Pistou & Pastis

An Edible Love Letter to the South of France

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You are here: Home / Archives for Bases

Ramp Pasta

April 18, 2018 by Francois

Ramp Pasta made like Pate Nicoise

One of my favorite springtime dishes is a classic daube of lamb, a Provencal lamb stew made from onctuous lamb cheeks slowly simmered in rose with lavender honey till impossibly tender. Traditionally daubes are served with something starchy, like pasta or gnocchi, to help stretch the meat out and serve as a vehicle to soak up the wonderful juices.

In Nice, they often make a green gnocchi (Pate Nicoise) that simmers in the broth for the last 30 minutes. This year I tried something new, I made a classic Pate Nicoise, using wild ramps in place of the more traditional Swiss chard, and the results were stunning.

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Filed Under: Bases, Pacific Northwest, Pasta, Provencal, Provence Tagged With: Daube, French Country Cooking, Geraldene Holt, lamb, Pasta, Pate Nicoise, Ramps

Rhubarb Tart

April 12, 2018 by Francois

True confession

I have to be brutally honest here, I am not a huge rhubarb fan. To be blunt, I could do without it for the rest of my life. Then, the other day, I was surfing the internet and came across a picture perfect rhubarb tart that stole my heart and captured my dreams.  I became utterly hypnotized by the shot from Jo Harrington, a self described ‘longtime London foodie challenged to bake the perfect pie.’ If you look up her site you will see quite possibly the most amazing collection of pies ever made. In the same moment, I felt both worthless as a pie maker and speechless in wonder of her patient handiwork with dough. Trust me, until you have tried to replicate it yourself you will never realize the amount of work involved. My sincere compliments to her skill set.

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Filed Under: Bases, Sweets, Technique Tagged With: Bruce Healy, creme patisserie, dessert, Jo Harrington, Mastering the Art of French Pastries, Michel LeBorgne, rhubarb, Tart

Gnocchi with Tocco di Carne

October 13, 2017 by Francois

I recently did an Italian pop-up in Portland, and the undisputed star of the show was my gnocchi tossed in a tocco di carne sauce with shaved parmesan and drizzled with Paniole, a beautiful extra virgin olive oil from the Ciacci family, owners of the great Brunello estate Mocali. It’s a dish I absolutely love, but rarely if ever, make at home. It’s not that it isn’t memorable, or even ridiculously easy to make and simply addictive, it’s just that I cook a wide repertoire of food at home and dishes get lost and forgotten….

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Filed Under: Bases, Big Plates, Classics, Family Food, Italian, Meat, Pasta, Recipes Tagged With: brunello, Ciacci, Gnocchi, Marco Cameli, Paniole Olive Oil, Tocco di Carne

How to cook an octopus

May 13, 2016 by Francois

I was bitten by an octopus.  – Ted Cruz

After my last article talking about Greek wine and pre-cooked octopus I thought I would follow up with a very simple method to cook your own sea beast. There is a lot of unwarranted fear surrounding octopus. Granted they are weird looking sea creatures with beaks and tentacles and a notorious reputation for being frustratingly tough. I have seen both professional and home cooks avoid preparing it like the plague. Done right it is sublimely tender and takes to a variety of preparations from simple salads to tandoori spiced appetizers to stewed in tomato sauce. Done wrong and it becomes a rubbery sea flavored chewing gum. There are many myths about the best way to tenderize octopus. They range from dropping corks in the poaching liquid, rubbing them with salt, cooking only in copper, using your clothes dryer to tumble them into tender submission, beating them on rocks to dumping enough vinegar in the cooking liquid to make you pucker for a week straight. The simplest and best method is to steam in their own juices. Try this and you will never go back to whatever method you used to subscribe to….

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Filed Under: Bases, Cooking Technique, Octopus, Seafood Tagged With: cook octopus, octopus, simple recipes, Spanish day boat

Moroccan Preserved Lemons

April 29, 2015 by Francois

“Concerning the spices of Arabia let no more be said. The whole country is scented with them, and exhales an odor marvellously sweet.” – Herodotus

Tajines 03

colorful tagines line a wall at work

I vividly remember the first cook book I read with the ability to transport me somewhere else. My mother had just bought Paula Wolfert’s seminal classic ‘Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco’. She always had a wonderful collection of cookbooks, some of which I borrowed permanently. From the opening stanzas, I imagined myself on the same 1959 voyage aboard the Yugoslavian freighter as Paula. I could sense the nervous excitement of travelling somewhere undiscovered and exotic. I crawled under my sheets with a flashlight, creating a Bedouin tent in the sub sahara, leaving the cold Midwestern night far behind. Soon the perfumed smells of exotic spices and mechoui spit roasting co-mingled in my imagined world of my youth.

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Filed Under: Bases, Child Friendly, Mediterranean, Moroccan, Pickling and Fermentation, Vegetarian Tagged With: Couscous and Other Good From from Morocco, lemons, moroccan, Morocco, Paula Wolfert, preserved lemons

Homemade Chicken Stock

April 24, 2015 by Francois

Roast Chicken 01

A Perfect Roast Chicken

Many years ago I graduated from the prestigious New England Culinary Institute run by Michel LeBorgne, a hard nosed French Chef from Northern France. Like every great Chef before him, and probably every one since, Chef LeBorgne had his aphorisms we lived our lives by. They were repeatedly drummed into our thick skulls as we chopped vegetables, sauteed fish and made stocks. Every one growled required the standard ‘oui Chef” shouted back  in unison like raw recruits at boot camp. Most were modified from the classic themes of how older generations had it much harder than us young punks. ‘We were so poor as apprentices, we only had one pair of shoes between the two of us” or “I used to walk to the restaurant uphill both ways.” The one that stuck and became part of my own repertoire was “I lost my first million in the garbage can”. That line inspired me throughout my career and helped maintain very low food costs and run a tight ship. Even now, decades later I am still guided by that principal….

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Filed Under: Bases, Chef Tagged With: Chicken stock, homemade, Michel LeBorgne, New England Culinary Institute

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Recent Posts

  • Ramp Pasta
  • Rhubarb Tart
  • Slowing down to a Provencal Rhythm
  • Culinary Adventures: Eat France Like a Local
  • Cured Black Cod, Fried Chickpeas, Chorizo Croquette, Anchoiade

Why Pistou and Pastis?

Pistou is a very simple, rustic soup made with whatever is at hand, and evokes the very spirit of Provence in every bite. There is no one single recipe to adhere to, rather it is a joyous celebration of whatever is in season and inspires you to share your table with friends.

Pastis, on the other hand, is an integral part of daily life that encourages laughter and merriment, and fuels our imagination on dreary Pacific Northwest days when we are at home dreaming of lavender, laughter and golden sunsets.

We hope Pistou and Pastis acts as a metaphor to inspire home cooks to be more free and fearless in the kitchen, and to use the seasons like other people use cookbooks.

Week by week, we will share beautiful dishes made with what what we found at the farmers market. Sometimes the pastis will inspire a long dialogue, other times simply a great recipe quickly posted to share. Foods that profoundly touch your soul, are one of the many treasures of life.

Francois, Lisa et Beaumont

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Meet Chef Francois

François grew up in a very French household in Chicago. His earliest attempts at cookery began with the filleting of his sister’s goldfish at age two and braising his pet rabbit at age seven. Eventually he stopped cooking his pets and became a Chef. Read More…

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