When I was lunching at the Paris restaurant Spring last week, the main course — roast guinea fowl — was served with something hard to identify. It was satiny and pure white, and tasted ambrosial in a creamy, melt-in-your-mouth sort of way. But what was it? The waitress was summoned. ‘A purée of almonds with a cauliflower base,’ is how she described it. Almonds? I needed to know more, so I spoke with Daniel Rose, Spring’s genial owner, chef and culinary creator, who kindly gave me the recipe.
Purée d’amandes / Almond purée
Daniel Rose traces the genealogy of this dish to one of his mentors, Jean-Luc L’Hourre, chef until very recently at a one-star restaurant in Brittany — known as France’s cauliflower-growing region. ‘It’s perfect for him,’ Rose said, because Jean-Luc L’Hourre also has a connection to southern France, where almonds are grown. Rose says he likes making almond purée because it is so versatile. ‘I have served it with all kinds of meats,’ he said. ‘And with grilled calamari. Or as a parmentier’ — a layer of the purée over a layer of ground meat or duck, browned in the oven. ‘You can also serve it by itself, or add some chicken broth to turn it into a soup.’ When I brought the recipe home and made it myself, I found it remarkably easy. And when I served it to friends on Saturday night, it won a round of applause. Happy cooking!
Also served for lunch at Spring (left to right): a salad of apples, red cabbage and smoked eel served on a horseradish sauce; red mullet with fresh herbs and a sweet-and-sour sauce; baby leeks with lobster in a gentle vinaigrette.
Veal stewed gently in wine, infused with garlic, tomato and herbs, and served with a touch of cream — this supremely French invention is far from the stews of my childhood. I first tasted it in the 1970s at the home of my friend Nicole, a superior cook. She liked to have people over for dinner on short notice, and one day as we chatted in the kitchen she prepared this succulent dish in what seemed like no time. I of course demanded the recipe.
Let’s get one thing straight right from the start: there is nothing crude about crudités. This lovely fresh vegetable plate — my all-time favorite starter — is the dish I most long for whenever I’m away from France for a while. There is something quintessentially French in the way the vegetables are prettily arranged in mounds, then topped with a zesty sauce. It’s so fresh it feels like visiting a garden – and finding it on your plate.
When I first tasted risotto al radicchio I was dining alone in Venice and chose it almost at random from a menu with many other dishes that were unknown to me. Bitter red salad with rice? Why not, I thought, figuring it was worth trying something new. How could I have imagined the sublime dish that was brought to my table, rich and subtle, the flavor of the radicchio leaves tamed to a hint of something wild mellowed by creamy rice, butter and parmesan cheese? But there was something more to this dish, something unusual. Intrigued, when I returned to Paris I phoned the chef, who let me in on his secret…
With the end-of-year holidays approaching, this Russian-French version of gravalax makes a fine festive dish. The salmon is marinated overnight in salt and sugar — et voilà, it’s ready. Although I enjoyed this dish many times while working in Russia, where it is known simply as riba salyonnaya, or salted fish, I only started making it in Paris thanks to a Russian friend who passed along her family recipe. Served with shots of vodka or flutes of Champagne, it will get your holiday meals off to a spectacular start.
