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skillet pierogi with mushrooms
21 October 2026 at 17:25
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Lamb Tagine recipe
18 October 2026 at 15:50
One of the first lessons I learned, right after I moved to Paris, was to never, ever be on time for a dinner party. When i got my first invitation to a dinner party, my hosts told me, βCome at 8pmβ¦which in Paris, means to come at 8:20 or 8:30pm.β
Subsequently, when I have guests for dinner, I expect them to be at least 20 minutes late, although thereβs much debate on how late youβre actually supposed to be. But if youβre on time, or early, your host likely wonβt not be ready and youβll probably catch them by surprise.
Itβs a tricky balance when youβve inviting people for dinner, since you want make sure when everyoneβs at the table, dinner will be ready and perfectly cooked. If your friends show up very late, and youβve made something like pork roast, which can take a while to bake, but will dry out if overcooked, youβre sunk.
So one technique I rely on is braising. Braising is cooking something long and slow, which softens cuts of meat and poultry, and infuses whatever youβre cooking with flavor. In the case of a tagine, a North African dish that benefits from braising, your cooking the meat in a broth of onions, aromatics, and spices, which all come together after a stint in the over to make a perfect one-pot meal, thatβs can be kept warm in the oven until everyone is at the table.
In Paris, with so many Arabic and North African butchers around, itβs easy to find cuts of meat that lend themselves to slow-braising, and tagines are quite popular in France. When I wrote my book, My Paris Kitchen, someone wrote to me, wondering why I had non-French recipes in my book. Just like people in other countries, such as Americans who make Mexican and Asian foods at home, or Dutch people who eat rijsttafel, an Indonesian meal composed of many side dishes, French people regularly eat a variety of foods from other cultures, especially in Paris, which is a melting pot, where you can enjoy couscous in Belleville, dosas in the Indian quarter, and Vietnamese noodles in the thirteenth arrondissement. But really, you can get all those foods in just about every corner of the city.
Tagines are simple to make, and once youβve made one, youβll wonder what took you so long to make one? Youβre basically just browning the meat in a Dutch oven or large pot, then sautΓ©ing an onion with spices and seasonings, adding a few spoonfuls of tomato paste or a can of tomatoes, some stock or water, then braising it in the over for a few hours.
This is my basic recipe that I make often. It works great with a lamb shoulder, which you can have your butcher cut into pieces for you. If you can only get a whole lamb shoulder, you can skip the sautΓ©ing step and just braise the lamb shoulder whole. If you can get lamb shanks, this recipe works well with four of them.
I like to serve it with pearl couscous, which you can see above. Itβs basically pasta pearls, and goes by several different names. Regular couscous is also an option, as is rice-shaped pasta, known as orzo
Lamb Tagine
You can substitute a cut up chicken for the lamb. If using chicken, reduce the oven time to 1 to 1Β½ hours. I also like to add prunes, raisins or dried apricots or cranberries to the tagine, during the last 20 minutes of cooking. You can vary the spices depending on what you have or can get. The saffron is optional since that can be more difficult (and expensive) to obtain, but I like the flavor of it in a tagine. Sometimes I use tomato paste in my tagines, and other times I add a can of crushed tomatoes. I put a jar of harissa, North African hot sauce, on the table, for guests who like a little spice with their tagine. (And hosts like me, who like it too!) A favorite brand of harissa in the U.S. is made by NY Shuk.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Mediterranean
Keyword tagine
Servings 6 servings
Ingredients
- 1 lamb shoulder cut into 4 pieces
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt plus more, to taste
- 1 medium onion minced
- 2 1/2 cups (600ml) chicken stock or water
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- freshly-ground black pepper
- 1 small bunch fresh cilantro tied with a string, plus a few sprigs for garnish
- a pinch of saffron threads (optional)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste or one 14 ounce (400g) can crushed tomatoes
- Harissa for serving
Instructions
- Massage the pieces of lamb shoulder with the salt.
- Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, and sear the lamb pieces very well, turning them only after theyβre nicely browned (this step adds flavor to the tagine.) As you cook the lamb pieces, donβt crowd them in. If your Dutch oven isnβt big enough to cook them all in a single layer at the same time, brown the lamb pieces in batches.
