Table Notes

Curried Cauliflower Soup

Here's one straight out of Patricia Wells's At Home In Provence. It's simple and it's quick. You can prepare this up to a day in advance and reheat. The curry flavour and colour will intensify with age.
Serves 6.

2 lbs cauliflower, trimmed and rinsed
Sea salt to taste
4 cups homemade Chicken Stock
2 tsps curry powder
1 large egg yolk
2/3 cup heavy cream

1. Break up the cauliflower in to florets and blanch for 2 minutes in a large pot of boiling, salted water. Drain and refresh under cold, running water.

2. Warm the stock over moderate heat in a large saucepan. Season with salt to taste. Add the cauliflower and simmer, covered, until tender (about 20 minutes).

3. Puree the cauliflower and broth in a blender and return to the saucepan. Simmer uncovered over moderate heat until it's reduced to 3 cups (about 15 minutes). Season with the curry powder.

4. Whisk the egg yolk and cream in a separate bowl. Pour a ladleful of the simmering puree in to the bowl and whisk vigorously. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook it slowly over a low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens to a creamy consistency (2 to 3 minutes). Do not let it boil, unless you like bits of scrambled egg in your soup.

5. Taste for seasoning and serve immediately, ideally with a big dollop of crème fraîche.

Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

This recipe from Cook's Illustrated revolutionized how we perceived and experienced this classic dish. As the article puts it, "Restaurant carbonara is often an unctuous, congealed mass of cheese, eggs, and bacon." The test kitchen cooks focused on finding the "beauty in the beast" and certainly found it in this recipe. For instance, there is no cream used here, which makes it surprisingly light and extremely satisfying, with little post-eating blues after a rich carb meal-- assuming of course that you control your portions, which is hard to do because this is just so good! Toby has mastered this dish to perfection; it's now a consistent favourite in our winter repertoire (now coming to an end), especially since it's so easy to do.

Recipe

From Cook's' Illustrated (September-October 2001)

Add regular table salt to the pasta cooking water, but use sea salt flakes, if you can find them, to season the dish. We like the full flavor they bring to the carbonara. Note that while either table salt or sea salt can be used when seasoning in step 3, they are not used in equal amounts.

Serves 4 to 6

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 pound bacon (6 to 8 slices), slices halved length-wise, then cut crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces (In France, we use lardon, pre-sliced from the supermarket. Proscuitto would also work.)
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 large eggs
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese , finely grated (about 2 ounces)
1/4 cup Pecorino Romano cheese , finely grated (about 3/4 ounce)

3 small cloves of garlic , pressed through garlic press or minced to paste

1 pound spaghetti
table salt 
ground black pepper 

Note: Pouring the cheese and eggs over the hot pasta, tossing, and then adding the bacon ensures that none of the sauce get left in the bowl.

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position, set large heatproof serving bowl on rack, and heat oven to 200 degrees. Bring 4 quarts water to rolling boil in large Dutch oven or stockpot.

2. While water is heating, heat oil in large skillet over medium heat until shimmering, but not smoking. Add bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and crisp, about 8 minutes. Add wine and simmer until alcohol aroma has cooked off and wine is slightly reduced, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm. Beat eggs, cheeses, and garlic together with fork in small bowl; set aside.

3. When water comes to boil, add pasta and 1 tablespoon table salt; stir to separate pasta. Cook until al dente; reserve 1/3 cup pasta cooking water and drain pasta for about 5 seconds, leaving pasta slightly wet. Transfer drained pasta to warm serving bowl; if pasta is dry, add some reserved cooking water and toss to moisten. Immediately pour egg mixture over hot pasta, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes or 3/4 teaspoon table salt; toss well to combine. Pour bacon mixture over pasta, season generously with black pepper, and toss well to combine. Serve immediately.

A Decadent Day-Long Brunch

Last Sunday was the first day of spring, a long awaited event after a rather long cold winter for Paris and Europe in general. It was also another birthday for me (actually, it was Monday, but never mind.)

Thanks to Toby, it was a marvelous day -- exactly the kind of leisurely, decadent all-day affair with good friends and food around me, not to mention copious amounts of champagne! As the visual evidence below attests, I think there is now a new "law of champagne": the number of bottles of champagne available will always be proportional to the consumption levels of the number of people there to consume them -- or something like that. It was indeed fun :)

Toby created a a virtuoso performance for the feast: a three course feat of eggs benny two-ways (a choice of either smoked salmon or prosciutto) and yummy lemon ricotta pancakes with Canadian maple syrop and a big fruit salad. And he did this for 12 people! The trick he discovered from Jacques Pepin (bien sur!) was to pre-poach the eggs in advance. You cook them a little (be careful not too much), and then plunge them in an ice water bath and store them in it until ready to serve. Just before serving, you just submerse them for a few seconds in boiling water in a strainer, and voila! This takes much of the stress out of doing poached eggs en masse. It worked beautifully.

I've included the pancake recipe (including the apples bit which we didn't use) because they are good and for nostalgia reasons. I snipped this recipe from a magazine almost 15 years ago when I first started entertaining myself after I moved to Victoria, BC. for my first job as a legislative intern. It was a big deal, but that's where I discovered the pleasure of cooking for people and creating community that way. Which brings me back to the present: not to get too sentimental, especially without the excuse of a champagne buzz unhappily absent this AM, but this event made us feel that we were building a real community here in Paris. Indeed, getting older is perfectly tolerable with occasions like these. I guess I knew something 15 years ago and have been building on this truth about the good life ever since. Thanks everyone.

