Desayuno

What looks like a pear, is textured like a pear, and tastes like a pear? It’s guava juice! These handy bottles are sold at almost every corner store in Dakar and are an excellent way to start the day. Thirty humid degrees in January? Sandy wind blowing in from Mauritania? There is no way you are going to find a bottle with a clean top. But who cares! We’ve got guava juice!

Posted by Teresa No comments

I have had New York bagels at five thirty in the morning when they were still almost too hot to touch, and I have had Montreal bagels right out of the oven on the coldest day of my life. These are not those. But they are fun to make, and any bagel is good right out of your own oven.

This recipe is based on the one in the New York Cookbook. At least, I think it is. The first time I made bagels, that was the recipe I used. Read more

Posted by Tom No comments

In my lazy but obstinate pursuit of glamour, I am always happy to run into things that both look fancy and are easy to make. This creamy orange tart doesn’t need luxury ingredients or excessive preparation, but the result is smooth and delicate. It is even a little small, like really expensive bottles of perfume. The recipe was adapted from Billy Grant’s Very Lemon Tart on a day when we had no lemons, but a big net of Valencia oranges. Read more

Posted by Teresa 4 comments

While I can hardly claim to have invented the idea of putting onion in a pastry, I tend to think of this recipe as my own creation. It is one of the first things I ever made that did not at least start with someone else’s instructions. It is also, after all these years, still one of my very favorite things, both to cook and to eat. And with store bought sheets of puff pastry, I can have it ready to eat in less than an hour. Read more

Posted by Tom 4 comments

One of the first things I learned in Dakar is that if you want lunch, you need to woo Suzanne. She calls the office first thing in the morning and asks who will want to eat; four hours later she comes in, carrying a tower of fragrant tupperwares. After one week here, I have found that the longer you chat with Suzanne, the more generous your portions are. For dessert, if you’ve been very nice to her you can have Jus de Bissap, a sweet tea made with hibiscus flowers and served ice-cold. Read more

Posted by Teresa 5 comments

I love to make crepes. There is something about the process of it, the flipping, the folding, or maybe the friends lining up with plates. I made up this combination on New Year’s eve, having decided at eight PM that we needed to have something that tasted good. We can’t be in Paris every New Year’s eve, but we can eat like it! Even with frozen berries, it turned out very well. (Despite that, I have included a variation here for fresh strawberries. Because if you have them, you should use them.) In any case, here it is: The last thing I cooked in 2006. Read more

Posted by Tom 2 comments