- Preheat the oven to 350ΒΊF (175ΒΊC). Once the lamb is browned, remove the pieces from the pot and set them on a plate. (If there is a lot of fat in the pan, you can remove some of it, but leave a film of it in the bottom of the pan.)Add the chopped onion to the pot and some of the stock (or water), then scrape the bottom of the pan with a flat wooden spatula to release the flavorful browned bits. Add the spices, the rest of the water, the bunch of cilantro, the saffron, if using, and the tomato paste or crushed tomatoes. Give everything a quick stir to mix everything together.
- Cover the pot and bake in the oven for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, turning the lamb over in the liquid a few times during baking. The liquid should just be simmering gently. If itβs boiling, turn down the heat. Add more liquid if necessary while it's cooking so the meat is half submerged in liquid. When the meat starts to fall off the bone, thatβs when itβs ready. Taste the liquid and add more salt if desired.
- Pull the meat off the bones. Spoon the meat and some juices into bowls over a bed of couscous or pearl couscous (pasta). Garnish with a sprigs of fresh cilantro.
Notes
To serve, remove the cilantro and discard. Squeeze some lemon juice into the liquid and add more salt, if desired. Serve with rice or bulghur, along with juices from the tagine. At the table, make sure you have a tube of harissa handy, the fiery Moroccan hot sauce.
Β
Your soup needs a little vinegar
5 October 2026 at 16:30
There comes a point in the life of many soups when they get a little sleepy.
This happens especially often with soups that are creamy, starchy or β blessedly β both. Everything is humming along just fine. The onions are soft. The garlic is fragrant. The spices have bloomed. You taste a spoonful and think, Hmm. So you add another pinch of seasoning. You taste again. Still: Hmm.
At this point, most of us instinctively reach for the salt.
But Iβd like to gently intercept your hand on the way there and redirect it toward wherever you keep your vinegar. Some swear by the pantry, others insist upon the refrigerator; we will not allow ourselves to be distracted from our soup scholarship by these sectarian squabbles (at least not this week).
Because sometimes your soup doesnβt need more salt. It needs acid.
A small splash of vinegar at the end of cooking can give a tired pot an almost startling jolt. Vegetables taste brighter. Herbs seem greener. Starchy soups feel less pasty on the tongue. Spices that had faded into the background suddenly become legible again. Depending on how much you add, you might even get a delectable little Oh, what is that? pucker at the end of each bite.
I love lemon in soup, too. Sometimes I want the lemon flavor to be the whole point: a lemony avgolemono, for instance, or a chicken stew that tastes unabashedly citrusy. But lemon can announce itself loudly. Same with lime.
Vinegar can be more like a gentle wake-up than a glass of water to the face.
I first really understood this while making Alison Romanβs dill-packed potato-leek soup, published originally a little over five years ago, which finishes with white wine vinegar. Roman writes that the vinegar makes the soup taste βalmost like a pickle.β I went into the recipe expecting exactly that, was delighted to find it delivered and started experimenting with the same trick in soups of my own.
The key here is finishing with vinegar. There are, of course, soups where acidity is built in earlier: Chinese hot-and-sour soups, borscht and various Eastern European sour soups all have their own traditions and techniques. But thatβs a different lesson.
For our purposes, cook your soup until itβs essentially done. Then, before making the final salt adjustment, add about 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of vinegar. Stir it in thoroughly and give it a moment. I actually like to step away from the stove at this point. Get some water. Wash a spoon. Pop my head out the kitchen window like a dog on a road trip. Then come back and taste again.
Vinegar is firmly in the category of ingredients that are easier to add than subtract. Youβre not necessarily trying to make the soup taste vinegary. Youβre waiting for everything else in the pot to suddenly taste more like itself.
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Different vinegars naturally play better with different soups. Red wine vinegar is wonderful with hearty lentil, bean and farro soups, and I love it in beef stew. It can also rescue a tomato soup thatβs drifted too far toward sweetness.
White wine vinegar β or even plain distilled white vinegar β is excellent with potatoes, creamy chicken soups and corn chowders. Think of the logic of salt-and-vinegar potato chips: starch loves that sharp little counterpoint.
For sweeter, earthier soups made with squash or root vegetables, I tend toward vinegars with a little fruitiness of their own, like apple cider vinegar or my current favorite, white balsamic.
There are exceptions. I probably wouldnβt start splashing vinegar into a delicate seafood bisque. And broccoli-cheddar soup, for me, remains a no-fly zone. Not every pot requires intervention.