LEMON RICOTTA PANCAKES WITH SAUTEED APPLES
Gourmet, September 1991

For the sautéed apples

4 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamonfresh lemon juice to taste

For the pancakes

4 large eggs, separated
1 1/3 cups ricotta
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest
1/2 cup all-purpose flourmelted butter for brushing the griddle

Maple syrup as an accompaniment

Prepare the sautéed apples:

In a large heavy skillet sauté the apples in the butter over moderately highheat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, or until they are softened,sprinkle them with the sugar and the cinnamon, and cook them over moderateheat, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 10 minutes, or until they are tender.Stir in the lemon juice and keep the mixture warm.

Make the pancakes:

In a bowl whisk together the egg yolks, the ricotta, the sugar, and thezest, add the flour, and stir the mixture until it is just combined. In abowl with an electric mixer beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt untilthey hold stiff peaks, whisk about one fourth of them into the ricottamixture, and fold in the remaining whites gently but thoroughly. Heat agriddle over moderately high heat until it is hot enough to make drops ofwater scatter over its surface and brush it with some of the melted butter.Working in batches, pour the batter onto the griddle by 1/4-cup measures andcook the pancakes for 1 to 2 minutes on each side, or until they are golden,brushing the griddle with some of the melted butter as necessary. Transferthe pancakes as they are cooked to a heatproof platter and keep them warm ina preheated 200°F. oven.

Serve the pancakes with the sautéed apples and the maple syrup.

Makes about twelve 3- to 4-inch pancakes

Ottoman Treasures: Sunday Dinner Review

Who Came:

On this blustery and wet Parisian day, where we experienced the whole gamut of weather -- from hail, thunder and lightening, to outbursts of sun -- we had over Paul W., an American friend who is a long time Parisian resident and homme de le monde with stories that never stop about interesting people and places, one of those rare ûber connectors which Malcolm Gladwell made famous in The Tipping Point. It's not surprising, then, that I was introduced to him via Napier C., another mega-node in the world's social networks. Paul is also the founder and inspiration behind Forum 21, a special conference that:

Invites some 200 eclectic, accomplished, curious, interesting and congenial people from many disciplines, cultures and countries to share the latest thinking in their fields and their views of the world. In a weekend designed to emulate the 18th Century French Salons we share ideas and perspectives in order to transcend professional, social, intellectual and cultural boundaries. Our objective is to promote international understanding by building continuing personal international relationships.

Toby and I went last year and had a ball, even though Toby has never forgiven me for suddenly finding himself having to speak as a panelist on the "Future of Artificial Intelligence" with a bunch of MIT professors. The whole atmosphere felt very GBNesque, in the older days. We hope to go again this May. I've been asked to look for interesting people to invite, so please let me know if you're interested in attending via forum21@adaptive-edge.com

As is almost tradition, George E. also rounded out our small party this weekend, a good pinch hitter when the other half of the party had a last minute change of plans.

My own Toby P. was of course there, helping in both the eating and preparing, making us four in total around our tiny little table, a former desk from IKEA transformed by a French white linen table cloth, candles, and silverware.

What We Ate

I had long been craving some Turkish food. We have been to Turkey twice, both times to visit our close friends, Nedim and Iris, who we met while living in San Francisco -- an old buddy of Toby's from the "Thursday" crowd. With such a short hop from Paris, just 2-3 hours by air to Istanbul, it's astonishingly close given the leap in exoticism. What's even better is that Turkey is very affordable and the people are wonderful. The myth that it's an unsafe "Muslim" country, however misconceived, filters out those kinds of tourists, which is just fine by me. The truth is Turkey could easily become a model place for multiculturalism within an Islamic backdrop. We're certainly rooting for its success!

Oh, and did I mention the food? The food is just superb: sophisticated, wide-ranging, with the healthy Mediterranean balance and freshness. Such an excellent cuisine is no doubt the delectable artifact of thousands of years of history, the ebb and flow of Empires and cultures, from the Ottoman to Byzantine and beyond. And, while most people don't know this, we have to thank in an odd way the Turks for the venerable French croissant. They were invented, not in France, but in Budapest in the 17th century after the Ottomans lay siege to the city. They would have succeeded if it weren't for the bakers who, because they were working in the early hours in subterranean kitchens, heard the prospective invaders trying to tunnel under the city walls and alerted the army in time to ward them off. To celebrate this victory, the bakers made these pastries in the shape of the Islamic symbol, hence croissants -- or crescent moons, as they literally mean. They soon became a hit, not only in Hungry but in Vienna and throughout the Austrian empire as well, but were only introduced to France when Marie-Antoinette moved from her Austrian home to marry the Louis XVII.

Apart from the yummy pastries, which are in abundance in Turkey, the format of having "mesas" or tapas in Spanish food -- and now called "mirco dining" in chi chi food biz circles -- is clearly a healthy way to eat as opposed to consuming masses of food at once. Though, I have to admit, when we visited Turkey I can recall our bellies aching with over abundance as our hosts encouraged us to just try one more dish!

Our Sunday repast wasn't as grand but nonetheless satisfying.

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Ottoman Treasures Menu
February 13, 2005

Toby's Garlicky Humus
with Pita Bread and Baby Radishes

Champagne

***

Lamb & Pistachio Köfte with Tahini Sauce

Lentil Aubergine Stew with Pomegranate Molasses

Turkish Cucumber and Tomato Salad

Carrot & Herbed Yogurt Puree

Chateau Haut-Myles
Medoc 1997

***

Turkish Delight

Turkish Halva

Orange quarters

Fresh Mint Tea or Coffee

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While the homemade humus was devoured in full, the hit of the meal was the lamb köfte with the tahini sauce. I think most food cultures have a meatball dish of some sort. However, the spices in this dish make it more interesting than most.

