Traditional 48 recipes of French cooking

Celeriac Rémoulade

A classic recipe of traditional French bistro cooking (winter salad).

Du Barry soup

Du Barry is a creamy cauliflower soup, including small whole pieces of cauliflower.

Foie gras ballotine

Making your own foie gras, from raw liver, will give you not only the satisfaction of having made it yourself, but also a liver of simply remarkable quality and taste, far better than any commercial foie gras. It's a tricky operation, but one that's entirely within your grasp, as long as you follow the 3 delicate stages of the recipe, which are well explained here, in the following order: de-veining, seasoning and cooking. This recipe will be cooked "en ballotine", a simpler and much easier...

French onion soup

This warming onion soup is an emblematic French dish, both in bistro cuisine and home cooking. This is a very classic version. The long, slow cooking is the secret to revealing its full flavour.

Home-made terrine of foie gras

Preparing your own home-made foie gras from raw is immensively satisfying: good quality liver and a simply amazing flavour – much better than anything you can buy. This recipe is a bit tricky, but quite within everyone's grasp, as long as you follow the 3 most delicate stages carefully. These are, in order: de-veining the liver, seasoning and cooking. As usual, I have explained every stage of the recipe in full, with photos to help you.

Leeks in vinaigrette

A classic dish of French family and bistro cooking. It's both simple and good. The secret lies in cooking the leeks until they are only just tender, so that they keep their lovely green colour. The special vinaigrette includes herbs and hard-boiled eggs.

Salad lyonnaise

Salad lyonnaise conjures up the cuisine of the French city of Lyon and the region around: traditionally a salad of dandelion leaves with croutons, lardons and poached eggs. Here is a slightly simpler version with shredded lettuce instead of dandelions.

Lobster Thermidor

In this recipe, the lobster are cooked first in a court bouillon (stock), then the flesh is removed and cut into small pieces before being cooked with the cream and alcohol. The dish is browned in the oven to finish.

Blanquette of veal

Blanquette is a classic dish of French family cooking, but can also be found in bistros. Veal is cooked slowly, and the sauce is thickened with a mixture of egg yolks and cream. I have set out a rather special way of making it.

Boeuf (beef) bourguignon

Bœuf bourguignon is a traditional recipe of French cuisine (bourguignon means from Burgundy). It's chunks of meat cooked slowly with bacon, onions, carrots and mushrooms in red wine.

Coq au vin

Coq au vin is one of those iconic classics of French cuisine, though these days it is more likely to be made with chicken. The poultry is marinated in red wine, fried, then flambéed in cognac before being simmered slowly in the wine marinade. It has much in common with that other classic, boeuf (beef) bourguignon: delicous tender meat cooked slowly in red wine for several hours. To simplify the recipe (the site is called cooking-ez, after all), I have used chicken breasts instead of a whole...

Cured Pork Belly With Lentils

Pork belly with lentils is a typical French bistro dish. In principal, it is a mixture of different cuts of pork, usually salt-cured, cooked slowly until "confit" and meltingly tender, served with lentils cooked in stock. This dish takes a good while to prepare, but it's a real treat! It reheats very well, tasting better each time, so do make plenty in one go.

Pâté de campagne

Here is a personal version of the famous country pâté. It's an interesting recipe to prepare in large quantities because it keeps well and freezes easily. The secret of a good pâté is of course the ingredients, but also how it is cooked.

Paté en croute (terrine in a pie crust)

The French classic "Paté en croute" is a terrine of different meats layered and baked in a pie crust. There are many recipes which vary the kind of meat and the seasonings. This is my version with pork, veal and chicken, which is not too difficult, though it does entail quite a lot of work.

Potted meat (rillettes)

Potted meat (rillettes) is cooked long and slow in fat. Rillettes can be of pork or duck. Here is the pork version.

Rabbit civet

Rabbit civet is a classic dish of French cuisine. The word "civet" comes from "cive", an old word for onion. These days, the name refers to chunks of meat, marinated then cooked slowly in red wine with bacon, mushrooms and onions. This tasty stew or casserole, with its very tender meat, is like my grandmother Jeanne used to make for me when I was little.

