Healthy, French, Home-cooking, always fresh, (almost) no cream required!
This is about simple cooking for my kids away from home, family and friends and friends of friends. Not quite recipes, just inspiration.Often, no exact quantities, certainly no scientific potions, but a bit of magic and lots of love! and you could always ask for more details.
Share my love of cooking, enjoy the Pacific West Coast bounty and help me pass along the French Heritage from my Grand-mothers and my Dad who taught me.Salt and Pepper
Even when I don't say so, use Baleine sea-salt and fresh ground pepper from your Peugeot pepper mill, goes without saying!
Tag Archives: food
The ultimate chocolate truffle
This is truly the chocolate lover’s ultimate treat, a dangerous little nugget, smooth inside, covered with a soft shell and dusted in powder, all three elements containing chocolate. You try one, it tastes so good, you have to test another … Continue reading
Posted in Baking, Dessert
Tagged chocolat, chocolate, chocolate truffles, dessert, food, recipes
3 Comments
Pork tenderloin in mustard cream sauce minus the cream
The mustard sauce is perfect with the tenderloin as it keeps it really moist. Tenderloin being very lean would tend to get dry easily, so a short cooking time and a good sauce are required. I start by chopping about … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged Dijon Mustard, dinner, food, mustard sauce, pork tenderloin, recipes, sauce moutarde
1 Comment
Hot Chili Peppers, get your BTU’s
The traveller’s guide to Mexico makes it all clear! “The Scoville scale measures their (chili peppers) hotness in heat units (SHUs). Cayenne, the chili Tabasco sauce is made from, ranks a respectable 3rd place behind the hottest chili known to … Continue reading
Posted in Stuff
Tagged bhut jolokia, cayenne, chili, Chili peppers, chipotle, food, habanero, jalapeno, serrano
3 Comments
Gratinée Lyonnaise sounds much better than just onion soup
This is probably the best comfort food on a cold day, a great way to stave off the anxiety of a looming dark and stormy night, and assurance to bring rosy cheeks and smiles to all. Most of the time, … Continue reading
Posted in Soup
Tagged beaujolais, food, Gratinee, gratinee lyonnaise, gruyere, Le Creuset, onion soup, recipe, recipes, soup, soupe a l oignon, verygoodrecipe
2 Comments
Ceviche de Pescado
This is a most refreshing lunch on a hot day, I just had this in Barra de Navidad, a small town on the Pacific Coast of Mexico just North of Manzanillo. We sat right on the sand beach, and the … Continue reading
Posted in Lunch, Vegetarian
Tagged ceviche, ceviche de pescado, food, marinated fish, mexican recipe, recipes, sierra fish
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Fresh Mayonnaise and Sauce Tartare
The first snow has arrived early in the Pacific North-West and it is an early warning to get organized for holiday cooking. You are going to need mayo, because it is a great complement to all seafood, a lot of … Continue reading
Pink onion and apple jam or is it relish?
This is just what you need to serve with sausages or to add to lamb burgers instead of the traditional Ketchup, green relish and French’s mustard. Jane provided the apples from her magnificent old tree and with a couple pink … Continue reading
Posted in Side, Vegetarian
Tagged couscous spices, food, onion jam, onion relish, pink onion, recipe, recipes
3 Comments
Looking for Cinderella’s pumpkin, is it midnight yet?
I bought a pumpkin at Dan’s Farm that may be what you are looking for. It is a French pumpkin – here is some info from a website that sells the seeds: “The Pumpkin French Cinderella, ‘Cucurbita maxima’, is a … Continue reading
Posted in Side, Soup, Vegetables
Tagged Cinderella pumpkin, cooking, food, oxo potato peeler, pumpkin, recipe, recipes, thanksgiving
5 Comments
Hedgehogs…not the chocolate kind
November is getting late in the season for chanterelles, but nature is kind to us on Vancouver Island as the even better Hydnum Repandum or hedgehog mushroom is now prime in old-growth forests. We found two kinds, the small orangey … Continue reading
Posted in Side
Tagged cooking, food, hedgehog, hydnum repandum, mushroom, recipe, recipes, wild mushroom
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Peach and hazelnut tart
The 2010 hazelnut crop is ready. Directed by hazelnut connoisseur Richard, my friend Linda brought back a kilo of shelled hazelnuts from the Chevron gas station in Chilliwack. You are now laughing, because I get my hazelnuts from the gas … Continue reading
Chanterelle and onion tart, could be my best chanterelle recipe? tell me!
