David Lebovitz's Blog, page 5

Celery Root Soup

I’ve always dreamed of writing a soup cookbook. A book of recipes where there’s no need to carefully measure or weigh things, variations are not only allowable…but encouraged, and cooking times are not cast-in-stone instructions to be followed like the ten commandments. It’s no wonder the French love les soupes so much!

The word “supper” comes from soup, and in parts of France, the verb souper means having dinner, or supper. Being French, there are a multitude of ways to conjugate the verb, such as Nous avons soupé, or We had soup…or We had dinner, and Ils eurent soupé (the passé antérieur), which is even more of a mouthful. I’m not going to try to teach you French verbs, because I have a ways to go before I master them myself (although it’s a relief to know that even the French have difficulty with them too.

While French verbs may be a challenge, soup is easy. And the French don’t complicate those. Most homemade soups are purées, or véloutés, enriched with cream, so they’re velvety. (See? French isn’t that hard to understand…)

In addition, soup recipes can be successfully multiplied or divided, and made in advance and frozen. They’re also not that finicky; if someone adds an extra bit of leeks, or an additional clove of garlic, to the pot, the world won’t open and swallow us all up and life as we know it won’t end. What’s not to like about that? It’s certainly something worth writing about.

However, the soup cookbook likely won’t happen. Still, that’s not going to stop me from making soup, which, aside from clutching our hot water bottles, Parisians use to keep warm during the winter by eating lots and lots of hot soup.

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10 top tips for visiting Cassis

Hello, Emily here, sharing my top tips for a visit to the Provençal village of Cassis, whose motto is “Qu a vist Paris, se noun a vist Cassis, n’a rèn vist” (“Who has seen Paris and not Cassis, has not seen anything”).

I definitely recommend adding it to your list of places to visit in France.

It’s hard to overstate how seriously the French take their holidays. Parents stay up until midnight to book ski-train tickets the moment they go on sale, summer houses are booked a year in advance and competition for days off in August, peak summer season, is fierce. There’s even a specific French expression faire le pont which means “to make the bridge”, and refers to booking a day or two off when a public holiday falls on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, to take advantage of an extra long weekend. 

Being a last-minute person myself I struggled to picture what I would be doing in a few weeks, let alone a few months, until someone explained the secret to me: they book ahead not only to beat everyone else to the best deal, but to have something to look forward to. Planning a summer holiday provides a glimpse of what lies ahead, to help get through the gray repetition of winter, and planning to relax takes the edge off the inevitable stress of everyday life. 

And they were right. Last year, for the first time, I booked our summer break months in advance and I relished the fact that as 2021 began to strongly resemble 2020, and work stress built up (but not with you David!), I had my own little daydream, ready to lift my spirits whenever I needed. As I dashed to pick up the kids, and the perpetual feeling of always rushing and still being late seeped into every day, I knew that at some point in the future we would have time together with nothing to do and nowhere to be, free to count endless pebbles on a quiet beach.

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capitale, Paris

The Paris dining scene continues to change and evolve. The pandemic changed where we ate, and how we ate…at least for a while. Restaurants are all open again, and packed. But the pause provided a chance to breathe new life into the city. The government offered support, but still, the closings affected restaurants, cafés, and bars hard, which were still reeling from setbacks that included lengthy strikes, unruly protests, attacks, and now, Covid.

As the city comes back to life, there are little gems that sparkle here and there. And Capitale is one of them.

The owner is Margot Lecarpentier, who may be familiar to some of you as I profiled her, and her bar, Combat, in Drinking French. It’s one of my favorite places to have a drink in Paris, perched on a hill in the multicultural Belleville neighborhood, where I do a lot of my food shopping. When writing the book, I asked Margot about the expansive bar she designed for making cocktails on, she said she wanted it to feel like a dining room table, and added, “Because I am from Normandy…and I like to eat!”

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12 useful tips for your next visit to a French food market

Hello, Emily here – sharing my top tips for your next visit to a French food market. Hope they come in helpful!

– Emily

Whenever I’m in a new city, there’s nothing I enjoy more than eating; trying out restaurant recommendations, people watching in a cafe, savoring a refreshing afternoon ice cream or a trip to the local supermarket all bring me great joy. But most of all I love visiting the local markets to experience new flavors, and daydream about what my life would be like if I lived in that part of the world. Ironically, when I moved to Paris it took me at least six months before I even set foot in a market. I was so wrapped up in finding a job, learning French, and going from zero responsibilities to becoming part of a family (my husband was widowed and I moved in with him and his daughter) that I was too busy for anything except a weekly dash around our local supermarket for the basics. 

As things eventually calmed down, I found my rhythm and I became a regular at our local outdoor market (Marche Maubert – about a 10 minute walk from our apartment, with a great selection of vendors and a really nice atmosphere), where seeing the same familiar faces each visit is a happy way to start the weekend, reminding me that every day in Paris lays another brick in the foundation of my life here. Now (almost 6 years later) I leave the house most Saturday mornings with my little chariot de marché (market trolley) to do our weekly shop. It’s not really the local custom but I pick up a takeaway coffee on-route and arrive with a vague idea of what I feel like cooking that week, which quickly becomes a solid plan as I see what’s on offer.

