main courses recipes

This “THING” appeared on my table a few weeks ago when I was on assignment and in a fancy restaurant with some charming guests. This “THING”, individually prepared & served is so lovely to look at. This “THING” is simple in its flavors and in its assembly. This “THING” can be prepared in...

MAYBE you’ll understand and MAYBE YOU WON'T ?! I’m obsessed with the pizza of my childhood, my teenage years and my younger to older adult life . . . It’s all memory-related. Ordering an XL PIZZA from our favorite neighborhood pizzeria was always a moment of joy and homey comfort. To this day, the first thing that my...

A 'POTEE' is a huge french-style winter brothy stew usually made with a whole green cabbage, potatoes, carrots, turnips, some onions and various pork meats and many variations of this dish exist throughout France. It’s also usually a quite large dish because a cabbage is a big thing and you have to slice it up into at least 8...

I really-really-really WISHED I could show you all the stuff I’ll be preparing for the holiday meals like : salt-cured foie gras (not ready yet) & salt-cured dried beef (still drying & curing) &  roasted leg of lamb with baby potatoes, onions, mushrooms and maybe chestnuts (the lamb is marinating...

This CHILLY-COLD-COLDER weather needs a WARM-HOTTER-SPICY soup . . .  and in my part of the world, the cold is just beginning . . .  (and I’m not quite ready to deal with it yet) ! It’s quite surprising when we realize the importance and/or obsession most of us have with weather. It obviously affects our mood but...

In 1953, Dean Martin sang : “when the moon hits your eye like a big(ga)-pizza-pie, that’s amore . . .” I don’t know if Mr. Dean Martin was talking about this kind of pizza-pie or not. But I do know that I don’t often write the funniest or most clever stories. Those usually require a particularly well-developed...

“FILO” isn’t just for making GREEK STUFF you know (or Turkish or Armenian or Lebanese stuff for that matter) ! And I think it was also time that I publish some very quick & easy recipes after all my complicated and/or time-consuming recipes, that may scare some of you or perhaps just make you roll your eyes back at me,...

I’m going to try to keep it short and simple this time: “HAPPY FIRE ROOSTER CHINESE NEW YEAR” ! . . .  and yes, I’m amazed to know that. It’s interesting how CHINA and the CHINESE CULTURE play such important roles in our lives or at least that we’re so aware of when the Chinese New Year is...

SNOW  in Paris on Monday, November 7th between 8:15 and 8:45 am . . . okay it melted right away but anyways it’s really rare here and it made me nostalgic. As my friend Nicole once funnily said many years ago : “all the little snows get together and make snow . . .” (so cute, she was talking about the...

The 'timing' for this recipe is just ‘right’ . . . The 1st reason is that it’s getting so much colder so  it’s time for some homey-hot-heavy comfort food. The 2nd reason is that the culinary mind that imagined and transformed this initial recipe and presented it in the 90’s to the American public is...

1, 2, 3, 4 - cheeses white pizza to wrap up part 4 of the ‘pizza series’. I’m not gonna lie to you, an all-white cheesy pizza is good, but a reddish tomato-sauce all-dressed pizza with all the toppings is better, but this is a nice & easy & quick recipe option and thus ‘deserving’ of being...

Get yourself a KITCHEN SCALE (digital and precise if possible please) ! A PASTA-MAKING MACHINE would also be lovely, but I must admit that I broke my cheap model after using it twice and finally ended up using a ROLLING-PIN and  ELBOW GREASE (everything is possible, especially ‘old school’ methods) … Making RAVIOLI...

This dish is called “FASOLAKIA ME KREAS” in Greek and is usually prepared in just one casserole, gently simmering for several hours until so tender that it melts in your mouth and actually becomes a liittle too mushy (if you’re not attentive during the long & gentle simmering) . . . In the summertime, we often make it...

. . . the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month : Remembrance Day - Armistice Day (symbolized by a red poppy in the United Kingdom, the U.S.A., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, while in France, it’s the blue cornflower). The First World War means so much for so many countries that participated, whether directly in their own...

NO PEPPER, NO GARLIC, NO ONION, NO LEMON, NO SPICES, NO DRIED HERBS, NO NOTHING (or almost) . . . but why ? Because it’s easy to appreciate and be grateful & thankful for fancy & wonderful & complex things, but how about the simpler things, or even the SIMPLEST THINGS ?! It all began with HERBS, many, many, many...