French | Easy Delicious Recipes

2007 Anaba Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast

September 3, 2010 – 1:46 am | by admin

One of my greatest pleasures remains my “discovery” of small new wineries, and the opportunity to watch them mature over time. Of course, three vintages isn’t exactly a lot of time to watch a winery mature, but it’s quite exciting to see the third vintage of a winery that seemed to hit it out of the ballpark with their very first release. A couple of years ago some bottles showed up on my doorstep bearing the name Anaba in beautiful looping script. I was immediately intrigued to note that the first releases from this new Sonoma County winery were Rhone style blends — far from the typical initial foray that most new wineries make in Sonoma County. I noted at the time my surprise that they weren’t making a Pinot Noir, and received an e-mail note from the owner saying, essentially, “wait for it.” So, a year has gone by, and what should arrive on my doorstep last month, but a package of wines from Anaba, this time, including two very nice Pinot Noirs. Anaba Wines , named for the anabatic winds (big points with meteorology geeks) that…

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Tags: anaba, california, county, doorstep, france, french, internet, kathleen, red wine, result, rhone, wine, winery, wines

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French in a Flash (Classic): Wild Mushroom Vol-au-Vent

September 2, 2010 – 9:30 pm | by admin

From Recipes [ Photographs: Kerry Saretsky ] Whenever I think of puff pastry, I wonder how anything that should be so heavy could ever be so light. It is that lightness that gives meaning to vol-au-vent, literally “flying in the wind.” But in my family, we always translated them as “gone with the wind” because they fly off into people’s stomachs so quickly. There are a million and one ways to make vol-au-vent, and even though the classic lidded nest in this recipe is the classic shape, I often just make little triangles or squares and call them by the same name, stuffed with anything from goat cheese and jam to brie and brown sugar. They really are blank canvases. This vol-au-vent is well grounded in tradition: a bite-size canapé made from bought puff pastry and stuffed with a creamy mushroom duxelles. The puff pastry is flaky and crispy, ready to crumble and collapse layer by layer at the very hint of a bite. And the mushroom filling is earthy and woodsy from mushrooms and thyme, and smooth from the crème fraîche. I’ve always promised to show how to make classic French dishes easy with a little help from the store. This is …

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Tags: cheese, classic, creator, fill-the-cavity, french, from-the-pastry, Frozen, ingredient, pastry, result, revolution, thyme, unsalted, white, wine

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Cupcake truck and New Jersey bakery CupcakeStop in The New York Times

August 31, 2010 – 11:17 am | by admin

From today’s The New York Times : Mr. Ekster, 26, who completed his law degree at the New York Law School in TriBeCa in May 2009, is not a baker. But he chose cupcakes. “When I was in school, I spent so much time traveling across town waiting in lines for dessert,” he said. “Cupcakes are such a great comfort food, but I wasn’t impressed with the offerings out there.” So he opened CupcakeStop in June 2009, renting a commercial kitchen in Brooklyn to bake cupcakes, which he sold from a truck roaming the streets of New York City. In April, he moved the bakery to an out-of-the-way spot in a shopping center in Montclair, where it opened to retail customers in July. There are now two trucks in New York, and the company also has a small counter at the Limelight Marketplace in Manhattan. Traffic, Mr. Ekster said, has been better than steady in Montclair. He attributes it to CupcakeStop’s recipes and its three bakers, trained at the French Culinary Institute. They churn out 9 to 12 flavors like chocolate caramel pretzel and Nutella crunch daily, rotating through a repertoire of around 80 varieties.

