Rhubarb and cherry dessert

As we have already mentioned before (pasta a la Nadia Santini) we like to watch three starred chefs share their passion and recipes with the public. We love three Michelin star chef Alain Passard. He has a natural approach to cooking. He always respects the products. Alain Passard distinguishes himself by cooking with a lot of vegetables. Often in French restaurants everything turns around meat or fish. We love watching him cook because has a very particular way of cooking. He always says that he is making a painting with the ingredients. Often the colors are in similar tones. His theory: if it grows at the same time in the garden, then you can make no mistake when you pair the ingredients together. We decided to follow his theory! There is a video in which he cooks rhubarb. We could not find all the ingredients that he uses so we tried our own variation of the dish using his cooking technique. We made this dish a couple weeks ago already. Spring was very late to arrive this year, so all the seasonal ingredients were delayed. We thought the red of the cherries matched perfectly the red in the rhubarb. The green of the cherry stem matched the green in the rhubarb. The end result is simply delicious!

Kiwi tart

Happy Sunday everyone! It is a beautiful day here in Montpellier. When we woke up this morning we both wanted a nice fresh healthy breakfast. We decided to make kiwi tarts (tartelettes in French). There has been more and more “no sugar added” sweets on the internet. We really like the concept because it’s a great way to indulge that sweet tooth but keeping it healthy. Everyone likes to treat himself or herself to a good dessert once in a while! It’s only human.

Homemade pumpkin pie!

We had our own thanksgiving with some friends this year and decided to make them discover pumpkin pie! Pumpkin pie is not well known in France. We had never made it from scratch so we searched the web for some ideas. We came across a great recipe in the New York Times, but adapted it slightly to our taste and eating habits. It was quite a success surprisingly. Pumpkin pie is particular and does not abide to everyone’s taste buds. We also made: cornbread, green beans with garlic and olive oil, yam and potato mashed potatoes, duck cooked with cider and maple syrup (our oven is too small to fit a turkey), and carrot cake. It was quite a feast.

Who needs Butter when you have Zucchini? Dark chocolate zucchini brownies!

We are always on the lookout for desserts that do not include butter. We stumbled across this amazing brownie recipe that replaces butter with zucchini. Yes zucchini. So, at first we had a hard time believing that zucchini brownies would not taste like zucchini (or courgette as our English friends would say), but when this gooey delight comes out of the oven you wouldn’t even believe it. The brownies are a little rich, but so good!

Fig and blackberry pie

We were looking through our pictures the other day and found a pie we made over a year ago. Neither the pie nor the picture was meant for the blog, however it was absolutely delicious we just have to share!  Last year we went to my aunt’s summerhouse in the Pyrenees. It’s a wonderful place, very green with lots of cows. My aunt renovated an old barn into the most original and cozy house. We have the pleasure of spending a couple of days there each year. Anyway, back to the pie, one day it was raining and Yohann and I decided to go for a walk. We found a bunch of blackberries and decided to pick a few. Once we returned to the house my aunt said, “let’s make a pie”. She has a fig tree with an abundance of figs (it was the season!) so we went to pick a few for our pie. It was a group effort although Yohann did most of the work, and the presentation. Yohann can make about anything look good and artistic. I can’t arrange food in a pretty photogenic way to save my life (sometimes I get lucky). I missed out on the artistic decorative genes in the family. My mom is quite artistic and so is my older sister. They love decorating and can make anything look nice. Luckily for me, I have Yohann to make everything look pretty!

Green tea delight!

What is more delightful than green tea? We love green tea: the color, the smell and of course the taste. It’s the small things in life. There is nothing better than sipping hot tea on a gloomy day. Or maybe there is: drinking green tea on a gloomy day with a matcha cake. Matcha, for those of you who do not know is fine green tea that is used for cooking. It makes your food green and colorful. Matcha will be our special ingredient of the day.