Category

French food

  • Salmon and Sorrel Troisgros

    Salmon and Sorrel Troisgros

    Once upon a time, I bought Richard Olney’s “Simple French Food,” a classic text that’s required reading for many an aspiring chef. I remember reading it casually (I even cooked from it once: Squid & Leeks in Red Wine) and I remember making a mental note that if I ever found sorrel at the farmer’s…

  • How To Host A Vegetarian Dinner Party (Answer: Mushroom Bourguignon)

    How To Host A Vegetarian Dinner Party (Answer: Mushroom Bourguignon)

    My friend Lisa was there at the very beginning of this blog. Six years ago, she and I would have debates about the worthiness of olives, we’d sing songs about pumpkin cake, and often we’d cook together. Then I moved far away to a country called Brooklyn and even though Lisa and I still saw…

  • Chocolate Mousse

    Chocolate Mousse

    There is only one dessert to eat after Coq au Vin and that dessert is chocolate mousse. Now, if you’re anything like me and you love the movie “Rosemary’s Baby” you won’t pronounce that chocolate mousse, you’ll pronounce it “chocolate mouse” employing your best Ruth Gordon voice. (If you have no idea what I’m talking…

  • Coq au Vin

    Coq au Vin

    Dear New York Weather: it’s almost June, and yesterday I was wearing a sweatshirt and I had the heat on. And it’s almost June! I understand you have your peculiarities, that you’re grappling with a diminishing ozone and toxic emissions, but I bought some cute new short sleeve shirts from UniQlo in SoHo (what a…

  • Squid and Leeks in Red Wine

    Squid and Leeks in Red Wine

    I’ve got a Valentine’s Day gift for you. It has a fancy French name–“Estouffade de Calmars aux Poireaux”–and it may be the most perfect thing for you to make tomorrow night as you try to seduce your Valentine. What makes it so seductive? For starters, look at the color: a deep reddish/purple, it positively screams…

  • Cassoulet in 10 Easy Steps

    Cassoulet in 10 Easy Steps

    When Anthony Bourdain cooks with Michael Ruhlman on the Cleveland episode of “No Reservations,” he layers meat and beans together in a giant drum, tops the whole thing off with breadcrumbs and produces a dish most of us aren’t used to seeing on Food TV (and I say that as someone who now works for…