Ethel and Sara beguile you with recipes and stories from their summer childhoods as they traveled with their respective families from Paris to Provence. In markets, cafés, truck stops, bakeries, bistros, and French family homes, the girls experienced their first taste of France, re-created here through recipes, stories, and photographs.
Ethel and Sara beguile you with recipes and stories from their summer childhoods as they traveled with their respective families from Paris to Provence. In markets, cafés, truck stops, bakeries, bistros, and French family homes, the girls experienced their first taste of France, re-created here through recipes, stories, and photographs.
Selected recipes at the end of the article.
Inspired by her memories of truck stop lunches sitting next to tables of grizzled truckers, Ethel gives us Steak au Poivre à la Sauce aux Morilles (pepper steak with morels). Sara’s whimsical game of using her asparagus as soldiers’ spears to guard her food from her sister is the source of her recipe for Les Soldats (soft-boiled eggs and fresh asparagus spears).
Lingering over late-night dinners with grown-ups and listening in on their stories of the resistance and wild boar hunts inspired Ethel’s recipe for Fraises au Vin Rouge (strawberries in red wine syrup). Rosemary and its powerful scent, first discovered by Sara while hiking with her family in the Luberon Mountains in the south of France, infuses her recipe for Cotes d’Agneau Grillées au Romarin (grilled lamb chops with rosemary). From Îles Flottantes (poached meringues in crème anglaise) to Escargots (snails in garlic butter), and from Merguez(spicy grilled lamb sausage patties) to Ratatouille (summer vegetable stew), each recipe reflects Sara and Ethel’s childhood experiences in Paris and Provence.
Sixty thoughtful, simple, and traditionally French dishes complemented by over one hundred luscious photographs will send you to your kitchen, and maybe even to France.
Salade Niçoise
Serves 4
Today I think some version of the Niçoise salad is on most bistro and café menus, but at one time it was a regional specialty. The Niçoise packed in all of my favorite ingredients: Barely hard-boiled eggs with deep golden yellow yolks, salty anchovies, capers, and olives peppered over greens, all marinating in bitter green olive oil and red wine vinegar. It was a mélange far from home, not even a distant cousin to Howard Johnson’s iceberg wedge with blue cheese dressing, which I also found delicious. —Ethel
4 eggs
¼ pound French haricots verts or other
small green beans, stem ends trimmed
6 small yellow, red, or white potatoes, peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon Dijon-style mustard
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 (5-ounce) can high quality canned tuna, packed in olive oil, drained
3 ripe medium tomatoes cut into 1-inch wedges
12 black, salt-, or olive oil–cured olives, pitted
6 fresh marinated anchovy fillets or oil packed fillets, patted dry
1 teaspoon capers, drained and rinsed
Place the eggs in a small saucepan and cover with water. Over high heat, bring the water to a boil, turn off the heat, and let stand for 10 minutes. Remove the eggs from the pan and run them under cold water to halt the cooking. Once they have cooled enough to handle, peel them and cut them crosswise into ½-inch rounds.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Fill a large bowl of water with ice cubes and set aside. Slip the beans into the boiling water and cook for about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the beans from the water and transfer them to the ice water. Return the water to a boil and cook the potatoes until tender and easily pierced with the tines of a fork, about 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes and allow to cool, then cut into halves. Remove the beans from the ice water and pat dry.
In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, mustard, vinegar, and salt. Add the tuna, tomatoes, potatoes, and beans and gently toss together. Add the olives, anchovies, capers, and eggs, gently fold into the salad, and serve.