By Our French Chef en Residence, Claire Tuffereau
“I am a wife, a mother and a grandmother; I am a gardener, a watercolorist and a teacher, but cooking runs my life, brightens my days, cements my relationships, and heals me mentally and physically.
“It all started with my parents and how food was at the center of our family life. When I remember my father and mother, he is in his country garden, painstakingly weeding away, and she is standing in front of the stove, concocting something magical out of the fresh produce he brought home at the end of the week. With this, and without words, they taught me love, respect, and how to care for others. They gave me happiness. If I am an inveterate optimist, I owe it in part to food, its smells, its colors, and its ability to dig deep inside my brain for adventurous and fearless creativity.
“If one day my life needs a summary, this is it:
“She loved, therefore she cooked.”
—Claire Tuffereau
We are delighted to post one of Claire’s recipes each month for you to prepare and enjoy—bon appétit!
Jackdaw Journeys French Recipes
THE LATEST RECIPES FROM IN HOUSE CHEF CLAIRE TUFFEREAU
Back Into The Cold
First frost, first snow, first ice. My last flowers: black-eyed Susan, mums, roses, and my insanely fragrant sweet alyssum, which had valiantly resisted up to now, finally gave up
Ah Corn!
There are so many dishes you can do with corn that I could not write just about one in this rubrique, so I chose two: a sweet dessert called “Corn Custard With Raspberry Sauce” and a hors-d’oeuvre I created: “Black Bean and Corn Salsa”.
In Praise of Lemons
Every year, my friend Diane sends me from California several boxes of lemons from the two over-loaded trees in her garden. I am eternally grateful to her - and her husband who goes to the post-office with the heavy boxes - for thinking about me in such a caring fashion.
In Praise of Cookies
In his book: “Café Boulud Cookbook”, this is what Daniel Boulud writes about these cookies, unique to Britany: “Trao-Mad are the tenderest, meltingest, butteriest cookies imaginable”, and I could not agree with him more, since Britany being the place where I was born and spent my life until I came to this country, I am very partial to its gastronomic prouesses.
In Praise of May?
The question mark is not a mistake. I am usually very fond of May and it is my favorite month of the year but this past May was not a blessing.