But many do.
I learned to cook thinking that βfinishingβ a dish meant adding enough salt and pepper. Then fresh herbs were a revelation. Acid was another one: a reminder that a finished dish doesnβt necessarily need more flavor so much as it sometimes needs contrast.
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Thatβs especially true of this weekβs soup: a hot honey carrot and sweet potato number built with garlic, onion, coriander, paprika, cumin, red pepper flakes and miso, then rounded out with savory stock and coconut milk.
Before the vinegar, it tasted good β but a little too sweet and a little too earthy. The white balsamic changed the geometry of the whole bowl. The sweetness of the vegetables became more nuanced instead of landing like a sledgehammer. The spices emerged. The stock tasted more savory. And instead of registering immediately, the hot honey left a gentle warmth at the back of each bite.
So thatβs your homework for week two of Soup School: When your next pot tastes fine but somehow unfinished, donβt automatically add another shower of salt.
Add a little vinegar.
Let it sink in.
Then taste again.
Building on last weekβs lesson, this soup starts in the oven, where carrots, sweet potatoes, scallions, miso, hot honey and a deliberately assertive amount of spice get deeply caramelized before ever meeting the stockpot. Coconut milk softens the edges.Β
Then, incorporating this weekβs lesson, white balsamic or apple cider vinegar keeps the root vegetablesβ sweetness from becoming cloying.
A note on the spices: There are a lot of them. Thatβs intentional. Sweet potatoes and carrots can take it, and the coconut milk mellows everything considerably. If youβre particularly sensitive to heat, though, feel free to scale back the red pepper flakes and hot honey.
Yields
4Β servings
Prep Time
10 minutes
Cook Time
50Β minutes
Ingredients
-
2 medium carrots, roughly chopped
-
1 cup diced sweet potato, fresh or frozen
-
2 tablespoons sliced scallion greens, plus more for serving
-
1 tablespoon olive oil
-
3 teaspoons garlic powder
-
3 teaspoons onion powder
-
3 teaspoons ground coriander
-
3 teaspoons smoked paprika
-
3 teaspoons ground cumin
-
3 teaspoons red pepper flakes, or less to taste
-
1 tablespoon white miso paste
-
3 teaspoons hot honey, plus more to taste if desired
-
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock, divided
-
1 cup full-fat canned coconut milk
-
White balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar, as needed
-
Kosher salt, to taste
-
Coconut cream, for serving
-
Crusty bread, for serving
Β
Directions
- Heat the oven to 425 F.
- Add the carrots, sweet potato and scallions to a Dutch oven. Drizzle with the olive oil, then add the garlic powder, onion powder, coriander, smoked paprika, cumin, red pepper flakes and miso. Drizzle the hot honey over everything and toss thoroughly to coat.
- Transfer the uncovered Dutch oven to the oven and roast for about 25 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and beginning to caramelize around the edges.
- Remove the pot from the oven. Transfer about half of the vegetable mixture to a blender and blend until smooth, then return it to the Dutch oven. Alternatively, use an immersion blender directly in the pot, stopping while plenty of texture remains.
- Set the Dutch oven over medium heat and add 1/2 cup of the chicken or vegetable stock. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture becomes thick and deeply aromatic. Add the remaining 1/2 cup stock and the coconut milk.
- Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, allowing the flavors to meld and the soup to thicken slightly.
- Remove the soup from the heat. Add 1 teaspoon of white balsamic or apple cider vinegar and stir well. Give it a moment, then taste. Continue adding vinegar, 1 teaspoon at a time, until the soup tastes bright and the sweetness, spice and savoriness feel balanced.
- Only then, add salt to taste.
- Ladle into bowls and finish simply with fresh scallions and a small swirl of coconut cream. Serve with crusty bread.
This story originally appeared in βThe Bite,β my weekly food newsletter for Salon. If you enjoyed it and would like more essays, recipes, technique explainers and interviews sent straight to your inbox, subscribe here.
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simple chicken tacos
30 September 2026 at 23:00
For better soups, start in the oven
28 September 2026 at 16:30
For a while, I kept a soup journal.
Not a recipe journal, exactly. More like field notes. If I ate a soup I liked out in the world, Iβd jot down what was in it, what the broth tasted like, sometimes sketch the bowl. I just adore the form.