The carrot and yogurt puree was also a nice compliment to other flavours on the plate. The lentil stew with pomegranate molasses has definite potential and was the most distinct of the dishes, but I warn people: don't use too much of the stuff. It's potent, especially in combination with the lentils, and may cause some adverse reactions in the GI tract as one person reported after the fact.

Köfte with Pistachios and Tahini Sauce

MAKES ABOUT 35 KOFTE

1.5 cups shelled unsalted pistachios
3/4 pound ground lamb
3/4 pound ground beef
2 medium onions grated
3 teaspoons of cumin
1.5 teaspoons of kosher salt
1 tablespoon of fresh pepper
1 teaspoon of red crushed pepper
3/4 cup of freshly chopped flat leaf parsley
1 tablespoons of olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spread the pistachios on a rimmed baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 8 minutes or until lightly browned; let cool.

2. In a large bowl, combine the lamb, beef, pistachios, onions, cumin, salt, black pepper and crushed red pepper and mix with your hands. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

3. Lightly knead parsley into the meat. Roll the meat into tablespoon size balls. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet. Add half of the meatballs and cook over a moderate heat until browned all over, about 8 minute; reduce the heat quickly if the meatballs brown too quickly. Drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and meatballs. Serve the meatballs hot or at room temperature with the Tahini Sauce (below.)

Tahini Sauce

MAKES ABOUT TWO CUPS

1 medium onion
1 tablespoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup tahini paste at room temperature
1/4 cup water
Salt
Nigella seeds (optional)

1. In a medium bowl, toss the onion with the cumin and pepper.

2. In a small bowl, using a whisk, work the lemon juice into the tahini. Gradually whisk in the water until smooth. Season with salt. Stir the sauce into the onion, then stir well and garnish with nigella seeds.

Cooking Notes:

Make sure the meat has enough fat content in them or your meatballs will be dry. Italians often mix pork in with their beef meatballs for precisely this reason.

This is a great dish to do in advance for a party. However, if you are cooking the köfte in advance, slightly undercook them first because they will finish cooking while reheating in the oven.

The sauce is a must with this recipe. Making both recipes in advance, the day before, enhances the flavour considerably.

Grilled Magret de Canard Salad with Asian Marinade

This is an easy and light dinner or appetizer, especially here in France, where you can buy fresh magret de canard (breast of duck) pre-cut or in pre-packaged form in the super markets. This recipe takes about 1 hour from start to finish.

(Not a picture of our dinner -- we still forget to take pictures! -- but a nice one of a magret de canard.)

Ingredients

1-2 large magret de canard (enough for two)
2 cups Hariots Verts (French thin green beans)
4-6 cups of Mixed Greens*
2-3 Mandarin Oranges (called Clementines here in France)**
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
Base Salad Dressing (e.g. Balsamic Vinigrette or a Lemon/Lime Vinigrette)
Sliced Small Radishes for garnish

* Make sure you have colourful and different tasting greens like radicchio and frisé

** Substitute regular oranges or tangerines if you have these instead.

Marinade*
2 cloves of garlic, 1.5 Tb grated ginger, 1 juice of lime, 3 Tb of soy sauce, 1 Tb of fish sauce
1 Tb of sesame oil or vegetable oil, 1 Tb of rice vinegar, 1 Tb of hot pepper sauce

* If you don't have all of these ingredients just improvise until the marinade tastes good and tangy.

Steps

1. Score the duck breast on the skin side with a knife, making a nice cross hatch pattern.

2. Marinade the duck breast for about 20-40 minutes in a bowl with ingredients. Preheat oven for 200 Cel. or 325 F.

3. Then prepare the rest of the ingredients: Wash the greens and mix, if not using a premixed version. Steam the green beans until desired doneness. Peel the oranges, trimming away the white pith parts. Chop the garnishes and cilantro. (If you have any other veggies in the fridge that might add colour and flavour, like yellow peppers, feel free to add and improvise. )

4. Grill the duck in a frying pan or grill plan skin side down for about 2 minutes at high heat or until crispy brown. Be careful not to burn! Start checking after 1 minute.

5. Then put the duck in the oven (just put the whole pan in if designed for that) for about 8-10 minutes for rosé/rare or 12-15 minutes for medium. Good quality duck shouldn't be cooked any longer than that. Put the marinade in the oven too so that it cooks a little, but put it in a separate pan so as not to overpower the duck. (Toby disagrees. He puts the duck back into the marinade and cooks it in that.)

6. After pulling the breast out of the oven, let it rest for 5 minutes covering with some foil to keep warm. This allows the juices to retreat into the meat.

7. Meanwhile, dress the salad with the oranges and chopped cilantro and vinigrette, adding some of the marinade to the dressing to flavour it.

8. To assemble: plate individual portions of salad with oranges. (We use our large ceramic shallow bowl-plates for this.) Top with the green beans. Thinly slice the duck and place desired amounts (about half) in fanned fashion on top of the green beans. Drizzle more Asian vinigrette over duck and salad. Garnish with radishes.

Serves two people.

A January Sunday Blue's Dinner: Risotto and a Really Special Red

Sunday dinners are one of the best ways to boost everyone's congeniality when the weather is cold and gray. Since these wintery conditions were met -- it being rather yucky outside -- I decided that a get together was in order.