Saturday November 6 was probably the last good day to pick chanterelles, as the heavy rain wants to turn them into mushy fungi. The rain, however, did not stop Michel, Dunnery, Jules (the mushroom sniffing Jack Russel) and … Continue reading
Posted in Appetizer, Lunch, Vegetarian
Tagged chanterelle tart, cooking, food, onion chanterelles tart, recipes, vegetarian
7 Comments
Brussel sprouts that you will love! and so green!
Brussel sprouts are not to everyone’s taste and that’s because, most of the time, they are not cooked properly,and are reduced to a mushy, smelly, yellow or even brown, horrible food instead of a bright green, delicious vegetable. Right now, … Continue reading
Posted in Side, Vegetables
Tagged brussel sprouts, chou de bruxelles, food, recipes, thanksgiving dinner, thanksgiving vegetable
9 Comments
Soupe à la courge at aux Châtaignes served in a Pumpkin for Halloween
Madeleine Montabert lives in the medieval village of Crillon-le-Brave in Provence. She is the owner and chef of “Cooking in Provence”, a sophisticated small cooking school. There, in a morning, you can learn how to prepare a genuine French home-cooked … Continue reading
Tomato sauce
Whenever I can find bushels or bags of tomatoes and vegetables for sale in the fall, I know it is time to make a batch of tomato sauce. Originally I canned it, but the extra trouble is pretty … Continue reading
Posted in Side
Tagged food, freezer tomato sauce, nutritious tomato sauce, pasta sauce, recipe, recipes, tomato sauce, vegetable tomato sauce
1 Comment
Edamame (green soya bean) salad
While there are still a few tasty tomatoes at the market, you can whip up this unusual nutritious salad in no time. I did not think much of edamame until I had them at The Marina Restaurant in a vegetarian … Continue reading
Posted in Starter
Tagged Edamame, food, green soya bean, matt rissling, oak bay marina, recipe, recipes, the marina restaurant
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Flu remedy: Chicken noodle soup with ginger or Matsutake
This is a pressure cooker recipe if you have one, otherwise a Le Creuset large stock pot will be more than fine, so long as you are patient (double the times). I always break in half and freeze … Continue reading
Posted in Soup
Tagged chicken noodle, chicken noodle soup, food, matsutake, pine mushroom, recipe, recipes
1 Comment
Golden beets, grown down the street
Carolyn and Paul down my street grow an amazing selection of vegetables, and they have generously brought me Romaine lettuce, green onions, heirloom tomatoes and a magnificent specimen of golden beet. Maybe it is the sea view, but most likely … Continue reading
Posted in Vegetables
Tagged beets with sage, betteraves, cooking, food, Golden beet, recipe, recipes, roasted beets, root cellar
4 Comments
Pine Mushroom scalloped potatoes
October 16th was Pine mushroom day in my family. The weather was perfect Indian summer and there were more than a dozen cars parked at or near my secret mushroom picking spot on Vancouver Island. It did not bode well, … Continue reading
Posted in Side
Tagged cooking, food, matsutake, mushroom, pine mushroom, pine mushroom scallopped potatoes, recipe, recipes
2 Comments
Fresh California figs and Noix de Grenoble tart
This an Indian summer dessert, as it is best made from fresh very ripe figs. In this instance, I bought a tray of fresh figs at the Root Cellar in Victoria. The crate indicates that they are either “black mission”(Halloween … Continue reading
Posted in Dessert
Tagged cooking, fig and walnut tart, food, fresh figs, noix de grenoble, recipe, recipes, tarte aux figues et aux noix
3 Comments
Pumpkin Gnocchi for Halloween
Anita Whyte and I use to work together in Toronto some years ago promoting French tourism, gastronomy and good life in general. She has not had a chance to move to the West Coast yet, so she is now a … Continue reading
Posted in Little help from my friends
Tagged cooking, food, gnocchi, halloween, pumpkin gnocchi, recipe, recipes
1 Comment
Grenoble walnut square
I grew up in Grenoble, the walnut capital of the world. In the country side around the city, there are acres and acres of walnut trees, and one can tell easily that they are walnut trees, because their shade is … Continue reading
Posted in Baking
Tagged cooking, food, noix de grenoble, recipe, recipes, square, walnut square, walnuts
5 Comments
Duck pâté with olives
This is a good appetizer to share and it has to be made in advance which is convenient on the day of the party. Pretty much, you should start in the morning by roasting a whole 5 pound duck in … Continue reading
Languedoc Garlic soup
Gardeners, this is for you. The home-grown garlic is ready to be picked and for this soup, the fresher, the better. My father-twice-in law Hugh just sent beautiful heads of garlic from his sunny Vancouver garden and I peeled 12 … Continue reading
Posted in Soup
Tagged cooking, flu prevention, food, Garlic soup, recipe, recipes, soupe a lail
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Poached salmon