Especially when I lived alone, it was not unheard of for all three meals in a day to be soup. One particularly triumphant day started with congee in Washington, D.C., continued with enchilada soup at an airport Chiliβs and ended with pastina back home in my pajamas.
So, in honor of soup season, Iβve decided to spend the next few weeks of βThe Bite,β Salonβs food newsletter, teaching what Iβve started referring to in my notebook at Soup School: a loose little series about the patterns that make soup better. Weβll talk about the ingredient your soup is probably missing β vinegar! β plus better soup toppers and, eventually, how to host a soup party.
But lesson one is the foundation for a lot of the soups I make at home: Start in the oven.
I donβt mean every soup. Some soups depend on freshness, delicacy or a particularly clean broth, and Iβll get to those. But when I want depth, sweetness, browning and the kind of flavor that tastes like something has been cooking much longer than it actually has, I start by roasting.
Hereβs the method.
Roast whatβs in the pot
Tomato soup was the one that made this click for me.
Mine started with garlic, red onion, sun-dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, fennel, olive oil, spices and an anchovy or two, all piled into a Dutch oven and roasted together.
The oven transformed every ingredient differently. The onion and fennel softened, browned and grew sweeter. The anchovy sizzled itself into the oil coating those browned alliums. The cherry tomatoes burst, their skins turning silky and their juices almost pasty around the edges. The sun-dried tomatoes somehow became even more concentrated. The spices perfumed absolutely everything.
By the time the pot came out of the oven, most of the flavor was already there.
That, to me, is the whole appeal of the method. You can build a similar kind of depth on the stovetop, of course, but the oven does a lot of the work for you. Dry heat browns, evaporates and concentrates while you go do something else.
And when you roast, push things a little farther than may initially feel instinctive.
Your vegetables should not be pretty anymore. I want onions slumped and browned at the edges. Tomatoes wrinkled and burst. Mushrooms dark. Carrots blistered. Bits sticking to the bottom of the pot. If everything still looks ready for a glossy farmers market photo shoot, give it another few minutes. This works beautifully with fresh vegetables, but frozen vegetables are welcome, too. So are drained canned beans.Β
Douse whatever you have in oil, season it well and let it get ugly.
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Roast your flavor boosters, too
This is also when I deploy what I lovingly think of as my potions and powders: anchovy, tomato paste, miso, soy sauce, fish sauce, bouillon paste or cubes, mushroom and brown gravy powder.
Not all at once, obviously, though I respect the chaos.
The point is to let those deeply savory ingredients spend some time in the heat rather than simply dissolving them into broth at the end. Tomato paste darkens. Anchovy melts into the oil. Spices bloom. Everything has a chance to mingle before the soup gets diluted.
Deglaze before you add the broth
Once everything is properly roasted, I add just enough broth to loosen the browned, sticky bits from the bottom of the pot. Not a carton. Not even close. At this point, the broth isnβt there to create the flavor. Itβs there to capture what the oven already made.
Scrape thoroughly. Those dark little bits on the bottom are part of the soup now.
Blend only part of it
For a lot of vegetable, bean and chowder-style soups, I blend about half of whatβs in the pot.That gives you body without turning the whole thing into purΓ©e. The blended vegetables thicken the broth, while the rest keep enough texture to remind you what youβre eating.
You can do this in a blender or with an immersion blender (though I tend to like the control of scooping part of the mixture into a blender and leaving the rest alone.)
Reduce it again
Here is the part that feels a little counterintuitive: after going to the trouble of deglazing the pot, I often cook everything back down again. I let the blended and unblended mixture simmer until it gets thick, concentrated and almost sticky. Then I add my final stock, cream or coconut cream until the soup reaches the consistency I actually want.
This is one of my strongest soup opinions: donβt drown the thing you just concentrated.
You can always add more broth. You cannot easily take it back out (though, if you do, itβs not the end of the world: just let the soup reduce longer.)Β
Add a little. Stir. Taste. Add more if you need it.
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Finish last
Once the texture is right, I finish with whatever gives the soup its final bit of life: herbs, citrus zest, salt, black pepper, maybe cream. Those ingredients donβt need half an hour in the oven. They need to stay bright.
Once I noticed this pattern, I realized itβs how I make most of my favorite soups: tomato soup, corn chowders, vegetable soups, bean soups and even chicken soup.
