One of the first books that made me fall in love with France and French cuisine was Roger Vergé’s Entertaining in the French Style. Vergé was the chef and owner of Moulin de Mougins, his world-famous restaurant on the Côte d’Azur, near Cannes. I never went, but used to page through the book, admiring the relaxed, friendly lifestyle that always seemed to revolve around a table,…
One of the first books that made me fall in love with France and French cuisine was Roger Vergé’s Entertaining in the French Style. Vergé was the chef and owner of Moulin de Mougins, his world-famous restaurant on the Côte d’Azur, near Cannes. I never went, but used to page through the book, admiring the relaxed, friendly lifestyle that always seemed to revolve around a table, laden with good food and plenty of local wine. It made me want to go and be a part of it all. In fact, there are two empty seats at that table, and I’d like one of them.
Unlike a lot of chef books, this isn’t “aspirational” cooking, that is, pictures and recipes of foods that you could never hope to make. I recently got a book by a much-admired chef and I wanted to share a recipe. But there was only one recipe in the book that could be made in less than a day, and each recipe had at least one ingredient that I had no idea where I would get it. Don’t get me wrong. I liked the book a lot and his restaurant looks amazing, but it didn’t make me want to run to the kitchen. So I admired the book, and the food, from afar.
There are so many pictures in Chef Vergé’s book that made me flash back to my past, decades ago, when I was learning more about French cuisine while cooking in Northern California, which shares a similar climate – and ingredients – with Provence. He had dubbed it “Cuisine of the Sun.” The much-loved chef recently passed away and I revisited the book, to relive what excited me about French cuisine, way-back-when.
Cherry Hand Pies are the epitome of personal pie goodness! Flaky pie crust and sweet cherry filling in a portable pie form – what more could you ask for? This post contains affiliate links. If you’ve been around here for a while, you might have figured out that I love individually sized desserts. They’re just so …
Cherry Hand Pies are the epitome of personal pie goodness! Flaky pie crust and sweet cherry filling in a portable pie form – what more could you ask for?
This post contains affiliate links.
If you’ve been around here for a while, you might have figured out that I love individually sized desserts.
They’re just so cute, fun to eat, and are great for parties or taking to potlucks and cookouts.
And is there a more summer-perfect pie than cherry pie? I feel like there has to be a cherry pie or cherry crisp at every summer barbecue. It’s just the rule!
The minute I see fresh sweet cherries on sale at the store I have to buy them up and pack all of their goodness into Cherry Hand Pies for a portable version of this summer fave.
Add some fall flair to your oatmeal cookies! These Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies are filled with dried cranberries and white chocolate chips for a twist on your favorite oatmeal cookie. I’m starting to get into cookie mode over here. While in the school pickup line the other day, I made a list of all of the …
Add some fall flair to your oatmeal cookies! These Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies are filled with dried cranberries and white chocolate chips for a twist on your favorite oatmeal cookie.
I’m starting to get into cookie mode over here. While in the school pickup line the other day, I made a list of all of the cookie recipes that I want to bake over the holidays.
Years ago, at a flea market in Paris I pickup up some old metal letters from a bakery in France that spelled out PATISSERIE. Being a baker, of course I was thrilled (although still despondent that someone else snatched up the matching BOULANGERIE letters…) and proudly displayed them on the shelf of my apartment. Since my apartment at the time was so small, shelf space…
Years ago, at a flea market in Paris I pickup up some old metal letters from a bakery in France that spelled out PATISSERIE. Being a baker, of course I was thrilled (although still despondent that someone else snatched up the matching BOULANGERIE letters…) and proudly displayed them on the shelf of my apartment. Since my apartment at the time was so small, shelf space was at a super-premium. Yet I was happy to give a lot of it up to have those letters reminding me of my métier.
When I lent my apartment to some visiting friends, I noticed the P and the T had been reversed, and it spelled TAPISSERIE. I got a kick out of it and thought that was very clever. When a new bakery in Paris called Tapisserie from the team of a noted restaurant, I figured it wasn’t a place to purchase a tapestry, but a clever – and original – place to get terrific desserts.
