"PatriciaWells" news and stories

• It's strawberry season in the Philadelphia region and buckets of the gem-like fruit are showing up all across the area's Farmers Markets. Growers are also expecting it to be a strong U-Pick season.
  
• Karen Heller reviews the new memoir by Patricia Wells and her husband and finds that it makes France seem dull and unappealing.
  
• Local restaurateur and food radio show host Jim Coleman offers an easy recipe for a no-bake peanut butter pie in response to a question sent in by a reader.
  
• New Jersey strawberry farmer Joe Jacobs' is often lauded for his extra-sweet and juicy berries. His secrets? Salt-hay mulch and black plastic sheeting.
• Philadelphia Inquirer restaurant critic Craig LaBan declares that the cheese of the month is the Provolone Rustico available at the Fair Food Farmstand at Reading Terminal Market.
  
• In the Rush Hour Gourmet, the Pork Vindaloo makes for a quick and easy dinner.

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Patricia Wells is an American who lives, writes and cooks in France and has become somewhat of a modern authority on French home cooking. Some of her other cookbooks are more generally French, but in The Provence Cookbook, she focuses on the area in which she and her husband reside.

You may have caught Ms. Wells on TV a time or two, as I know that she has been a guest on the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten's Food Network show. If so, you might have noticed that she seems friendly, straightforward and down-to-earth, a bit more so than her friend Ina, and that personality carries over into her writing. Her recipes are reliable, detailed and to the point. There are many practical tips on preparations and techniques included, too. She also takes the reader on short digressions into her favorite products and places in Provence throughout the text, which gives you a feeling that you've been there by the time you've finished. It also makes up for the lack of illustrations in the book, which would have been a nice inclusion but isn't really a crucial element of a good cookbook.

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We're prepping our ingredients for Gardiane La Camargue, French beef stew in the style of the cowboys Francais in the Camargue, south of Arles. The dish is from Patricia Wells' Bistro Cooking.

Whoops! A few hours have passed since we cut the meat into 3- or 4-ounce pieces. Sorry about that, the baby that was getting into the cat food last time, I realized he'd better have some human food. Oh well, such is life. Now it's time to prep the carrots, onions and garlic. The instructions just say "garlic cloves," not "minced" or "peeled" or "unpeeled."

Hmmm. I decided to just peel them and crush just a bit in the process (I smack them with the wide edge of my knife to loosen the skins). My cloves look a little small... so I use eight or nine. I love garlic. I decide to toss it all in. A little extra garlic never hurt anyone. Right?

Today we'll be prepping our ingredients for Gardiane La Camargue, French beef stew in the style of the cowboys Francais in the Camargue, south of Arles. The dish is from Patricia Wells' Bistro Cooking. It's one day before serving and time to combine:

• 4-5 pounds stewing beef, cut into cubes weighing about four ounces each
• five cloves garlic
• 2-3 medium yellow onions, cut into rounds
• 4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch lengths
• 1 bottle red wine such as Côtes-du-Rhône

The first thing I'm going to do is figure out what a four-ounce cube of beef should look like. I didn't ask my butcher to cut them, as recommended in Wells' recipe. Hmm...

We all miss Sara Moulton's Cooking Live like crazy. But instead of continuing to whine and complain about it, we're taking measures. Until we launch the Slashfood Network, we're just gonna bring the live cooking to you via blog.

Each Friday evening one of your lovely hosts or hostesses will be making a new or favorite dish with you. This week, I'll be hosting gardiane La Camargue, La Camargue's Beef Stew with Black Olives, from Patricia Wells' Bistro Cooking. As Patricia says, the gardiane is from France's "cowboy country" and is a stew of beef, black olives and red wine.

This recipe requires some advance prep so we'll be starting the dish on Thursday evening. In the meantime, you'll need to head to the grocery store for the following ingredients:

• 4-5 pounds stewing beef (like round and chuck)
• garlic
• 2-3 medium yellow onions
• 4 carrots
• 1 bottle red wine such as Côtes-du-Rhône
• 4 ounces oil-cured black olives

You should have olive oil, thyme and bay leaves in your pantry, but if you don't, add those to your list. You'll need a large, non-reactive bowl (like glass or stoneware) and a large, non-reactive casserole or pot that can go on the stovetop and in the oven (cast iron would work great). OK, see you tomorrow evening! larger scan after the jump