Rillons de Tours

Rillons de Tours (a town in the West of France, in the Loire valley) is a winter pork recipe. Bacon is cooked long and slow in lard and white wine until "confit". Rillons can be eaten like potted meat (rillettes) with bread, wine and pickled gherkins, but they can also be used instead of lardons in a recipe.

Veal Marengo

Marengo made with chunks of veal, simmered long and slow in a tomato sauce with mushrooms and onions. This is a recipe with historical roots, named after one of Napoleon's battles, near Marengo in Italy in June 1800.

Boulangère potatoes

This great classic of French home cooking consists of sliced potatoes with slivers of bacon between, on a bed of onion fondue, moistened with poultry (or beef) stock and baked in the oven. It takes a fairly long time, but is so good, and reheats very well.

Croque-monsieur

A classic of French "street food" or bistros: a slice of ham between two slices of bread spread with béchamel sauce. The sandwich is then sprinkled with cheese and toasted in the oven.

French-style peas

A traditional French recipe, "Petis pois à la Française", with a personal twist, but very easy to prepare. It is an ideal accompaniment for meat, poultry or even a grilled fillet of fish.

Hachis parmentier

This is the French answer (meat with mashed potato and cheese) to the English cottage or shepherd's pie: a typical family recipe which is an excellent way of using up leftover meat. The proportions are vague here: you need "whatever you have left over"...

Potato Gratin

A classic dish, but so delicious. Slices of potatoes cooked in milk, a mixture of cream and Comté cheese, and then it’s all baked in the oven until golden brown.

Quiche Lorraine

Quiche Lorraine is a recipe that is both simple and delicious. This savoury tart combines bacon and grated cheese with an egg and cream filling in a short-crust pastry case.

Baked Alaska

The name may be odd, but Baked Alaska is an elegant dessert. The core of this version is a "sandwich" of vanilla ice cream and blackcurrant sorbet between 2 layers of sponge soaked in rum-flavoured syrup. This is then covered in a layer of meringue and put in a very hot oven for just a few minutes to brown the outside. The magical and delicious effect comes from the contrast between the hot meringue and the cold ice cream and cake inside. It is a little tricky to get right, but the main...

Chocolate eclairs

This might appear to be a straightforward recipe: choux pastry, chocolate confectioner's custard and fondant icing, but in practice it is quite technically tricky and all three stages need care to produce a perfect result. But don't let that discourage you; there are demonstration videos and I will take you through the whole process, paying particular attention to the most difficult stages.

Crème brulée

Crème brûlée (burned cream) is quite easy to prepare: it's a simple egg-cream dessert. The only difficulty is in making the delicious crunchy caramel layer on top. The perfect crème brulée (for me) is a cold and soft cream, with on top a nice hot caramel crust. This is a completely new version of the former recipe, with video.

Crêpes Suzette

Crêpes Suzette are pancakes filled with orange-flavoured butter (butter and sugar mixed with Grand Marnier), caramelized in a pan and soaked in orange-flavoured syrup. This is an modified version of the recipe invented by Auguste Escoffier.

Epiphany galette

Here is the recipe for the very classic but delicious "galette des rois" (Epiphany galette) in puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) with almond cream or frangipane . You will also see some professional tips to easily handle the dough, and obtain a nice and regular galette.

Galette Charentaise

This is a traditional cake from France's Charente region. The recipe is straightforward and the cake is slightly dense in texture, but quite delicious.

Macarons (the original French macaroons)

This recipe really is "of the moment": the success of these small, highly-coloured cakes, in an infinite variety of flavours, is impressive. It's a recipe which needs some care, in order to produce a result worthy of a professional pastrychef. No problem, I will guide you through the recipe, particularly the tricky parts. This variety of flavours means that I test many alternatives, so don't be surprised if in the pictures the colour of the macarons changes, I used the best photograph available...

