Macarons (the original French macaroons)

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This recipe really is "of the moment": the success of these small, highly-coloured cakes, in an infinite variety of flavours, is impressive. It's a recipe which needs some care, in order to produce a result worthy of a professional pastrychef. No problem, I will guide you through the recipe, particularly the tricky parts. This variety of flavours means that I test many alternatives, so don't be surprised if in the pictures the colour of the macarons changes, I used the best photograph available...

Meringues

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A very simple recipe but which always impresses.

Blackcurrant liqueur

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The fruit liqueurs (or "creams" in French) are a mix of neutral alcohol in which fruits are macerated, and sugar syrup. They are the basis of the very famous "Kir", mixture of dry white wine and blackcurrant liqueur. This recipe is for blackcurrant, but it can be made with other soft fruits like raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, etc.

Traditional nutty choc-chip cookies

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A traditional American recipe for homely biscuits, which can be made in different flavours or with additions (seeds, dried fruit, nuts, chocolate, etc.).

Green parsley sauce

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This sauce, with a great parsley taste, is perfect with steamed vegetables or fish. At the bottom you will find the coulis version of this recipe.

Rosemary steamed fish

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In this recipe the fish is cooked in steam perfumed with rosemary, which makes it tender and aromatic, served on a bed of onions fondue and finished with a dry white wine sauce.

Scallops with crunchy vegetables and wine sabayon

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This is a bed of vegetables cut small, lightly cooked to stay crunchy. The scallops are cut in half and fried, filled with a morsel of foie gras, and served coated with a savoury reduced white wine sabayon. It entails some work, but the result is impresive.

Hamburgers

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Hamburgers don't have to be the greasy flabby things you find in fast-food outlets, well-made they can be excellent. It's a very convivial recipe as everything goes on the table, and everyone assembles their own burger according to personal taste.

You should not beat egg yolks at high speed to start with

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You should not start beating egg yolks and caster sugar at high speed, because this splashes drops of egg yolk against the sides of the bowl, which then go hard as they dry.

You should not add raisins to recipes dry

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Used straight from the packet raisins are too dry and hard.

How to make chocolate chips

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These chocolate chips, very fine, are perfect for decorating a dessert, but they can also be incorporated in a preparation like mint ice-cream for example.

Household cake (Gâteau de ménage)

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A traditional recipe from Franche-comté, it's a flat round kind of brioche, covered with an egg cream called "Goumeau".

Chocolate thins with toasted nuts

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A very thin disc of chocolate, topped with toasted nuts and candied grapefruit peel.

Moist cereal bars

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Whether bars or rounds, this recipe produces delicous small cereal cakes.

How to dust

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"Dusting" in cooking is sprinkling a very fine layer of something in powder form. Icing sugar or cocoa powder on cakes for example. As this is not very easy to do evenly, here is a way to do it.

Chicken breasts with tarragon

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Chicken breasts are slowly cooked in a frying pan, then the sauce is made in the same pan with dry white wine, chicken stock and tarragon, and served with sauté (pan-fried) potatoes.

Chouquettes

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Chouquettes are small choux puffs with sugar crystals on the top. They are usually eaten plain, but can also be filled with a variety of things: cream, fruit, chocolate... whatever you like.

Express sauerkraut

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Sauerkraut (choucroute in French) is a traditional Alsatian recipe. It consists of fermented cabbage slowly cooked with white wine, potatoes and a variety of salted pork meats. This is a simplified and fairly quick version.

Alsatian-style salad

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This salad is based on a traditional Alsatian recipe: cabbage julienne, warm potatoes, bacon, parsley and vinaigrette.

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, which can easily be kept waiting without drying out.