There is really no need to own a poissonière or a turbotière to poach fish. They are great to use if you own them, but for most of us not worth the space they take on the kitchen shelf. Are … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged food, poach fish poached fish, poached salmon, poissoniere, recipe, recipes, turbotiere
3 Comments
My Grand-Mother’s creamy polenta
Louise-Marie, or la Louise as my grand-father called her, was a great cook. She was a Savoyarde, from the region across the Alps from Italy and she was bilingual, French and Patois, the Alpine dialect spoken on both sides of … Continue reading
Posted in Side
Tagged corn semolina, food, gruyere, parmesan, polenta, recipe, recipes
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Bison Bourguignon
This does not sound right, no bisons in the Bourgogne, that’s for sure! This bison meat stew though was better than any genuine boeuf bourguignon. I know you are already thinking Julia Child and all the trouble involved with cooking … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged Bison, boeuf bourguignon, bourguignon, cooking, dinner, food, healthy stew, recipe, recipes
7 Comments
Six root vegetable gratin
Thanksgiving dinner is coming up soon and although mashed potatoes are always high on the request list, the root vegetable gratin would be a seasonal dish that would go very well along with a turkey. It requires no work when … Continue reading
Posted in Vegetables
Tagged Celery root, cooking, food, gratin, parsnip, recipe, recipes, root vegetable, thanksgiving dinner, turnip, yam
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Vinaigrette dressing
This is a tricky recipe because it changes depending on what the vinaigrette is used with. So I will start with the basic ingredients and go from there. Quantities are more or less for one salad bowl. salt and fresh … Continue reading
Roasted Zucchini with cheese
Sharon gave me this odd colour zucchini from her Oak Bay garden explaining that this European seed produced a much tastier vegetable than the local produce, and it did! This one was hand-picked and harvested by Richard on September 15th. Growing … Continue reading
Posted in Little help from my friends, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Tagged Asiago, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, Zucchini
3 Comments
10 kg of White Chanterelles
Recipes including Chanterelles: Chanterelle omelet Chanterelle tart Chanterelle quiche . . Chanterelles in butter and parsley What do we do with 10 kg of white chanterelles? First, I air-dry them spread on trays for a day especially if they were … Continue reading
Posted in Events
Tagged Chanterelle, chanterelles, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, what to do with chanterelles
2 Comments
Chanterelle mini-tart appetizer
That was a lot of chanterelles we picked and they have been on my menu every day. Last night was a more unusual appetizer, kind of a tapenade of chanterelles in a small tart shell. This a good use for … Continue reading
Posted in Appetizer
Tagged appetizer tart, chanterelle tapenade, chanterelles, chanterelles tart, cooking, food, goat cheese, recipe, recipes, sun-dried tomatoes, tarts
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Easy moist pound cake with yogurt
This is one that you can just whip up in no time, and that is a good thing because it will disappear just as fast. We used to make them all the time when I was a kid and really … Continue reading
Posted in Baking
Tagged baking, cooking, food, nutella, pound cake, quatre quart, recipe, recipes, yogurt cake
3 Comments
Chanterelle Omelette
It was quite foggy and it rained a lot yesterday, but it was not a bad day to go mushroom picking on Vancouver Island. My friend Sharon and I covered miles and miles trying to identify new picking grounds without … Continue reading
Posted in Lunch, Main Course
Tagged Chanterelle, chanterelle omelette, chanterelles, cooking, food, mushroom, omelette, recipe, recipes, white chanterelle, wild mushroom
2 Comments
Peaches in light syrup
The peaches are best right now at the end of summer and it is tempting to buy a whole case. Of course, that is too much to eat right away for most people. Cooking them in syrup is a nice … Continue reading
Posted in Dessert
Tagged cooking, food, Peaches in syrup, peches au sirop, recipe, recipes
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Ratatouille quiche
With all the fall vegetables so plentiful at the farmers market, I made a huge amount of Ratatouille and of course, I had extra I saved for a quiche and a nice lunch. Click on ratatouille for the link to … Continue reading
Posted in Lunch, Starter
Tagged cooking, eggplant, food, peppers, ratatouille, ratatouille quiche, recipe, recipes, zuchini
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Cake au beurre (Fruit Cake)
This is the French version of Fruit cake, they just call it cake and often serve it for the afternoon snack with tea or even at breakfast, how decadent! 1 cup butter 3/4 cup light brown sugar 4 eggs 2+ … Continue reading