Attending the party were Pamela and Simon, two friends of ours, both journalists, who recently got married outside of Paris at one of the most delightful weddings I've been to. Simon is an author and columnist for the FT sports pages; and Pamela, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, is now writing a book on adultery -- oh la la! -- which is shaping up to be a cross-cultural set of observations and stories on the topic. With women still losing their lives over even suspected transgressions, and France almost institutionalizing the practice, spanning these distances should be fascinating indeed. Can't wait Pamela :)

Despite Simon being somewhat ill, they generously decided to share with us one of their wedding presents: a beautiful bottle of red wine, a 1983 Château Clerc Milon, Cru Classé Baron Philippe de Rothschild. After a phone consultation earlier in the day, Simon and I decided that this would be perfect accompaniment for a cheese course, since it was too powerful (and too good) to feature with my main dish, a mushroom risotto. So we'd save the best for the almost last!

George, my colleague at INSEAD/CEDEP and co-conspirator in many things, was also there. A frequent visitor to my table, with his own designated napkin, George is also a good cook himself and is famed for his boisterous Indian feasts. Between the two of us we're trying to have regular Sunday shin-digs.

Lastly, our house guests visiting us from the San Francisco Bay Area, Jamais of Worldchanging, the blog I write for, and his wife, Janice, were out having a romantic evening by themselves at a Senegalese restaurant, Au Village, (86, Avenue Parmentier - 75011 Paris - Tél. : 01 43 57 18 95) but they ended up joining the party over dessert and digestifs.

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January Sunday Blue's Dinner Menu:
Risotto and a Really Special Red
30 January 2005

Salmon "Two Ways"
Smoked Salmon Crostinis with Crème Frâiche
Grilled Morrocan-spiced Salmon Skewers with Critrus
Sancerre 2003
Domaine Serge LALOUE


Porcini & Wild Mushroom Risotto
Sautéed Corguettes (Zucchini) with Herbe de Provence & Pine Nuts
Mâche Salade with Tangerines and Balsamic Vinigrette
Valpolicella 2003


Assorted Cheese Plate
(Chevre from the Loire, Saint-Nectaire, Munster, Swiss Guyere)
Château Clerc Milon
Cru Classé Baron Philippe de Rothschild
1983 Pauillac


Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with Warmed Dulce de Leche
Calvados
12 ans

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While the guests are welcome to comment themselves (hint!), my two cents on the dinner are as follows: the mushroom risotto was tasty and exactly the kind of comfort dish I was looking for, full of flavour and texture but not as filling as a classic French Sunday dish (say a beef daube or coq au vin.) We also had a vegetarian at the table so everyone was happy. With this positive verdict, I've posted the recipe I improvised and adapted below. It's definitely a winner and worth repeating. (This dish makes wonderful leftovers and you can freeze the risotto into like hamburger-like paddies which can then grilled and turned into a nice first course with a salad.)

The wine, as expected, was wonderful and went perfectly with the cheese. Many thanks for that, Simon and Pamela! Unfortunately, Simon couldn't fully enjoy the experience. He became feverish during the party but felt comfortable enough to retire to the couch, in classic stiff upper lip style, and still managed to pipe in the periodic rejoinder and comment. Back to the wine... We all reflected on how old we were in 1983 when the wine was bottled. Most of us were mere teenagers. Madonna had just released her first record album, and "Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club was the top selling single in the UK, and of course Cabbage Patch Kids were the best selling toy of the year. All I can say is that I'm glad the wine made it through the 80s and that many of the other fashions and trends didn't. Leg warmers anyone? Not!

And while I thought no one would have room for dessert, there is nothing so divine as warmed DDL (dulce de leche) over ice cream. Originally from Argentina, the DDL addiction was introduced to me through Toby's family. This particular can of DDL was a Xmas present; it came from Brazil via Toby's cher tante, Pippa, so thank you for this treat! We did serve the dessert in little coffee cups, so portions were just managable -- the perfect injection of silky sweetness to finish off the meal. (George and Toby, however, somehow managed to clean out the DDL bowl... no surprises there.)

Porcini & Wild Mushroom Risotto Recipe
(Recipe adapted from Chef Alan Kantor of the MacCallum House Inn and Restaurant in Mendocino, California)

Ingredients

5+ C vegetable stock*
1 C dried porcini mushrooms
6 T unsalted butter
1 T olive oil
1/2 C finely minced onion
3 cloves of garlic finely minced
1/2 C fresh shitake mushrooms, trimmed, brushed clean and sliced
1/2 C fresh chanterelle mushrooms, trimmed, brushed clean and sliced
1/2 C fresh cremini mushrooms, trimmed, brushed clean and sliced**
2.5 C arborio or calriso rice***
6-8 oz. port
1/2 C white wine
salt and pepper to taste
1 C grated parmesan
Finely Chopped Parsley (3/4 cup)
Finely Chopped Sun Dried Tomatoes in Oil (3/4 cup)

* It really makes a big difference if you make your own stock, which is super easy for vegetable stock, and something that can be done in about 40-60 minutes. See the above link for the recipe.

** I used regular white button mushrooms, but if you can find (and afford) a mixture of wild mushrooms this enhances both the taste and texture.

*** I used a "bio" or organic brand of Arborio rice found at my local Italian provisioner. I think it tasted much better and maintained it's integrity better than the supermarket-store bought varieties.

Method

Bring the stock and porcini mushrooms to a simmer. Keep hot over a low burner.

Melt the butter and oil in a heavy, medium-sized saucepan. Add the onion and sweat until soft, about 5 minutes over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Add sliced fresh mushrooms and sauté for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add rice and cook, stirring, about 3 minutes, or until rice is coated with butter and oil and begins to look opaque. Reduce heat to low.

Remove porcini from stock with a slotted spoon, discard any tough parts, and coarsely chop. Add chopped porcinis and port to the rice. Stir for one minute, then add the white wine, and stir for one minute. Then 2 cups hot stock, stirring constantly until liquid is almost absorbed. Season as you go with salt and pepper.

