David Lebovitz's Blog, page 25

Multigrain and Seed Biscotti

I was browsing some older cookbooks recently. There are so many really great new cookbooks that come out every season that it’s easy to forget some of the beloved ones waiting patiently on our shelves, for us to return to them. Before electronics came on the scene, I used to curl up every night under the cover with an actual book or two, before dozing off to bed.

The downside was that I always ended up bookmarking recipes that I wanted to make, and I’d get excited, and start running up and down (in back and forth) in my mind, about how I’m going to gather the ingredients when I wake up the next morning. Recently one that I came across was a recipe for Multigrain Biscotti in a cookbook from the ’90s that had nearly two dozen ingredients in it. But they sounded so good, I made a little (okay…not-so-little) shopping list, for the next day, using that list as a bookmark, planning to make them the next day.

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Caffe Panna Ice Cream Shop

Someone from San Francisco told me that now, there were now too many ice cream shops in the city. I didn’t think that was possible, but I guess things have changed since I moved away. (There are also some amazing bakeries there as well, which I don’t think is anything to grouse about either.) Just like in San Francisco, not only has the baking scene in New York really ramped up, but the ice cream scene as well, including Caffè Panna, the latest addition.

[NOTE: Caffè Panna will be making a special sundae of a flavor combination that I inspired, with buckwheat ice cream, buckwheat honey, dark chocolate, and French whisky. I’ll be there this Saturday, October 12, from 2pm to 3:30pm. More info at the end of this post.]

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Making Mimolette Cheese

A year or so ago, I went to one of the Fancy Food Shows in the U.S. that are held once or twice a year, and are only open to professionals. They’re held in convention centers and you can find (and sample) a variety of foods from around the world. Past trends meant that you’d go and find a lot of salsas or biscotti, cocktail mixes or gluten-free foods, and for several years, you’d find no shortage of cupcakes, either.

But it’s fun to stroll the aisles where other countries show their wares. There are a lot of Italian pastas and cheeses, olives and feta cheese from Greece, Turkish olive oils and Lebanese breads, and foods from France. I don’t always know what’s available in the States, but whenever I mentioned French Mimolette cheese online, people would say, “Oh, if only we could get that in America!”

So I was surprised to see wedges of Mimolette (and blocks of French beurre d’Isigny) on display, which were presumably for sale in the United States. Yes, in 2013, the cheese was temporarily banned in America due to the cheese mites that burrow into the surface. The ban was short-lived, however, and a year later, Mimolette was available again.

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Pasta Bolognese

A while back I made Meatballs Subs because I had a craving. They’re not that difficult to make and when you make them at home, you can use better ingredients than the versions you get elsewhere. Fortunately, there’s good bread in France and no shortage of cheese. And meatballs aren’t much of a challenge to make either. (Interestingly, a few weeks after I posted that recipe, an American woman living in Paris came up to me and said, “I don’t know how you knew, but I was craving the exact same thing! So I made your recipe…”

There must be something about ground beef, because I recently found myself craving Pasta Bolognese; tubes of pasta tossed in a thickened tomato sauce made with ground meat, red wine, garlic, and enriched with tomato paste – Capisce? 

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Weekend Links

Plum season seems to have wound down for the year – sniff…sniff – but I’ve spied a number of lovely heirloom (or à l’ancienne) apples and pears at the markets, along with grapes (for sorbet), pears (for poaching, roasting, and baking into red wine tarts), which will go great with the amazing crème d’Isigny I discovered on my trip to Normandy. Yes, I’m hooked, but eat that insanely-good stuff in microdoses. Although the word “addictive” gets used a lot, my empty crème jars are proof that Houston, we’ve got a problem.

I’ve had my head down this month, working on the final round of book edits and proofs for my next book. But like many writers, I was thwarted by the internet. Here are a few things that kept my mind (unfortunately) wandering from my work…

-How to make those elusive, creamy-soft Japanese chocolates at home. (Food52)

-French women chime in on the 35-hour workweek. (Refinery 29)

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Champagne On Ice

Who says you can’t put ice in champagne? Not the French. Or more specifically, not several French champagne producers, who’ve introduced specially-formulated sparklers meant to be served on the rocks.

Adding ice to a glass of wine, typically rosé, is called a piscine (pool), popular in the south of France, where a few glaçons are added to wine to beat the heat. But it’s not always limited to rosé; when in Corsica, people were plopping cubes of ice in glasses of red wine. “It’s too hot…” one person told me, as ice bobbed on the surface of her glass. Champagne isn’t necessarily sacred either. The head of the most prestigious champagne house once told me, “It’s better to add a cube of ice to a glass of champagne, if it’s not served cold enough, than to drink warm champagne.” As someone who’s been served a glass of champagne at a less-than-ideal temperature, I have to agree.

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Behind the Scenes in Paris – Journees du Patrimoine

Hello – it’s Emily. For those of you that haven’t heard of me, I normally help David behind the scenes with some things on the blog. As a Paris local, I wanted to share with you a very special weekend that my family and I look forward to each year. I hope that you will get the chance to experience it too!

-Emily

Journees du Patrimoine 21-22nd September 2019

As a city that welcomes nearly 18 million visitors every year, Paris clearly has a lot to offer. With over 2000 monuments and more than 200 museums, there is always something to explore. But Paris also has many places where history is made and art and culture are celebrated, that simply cannot accommodate visitors.

Behind the beautiful doors across the city there are many secrets, gardens, passageways, and places of great interest are normally inaccessible to visitors. However, as the French take their heritage very seriously and in the spirit of liberté, égalite, fraternité (liberty, equality, brotherhood), once a year, doors across Paris swing open to let you in, behind the scenes, for a closer view of the beauty and history inside some of the most famous buildings in the world. 

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Making French Butter and Camembert de Normandie at Isigny Ste-Mere

I never miss an opportunity to “go to the source,” so to speak. And in France, it’s sometimes just a train ride away. Barely an hour by high-speed train from Paris is Normandy, and it’s bucolic countryside, where even the cows have their own appellation; La vache Normande. Not only are the cows beautiful, with their wide black and mahogany speckles, and rings around their eyes, but their milk is especially high in fat and protein, which makes the butter from Normandy, and Normandy cheeses, so spectacular.

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Lemon-Almond Snack Cake

This summer, for our vacation, we did our usual road trip, with stops to visit various friends in France, with a delicious detour to Spain. We always look forward to visiting our French friends who have a home in Burgundy, and not just for all the Chablis, jambon persillé, Dijon mustard and gougères. (Oh, and they also have a pool…) But since they live abroad, we don’t get to see them all that often. This year, two members of their family were celebrating milestone birthdays and a party was planned for nearly sixty friends and family members in their honor.

For the party, we got to work. The first day of prep, everyone was sort of doing whatever they thought needed doing, until a former restaurant cook (me) realized we needed someone to make a prep list, and we all sat down together to map out our plans.

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La Cidrerie

When I heard about La Cidrerie, I knew I wanted to go there. I like beer, but I don’t have the same capacity for it as locals do; young people in Paris seem to have no trouble polishing off those pint-plus giant glasses of beer that have become ubiquitous on café tables. Cider hasn’t gotten the same attention that beer, wine, and other French beverages have gotten, but that’s changing.

Benoît Marinos is changing that in Paris with La Cidrerie. And you won’t find a better selection of French sparkling ciders anywhere else in Paris, or France. Or maybe the world.

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