Tag: Living in France
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French cooking: Pain au chocolat
What are the first three foods that come to mind when you think about France? Take your time, I will wait. Ready? Let’s see – I assume baguettes are up there? Baguettes seem to grow like grass here. What about delicate pastries like eclairs? Or their 1600 cheeses? Basically, anything involving butter? France is pretty […]
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Apple and custard cinnamon rolls
Unlike babka, whose introduction in my life started with ‘the babka incident’, cinnamon rolls have always had a ubiquitous presence. I don’t recall my first cinnamon roll, although while at university in Manchester, my friend Anthony and I once visited Rollers thanks to the intoxicating scent of cinnamon hitting us like a brick as we […]
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How to make the best charcuterie board
It was during my first visit to see Gaylord in France that I realised how seriously the French take charcuterie. While it took me another year to eat snails, then a whole year after that I finally encountered frogs legs, charcuterie has been a weekly snack since my plane touched down in 2020. As you […]
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Prawn ceviche with avocado
Our evening binge-TV is Modern Family. There are 11 seasons so it looks like we’re covered until next summer (who am I kidding, we’ll be finished in a month). In an episode we watched the other night, a character lamented, ‘Do you remember when summer meant fireflies, cut-off shorts and ice cream trucks?’ Do I […]
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A foodie’s 24 hours in Toulouse
It goes without saying, but I’ll write it anyway – France is famous for it’s food. So, what is on the agenda for a foodie with 24 hours in Toulouse? Out of France’s five major cities – which also include Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon and Marseilles – Toulouse is often the most overlooked. For years, my […]
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Focaccia (and a heat wave)
The heat wave came without warning. I can’t really say the same for the focaccia though. That came from an all-consuming craving and addiction for salt-crusted cushion-soft bread, and no matter how many heat waves we suffer, there will always be a focaccia in this house. I have not experienced many heat waves in my […]
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French cooking: Spiced apricot tarte tatin
I’ve never kept it a secret that I’m a winter girl at heart. My favourite foods usually involve pastry or suet, I mean, I love lard for goodness’ sake. However, I will admit defeat in favour of summer fruits. This season can claim proud responsibility for the best fruits of the year. One of those […]
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Pear, chocolate and hazelnut scones
There’s been a week’s intermission from blogging and from France, but I can offer you some pear, chocolate and hazelnut scones as compensation, dear reader. I don’t look like a French native. My cheeks are almost ruddishly pink – something even my dad pointed out recently in a fairly critical manner (‘why are your cheeks […]
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French cooking: Tartiflette
I’ve eaten an eye-watering amount of processed meat recently. They say a diet of processed meat is bad for you, but when push comes to shove, I bet whoever ‘they’ are would submit to that meat coma with the rest of us. I emerged from this pork-induced fog after eating four-days’ worth of rillettes, saucisson, […]
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Fig and thyme jam
October seems to be the perfect month for me to make jam. Last year I filled some mini jars with bramble jam – mini purely because of the blackberry curse that haunts me – and although that is literally when the tradition started, I would like to it continue. This year it’s time to celebrate […]