My Netflix queue has gotten out of control and is entirely too long. And to make matters worse, I keep adding to it. Being out of the U.S. for so long, I missed watching binge-worthy, must-watch classics like The Wire and Breaking Bad when they came out, and I’d love to sit down on the sofa for another few months and watch them now that…
My Netflix queue has gotten out of control and is entirely too long. And to make matters worse, I keep adding to it. Being out of the U.S. for so long, I missed watching binge-worthy, must-watch classics like The Wire and Breaking Bad when they came out, and I’d love to sit down on the sofa for another few months and watch them now that they are streaming, as well as rewatch all five seasons of Six Feet Under, which was one of the best shows that’s even been on television. How they managed to make a show about death so human is beyond me, with a finale that’s lauded as the best ending for a television series ever. Which also made me wonder how they could have left the end of The Sopranos, another incredible show, land with such a thud?
The pandemic and confinements were certainly good for whittling down those “Watch Lists” but one show that jumped to the top of the queue was High on the Hog. It’s an eye-opening, unnerving, and emotionally difficult look at the role that African-Americans, who were brought to America as slaves, had in shaping American cooking. The subtitle of the show is “How African-American Cuisine Transformed America” which sounds like a big bill for fill, but the four-episode show traces how that happened.
And lest anyone doubt the rich contribution African-Americans have made to our cooking, author and Cook’s Country editor Toni Tipton-Martin pointed out in the program that Black Americans have been used by food brands for decades in America to denote quality, by brands like Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, which gave host Stephen Satterfield pause as well, flipping the narrative about those culinary characters (or caricatures) that many of us grew up with.
I had the good fortune of a day off right at the beginning of sour cherry s…
I had the good fortune of a day off right at the beginning of sour cherry season last week (What, you don’t mark the weeks of summer using hyper-seasonal fruit as a guide? Just me?) so I put on some sunscreen and a hat, hopped in the car, and went in search of a u-pick farm. I was not disappointed to find a row of trees, heavy with fruit and not a soul in site at a farm a few hours from Brooklyn. It was a hot, hot day and the scent of the last strawberries in the field nearby filled the air as I filled up my bucket with precious sour cherries.
When I got home with my bounty, pie was the only choice. Instead of a traditional round, I went slab style and baked it in a quarter sheet pan. If you don’t have a quarter sheet pan or two, I highly recommend picking one up. At roughly 9x13x1, they are the perfect size to bake focaccia, a few cookies, toast nuts, or roast just about anything…but back to the sour cherries.
Pitting cherries can be kind of a pain, but since sour cherries are so soft, I usually skip the pitter and just use my thumb to ease out the pits. It’s a bit of a sticky, drippy process so you can move your operation to the sink to make clean up super easy.
I like my fruit pie fillings pretty simple, especially when the fruit is so special (and hard earned). This one is just sweet enough to highlight the cherries without totally overtaking their tart bite. I also added a bit of vanilla bean paste to round out the flavor, but a little bit of extract will do the trick too.
The all butter pie crust has a bit of rye flour and brown sugar for toasty depth that is delicious with just about any fruit if sour cherries aren’t available where you live. It might be a little intimidating to roll out such a big piece of dough, but don’t you worry. To add both flakiness and structure to the dough, this recipe calls for a series of folds. The folds will make the dough both exceptionally delicious and easier to roll out and move around. Win-win. Check out the gif above to see how it’s done.
Don’t worry if your dough rips a bit when you roll it out though, you can always pinch it back together. If you have time, make your dough the say before you plan to use it. A long rest will hydrate the dough and make it easier to roll out.
I realize, it is a little unfair to share this recipe because sour cherries can be hard to get your hands on, but you still have a few more weeks to seek them out. Frozen will work in a pinch too, or substitute an equal amount of your favorite summer fruit - you will need a little less sugar for sweeter fruit.
