This take on the French classic coq au vin has been a family favorite for many years. Brouilly is one of the Beaujolais Villages, but I tend to use whatever good red wine is on hand. A key step is to brown well the flour so that the final stew has a rich brown color. Read More …
One of the first cookbooks we acquired was Mireille Johnston’s The Cuisine of the Sun about Provencal cooking. This posting is an adaptation of a recipe from this book which we have made over and over again over the years. One of the key ideas in the recipe is to cut slits in the lamb Read More …
This is how I used some home-made ricotta, and it turned out exceptionally well. I think this is partially because I had very good home-made Cottage Bacon to use. This is a variation on my earlier post on Tarte Flambee, mostly using a different kind of cheese. ( Tarte Flambee v1 ) This will serve Read More …
This is an example of French home cooking. It produces a very tasty dinner with no exotic techniques or ingredients. This posting is adopted from a Wall St. Journal article on March 26 about a cooking instructor, Susan Hermann Loomis, who emphasizes in her classes that French food does not have to be fussy or hard Read More …
This main dish is like a cross between a Yorkshire pudding and a quiche. It is an eggy batter enriched with bacon and onion which puffs impressively in the oven. The name “matafan” is from an old French slang term meaning “hunger beater”. Interestingly, there is a very similar term “Matambre” or “hunger killer” Read More …
This mustard vinaigrette is an adaptation of a recipe which appeared in the Wall St. Journal in November 2014. I have now made it a couple of times. There is a certain amount of elapsed time to let the chopped shallot mellow with the vinegar, and to generally meld the flavors, but this takes only Read More …
Cassoulet is a French classic which is very much in vogue this winter. The NY Times Magazine had an article on it today, and my sister-in-law Patricia made it yesterday following a Cook’s Illustrated recipe. Here is the version I have now made three times, based on a recipe in Serious Eats. There are two Read More …
A few years ago there was a media sensation when the New York Times published an article on an innovative way to bake bread from Jim Lahey, owner of the Sullivan Street Bakery. http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread . There were two key ideas in this approach. First, was that adequate gluten can be developed through the action Read More …
This recipe is adapted from a Wall Street Journal article on a signature dish of Chez Hugon in Lyon The combination of cream and vinegar makes it exceptionally good. 2 Tbs. vegetable oil 3-4 lb. chicken, cut into 8 pieces 3 cloves garlic, chopped 2 shallots, chopped 1 large yellow onion, chopped 1 Tbs. flour Read More …
There cannot be many dishes with as many different names as this Alsatian cousin to the pizza. It can be called using its name in French, German, and the Alsatian dialect. The legend of this dish is that it was invented by Alsatian bakers who would make a snack out of bread dough and pantry items Read More …