DROP THE CARDIGAN
Wild asparagus, the first strawberries, the last ramps: spring is in full swing on both sides of the Atlantic. It's a sweater weather that doesn't quite know how to drop the cardigan, making us go from puffy jacket to tank top in a matter of hours. Global warming is happening live and this picture of the parched soil in Corsica doesn't look at all promising.
 
EGGS + A SILK SCARF
When Thomaï Serdari, director of the fashion and luxury MBA at NYU Stern Business School and host of the POPULUX podcast, invited me to talk about an object of desire, I picked fresh farm eggs and a bright orange Hermès scarf. The concept of her podcast revolves around new definitions of luxury and the design, emotion, stories behind one particular object. We also talked about my evolving definition of luxury from having a dishwasher (yes I finally have one!) to designing my dream kitchen space (with materials that age well and turn stains into character - like a stone sink or this Devol kitchen's marble sink). You can listen to the episode here. 
 
THE BEST COOKIES IN NY & PARIS
Sobacha cookies from KETTL and this soufflé pancake from RULE OF THIRDS were the sweet highlights of the month. On the savory side, I loved the tuna bagel from FRANKEL'S and the naans from NURA. 
In Paris, the dream bakery exists, I found it. In Montmartre, rue des trois frères, SHINYA PAIN, farines fraîches, pétrissage à la main, longues fermentations - du vrai pain au levain, des cookies au sarrasin, des variétés qui changent tous les jours, avec des horaires atypiques - 16h30-19h, du jeudi au dimanche, pour permettre au boulanger de dormir la nuit (I literally switched to French when writing about bread - and I've just decided to keep this as a bilingual section, because why not!).
 
PHOTOGRAPHY
Caught the NUDE exhibition at Fotografiska museum, by 30 women photographers, and loved it.  Thought-provoking, beautiful throughout, I especially admired the black and white series of self-portraits Viki Kollerova took in Crète. 
Up-cycling is something I love doing, from sewing new buttons onto a second-hand sweater to dyeing stained fabric, so I applied the same idea to a photography backdrop, recycling old pieces of fabric in a patchwork pattern for a portrait session in Manhattan with Chinwe, Lucy, Charlotte and Louis.
 
 VANILLA WORKSHOP
Vanilla is more expensive than silver so I never throw a pod away: instead it goes either into a box of sugar or straight into my vanilla extract (basically a jar filled with rhum with old vanilla pods swimming inside). My friend Caroline Mignot is a culinary and fragrance journalist who is on the hunt for taste in Paris. Her latest series of workshops around flavor and scent start with vanilla this Saturday May 14th and will end with Armenian paper. You can purchase your tickets here. 
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Eggs + Hermès        
 
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Chinwe in Manhattan      
 
 
TART + SWEET
The beauty of rhubarb's tartness. A buckwheat dough with an earthy feel to counterbalance it. Lemon juice and vanilla bringing undertones of freshness and sweetness. Raspberries as a finishing touch for an extra layer of bright pink. And less sugar to bring out all the flavors. 
 
BUCKWHEAT + RHUBARB TART
 
'La tarte à la rhubarbe' may or may not be a French institution. Alsatian versions include a soft meringue on top and a flan, infused with orange zest. I love the one from Christophe Felder. Other rhubarb tart influences for this recipe include Aran Goyoaga for the buckwheat dough (her version is gluten free - not this one!) and Clotilde Dusoulier for the maceration juices (that she adds to an egg custard). Sometimes I also make a quick custard or use a frangipane as a rhubarb bed but I wanted this version to be more simple and quite tart. Because that's what rhubarb is all about. So I added lemon, and a layer of almond meal which becomes soft thanks to the rhubarb juices - it's almost like a frangipane but without the extra butter. 
 
serves 6
 
buckwheat dough
butter, unsalted, cold, diced - 113g 
all purpose flour (T55) - 110g
buckwheat flour - 40g
spelt flour - 30g
light brown sugar - 65g
sea salt - ¼ teaspoon
vanilla powder - one teaspoon
vanilla extract - one teaspoon
egg yolk - one
water - 1-2 tablespoons
 
rhubarb & almond filling 
rhubarb - 300g
sugar - 60g 
one lemon - zest and juice
almond meal - 150g
egg white - one
extra sugar - to sprinkle 
 
 finishing touch 
raspberries - 100g
the juice from the rhubarb maceration
the juice of another lemon
 
Start with the filling: cut the rhubarb in dice, add the lemon zest and juice as well as the sugar - mix with your hands to coat the rhubarb with the sweet syrup and leave to macerate for 1-3 hours.
 
To make the dough, crumble the flours and the butter together with your hands. Add the sea salt, vanilla powder (or seeds from a bean). Whisk an egg yolk with one to two tablespoons of water - depending on how dry the dough feels. Once it comes into a ball, wrap with cling film and transfer to the fridge or freezer for 1-3 hour (overnight also works). 
 
Preheat the oven to 200°C / 390F. Bring out the dough from the fridge and roll it out on parchment paper, add the almond meal to cover the middle of the dough - it will soak up the rhubarb juices as it bakes. Gather the rhubarb in the center of the tart over the almond meal - save the juice for later. Sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar on top of the rhubarb. Bring the sides of the dough to the center, and brush the edges of the crust with the egg white before sprinkling a little bit of sugar.
 
Bake for 35-40 minutes - until golden. The rhubarb should be soft to the touch, the crust lightly brown. While the tart is baking, take a saucepan, add the juice of a lemon to the maceration juice and bring to the boil for a few minutes until it becomes a light syrup. 
 
Remove the tart from the oven, add the fresh raspberries and gently drizzle with the rhubarb syrup. 
 
Enjoy your spring, 
marie c.
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