Annabelle Langbein: Easy French-Inspired Recipes to Enhance Your Home Kitchen

Tidying up my office the other day, I came across a collection of postcards in a small white paper bag. The stamp was from the Louvre in Paris. The cards, all depicting portraits, were from
an exhibition I visited a few years ago by the Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo.

From a distance, these paintings all look like normal human portraits, but when you get closer, you can see that each face is made up entirely of fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, flowers, and books. The lawyerfor example, shows a member of the legal profession whose facial features are depicted with flesh and fish and whose body is composed of legal documents.

summerone of a series of Four Seasons paintings, shows the side profile of a man whose face is composed of pears, apples, garlic, and other summer crops. His cheeks are apples, his teeth are peas, his lips are cherries, and his collar is made of sheaves of wheat.

While Arcimboldo’s work predates the Surrealist movement by several centuries, his whimsical and fantastical approach to portraiture greatly influenced later Surrealists such as Salvador Dalí.

Dali has been fascinated by food all his life and already at the age of 6 he declared that he wanted to become a chef. One of his most famous works, the melting clocks in The persistence of memoryit was modeled after runny Camembert cheese.

Dali published a surrealist cult cookbook Les Dîners de Gala in French in 1973 (republished in 2017 by Tashcen). This extraordinary book contains 136 recipes from famous Parisian restaurants such as La Tour d’Argent and Maxim’s and is illustrated in a surreal way by Dalí himself.

In my favorite quote from Gala dinners, Dali says, “I love all clams. A food that just one battle to peel leaves it vulnerable to conquering our palate.”

From the hyper-realism of the large, beautiful still-life paintings of the Golden Age to Cézanne’s massive depictions of apples and oranges and Dali’s surreal works featuring bread, lobster, eggs, fish and cheese, food has always played a role in art, whether symbolically or as metaphor, or simply to pay homage to the beauty and transience of nature.

Dali once said: “Cooking is very close to painting. When I’m busy making a dish, I add a little of this and a little of that. It’s like mixing paints.”

When you start with the freshest, highest quality ingredients, it doesn’t take much effort to create food that, like art, ignites your senses. Sometimes all it takes is a little heat, a drizzle of butter, some citrus, and a pinch of salt.

Salad of roasted peppers with anchovies and capers

For a vegan version of this delicious salad, omit the anchovies and double the capers. Choose bell peppers instead of long-horned peppers, which are too thin to handle the high heat of roasting or grilling. You can also cook the peppers in the heat of the fire, cook, turning them often, until they are charred and soft.

This is great as an appetizer with a bowl of crunchy crostini or on grilled bruschetta.

Ready in 30 minutes plus marinating and fire preparation

Serves 4–6 as an appetizer

4 red peppers

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

4-6 anchovy fillets, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, very finely chopped

1 tablespoon capers, drained and finely chopped

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh oregano or 1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tsp flaky sea salt or more to taste

Preheat the oven to 250C or preheat a barbecue grill to high heat. Place peppers on a baking sheet (lined with parchment paper for easy cleanup) and roast or grill, turning until blackened and tender, 20-25 minutes. Don’t worry if they look really burnt, the outer black skin will peel off easily. Remove from the heat, separate into a bowl and cover with a plate to cool.

While they are cooling, prepare the marinade. Place the olive oil, anchovies, garlic, capers, oregano, and salt in a small bowl and toss to combine.

Once the peppers are cool to the touch, working over a bowl to reserve the juices, peel and discard the charred skins along with the stems and seeds. Cut the meat into long strips and transfer to a serving plate. Drizzle over the anchovy mixture and any reserved juices from the charred chilli. Use your fingers to flick lightly.

Let sit for 1-2 hours to marinate before serving. They are best eaten the day they are made.

Figs, endive and hazelnuts

When figs are at their freshest and juiciest, make this great salad.

Ready in 10 minutes

Serves 4

150 g of creamy feta

4–5 very ripe figs, quartered

1 head red endive, leaves separated, or ½ head radicchio, leaves separated and torn

a handful of microgreens or arugula leaves

¼ cup blanched hazelnuts, roasted

For garnish

extra virgin olive oil, for sprinkling

flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Finely mash the feta in a mixing bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of water and beat with a fork or whisk until smooth and creamy. Spread thinly on a flat serving plate.

Figs on top. Sprinkle with endive and herbs and sprinkle over the hazelnuts. Drizzle with olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Green beans with tarragon and buttermilk

These grains go amazingly well with roast chicken, lamb, salmon, potatoes, scrambled eggs, the list goes on! Tarragon gives such a wonderful freshness to the flavor of these grains, but you can also use dill or parsley.

Done 10 minutes

Serves 4

500 g green beans, tops trimmed

Buttermilk dressing

½ cup buttermilk (see note)

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon finely chopped tarragon leaves

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon flaky sea salt

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Boil the beans for 3 minutes, then transfer to a bowl of ice water to refresh.

While the beans are cooling, make the dressing. Whisk all ingredients in a small bowl to combine.

Drain and pat dry the beans, then transfer to a serving plate and pour over the dressing.

Note

To make your own buttermilk, mix ½ cup whole milk with 1½ teaspoons lemon juice and let sit for 5 minutes. The mixture will become thick and sharp in taste. Prepared this way, buttermilk will keep for a week in a sealed jar in the refrigerator.

by Yvonne Lorkin

(Salad of roasted peppers with anchovies and capers)

Clearview Estate Reserve Hawke’s Bay Semillon 2022 ($27)

This smoky, salty, superbly spicy salad has scratched semilon (sem-ee-yon). The team at Clearview have been making semillon since the dawn of time, so they know a thing or 13 about making rich, toasty, generously complex, food-friendly examples like this. Yet very few local wineries make semillon in this deliciously dry style. A style smelling of fresh baled hay, dried herbs, lemon, lime and lanolin and offering a long, spicy, slightly smoky finish. Extra for experts; semillon is also called blanc doux, Colombier, Malaga, Groendruif, Wyndruif and Hunter River Riesling, strangely. But then, in 1980s New Zealand, we used to call all sorts of weird things ‘Riesling’, didn’t we? clearviewestate.co.nz

(Figs, endive and hazelnuts)

Jules Taylor Marlborough Gruner Veltliner 2023 ($24)

The combination of subtle sweetness of ripe, juicy figs, toastier hazelnuts and crisp, bitter, crunchy endive leaves is all kinds of mouth-watering excellence, but take a sip of this homemade version of an Austrian classic to wash it down with and you’ll have a sensory experience excitement. Flecked with soft apple, layers of lemony energy and plenty of Ford Falcon floral motifs, this lively, aromatic wine with a juicy texture matches this dish in taste and artistry. Thegoodwine.co.nz

(Green beans with tarragon and buttermilk)

Loveblock Organic Marlborough Pinot Gris 2022 ($27)

Now, this wine has been around for a while, but it ages really beautifully, and as soon as I see anything with tarragon in it, my taste buds immediately crave a glass of this gris pronto. Grown organically and fermented in a combination of oak and concrete vats, this dry but richly structured wine has notes of nash, strudel spice, green apple, dried herbs and soft nutty notes leading to a long, spicy, slightly grassy finish that is all gorgeous types with spicy, buttery, green beans. Glengarrywines.co.nz