List of recipes using Bouquet garni: 11 recipes (lactose free)

Soup Cornouaillaise

This rustic soup comes from Cornouailles in Brittany – France's very own Cornwall. It is made with fried bacon and onions, and thickened with a little buckwheat flour, typical of the region.

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...

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.

Five hours poultry

Perhaps simplest recipe on this site, but what a result! The idea is to cook the bird, without fat, at low temperature, covered, and for a long time. In this way, the poultry cooks so as to be almost like a "confit": soft and very tasty. The effect is more spectacular with duck because it is a rather firm meat, tough even, but with this method it can be cut with a fork like a confit. This recipe is applicable to big poultry too, it's also a response to questions like "How to cook a turkey?" or...

Roast in the bag pork with fondant vegetables.

Roasting "in the bag" is a simple but long method. The meat is sealed in a bag and cooked slowly at moderate temperature, keeping it very tender and with an amazing flavour. Meat cooked like this produces delicious juicies without adding anything else. These can be used to cook vegetables to a melting texture as a perfect accompaniment for the meat. This recipe might look complicated, but it is really very simple, just a bit long, and the flavour and texture are out of this world.

Cassoulet

Cassoulet is typical, even emblematic, of southern French cuisine. It is a "slow food" casserole in which meat and vegetables, particualrly dried beans, are cooked together for a long time. Here is a simplified version of this famous dish.

Hotpot my grandmother's way

If you like slow-cooked dishes prepared with loving care (mitonné), you will certainly love this hotpot recipe, with the taste of Franche-Comté, inspired by my grandmother. It's an old-fashioned dish full of flavours and aromas, cooked vegetables, stock, smoked sausages, all cooked long and slow.

Pissaladière with puff pastry

This savoury tart is a traditional speciality around Nice, on France's Cote d'Azur. Originally, pissaladière had much in common with its Italian cousin, the pizza, but made with onions, anchovies and olives, and without tomatoes. This is a slightly different version, more friable (with a puff-pastry base) and using tomatoes.

Tomato sauce (for pizzas)

This is the sauce to put on pizza bases before the toppings.

Vegetable stock

Vegetable stock is a very easy and versatile basic recipe. It can be used in many different ways: for cooking rice, making soups, sauces, etc. It's a good idea to keep a supply of vegetable stock in your fridge or freezer.