Go to Recipe Go to Video Each Herb is a Universe The other day Fabien Phillip, the grower at the Marché de Saxe where I go twice a week, came up to me and said “Susan, I’ve got a few tomatoes if you want some.” He pointed around the back of his stand, and there, …
If you need a good cry, but there is nothing in your life making you sad enough to shed tears, consider yourself lucky. Get Some Onions Then go to your pantry and get some onions. The onion is an allium and it will certainly bring forth the tears. Why? Well, it’s a simple matter of …
Go to Video Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme… Longing Search For Love Simon and Garfunkel wrote a Canticle about herbs, not for cooking but to sing of a longing search for love. So sweet. And so apt, because while we think about herbs for the beautiful flavor they give, each has its symbolic story to …
Go to Video Beret-Baguette Who doesn’t love the iconic photo of the man with beret and baguette on his bicycle, what the French refer to as the “beret-baguette” image that foreigners have of France. It’s charming, it speaks to all that is good in this rich and wonderful land. Three Legends About the Origin There …
Go to Video GARLIC SAVIOR If you live near a farm that produces garlic, or in the country of France where garlic is one of the seven wonders of the culinary world, you come to know the difference between “new” and “aging” garlic. Life as an Edible Clove is Over We all know aging garlic. …
Go to Video PRESERVE THE HERB Growing your own herbs is something just about anyone can do, whether in a home with a garden or an apartment with a window box. Depending on the herbs you plant, at some point during the year there will be an overabundance, the kind that strikes fear into your …
Go to Video Mysterious Voyage of Discovery Since I was a child, the artichoke has been a mysterious voyage of flavor and discovery. We ate them often, each one getting a whole one on our plate, with our own little pot of melted butter alongside. Enjoying it leaf by meaty leaf was like an excavation …
Go to Recipe Go to Video Pate brisée literally means “broken pastry”. Translations can often be somewhat awkward, making something so ethereally delicious sound like something that just crashed to the floor and shattered into a thousand pieces. But the allusion isn’t all wrong, for the pate brisée that results in the recipe you will …
Go to Recipe Go to Video The history of Sauce Béchamel is a knotty one of subterfuge and false claims, heavy stuff for a sauce made with four simple ingredients. It begs a question: does this matter? There is only one answer. YES! Because what would French cuisine be without mystery and intrigue? It is …
