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Basque in the afterglow: garlic, sausage & red pepper soup
Possibly the saddest lie Michelle has ever told involves a pony, the Pyrenées and picture-taking. Steve had asked to stop on a narrow, guardrail-less road winding its way towards St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port...
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Struggle, strive, squash.
Winter squash is work. Peeling is a chore and cutting can be terrifying, as the heavy flesh resists even the sharpest knives. And many times our local squash can be a little disappointing, our...
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An “au revoir/auf wiedersehen” to apples
Steve has probably purchased his last batch of local apples for the year, and since he snacks on several per day (there are many, many doctors out there, after all) he’ll soon be buying what he calls...
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Food, Photoshop & Frustration: Chocolate Pear Macaroon
Making the chocolate pear macaroon dessert wasn’t really that difficult. A few pears, a bit of cocoa powder (Steve would have preferred a bit more cocoa, actually), almonds, an oven, etc. The...
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Calvados overdose: Calvados Ice Cream with Apple Calvados Compote (now with...
Those Norman French sure love their apple brandy. A sidebar next to this recipe in Susan Herrmann Loomis’ French Farmhouse Cookbook lists seven rounds of Calvados served at the end of old-school Norman...
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Soft-boiled eggs, soldiers and slightly overdoing Michel Bras
We first found the Relais & Chateaux resort hanging above the Aubrac plateau in 2004, as we fled the food desert known as the Minervois that had been our lovely home for almost a month on our first...
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Garbure ≠ garbage + ordure; or you are what you etymologize
The next time you’re eating “brunch” with a “spork,” you should stop for a moment and thank Lewis Carroll. (Perhaps you should then explore the idea of no longer brunching, especially if you frequent...
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Cold weather can’t stop Salty Caramel Ice Cream with Roasted Pears.
Perhaps Michelle began thinking of ice cream because Gourmandistan is currently locked in a frozen wasteland, our only connection to the outside world being our rattling, rusty 20-year-old SUV. (And...
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Canard a la moutarde competes with duck confit
We Gourmandistanis are big fans of duck confit. We’ve written before about our less fat-intesive method of making it, and we currently have some boned-out bits stuffed in the freezer, waiting for a...
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Guy Savoy, blood orange tart and the meal that almost wasn’t
We purchased our copy of Guy Savoy’s 120 recettes comme à la maison in January 2001, the day after we dined at his then-two-Michelin-starred restaurant near the Arc de Triomphe. The day before our...
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Design vs. function found in blanquette of pork
Phaidon Editorial Director Emilia Terragni was recently described as “Queen of Cookbooks” on the strength of the publishing house’s marvelous-looking books from such luminaries as Ferran Adrià and René...
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Sort-of French salt cod fritters (accras de morue)
Gourmandistan recently purchased about a pound of Canadian salt cod, as Michelle would like to try to recreate a friend’s stepfather’s legendary crusty cod hash. (Our first attempt was tasty, but also...
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Garbure Gets Gourmandistan Ready For 2015
Once again Gourmandistan enters a new year, and once again we enjoy black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day, without resorting to Hoppin’ John. Steve managed to come down with a nasty cold between Christmas...
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Rabbit nems resurrect thoughts of France, sausage making
Gourmandistan has had an idea of recreating rabbit nems in our imaginary fiefdom almost since the time we discovered them in Normandy a couple of years ago. As we recall, the rice paper-wrapped treats...
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Paleoanthropology and persnickityness in potée
While other forms of cooking undoubtedly predate the pot, there certainly couldn’t have been too many of them. Once humanity got the hang of fire and sticks, some genius must shortly have realized that...
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Leek Tart welcomes the ’80s back
As we have noted before, Gourmandistanis are not unfamiliar with the 1980s. Over the decades we discarded many of our ’80s ways (shoulder pads, Sony Walkmen, comic books), but we never gave up the...
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Easy guinea hen gets less greasy
Gourmandistan was happy to learn that our favorite baker and pork supplier had decided to raise a flock of guineas and offer them for sale at our local market. We’re fans of the better-than-chicken...
View ArticleSt.-Paul de Vence walnut tart requires new pan, rewards much work
Maida Heatter, in Maida Heatter’s Cakes, first published in 1982, says this walnut tart is “really a fancy cake.” While Gourmandistan is not about to jump into the fray between cakes and tarts (yes,...
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