Real Deal Cherry Pie
Makes one 1/4 sheet slab pie
This pie makes the best of one of summer’s most fleeting pleasures, sour cherries. They are only available for a few weeks in late June/early July, but they are worth the wait, and the trouble of pitting them. The crust uses a bit of rye flour which adds some nutty and creamy flavor to the crust, and pairs beautifully with fruit desserts. Use an equal amount of all purpose flour if you have rye flour on hand. This filling recipe was lightly adapted from Deb at Smitten Kitchen, who adapted from Martha Stewart, and loves sour cherries as much as I do.
Rye Crust
340g/2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
170g/1 1/3 cups rye flour (I used Abruzzi Heirloom Rye from Anson Mills)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
10-12 tablespoons ice water
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
340g/1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon sized pieces
Filling
900g/about 6 cups pitted sour cherries
3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon (165g) sugar (I used a natural cane sugar here, but granulated works too)
30g/1/4 cup cornstarch
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
Pinch salt
To finish
1 egg, for egg wash
Turbinado sugar to finish
To make the crust: Add the flours, brown sugar, and salt to a large bowl. Stir them together until combined. Add the apple cider vinegar to the ice water. Working quickly, add the butter to the flour and toss to coat. Then use your fingers or the palms of your hands to press each cube of butter into a flat sheet. Keep tossing the butter as you go to ensure that each butter piece is coated with flour. The idea is to create thin, flat shards of butter that range from about the size of a dime to about the size of a quarter. Sprinkle about 6 tablespoons of the water over the flour mixture and use your hands to mix gently, making sure to get all of the way down to the bottom of the bowl. Continue to add more water a couple of teaspoons at a time.
You have added enough water when you can pick up a handful of the dough and squeeze it together easily without it falling apart.
Press the dough together, then pat it into a rectangle. Fold the dough into thirds like a letter, then split it in half, form each half into a rectangle and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Chill the dough for at least one hour before using, or overnight. I prefer an overnight rest if possible.
When you are ready to bake the pie, heat your oven to 400ºF.
Add the pitted cherries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, vanilla bean paste, and salt to a large bowl and stir gently to combine.
Roll one piece of the dough on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 11x15. Gently tuck it into a metal quarter sheet pan, letting the excess hang over the sides. Roll the other piece of dough into a rectangle about 10x14.
Pour the cherries into the dough lined pan and top with other piece of dough. Gently fold the bottom dough up and over the top and press gently. Refrigerate the pie until the crust is firm, about 15 minutes.
While the pie chills, beat the egg with a few drops of water to make the egg wash. When the pie is nice and chilled gently brush the surface with egg wash and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Cut a few vents in the top then bake until the crust is deep golden brown and the juices are bubbling, 45-60 minutes.
Let the pie cool on a rack before serving warm or at room temperature. Ice cream is optional, but highly suggested.
This week France rather quietly announced that visitors from the U.S. and Canada were allowed to come to the country without any restrictions. Things are still moving in the direction of getting back to normal, and while last year is still sort of a haze to me, I believe the markets in Paris remained open the entire time, operating under different conditions. Outdoor markets are…
This week France rather quietly announced that visitors from the U.S. and Canada were allowed to come to the country without any restrictions. Things are still moving in the direction of getting back to normal, and while last year is still sort of a haze to me, I believe the markets in Paris remained open the entire time, operating under different conditions. Outdoor markets are extremely important in France and, of course, pre-dated les supermarchés which are now everywhere and have more agreeable hours – some are now even open on Sundays, which was controversial when it happened. But the outdoor markets take place six days a week in Paris, and in a country where holidays and vacations, and Sundays, are sacred, they remain open no matter what, even on Christmas, Easter, and New Year’s Day.
