I just came back from a much needed vacation with the family in France. This post is not the ultimate guide to eating in Paris, just a little glimpse at how we do it in the old country and it starts with a picnic at home. The abundance of delicious foods in every neighborhoods makes it quite easy to improvise a dinner. On the table some quiches, a jambonneau, a delicious pâté de campagne, a pig feet with sauce gribiche, olives and some truly incredible cheeses from Rodolphe Le Meunier (MOF) i brought back from a memorable adventure in Tours a day earlier. Add a few baguettes, a bottle of Bordeaux and a green salad and i’m in heaven.

For dessert we had some of the best chocolate éclair i ever tasted. They were bought at Le Furet Tanrade, a pastry shop around the corner from my brother’s apartment also famous for its homemade jams and that has been in business since 1728. Those éclair were deep, dark and perfect. My waistline is expanding just thinking about them.

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A quick little post before I head to France for a little break before the Hamptons season. Sorry for the lack of posting this past few weeks but a combination of work and not feeling too shabby have kept my blogging mojo on the low side. Hopefully this little vacation will recharge the batteries and i’ll come back with plenty of fresh ideas.

In the meantime, a pizza i’d take with me to my post-apocalyptic bomb shelter if i had one. That’s how good this is. You could call it a Spanish Pizza with its chorizo, piquillo peppers, sweet onions and aged manchego cheese and that may be what i’ll be munching on during the world cup final on sunday. Go Spain!

See you soon, friends!

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I’m pretty sure you’re already familiar with Peking duck, the famous roast duck from Beijing that has been prepared since the imperial era. The meat, or rather the crispy skin is served with steamed pancakes, scallions and plum sauce. The diners spread sauce over the pancake and it’s wrapped around the crispy skin with scallions and cucumbers and eaten by hand. And boy, it’s amazing.

Well, you can call this a Frenchman version of Peking duck with a little detour by the Mediterranean, Gascony, and back to China. It won’t earn you frequent-flyer miles though. A mix-match of flavors reminiscent of Peking duck but with a definite French flair to it because of the Mediterranean chickpea pancake (socca) and the duck confit, the plum sauce stays the same. I don’t mess with plum sauce, ever. I think i even added a few strips of lemon confit in there because i’m fun like that.

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By now you’re already familiar with my friend Olivier who’s done a few demos on this blog in the past. If you’re not you can read about his past exploits here and there. Olivier is a private chef and works in a penthouse apartment on Park Avenue overlooking Manhattan with an herb garden right outside his kitchen and an helipad for last-minute grocery shopping. Okay, maybe i exaggerate a little. Or maybe i don’t.

As usual, i’ve been bugging him to cook for us and this time he offered to do grilled Spanish mackerel prepared 3 different ways for this improvised cooking session. I hope these simple dishes by this skilled chef will inspire you to give it a try.

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If you can’t decide between a tartare, a crudo or a salad to start your meal, i’ve got the perfect dish for you. It starts with a layer of finely chopped tuna tartare, if you have access to o-toro or any fatty cut of tuna by all cost use it, you won’t be disappointed. Thinly sliced sea scallops  seasoned with lemon juice, good olive oil and pink peppercorns are arranged on top and a little salad of edible spring flowers, baby arugula and tender bits of frisee gently seasoned with more olive oil, lemon juice and sel de guerande turns this dish into something not only beautiful to look at, but delicious, refreshing and light. There’s not much more you can ask for in this warm weather.

I discovered at a dinner at Esca last year that fresh, pristine, and slightly marinated raw sea scallops have a special affinity for pink peppercorn. Pink peppercorns have a fragrant, sweet, and spicy flavor reminiscent of a mild citrus zest and sweet berries which is a match made in heaven for the sweet flavor and delicate texture of sea scallops.

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If you can imagine all the lusciousness of melt-on-your-tongue Wagyu with aromatic pastrami spice, paired with the delicate buffalo mozzarella on a thin layer of tomato sauce with caramelized vidalia onions and let’s not forget the fatty bits of the wagyu pastrami, charred around the edges, melting onto the pizza to create an intricate combination of flavors. Then you know what i’m talking about. If you don’t, i can’t.. i can’t go on anymore .. I need to stop before I drool on my keyboard.

If you’re the ambitious type and need a week-long project there’s a recipe for Thomas Keller’s Wagyu pastrami here which almost guarantees that you and your family, friends and neighbours will be eating pastrami sandwiches for days, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you ask me. Otherwise it can be purchased in some upscale markets and probably online too.

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A quick post today because seasonal allergies are keeping me away from the blogosphere. It’s hard to focus or be creative with tension headache and a bunch of other ailments. Hopefully i’ll be back in blogging form soon.

This pistachio-cherry gratin did bring some sort of comfort though and the best part is that it couldn’t be easier. And easy is just what i need these days. A sort of pistachio frangipane is poured over sauteed cherries flambee in kirsch and the whole thing is baked for about 20 to 25 minutes. It results in something which technically isn’t a clafouti but delicious nonetheless.

Enjoy!

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Life is full of priorities so this will be a quick post. Why? You see that egg yolk… well it’s one of those priorities i’m talking about. That egg yolk needs the heat from the pasta to evenly coat it, along with the parmesan, in order to create a luxurious finish and mouth feel. So by the time it touches the bottom of the bowl i have to be done writing so i can fully focus my attention on the swirls of my fork.

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Sometimes i find a photo of a dish in a book or magazine that inspires me and i instantly feel the need to make a version of it – which i admit – always end up in my stomach, but it’s almost if i am more interested in the creative process than the act of eating. Almost! What excites me is the search for a combination where aesthetics and harmony show up in perfect measures for the perfect enjoyment. And as my old friend the Dalai Lama would say to confuse us all: “Perfect enjoyment is to be without enjoyment.”

[sound of stomach growling]

Ok fine. I get it! Geez.. i was trying to be Zen for a bit.

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If you’ve been dreaming about a dish where the essence of fresh lobster is extracted, squeezed and concentrated into one delicious gratin, well… you can wake up now. I’m gonna show you how.

Let me clarify first that we are not talking about the abomination of folding lobster meat into mac and cheese here. We’re talking about using every part of the lobster to layer and accentuate its flavor in a spectacular lobster and macaroni gratin. We start by cooking our crustacean friends in a court-bouillon to impart the meat with flavor. Next we separate the heads and chop them up before browning them in a stockpot with aromatics and deglazing the pot with Cognac. Next we add cream to make a very delicious lobster broth. The pasta is cooked al dente and finished in the reduced lobster ‘cream’ along with chunks of lobster (and in this case, ramp greens), grated Comté cheese is sprinkled over the gratins and the whole thing goes under the broiler for a few minutes until it forms a nice bubbly crust on the top. Hungry yet?

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