• Tish Johns on March 05, 2010

  I love this cookbook, Ive made the lobster risotto (several times) and the chicken tangine (tho I used lamb). Cooking each recipe is a passionate lovely experience and the food is sublime!

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Saffron carrots

  • ellwell on June 22, 2023

    These were a good preparation for carrots. I made ahead and reheated. Will make again.

• Mashed potatoes with carrots and saffron

  • peaceoutdesign on June 23, 2022

    Creme fraiche is a must but with or without the saffron and lemon zest.

  • kbrooks on September 13, 2025

    This is a lovely combination of flavors with the saffron, lemon zest and carrots and potatoes. Not to mention a beautiful color! However we found it to be overly sweet with the equal ratio of carrots to potatoes. I will definitely make again, but next time will cut the amount of carrots in half. I agree with peaceoutdesign that the creme fraiche is a must,but wouldn't eliminate the saffron and lemon zest as they add a necessary flavor dimension to the whole dish.

• Spinach cake with herb salad

  • ellwell on June 22, 2023

    Despite salting this out the wazoo, the flavor of the cake was bland and eggy. The salad was good but didnt save it. Tanis recommends serving it room temp, but I think it would be improved with a little warmth. It was a lot of work for little reward.

• Herb salad

  • Laura on January 15, 2011

    Pg. 37. Lovely.

• Mustard rabbit in the oven

  • bwehner on June 21, 2013

    Excellent, simple & very easy. Make sure you have good herbs & good, preferably homemade, creme fraiche.

• Parsnips epiphany-style

  • AmyR on May 21, 2011

    More of a technique than a recipe, nonetheless even skeptical friends loved these crispy caramelized parsnip sticks.

• Apple tart

  • jennyed on October 31, 2013

    Excellent apple tart recipe that I've made several times. Useful to do when entertaining as the prepared (but unbaked) tart can sit in the fridge for up to 8 hours.

  • ellwell on June 22, 2023

    Even though my honey crips apples never really “browned”, the tart turned out good. The glaze really makes it. The glaze is very hard to spread and even harder to clean out of your sieve (after straining) and the bowl and pastry brush. I cooked my for at least an hour, added the glaze, then cooked an additional 5 minutes. We were surprised by how good it was.

• Lobster risotto

  • Tish Johns on March 05, 2010

    Smells delicious and soooo good. Refined and elegant but still lusty.

• Fried egg soup

  • Compass on March 15, 2022

    p 72 Love the idea of this ...especially since I have so much chicken broth and broth the provincial with sage sounds great. Even though it's fried it's Sunny side up in the picture

• Wild salmon with Vietnamese cucumbers

  • peaceoutdesign on May 20, 2023

    Tasty. I cooked only 10 minutes and it was done. A nice summertime dish.

• Vietnamese cucumbers

  • Laura on January 15, 2011

    Pg. 78. Good, but not exceptional.

• Grilled halibut with Indian spices and yellow tomatoes

  • Laura on October 04, 2012

    Pg. 124. Due to circumstances I was not able to grill the halibut, so ended up broiling them and they came out perfectly cooked after 6 minutes. I would say that the spice rub was a bit too intense, but the flavors were nice. The yogurt sauce 'raita' was not to our liking. Don't expect anything that looks like the photo on pg. 117 where the raita is thick -- this was a very runny sauce and the flavors just didn't work. The minced mint saved the day. This recipe also calls for yellow tomatoes cut into small wedges and served raw. I chose to cut the tomatoes into halves and broiled them with a bit of olive oil drizzled.

  • blintz on August 17, 2017

    This is our favorite recipe for Halibut --especially when we can get the Atlantic version. Last night we added fresh yellow peppers to the cherry tomatoes. We love the spice rub and there's usually enough left over to use again. We have a Greek deli for tzadiki and use that instead of Tanis's raita, so it's plenty thick. And we have cooked this on the grill, in a cast iron pan , and under the broiler. All work fine if you are careful not to overcook the fish!

• Cherry tomato crostini with ricotta

  • Astrid5555 on September 03, 2017

    Excellent! Used the sweetest cherry tomatoes from the garden with some ricotta cheese from Italy. Simple yet impressive. Will definitely make again!