For chicken soup, I roast thighs on a bed of onion, garlic, carrot and celery with big lemon slices, garlic powder, onion powder and plenty of black pepper. Once the chicken is cooked, I pull it out to shred later, while the vegetables underneath β softened in chicken fat, lemon and all those browned juices β become the base of the soup.
I am certainly not claiming to have invented roasted chicken soup. Italian penicillin nonnas have been several centuries ahead of me on that front. But the example stands.
Roast first. Deglaze. Blend some. Reduce. Reconstitute. Finish.
Know when not to do any of this
There are plenty of soups I would never subject to this treatment.
If I want something fresh, delicate or particularly clean-tasting, I stay on the stovetop. A clear miso broth with beautiful soft cubes of tofu doesnβt need caramelization. Neither does a simple cream of potato or parsnip soup (more on those next week!), or a bright, stewy pozole verde.
My spring pea soup β peas, stock, cream, dill, black pepper and lemon zest β absolutely does not belong in the oven. She is delicate. Leave her alone.
But if the goal is depth, browning and concentration, this is the pattern I come back to over and over.
Take the vegetables you have. Fresh or frozen. Add some canned beans if youβve got them. Douse the whole situation in oil and spices and roast until things get a little ugly. Deglaze. Blend some of it. Reduce it. Add broth carefully. Finish it with whatever makes sense.
It is not a precise science. It is not particularly pretty.
It is, however, delicious.
This is a current variation on roasted tomato soup Iβve been making a lot recently: warmly spiced with garam masala, fennel and coriander, rounded out with miso and coconut cream. Garam masala is an Indian spice blend whose exact makeup varies, but it commonly includes warming spices like cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper.
Yields
4Β servings
Prep Time
15Β minutes
Cook Time
55 minutes
Ingredients
-
2 large beefsteak tomatoes, roughly chopped
-
1 medium white onion, roughly chopped
-
4 to 5 garlic cloves
-
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
-
3 tablespoons olive oil
-
1 tablespoon white miso
-
1 tablespoon tomato paste
-
1Β½ teaspoons garam masala
-
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
-
1 teaspoon ground coriander, or lightly crushed coriander seeds
-
Β½ to ΒΎ cup chicken stock, for deglazing, plus about 1 cup more to finish
-
β cup coconut cream, plus more for serving
-
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
-
Sliced scallions, for serving
-
Fresh cilantro, for serving
-
Toasted bread, for serving
Β
Directions
- Heat the oven to 375Β°F.
- Add the tomatoes, onion, garlic and ginger to a Dutch oven or other oven-safe pot. Add the olive oil, miso, tomato paste, garam masala, fennel and coriander and toss everything together until thoroughly coated.
- Roast for 30 minutes, then take a look. The tomatoes should be collapsing and the onions should be well softened and beginning to brown. Give everything a toss and return it to the oven for about 10 minutes more, or until the vegetables have achieved sufficient ugliness: deeply softened, browned around the edges and sticky in spots.
- Set the pot over medium heat and add Β½ cup chicken stock. Scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom, adding another splash of stock if needed.
- Transfer half the mixture to a blender and blend until completely smooth.
- Return the blended soup to the pot and let it simmer until it once again becomes quite thick and concentrated. Stir in about 1 cup additional stock and the coconut cream, adding the liquid gradually until the soup reaches the consistency you like.
- Taste and season with salt and black pepper as needed; remember that the miso and stock will already bring some saltiness.
- Ladle into bowls and finish with a drizzle of coconut cream, sliced scallions and plenty of cilantro. Serve with toasted bread for dragging through the bowl.
This story originally appeared in The Bite, my weekly food newsletter for Salon. If you enjoyed it and would like more essays, recipes, technique explainers and interviews sent straight to your inbox,Β subscribe here.
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tomato risotto with frizzled red onions
16 September 2026 at 17:28
Moelleux of Summer Fruits
12 September 2026 at 16:32
This may or may not happen to you, but sometimes when Iβm a guest in someoneβs home, where everyone pitches in to make dinner, all eyes (or just the hostβs eyes) fall on me to make dessert. Gulp. I happy to pitch in with the cooking or bringing along a few baked goodies for the weekend, but Iβm not always prepared to bake on the spot.
