Crème brulée

(Found inTextsStages)
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...
December 31^th 20111.65 M 74.3 4 hours 40 min.

Soft fruits in sabayon

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This recipe is made by briefly cooking an assortment of soft fruits (raspberries, blackcurrants, blackberries, blueberries, currants...) with a little sugar to glaze them. They are served in a small dish, covered with a delicious sabayon which can be lightly "burned" on surface.
February 21^th 2011263 K3.9 50 min.

Rice pudding (riz au lait)

(Found inTextsStages)
My personal version of this classic family recipe.
December 18^th 2018392 K5 40 min.

Tartiflette

(Found inTextsStagesComments)
A personal version of a classic recipe from Savoy.
September 16^th 2019597 K 14.6 1 hour 30 min.

Montbenoit's canapés

(Found inTexts)
A recipe from Franche-comté (lovely region of eastern France): large slices of bread coated with melted shallot, grilled bacon dice, a big slice of Morbier (cheese from the same region) and a brief spell in the oven. It really is a winter dish.
October 13^th 2010272 K4.6 1 hour 45 min.

Guacamole

(Found inTexts)
For this typically Mexican recipe there are two main methods: smooth mashed avocado (made with a blender), or simple mashed avocado (made with a fork) with small pieces. And you can add, or not, finely diced tomato. You will find the first version (smooth) below.
November 26^th 2011293 K4.1 1 hour 25 min.

Icelandic-style fish and vegetable pie

(Found inTextsStages)
This recipe is made from vegetables cut small and blanched, mixed with pieces of salt-cod and cream, then baked in small soup dishes with a puff pastry lid.
September 7^th 2018274 K3.9 4 hours 35 min.

Cocotte eggs with Comté

(Found inTexts)
A light delicious and quickly prepared dish, an easy and elegant answer to the frequent question "what are we going to eat this evening?". Here is version with Comté (a famous cheese from eastern France, like gruyère, but much better), but it can be made prepared many different ways.
February 21^th 2011347 K4.3 1 hour

Preserved tomatoes

(Found inTexts)
Softer than dried tomatoes, they can be used as a kind of chutney in pasta dishes for instance, or simply served to accompany an aperitif.
February 21^th 2011337 K4.8 5 hours 6 min.

Koulibiak in pie dish

(Found inTextsStages)
Koulibiak is a traditional russian recipe from, usually served in a flat puff pastry fish shape. Here is an easier version, in a pie dish.
September 7^th 2018363 K3.8 3 hours 20 min.

Express chilli con carne

(Found inTexts)
This is a really express recipe, a "true" chilli is longer and more difficult to do.
February 21^th 2011388 K3.8 35 min.

African style chicken

(Found inTexts)
This is a sort of smoked chicken, cooked in a tomato-coconut sauce, and served with kidney beans and plain rice. It's quite a simple recipe, with ready-made ingredients, but which needs a long cooking time on low heat (one hour).
February 21^th 2011403 K5 2 hours 4 min.

Lille style chicken

(Found inTexts)
Chicken breasts and mushrooms, cooked separately, then mixed with a tasty cream sauce before serving. It's a dish with a "cuisiné" taste, but which unfortunately is becoming increasingly rare in restaurants.
May 10^th 2023355 K3.8 50 min.

How to butter a dish or a mould easily

(Found inTextsStages)
Often when making gratins, crumbles or other oven-cooked dishes, you will need to butter the dish or mould. To butter (or grease) means to rub inside the mould with a knob of butter to prevent the mixture sticking too much. Instead of putting a knob of butter in the dish and wiping with paper, here...
February 21^th 2011141 K4.1 1 min.

Salmon and spinach quiche

(Found inTexts)
This quiche recipe uses a traditional filling mixture, but adds slices of smoked salmon and blanched spinach.
April 17^th 2022406 K 14 1 hour 15 min.

Celeriac Rémoulade

(Found inTexts)
A classic recipe of traditional French bistro cooking (winter salad).
December 21^th 2020398 K5 20 min.

Mayonnaise

(Found inTexts)
Mayonnaise is a cold egg dressing, quite thick, served with many dishes, usually cold too: meat, fish, vegetables, etc.
February 16^th 2014806 K5 6 min.

Hotpot my grandmother's way

(Found inTextsStages)
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.
February 21^th 2011335 K5 4 hours 7 min.

Chicken nems

(Found inTextsStages)
Nems are probably the best known Far Eastern dish in France. These small crispy rolls can be made in different flavours: chicken, crab, pork, etc. Making your own is not very complicated, the only difficulty is in the rolling stage. You will find in this recipe full details on how to successfully...
April 6^th 2017503 K3.8 2 hours 25 min.

Courgettes (zuchinis)

(Found inTextsStages)
A classic gratin, but with the courgettes cooked separately to prevent too much juice being released during the oven cooking, and so make a dish that is barely moist.
October 13^th 2010499 K 13.7 1 hour 20 min.

