Here is a simple recipe for les haricots verts à l’ail or green beans with garlic. Serve this simple side dish with pasta, chicken, steak, or salmon. This recipe comes from La Cuisine du Comté de Nice by Jacques Médecin. Médecin was the mayor of Nice and also a chef in that city for many […] More
What could be more satisfying than a late summer soup made from the vegetables out of your own garden or the one’s you hand selected at the farm market. PrintBasil and Tomato SoupAuthor Steve AlbertYield 6-8 servings Here’s a basil and tomato soup which you can serve hot or cold. I like to serve it […] More
Tisane is a tea like drink made by steeping a single herb or a mixture of several herbs in boiling water. Flowers and spices can be added. Tisane is the French term for a restorative herbal tea. Popular tisanes include chamomile, scented geranium, linden, jasmine, lemon verbena, hibiscus, and rose hip. The peppermint you use […] More
Here is a very tasty sunflower brittle recipe that Julia, a San Francisco garden designer, recently cooked up using a recipe adapted from The Joy of Cooking. This brittle is light and sunflower nutty and a perfect snack for an afternoon in the garden. Julia advises that you might want to have ready a pair […] More
Melon en Surprise was Auguste Escoffier’s title for a five line description of a tasty combination of melons and other fresh fruits in his 1903 masterpiece Le Guide Culinaire. Of course, Escoffier was working from the notes and techniques of Antoine Carême, an earlier codifier of French Haute cuisine. But as you will see here, […] More
Sautéing will keep the crispness and flavor of fresh vegetables intact. Sautéing is a technique very similar to Chinese stir-frying. Fresh vegetables that lend themselves to sautéing include mushrooms, thinly slice carrots, zucchini, onions, green peppers, and corn kernels. PrintSautéed CornAuthor Steve AlbertYield 1 serving IngredientsFresh corn kernels: 1 cup (237ml)To each cup of corn […] More
The Gravenstein apple is simply one of the best baking and cooking apples. A tart is a pastry crust with shallow sides, a filling, and no top crust. This tart calls for the apples to be cooked before they are placed in the crust. Once baked, this Gravenstein apple tart will be light and crispy […] More
Let turnips surprise you. They may not be wildly popular but they can be tasty. Here are a few suggestions for serving turnips: • Serve slices of raw young turnips with olives and cherry tomatoes to make a simple appetizer. • Shave raw turnips, crisp them in iced water, sprinkle with salt, and serve as […] More
Béchamel Sauce is a basic white sauce made by stirring milk into a butter-flour roux. Roux is a flour and butter mixture slowly cooked over a low heat. When a roux is cooked to a beige color it is called white roux. When it is cooked to a golden color it is called blond roux. […] More
• Creamy lemon sauce: mix 1 cup ranch dressing, 1 crushed garlic clove, and the juice of 1 lemon. • Mint-yogurt sauce: mix ½ cup plain yogurt, the juice of 1½ lemon 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint, and 1 small minced garlic clove. • Sun-dried tomato or fresh tomatillo pesto with goat cheese sauce: mix […] More
Daikon is a long white radish sweet-mild to peppery in flavor and juicy crisp. Daikon–which means “long root” in Japanese–is most commonly eaten raw or stir-fried. It is a staple in nearly all meals in Japan, Korea, and China. Daikon is often shredded and served as an accompaniment to Japanese raw fish dishes, such as […] More
Hollandaise sauce is a smooth rich creamy sauce thickened by the use of egg yolks. Use hollandaise sauce as a topping for asparagus, broccoli and other vegetables. Hollandaise and mayonnaise are very similar—the fats are the difference: hollandaise uses butter; mayonnaise uses vegetable oil. One of the earliest recipes for hollandaise appeared in a French […] More
Stephen Albert