Mon 4 Apr 2011
Capital Spice Contest: Enjoy the Sweet Life in Paris
Posted by capitalspice under Contests, Food Travel
[11] Comments
About a year and a half ago, the Washington Post’s Joe Yonan wrote a profile of a former Chez Panisse pastry chef who dropped everything and moved to Paris in 2002. We loved it, and it led us to David Lebovitz’s blog, twitter feed and dessert books. When we broke out our ice cream maker that season, one of the recipes we tried was Lebovitz’s salty-sweet combination of Roquefort and honey – and the results were an unqualified success.
One of our dreams is to experience the sights and sounds (and smells and tastes) of the City of Lights via an extended stay. Call it a crush – we’re enamored of what could be. Now that Lebovitz has been in Paris for almost a decade, his relationship with the city is more like a tried and true marriage. He can see the flaws of his adopted home, but he also appreciates it in ways that tourists never can.
We added his memoir, The Sweet Life in Paris, to our holiday wish list in 2009 and flew through it upon receipt. Lebovitz’s dry humor makes for easy reading, and the anecdotes in the book provide a glimpse into the reality of Parisian life from an ex-pat perspective, from the painful to the sublime. The Sweet Life in Paris is subtitled “Delicious Adventures in the World’s Most Glorious – and Perplexing – City,” and that should give you an idea of Lebovitz’s loving tone. And the recipes he shares throughout are likely to have you storing your copy with your cookbooks for easy access.
Now Broadway Books has come out with a paperback edition, and we’re proud to be able to offer three copies of The Sweet Life in Paris to our readers. Whether you’ve never read the book, borrowed it and then grudgingly gave it back, or wore through your first copy from frequent use, all you need to do is leave a comment at the end of this post. We’ll choose three winners at random, but you know we love to ask you to be creative with your contest entries. In honor of David Lebovitz’s prolific tweeting and tasty desserts, give us your best 140-character, Parisian-inspired recipe.
An example: “Combine 1 egg yolk, 1 tsp H2O, 1 tsp lemon juice & 1/2 tsp salt. Whisk in 1 cup oil. Take your time!” Et voila – mayonnaise.
We’ll still consider comments that don’t include a recipe, but we’re eager to see what you can come up with!
Fav French lunch: Slice of french bread w/ large slice of goat cheese in broiler until bubbly, serve over mesc greens w/ mustard vinaigrette.
Split best croissant, add dark choc square, marshmallow, pinch of fleur de sel in middle. Grill until melty. Parisian s’more!
This makes that last week before the farmer’s market has anything but root vegetables bearable:
Puree Freneuse: Simmer 2c milk, add 1c rice, 2T butter, dash salt, thyme, garlic until rice tender. Add 3c chopped turnip for 20 min, puree
(Adapted from Julia Child to make it tweet-friendly. Goes well with red/game meats.)
My favourite part of following David’s tweets is he lives in my old neighbourhood so I get to revisit all my old haunts
Oh, and a recipe of course. It’s an original perfected over years of making crepes.
Crepes: 2 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 6 eggs, 2 tbps vegetable oil, 1 1/2 cup of milk & 1 1/2 cup of lager beer. Combine & cook in pan!
Boil 2 artichokes until tender, dip leaves in lemon butter (1/8 c fresh lemon juice + 1/2 stick butter melted on stove til reduced), enjoy!
I love artichokes with lemon butter. So easy to make, so decadent, so delicious.
I love some good french bread: Fougasse ladder bread 1 ¾ flour, 1 ¾ bread flour 1 ½ tsp salt 4 ½ tsp yeast, 1 tbspn softened butter, 3 tbspn powder milk, 4 ½ tsp sugar, 1 cup water beaten egg for glaze, use traditional bread making methods for kneading and rising (too long to describe here) cut into 2 pieces, cut into rectangle put filling on one side and other side side scour with knife and then fold over, bake 20 min 425 F.
Oh geez, I would love this book. Here is a recipe you as well as David would probably love; it is also different from his version:
Dulce de Leche:
1/2 gallon of milk, 16 ounces of sugar, 1 teaspoon of Maldon sea salt, and 2 vanilla pods that have been opened and goodness scraped out.
Heat until mixture comes to a boil, then turn down to a low simmer and continue to cook for 3 hours. Relax, on the time as it is worth it. About two hours in, the goodness will have already begun to thicken at which point the vanilla pods can be removed.
Allow to slightly cool, and then enjoy.
Toast baguette & spread w/brie. Chop up strawberries, then add balsmc vinegar, sugar and torn basil. Spread strawberry mix over bread.
My wife and I are going to Paris this fall (my first time to Paris and France) and I’ve been reading his blog lately just to get a taste of Paris. His book, I imagine, is just as good.
fav breakfast: break egg over med-high fry pan, break yolk, flip once, cook. Serve egg in between toasted wheat bread with 2 slices midnight moon cheese. mmm…