Chocolate and Zucchini is the felicitous result of turning a myth on its head. We know the myth: an American goes to Paris, has a food epiphany, and his/her palate is awakened. Clotilde Dusoulier reverses this legend as it was she, a young Frenchwoman, who came to the US and discovered her passion for food. Living in San Francisco, her shout of eureka! was for food, not gold, and she discovered that she liked to shop for food, experiment with food, think about food. She also discovered that she liked to write about food, a feat this non-native performs with a piquant choice of words. She hit the ground running, devoted herself to food and started a blog.
It is Dusoulier's dual passions for writing and cooking, as well as her personal exuberance, that gives sparkle to her work. Now back in France, Dusoulier maintains the blog formula of combining recipes with personal stories. The reader joins her as she ventures around Paris, stopping at a bakery to taste a croissant, selecting vegetables from a stall, heading home to cook. The paradigm of today's young cooks, her work is playful, experimental, calling on world-wide ingredients. Respecting the traditional, she gives us French classics, such as a Beef Bourguignon or My Grandmother's Apple Cake. But playfulness is not far away and a classic cream puff dough transforms into Cumin Cheese Puffs; a classic quiche turns into Broccoli and Apple Quiche; a compote of apricots gets the addition of lavender; soft boiled eggs are served with Artichoke Bread Fingers. The use of world-wide ingredients, the adventure of the new shows in many of her recipes. She states that she loves to shop in health-food stores to discover ancient grains that are new again and bring them home to experiment.
Dusoulier has divided her book into three unique sections - Simplicity, Entertaining and Sweet Things. In the first section you will find salads and sandwiches, tarts, soups and eggs. There are recipes such as Green Bean Salad with Pecans and Dry-cured Ham, a Sardine and Tomato Club Sandwich. The second section devoted to entertaining has recipes for formal meals, such as Flemish Carbonades or Lamb Tagine with Pears, but Dusoulier is ready to cook any time and includes recipes for impromptu meals, such as Mustard Chicken Stew or Zucchini Carpaccio with Raspberry Vinaigrette. For sweetness there are cakes and tartes, such as Tarte chocolat Caramel and mignardises ( sweet bites) such as Honey Almond Bites or Chocolate-Dipped Hazelnut Marbles. There are photographs throughout.
About the author: Clotilde Dusoulier lives in Monmartre and is the creator of the blog chocolateandzucchini.com.
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