A really good fig chutney

I first discovered making fig chutney last year when we moved to southern France. In this part of the country, the luscious fruit starts appearing on the tree in late June but it takes the whole summer for it to ripen, become lusciously sweet, and ready to be picked. And when it is, it abounds. […]

Mast o Khiar

“Mast o Khiar” (literal translation is Yogurt and Cucumber) is an Iranian side dish that is somewhere between a dip and a proper salad. As a kid, my mom used to serve it in a big dish alongside perfectly cooked Basmati rice, salad and grilled meat. I remember taking ladles of it and smothering this […]

Fresh herb pesto

Nothing beats homemade herb pesto. It is a lot tastier than the store-bought kind as well as filled with phytonutrients and vitamins. I have a few variations of this recipe in my Spring and Summer recipe e-book but the below recipe is the one I began with years ago when I first started the blog.  […]

Incredible celery pesto

This incredible celery pesto is exactly what you should make the next time you end up with a ton of leftover leaves. I for one used to throw out at least half of a celery’s leaves after cutting it up for crudites, which is a real shame because I love their aroma and they are […]

Traditional anchoïade

In Southern France, summer appetizer parties always include a variety of spreads (olive tapenade, tuna rillettes, taramasalata, etc) and one of the quintessentially ” Provençal ” ones is traditional anchoïade, a garlicky anchovy-based dip. It is incredibly tasty and works extremely well with fresh radish, celery, fennel, carrots or simply on little canapes or sliced […]

It’s-a-snap green olive tapenade

It’s-a-snap green olive tapenade really is. As you may know, I am a big fan of dips and spreads because they are a great way of serving vegetables as an appetizer. The green version of this traditional spread from Provence isn’t just easy to make, it also happens to be really tasty and slightly less […]

Med-style artichoke dip

Med-style artichoke dip was a discovery for me. The only artichoke dip I knew before the age 40 was the warm kind that looked like this. Now as good and comforting as it may be, it’s pretty hefty and more of a Super Bowl recipe than a hot weather appetizer. So being in Dubai, I […]

Superb aubergine “pkhali”

While touring Georgia last week, we ate about 5 different versions of eggplant “pkhali”, which is what they call their savory dips. You’ll find it in most restaurants, almost always served with delicious warm traditional Georgian bread. This version was probably my favorite because it has walnuts, a star ingredient of the country’s cuisine, which […]

Sauce gribiche: the wicked woman’s sauce

“Sauce gribiche” is as vintage French as it gets. Right up there with cheese souffle and duck a l’orange. Except it’s a condiment: a hybrid between Italian salsa verde and mayonnaise, typically served alongside very traditional dishes like pot-au-feu (braised meat and vegetable stew) and “tete de veau” (yes, that means calf’s head, a famous […]

Exquisite salmon and green apple “rillettes”

In winter, classic duck rillettes spread on toasted sourdough canapés are my jam, but once summer rolls around, I prefer something lighter. Last year, you may remember I posted my favorite tuna rillettes recipe. This year, I introduce you to it’s hoity toity cousin, the salmon Granny Smith ones. The fish is perfectly balanced by […]