FISHY

DO YOU B-B-Q?

Grilling up a whole fish or two is the best when it’s hotter than hot.  serve these babies with a fennel salad and a crisp white wine, may i recommend a white from Cassis where the vineyards dance right down into the blue blue sea.

These two beauties featured below were plucked right out of the mediterranean sea, just like that. and before you could say “sacré bleu” they were cleaned, stuffed with fennel greens and garlic, lubed up with olive oil salt and pepper……and grilled to an instant of fishy fantasy.

stuff them well with the fennel greens and loads of garlic.

don’t be alarmed by their vacant stare, they can’t see you.

Josh can’t stop eating the bones. cartoon alley cat.

 

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S’MORES!

As the fourth of July is fast approaching, I thought to say a word about the s’more.  The quintessential summer dessert,  it is, in my view, a necessary element to any barbecue and most certainly the fourth of July barbecue.  The strength of the s’more is that it instantly fills you with sweet memories of summer camps and best friends and wet dogs and kick the can and hot dog dinners and all those romantic details of the american summer.  Here are some pics from our last year’s 4th of July bash at the summer house.

setting the tone….

s’mores go best with some quality champagne…don’t forget the americana napkins

supplies. note: we’ve made some substitutions from the traditional graham cracker/hershey bar version as we’re in provence where those things don’t exist.

the fire’s hot

you MUST use a stick you found in the yard….no skewers/etc they don’t count.

the french-american classic cooked to perfection.

 

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BIRDCAGES

This summer is the summer of the birdcage.  They are cheap, and look great with candles inside or little light up bird friends.  We’ve used these bamboo cages in really cool colorful ways, and also did a super chic table setting with them for a party at the Waldorf.  Imagine how cool it would be to have a night time picnic under a big tree with hundreds of these cages hanging and glittering with candlelight…………

 

at the Asia Society

 

 

at the Waldorf Astoria

 

SUMMER READING

I’ve just finished reading this incredible book by muriel BARBERY, Gourmet Rhapsody;  a truly uneasy story  told in intoxicating language using cuisine as the primary metaphor.  She uses a culinary critique style to create such a rich portrait of a man and his short life with brilliant success. A real pleasure to read as her words drip off the pages like, well, something really delicious. It totally and fully turned me on. (Thanks Benoit!)

TRAVEL TIP

These little French melons are like no others. So if you were wondering where to spend your summer vacation, I say, come over to France and eat a melon!

CROQUE MADAME

If i were rachel ray, i’d say, with my charming accent, “it’s low keerrb”.

Slice open 1/3 baguette, slather on a generous coating of bechamel, top with fresh sliced ham and gruyère cheese and set under the broiler until browned and bubbling.  Add fried egg sunny side up. so goooood. if iwere rachel ray, i’d say, “it’s dah-lish”

 

dah-lish and low keerrb!

 

WHY IS THIS MAN SO HAPPY?

benoit is thoroughly enjoying his eggplant parm

The charm of  eggplant parmesan is undeniably euphoric.  There is never any left over, thereby hazing the following morning over by the kind of deep metaphysic sadness that comes from realizing how fast the good times pass in our lives.

Please note, this eggplant parm takes a very long time to create.  You’ll first need to make a basic tomato sauce.  I add a dash of red pepper to the sauce to give the ulimate dish a little jazz.  As the sauce is simmering, you can slice 3 big eggplants, toss them with salt and sit them in a collander to drain.  This takes a while, and unfortunately never really works like you hope it will since the eggplant slices at the bottom absorb the water from those on top.  After a 1/2 hour or so, I lay the slices out on a kitchen towel and pat them dry.

Now bread and fry the eggplants in batches, remember, flour then egg then breadcrum/parmesan. Fry in olive oil.  

Grate a pound or so of Gruyère.  

Assemble the masterpiece like a lasagne, sauce then eggplant, then sauce, then cheese, now repeat.

Bake for 45min or until bubbling and rich brown.  I make this well  before people come over and leave it in the oven with the oven off but still warm for at least an hour. This dish becomes mellower after a bit of rest. But then who doesn’t.  I’ve intended these instructions to be more like suggestions and hope you’ll create an eggplant parm that mirrors your deepest self.

The intense, yet ephemeral pleasure is enhanced by knowing that you worked all day to make the eggplant parm, yet nothing compares to the silence at the table as all your guests enter into a collective trance.

CLAMSHELLS

I know this may not be exactly the most original idea, but I really am obsessed with the clamshell as tabletop untensil.  I recently posted cumin in a clamshell (see couscous post)….here is a little shell i use for salt.  If you have a crew of dirty smokers over for dinner, you can give each their own clamshell ashtray.  The best thing is these are absolutely free and waiting for you on a beach nearby.  I think mine mostly came from the Atlantic.

 

ANOTHER GOOD IDEA…

THE DARK AND STORMY!

dark rum + jamaican ginger beer + lime = a GREAT summer drink.

(we have been drinking havana club a major no-no in the usa, but we’ll leave politics out of this, anyway, we’re in france where we can freely guzzle cuban rum and puff without fear on a fat cuban cigar, just not inside)

 

blurry?

¡hola!

A GOOD IDEA

If i were you, i’d have a holiday weekend cocktail party today. I’d start early too, a late afternoon cocktail party is a very good idea.  If you’ve got a huge wrap around terrace with a killer view, a roof deck, or live by a canal like I do, you could have the party there. If you wisely choose to take my advice, be sure to make some of these roast beef toasts with rare roast beef, horse radish and arugula.