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Tags: Comfort, cupcake, cupcake bakeries, cupcake trucks, cupcakestop, french, lev ekster, limelight, offerings, school, shopping, streets, tribeca, york

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Cakespy: Birthday Cake French Toast

August 30, 2010 – 5:31 pm | by admin

From Recipes Jessie Oleson (aka Cakespy ) drops by every Monday to share a delicious dessert recipe. —The Mgmt. [ Photographs and original illustrations: Cakespy ] Say hello to your new best friend, Birthday Cake French Toast. This recipe breathes new life into birthday cake that is past its prime, making use of the dry texture to absorb a rich, eggy mixture, which is then pan-fried (frosting and all) to yield a new breed of French toast that’s beyond decadent. In the tradition of over-the-top morning foods such as Cadbury Creme Eggs Benedict , this makes for a sugar bomb of a plate, tasting far better than it has any right to, in a so-bad-it’s-good sort of way. About the author: Jessie Oleson is a Seattle-based writer, illustrator, gallery owner , and cake anthropologist who runs Cakespy, an award-winning dessert website. Special equipment: Medium frying pan or skillet Ingredients serves 4 6 to 8 slices leftover birthday cake, chilled in the refrigerator overnight 4 eggs 1/2 cup milk or light cream 3 tablespoons sugar Dash of cinnamon or other spices, to taste 2 to 4 tablespoons butter, for frying Confectioners’ sugar glaze or sprinkles, to garnish Procedures In a …

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Tags: across-the-pan, french, frying, jessie oleson, recipe, recipes, refrigerator, result, serving-platter, whisk-the-eggs

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Interview: Michael Laiskonis, Executive Pastry Chef at Le Bernardin

August 23, 2010 – 9:33 pm | by admin

This post is brought to you by Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate. Michael Laiskonis is consistently rated as one of the top pastry chefs in the country for his work at the three-Michelin-star-rated Le Bernardin . He also happens to be an incredibly nice guy, and generously took some time out of his insane schedule to answer some of my questions. His other musings on food and life can be found on his blog . You eschewed formal training in favor of learning on the job; what was the thought process there? I’m not sure there was much of a thought process, it’s just the way it all ended up playing out! When I first started cooking, or rather, once I realized that it was a career that I wanted to pursue, I wasn’t in a position to drop everything in order to enroll in a program like that at the CIA. Thus, my culinary path became a sort of “earn while you learn” apprenticeship, under a handful of chefs that I still consider early mentors. Indeed, for a long time, I felt as if I was missing out on something, not having pursued formal training, but I eventually got over it! In a way, I …

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Tags: apprenticeship, board, chocolate, city, education, food, french, institute, michael, musings, opinion, pastry, people

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Italy to be “tougher than Sarkozy” on Roma

August 23, 2010 – 6:00 am | by admin

Italy’s Interior Minister Roberto Maroni has praised the French government for deporting hundreds of Romanians last week. The deportations were said to have been “voluntary” but human rights groups have accused the French government of coercing the Romanians to leave.

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Tags: deporting-hundreds, french, human, immigration, italy, result, rights, roberto

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French in a Flash (Classic): Profiteroles

August 19, 2010 – 9:30 pm | by admin

From Recipes [ Photographs: Kerry Saretsky ] I read every comment posted on my recipes, for better or for worse. And I noticed that some of them said things along the lines of, “Thanks Kerry, we like this pissaladière pasta , but how do I make pissaladière?” And that was one of my original goals for this column: to show people how to make French food fast, and easy. And what is French food without the classics? So, here is the first is the series of canonical French classics, without the fuss, that I will be peppering into French in a Flash. I begin with the end: dessert. French pastries are legendary, and, for the most part, they are best left to patisseries. I find nothing wrong with buying a beautiful tart on the way home from the subway. But some French baking is so easy, and so different from what we’re used to making, that things like profiteroles become homemade pantry-staple bombshells. All it takes to make the world’s most elegant ice cream sandwich is flour, butter, water, and eggs. French food may be fabulous, but it’s hardly exotic or esoteric to the American pantry. Add chocolate chips and store-bought ice cream, and you’re done. Though the classic is vanilla, I can’t resist strawberry ice…

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Tags: along-the-lines, classics, cream, creator, dessert, eggs, family, french, profiteroles, recipes, Staple, subway

