How to cook hard-boiled eggs properly

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A hard-boiled egg is properly cooked when: shell is not broken, white and yolk are firm, yolk is only yellow with no traces of green around it. Here are some tips to make this easy.
November 4^th 20131.37 M 65 1 hour 30 min.

How to prepare tomatoes

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Yes, I know you will say to me: why peel tomatoes? The answer is very simple: it's much better, gives a better texture, softer in the mouth. The skin is tough, adds nothing to the taste (and you will have noticed that commercial tomatoes have practically no taste), and finally it's there (on/under...
June 6^th 2012328 K 24 40 min.

How to prepare a bain-marie

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A bain-marie is the best way to cook or heat a preparation gently without risk of burning.
July 5^th 2013512 K5 7 min.

Blackcurrant coulis

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Blackcurrants make a very good coulis, but it's a bit more difficult than with other fruits. Here is a simple method to help you succeed.
February 21^th 2011444 K 23.5 25 min.

Poached eggs

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Poached eggs are cooked, without the shell, in barely simmering (nearly boiling) water. White should be firm and yolk soft, that's the difficulty. This recipe teaches you how to succeed with three important points.
January 8^th 2013310 K5 2 hours 40 min.

Pilau rice

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Pilau rice (also called "restaurant rice" in France) is a way of cooking rice that's very different from using a rice-cooker. In this recipe, the rice is first "pearled" with onion in olive oil, then chicken stock is added, and the whole lot is put in the oven. This produces a very tasty moist rice,...
February 21^th 2011382 K 14.4 35 min.

Boiling potatoes in their skins

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Boiling potatoes has given rise to two sayings: 1) You should not peel potatoes before boiling. 2) You should not leave potatoes to cool in the cooking water. The first suggests that potatoes should be always cooked in their skins, to prevent water penetrating and making the potatoes go soft and...
July 25^th 2017611 K 34.4 30 min.

When to add salt to cooking water?

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Is it better to salt cooking water, for vegetables for example, at the beginning when it is cold or when it boils? I always heard that one should salt "after", when water is boiling, because if it is salted "before" it will take longer to boil. True or false? Let's try the experiment...
July 25^th 2017143 K4 15 min.

How to prepare asparagus

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Preparing asparagus spears properly involves washing and peeling, then cooking them just right. Here is a simple way to do this.
June 26^th 2013264 K4.9 35 min.

Pork medallions with "full" turnips

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This recipe brings together sautéed medallions of pork filet mignon and turnips, pan-fried then filled with a creamy mixture made from their own green tops. As in all the best cookery, nothing is wasted.
December 30^th 201950 K4.7 1 hour 4 min.

Langoustine gratin

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This elegant gratin has a layer of brunoise vegetables in the bottom, with langoustine tails (scampi) cooked in two stages on top, finished with a thick creamy sauce, made with the "fumet" from the langoustines. This recipe is quite long to make, but can be prepared in stages over a number of days....
December 30^th 201967 K3.9 2 hours 15 min.

How to peel tomatoes using a flame

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The classic and most usual way to peel tomatoes is by plunging them first into boiling water, then into cold. But there is another method, "flame peeling", which is quicker than boiling water as it bursts the tomato skins open very rapidly. Here is how to do it.
July 17^th 201970 K 15 min.

Split peas "à la française"

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To cook fresh peas à la française (French style), they are first blanched in boiling water, then combined with fried lardons and onion. This idea can also be used with split peas, but they need cooking for much longer.
February 5^th 2020167 K 55 min.

Fish terrine with spinach and tomatoes

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This terrine is made up of alternating layers of fish fillets with spinach and preserved tomatoes. It is cooked gently in the oven, then served in slices (yes, it really is a kind of terrine) with hollandaise sauce, for example.
November 8^th 202032 K5 1 hour 55 min.

Smoky sausage and mash

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This is sausage and mash with a smoky Gallic twist: the smoked sausage (Morteau sausage here) is cooked in with the potatoes, so that they take on its smoky flavour. The potatoes are turned into a French-style purée – softer and richer than British mash.
July 21^th 202131 K 1 hour 35 min.

Pistachio powder or paste

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Pistachio paste has a similar texture to almond paste, but the similarity ends there, as its flavour and colour are quite characteristic.
October 13^th 2010371 K 154 50 min.

Stock-pot fish

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A julienne of vegetables (small sticks) mixed with choice morsels of fish, slowly cooked in vegetable stock.
December 31^th 2013310 K4.3 2 hours 40 min.

Herb olive oil

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This flavoured olive oil, easy to prepare, goes very well with Mediterranean cuisine: pizzas, pastas, pan bagnat, etc...
February 21^th 2011305 K3.8 25 min.

Quick orange marmalade

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Just oranges (organic) and sugar in this simplified marmalade recipe.
February 26^th 2014151 K3.9 1 hour 15 min.

Pork chops with a duo of brassicas

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In this recipe, the pork chops are pan-fried and served with a sauce of the reduced pan juices and white-wine, and two different brassicas: Brussels sprouts and romanesco.
November 20^th 201653 K4.3 50 min.

