chez pim

How to make a crispy fruit crumble

I don't know about you, but I think all this talk about baking being a-precise-science-and-all-that is scaring a lot of people away from baking.  I mean, I'm sure baking a ten-layer wedding cake or five hundred tarts may well be precise science.  But baking just a pie or a few cookies, that's hardly more so than making a simple bowl of soup.  

So, if you're one of those people, I have just a recipe for you to try.  Or even if you're not, try it anyway, it's so simple and so good, you'll thank me for it later.  (Hold it with the proposals though boys, I am otherwise occupied.)

This is going to be the easiest dessert you’ll ever make.  Really it will.  It’s basically comprised of two parts, an unusually crisp crumble topping, which comes together in minutes, and a fruit filling, which can be just about any fruit in abundance at the moment.  At my market, stone fruits are just about done.  So I'm sending them off with the last hurrah with the French prune plums - quetsches as they're called over there. 

The Foodie Handbook, the movie!

Ok, not really, just a video trailer we did for the book. Watch it and enjoy (I hope.)

You can also see it in HD on YouTube.

And if you're in the New York area I hope to see you tomorrow at the beautiful Rizzoli bookstore for a cocktail reception and my very first book signing!

Rizzoli Bookstore

31 West 57th Street (between 5th & 6th Avenues)

New York, NY 10019

5.30-7pm

Impressions from New York, so far

The one about salade aux fines herbes and the veggie thief

This was supposed to be a simple post about how to make salade aux fines herbes, the basic French salad with mixed herb dressing. 

It really is simple, just a basic vinaigrette with a mix of chopped parsley, chervil, chives, and tarragon - about equal amount except for a tiny bit less of the pungent tarragon.  

So I was just setting up a shot of the salad greens and herbs I just picked from the garden.

 

Then Miss Ella got a little interested and came to investigate.