We had this wonderful, hearty dish during a brief stop for lunch in Mulhouse in the Alsace region during our Europe trip this year. Using a recipe from an actual Alsatian, Hubert Keller, we found that our version actually far surpassed the simple fare we had in Mulhouse. The principle of the Baeckeoffe is similar […]
French
Savory chicken apricot pie
There is a restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin, called “Mediterranean Cafe” aka MedCaf and they have perfected how to do ‘fast food’ right. They make huge batches of homecooked food, and have such quick turnover that it’s always really fresh. Every day they have 4 specials, in addition to some standby items that are always available […]
Meat Consomme with Vegetables and Egg Royales
I highly recommend making this recipe if you fulfill all of the following criteria:1) You just got a whole mess of new kitchen equipment2) You live a stones throw from more Asian supermarkets than you can count3) You took Friday off and have a French-themed dinner party the next day5) According to the DSM-IV you […]
French Bread
This is not necessarily a definitive recipe – I just made it to good result the other night, and had to sort of distill a few recipes to do it. I’m not sure if I needed to cook it longer, but it wasn’t quite as crisp as baguettes normally are – however, I liked it, […]
Moules marinieres
This is a pretty traditional preparation of mussels; steamed in white wine, shallot, and garlic. In this case I added tomatoes, which may or may not qualify this as moules marinieres depending on who you ask. This is pretty much a template recipe with infinite potential variation on flavors. If you like anis, substituting pastis […]
Soupe de poisson
This, like most French foods, is a quintessential peasant food that, through whatever process it is that idolizes french shit, is thought of as something vaguely patrician. Fish soup is exactly what it sounds like; what poor fishermen and sailors eat when they arrive in port. This particular version is considered Provencale, originating in Marseille […]
Steak au Poivre (Steak with Cracked Peppercorns)
The outcome of this recipe can only be described as a foodgasm. It’s a traditional French dish and now it’s one of my favorite ways to prepare steak. Anoka Meat Market was selling something called “butter steak”, and I figured, butter + steak = how bad could it be? It was some kind of well-marbled […]
Haricots verts avec saucisse merguez et couscous a la tunisienne
Made a tasty green bean dish based on the harissa (tunisian chile sauce) I found in the supermarket. I’ll try those ingredient lists Lillian seems so insistent upon. Some garlicSome sausageGreen beansOnionsHarissaCouscous In this particular case I would estimate I used 400 g of green beans, 2 smallish merguez sausages (sorta a maghrebin chorizo; in […]
Moules montpelliardes
At least one thing is cheap in (this part of) France: Shellfish! At 2E40 a kilo, mussels are a downright bargain. I actually went to the big fish farm at Sete where they are grown about an hour away from Montpellier so I can attest to their freshness. So last Saturday I threw a little […]