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Sponsor Post: Three Bring Your Own Wine Restaurants in Montréal

August 19, 2010 – 1:22 pm | by admin

This sponsor post is brought to you by Tourisme Montréal . The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Serious Eats. Le Jardin de Panos We admit it, Bring Your Own Wine restaurants, a Montréal speciality, can be hit or miss experiences. Here are three culturally diverse classics that never disappoint. We’ve been going back to them for years with the same pleasure. Le Jardin de Panos 521 avenue Duluth Est, Montréal (Qc) H2L 1A8 t : 514-521-4206 For years now, Duluth street has been known for its many mediterranean-themed BYOW restaurants, but only one consistently earns its rank among the tastiest greek restaurants in the city. Panos, as the locals simply call it, offers traditional dishes in a lively and family-friendly environment. We come back for the lamb chops, the fried calamari, the moussaka and many others traditional delicacies. The generous servings are made to be shared, so go ahead and order a bit of everything. Le P’Tit Plateau 330 rue Marie-Anne Est, Montréal (Qc) H2W 1B1 t : 514-282-6342 / f : 514-597-2558 Eating at Le P’tit Plateau feels like being invited by a friend of a friend who – conveniently – is a French…

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Tags: calamari, chardonnay, cooking, french, generous, marie, restaurants, result, street

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5 Ways to Combine Chocolate and Coffee

August 19, 2010 – 4:28 am | by admin

This post is brought to you by Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate. Awww, they loves each other. [ Flickr: foxtongue ] Chocolate and coffee: a classic combo. But when a choc-o-bomb doughnut and a watery cuppa joe aren’t doing it for you any more, you know you have other options, right? No I’m not talking about mochas . As delightful as they can be sometimes, I find those made in the local, um, Chain Coffee Place tend to be syrupy-sweet and completely lacking in the interplay of smokey, bitter and rich that marries chocolate and coffee so well. I’m also not going to talk about flavored coffee. Or flavored coffee “creamer.”* * Because I write the column, that’s why. 1. Pour Chocolate Syrup in Coffee Everything’s better with chocolate chips. [ Photograph: Robyn Lee ] First of all, if I’m going to mix chocolate and coffee as a drink, I’m going to do it right. Of course you can always pour some chocolate syrup into your morning java, but there’s also the option to add a little dutched cocoa powder and sugar (or honey, or maple or agave syrup or whatever) to your taste instead. Fancy! 2. Cocoa Nib Tea And something I’ve always wanted to do—but haven’t…

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Tags: bomb, choc, coffee-toffee, cuppa, french, friends, organic, place, smitten-kitchen, tea, time

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Interview with a Chocolatier: Christopher Michael in Costa Mesa, CA

August 17, 2010 – 2:10 am | by admin

This post is brought to you by Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate. Bonbons decorated with colored cocoa butter at Christopher Michael Chocolates in Costa Mesa. [Photograph: Liz Gutman] I first met Christopher Michael at the 2008 Chocolate Show. His chocolates were gorgeous, of course; and his parents were there helping run the booth, which I loved—but what really caught my eye was the fact that he was based in Newport Beach. “Newport Beach?” I thought. “But…there are no chocolatiers in Orange County…?” Well, Chris changed that. Bringing a finely tuned chef’s palate, artistic sensibility, and a touch of humor to his bonbons, he now has a storefront in Costa Mesa, California (my hometown), and is starting to change the tide. I chatted with him about his chocolate experimentation—rendered duck fat caramel, anyone? How long have you been working with chocolate? I’ve been working with chocolate full time for about six years, every day. Before I discovered my passion for chocolate, I really didn’t work with it or pay attention to it at all. What made you gravitate towards chocolate as opposed to other specializations? Honestly, I didn’t…

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Tags: california, chocolate, costa, french, ideas, life, nyc, personal, photograph, result, specializations, street