People always seem to assume that because I learned to cook in France, all my recipes will be French. While a lot of them are, my past lives spent in ethnically-diverse cities mean I crave foods from other cuisines that can’t easily be found in provincial France—so, I have to cook them myself.
Rhubarb Tart with Fresh Goat Cheese
I have found the secret to the universe, and it is 8 oz. (200 g.) of fresh goat cheese and 2 eggs. Yes, that is an exaggeration, but when an easy-to-remember ingredient combi [...]
Prasopita (Spanakopita with Leeks)
Here’s a new Greek food term for you (well, for me): Prasopita. Leek (praso) pie (pita). I found it while googling ‘spanakopita with leeks’—which is what I’d just made using [...]
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 [...]
Baked (or Roasted) Camembert
Baking camembert in the oven turns it into a tasty fondue for two. When it comes to cheese, I’m with Cole Porter…and camembert is the top. (Scroll to the end of the post for [...]
Fresh Pasta with Pumpkin Sauce and Crisped Sage
The first pasta dish I remember eating that didn’t involve tomato sauce or tons of cream and cheese was a New York restaurant entrée of fresh ravioli stuffed with pumpkin and [...]
Crispy-Skinned Roast Chicken
To test the flavor and freshness of an organic chicken that was fedexed to me by the Poulet de Janzé people (nothing makes you feel like a *real* food blogger than having a f [...]
Linguine with Clams and Chorizo
Linguine with Clams and Chorizo 2 to 2 ½ lb. (1 kg.) Manila clams (this is what I can find in the Mont-Saint-Michel bay) or littleneck or cherrystone clams (about 50 to 60 sm [...]
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 [...]
Linguine with Clams and Garlic Petals à la Marie-Christine
I still can’t believe how fast—or how good—this recipe is. When Marie-Christine made it for the first time, I watched her, I devoured the clams—minus the pasta (she was servi [...]
New England Clam Chowder
Ever since I got bitten by the clam-digging bug about five years ago (I can walk two hundred yards out onto the mudflats just in front of my house in Cancale and get a bucket [...]
Fresh Sole, Cancale-Style
Snooty foodie moment of the week: I caught myself wondering whether the sole I had in my fridge was fresh enough to eat. It was three days old. By three days old, I do not me [...]
Heirloom Tomatoes Provençal
The last of the heirloom tomatoes deserve a special send-off, something that sets them smack in the center of the plate and showcases them in all their funny-shaped, juicy gl [...]
Soupe au Pistou (Bean and Vegetable Soup with Pistou)
This is it…the spectacular, seasonal window when summer intersects with fall, tomatoes are still tasty, fresh basil is still abundant, and the evenings have turned cool enoug [...]
Herbes de Provence
In France, I swear by Ducros, the supermarket brand of herbes de Provence. The balance of herbs is nigh on perfect—not too pungent, not too bitter, not too floral (the occasi [...]
Fresh Pea and Herbed Goat Cheese Tartines
With weather so good it makes me want to spend every last minute I can outside, my meals tend to be foods I can carry to one of the benches on the boardwalk by the water. (Th [...]
Farfalle with Fresh Peas and Zucchini
Pasta, fresh peas, and lashings of grated cheese…that’s the kind of supper you want on an evening when the rain blows in and brings with it a 20-degree temperature drop at th [...]
Savory French Toast Tartines
It has been a busy couple of weeks since I was last able to shop for food. Good-busy, with lots of eating out and seeing friends, but bad-busy in the sense that a lot of food [...]
“Pièce de Résistance” Artichokes
An 80-year-old neighbor in Cancale introduced me to a revolutionary concept: Eating a whole, steamed artichoke as a main course, not just an appetizer. We were chatting about [...]
Wild Garlic Spanish Tortilla
How can so few people in Brittany (or at least my part of Brittany) know about three-cornered leeks? Until my recent (as in, 2 minutes ago) internet search I’ve been calling [...]
Orecciette with Collard Stem Coins and Crispy Prosciutto
If I were giving this post the serious clickbait treatment, the tag line here would be, “Not cooking your kale stems? You’re missing out!” Or maybe: “The kale technique no on [...]
Chicken Pot Pie
I have been disappointed with the chicken pot pies I’ve eaten ever since the Miller and Rhoads Tea Room in Richmond Virginia began its slow slide into oblivion in the 1980’s. [...]
Brunswick Stew
Brunswick Stew and I go way back. Not as far back as the days when cooks added squirrel to the is-it-Georgian, is-it North-Carolinian, is-it-Virginian Southern stew, but far [...]