Films and papers in the kitchen

It's now fairly easy to find a range of papers and plastic films that are invaluable, and sometimes indispensable, kitchen aids. Here's a quick overview of the main products available, and what you can and can't do with them.
August 29^th 2023617 K 93.6

Bread oven

Building a bread oven was until a few years ago a job for the professionals. But now you can buy a kind of kit which allows you to build your own bred oven without professional masonry know-how. You should know that the kits only provide the main part of oven, the hearth, where you light the fire...
October 15^th 20241.21 M3.6

Some hints for a pizza-party

A pizza party is always a very pleasant and convivial occasion. Good people (friends and family) get together to enjoy delicious pizzas, baked right in the oven. Here are a few tips to help you make yours a success.
July 14^th 2025197 K3.7

Information on weights and measures in the kitchen

The way ingredients are described in a recipe varies from country to country. This difference, which is quite profound, relates not only to units of measurement, but also to the way in which they are measured: weight or volume. Let's take a look.
August 22^th 2024845 K3.7

My best addresses...

Quite a few of you often ask me where I can find this or that? or is such and such a thing a good buy? or which brand is best for this or that? On this page, I'm going to group together my good addresses for suppliers of this or that product or utensil, and good books on the subjects that interest...
August 29^th 2023338 K4.0

The oven itself (hearth)

The main part of the oven (the hearth) as sold by the producer ("Fayol" company) consists of 9 slabs (to form the sole) and the curved sections which make up the domed oven, plus a keystone which fits in the top.
August 30^th 2024133 K3.8

Oven housing

Once the domed oven is finished and dry, we can start to construct the housing around it.
August 30^th 2024122 K3.9

Advice on heating oven

For good results with a wood-fired oven, it's very important to manage the heating process well. Here is some advice to help you succeed in this delicate operation.
August 24^th 2024188 K4.0

Small history of elements classification

The road to Mendeleev's table of tables has taken centuries. Here's a brief chronology.
August 24^th 202449 K3.9

Polynesian arrow

A Polynesian arrow is an arrow with a tail that is thrown by hand, using a piece of string. The result is a "slingshot" effect that propels the arrow much further than if it were simply thrown by hand.It's a craft to do with children, for example on an afternoon when they're a bit idle...
August 29^th 2023219 K 14.3

A mist free mirror

I don't know if you're like me, but I find it very annoying after a shower or bath to have to wipe down the bathroom mirror 36 times with a towel just so I can see myself shaving (or putting on make-up for the girls).How do you solve this tricky problem? First of all, by looking at the cause of the...
August 29^th 2023244 K 13.6

The steam machine

Fogging is an essential element in a bread oven. It's not easy to see, but it's the presence of fog that makes breads golden brown. To get steam on a regular basis, you can put a ramekin full of water in the bottom of the oven, or spray the inside with a sprayer, but this solution requires you to...
August 24^th 202469 K4

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 202396 K4.2

Ice-cream and sorbets

Making homemade ice cream may seem complex, but with the right methods and a few tricks, you can achieve a creamy texture and incomparable flavors. On this page, we'll be revealing the secrets of successful homemade ice cream, guiding you step by step through the various stages of preparation. ...
August 12^th 2024478 K4.0

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 2024548 K 433.5

In cooking, and particularly in baking, there are a lot of seeds we can use, such as linseed, sesame, poppy, etc. Usually, recipes simply say to add them just as they are to the mixture or dough. To make a seeded loaf, for example, prepare a plain bread dough as usual, then, towards the end of...
January 30^th 201566 K4.0

Are you making a recipe—a cake, for example—and want to turn it into a chocolate version? Adding a few spoonfuls of cocoa powder seems like the simplest solution. However, the result is often disappointing: you end up with a cake that’s drier, denser, and goes stale quickly. This is due to...
November 10^th 2026125

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 201144 K4.2

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 201147 K4.4

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 202114 K5

This is a real chef's skill: being able to look at a fish fillet cooking and say, "Stop – that's enough, it's cooked". I always admire this ability to see at a glance if something is done. It is what sets the professionals apart from us mere amateurs. And it's true that how fish is cooked is...
November 26^th 201223 K4.4

In cooking, a charlotte is a delicious moulded dessert, with biscuits around the outside that have been soaked in a flavoured syrup, filled with a light cream or mousse. The charlotte is left to set in the fridge before being turned out and served in slices. It is very light and a lovely sweet...
February 27^th 201349 K4.3

