my France

oven-roasted pork tenderloin with herb-caper salsa

August 8th, 2013

 

chef morgan pork 1

this little piggy

oven-roasted pork tenderloin with 
herb-caper salsa

 

This week’s post is inspired by a visit to 6 Paul Bert in the middle of a three day French visa adventure (which I will tell you about). My meal at 6 Paul Bert was definitely the highlight and I nearly licked my plate clean, which is why I call this post “this little piggy” (as well as the fact that the subject of this week’s recipe is pork). This week we are making oven-roasted pork tenderloin with herb-caper salsa. 

 à table ! 

 LM  Read the rest of this entry »

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Venez avec moi: Monet’s Giverny

July 26th, 2013

chef morgan GIverny

I am often asked for recommendations of what to do and where to eat while in France. When I am asked about day trips outside Paris my first suggestion is always the same: go to Monet’s home in Giverny. It is an easy train ride to a magical place that is beyond peaceful and beautiful. It was restored to it’s prior appearance (designed and planned by the artist himself). A visit to Monet’s Giverny is like stepping into one of the artist’s paintings. Until you can get there in person, let me take you there via post. Venez avec moi à Monet’s Giverny (La Maison de Claude Monet en Giverny).  Read the rest of this entry »

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Paris day trip: Versailles and le potage du roi

July 19th, 2013

chef morgan

 

Paris Day Trip: Versailles et Le Potage du Roi

white peach and haricots verts salad with fresh chives  

My quest to see a kitchen garden built for a king and my daughters’ desire to see where Marie Antoinette lived led us to Versailles. We came home with white peaches and our day trip inspired this week’s post and the recipe: white peach and haricots verts salad with fresh chives.

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cheeseburger in paradise

May 17th, 2013

chef morgan camion 2

cheeseburger in paradise

In the twenty plus years I have come and gone to France, I have never eaten a hamburger in France. Until now. I heard about Le Camion qui Fume (the truck who smokes) several times and for several reasons.  Le Camion qui Fume made history because it was the first “food truck” in Paris. This adventure was pioneered by Kristin Frederick, a fellow American who coincidentally is also from California. Based upon my experiences in France, let’s just say that I cannot even imagine the French paperwork (nor the taxes….sigh) involved in the undertaking; however, it did not deter Frederick who brought her concept of “French-i-fied” American food — burgers and fries on the go — to the City of Light. And, of course, this Californian included a “double-double” (double boeuf, double fromage) on the menu. Read the rest of this entry »

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lentil and Brie soup with bacon and chives

April 22nd, 2013

chef morgan lentil and Brie soup

Terrior Parisien® and a little Alléno in your bowl:

 lentil and Brie soup with bacon and chives

The favorable buzz was more than I could bear. It proved to be well-deserved. This week we are visiting Yannick Alléno’s bistro Terroir Parisien® and our weekly simple pleasure is an adaption of his cream of lentil and Brie soup with bacon and chives. Read the rest of this entry »

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venez avec moi à Banon

July 18th, 2012

Chef Morgan banonChef Morgan Banonchef morgan village in Provence: Banon

venez avec moi à Banon:
a carefully wrapped chèvre, fennel confit, 
and fleshy balsamic-drenched fig jam 

You may have heard of a French cheese wrapped in chestnut leaves and that this cheese is typically served with fig jam. The rumors are true and the cheese is from an actual village in Provence: Banon.

Running in Provence, I was thinking about both the cheese and the jam (which I had enjoyed the night before); however, there was a problem which my grandfather would have referred as “skinny.” No, he did not use the word to describe a person but an undesirable thin consistency of a gravy or jam. Grandpa would have said that the fig jam is skinny and he would have been right. Figs are lush. It is a shame to reduce them to a seedy consistency, losing all of that fleshy texture. It is akin to a peck on the check when you could get a full kiss on the lips. I do not think anyone would choose the former if you could have the latter. My Millay fleshy fig/lip thought was only interrupted by the fennel growing wild on the side of the road and the thought of  Apt’s candied fruit. It was the culmination of these thoughts — fleshy figs, creamy cheese, candied fruit, wild fennel, and that Millay sonnet — which inspired this week’s (regional) simple pleasure: Banon de Banon A.O.C. with fleshy fig jam and fennel confit. However, before you go there, venez avec moi  à Banon (come with me to Banon).  Read the rest of this entry »

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venez avec moi à Gordes

July 10th, 2012

 

Chef Morgan Gordes

 picking cherries in the valley of the Gods: venez avec moi à Gordes 

 It is 9:30 p.m. and the sun is setting, but not so quickly. The sun is taking its time; everyone is. It is difficult to put an end to a day filled with Provençal sun, the calming smell of lavender, and the song of the complacent cicadas. As I write, I see expansive green valleys filled with cherry trees below me. The sound of pea-gravel crunching under the waiter’s feet (as he brings me a Châteauneuf-du-Pape and something warm for my shoulders) is only a momentary distraction from the twenty birds swirling above my head trying to get in their last flight before heading to bed. I am in Luberon. I have eaten and explored my way through the day: jambon with truffles; cherries I picked off the trees;  fougasse lush with salty olives and olive oil; wild boar sausage; fresh chèvre bathed in crushed lavender and honey, aïoli with perfectly steamed vegetables; rosés from nearby vineyards; hearty and robust reds from nearby Châteauneuf-du-Pape. I think I found the land of the Gods and perhaps that is why the Romans had once claimed it as their own centuries ago. It am in Gordes and it is Gordes which inspired this week’s simple pleasure, cherries poached in fresh lavender and thyme. However, before you go there, come with me to one of the Luberon’s most beautiful villages: venez avec moi à Gordes. 