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Madeleine Kamman’s White Chocolate-Chartreuse Bavarian

I don’t remember the first time I made this dessert, but I certainly remember being wowed by its flavors, and the creator of it, Madeleine Kamman. (Who I’ll get to in a minute…) I’d been making it for years and it’s a wonderful way to use white chocolate, which pairs remarkably well with dark chocolate, but also goes nicely with everything from berries and lemon, and caramelizes beautifully, which can be used in cakes, sorbets, and ice cream. (I learned how to make it at the Valrhona Chocolate School, and it’s become so popular that the company now sells it by the bar.)

What can’t white chocolate do?

Well, it can’t replace chocolate because it’s not chocolate. Milk chocolate technically isn’t chocolate; it’s chocolate with milk added. On a similar note, I’ve only had Home Fries served to me at diners, not at home. And I’m still perplexed that we call it Banana Bread, because some people have told me that Cornbread, if made with a few teaspoons of sugar, isn’t bread, it’s cake. Yes, some insist that white chocolate “…isn’t chocolate!” but herb tea, as it’s commonly called in the U.S., has no tea in it. So if you’ve ever sipped a cup of “chamomile tea” (or even if you haven’t), you are welcome to enjoy white chocolate!

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My substack Newsletter

Going into the New Year, you’ll soon notice a few changes on the site, which I’m in the process of sprucing up. On the Home page you’ll be able to see posts, from the most recent ones, to all the recipes on the blog by categories. In addition, there will be a dedicated space that features Paris tips, including my favorite restaurants, bakeries, wine bars, shops, and outdoor markets.

A bigger change is that I’m expanding my newsletter, which I started in 2006/2007, and am writing more stories and sharing more recipes there. The blog will evolve, along with the new design, as I move forward.

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Moving to My Substack Newsletter

Going into the New Year, you’ll soon notice a few changes on the site, which I’m in the process of sprucing up. On the Home page you’ll be able to see posts, from the most recent ones, to all the recipes on the blog by categories. In addition, there will be a dedicated space that features Paris tips, including my favorite restaurants, bakeries, wine bars, shops, and outdoor markets.

A bigger change is that I’m expanding my newsletter, which I started in 2006/2007, and am writing more stories and sharing more recipes there. The blog will evolve, along with the new design, as I move forward.

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Flan Parisien

When people inquire about recipes from the pastries on offer in Paris pastry shops, I look at the recipes we used when I went to pastry school at Ecole Lênotre and it’s hard to imagine cutting down a recipe that makes a hundred canelés into a recipe that makes six or eight for a home cook, who likely doesn’t want to go out and buy a hundred copper canelé molds at 35 dollars (or even €10-15) a pop. Professional bakeries don’t make a single gâteau Opéra or eight éclairs; it’s might be a dozen cakes, five or six dozen éclairs, and hundreds of caramels. So paring down a recipe that won’t overwhelm the oven, kitchen…or budget…of a home baker can be a challenge

Professional bakeries also make components separately as part of their schedule, and in large quantities, and will start the puff pastry or make the pastry cream for a cake or tart in advance, then assemble them over the course of several days. Often recipes depend on techniques learned over a period of time, such as macaronage, the proper stirring and folding of macaron batter, and aren’t just a list of ingredients. So as wonderful and generous as bakers tend to be, not all professionals can share (or in some cases, are willing to part with) the secrets of their success.

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“World’s Best” Mac & Cheese

I don’t know about you, but there are a few things I need to get off my chest. One is that I can’t think of any time when I don’t want Mac & Cheese. And two, long before the advent of the internet recipe (and food blogs), words like “world’s best” weren’t considered clickbait. They were a declaration by magazines, newspapers, and cookbooks that whatever dish that was being presented really was the best version they came up with.

Back in the day, when you said it, you meant it. (Even if, as everybody knows, there isn’t just one “best” way to cook or bake anything. Whatever exists, there’s always something that comes along that’s better, cheaper, faster, slower, etc.) But nowadays recipe headlines scream “Life-Changing Cauliflower,” or “Help! I can’t stop eating these Oreo-stuffed Red Velvet cupcakes,” or my least-favorite, “Top Ten Brownie Recipes…According to Amazon Reviews.” I’ve eaten a few life-changing foods in my life, and I’m not stuffing anything into something else and deep-frying it (unless it’s fried chicken stuffed with more fried chicken), nor do I have a lot of faith in a curated selection of anonymous online reviews.

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French Harvest Spritz

I discovered the Spritz many years ago when I went to espresso-making school in Trieste, Italy, and wondered what those big, icy orange drinks everyone was drinking at aperitivo hour were. I found out they were Spritzes, a drink also with roots in Austria, that was widely enjoyed by people in the Veneto region.

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