Dried lavender on Baba Jenny’s sugar spoon

She gave me a knife but I needed a machete.

Recently, after a Sunday supper, Michael’s grandmother sent me into her garden to harvest some fresh herbs to bring home and cook with during the week ahead. I cut chives as long as my forearm and pinched off some green, glossy Genovese basil leaves as ...
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Sorrel soup, or schav

Italian parsley and young arugula in downy bunches, elastics wrapped around their stems. Stacks of pointy-leafed mint, variegated lemon thyme, and slender chives creating a landscape of fragrant green pyramids. Soft, pillowy bags of baby spinach, mixed lettuces, and mâche. But no sorrel.

“I am too late this morning? Has all the sorrel been snatched up?” I asked, clearly ...
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Baking at the cottage: raspberry pie

Raspberries are special.

They’re intricate. Think of that hive of tiny, hair-studded spheres that slips off its torus when perfectly ripe.

They’re delicate. Eat them from your cupped palm, and streaky stains of their crimson juice will be left behind.

They’re luscious. Deeply flavoured with tart and sweet and floral notes all at once, they taste exactly what you’d ...
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Causa limeña: savoury Peruvian potato torte

In my autobiography, April 2006 through July 2006 will be known as “The Dark Period.”

I don’t remember what I ate during The Dark Period. More than that, I don’t remember eating at all. It did wonders for my figure. Oh, that glorious warm summer morning when I slid into a black pencil skirt that had been ...
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Marmalade and dark chocolate tart

This recipe was born of necessity.

While recently reviewing a cookbook, I tried a recipe for Seville orange marmalade that, while extremely delicious, had the consistency of cement. (I suspect the recipe neglects to instruct followers to top up the water level after the oranges go through their first boil.)

Since it was clear that this marmalade ...
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Sweet corn soup shooters

Here’s the scene: People are arriving at your cocktail party on an icy January evening. The biting wind has driven the temperature down to a frigid –20°C. Guests unwind scarves from their necks, shake out their hair from the confines of toques, and sling their bulky long coats over the entryway banister before entering the dining area while ...
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Creamed chicken and cornmeal porridge (Ciulama de pui si mămăligă)

I’m trying not to take offence.

I realize that the dish my mother’s people are famous for is commonly referred to as “gruel” (a cornmeal gruel, in fact, made simply with meal, water, and a flick of salt), which is not exactly a glamorous calling card. Still, it is rather disheartening to crack ...
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Lime tart with fresh raspberries

I know. I know! It’s yet another dessert post.

I’m just as surprised as you are, as I’ll gladly side with savoury over sweet every single time. But what can I say? There are worse things in which to revel than sweets, and revelling in them I have been indeed if my recent food writing is ...
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Coffee blondies

I would make a terrible Got Milk? poster girl.

It wasn’t always this way. For most of my adult life I bought, and consumed, at least a litre of milk every week: I was a dunker of all manner of cookies, a lover of cereal well soaked, a tippler of tall cold ones. But then something happened. I moved in with ...
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Pizza with spring toppings and fontina

I choose to view the last year and eight months as a lesson in simplicity, in determining life’s essentials from its frills. As it happens, having a full-sized oven is a frill, but oh — how much sweeter culinary life is when you have one at your disposal.

You might remember that back in March I Continue reading ...