Feta in olive oil with herbs

Sausage in brioche

In this recipe, sausage is cooked, the skin removed, and baked in a savoury brioche dough. Serve preferably with a good green salad and French dressing (vinaigrette).

How to cook potato grenaille

The French call very small potatoes "grenaille". This is a typical way of cooking them: the tiny potatoes are pan-fried in their skins and make an excellent accompanient for meat. Grenaille can be made with any kind of potato; it is a question of size, rather than variety, though I think that firm-textured potatoes, such as rattes or charlottes, work best. I am using rattes in the photos. The cooking is a combined method: boiling first, then frying. This is quicker than using a single method.

Fruit crémeux

This kind of "crémeux" (it means "creamy", but contains no actual cream) is a basic recipe in the repertoire of French pastry chefs. It is smoother but less frothy than a mousse and uses gelatin to set it as it cools. Often used as a tart filling or in other desserts, crémeux is usually poured to set in a mould. This fruity version is made with raspberries.

Chestnut mousse in a whipper

In France, chestnut mousse is sometimes called "Mousse Mont Blanc". It is a delicious combination of whipped cream with chestnut purée, traditionally mixed in very gently. Here is a simple, rapid version, made with a cream...

October 18^th 202068 K 9 min.

Asparagus "en petit pois"

As the name suggests, this historic recipe (see below for more details) treats asparagus like peas, Napoleonic French style: first cooked the usual way, then cut small (to look like peas), cooked again in stock, and finished with a cream and egg yolk sauce.