Chef Morgan Gordes Sunset

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venez avec moi en Normandie: Omaha Beach

June 11th, 2012

 

Normandie: Omaha Beach grave site

venez avec moi en Normandie: Omaha Beach,
a war approach to food, and making the most of a peach

This last week marked the 68th anniversary of the day the Allies landed in Normandy, France: D-day, June 6, 1944. En route to the D-Day sites, the flags of the Allied forces are flown along the roads and posted everywhere from public buildings to the windows of the small country farmhouses, particularly in the month of June. You cannot come to Normandy and tell me that the French dislike Americans. 

American Flag flying in Normandie France

My uncles fought in World War II. My father is also a war veteran. I read and re-read Stephen Ambrose’s book D-Day and Cornelius Ryan’s The Longest Day. I have seen Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers more times than I can count but I have always wanted the touch the ground we landed on 68 years ago. One summer after teaching classes in Normandy, I finally did. The inspiration for this week’s simple pleasure, soupe de pêches au gingembre frais (peach “soup” with fresh ginger), was my journey to Omaha Beach. The recipe is in a companion post but before you go there, venez avec moi en Normandie (come with me to Normandy): Omaha Beach.

 LM

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Family Tradition of Summers in Provence: Pissaladière à ma façon

June 2nd, 2012

 

Nice France on the water by chef Morgan  

family traditions of easy summers in Provence:
Pissaladière à ma façon

Every summer I travel with my daughters to the southeast of France. We stay in the same quaint port village, about 15 minutes from Nice. Year after year we celebrate summer with the same families. The children catch little fish and crabs in the clear blue ocean and chase one another in the fields of wild herbs and lavender. The adults gather over a bottle of Provençal rosé produced nearby and discuss what has gone on throughout the last year. We pick up where we left off and not much changes except the height of the children. It has become a family tradition. Summer is just around the corner and we will be in back in France very soon. However, my head and palate are already there and as I was sitting in the never-ending Los Angeles traffic, I was whimsically thinking of  Provence and that morning daydream  inspired this week’s simple pleasure: Pissaladière (à ma façon). Read the rest of this entry »

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venez avec moi en Alsace

May 20th, 2012

  venez avec moi en Alsace

An Overview

A family member, I deeply love, is loosing her sight. She has never been to France. She never will go. On a recent trip to the Alsace (alzas) region in the northeastern area of France, I called her. She asked me what Alsace was like.

Hotel balcony in Alsace region France by Chef Morgan

I stood on my hotel balcony and I gazed upon vineyards blanketing the entire Alsace region, the green horizon only broken up by small villages and castles. I struggled with words to place her there with me because descriptions can be flawed. Nevertheless, I tried to convey the warmth of this place and its people, the comfort of its food, and the beauty of the region. I told that:

  • The Alsatian people are warm and as welcoming as an embrace between reunited loved ones. 
  • The country breeze is peaceful and dreamy and it makes you whisper.
grape leaves by Chef Morgan
  • Grape leaves wave majestically in the breeze as if they were swaying to your favorite classical melody. 
plate with spoons
  • The food is generous with family-style plates of comforting meats, yet refined at the same time with the warm flavors of bacon, rendered goose fat, tangy cheese and sauerkraut, and notes of juniper berries, fennel seeds, and cumin.
various breads from france
  • The smell of cinnamon, allspice, and ginger spills into the streets from the boulangeries and fill you with the anticipation only a child knows waiting for Santa. 
basket of bread
  • Biscuits and breads are generously baked with French butter, nuts and dried fruits. It is Christmas everyday.
empty wine glass
  • Friends bond over apéritifs of the region’s delicate and fruity wines served in an elegant, petit green-stemmed glass and served with goose liver pâté de foie gras that has been embellished with a hint of ginger. 
goose liver pâté de foie gras
  • Where one vineyard ends, the next begins. Together they weave a green quilt with varying patterns and shades of green. Each square unique and adding to the richness of the region as a whole. 
Vineyard road in alsace france
  • Driving on the wine route is like watching the end of the film Cinema Paradiso  (where scenes of couples in various films are spliced together to form one continuous and passionate embrace) because leaving one winery, and approaching the next, fills you with a continuous reoccurrance of  joy and anticipation.
vineyard in alsace france

I realized then that the words were spilling quicker and quicker from my mouth and my voice was filled with excitement and she was appreciative but I was even more so, because it feels good to share a special discovery with others.It is now with the same spirit that I share my culinary visit to Alsace with you.

Venez avec moi en Alsace for a little taste of this special corner of the France.

LM

rooftops in alsace france

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