main courses recipes

This weekend on SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11th 2018 is the 100th Anniversary (the Centenary or Centennial) of the ARMISTICE or End of the First World War. Sixty heads of State and 120 dignitaries will be in Paris for an international ceremony to commemorate the event, to celebrate the peace and the end of that war, even though other wars,...

OK, I’m just playing with words ! . . . ALLIUM is the family of onions, garlics, shallots, chives and leeks & CAPSICUM is the family of sweet and hot peppers and CITRUS of course you already know. By the way, sea breams, also called gilt-head bream, are part of the SPARIDAE family and are marine fish (at least you learned something...

A re-adaptation of a recipe for BOLHINOS DE BACALHAU from Portugal (and perhaps similar versions in Spain and probably Brazil too). I’ve been jumping from country to country in my latest recipe posts. PORTUGAL is geographically not a MEDITERRANEAN country, physically facing the rougher Atlantic Ocean on one side and bordering Spain on the...

“I TOLD YOU SO !” . . . even though many of you scoffed at me (and probably even considered blocking or blacklisting me). The oh-so-boring-and-simply SIMMERED & SAUTEED VEGETABLES that I posted one year ago (see recipe here) which I adjusted just for this recipe to less than half the initial amount and added eggplants too are,...

This is the “SOUP of SOUPS” . . . a flavorful chicken & vegetable broth yet light & clear, slowly & patiently thickened with an ‘AVGOLEMONO’ sauce made with whipped egg whites combined with fresh lemon juice & egg yolks, coddling poached YUVARLAKIA (or giouvarlakia or yiouvarlakia, who knows how it should...

It’s super CHUNKY as you can see, from the filling to this incredible & thick 2-ingredient breadcrumb crust. It’s also adaptable & modifiable, but less painful than dealing with DST or Daylight Savings Time. It’s all about adding & subtracting. The 2 crust ingredients are dried breadcrumbs and mayonnaise....

Another TEMPURA-STORY . . . again ! Even though we talked about this about 6 weeks ago when we were focusing on stuffed & deep-fried zucchini flowers that I brought back from Marseille (see the recipe here) I’m still rather obsessed with this method, so here we go again. So JAPANESE, right ?! And yet so PORTUGUESE, right ?!...

You know when you think people 'know stuff' but they actually don’t ? Fool that I am, I often forget this ! Many people’s culinary backgrounds & experiences are most often quite different from your own. It was time for me to explain KEFTEDES more precisely even though I had already posted a recipe using keftedes/greek...

“I TOLD YOU I WAS GOING TO TRY to be more VEGETARIAN !” (at least more regularly and/or occasionally). So this is what I’m doing and maybe I’ll continue with a whole month of a series of vegetarian recipes (this is the 2nd one). A good vegetarian dish takes more time than a carnivorous one . . . This is how I see it :...

The ever-changing dates of Chinese New Year are like the never-changing dates of Christmas on December 25th, New Year’s Day on January 1st, Valentine’s Day on February 14th and Saint-Patrick’s Day on March 17th . . . it doesn’t matter what day it will be on this year nor what your ethnic origins or cultural or...

I still remember the BOXES of MACARONI & CHEESE by KRAFT DINNER we had as kids growing up in Montreal ! You boiled the dry pasta in water then strained it, then you added the milk and butter and the packet of processed cheese powder, mixed and served. This was a treat for us. It’s actually considered a national dish and Canadians consume...

So you want to make a PIZZA ? I mean a real home-made pizza ? Are you going to make the PIZZA DOUGH from scratch ? Are you going to make the PIZZA SAUCE from scratch ? Will you prepare the TOPPINGS ? Yes, my friends, toppings also need to be prepared because you probably don’t have a professional commercial restaurant pizza-oven at home...

“THE FRESHNESS OF SPRING” . . . announced with a vegetarian pizza that incorporates this same attitude. Instead of the usual spicier, heavier, fattier pizzas that we all love and adore, why not make a pizza that is actually FRESHER-LIGHTER-BRIGHTER-ZESTIER-ZINGIER ? Is it a “SALAD-PIZZA” ? Not really, but the effect is...

"YEAH, GO STEAL A LEG OF LAMB TODAY !" (a whole lamb would be too much to ask, but you are forgiven) . . . ARNI (lamb) KLEFTIKO (stolen) is the name of this dish. I can almost picture the scene : me stealing a lamb from a farm in the countryside and dragging the thing back to my Parisian apartment by bus, train, subway … A pilot...

SALT COD RECIPE N°5 . . . and 2-3 more to come (but most probably next winter). It’s cold out there and it’s going to get colder next week so just eat some POTAGE or STEW or a good thick SOUP now ! This is more of an early spring dish in Spain but salt cod is a staple for me (but you know that already). I still remember my...