all the recipes

freshly-baked & tender bread bites (for appetizers)
freshly-baked & tender bread bites (for appetizers)

Here’s a new variation of an accompaniment for your meat & cheese platters and other appetizers, that isn’t a sliced baguette or flatbreads nor dry and crunchy breadsticks or crackers; here are your new freshly-baked and tender bread bites ! These bread bites visually resemble the different versions of the crunchy and dry...

07.12.2024
«soffritto-ish» sauces & sauce bases
«soffritto-ish» sauces & sauce bases

Whatever you name these and however you spell them and whichever way you assemble them, whether it’s an Italian soffritto or a Spanish or Hispanic sofrito, a Catalan sofregit, a Portuguese refogado, a Caribbean holy trinity, a German suppengrün, a Polish wloszczyna, an African-Taino epis and of course a French mirepoix, these basic...

09.11.2024
spiced apple lattice pie with walnuts & raisins
spiced apple lattice pie with walnuts & raisins

Everybody needs to make at least one apple pie during the autumn season, and after the first, many always make many more, so here’s a good-looking version with walnuts and raisins too ! When I was in elementary school in Canada, every September or October, we’d go on a school field trip and pick sweet and tart Macintosh apple by the...

12.10.2024
big sandwich bread buns (with seeds) for «pan bagnat»
big sandwich bread buns (with seeds) for «pan bagnat»

I’ll be in the city of Nice in the south of France in 1 week and in that city, they make the famous and huge “pan bagnat” sandwich, filled with so many different things, so I’ll retest and analyze a few and report back with the recipe in 2 weeks, but in the meantime, here’s my recipe for the making these large round...

14.09.2024
«gigantes plaki» oven-baked giant beans in sauce
«gigantes plaki» oven-baked giant beans in sauce

A greek vegetarian dish of very tender yet still whole giant butter or lima beans, lightly bathed in a sauce of simmered tomatoes, vegetables and all the fresh herbs I have in my garden, but mostly accentuated with oregano and paprika.  I’ve made and published this recipe before, using the dry bean (or unsoaked method) and then...

17.08.2024
mixed bell peppers pasta sauce (with or without chorizo)
mixed bell peppers pasta sauce (with or without chorizo)

It’s so easy and quick to prepare meals when you already have sauce bases ready and waiting in the fridge, as I showed you two weeks ago with the “soffritto-ish” sauce bases; and this pasta sauce, combining equal parts sauce base and tomatoes, with or without chorizo, is just perfect ! Why with or without the sausage ? Because...

23.11.2024
fish & seafood in champagne with rice
fish & seafood in champagne with rice

Cod, clams, shrimp, onions, champagne, with a hint of garlic, parsley, salt-preserved lemon and roasted red piquillo pepper, to prepare a flavorful dish, highlighted with some exceptional ingredients, with possible substitutions too ! There’s an older version of this dish that I’m familiar with, where you use dried, salted cod...

26.10.2024
my «pan bagnat» sandwich
my «pan bagnat» sandwich

A huge sandwich, made with a big round bread bun, stuffed beyond comprehension, with a filling of tuna flakes, slices of boiled egg, tomato, green pepper, scallions, radishes, artichoke heart, celery, with broad beans, olives, anchovies, grated tomato pulp, olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic and basil leaves … it’s a “salade...

28.09.2024
fresh tomato & vegetable concentrated sauce base
fresh tomato & vegetable concentrated sauce base

With summer drawing to a close and the availability of tasty tomatoes that can be transformed into various preserves, here’s a new option : to prepare a concentrate or base for a sauce, in advance, which will be ready to use, for the various tomato sauce preparations you’ll need, right up until next summer‘s tomato harvest...

31.08.2024
roasted salmon with fennel & lime
roasted salmon with fennel & lime

An easy summer fish dish to prepare, combining the slightly sweet and anise flavors of fennel bulb and fennel seeds, with fresh limes and dill and the opportunity to use up the prepping leftovers to create a broth for the rice ! It’s a fairly simple dish, you’ll simply have use up everything in different ways. The limes...

03.08.2024