[I stopped the cooking process here and worked on other things, like serve the appetizers and visit with my guests. Toby took it the rest of the way once we were ready to eat the main course]

Continue adding stock, 1/2 cup at a time, as the liquid absorbs, stirring constantly. Add the garlic when about two thirds through the stock, towards the end. The rice is done when it is al dente, or firm in the center. This process about 18-25 minutes. Stir in the grated cheese and parsley just before serving. Garnish with chopped sun dried tomatoes.

IMPORTANT TIP: In order to obtain best results, the stock added to risotto should always be hot before it is added.

6-8 Servings

- Nicole

In Praise of a Deep Food Culture

So which country has the best food, the best restaurants, the best food scene? The US, France, Spain? Somewhere else? A perennial and parochially charged question to be sure. And most of the time, these things cluster together; it's never either/or, with all of this going hand-in-hand. Yes. And no, as I've been learning recently.

But some background first: We've been lucky to live in and visit regularly some of the best food cities in the world. So naturally, since moving to France, we've been comparing our food experiences with what we had in San Francisco and elsewhere. Perhaps our expectations were too high, but we've had to admit that the restaurant scene in Paris -- from value-for-money and diversity perspective -- has disappointed us. Other elements are unsurpassed: like the service in the higher end restaurants in Europe which is amazing, and the general ambiance in some of these quaint bistros and brasseries. Overall, I have to say, San Francisco, New York and Vancouver have been better: more innovative, more affordable, more varied in terms of ethnic cuisine which is a mainstay of our diet.

We hated to come to this conclusion, and of course, assumed that this was just our misguided perceptions. But it turns out we weren't wrong. Surprisingly enough, we discovered that we were in fact in the midst of a much broader french food crisis, which journalist Adam Gopnik told best in a chapter in his memoir, Paris to the Moon. And more locally, this sad state of cultural affairs has been commented on (and lead by) most vocally by Francois Simon, "the influential restaurant critic for Le Figaro and a writer perennially irritated by the complacency of the French culinary establishment" according to the FT.

While people are convinced that French food is dying, finished, washed-up, I think this is overstated. My hunch is that we're at the denouement of this development, that reinvention will come. The top French chefs now know what to do with ginger and lemon grass, and they know that throwing a bit of curry powder into a sauce doesn't cut it nor counts as fusion. And without question, you can eat very well in Paris and without killing your budget, as Chez Pim ably documents, although this rarely happens for less €40-50 per head. (Btw, we also agree with her about L'Entredgeu, which is two blocks from our house: 83, Rue Laugier, 17th, T: +33 1 40 54 97 24).

The ah-hah, however, happened this weekend when I could finally articulate the difference between North America and Europe in terms of our food life, thanks to the sage perspective of Alice Waters, which I read in an excellent article in the weekend Financial Times edition. (See US Leaves A Bitter Taste by Mike Steinberger, 08/01/05). Quoting the article:

In France, Italy, and Spain, food is a matter of cultural pride, connoisseurship is regarded as a virtue, and mealtime is seen as more than just a pit stop. Clearly, the same cannot be said of the US. "The vast majority of Americans have no relationship to food that is pleasurable, healthful, or responsible," says Alice Waters, the owner of Berkeley's legendary Chez Panisse and a woman who can justly be described as the doyenne of American Epicureanism.

Certainly, there are pockets of enlightened eating, but even these leave something to be desired. New York is unquestionably one of the world's finest food cities - in its own way, perhaps even the best. No city does more cuisines with greater aplomb than New York. On the other hand, New York is home to exactly one world-class cheese shop (Murray's, in Greenwich Village). A first-rate patisserie? Forget it. A decent bakery? Perhaps one or two. A noteworthy traiteur? There are a number of excellent Jewish and Italian delicatessens but as prepared foods go, New York is a wasteland when compared not only to Paris but to London and Rome as well.

...."This idea that we have somehow developed a cuisine here is a little presumptuous," she says. "We are still learning. We're out of kindergarten, and no longer just painting in primary colours; we are now seeing some of the shades. But it takes centuries to develop a cuisine."

A little overstated perhaps. Perhaps not. But this last point about the difference between having a long-standing food culture versus having a good food restaurant scene is well taken, exactly right, and articulates what we've been experiencing. Sure, we've never eaten better than the French Laundry and our restaurant life is hit-and-miss sometimes here in Paris, but this is normal anywhere you go. Also, going out all the time has taken a back seat anyway, something we do when people visit. In its' place, we're cooking at home more and eating much better because our local marché is world class, the quality of ingredients are wonderful, prompting us to try new things and experiment with new dishes we would never have tried before.

So it's a difference in scope and frequency: instead of having periodic "wow" experiences (which we still have, btw, just less often), our food experiences have become our daily culture, something more continuous and constant, a way of life. This was always the case in my family growing up in Vancouver, I suppose, but the fact that food was the center of our lives was seen to be family-specific and something often at odds with the broader culture. Most of my friends certainly didn't grow up this way. What's different now is that I'm discovering this food culture with Toby, who came to this later in life and thus has those wonderful beginner's eyes. Of course, we could have easily discovered the same thing -- the same value system regarding food -- in San Francisco, where farmers markets are proliferating and the food culture is real with many like-minded people and innovators like Alice Water. But being in Paris made this way of life so natural, just like breathing and sleeping; it was never a choice, just a progression.

Another interesting point I learned in the article suggests why our local marché is teaching us how to cook better:

Ed Behr, editor of The Art of Eating, a quarterly newsletter devoted to food and wine, says one reason French cuisine reached the heights it did is because chefs and housewives bought fruits and vegetables directly from farmers, and that this daily interplay resulted in better and better produce, which resulted in better and better food on the table. This kind of "steady dialogue", as Behr puts it, is now being established in the US, which augurs very well for the future of American cooking.