The outdoor markets are an integral part of French life and while in Paris there are over 100 marchés alimentaires (food markets), many of the stands are run by négotiants, or middle-men and women, who get their fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry, and fish from Rungis, the wholesale market outside of the city. There are many small farms in France but many stay, and sell, only in their regions due to their size. So I’m always happy when I see signs posted about an upcoming Marché des Producteurs de Pays, where you can buy things directly from the growers and producers, who bring their foods to the city.
Cherry Crisp is simple, quick, and delicious. Top it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for the ultimate weeknight dessert. Last week I was tidying up our pantry and realized that I haven’t used my ice cream maker in quite some time. So I pulled it forward on the shelf, gave it a good …
Cherry Crisp is simple, quick, and delicious. Top it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for the ultimate weeknight dessert.
Last week I was tidying up our pantry and realized that I haven’t used my ice cream maker in quite some time. So I pulled it forward on the shelf, gave it a good wipe down and decided that I need to teach my girl how to make some homemade ice cream.
I scanned the fridge and pantry to see if we had everything on hand to whip up a simple vanilla ice cream base, but it was a no-go because I had used the rest of the cream for a delish Alfredo sauce last week.
So I totally switched gears and decided I was in the mood for a crisp – cherry crisp to be exact.
And I just so happened to have all of those ingredients on hand – complete with a pint of vanilla bean ice cream in the freezer.
No worries though, we’ll get to the homemade vanilla ice cream as soon as I pick up some more heavy cream on our next grocery trip.
I’ve been playing around with riced cauliflower over the past week, and one of the fun and unexpected ways to use it is in fruit smoothies, like this Cherry Almond Smoothie. This rich and creamy smoothie has a natural and subtle sweetness, a creamy texture, and tons of protein and plant fiber to keep you full. So if hiding cauliflower in a fruit smoothie has you curious, keep on reading!
Why Add Cauliflower to a Smoothie?
Cauliflower is a really great neutral ingredient that adds fiber and body to the smoothie, which helps give it a lighter, more creamy texture. Plus, it’s a really simple way to add an extra dose of vegetables to your day.
I used frozen riced cauliflower to my smoothie, but if you have a really good blender you can use frozen cauliflower florets as well.
How Does it Taste?
You can’t taste the cauliflower in this smoothie. Not only is cauliflower mild in flavor already, but I find that ingredients that have a bit of fat (like the almond butter in this recipe) help mask that cruciferous vegetable flavor.
This smoothie has a subtle, natural sweetness, thanks to the banana and cherries. If you prefer a sweeter smoothie, you can add some honey, brown sugar, another sweet fruit like blueberries, or use sweetened almond milk.
Can I Sub the Almond Butter or Almond Milk?
If you can’t eat almonds, another good option is to make this a cherry coconut smoothie. In place of using almond butter and almond milk, you can use some full-fat coconut milk. The creamy coconut flavor will offer that same richness as the almond butter and help hide that cruciferous flavor.
Cherry Almond Smoothie
This rich and creamy smoothie has a natural and subtle sweetness, a creamy texture, and tons of protein and plant fiber to keep you full.
How to Make a Cherry Almond Smoothie – Step by Step Photos
Add ½ cup frozen riced cauliflower, ½ of a frozen banana, ½ cup frozen sweet cherries, 1 Tbsp almond butter, ⅛ tsp cinnamon, and 1 cup almond milk to a blender.
Blend the ingredients until smooth. Sometimes with smoothies you may need to adjust the liquid up or down to make it blend smoothly. Taste the smoothie and adjust the sweetness (honey, sugar, more fruit) to your liking. Serve immediately.
