Ingredients
The credit for this delightfully refreshing and extravagantly simple little amuse-bouche, or palate teaser, goes to chef Patrice Barbot at restaurant l'Astrance, in Paris.
Ingredients
This salad is a combination of simple elements: mesclun salad, warm goat cheese, roasted garlic and good, crusty bread: a perfect lunch. The garlic cloves, soft and puree-like from roasting, can be squeezed onto slabs of bread, along with the creamy goat cheese, to make an impromptu open-face sandwich as you eat the greens.
Ingredients
I love risotto, but not as a main dish, unless something has been done to it to give it form. Here, a lemony risotto is formed into ovals, then shallow-fried until golden and crisp and served over a bed of finely slivered spring vegetables. These croquettes make a lovely supper dish for company and can be made vegan if no butter and eggs are used, although the egg does help bind the rice.
Ingredients
It is a lucky yard that hosts a pecan tree. There are several things better than a pecan pie, but not many. There are several things better than roasted, salted, and buttered pecans, but not by much. In my youth, I would irritate my mother by pronouncing this as pee-can, which she considered redneck, and she would correct me with puh-cahn, which she thought more genteel.
The ultrafine cauliflower purée makes the soup seem as if it is cream based—it's that shockingly satiny. The initial taste of the cauliflower comes off as earthy, but within moments it is clear just how regal this vegetable truly is. Dehydrated red onion pieces and Bibb lettuce leaves provide sweet and sharp flavor notes and a textural counterpoint, while a whisper of balsamic vinegar pushes this humble combination of ingredients to scale great heights.
This delicious hybrid, the specialty of my dear friend Jean Turpen, is one of those desserts that American bakers love -- it is relatively easy, makes enough for a crowd, and is utterly irresistible. Baked in a jelly-roll pan, it's a cross between a cobbler, a pie, and a big cookie. The pie can be made with just about any seasonal fruit -- peaches, nectarines, and Italian purple plums are all excellent substitutes for the apples -- adjusting the amount of sugar as needed. A layer of crushed cornflakes on the bottom crust soaks up and thickens the fruit juices so the consistency is always perfect.