August 2007 archives

Ah, la salade niçoise…

One of the classics of French cooking and one of my favorite things to dig into sitting on the terrace of a café, dreaming idling away the afternoon by the sparkling Mediterranean. But really, who wouldn’t want to dig into a big, fresh salad bursting forth with the flavors of the sunny French Riviera, no matter where you live?

There’s always much controversy about the salade niçoise regarding what’s authentic and what’s not.

Does one use fresh or canned tuna?

Is there a bed of lettuce underneath or does one leave it out?

Are there olives in it?

Boiled potatoes or rice?

Should it be mixed or composed?

And although I’m not convinced about artichokes, there’s folks out there who swear by them.

I’m not really sure if there’s a definitive answer as to what’s correct.

But I’m pretty sure about one thing.

This ain’t it…

Here’s my list of Ten Great Things To Eat in Paris, things I think you shouldn’t miss!

Continue Reading 10 Insanely Delicious Things You Shouldn’t Miss in Paris…

Whenever an American friend in Paris has a birthday, I invariably offer to make the cake for the big fête. Not that there’s a lack of great bakeries in Paris, but Americans always seem to crave the same thing: a big, tall, all-American chocolate cake with an overabundance of swirls and swoops of chocolate frosting.

And who am I to deny them?

And what better to make than a dark, moist Devil’s Food Cake with thick, shiny ganache swirled all over the top and smoothed around the sides?

This Devil’s Food Cake is a happy compromise between those richer, flourless kind of chocolate cakes which would be too intense and inelegant stacked one on top of the other, and those jumbo, three-tiered extravaganzas which might shock a few folks around here with its all-American excess.

(Although the Rice Krispy Treats I made a couple of weeks ago were quite a hit. I tried to explain their cultural appeal to my Parisian friends, but decided just to them do the ambassador work themselves. I’m willing to let someone else carry the cross-cultural mantle around here for a while.)

This one has the heft and smoothness of a larger cake without scaring anyone anyway, and will appease everyone with it’s on-the-spot dark chocolate flavor. It’s delicate crumb is perfect when paired with a scoop of homemade ice cream or a pour of super-cold crème anglaise, but it’s also sturdy enough to weather a trip across the Paris, since if you remember, I don’t have very good luck carrying cakes on the métro amongst devil-may-care Parisians.

Continue Reading Devil’s Food Cake Recipe…

Most larger buildings in Paris have a concierge.

But before you think that I live somewhere that’s all fancy and stuff, it’s basically another name for the gardienne, normally a woman who takes care of things like delivering the mail and making sure repairs get handled. But even more importantly, she ensures that not even the slightest infraction of the rules or smallest detail of gossip gets by her, and at my friend’s apartment in the 5th, theirs has a one-way mirror on her front door…so be careful who you drag home.

In French, there’s an expression; ‘faire la gardienne’, which means to ‘make like the gardienne‘—’to gossip’.

Continue Reading Summer tomato salad recipe…

…and just in case you want to know what happens if you leave a chocolate birthday cake you made in the sun by accident…

One baking question that I’m frequently asked—“Is sifting really necessary?”

I hope that answers the question…

Related Posts and Links

Tips to Keep Cookies from Spreading

When to Use (and not Use) Corn Syrup

How to Make the Perfect Caramel

Why You Should Use Aluminum-Free Baking Powder

American Baking Ingredients in Paris