Episodes
Episode 101: Savory Staples
Recipes: Risotto with Vegetables, Darphin Potatoes, Skillet Sweet Potatoes, Green Couscous, Corn Polenta with Mushroom Ragout
Episode 102: Fabulous Fins
Recipes: Cured Salmon in Molasses, Tuna Steaks with Tapenade Coating, Tuna Tartare on Marinated Cucumbers, Poached Salmon in Ravigote Sauce, Ray Meunière with Mushrooms
Episode 103: Sweets For My Sweet
Recipes: Tartelettes Aux Fruit Panaches, Tarte Tatin, Mémé’s Apple Tart, Individual Chocolate Nut Pies
Chocolate Dessert Recipes
Individual Chocolate Nut Pies
The rich filling for these little pies is a mixture of bittersweet chocolate, corn syrup, eggs, and mixed nuts. Baked in a classic graham cracker crust in individual ramekins, they are easy and delicious.
Chocolate Mint Trufflettes
These small truffles are especially nice to box and give to friends over the holiday season. They keep well in the refrigerator and can also be frozen.
Chocolate Soufflè Cake With Raspberry Sauce
Fluffy and delicate, this light cake contains fewer egg yolks and less butter than is customary. Serve at room temperature, with or without the sauce.
Meat Recipes
Sautèed Rabbit with Morels and Pearl Onions
This stew is made with the rabbit’s front and back legs and rib cage. The saddle (the whole back) is roasted, cooking in less time than the stew and staying moist and flavorful.
Venison Steaks in Sweet-Sour Sauce
Venison is traditionally served with a sweet-sour sauce. This one contains currant or raspberry jelly for sweetness and vinegar — cooked with shallots and added at the end — for a contrasting sour taste.
Puerto Rican Pork and Beans
My wife, Gloria, often prepares this dinner when we have guests. A satisfying one-dish meal, it can be cooked ahead and refrigerated or frozen, and it is even better reheated.
Seafood Recipes
Nage Courte of Striped Bass
If you can’t find striped bass where you live, replace it with a fish of approximately the same size — anything from red snapper to porgy to black sea bass.
Sea Bass in Shredded Potato Skin
These fillets are cooked in a shredded potato crust. The crisp crust keeps the fish juicy and provides a nice balance to the tender flesh.
Brandade De Morue au Gratin
Brandade is a puree of salt cod, garlic, and potato emulsified with olive oil. You can prepare the brandade ahead and reheat it in a gratin dish at serving time until hot, bubbly, and brown on top.
Poultry Recipes
Roast Capon with Armagnac-Mushroom Sauce
Capons (neutered and fattened chickens) are available during the holiday season in many markets. They are moist, tender, and succulent and well worth their extra cost. [watch video]
Ballottine of Chicken with Spinach Filling
A ballottine is a whole chicken that has been boned and stuffed. Showy enough for company, it can be prepared up to a day ahead.
Skillet Duck with Red Oak Salad
Easy and delicious, this duck is cooked in much the same way as Southern fried chicken — fried in its own fat in a covered pot so steam develops, making the meat very moist and tender and the skin crisp.
Pasta Recipes
Gnocchi Maison
For this recipe, I add mashed potatoes to the dough for Parisian gnocchi to create an appealing hybrid that I particularly like.
Macaroni Beaucaire
From the small town of Beaucaire in Provence, this is actually two dishes incorporated into one.
Linguine with Clam Sauce and Vegetables
Clams are a favorite at our house, and I make this recipe at least once a week in the summer. I like cherrystones, which are larger than littlenecks and meatier. Bring them just to a simmer.