This Brussels sprout salad recipe has the best fresh flavor and zingy dressing! Pair with apple, almonds and cherries for a simple side dish. Brussels sprouts in a salad? Turns out, the mighty sprout is one of the best ways to make delicious, feathery salad greens. Sure, Brussels sprouts are transcendental crispy roasted with maple glaze. But shaved raw in a salad is the next best way to eat them! The raw greens aren’t bitter at all: they’re sweet and feathery, with irresistibly tasty flavor. Combine them with a sweet and tangy Djion mustard dressing, apples, and dried cherries, and they’re pretty darn perfect. Ready to get shredding? Ingredients for Brussels sprout salad There are so many ways to make a killer Brussels sprout salad recipe: here’s our favorite — and we’ll offer some variations and options below. Here’s what we put in our salad: Shaved Brussels sprouts: see below for how to do it, or buy them pre-shaved Crunchy leafy green: we used escarole, but it’s optional Apple: Apple and Brussels are a classic combination Dried cherries: Use tart cherries with no added sugar if you can find them Almonds: Marcona almonds have great flavor, or use whatever you […]
This Brussels sprout salad recipe has the best fresh flavor and zingy dressing! Pair with apple, almonds and cherries for a simple side dish.
Brussels sprouts in a salad? Turns out, the mighty sprout is one of the best ways to make delicious, feathery salad greens. Sure, Brussels sprouts are transcendental crispy roasted with maple glaze. But shaved raw in a salad is the next best way to eat them! The raw greens aren’t bitter at all: they’re sweet and feathery, with irresistibly tasty flavor. Combine them with a sweet and tangy Djion mustard dressing, apples, and dried cherries, and they’re pretty darn perfect. Ready to get shredding?
Ingredients for Brussels sprout salad
There are so many ways to make a killer Brussels sprout salad recipe: here’s our favorite — and we’ll offer some variations and options below. Here’s what we put in our salad:
Shaved Brussels sprouts: see below for how to do it, or buy them pre-shaved
Crunchy leafy green: we used escarole, but it’s optional
Apple: Apple and Brussels are a classic combination
Dried cherries: Use tart cherries with no added sugar if you can find them
Almonds: Marcona almonds have great flavor, or use whatever you can find
Feta crumbles, optional: Feta is tasty, but this salad is just as good without
The most time consuming part of Brussels sprout salad is…shaving the Brussels sprouts! There are a few ways to do it: and all you need is a Chef’s knife. However, if you have fancy equipment, it makes the process much faster. Here’s what to know:
Knife: Remove any tough outer layers with your fingers. Cut the Brussels sprout in half lengthwise. Place the cut side down and thinly slide cross-wise to create shreds. Separate the shreds with your fingers. Discard the root end.
Food processor: Use the slicing disc of a food processor. Place the Brussels sprout in top down one at a time, which creates long thin ribbons.
Mandoline: Put on the protective gloves that came with the mandoline. Shave each sprout from the tip to the end, using the mandoline attachment.
Variations: other salad mix-ins!
Shaved Brussels sprouts aren’t bitter as you’d expect. They have a sweet flavor and a beautifully feathery texture. You can add just about anything to your Brussels sprout salad and it will taste good! Here are a few more ideas for mix-ins:
Pomegranate seeds add a beautiful crunch (here’s how to seed one)
Dried fruit like cranberries or raisins can stand in for the cherries
Pear can stand in for apple
Walnuts, pecans or pistachios work instead of almonds
Pumpkin seeds add additional crunch
Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese adds a savory note instead of feta
Salad dressing variations
You can also vary the dressing in this salad! We love it with our Dijon mustard dressing. But there are a few other dressing that work based on the ingredients you have on hand. Here are a few other options:
The humble Brussels sprout has grown into one of our favorite foods. In the last several years, it’s grown massively in popularity on restaurant menus. We’re so glad it’s enjoying the spotlight it deserves! Here are a few more great Brussels sprout recipes:
Shred the Brussels sprouts: go to How to Shred Brussels Sprouts. Or, use a food processor slicing blade or mandoline to slice each sprout from top to end.
Prep the vegetables: Chop the escarole or other leafy green. Dice the apple.
Make the dressing: In a medium bowl, whisk together the Dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, maple syrup, and salt. Then whisk in the olive oil 1 tablespoon at a time until a creamy dressing forms.
Assemble the salad: Mix together all salad ingredients. Mix with 1/2 cup of the dressing (add more to taste, if desired). Top with feta crumbles, if using, and serve.