One of my greatest joys and challenges as a food editor was coming up with recipes for the gluten-free section of the magazine. What started as a one-time emergency fill-in when a writer bailed on me ended up turning into a culinary boot camp where I had to learn the ins and outs of wheat-free cooking really fast—and all on my own. That experience made ultra-aware of gluten-free dietary needs of cooks…starting with recipes that are clearly labeled gluten-free.
Quince Jelly (for jelly novices)
There are few kitchen tasks as rewarding as making quince jelly. Some fruit, some water, some sugar; a strainer, a saucepan, a hot burner…and then the magic happens. First th [...]
Santiago Almond Cake
Once in a very rare while, a recipe found via internet search resonates in such a way that it seems Fate has guided the algorithms and web crawlers to bring it to you. That’s [...]
Bright, Light Sorrel Soup
Sorrel’s lemony taste makes it a springtime (well, anytime for me) herb favorite. The flavor’s a little like rhubarb (to which it is related) only milder and more palatable. [...]
Preserved Lemon Yogurt (or Labneh) Dip
When I made a big batch of preserved lemons last spring, I wondered how I’d ever use them all up. Now that I have discovered this preserved lemon labneh/yogurt dip, I worry I [...]
Incredibly Good Stewed Chicken
I suppose I could have called this dish something with a little more élan. Braised chicken. Saucy chicken. Grandmother’s stove pot chicken. It is all of those, too. But there [...]
Creamy (Black) Radish Soup
Black radishes may not be the biggest, brightest item on winter markets in Brittany, but nearly every vegetable stand has a small pile of bent, misshapen dark roots with shor [...]
Sautéed Sea Beets (Wild Spinach)
On a gray low-light winter day, the only thing that stood out on my regular walk were the deep green tufts of sea beets that cluster around a certain curve of the coast. The [...]
Caramelized Fennel and Carrot Soup
Carrots for color, fennel for flavor, this five-ingredient soup tastes like braised fennel in a bowl. Fennel is a vegetable I find hard to describe to those not familiar with [...]
Sloe Gin Kir Royal
Sloe gin replaces the traditional crème de cassis in the iconic French aperitif. This one falls in the category of ‘Why didn’t I think of it before?’ I love the idea of sloe [...]
Sweet Potato Soup with Amchoor
Like kale, sweet potatoes have now made it in France. Not all that long ago, I used to have to hunt for the tubers at Thanksgiving, cruising the ‘exotic’ sections at large su [...]
Quince Cordial (Quince Brandy)
Quince can be a tough sell. Peeling quince (a very firm, sweet-smelling fruit that looks like a cross between an apple and a pear) is wrist-aching work, cutting it open is ak [...]
Just-Sweet-Enough Granola
Most granolas are really just dessert disguised as breakfast food—something I learned when I made granola for the first time in a hipster New York City bakery and saw how muc [...]
Basic French Potage
If there is one French recipe that everyone in the whole wide world should learn to make, it is potage, the blended vegetable soup that was once the start to every supper in [...]
Elodie’s (Easy) Tian
The tians (pronounced tee-ahn) I’ve tasted in France have all been simple, meltingly tender swirls, rows, or stacks of summer vegetables cooked with some garlic, a few herbs [...]
3-Ingredient Potato and Caramelized Onion Soup
2 weeks away from Cancale and I come home to a bare fridge on a national holiday (May Day). Meaning: any attempt to shop is pretty pointless. There may be a small grocery ope [...]
Homemade Ginger Beer
Two ginger beer bottles. On the right, a heavy, well-worn, barnacled specimen dredged from the deep off Saint-Malo... a little research showed to be a ginger beer bottle from [...]
Zhoug (It’s better than pesto!)
No, that’s not pesto slathered all over a baked sweet potato, it’s zhoug, a spicy Yemeni herb paste made with parsley and cilantro that’s popular throughout the Middle East. [...]
Secret Soup Saver
Another blustery day, another batch of soup. Tout simple: leeks, squash, some garlic, and a single potato. That combo usually works just fine for a weekday soup, but this tim [...]
Velvet Scallop and Winter Vegetable ‘Nage’
“Caught on Thursday, shucked on Friday…I ate some Saturday, and you should have yours today (Sunday) or tomorrow (Monday).” So went the message on my voicemail from my fisher [...]
Vegetable Pot-au-Feu
Pot au feu, the French version of pot roast, is eaten in two stages. First, the cooking broth is ladled into bowls to be sipped or spooned as a first course. Then, the meat a [...]
Sautéed Escarole with Capers and Crispy Garlic
September is strange in Cancale this year. Instead of the glorious post-season weather I've grown to love more than summer, it has been chilly, blustery, wet—more like Novemb [...]
Homemade Fruit Jam
I have a little problem with large quantities of fruit for sale. I see them, and I must have them—for jam, natch. Nevermind that a 5-pound flat of strawberries will make thre [...]
Zucchini Ribbon Salad
For the past four summers, I’ve been doing cooking demonstrations at a local farmers’ market. The conditions are lovely—extraordinarily good produce, cheese, meats, and cider [...]
Wild Plum Compote
I have been wracking my brain for a way to make ‘compote’ sound sexy. Exciting. Like something you want to jump out of your chair and make immediately. And I keep coming up w [...]
Soy-Sesame Marinated Asparagus
Oh…the happy discoveries a lazy cook can sometimes make! I put together this sauce to go with steamed asparagus for a radio segment I did on Saturday morning. (If you want to [...]
Asparagus Avgolemono Soup
It all started with trying to find a way to use the woody, fibrous ends of the asparagus I’ve been getting at the market in Saint-Malo this spring. The tips and stalks are in [...]
Homemade Custard
This is the pitcher I picked up at an antique gallery (Christian La Brocante) in nearby Saint-Coulomb. I say ‘picked up’ because when I went to pay for it (for a mere 2 euros [...]
Okra à la Cross Creek
"Have ready boiling, lightly salted water. Choose only tiny, very young fresh okra pods. Do not cut off stem end because you trust me. Drop whole pods in rapidly boiling wate [...]
Braised Celery Hearts
When I get into a work groove on the computer, I often crave something to munch on to…um… “fuel” my inspiration. Or that’s the excuse I give myself for my at-the desk nibblin [...]
Artichoke Tapenade
1 13.75 oz. can artichoke bottoms or frozen artichoke bottoms prepared according to package directions 1 10-oz. jar artichoke hearts preserved in oil, drained, oil reserved 2 [...]