gray, rainy weather set in after our all too brief summer season in Paris. A week later it was back on our table by popular demand. The veggies are steamed, bathed in a 
The mixed veggie gratin may be served as a main course with a salad alongside for a simple meal, or as a side dish for a more elaborate meal. In autumn, you could begin with a seasonal starter, like a 
This zingy smoked herring salad proved a winner when I was asked to cook for 50 people at a party in Normandy in late August. It was meant to be served on the night of the party as part of a salad buffet to accompany a mechoui — slow-roasted lamb cooked over an open pit. But the 30 or so guests who had arrived by noon had it for lunch, which worked out well as I hadn’t really made enough for 50. Reader, they ate it all and asked for more.
Pasta with broccoli, sausage, olive oil and red pepper flakes is a family favorite that I tend to make when cooler weather sets in — which has suddenly happened in Paris after a couple of warm months that went by in a flash. We had a hailstorm yesterday and overnight the temperature dipped to 6º C (43º F). It’s enough to send you scrambling for a warm quilt and a bottle of hearty red, which goes well with this spicy, garlic-infused dish.
If you’re serving this pasta to guests and would like to add a dessert, I’d recommend 
This fluffy cheese omelet, a classic of French cuisine, is the last thing I expected to write about when I returned from Provence last week. I’d picked up three new recipes, including one for a fabulous garlic spread that is served in the region but largely unavailable elsewhere in France. Well, dear readers, I made it twice — and both times it was a dismal failure. So I consulted my fridge to see what else I could make on short notice…
This dish of fish in a tomato-coconut-lime sauce hails from Brazil, where it is known as moqueca. I discovered it at the home of a friend in the English countryside, and found it so wonderful that I had to share it with you. Jane, the friend in question, learned to make it while her husband was serving as a senior British diplomat in Brasília. They entertained a lot and, as she put it, this is a great party dish because it can be largely prepared in advance.
This summery salad of roasted eggplant with tomatoes and sweet red pepper is a versatile dish that may be served as a starter, as a side dish, as part of a mezze spread or as the star of a vegetarian meal. It is similar to its French cousin, 
This deeply flavorful Moroccan dish of garlicky chicken infused with cumin and coriander on a bed of meltingly soft peas makes a fine family supper or a festive dish for special occasions. And as we are reaching the tail end of the season for fresh peas, this is a good time to try it out. The recipe is easy but takes time as the chicken needs to marinate before going into the oven. The peas are cooked separately, and everything is combined at the end.
Forget maple syrup, bring on the powdered sugar. French toast, French style, is mainly served as a dessert or an afternoon snack. Known as pain perdu (‘lost bread’), it was a poor man’s dish until, according to lore, it was discovered by the nobility in the 16th century, becoming a favorite of King Henri IV. From the king’s table, French toast made its way abroad, and the rest is history.
These days French toast is rarely seen on bistro menus. It is most commonly served in French homes for the afternoon goûter (snack), a national institution for French schoolchildren to tide them over until French dinnertime, around 8 p.m. But this can also be a sophisticated dish. Serve it at your next brunch, with fruit and/or bacon, and prepare for applause.