If you're using only the egg whites in a recipe (such as meringues ), you'll need to store the yolks until you're ready to use them again. There's nothing very complicated about this in principle - all you have to do is chill them, but there are a few pitfalls to be avoided in practice.
June 18^th 202411 K5

In cooking, cooking means bringing food into contact with a source of heat, to transform it: improving its taste, and sometimes its texture. This contact with the heat source can be achieved in a number of ways: these are the cooking methods, and let's take a look at the main ones.
July 24^th 202411 K4.7

When you have to knead dough for bread or some other recipe, you may well use a food processor or the type of machine known as a stand mixer. The best-known brands are Kenwood and KitchenAid. They are useful tools, but here are a few tips to help you get the best out of them.
June 23^th 2021289 K 23.8

The vanilla is a delicious taste that can be found in many many dessert recipes, creams (the cream and the cream for example), ice creams, but also cakes and entremets. Whenever you need to add this vanilla note, you have several possible choices because vanilla is commercially available in...
December 14^th 201713 K5

For the upcoming christmas meals you too may be sacrificing to the tradition of foie gras? If so, I suggest you take a look at everything that revolves around serving foie gras: how to serve it, and what to eat and drink with it.
December 23^th 201717 K4.9

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 201825 K 14.9

Let's take a look at tomatoes, which are still in full bloom at the end of summer (as I write these lines), and which make for delicious salads. I had already talked to you about the interest of peeling tomatoes, which gives them an extraordinary sweetness in the mouth, but let's talk about the...
September 8^th 201817 K4.9

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 201850 K4.1

When you bake a cake, like a cake or pound cake, you may have already encountered this thorny problem: How to make sure that the raisins, or the candied fruits, or any other small filling, do not fall to the bottom of the pan during the baking process?
May 31^th 201917 K4.7

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 201913 K4.6

In the kitchen, we salt very frequently, almost all the time, and we must be careful because this salt can influence the texture of what you are cooking. I'm not going to talk about the amount of salt here, that's for another time, but rather about : When do you salt?
August 13^th 201919 K4.5

If you buy your endives elsewhere than in supermarkets, and in this case the best is of course from a market gardener, he or she is the one who planted and harvested them, in this case you will have endives full of earth or sand, depending on where they were grown, which is normal and reassuring, we...
March 24^th 202029 K4.6

If you like your food a little, or a lot, spicy, you'll no doubt have a jar or sachets of mixed spices in your cupboards from which to draw when preparing a dish. I'm thinking, for example, of curries, chili and couscous, all of which fill the kitchen, and sometimes far beyond...
October 30^th 202011 K4.9

Dry roasting

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Dry roasting (torréfication in French), usually seeds (sesame, linseed,...) or nuts (almonds, walnuts, ...), means to heat without water or fat, in the oven or a heavy pan, to drive off all water they contain.It make seeds crunchier, very pleasant in the mouth, with an improved flavour.
26 K4.0

Puncher

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Soaking (or drizzling) a liquid to a cake after cooking, usually a syrup or alcohol, to make it less dry.
17 K4

Covered

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Said of cooking with a lid.
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Apple-peeler

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Here is a tool that I was sure was just some dumb gadget before my friends Eric and Pascale gave me one! It's an extraordinary tool that peels and removes the core of an apple in less than 10 seconds. The chore of peeling/removing the core is now a thing of the past, and making apple tart or cake...
17 K4.2

Salad spinner

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A salad spinner is a simple device: a kind of mesh basket which is spun by turning a handle on the lid. As the basket turns very fast, any items in it are forced agaisnt the sides by centrifugal force, and the water (or other liquid) they contain is spun off and collects in the bottom of the...
14 K4.5

Filo pastry

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Filo pastry (or phyllo - fillo) is a flour-based product from Greece or Turkey. The very thin sheets are often used to wrap fillings and produce a very crisp roll or parcel.Filo pastry is used for some famous Middle Eastern sweet pastries like baklava.
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Dry white wine

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There are dozens of dry white wines, and you can usually use the one you choose (except for recipe with particular white wine).
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