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
January is for Soups
...And all kinds of other sweet vegetables. What is January without a piping hot roasted butternut squash soup? First, its color is gorgeous, and the smell, ah the smell! This soup is sweet without any added sugar and creamy without any added cream. It is like...
‘Tis The Season! Cranberry-Walnut Bread
What is more comforting than the aroma of a warm cranberry bread just coming out of the oven when it is blistery outside and a thin layer of icy snow outlines the branches of the pine trees at the edge of the garden?
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.
