Cooking with Ramps
Ramps, or what the French call l’ail des ours (bear garlic) has sprouted, flowered, and now is settling in as forest ground cover. Soon its pungent leaves will fade to a pale yellow, and then it will offer no flavor. For now, though, l’ail des ours is still ripe for the picking and eating. This season has been particularly abundant, […]
Strawberry Shortcake à la Française
Oh, the strawberries this year! They’re a poem, a song, a one-bite perfection! We start getting long, narrow, slightly tart gariguettes in May, shipped in from Provence. I wait until I can smell their aroma before I buy them, and then I get just a few because I’m waiting for the real deal, the strawberries […]
Whirlwind Meal
Yesterday I welcomed twenty-two Stanford alumni for a spring dinner. I knew the group had two hours to eat, and was prepared down to the final grain of fleur de sel. Rather than offer the aperitif in the kitchen, as I usually do, I arranged everything on the dining room table, thinking it would […]