The time of the jams

We are well into summer as I write this, and this is the time when most of the fruit is giving or about to give in full. And for many of us, it will also be the time for jams and jellies, one of the best ways to preserve fruit for the next winter.
July 12^th 202124 K4.5

Different kinds of pastry and dough

When cooking in general, and particularly in baking, we can make and use many different kinds of pastry and dough. All built on the same "base": flour - a powder to which we add fat, liquid or both to produce the dough which is then cooked. .
November 6^th 2012107 K 14.0

One should cover a pan while heating?

You've probably heard it before: "Cover your pan, it'll boil faster", but is it true? Let's find out.
February 27^th 201527 K 13.4

Children and vegetables

This is an attempt to address the question that all parents and grandparents, maybe you included, face so often: how can we get children to like vegetables? And at the same time, we might get away from the familiar, day-in, day-out round of pasta, chips, toast.. Well, I can hear you say, it's...
March 9^th 201712 K5

Egg yolks and caster sugar

We often come across recipes where we need to mix egg yolks with caster sugar. This would appear to be a very ordinary and simple thing to do but, be warned, these two ingredients can behave oddly together.
February 15^th 201875 K 24.3

Should a sausage be pricked before cooking?

If you are using sausages in a recipe, you may have already asked yourself the question: Should you prick it before cooking it, or not? You will certainly find as many opinions "you should prick" as "you should not". Let's try to untangle all this.
September 29^th 201843 K4.1

The bitterness of endives

As I write these lines, we are entering the endive season, and if you like it, it's time to enjoy it, if possible with your local producers. Endive is good, but the reproach that is often made of it, and children in particular, is: "It's bitter! And it is (somewhat) true of course, endives...
February 9^th 201910 K4.9

Double cooking of vegetables

When you cook vegetables, it's not easy to capture and preserve the flavours. It is easy to undercook, but you can make up for it, or overcook, and then it is unfortunately a bit cooked (in the sense of "ruined"). But above all, how to get the maximum of the taste of the vegetable in the pan, then...
July 12^th 201920 K4.1

Cooking time for pasta

What is as good and simple as pasta? Not much, I think, and it's so easy to prepare: boiling water, salted (or not, depending on your taste), a few minutes of boiling and it's ready. The only "difficulty", so to speak, is the respect of the cooking time and the risk of, unfortunately, overcooking...
July 18^th 201919 K4.6

The perfect boiled egg

Making boiled eggs is always a delight and it pleases the young and old alike. This little transgenerational side puts them on the list of "things to do on Sunday evening when you don't know what to do" in many families (including mine)... That said, it's not that simple, you have to pay...
January 30^th 202114 K4.7

Let's rehabilitate spinach

We are currently (as I write this) in the season of fresh spinach, and it is a delicious vegetable that unfortunately has a bad reputation among a lot of people, children and teenagers in particular. I wonder if this lack of appetite isn't due to what I call, probably unfairly, "school food...
May 7^th 20214,8324.8

Brussels sprouts are very good

We are, as I write this, in the season of Brussels sprouts, a delicious vegetable that often suffers from a bad reputation, let's try to fix that.
March 5^th 20226,9764.7

The salad spinner is not only for salad

Where we see that the salad spinner can be used for many other purposes.
March 25^th 20227,9354.8

Beans in primeur

As I write this, it is the beginning of the short season for fresh beans. If you've never made them before and you're just starting out (and that's a great idea) you'll find that it's a bit time consuming to prepare, you have to shell them once, remove the beans, scald them to remove the skin (and...
June 4^th 20229,982

Sausage broth

I've already talked to you about vegetable cooking water, which becomes a precious broth after cooking that would be a shame to throw away. Now let's look at the special case of meat cooking broth, and in particular sausages, which are often poached.
June 28^th 20236,8865

Cooking cauliflower

Dramatic observation: cauliflower when cooked has a bad reputation ("it doesn't smell good!" and the like), and yet it's an excellent vegetable, very Breton, that deserves to be treated well, to give the best of itself.
August 29^th 20238,1643.3

Should asparagus really be cooked in bunches?

You'll probably read recipes here and there explaining how to cook asparagus "en botte", i.e. in a small package (the famous "botte"). Is this really the right way to cook asparagus?
May 22^th 20243,9315

Your oven in "proofer" mode

In the bakery, proofing is a crucial stage in the process of making light, plump breads and pastries. During proofing, the yeast ferments the sugars present in the dough, releasing carbon dioxide which forms bubbles. This process allows the dough to swell and aerate, guaranteeing a soft, light...
September 27^th 20244,3525

No need to boil gelatin

Gelatin is a magical ingredient for making light, creamy, structured desserts, yet it's often misused in the kitchen. A common mistake in some recipes is the idea that it needs to be boiled for it to work properly, but this is a mistake indeed: gelatin melts at a much lower temperature, around...
November 21^th 20241,2885