While the US may indeed develop a widespread food culture and become the "superpower" of the food world, Americans shouldn't be complacent. The very same food critic Francois Simon, the heretic who suggested that France was losing its' status in the gastronomic hierarchy, was not that impressed with the top restaurants in New York during his most recent visit. "There were some good things, but nothing that was really fantastic," he says. "There was something missing." "I'd wanted to be able to report that the US is getting better and better as food goes and to tell the French we're not always the best. It was so disappointing to not be able to say that."

For now, I'm just lucky to be able to live in both worlds, to mix and match innovative dishes from North America with what I'm learning about French food and their techniques here. But if you ask me now which would I rather have -- good restaurants or a good food culture? -- I'd pick living in a place that deeply appreciates and values their food any day. It's a richer way to live.

Pot-Au-Feu: A Dish for Winter Comfort

With winter now in mid stride, I'm working my way through that thick file of cold weather food recipes in search of comfort food. One of the recipes I have never cooked is a pot au feu -- a classic dish in French country cooking.

I confess the reason for this was a prejudice: I thought how could this dish be any good if it's just meat and veg in a pot without much additional seasoning? Of course, I knew this couldn't be rational or right since Jacques Pepin and Julia Child have a recipe for this in their book, Cooking At Home, (actually, it's a variation with a whole chicken) and nothing has ever turned out badly from that wonderful collection. Also, a new cooking magazine I found here in Paris called Règal: Tous les Plaisirs de La Table (October/November 2004) featured a pot-au-feu and made it just look so good and so chic.

But what really set the ball rolling was some clever supermarché merchandising. As they often do for seasonal dishes, our local "Champion" on Ave Pierre Demours put together a nicely pre-packaged ensemble for a Pot au Feu consisting of two large chunks of high grade stewing beef and two marrow bones. While normally I like to buy my meat from our local boucherie, when it comes to exploring different and strange cuts of meat and dishes, it's nice to have it put together for you at least for the first time. It's also a less intimidating point of entry, the faceless anonymity of a supermarket encounter where one can take her time staring at the strange shrink-wrapped morsels and ponder their significant in French foodlandia, versus confronting the boucher who might ask awkward questions where new vocabulary might be needed and other people might be present. Sometimes such daily humiliations just can't be born, so we find short cuts. And that's what I did here, together with some just-in-time web research. In any event, once I got everything home, it was dead-easy and the results very satisfying. My prejudice couldn't have been more wrong. And the "Toby Litmus Test" (TLT)? Well, he enjoyed it very much, especially with the added fun of playing with all of the condiments that go with it. And I was doubly happy because we had plenty of leftovers, which we turned into soup and other things throughout the week.

So what is a Pot-au-Feu [poh-toh-FEUH]? Literally in French it means a "pot on the fire" and traditionally it's cooked in an earthenware or cast-iron pot. We use our indispensable, well-loved Creuset (Thanks, mother dearest). Since this started out as a peasants' dish, the ingredients can vary but they usually include: meat (beef or chicken, with the addition of marrowbones, veal, pork, or mutton) and vegetables (traditionally carrots, turnips, celery, onions, and leeks) that are slowly cooked in water or consommé. We use our home-made brown stock instead of water, and believe that makes a huge difference. But use whatever you have handy. The whole point, and beauty, of this dish is that it's meant to be easy and economical.

Two Ways to Serve It

The dish is served family style and is accompanied by mustard or horseradish and cornichons.
The easiest approach is to serve everything at once on a platter, which is how Jacques Pepin likes to have it, with the rich and meaty broth ladled into individual soup bowls for people to sip, thus lubricating the "mouth feel" of the flavors and to wet the plated meats and vegetables. This is what we did.

Or, alternatively, as the chic magazine showed, the meal can be dressed up a bit and divided into two courses making it suitable for a causal dinner party by a fireplace. The first course, for instance, can feature the delicious marrowbones (Les Os à Moelle) which have been slow cooked in the broth. Just gingerly fish these out, put them under a broiler for a few minutes to brown if desired, and serve them with rock salt, grilled bread, and a Parsley and Apple Salad, which all work together remarkably well. I first tasted this combo at the wonderful eatery, St. John's in London, a restaurant that is reintroducing "nose-to-tail" cooking to the world (their recipe is found here) which I'm all for because it promotes the old idea that if we eat animals nothing should be wasted. I never fancied marrowbones before, but love them now, so you should try this too! You'll need some kind of implement -- a lobster fork will do -- to push out the gooey good bits which you spread onto your bread. Of course, if marrowbones put you off (a vegetarian's nightmare, I should think, but then a veggie wouldn't be interested in this dish in the first place) the other option is to serve just the broth as a starter soup with crisp croutons or bread.

Other tips? Do make sure your meet is good quality and fresh, and not the stuff the supermarket is trying to get rid of. It's worth it going to a butcher to ensure this, and to get the broth-enhancing bones and cuts like beef cheeks or beef ribs. Also, a few drops of soy sauce can bolster the broth if it's a little lackluster, a surprising little trick, but it works.

Pot-au-Feu Ingredients
Serves 7-8 People

5 L of water or stock
1.5 kg of high quality stewing meat with bones (either a mix of veal, beef, pork, chicken or just one kind. We used just beef.)
4+ marrowbones (if you are serving this as first course get as many as there are people)
1 onion studded with 2 cloves
5 medium carrots whole
6 potatoes quartered
4 leeks whole cut in half
4 cloves, roughly chopped of garlic
I medium head of green cabbage (Savoy is the best) cut in sections
1 Bunch of Parsley
1 bouquet garni (thyme, bay leaf, rosemary, parlsey, tied together with kitchen string)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Bring the water/stock and meat to a gentle boil and then simmer for 60 minutes. Then add the vegetables (with as many "whole" as possible) for another 40 minutes. If the meat is not falling-off-the-bone tender by then and the stock still weak, remove the vegetables to a platter and keep warm. Then cook the meat and broth for another 40-60 minutes or until done. Season and taste. Serve as desired, either family style or in multiple courses as mentioned above.

