Cantaloupe melon summer appetizer recipes
What I love most about summer eating is the bounty of delicious fruits we have on hand, from peaches to all varieties of melon. Here in southern France, cantaloupe melon is king. It’s like no other melon I have ever tasted – except of course in Italy, which shares a similar “terroir” (land and soil […]
Provençal Tian (summer vegetable bake)
A Provençal Tian is probably in the top 5 ways I would suggest anyone use their late summer vegetables. Simple enough to make and prepare it is a wonderful side but also works well as a vegetarian main. Ingredients 1/2 cup/125 ml tomato coulis/tomato passata 3 medium-sized tomatoes, cut into 1 cm slices 1 onion, […]
The Real Niçoise Salad (hint: no potatoes or green beans)
Although I happily ate “salade Niçoise” with green beans and potatoes for years before living in France, I quickly found out this was blasphemy. A sacrilege. The wrong way of making it. Traditionally, this salad originating from the beautiful town of Nice does not have either of these ingredients. Even the tuna we often see […]
Traditional French Provencal Ratatouille
Ratatouille is a Southern French recipe that can be loosely described as a late summer vegetable stew. And in some cases it is: many people tend to just saute onions, add eggplant, courgettes, bell peppers, tomatoes and then let the whole thing simmer until it is cooked and becomes “stewy”. But ratatouille is a little […]
French tabbouleh
You may already be familiar with tabbouleh, the Middle Eastern lemony herb, and bulgur salad. This is what I was familiar with when going to Lebanese/Syrian restaurants in Montreal and the one I found when living in Dubai. It contains very little grain, lots of parsley, some onion, and from time to time, you’d also […]
Summer Solstice Strawberry cake
This recipe is from my Spring & Summer e-book and the only one that I have actually posted on the website because I couldn’t not post it for the Summer solstice. It’s the PERFECT dessert to celebrate the first day of summer. **************** If you like a good old-fashioned buttered toast with homemade strawberry jam, […]
French cod brandade
Cod brandade is a lovely traditional dish from the Nimes region in southern France. Like many traditional recipes, it has humble beginnings. Back in the 16th century, fishermen from the Brittany region in France would come to Nimes, a region known for its salt culture. They would use it to salt their fish (most often […]
Swedish blueberry soup
Many years ago, on one summer solstice, I went to Sweden with some work colleagues to do a bike race around a lake in a small town called Mottala. The race was 300 km long and our departure time was during the few hours of darkness, at around 2am (in that time of year, the […]
Stone fruit polenta cobbler
Cobblers usually have a lot more fruit than cake batter – in this case, it’s 40/60 because that’s how my kids like it. Also, this particular recipe uses a genius polenta-based topping, which I hijacked from one of my favorite contemporary cookbook writers – Julia Turshen. Throw in whichever stonefruit you’ve got – I like […]
Rye banana bread
Rye banana bread is a must-have in your little black book of quick bread recipes. I love that rye flour is making a comeback in recent years. And what’s interesting is that we now see it in things other than regular bread: rye chocolate chip cookies, brownies, waffles, wonderful-tasting pie crust made of rye flour, […]