Cooking with herbs

Herbs: there's nothing else so small that can add so much to a recipe. They are not only for garnishing, but are a true part of the dish, sometimes one of the main ingredients. A small example of the "power" of herbs: you make a chopped carrot salad, which is very good with a vinaigrette, but if you...
June 3^rd 2024188 K 13.9

Open fire cooking

In this method the fire is kept going in the oven, and we put in dishes that cook in a minute or two. It is, of course, the method for pizzas, pitta bread, etc...
August 24^th 202490 K3.9

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

rosemary

This is a kind of shrub, of which the small branches are used.
August 29^th 202347 K4.2

bayleaf

Bay is a kind of laurel, grown as a shrub or small tree, of which the leaves are used, fresh or dry (other laurels are toxic). Bayleaves are used frequently in mediterraneen cooking.
August 29^th 202389 K4.2

thyme

Thyme is an aromatic plant of which the leaves are used. There are several kinds of thyme, and its flavour is very typical of Mediterranean cooking.
August 29^th 202350 K4.6

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

Fried potatoes or fried mash?

In cooking there are a lot of dishes that appear to be extremely simple but which can actually prove to be very tricky. Amongst those that I'm aware of having this reputation are omelette and fried potatoes.
February 6^th 201121 K4.5

Properly cooked! (the taste)

Going out to a restaurant is getting harder at the moment. In France, at least, you have to try and find one that has agreed to pass on the new lower rate of VAT at anything other than a symbolic level, and there aren't many. And then, most importantly, you have to find a good one: one where you...
February 6^th 201114 K 14.6

Maillard reactions

This subject cropped up recently in a discussion with my three charming nieces; do you know what Maillard reactions are? With a name like that, they could well be some principle in mechanics, but in fact the term applies to something much closer to all of us: it's what gives food more flavour...
January 28^th 201533 K4

In praise of slow cooking

You will no doubt have noticed that in cookery, it's often the actual cooking process that gets neglected. This is understandable; it comes at the end of the recipe and getting the dish in the oven is something of a relief (ah, that's done!), which frees us to cope with what's left: tidying the...
February 9^th 201137 K4.2

The ideal restaurant

Like all passionate cooks (I suppose), from time to time I dream of opening my own restaurant. I imagine loads of things: it will be like this or like that, we'll do this, I'll cook that, the room will have this or that – in short, I dream.
October 15^th 201213 K4.4

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

Good fridge management

We all have a fridge at home – it's an indispensible part of the kitchen and so much a part of the furniture that we tend not to pay it much attention. But often, out of habit, we don't use it properly. Here are a few tips to help you get more from your fridge. .
April 19^th 201126 K4.4

A memo of utensil weights

You will no doubt have come across this problem while cooking: after starting a recipe, when you already have some ingredients in a pan and have maybe cooked them, you need to know the weight of the pan's contents so that you can take half out, or add the same weight of sugar, for example.
May 9^th 201124 K4.6

Too much sweet and savoury

There is a food trend which is creeping in everywhere in France right now: mixing sweet with savoury. In some restaurants, it is becoming difficult to order a classic dish, like “roast veal” for instance, without being served fruits in the garnish or honey/conserves/syrup in the sauce or cooked...
November 3^rd 201123 K4.5

Butter doesn't make you fat, unless you eat too much of it.

Whenever I'm discussing cooking and recipes, there is one idea which comes up frequently, like this: "Oh no! But that's got butter in it" (I should add, for the sake of accuracy, that this is something I hear more frequently from women, who are almost all concerned with keeping their figure). ...
March 26^th 201239 K4.5

The painter, the restaurant owners and the opera singer

You might well have noticed that there are recipes involving names that have been so overused (often for any old thing) that they have almost become common nouns.
September 25^th 201218 K4.4

Markers in cooking

When it comes to cooking, there is only one real rule, and that is that there are no rules! By that I mean that everything is possible, everything can be combined, everything or almost everything can go with everything, but you have to like it, you have to find it good. I have friends who...
July 3^rd 20218,0775

Clean your mixer easily

If you use a "bowl" or "blender" mixer, as opposed to a plunger, you've probably noticed that it's a bit of a hassle to clean it after use. And yet, with a simple trick, it can be done very quickly. See how here.
June 26^th 20244,1975

Rosemary in recipes

Rosemary, as I’m sure you know, is a culinary herb, one of the famous French "herbes de Provence", and is very effective in bringing a real taste of the Mediterranean to any dish. The classic way to use it in a recipe is to add a sprig or two and leave it in during cooking as a way of...
April 18^th 201820 K4.7

Using stretch food film effectively

Maybe you use food film in your own kitchen. You know, the very thin, clear plastic stuff that you can stretch, often used to cover food and protect it from the air. It’s become so widely used that it’s now an essential item for pros. They even have a verb for it in French: “filmer”: to...
May 12^th 201819 K 14.9

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

Chive flowers

Did you know that? Chive flowers are not only a beautiful purple color, but they are also edible and delicious.
May 29^th 201944 K4.4

Brioche for a savoury recipe

When we make brioche, it is generally sweet, that is to say that in the dough there is sugar or honey or dried or candied fruits, or even sometimes the 3 together. It's normal, it's very good, it's a pastry. But you may also need brioche for a savoury dish, like a sausage or a sausage in brioche...
June 30^th 20199,2894.9

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 201919 K4.1

The proper use of a dusting machine

Let's take a look at a simple gesture, the sprinkling, that is to say to distribute a fine powder (icing sugar, sugar, flour,...) on a surface. If you have to sprinkle something, you may use a sprinkler or "poudrette" (in french) it is a very simple utensil, a box, with a lid pierced with holes...
July 31^th 20197,7994.6