Caramelised apple pie

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Apple pie made with caramelised apples.
September 11^th 2018254 K4.3 1 hour 55 min.

Little apple turnovers with almonds and raisins

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These are small apple turnovers ("chaussons") of puff pastry, filled with a mixture of caramelised almonds, stewed apple and rum-soaked raisins. To be eaten just as they are...
September 11^th 2018299 K3.8 1 hour 35 min.

Smoked salmon sacristains

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Sacristain (sexton in English, a strange name though common in French cooking) is a small pastry twist, made with puff pastry. There are many recipes with different flavours, sweet or savoury. Here is one with smoked salmon, ideal as an aperitif.
February 21^th 2011227 K 33.9 1 hour 30 min.

How to prepare broccoli

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Broccoli are vegetable cousins to cauliflowers. Here's how to prepare them for using in a recipe.
October 7^th 20131.44 M3 35 min.

How to prepare an onion or shallot

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Onions and shallots are widely used in the recipes on this site, generally finely chopped. Here is a method to do it quite easily with a simple knife.
February 21^th 2011177 K5 10 min.

How to prepare carrots

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Here's how to prepare carrots, from the simplest way (peeled then rinsed) to a more sophisticated version where only the very best ofthe vegetable is kept.
February 21^th 2011168 K4.3 15 min.

How to prepare cauliflower

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This is how to start with a whole califlower and finish with only the best of the vegetable.
February 5^th 2022216 K4.1 35 min.

How to prepare cucumber

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Or how to start with a whole cucumber and finish with small crunchy dice, ready to be added to a salad.
August 6^th 2019240 K4.6 40 min.

How to prepare romanesco

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Here is how to take a whole romanesco and end up with small pieces ready to use in a recipe.
January 17^th 2013650 K 23 30 min.

Quick Strawberry Millefeuille

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A millefeuille (which in french means "thousand sheets") is a delicious pâtisserie consisting of layers of puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) sandwiched together with cream, fruit, etc. In this recipe, we will be using sheets of caramelized brik or filo, which makes a delicious, light...
May 3^rd 201563 K5 50 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 201966 K3.9 2 hours 15 min.

Jelly-style plum jam

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Lots of people make plum jam, but you can also elevate this to a rather elegant jelly, simply by removing the skins. It's not a true jelly (this is normally made with juice), but leans towards that style: light and, above all, delicious.
October 13^th 201995 K 13 hours 15 min.

Citrus tart

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This is an unconventional tart, though the recipe is quite simple: no cream filling in the bottom, just slices of lightly poached fruit in a sweetcrust pastry case.
July 8^th 202028 K 2 hours 35 min.

Nachos

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Nachos (or tortilla chips) are small Tex-Mex snack triangles, often served with guacamole. Authentic nachos are made from tortillas, cut into triangles and fried, but here is a lighter, oven-baked version. The recipe is very simple, though the cutting out is a bit of work, and I've given you 2...
November 4^th 202039 K 1 hour 6 min.

Pistachio and goji pinwheels

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Inspired by the traditional French "pain aux raisins" (like Danish pastries), here is a colourful and flavoursome version filled with pistachio cream and goji berries.
October 10^th 202124 K 2 hours 20 min.

How to prepare Brussels sprouts

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Brussels sprouts are delicious. On this site you'll find many recipes that use these versatile vegetables. Here is all you need to know about preparing and cooking them.
February 6^th 202224 K 40 min.

How to prepare Jerusalem artichokes

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Jerusalem artichokes are quite an unusual vegetable with a strong artichoke taste, if you want to use them in a recipe, here is how to prepare them.
January 11^th 202318 K 20 min.

How to prepare apricots

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Here's how to prepare apricots for use in a recipe, from washing to slicing.
July 12^th 2023735 K3.7 35 min.

How to prepare green beans

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Here's how to turn freshly bought (or picked) green beans into ready-to-use vegetables.
August 11^th 202315 K 25 min.

Chocolate cereal bars

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These have a chocolate sweetcrust pastry base, topped with dried fruit, toasted nuts and seeds, bound with a brown-sugar and butter mixture, then gently baked. Once the flapjack-like cake has cooled, it can be cut into bars.
July 11^th 201835 K 1 hour 20 min.

