May 17, 2022.Reading time 9 minutes.
It’s been a bit of a French week: I’ve been upgrading my French Peugeot car to a newer (not new) version; I’ve been enjoying the re-run of Rick Stein’s Secret France on BBC TV in the evenings; and there was a French market in Twickenham on Sunday and Monday. I had the eldest grandsons – […]
Read More
October 19, 2015.Reading time 7 minutes.
When I decided to make the Boeuf en Daube Provençal over the weekend, I thought it would be nice to also make a fig and almond tart for dessert, similar to the one I had in restaurant Lou Pistou in Nice after my daube main course. I remembered it had an almondy, almost cake-like filling in […]
Read More
September 13, 2014.Reading time 4 minutes.
I love figs. They’re such a gorgeous exotic fruit: deep grown-up colours, a soft fragrant centre and, when ripe, a heady perfume that excites the senses. Their sensuous quality was most famously described in Ken Russell’s 1969 film version of DH Lawrence’s Women in Love when Alan Bates (playing Rupert) explained to a table at […]
Read More