If youβre lucky, there may be a scale, a cake pan, a sharp knife, and hopefully sugar, butter, eggs, and flour. If youβre really lucky, there might be a whisk and a spatula, too. But if youβve ever tried to peel a dozen apples with a steak knife because itβs the only one thatβs even close to sharp, or eyeball 1 cup/140g) of flour, you know what Iβm talking about. I once did a post on Things I Bring When Iβm a Guest for the Weekend, which raised the ire of some, but I require a minimum of a knife, a spatula, a bowl, and a cake pan if Iβm going to bake something, like a cake.
Youβre likely familiar with the Moelleux au chocolat, the soft warm individual melting cakes that everybody loves. (If you have the kind of friends that have six to eight ramekins, well, thatβs great.) I recently saw French food writer and journalist FranΓ§ois-RΓ©gis Gaudy (his book, Letβs Eat France, translated into English, is a lot of fun and pretty amazing) make a Moelleux Γ la abricotΒ on his Instagram page, which didnβt require a mixer or any special equipment. Not even a whisk!
His Apricot Cake was a very casual affair, baked in a rectangular mold on a sheet of parchment paper, and came out of the oven rather free-form, looking exactly like something that would come out of a French home cookβs kitchen, when baking dessert for friends. Iβm fine with that but didnβt know if you were, so I thought Iβd tinker with it and make it in a cake pan, which is easier to slice. I also fiddled around with the ingredients, as well as putting the brown granulated sugar on top (rather than underneath), to give the moelleux a nice sheen.
I used a springform cake pan but you can use any similar-sized vessel; an 8-, 9- or 10-square or round cake pan would work, or even a baking dish. The baking time will vary but if your experience with using a variety of ovens in other peopleβs homes is anything like mine, youβll find that each one is different, and what one says is 350ΒΊF/180ΒΊC will be different than another whose dial says 350ΒΊF/180ΒΊC. I donβt travel with an oven thermometer but may add that to things I bring when Iβm staying with people.
Tip: If youβre staying in someoneβs place for the weekend, you can mix the dry ingredients in a container or zip-top bag then put the dessert together when you get there.
I made one cake with apricots first, which was sensational, but knowing fresh apricots are harder to come by elsewhere, I made another one with plums, which came out great as well. It would work with other summer fruits and berries but I really like the tanginess of apricots or plums against the moist cake layer, so stuck with those two. A handful of berries wouldnβt hurt either, but I do recommend keeping it simple.
Moelleux aux fruits d'ete
Inspired by a recipe from French food writer and journalist François-Régis GaudryThe ground almonds are really delicious in the dessert, but if you can't get ground almonds (sometimes called almond meal or almond flour), you can use 1 1/4 cups (175g) of all-purpose flour in place of the mix. The picture in the post of the batter shows 3 eggs being added, and I took that photo when I first tested the recipe, which I did a few more times after that. The final recipe that I came up with, below, uses 2 eggs.
Course Dessert
Servings 8 servings
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds (680g) apricots or plums (or another summer fruit, see headnote)
- 3/4 cup, plus 2 tablespoons (100g) almond flour
- 1/2 cup (65g) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder preferably aluminum-free
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (230g) granulated sugar
- 5 ounces (140g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons coarse granulated brown sugar such as tubinado sugar (or granulated white sugar)
Instructions
- Halve the fruit and remove the pits. Slice the fruit into 3/4- to 1-inch (2-3cm) wedges. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350ΒΊF (180ΒΊC.) Grease a 9-inch (23cm) springform pan very well with butter or non-stick spray. (If you don't have a springform pan, you can use another cake pan but it may be harder to get the cake out so you may want to also line the bottom with parchment paper.)
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the almond flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. (My preferred tool to use for this step is a silicone spatula.) Add the soft butter and mix it in with the spatula until it's broken up into little pieces, roughly the size of kernels of corn. Stir in the eggs and vanilla extract, until it's almost smooth. It's fine if there are small pieces of butter visible.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Arrange the wedges of fruit on their sides in concentric circles over the batter, snugly placing the wedges against each other, pressing them gently into the batter as you go. Avoid putting them right up against the sides of the pan. It's best to leave some room for the batter to rise between the fruit and the pan, to avoid juices from the fruit adhering to the sides of the pan as the moelleux bakes. (It's unavoidable - and natural - if using juicy fruits, like plums, to have juice run out. But placing the slices not right up against the sides of the pan will help you get the cake out of the pan later.)