Peach Melba

Peach Melba is a famous dessert created in 1893 by an equally famous chef, Auguste Escoffier, and inspired by the singer Nellie Melba. There have been many versions of this well-known dish but, in principal, it consists of vanilla ice cream, poached peaches, raspberry coulis and sweetened whipped cream (Chantilly). This is a simplified version.

Profiteroles

Small choux pastry puffs, filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with a rich smooth chocolate sauce.

Rice pudding (riz au lait)

My personal version of this classic family recipe.

Saint Honoré cake

The Saint Honoré cake is a famous example of French patisserie. It consists of a puff pastry base surrounded by a ring of caramel-coated choux puffs and topped with whipped cream (Chantilly). It is a bit tricky to make, but this recipe gives you all the hints you need.

Tart Tatin

Tart tatin is one of the great classic desserts of French cooking. It's an apple tart cooked upside down. Apples are cooked in sugar until they caramelise. Then a circle of puff pastry is put on top, and the whole tart is baked at 356°F (180°C) for 20 minutes. To serve, the tart is turned over so that the apples are on top. Apples with caramel and crispy puff pastry taste amazing. The classic recipe uses shortcrust pastry (pâte brisée), but in this version I prefer to use puff pastry (pâte...

Chocolate rolls (petits pains)

Here is a recipe for "real" chocolate petits pains, i.e. with a milk bread dough (not croissants dough) and with a stick of chocolate inside.

French baguettes

This classic of French baking is rather different from the recipe for leavened bread, it's a question of making a good crust and light crumb along the whole length. To succeed, you should know that there are two secrets: water first of all (much more than for normal bread), and the working of the dough, which is also very different.

French croissants

In this famous and highly technical recipe from a piece of yeast-based flaky dough we are going to cut and shape ("roll") croissants.

Blackcurrant liqueur

The fruit liqueurs (or "creams" in French) are a mix of neutral alcohol in which fruits are macerated, and sugar syrup. They are the basis of the very famous "Kir", mixture of dry white wine and blackcurrant liqueur. This recipe is for blackcurrant, but it can be made with other soft fruits like raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, etc.

Four quarters

It's "the simpliest cake in the world", called four quarters, because it's made with 1/4 eggs, 1/4 sugar, 1/4 flour and 1/4 butter.

Béarnaise sauce

This delicious, aromatic sauce—made with tarragon, chervil, and shallots, and featuring a hint of acidity—is perfect with grilled meats or fish. It’s known to be difficult to make, but here are all the tips and tricks you need.

Beurre blanc sauce

Beurre blanc sauce is a great classic of French cuisine, made with vinegar, white wine and shallots. It is a wonderful accompaniment for fish and shellfish.

Chantilly cream

Chantilly cream, it's simply whipped liquid cream with sugar. It is use in many desserts, but already delicious simply with strawberries or other fruits.

Chocolate Chantilly

If we look at the more scientific side of Chantilly cream we can see that it's mainly cream, and cream is a mix of very small droplets of milk fat and water, which is called an emulsion. When we whip this emulsion, we incorporate air into it and so create a mousse or foam. In the end Chantilly is a foaming emulsion. The interest of this observation is that we can imagine doing the same not only with cream. We just need water and fat. And it works, so you can make chocolate Chantilly. Please...

Foie gras Chantilly

Chantilly is a method which is applied to cream of course, but also to other surprising ingredients. If we look at the more scientific side of Chantilly we can see that it's mainly cream, and cream is a mix of very small droplets of milk fat and water, which is called an emulsion. When we whip this emulsion, we incorporate air into it and so create a mousse or foam. In the end Chantilly is a foaming emulsion. The interest of this observation is that we can imagine doing the same not only with...

Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise is a cold egg dressing, quite thick, served with many dishes, usually cold too: meat, fish, vegetables, etc.

Rémoulade dressing

This dressing is a kind of mayonnaise with vinegar, used for some salads like celeriac rémoulade. Usually it is prepared from mayonnaise, but here is another version, simpler and just as tasty.