La Cocotte Verte

Endive makes a perfect salad to accompany a festive and rich holiday meal. The chopped leaves are light, crunchy, and refreshingly bitter, sparked with a tangy sherry-pistachio vinaigrette and topped with sweet, crunchy pistachios. Compared to other nut oils, pistachio oil has a particularly strong flavor. Its rich, slightly sweet taste complements the bitterness of the endives and elevates the salad to “special occasion” status — or even “is there any more salad?” status. Bon appetit!

A Charlotte is a classic French dessert composed of a mold of liqueur-soaked ladyfingers and filled with a Bavarian cream or mousse filling. This one combines a decadent dark chocolate mousse, Cointreau-brushed ladyfingers, and the lively tang of fresh satsumas or tangerines. Elegantly tall, crowned with drift of creme chantilly (whipped cream) and bound with a wide ribbon. It makes a glorious finale to a festive holiday meal.

When the occasion calls for an absolutely stunning starter, look no further. Foie gras, gently poached in port and red wine, supported by a crisp fragment of brioche, adorned with a savory grape demiglace. C’est magnifique!

Morel mushrooms are a treat of nature — only available from the wild and prized for their honeycomb texture and rich, earthy flavor. Combine them with a splash of cream and a hot pan to create an entree worthy of starring at your next dinner party… or the next time you have a hankering for morels.

Poires belle Hélène is a classic French dessert of poached pears served with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. This recipe adds a decadent twist by oven-poaching the pears and stuffing each with a luscious hunk of almond paste, then further guilds the lily by adding a dollop of Provence lavender honey to the chocolate sauce, its subtle floral notes enhancing the flavor of the pears.

An elegant starter to a company meal, or a quick and delicious dinner when simply accompanied by a salad and bread. Making a shellfish bisque from scratch is time-consuming, what with boiling the shells for flavor, straining them out of the stock, etc. Starting with Perard’s Lobster Soup makes preparing a creamy bisque a snap: add chunks of poached lobster, a touch of cream, and a decadent sprinkle of minced black truffles to creates a stunning dish in minutes.

Light, cool and crunchy, fennel is a perfect complement to rich autumn dishes. Grapefruit and mustard add piquancy to the mellow, mildly licorice flavor of the fennel. The salad will be different if prepared with a mandoline vs hand-slicing the fennel: shaved, the fennel becomes thin enough to drape in succulent ribbons over the citrus and greens; sliced, it makes a crisp counterpoint to the buttery lettuce and juicy grapefruit.

Fresh English peas combine well with all the mint family herbs: basil, mint, oregano, etc. Here they transformed into a chunky puree accented with scallions and fresh mint. The crostini use French mini-toasts as a base — they are fine-grained and lightly crisp, a better complement to the delicately flavored peas than a coarse Italian or French-style bread.

Perfectly ripe, juicy summer fruit needs only a few simple accompaniments to be transformed into a gala dessert. And a gala dessert that requires no baking on a hot summer day? Even better! Macerating the fruits in a mixture of sweet wine and lavender honey perfumes them, plus creates a richly-flavored syrup for soaking ladyfingers, used as a lighter alternative to the traditional biscuit-type shortcake. A dollop of creme fraiche and a drizzle of lavender honey complete the shortcakes— or use French vanilla/honey yogurt, if a lighter dessert is desired.

Scallops’ delicately sweet taste pairs brilliantly with fragrant French cider, particularly when said cider is reduced to a luscious glaze that clings to each bite. The scallops are placed atop a bed of spinach studded with crisp bacon and sauteed mushrooms, then generously napped with the unctuous sauce.