- Sprinkle the coarse sugar over the top and bake until the center just feels set; a toothpick inserted into the center should come out free of cake crumbs stuck to it, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and set on a cooling rack. If any fruit juices have bubbled up and stuck to the sides of the pan, run a knife around the outside of the cake, which will help it release later.
Notes
Notes: If you want to make this gluten-free, I'd go with the almond flour rendition, and use a gluten-free flour substitute in place of the wheat flour. If you want to reduce the sugar in the recipe, you could cut it by 6 tablespoons/75g and skip the sugar on top, although I wouldn't.
cucumber salad with sesame and rice vinegar
12 August 2026 at 21:51
Cherry Jam
31 July 2026 at 11:01
One of the first βrecipesβ on this blog was No-Recipe Cherry Jam, posted in 2005, which wasnβt quite a recipe. Nevertheless, a lot of people successfully used those guidelines to make cherry jam over the last fifteen years. The basis for it was how Iβve been making jam forever, using 3 parts sugar to 4 parts fruit puree. The standard ratio is to use equal parts sugar to fruit puree but I like to use less.
I often make cherry jam with sweet cherries, which are what one usually finds at the market. But if you can find sour cherries, those are wonderful in the mix, but when fresh, they have a short shelf life so should be used, pronto.
So feel free to mix things up, cherry-wise!
Unlike other recipes, making jam can require a bit of using your instincts, rather than relying on set times and temperatures. Checking the jam texture on a chilled plate is the best way to tell you when itβs done. (As an example, jam usually sets between 218-220ΒΊF,103-104ΒΊC, but this one set a few degrees higher.) Because cherries are low in pectin, this one often βsetsβ a few degrees higher, although donβt expect cherry jam to be as stiff as other jams that you might be used to, or buy. Itβll be a bit runny, which is just how it should be.
One tool I do recommend is a cherry pitter. Not everyone has one, and they do fall into the βsingle useβ category, but come cherry season, mine gets a good workout. I wrote more about why you should get a cherry pitter here.
The biggest question I get about jam recipes is people asking about reducing the amount of sugar in them. Sugar in jam does a couple of things. One, it helps the mixture jell, along with any natural pectin in the fruit. And two, it preserves it. If you use less, the jam will be runnier and wonβt last as long.
Europeans tend to like their jams runnier than their American counterparts, so in the morning, you can have a European experience when you spoon some of this jam on your morning toast, as we do.
Unlike other jams that wrinkle when you do the wrinkle test (putting a spoonful of jam on a frozen plate, returning the plate to the freezer and when the jam wrinkles with you nudge it, itβs done), this one will be more like thickened syrup. Itβs done when itβs thick and sticky and holds its shape for a few moments after you drag a spoon through it (below.) The cherries will be shiny and glossy, like beautiful ruby-colored jewels.
Cherry Jam
If you only have 1 pound (450g) of cherries, feel free to cut the recipe in half. The liqueur is optional but heightens the flavors of the jam. Use only enough so it complements the fruit β you don't want to overwhelm it. As mentioned, this jam will be a bit on the runny side when "set." Sour cherries will produce a softer-set jam than sweet cherries.
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Keyword cherries, cherry, jam
Ingredients
- 2 pounds (900g) sweet or sour cherries or a mix
- 2 1/2 cups (500g) sugar
- freshly squeezed juice of one medium lemon plus additional juice if desired
- 1-2 drops of almond extract or 1-2 teaspoons of kirsch or another liqueur, such as amaretto or vodka
Instructions
- Remove the stems and pit the cherries. Put them in a large non-reactive pot. If using only sweet cherries, add 2-3 tablespoons of water to the pot. (Sour cherries will exude enough liquid on their own so no need to add additional water.) Put a small plate or saucer in the freezer.
- Cover the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the cherries are wilted and cooked through, about 10 minutes.
- Remove the lid and stir in the sugar and lemon juice. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring frequently until the mixture thickens. It's hard to say how long it will take, but when the mixture resembles the sixth picture in the post, the one in the pot with the bubbles, turn off the heat and test the jam by putting a small spoonful on the frozen dish. Return the dish to the freezer for a few minutes until the jam on it is cool. Run a spoon through it and if the liquid is very thick and leaves a clear patch, as shown in the photo in the post, it's done. If not, return the plate to the freezer and continue to cook the jam, testing it at various intervals, until it's done. (If you want to use a thermometer to check the jam, it should be ready somewhere between 220ΒΊ and 225ΒΊF, 104ΒΊ-107ΒΊC.)
