Tarragon Vinaigrette - #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  As I’ve written before, we truly discovered the glorious taste of tarragon on our first trip to France in 2009, where it particularly shone when served with chicken. When we returned home and began working our way through Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom by Julia Child, we knew we had to grow it ourselves. 

Kitchen Wisdom is the source of the recipe we call "Chicken Julia," great by itself and as the basis of other recipes, which is the guiding principle of the book. 

Now we keep a pot of tarragon on the deck and often keep the potted plant going through the winter, in the house. I’m finally brave enough to try planting it in the garden and seeing if I can turn it into a perennial; I’ll let you know how it goes.

This year’s plant is quite abundant but even so, as I cut stems and stripped leaves into a sieve for rinsing, I wondered if I really wanted to make a full recipe. Turns out, a cup of leaves adds up fast, and it wasn’t too much dressing at all. 

In addition to a lovely salad dressing, this vinaigrette—which isn’t terribly vinegar-y—went nicely on seared scallops, grilled white fish, and of course, chicken. It’s also a terrific dressing for a simple combo of halved cherry or grape tomatoes and white cannellini beans, and Lebovitz recommends it on grilled vegetables and mozzarella. 

Consider it the taste of a French summer, no matter where you live. 

Tarragon Vinaigrette 

adapted from David Lebovitz

scant 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup loosely packed fresh tarragon leaves, rinsed

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon water

1 small shallot, peeled and sliced (about half the shallot pictured)

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon of sea or kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon honey (optional)

Put all the ingredients in a mini-chopper or blender. Pulse until well-mixed, with small flecks of green. Adjust seasonings—you may want a splash more vinegar or a dash more salt. Add the honey if you find the flavor of the tarragon slightly sharp. 

Makes a little over half a cup. 

Keeps in the refrigerator up to 5 days; bring to room temperature before serving.

Oops! Here's where the picture of the jar of vinaigrette would be if I'd remembered to take it! Just imagine, from the lovely green dressing poured over the scallops and the cucumber-watermelon-mozzarella salad pictured!

And as Julia would say, Bon Appetit!

PEPPERMINT BARKED: A Spice Shop Mystery (July 2022, Seventh St. Books)

From the cover: 

A Dickens of a Christmas turns deadly…

As the holiday season lights up Seattle’s famed Pike Place Market, Pepper Reece’s beloved Spice Shop is brimming with cinnamon, nutmeg, and shoppers eager to stuff their stockings. Add to the mix a tasty staff competition—a peppermint bark-off—along with Victorian costumes for this year’s Dickensian Christmas theme, and Pepper almost forgets to be nervous about meeting her fisherman boyfriend’s brother for the first time.

But when a young woman working in her friend Vinny’s wine shop is brutally assaulted, costumed revelers and holiday cheer are the last things on Pepper’s mind. Who would want to hurt Beth? Or were they looking for Vinny instead?

The vicious attack upsets everyone at Pike Place, but none more than Pepper’s own employee, Matt Kemp. At first, Pepper is baffled by his reaction, but his clandestine connection to Beth could hold the key to the assailant’s motive. Or perhaps it’s Vinny’s ex-wife who knows more than she’s letting on . . . and what about the mysterious top-hatted man with whom Pepper saw Beth arguing that morning?

As the secrets of the market come to light, long-held grudges, family ties, and hidden plans only further obscure the truth. Is it a ghost of the past rattling its chains, or a contemporary Scrooge with more earthly motives? As Pepper chases down a killer, someone is chasing her, and in the end, the storied market itself may hold the final, deadly clue.

A cozy holiday mystery full of culinary delights and a rich cast of characters, the sixth installment in the Spice Shop Mystery series will keep you turning the page . . . and reaching for another piece of peppermint bark. 

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries and the Spice Shop Mysteries, and the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories. Death al Dente, the first Food Lovers' Village Mystery, won Best First Novel in 2013, following her 2011 win in Best Nonfiction. Her first historical short story, "All God's Sparrows," won the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Short Story. Peppermint Barked, her 6th Spice Shop mystery, will appear in July 2022, and Blind Faith, her second standalone suspense novel (written as Alicia Beckman), will release in October 2022. 

A past president of Sisters in Crime and a current board member of Mystery Writers of America, she lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

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