If we can cook it, you can cook it!

Category: French Food

Attention Trader Joe’s Shoppers:  Our top 6 favorite discoveries and one we thought was a dud.

Attention Trader Joe’s Shoppers: Our top 6 favorite discoveries and one we thought was a dud.

If you’ve spent any time reading this blog, you know I am a huge fan of Trader Joe’s and not just because there happens to be one just three blocks from our place in the city.   I will suffer the crowds for the convenience and…

D’Artagnan Adds Chicken Confit to Its Extraordinay Line-Up

D’Artagnan Adds Chicken Confit to Its Extraordinay Line-Up

Home cooks and Chefs alike will welcome this terrific new  Chicken Confit Photos Courtesy of D’Artagnan Foods D’Artagnan’s new Chicken Confit comes in packages of 2 and 12. Ariane Daguin, founder of D’Artagnan, was up to her ears in Duck Fat. This will come as…

My Latest Article in The Daily Meal has just been published…Come along on my Rhone Cruise on Emerald Waterways

My Latest Article in The Daily Meal has just been published…Come along on my Rhone Cruise on Emerald Waterways

Emerald Waterways takes to the Rhône With a Top Chef on Board Jun 20, 2017 | 4:26 pm By Monte Mathews Staff Writer Chef Fabien Morreale has created a special meal for the passengers of these ships. Glen and Karen Moroney The Australian Company Scenic…

Steak Hache, an homage to Joe Allen’s Chopped Steak

Steak Hache, an homage to Joe Allen’s Chopped Steak

       Our favorite restaurants often share one thing in common.  We go there without ever having to look at the menu.  We know the moment we walk in the door what we are going to order.  There’s the linguine  with clam sauce at West Bank…

The Daily Meal has just published my latest article and recipe….Enjoy this trip to the South of France!

The Daily Meal has just published my latest article and recipe….Enjoy this trip to the South of France!

Salade Niçoise is Not What You Might Think It Is Get your facts straight regarding salade niçoise, direct from the source Aug 9, 2016 | 10:01 am By Monte Mathews Staff Writer We have the scoop on how a Salade Niçoise should really be made.…

From The Daily Meal: Culinary Travel: Paris. This Restaurant went straight to the top…with a two item menu. Plus our recipe for one of their specialties…

         Granted, “Canard et Champagne”  (Duck and Champagne) are arguably two of France’s greatest gifts to cuisine but it took some nerve to open a restaurant which sells nothing else.   But that is precisely what Jean-Francois Montfort and partners Jean Valfort and Pierre Dutaret did…

From The Daily Meal: In Search of Nice’s Socca, the World’s First Gluten-Free Pancake

From The Daily Meal: In Search of Nice’s Socca, the World’s First Gluten-Free Pancake

Gluten-free pancakes are now widely available, but we went to France to find the original By Monte Mathews Staff Writer Spoiler Alert: We found the Socca. Socca pancakes, made with chickpea flour, may have been the world’s first gluten-free pancakes. Although the recipe started out…

A Tale of Two Chickens: Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in Milk and Richard Olney’s Chicken Gratin

A Tale of Two Chickens: Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in Milk and Richard Olney’s Chicken Gratin

Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in Milk  Richard Olney’s Chicken Gratin  Jamie Oliver I am a sucker for a good chicken recipe.  So the minute I saw that Food 52, one of my favorite food sites, had named Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in Milk a “Community Favorite”, I…

French Onion Soup in a Flash!

French Onion Soup in a Flash!

         King Louis XV  Who doesn’t love a bowl of French Onion Soup? Topped with melted Gruyère cheese over crusty bread, your spoon digs into the bowl to get to the rich beef and onion broth.  It’s a classic recipe that became…

Vinegar Braised Chicken and Onions or Poulet Saute au Vinaigre

Catherine de Medici Mother of 3 French Kings        As far back as the 16th century, Lyon, not Paris, has been the gastronomical capital of France.  It was then that Catherine de Medici, the Queen Consort of King Henry II, an Italian noblewoman by birth,…

The perfect sandwich for summer: Patricia Wells’ Pan Bagnat

The perfect sandwich for summer: Patricia Wells’ Pan Bagnat

“When my husband and I acquired our farmhouse in Provence…, our visits were generally limited to weekend getaways from Paris. For the train ride back to the city, a snack was essential, and pan bagnat, or “bathed bread,” the Provençal sandwich found at every bakery and…

Burgundy Beef Stew adapted from Saveur’s "New Comfort Food"

Burgundy Beef Stew adapted from Saveur’s "New Comfort Food"

Confession Time:  Those vegetables that look like potatoes? They are potatoes served alongside the dish the night before. Since I didn’t get a photograph then, this picture was taken the next day with the leftovers potatoes added to the stew.          When we entertain, I…

90 Minute Coq au Vin from Cook’s Illustrated

90 Minute Coq au Vin from Cook’s Illustrated

Julia Child with her “Coq”          Cold winter nights are made for eating Coq au Vin.  And on a cold winter afternoon, the aroma of this great French classic cooking fills the kitchen with comfort.   A “Coq” is French for rooster and there lies the…

Vinegar-Braised Chicken on a bed of Leeks and Peas adapted from Grace Parisi of Food and Wine Magazine with Heirloom Tomatoes and Burrata

Vinegar-Braised Chicken on a bed of Leeks and Peas adapted from Grace Parisi of Food and Wine Magazine with Heirloom Tomatoes and Burrata

      Ms. Parisi                               Last weekend, I wanted to start to move away from summer favorites and start enjoying some of the pleasures of fall. For me this means a…