- When ready, turn off the heat and stir in the almond extract or liqueur (or both, if you wish). If desired, you could add an extra squeeze of lemon juice to balance the sweetness. Ladle into clean jars.
Notes
Storage: This jam will last several weeks in the refrigerator. If you wish to can it, you can find instructions here.
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Strawberry Jam
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I was recently gifted an overload of strawberries: I bought four baskets from a vendor at the market, whose booth I shop at often, and he threw in two extra baskets for free, the equivalent of a carte de fidelitΓ© (loyalty card) in Paris. So Iβve spent the past few days washing, hulling, cutting and cooking my unexpected bounty.
Iβve been making a number of things with the gorgeous strawberries. But I also realized that while I have a Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam recipe on the site, I didnβt have a strawberry jam. So here it is.
Although Iβm giving you a recipe for the amount of strawberries that I used, you can use the same proportions if you have just a basketβ¦or a bushel. Youβll just need to do a slight amount of math. Only the cooking time will change, so keep an eye on things.
Jam-making is not something you walk away from and you need to rely more on look and feel, rather than exact times. Another thing about jam-making is that fruit and berry jams are always better made in small batches; the shorter the cooking time, the better the flavor. So if you have more than 2-pounds (900g) of strawberries, consider making jam in a couple of batches rather than one big one.
Strawberry Jam
Many traditional recipes use an equal amount of sugar to fruit, by weight, but I find itβs okay to decrease it to these proportions. Sugar is both a thickener and a preservation agent. If you reduce it too much more, your jam may not thicken and wonβt keep for a long time. (Which is okay if you want thinner jam, you keep it in the refrigerator, and eat it relatively quickly.) This recipe can be scaled up or down, depending on how many strawberries you have. But if you want to make a lot more, best to make it in a couple of batches. To prepare the jars, pour boiling water into them, as well as into the lids. Let them sit 5-10 minutes, then carefully pour out the hot water and set them upside down on a cooling rack until ready to fill.
Since I keep my jams in the refrigerator, I donβt put them up them in a traditional sense. I usually just overturn the jars and let them cool, which provides a reasonable seal, then refrigerate them. I find my jams keep well this way for up to one year. Check the National Center for Home Food Preservation website for instructions on how to can fruit jams.
Note: Last season strawberries tend to have less natural pectin than ones that arrive earlier. So your jam may be less jelled. One strategy is the finely grate a green apple into the strawberries before cooking them, which adds pectin. (There are guidelines here for using liquid and powdered pectin.) I donβt mind the slightly runnier jam and itβs terrific on yogurt or served with fresh goat cheese for dessert.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds (900g) strawberries
- 1 1/4 pounds (2 2/3 cups, 580g) sugar
- one lemon organic or unsprayed
- optional: kirsch (or eau-de-vie, or crème de cassis)
Instructions
- Wash and hull the strawberries and cut them into quarters. If some are larger or smaller, just make sure the pieces all about the same size.
- 2. Toss them in a large pot, such as a Dutch oven casserole made of a nonreactive material, with the sugar. Cut the lemon in half, squeeze the juice into the pot, and add the lemon halves to the berries. Stir well, cover, and let sit a couple of hours (up to 8 hours) at room temperature, stirring one or two times while they marinate.
- Put a small plate in the freezer. Turn the heat on under the strawberries to medium-high and cook the strawberries, stirring occasionally, as they reduce and the juices thicken. If a lot of foam rises to the surface, skim it away. When the syrup is the consistency of warm maple syrup β it will take about 10 to 15 minutes or so, depending on the pot and berries, turn off the heat and put a spoonful of the jam on the frozen plate and return the plate to the freezer. Check it in a few minutes; if it wrinkles when you nudge it, itβs done. If not, return the plate to the freezer and cook the jam a little more, testing it again. It may take a few times before you get it to the right consistency.
- When the strawberry jam is done, remove the lemon and stir in a few drops of kirsch, if using, then ladle the jam into the prepared jars.
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