Miel de Poivre- miracle pepper honey magic
Dear Queen of Gascon Cuisine, If you could wave your magic bleu doo-rag and teach everyone reading this one very easy recipe, what would it be? Signed, loyal kitchen slave This is it. A miracle sauce to change your life. Easy, cheap and fun. A sure-fire pantry pleaser. Magic in a jar. my new piggery pantry staple. A cunning condiment. All this magic in a jar came from a sweet French book called Tisanes et Sirops Delice, one of three that I use for all things herbal, floral and... Read More
Camp Confit Preview
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video. Making confit de canard or preserved duck is a Gascon winter kitchen game of duck, duck, goose. Although I posted these pix on my old blog now referred to as ‘The Archives’, I wanted to share these again as a step-by-step slideshow and appeteaser for this winters confit making workshops. For more information click here- DUCK+. swfobject.embedSWF("http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649&offsite=true",... Read More
The 30 minute post vs the 30 min. meal.
15:30- I can cook faster than I can write and post. I admonish nervous cooks to just practice and they’ll get better, faster and have more fun. So now the tables are turned. I DARE myself to write you a quick love note from Gascony… in just 30 minutes. 15:33- Cooking fast is a matter of feeding yourself when hungry not showing off. Like most of you I work hard… oops, Diva just skyped me. Hold that thought. 15:36- As I was saying, I work hard doing lots of different... Read More
Cooking at the Source- Gascony- November 2009
In collaboration with Robert Reynold’s Chef’s Studio in Portland Oregon. Robert Reynolds in his Chef’s Studio When I hear Robert speak about France, I am transported there– to this land of cheese and wine that he believes in like some believe in Père Noël- passionately, profoundly and wholeheartedly. Forget that I am already here in France, when Robert Reynolds speaks about my own home in Gascony, I listen. And learn. Here, he describes a visit... Read More
Lapin aux Pruneaux: what comes first- the rabbit or plum?
Les Pruneaux d’Agen or Prune d’Ente are the sweet souvenirs of forgotten crusaders of the thirteenth century who returned to France from Syria with the new fruit. They called it the “plum date.” The fruit was presented to monks at the abbey in Clariac, and it was they who were among the first to graft the new variety to wild plum trees and transform the ripe fruit into long-conserving pruneaux, or prunes. The passionate cultivation of grafted trees... Read More