• Roast pork loin porchetta-style

  • Laura on March 01, 2010

    Pg. 134, I had high hopes for this, yet it yielded average results. I've made pork loin roasts with other recipes that were far better.

• Fresh shell beans with sage and garlic

  • Wlow on September 09, 2018

    Very well flavored, especially leftover. Aesthetically a bit dull.

  • kbrooks on July 29, 2025

    Well, the title says garlic, however, nowhere in my copy, in the list of ingredients nor in the instructions does one find "garlic ". I opted to do this without the garlic as I was going to add the beans to a pasta sauce that had garlic in it. The beans turned out very flavorful without the garlic. I'll make this again, however if I make it as a stand alone side dish, I'll include some garlic.

• Fish tacos with shredded cabbage and lime

  • stormygirl on April 21, 2025

    I like to make a sour cream chili sauce for these too

• Cherry-almond clafoutis

  • AmyR on May 21, 2011

    Quick & easy rustic dessert, I make this in a cast iron skillet and also use this as a base recipe for improvising other fruit and extract combinations. I've also made this with almond milk and gluten free flour and it came out great.

  • RosieB on January 15, 2016

    This was delicious. I made individual clafoutis in small Spanish ceramic dishes. The recipe made 8. The brown sugar made the batter very rich and caramely. I had beautiful fresh local cherries. I did not include the almonds. Served with a simple vanilla bean icecream.

  • Jojobuch on July 12, 2016

    I like the addition of the almonds - a nice crunch. However, the brown sugar makes the batter a bit unattractive, given Clafouti typically has a nice yellow colour from the yolks.

  • Lsblackburn1 on July 22, 2018

    I used almond slivers in this and I really liked that element. Overall this is a bit too sweet - and I have a sweet- tooth. Have a feeling it’ll be better chilled.

• Creamy polenta

  • kbrooks on July 27, 2025

    Perfect polenta! The key is low temperature long cooking for about an hour, adding small amounts of milk (I used cream because that's what I had) from time to time to keep it from drying out and a bit of butter at the end. So creamy and tasty!

• Italian plum cake

  • Astrid5555 on September 08, 2018

    Super quick and easy to make, delicious!

• Harira soup

  • AmyR on May 21, 2011

    Delicious & hearty. Serve with lemon slices. I frequently sub dried chickpeas soaked overnight for the fava beans and have also omitted the lamb to make it vegetarian.

• Green chile stew

  • TrishaCP on March 17, 2014

    Follow DT's advice about tasting the broth for spiciness. It needs to really have a kick when you taste it...I think I was assuming some more heat would develop as the stew cooked down but my mild Hatch chiles ended up totally lost with the other ingredients. It didn't taste bad, but wasn't what I was expecting or hoping for from green chile stew.

• Orecchiette al forno

  • Cheri on January 20, 2011

    Makes quite a bit. A little dry. Broccoli Rabe comes thru very bitter. I liked this, but I don't believe that Richard did. Only made 1/2 of recipe, which filled 9x13 pan. A little grated fontina might be nice mixed in.

  • Cheri on January 22, 2011

    Should probably parboil the broccoli rabe, as suggested. Skipped that step and it would have mellowed the bitterness, I think.

  • Breadcrumbs on December 04, 2011

    p. 260 - A baked pasta dish, enough to feed an army if made in quantity suggested. I agree w Cheri in that the dish is fairly dry using only 8 oz of ricotta for 2 lbs of pasta. I halved the recipe and after a quick taste-test I ended up stirring in additional ricotta to moisten the pasta a little. Thanks Cheri for your note. I didn't make my own sausage, just added some additional fennel seed to the dry pan prior to cooking my fave store bought . Mr bc, a rapini-hater, was not a fan of this dish. When I served leftovers I spooned tomato sauce over top and this brightened the dish and, moistened it. I wouldn't make this again. So many other recipes to try!

• Chicken tagine with pumpkin and chickpeas

  • Tish Johns on March 05, 2010

    This tangine I made with lamb and not chicken but it was still delicious and multi-layered from the garbanzos prepared with cinnamon sticks and onion with parsleyed-cinnamon butter tossed in, to the lamb