Now, direct comments and recipes from Paris...

It's been a long time since my last post. Actually, my life has changed again a little bit and we moved back to Paris. A nice apartment right in the center, a very good cheese shop, butcher shop and of course, a bakery just around the corner. It was very difficult to leave Boston but nice, in a way, to go back to Paris.

Well, I unpacked my cooking equipment and utensils recently and went back to my passion. Last thing I tried, was a duck confit gratin. Whaouh! This was just so French just served with a green salad or steamed broccolis.

It's quite simple as soon as you find duck confit. Remove the flesh from the bones and cook it in a frying pan with diced shallots and 1/2 teaspoon of ginger powder for 10 min until it's a bit caramelized.

Slice potatoes, cook them in milk for 10 min.

Then spread the duck confit at the bottom of a gratin dish, then put the potatoe slices shaped like petals or rose windows. Bake in the oven at 350F for 30 min until slightly brown.

Welcome to France and more precisely to Périgord in the south west, The area of the duck confit.