I am therefore I cook

NEW ADDRESS

2010-09-13T11:57:00.001-07:00

Hi this site has moved to: http://iamthereforeicook.com/ Thanks and don't miss Marie-Eve Berty's cooking lessons in participation with the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)! Take care and eat well.

Bread and Cherry Tomatoes

2010-08-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

Summer is ambling to a close and the garden’s offerings are fresh and fragrant. Cherry tomato plants are welcome invaders, who entwine themselves everywhere. Looking for the red spots and gathering them is a feast for the nose before becoming one for the palate. It makes me want to bathe in the sun and stock the heat. Nothing is better than a lazy lunch, where the picking takes longer

Healthy and savorful barbecue

2010-07-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

With summer comes the urge to barbecue. I must qualify this statement by precising that some people are immune to the temptation, most notably my husband. I have recently checked one of his excuses for not falling prey to the quasi universal appeal of outside cooking and found it sorely lacking. Barbecues, according to him have nothing on ovens. To prove him right, manufacturers have been rolling

One pot thai fish

2010-06-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

A sea casserole is one of the easiest and most impressive dishes you can serve. Flounder fillets, shrimps and minced vegetables steam together above a ginger seaweed broth perfumed with clamshells and oysters. No half-shell treatment required as the heating will naturally insure the opening of the shells. The same broth is used in a reduction finished with a dash of

Not So Traditional Fast Skate

2010-01-29T06:15:00.000-08:00

As you well know, I am always intrigued by variations on old classics. When they give birth to new dishes, which can be made in less than ten minutes, my enthusiasm is unbound. Add to this a lesser fat content than the original and the timely use of seasonal vegetables and I am totally sold. Taste matters. Whereas, skate bistro style is traditionally cooked in butter and dressed in a sharp

Worldly tapas

2010-01-22T14:19:00.000-08:00

Light meals are in. The Spanish have a tradition we can borrow from. They eat “tapas”. At first it was a way not to drink on an empty stomach and consisted of little more than a garnished piece of bread. But soon the vast array of Spanish cuisine came to the rescue and contemporary tapas include any food preparation in smaller quantities. A bar fare generally includes 4 to 6 different

Dressing a soup

2010-01-14T08:52:00.000-08:00

I love soups. They bring warmth to the body in winter and require about as much cooking talent and equipment as a smoothie. A good blender, any fresh seasonal vegetables and you are 3 minutes away from a healthy meal. To give body to high water content vegetables such as spinach, zucchini, asparagus and leeks, you can add a potato, boil in some cream or blend in the yolk of an egg before serving.

Fast after a feast

2010-01-09T11:49:00.000-08:00

My weekly culinary comments have been running for over a year now. It provides a snapshot of what my family and I have been eating. As any record, journal or photograph, it provides its author with a snapshot of the past. For example, in 2009 I did not feel the need for a change of diet before February 16th. This year, I am speaking of a break one month earlier. The holidays take their toll. The

Eric Ripert's New Year appetizers

2009-12-26T00:57:00.000-08:00

Le Bernardin in New York is a three-star restaurant where the specialty is fish. Maguy Le Coze and Eric Ripert are solidly at the helm and, under their direction, their team faultlessly deliver their passengers to Cythère. I first went to it when it was in the Paris street, which gave the restaurant its name. Itself derived from the convent, which stood there before the Revolution. The ruins have

Festive beef filet two ways

2009-12-23T08:46:00.000-08:00

Meat has become for me a special occasion meal. Among the variety offered, beef filet retains its cachet. I propose two cooking methods, boiled or baked. Both will treat the special cut appropriately, leaving the meat rare. I suggested to the Japanese guests who tasted the first version that it was a French rendering of Shabu Shabu. The buttery béarnaise, which accompanies the minimally processed

Christmas Log: a French tradition made in America

2009-12-20T13:34:00.000-08:00

Before a clever 19th century pastry chef created the now mandatory christmas cake, the Christmas Log burnt brightly in every French fireplace. When Santa Claus took to passing through the chimney to offer his wares, the log jumped from its normal place to the table for everybody’s pleasure. It is one of the few French holiday traditions. Germany is responsible for Christmas pine trees, Great

Foie gras:the best pâté

2009-12-11T06:54:00.000-08:00

Foie gras is a favorite starter for Christmas or New Year festivities. It is not new: geese are represented while force-fed in Egyptian tomb frescoes. The current polemic about whether it constitutes animal cruelty is old news as well: Alexandre Dumas under the entry “foie gras” in his Great cooking dictionary of 1870 recalls the petition written by a French gourmet but virtuous aristocrat in

Quick Food

2009-12-03T22:46:00.000-08:00

In the few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas I like to plan my festive menus. In the mean time, overfed by my imagination, I aspire to eat well without fuss. While I shall share soon potential Christmas dinner tips - anticipate foie gras, beef Wellington, a lovely filet béarnaise and a Christmas log - my topic today is quick food. I mean to reach for easily available

About pasta

2009-11-27T08:48:00.000-08:00

Pasta starts with the same basic elements flour and water as bread: only the proportions differ, bread is 60% water, pasta 40%. It originated in two countries, China and Italy that used the different characteristics of their wheat production to best advantage. Italians manufacture dry, long conservation products capitalizing on the high-gluten durum of their wheat, whereas China uses its soft

The bread of life

2009-11-20T04:39:00.000-08:00

Bread is a mainstay of our occidental culture. Besides figuring prominently in Christian liturgies, it is the essential component of a meal: before plates became the rule, a slice of bread was a good substitute. Pâté was originally meat enclosed in bread. A brief analysis of the words derived from “bread” and “loaf” in our language indicates how crucial its role is in society: lord (Anglo-Saxon

Thanksgiving to the pumpkin

2009-11-13T15:14:00.000-08:00

Born in France, I first encountered pumpkin in soups. Brought to our shores by the Portuguese in the Sixteenth century, it was not fully integrated in the French culture except in this form. As no romantic link to Cinderella was made obvious at the time - there was no such nicety as serving it in the skin of the pumpkin- it left me at best indifferent. The skill of the cook or the type of squash

Comfort food: from Potée to Apfelstruedel

2009-11-06T15:12:00.000-08:00

With the cold weather, the need for comfort food returns. The oldest one (another Middle Ages staple) is cabbage soup. All the regions of France have a variant of it. It starts with the vegetables – onions, cabbages, carrots, dry beans – which resisted winter well in pre refrigerator times, and continued with salted meats for the same reason. Today the dish is a great way to entertain a crowd