Slashing loaves

When it's time to put them in the oven, the dough pieces for future breads or viennoiseries need to be "lamés", i.e. made with a very sharp blade, by making quick incisions at the top, known as "grignes". Let's see how it's done.
August 29^th 2023282 K 43.6

Making your own bread

You'll find a whole range of bread and pastry recipes on this site, but before you get started, perhaps you'd like to know more about the subject, get some tips and tricks, and find out what the main mistakes beginners make? If so, this page is for you.
August 22^th 2024565 K 63.9

Make your own hot-wire or styrofoam cutter

A filicoupeur is a hot-cutting tool for polystyrene, which can be used to enhance any piece of polystyrene you've salvaged, and to do all kinds of things with it: model building, model making, arts and crafts, and so on. See here how to make your own.
February 20^th 2024509 K 433.5

chives

Chives grow in clumps, and the leaves used as a herb have an extraodinary taste. It's an essential for adding to salads, and everything else that can be eaten cold, because it doesn't like long cooking during which it loses most of its flavour.
August 29^th 202376 K3.8

Start off well to cook well

What do I need to get started in the kitchen? First of all, a good website! That's it, you're there ;-), then a minimum of equipment, and the few products you should always have in your cupboards or fridge. Here are a few things to help you make your choices.
August 29^th 2023308 K 13.6

A stable cutting board

As soon as you have something to cut in the kitchen, the best thing to do is to use a cutting board, it protects your table or work surface, and their material is made to protect the edge of your knife, that is to say that it is soft enough, in short it is the ideal thing. But simply put on the...
May 22^th 20215,9825

Cutting soft cheeses

As you may have already noticed, when you have to use a "soft" cheese in a recipe - their exact name is "soft cheese" - such as Camembert, Munster or Mont d'or, it's not easy to make anything other than thick slices.
February 20^th 20245,1445

How to choose a centrifugal juicer

A centrifugal juicer is an appliance designed to extract juice from all kinds of fruit and vegetables. It will produce juice from tomatoes, carrots, apples, pineapple, blackcurrants, etc.
April 1^st 201141 K4.4

Choosing a chopping board

It's a no-brainer, surely? If you want a chopping board, just find a piece of wood, and Bob's your uncle! You can happily chop away with a knife and not damage the table or worktop. But in reality, it's a bit more complicated than that. You need to be careful what you are buying, in particular the...
May 8^th 201246 K4.6

Artichoke stalks

When preparing artichokes for cooking, you may well already know that we often need to remove the first round of leaves, if they are tatty or dirty, as well as the inedible stalk. The operative word here is “remove” , rather than “cut off”.
October 25^th 201649 K4.3

The 3 essential knives

You must have heard a chef or cook say: "There’s no good cooking without good ingredients". This is very true, of course, but for any amateur or beginner it is equipment that really counts to start with. What I mean is that you should not skimp on kitchen equipment, good utensils, a food...
May 30^th 201821 K5

Drawing a pattern in pastry

Often in the kitchen, in pastry-making, or in baking, we need to trace a pattern on a pastry. It's just a question of aesthetics but it has its effect after baking on a galette, pithiviers, pâté en croute (terrine in a pie crust), etc.
May 23^th 201927 K4.1

The right way to cook potatoes

If you simply boil them (not steam them), or bake them in the oven, at some point you will have to ask yourself the question "are they well cooked?".
March 23^th 202012 K4.7

Coarsely chopped herbs

Although we are in the middle of winter as I write these lines, you should not hesitate to make salads at this time, it is actually quite simple, rather fast, and so pleasant. A while ago, I already told you that a salad is a salad, but a salad with herbs is immediately something much better:...
January 9^th 20219,4734.9

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 202113 K4.7

The so-called "nervous" meats

You've probably heard this before, we're talking about "nervous" meat, or meat with nerves, to describe what is indicated by the blue arrow on the left. This is a piece of beef, and what we call a nerve is not a nerve, it is in fact collagen (chemists sometimes call it a "collagen sink"), a...
April 16^th 202127 K4.5

Incise some meats before cooking

Have you ever had this rather unpleasant phenomenon: you grill a meat, a pork chop or a veal cutlet for example, and during cooking it becomes completely deformed? It takes a very strange shape, a bit difficult to describe, a sort of cone around the central area of the meat, which also hinders...
June 19^th 20218,1824.9

In praise of Mont d'Or cheese

Do you know the Mont d'Or, this extraordinary cheese from the Haut-Doubs in France, with a unique taste and appearance, which can be eaten both raw and cooked? I'll tell you a few words about it, and with some tips on how to choose it and cook it. .
November 27^th 20217,8595

The right bread knife

We almost all have a bread knife in our kitchen, that is to say the knife we use almost exclusively to cut bread. Is this knife efficient, is it really the one you need? Here is some information to guide you in your choice. .
September 15^th 20228,152

It's spinning too fast!

When you need to grate or slice vegetables, you generally use an electric machine that does all the work: a food processor, a mixer with a "slicer" extension or similar. Are these machines really suitable? Generally speaking, yes of course, but there's one criterion that often poses a problem,...
November 12^th 20237,4605