Mon mari has been cooking on the barbecue grill for, well let’s just say a lot of years…. He does an excellent job, rarely cooking anything longer than necessary, and even more rarely burning something. He’s never been bothered about getting the perfect grill lines on a steak or chicken breast. He is, however, always very careful to get the right amount of ‘color’ to use his word. After watching … Continue reading →
Some things need to be cooked over charcoal: beef steaks, pork ribs and lamb chops to name my favorites. We eat lamb in the winter, too, but I don’t bother to buy lamb chops. I get meat that is more suitable for braising or roasting…. Winter cooking. But for summer cooking lamb chops are perfect food chez nous. We don’t often marinate them, but this is a light marinade, adding … Continue reading →
Braised chicken with tarragon is a classic French dish. But braised chicken is winter cooking. This is summer; we don’t braise in the summer. I do have an abundance of tarragon, though. I love tucking things under the skin of chicken before grilling. It lets all the flavors seep into the chicken as it cooks. I kept the ingredients simple – I wanted the tarragon to be the star. A … Continue reading →
Did you hear about the agnostic, dyslexic, insomniac? He was awake all night pondering the existence of dog. More about that later….. First, another fish dish that mon mari likes, er, will eat. If you get sushi-grade tuna you will definitely want to have this rare (it has to be graded to a higher standard so it is okay to eat raw). Regular tuna we normally have medium. We cook … Continue reading →
Lots of serious grill aficianados think of steak, particularly, a big, thick T-Bone, as the ultimate summer dinner. Not here. When we first moved to France we just assumed that the preference was for thin steaks as we never saw one more than 1/2" thick… And most were thinner. Se we had a nice, thick steak cut by the butcher, tossed it on the grill for a few seconds and … Continue reading →
Everyone has a favorite barbecue sauce. This is mine. Even when I lived in the US, with all of the bottled sauces available, I made my own. The recipe has changed over the years, based on taste and availability of ingredients. And it varies depending on what I’m basting with it. At first glance it seems like a lot of ginger in this recipe – both on the chops and … Continue reading →
I'm bored with summer cooking. Salad season is over and the vegetable garden is dying back…. much like my creative impulses. Summer cooking no longer produces photogenic foods. It's either a marinade or a rub; there may or may not be a sauce and that's it! At the beginning of the season I'm excited. I brine and stuff and smoke, trying new flavors and new methods. I slice and dice … Continue reading →
