30-Minute Spinach and Chicken Coconut Curry

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It’s Confession Tuesday and I have one to make: I don’t really like spinach.

On my early twenties’ quest to rediscover and fall in love with the vegetables I’d grown up not liking (I’m looking at you, Brussels sprouts!) spinach was a total fail.

I blame years and years of school cafeterias and well-meaning summer camp counselors. Unless the spinach is of pristine freshness and cooked with fairy dust in really inspired ways, the metallic aftertaste makes me shudder and push my plate away.

So I hardly ever buy spinach at all. But on a recent trip to the Perche, when we got to the organic produce stall where we buy a week’s worth of marvels (and then some) the minute we arrive at the greenmarket, we saw he had gorgeous spinach that was selling out fast. Maxence was tempted, I relented, and we snatched up an armful.

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Gâteau de Mamy: My Grandmother’s Apple Cake

G‰âteau de Mamy (French Grandmother's Apple Cake)

Photography by Céline de Cérou.

Le goûter is the afternoon snack kids are given when they come out of school around four. In my family, we called it simply le thé, and it was the highlight of the day. Around five on weekends, somebody would invariably ask, “On fait le thé?”

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Tahini and Date Coconut Smoothie

Tahini and Date Coconut Smoothie

Photography by Céline de Cérou.

You know how sometimes, in the morning, you feel you should eat something because it would give you energy, but you’re not actually that hungry? Or maybe you need to get out of the house early, and you would rather have something later, when you get into work, but something un-complicated and un-messy?

These are the very situations when you’ll be glad you’ve befriended this tahini and date coconut smoothie.

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Yogurt Cake

French Yogurt Cake

Photography by Céline de Cérou.

Gâteau au yaourt

Maxence is a big advocate of the adage “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. In other words, when a classic recipe is fabulous, don’t meddle with it, and just do what you’re told. Obviously I have trouble following that piece of advice, and more often than not I’ll surrender to the urge and tweak a little something here and a little something there — substitution is my middle name.

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Instant Pot Ramen-Style Pork Belly

Instant Pot Ramen-Style Pork Belly

Photography by Céline de Cérou.

I have been wanting to share this recipe for ramen-style pork belly with you for, oh, two years and a half, ever since I made it for the first time, using Camille Oger’s excellent directions in her post Easy braised pork and quick rāmen.

Camille Oger is a French food writer and journalist who travels extensively to visit growers and producers and chefs. She has spent a lot of time in Asia, and in Japan in particular. Her blog posts are extraordinarily well researched* and her photos are an armchair traveler’s dream come true.

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