Posted in Baking
Tagged cake aux fruits secs, cooking, dry fruit, food, Fruit cake, raisin, recipe, recipes
1 Comment
Chanterelle Quiche
I have been picking again last week-end and found a few chanterelles. It was too dry up until now and they were small and scarce, the good thing being that the flavor is very intense. I decided to make a … Continue reading
Posted in Lunch, Main Course
Tagged chanterelle quiche, chanterelles, food, quiche, quiche aux chanterelles, recipe, recipes
3 Comments
Cauliflower Soup in less than 10 minutes
This is a light soup, no cream! Local cauliflower is at every vegetable stand right now, it is a good time to enjoy it really fresh. This recipe is one of the most simple soups to make and is a … Continue reading
Posted in Soup
Tagged cauliflower, cauliflower soup, food, nutrition, potage chou-fleur, quick soup, recipe, recipes, soup
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Chti dinner, from the North (of France)
I visited my sister in France this summer on her farm in the country. The 200 +year old farmhouse attracts family and friends and there was not a day with less than 15 for dinner. In most household this would … Continue reading
Posted in Events
Tagged belgian endives, carbonnade de boeuf, chti, endives, food, maroilles, recipe, tarte au sucre
1 Comment
Chanterelles with butter and parsley
The end of August is that time when the first chanterelles spring out of the moss on the slopes of old forests. This year is not a good one yet, as we have not had much rain. But my tenacity … Continue reading
Crunchy Cucumber salad
This is another one of many different “crudités” that French people will prepare for a Sunday lunch, along with grated carrots, red cabbage, macédoine, etc… Field cucumbers are best. If the skin is coarse and bitter, peel the cucumber first, … Continue reading
Posted in Starter
Tagged crudites, cucumber, food, grainy Dijon mustard, recipe, recipes, vinaigrette
1 Comment
Pain d’épices du goûter
Literally, a spice bread usually served to French children after school as a snack, either plain or with unsalted butter and sometimes jam as well. I used to love it when I was a kid. It was store bought and … Continue reading
Posted in Baking
Tagged children treat, cooking, food, gouter, honey, honey cake, pain d'épices, recipe, recipes, spice bread
2 Comments
Icelandic Delicacies: Puffin, Whale, Foal and Fermented Shark
The Atlantic Puffin forms part of the national diet in Iceland, where the species does not have legal protection. Puffins are hunted by a technique called “sky fishing”, which involves catching low-flying birds with a big net. The meat is … Continue reading
Posted in Events
Tagged fermented shark, foal, food, iceland, icelandic food, laekjarbrekka, minke whale, puffin, recipes, restaurants, travel, whale meat
1 Comment
Icelandic gourmet fares
Four days in Iceland were not nearly long enough to discover all the fine foods grown , raised or fished locally. The island is a gourmet’s paradise providing staples of very high quality and most unusual choices for the daring … Continue reading
Posted in Events
Tagged food, horse carpaccio, hotel ranga, iceland, icelandic lobster, laekjarbrekka, lamb neck, recipes, reindeer, skyr, smoked lamb, travel
3 Comments
Unusual duty-free items at Keflavik airport in Iceland
I had a quick connection in Keflavik, Reykjavik’s airport in Iceland on the way home from France. It is a very spacious and pleasant airport with bright halls and many shops. The variety is incredible and the offering quite surprising! … Continue reading
Soupe au pistou
This is the recipe from Bistrot le Paradou in the village of Paradou near Fontvieille in Provence. They shared the ingredients but did not give any details on the how to, so I am going to give some explanations based … Continue reading
Posted in Soup
Tagged basil, coco beans, food, France, haricots coco, paradou, pistou, pistou soup, Provence, recipe, recipes, soupe au pistou
6 Comments
Bistrot Le Paradou in Provence
This Provençal bistrot is the the best find. I noticed it on approach to Fontvieille, a small town near the Roman town of Arles, where my dad spends his holiday in August. I thought I should make it a point … Continue reading
Posted in Events
Tagged bistro, bistrot, fontvieille, food, paradou, Provence, restaurant provencal
3 Comments
Brandade de saumon
This would normally have been made with salt cod, but we have overfished, alas, and there is hardly any cod left. I feel that we should not eat anymore for now, and decided to make brandade with another plentiful fish, … Continue reading
Posted in Appetizer
Tagged Brandade, brandade de saumon, cooking, food, french, Provence, recipe, recipes
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Old Fashioned Apricot Jam
Mamie Odette made apricot jam every year, and this right into her seventies and even maybe eighties. This is the only jam she would make, she thought that it was the only jam worth making at home. I don’t quite … Continue reading
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