One of Veronica’s long time dreams was to buy food and cook it in her own kitchen in Paris. Her dream came true this spring. Saturday morning found us at the Bio market on the boulevard des Batignolles loaded down with beautiful springtime produce. Peas and asparagus that Veronica planned to simmer into her risotto….
Category: Recipes
Sidewalk inspirations: alternative foie gras
It happens when he is walking down the street. Who knows what is going through his mind. And then, suddenly, something emerges. Clear. Precise. A mission. Monkfish liver and oysters… It has to do partially with a dish that Antoine Heerah at the Chamarré did for us not long ago, he presented it as ‘foie…
Picnic in the train
Sunday. Train ride to Montpellier. The TGV will take us there in a little over 3 hours. As soon as we are out of Paris, and the window is divided horizontally between blue sky and green fields of summer, we pull out the picnic. We start by opening the wine: a 2003 Meursault Les Tillets…
spoon of the moment: summer foie gras
I don’t usually think of serving foie gras in the summer time. It seems a little rich for summer blood. Rich because of the creamy texture and inherent fattiness. Fattiness tends to have a slight sweetness to it (think fresh butter, or oil). That’s the ‘gras’. All animal livers have some sort of bitterness to…
summer bulot sandwich
I started thinking about it as I was walking through the organic market Marché Bio of Boulevard des Battignolles in the 17th arrondissment in Paris: I wanted to make a bulots sandwich. The more I thought about it, the hungrier I got. I’d never had one before. I had some bulots in the fridge…
Truffle with raw scallops, olive oil, white pepper and salt
This combo is perfect. These ingredients were made for eachother. The scallops are neutral enough and yet have a hint of gaminess that is very subtle. And the texture is suggestive of fattiness that carries the aroma and flavors of truffle. The olive oil gives a fruity, pepperiness that the truffle wears like a…
Andouillette and truffles
For some reason, we got into our heads that Andouillette (tripe sausage) might go well with truffle because of the gaminess inherent in both ingredients. We boiled the Andouillette to cook it, and then sautéed it in a pan. It was a very good, very gamy andouillette. But the tripe aroma really dominated the…
tiny shrimp and shaved truffle
This dish was disjointed. The shrimp seemed acid, not buttery enough by nature, given their size. Acidity is not something that goes with truffle. We should try giant shrimp next time.
Jerusalem artichoke, foie gras and truffle
Jerusalem artichoke (topinambour in French)-this is a root vegetable that the French elders detest because that and potatoes is what they ate during the war, and nothing else. Some great French chefs are bringing this veggie back into vogue. It is a great trampoline for both foie gras and truffles. A nearly perfect mixture. There…
Potato and truffle
We tried this new race of potato that we have just discovered called ‘Oeil de Perdrix’ (literally: eye of the partridge) given the red spots that it has on the outer skin. The potato was luke-warm, the butter was put on the potato cold, but started to melt immediately. Truffle was raw….
Butter or olive oil? That is the question.
Guess what? I don’t know if it was the fact that the olive oil was so fresh, so pure, so perfect. That nuttiness, that fruit, that earth, that terroir. The oil went better with the truffle than the butter. The sweet creaminess of the butter perhaps made the truffle aroma denser and more…
Truffles, foie gras on fresh baguette: made for eachother
Foie gras (cooked, but cold) on a (cold) baguette with raw truffle. This is the best mixture so far. All of the ingredients shine and marry well. Maybe this is the reason that truffles go so well on neutral foods (noodles, gnocchi, potatoes, bread, butter, cream and eggs). Chefs must find in these…
Oysters, foie gras and truffles…one bite
Next was something sort of inspired by Stephane Léger of Le Chassagne in Chassagne Montrachet. He put oysters and foie gras together. So why not try it with truffles? The foie gras was cooked and cold, slightly spicy but with no traces of Port or Cognac. The oysters was raw, Number 3 from the Grand…
Truffles with sea urchins… an unusual start
The Duc flips out over sea urchins (Oursins, in French). I quite like them too. This time of year, we have them on Sundays as a special treat. We especially like the ones that come from Iceland, as they are usually the most complex. But we never know which provenance the fishmonger will have. There…
the beginning of truffles…
I’ve never owned a truffle before. Never had access to the real thing. Until now. Well, my vegetable merchants sold me some Chinese truffles a few years ago. They looked like truffles, felt like truffles, but sure didn’t have the truffle aroma or flavor of truffles. I tried truffle oil which I found a little…
A different kind of fruit salad
Off the cuff. A ripe mango. A couple of kiwis. Some cucumber and chervil. It worked. The vegetal of the cucumber gave a freshness and herbality to the exotic fruits that made the combination very complex. Refreshing. Different. In retrospect, though, I should have poached the cucumber, to make it a little more Zen, texturally….
Sardines with coriander seeds: electric combo
Boil the rice in a bouillon scattered with the coriander grains- un-ground. Mix in a large marinated artichoke heart with a little bit of olive oil. Sautée the fresh sardines with salt and pepper in a very hot frying pan with olive oil. You want to sear the skin to give bitterness to match the…
Exotic risotto with Meursault Clos de La Barre 1996
At the end of the cooking of the risotto, I added coconut milk and crushed coriander seeds. Then I mixed in some Alaskan King Crab and sautéed mushrooms (cèps, trompettes de la mort). On top I ground some more coriander seeds. The Citronella and coriander gave exotic and unique citric aromas without the acidity….
Recipes for Port Salt cod fish with baby potatoes, strawberry/beetroot purée and coconut milk with spices
Saltcod with potatoes, sweet onions and strawberry sauce I actually OD-ed on Salt Cod while we were in Portugal, but to be true to the Portuguese traditional ingredients, we decided that we had to do at least one recipe that included salt cod, quite literally, their national food stuff. We de-salted the cod (it…
Recipes for Port: Tuna steak with black Italian rice, spices and cherry/beetroot sauce
We cooked the black rice* with salt and pepper and then incorporated curcuma, cinnamon and mild curry. Into the rice we also added some cherry/beetroot purée that we had made (just pitted cherries, cooked beetroot and a little water to thin it out). We pan seared the tuna with salt and ample black…
Saltpepperlime 