French Classic
Dessert gets a savory spin with this bell pepper and zucchini clafoutis
One of the things I miss these days is getting my hands on cookbooks. We used to get pounds of advance-copy cookbooks from publishers at The Washington Post office each week, and ripping into envelopes and boxes felt like it was Christmas morning.
Now that we are working from home, we often get links to PDFS of said books. I am grateful to get that, but I do not take e-links to bed with me at night to slowly page through the aspirational recipes and gaze longingly at delicious photos.
One book that arrived just before the pandemic forced us out of the office was “Dinner in French: My Recipes by Way of France” (March 2020, Clarkson Potter) by Melissa Clark, a New York Times food columnist who claims to be fluent in French cooking, if not the language.
She dedicates the book to her parents, who took her clan to France each August, exchanging homes with families there and helping her not only master the cuisine but also start a love affair with that country’s food.
Some cookbooks are functional, even a bit cold. They give you the list of ingredients, clear steps through the process — just the facts. Others, like this one, are good reads, too, transporting you into the author’s kitchen and mind, making you feel confident you could turn out something that looks like that well-styled picture. I’m thinking about the Wine Braised Chicken With Oranges and Olives and that Hazelnut Dacquoise With Coffee-cardamon Buttercream.
I have sticky notes on those and other recipes, but I am always in search of delicious food that comes together fast, so I stopped early in the book on Clark’s Sweet Pepper and Cheddar Clafoutis. I have made sweet ones before, but never savory. It sounded so simple, and it is. The rich eggy custard bakes atop slightly caramelized vegetables, and sharp white cheddar and Parmesan add a bit of tang.