Parsley Salad

1 lg. bunch of Flat-leafed Parsley
3 Tb. of capers
2 Shallots finely diced
2 Granny Smith Apples
Olive Oil to taste
1 Tp. Lemon zest
Squeeze of Lemon
Salt and Pepper

Finely chop the parsley and apples and mix with the rest of the ingredients. Serve with the marrowbones and/or soup as a side dish.

The Very Best Tarte Tatin Recipe

Speaking of Gourmet Magazine, they did a fabulous edition in March 2001 focused on the "insider secrets" to Paris. They asked local, long time residents to divulge their favourite places, shops, restaurants, and things to do. There were articles on up-coming neighbourhoods and great pieces on Picasso's Paris, recreations of dinner's past. Since I was on my way to Paris, it was such a rich compendium of timely information that I had no choice but to pinch it from United's SFO lounge just minutes before the boarding call sounded. No moral quandaries there.

It turned out that this particular edition would prove specially significant to me. You see, for my 30th birthday, which was in March of that year, Toby took me on a surprise trip to Paris. (Yes, I know that he has let the entire male side down for setting such a dangerous precedent. Too bad.) But what made the trip even better was that he managed to convince about eight of our friends from Canada, the US and Europe to join the celebration! It was truly magical. In fact, so enraptured we were with the city, we started window-shopping for real estate and said out-loud to the universe that we'd love to live in Paris one day. Well, as fortune would have it, the universe worked much faster than we expected: just six months later, serendipity struck, and we had moved lock, stock and barrel to the City of Light, Love and of course Food!

(Not our picture -- I'd never use doilies to plate anything -- but some random googled item that looked about right. Thanks for that.)

This magazine of course came with us in the move, and served my explorations and orientation to Parisian delights well. It then languished for a bit in my magazine pile until Toby's wonderful aunt Gill rediscovered it while visiting us. In particular, she found this fantastic recipe for Tarte Tatin, a classic French apple dish, which is hard to do well. Even in restaurants here it's often this sickly, insipid mush and not worth the calories.

However, the accompanying article demystified all of this, explaining the "dos" and "don't's" of the process. So armed with this knowledge, Gill and I tried our hand at this one night. Needless to say, it turned out remarkably well. After successfully inverting the creation from our cast-iron pan -- always a moment of truth -- we were delighted to find the apples perfectly caramelized and not too mushy, and the pastry flaky. I have since replicated this several times, both at home and on the road in strange kitchens. Gill has reported one semi-success, mainly because she didn't cook the apples on the stove top long enough to get the caramelization going (a key trick!) We both subsitute normal, home-made tarte pastry for the puff pastry. I have also used more apples than what they call for, sometimes as many as ten, which means it's good to have a voluntary kitchen slave around to do the dirty work (e.g. peeling the many apples) for you!

So, if you are pining for one of the best apple desserts around, try this recipe and you'll get good results!

TARTE TATIN (from Gourmet March 2001)
Serves 8
Active time: 30 min
Start to finish: 1 1/4 hr

Ingredients
1 frozen puff pastry sheet (from a 17 1/4-oz package), thawed
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
7 to 9 Gala apples (3 to 4 lb), peeled, quartered lengthwise, and cored

Special equipment: a well-seasoned 10-inch cast-iron skillet

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Roll pastry sheet into a 101/2-inch square on a floured work surface with a floured rolling pin. Brush off excess flour and cut out a 10-inch round with a sharp knife, using a plate as a guide. Transfer round to a baking sheet and chill.

Roll pastry sheet into a 101/2-inch square on a floured work surface with a floured rolling pin. Brush off excess flour and cut out a 10-inch round with a sharp knife, using a plate as a guide. Transfer round to a baking sheet and chill.

Spread butter thickly on bottom and side of skillet and pour sugar evenly over bottom. Arrange as many apples as will fit vertically on sugar, packing them tightly in concentric circles . Apples will stick up above rim of skillet.

Cook apples over moderately high heat, undisturbed, until juices are deep golden and bubbling, 18 to 25 minutes. (Don't worry if juices color unevenly.)

Put skillet in middle of oven over a piece of foil to catch any drips. Bake 20 minutes (apples will settle slightly), then remove from oven and lay pastry round over apples.

Bake tart until pastry is browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer skillet to a rack and cool at least 10 minutes.

Just before serving, invert a platter with lip over skillet and, using potholders to hold skillet and plate tightly together, invert tart onto platter. Replace any apples that stick to skillet. (Don't worry if there are black spots; they won't affect the flavor of the tart.) Brush any excess caramel from skillet over apples. Serve immediately.

Cooks' note: Tart can cool in skillet up to 30 minutes. It can also stand, uncovered, up to 5 hours, then be heated over moderately low heat 1 to 2 minutes to loosen caramel. Shake skillet gently to loosen tart before inverting.

- Nicole

Gourmet Cookbook: 60 Year Anniversary Edition

There is a wonderful radio interview on NPR's Fresh Air with Ruth Reichl, editor-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine. (October 5, 2004) It's about the newly issued, The Gourmet Cookbook, which "includes more than 1,200 recipes culled from 60 years of the magazine's back issues." As Reichl notes, Gourmet Magazine spans an incredible band of time when America transitioned from being an agricultural based society to the present post-industrial environment. This makes this book part anthropological study of how food in America has evolved since the 40s. (Also read her article on the Epicurious website.) Sounds like a worthy member of any cookbook collection. Xmas pressie anyone?

