Haricots verts

n. – green string beans
Haricots blancs
n. – white beans
Haricots beurre
n. – yellow string beans or butter beans
There is nothing like fresh produce and in Paris it is abundant. We are lucky enough to live right next door to a little green grocer called Harry Cover (if you think of pronouncing it with a heavy French accent, it sounds like “haricots verts” or string beans – clever).

Harry (well if that’s really his name) can often be seen standing outside meticulously arranging the various fruits and vegetables. Giant white asparagus stand up in their little basket along side fresh white peaches – their fragrance reminding you of the summer that’s just around the corner. Large plump, red cherries rest beside equally plump and colourful tomatoes and the aroma of fresh basil is hard to resist. A simple meal of mozzarella, tomato and basil, whether served on a plate with fresh olive oil, salt and pepper drizzled over it or sandwiched within a fresh still warm baguette, is probably our favourite weekend at-home lunch.

While you can’t find fresh mozzarella at Harry Cover’s, he has all sorts of other cheeses from soft bries to hard goats to spicy roqueforts, the latter we sometimes pair with crisp endives, tart granny smith apples or delicious juicy pears. Another great pairing of salty and sweet is marrying a nice ripe goat cheese with fig preserves. Other fruit favourites are kiwis and clementines.

When visiting the grocers, it’s their responsibility to pick out the choicest fruit or vegetable or cheese. They will ask what you plan on doing with it, when you want to eat it, etc. so they can determine the best possible selection. There’s always the option of something ripe and ready to eat so you can make guacamole on the spur of the moment rather than having to keep the avocado in a paper bag in the drawer until it’s ready. It’s easy to get carried away at Harry Cover’s, which is unfortunate if we’ve picked more ripe fruit than we have time to eat. So we just have to remind ourselves that he’s just downstairs and with each day, a new delivery of freshness is there for the asking.