French Market Cookbook

Often with French cuisine the meal is centered on some type of beef, chicken or fish.  This author has chosen to focus on entrees featuring fresh produce.  What I like about this book is that it is organized by season which really helps when you are planning your meals and you want to use readily available ingredients.

One of the chapters I really enjoyed was the one on shopping for produce. You would think that going to a supermarket or produce market to pick out fruits and vegetables would be fairly straight forward, but really it is not. There is a method.  One of my favorite quotes from the book is “avoid going with a list that you follow rigidly.  Instead go with your eyes and mind wide open and let yourself be surprises and seduced by the ingredients.”  It is almost like being a jedi knight.  You need to open yourself up to possibilities and let the force be with you and in this case the force is your creativity.

The key to buying produce, according to the author is to buy a combination of produce that is sturdy and some that is fragile.  Those that are fragile would need to be used first and those that are sturdy can be used for a longer period. 

I learned a lot reading this book and found some good vegetable recipes such as Swiss Chard Turnovers and Vegetable Couscous

Don't take my word, check it out The French Market cookbook.

Here is another link as well that talks about produce and when they are in season Produce Seasonality