- Nicole

Thai Coconut Cream of Spinach

We had another south-east Asian dinner party the other day, hungry as we were for the soul-warming tastes from this part of the world. We were long due for this reprise. But the occasion was also an excuse for a féte to introduce new friends, especially a couple, journalist Elisabeth Eaves and her diplomat boyfriend Leslie who are newly arrived to Paris. The timing was doubly good since this also coincided on the eve of Canadian Thanksgiving, an event we've often neglected being so far away from our native land, but nonetheless a lovely and important time in that it acknowledges the bounties of the harvest season, something which all of us regardless of culture and country can celebrate.

We served a mixture of Indonesian, Malaysian, and Thai dishes. The Indonesian dish, always a crowd pleaser -- and now a speciality of Toby's -- was a tangy Beef Redang which we slow cooked in an unbeatable gravy of coconut milk, lemon grass, fresh red chilies, tamarind juice, ginger and garlic. The best recipe we've found is in Sri Owen's Classic Asian Cookbook, the "Beef Rendang Dry Fried" version.

Other dishes included a Rujak, a Malaysian spicy fruit salad and a Steamed Acorn Squash with Onion Malay Jam, a recipeI snipped from a cooking magazine which featured dishes that travelled with their Malay traders to places like Sri Lanka and South Africa, where they use pumpkin instead. This was also an homage to our unconventional Thanksgiving dinner.

I served two of my own adaptations as well. A stir fry of Eggplant, Dried Shitaki Chinese Mushrooms, and Red Peppers flavoured with fresh red chilies, ginger, and kecap manis -- an Indonesian sweet, viscous soy sauce that has a wonderful taste. However, the recipe my friend Pamela asked for was my adaptation of a Thai Coconut Cream of Spinach garnished with hard-boil eggs, cilantro, and crispy garlic chips, a dish I once had in a small village north of Chiang Rai, cooked for me by the mother of my driver back when I was still living in Singapore and often visiting Thailand for business. Here is the recipe, which I had to improvise, straining to re-create and remember many years later. Regardless of its authenticity, it's very tasty and a good vegetarian dish to offer guests .

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion or 3-4 shallots
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• A large handful of cilantro
• 3-4 tablespoons of fresh ginger grated
• 4-6 tablespoons of Red Thai Curry Paste
• 1 stalk of lemon grass (optional)
• Pinch of salt
• 4-6 cups Frozen Spinach, or double that if using fresh spinach
• 1 can of Coconut Cream or Extrait de Coco de Lait. (Regular coconut will suffice but it's not as tasty.)
To Garnish
• 4 hard boiled eggs**
• Chopped Cilantro
• Juice of 1 lime to taste
• 20+ Thin slices of garlic fried golden

* In Paris, you can get these at the wonderful Tang Freres in the 13th or in the Asian super-marches in Belville.

** To cook perfect hard-boil eggs -- vibrantly golden, moist, and not overcooked with green rings around the edges -- we use Alice Water's fail-safe technique: Bring some water to a vigorous boil, and then immerse the eggs using a slotted spoon, cooking them for no more than 8 minutes. Make sure to put the timer on! Then cool them under running cold water or in an iced plunge bath.

Process

If you have a blender, make into a paste the first ingredients: onion, garlic, ginger, cilantro, curry paste, lemon grass. To blend smoothly, just add a few tablespoons of water and oil. The blender really works the best consistency-wise. However, if you don't have a blender, finely chop the ingredients or use a mortar and pestal, which is the traditional way -- what I saw the mother of my driver do on the floor of her outdoor kitchen -- but this is harder work!

The next step is to fry the paste or chopped ingredients in a heavy saucepan in a few tablespoons of vegetable oil until soft. Add the spinach. I just put it in frozen because I can't be bothered to defrost it before hand, but it will be faster if already thawed and drained.

As things cook, stir the spinach and blend with spice mixture as it thaws and releases water. This can take 15-20 minutes if frozen. After it has thawed and mixed well, add the coconut milk and blend until smooth. Cook for an extra 10-15 minutes. Taste for seasoning and serve in a nice bowl.

Before serving, stir in the lime juice. To garnish, cut the hard boiled eggs in half and place on top of the spinach with a handful of cilantro and slivers of red pepper or fresh red chili peppers and the garlic chips.

- Nicole

Welcome to Table Notes

Definition of Community: Middle English communite, citizenry, from Old French, from Latin commnits, fellowship, from commnis, common.]

Welcome to Table Notes, the foodblog of Nicole-Anne Boyer and Toby Paterson and friends. (We hope to add contributers so let us know if you are interested!)

After years living and working in different ports of call -- Singapore, San Francisco, Vancouver, BC and now currently Paris, France -- we've learned that the best way to form community is around a dinner table. Flowing wine, beautiful food, lots of laughter, and great stories is all that it takes to reaffirm old connections and make new ones: the recipe for the good life so simple, a much needed respite from a increasingly complex world.

In following our culinary bliss, we've collected lots of good things to cook from different people, cultures and cities which serendipitiously have turned out to be fabulous eating places. The success of food blogs has now inspired us to create a virtual meeting place where good memories, recipes, and handy cooking tips can be shared amongst our friends, family, and with other kindred foodies. No more need to write down the recipe because it will all be here! Indeed, one of the most attractive things about food blogs is the connectivity they're creating between food lovers, whether they be many time zones away or within the same city. We look forward to being part of this growing community. Happy eating!

- Nic and Toby