Hotpot my grandmother's way

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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.

Apple charlotte with toasted brioche

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This rather special charlotte is made with toasted slices of brioche instead of finger biscuits and stewed apples. Cooked once assembled, it can be eated warm or cold.

Butter cream

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Butter cream is made with egg yolk, sugar syrup and, of course, butter. These days it has fallen rather out of fashion, probably because it's very rich, but it still has its aficionados. Here is the classic plain version, which you can lighten and flavour as you wish.

Succès praliné (praline meringue)

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The "succès" (success) is a classic of traditional French patisserie, made with two layers of almond meringue filled with praline butter cream. It's very rich and a little old-fashioned these days, but still has many faithful fans. The original recipe comes from the master chef Gaston Lenôtre, and became one of his most famous cakes, but this version is a little easier to make.

Apricot fool

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The traditional fruit fool is a rather old-fashioned dessert, consisting of whipped cream (Chantilly) with a fruit coulis gently folded into it.

Kouign-amann brioche

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This is unusual brioche is halfway to being a Breton Kouign-amann. The difference is in the treatment of the dough, which is layered with sugar and butter. The basic dough is rolled out with butter in stages, like for croissants, but with 2 "turns" of sugar for one of butter (granulated and vanilla sugar). The brioche is assembled in a round tin with spirals of dough that rise and caramelize during cooking. This recipe is rather rich, but what a treat!

Oatmeal cake

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This cake has the distinctive and delicious flavour of old-fashioned rolled oats, also known as oatmeal. In the basic cake recipe, part of the flour is replaced with oats, which have been toasted, then blended.

Rustic chicken and mushroom pie

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This homely looking pie gets back to what good, old-fashioned pies are all about: it's round, deep and has both a proper bottom and lid. The one small concession to modernity is the use of puff pastry for a lighter, crisper crust. The filling combines mushrooms, leeks and diced chicken in a cream sauce.

Snails in a brioche

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A flat brioche filled with snails, themselves filled with a knob of sophisticated beurre d'escargot. The flat round shape is reminiscent of the old-fashioned French snail dishes. Cut into bite-sized morsels, this makes a good aperitif snack.

Fish fillet with leeks and mustard cream

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Fish fillets cooked on the side, to which a thinly sliced leek is added, gently cooked in a mustard cream.

Whiting fillet with mustard carrots

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For this recipe, a 2-cooked fillet of whiting with tarragon, topped with a mixture of grated carrots, cream and mustard.

Celery purée

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For this celery purée, mostly celery of course, but also a little potato for texture, and a hint of old-fashioned mustard to finish. A great accompaniment to roast meat or grilled fish.

Home-made potato crisps

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Making your own potato crisps (or chips, if you are American) is quite easy. All you need to do is slice potatoes and fry them. That is all well and good in principle, but there are a few tips it is important to know. I'll explain them for you in this recipe.

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.

Hachis parmentier

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This is the French answer (meat with mashed potato and cheese) to the English cottage or shepherd's pie: a typical family recipe which is an excellent way of using up leftover meat. The proportions are vague here: you need "whatever you have left over"...

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

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

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 201120 K 14.6

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 201129 K4.5

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 201252 K4.6

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

Where we see that a non-stick frying pan, if it is very practical in general, sometimes it is not enough.
February 26^th 202213 K4.7

When a recipe or preparation calls for something solid to be pureed, as in a soup for example, the natural reflex is to take out the blender and plunge it into the saucepan. This works very well in most cases, but there are times when you'd like to puree something and at the same time remove the...
July 12^th 202313 K5

Forcing bag

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For filling small moulds, making small fancy items, shaping small cakes.
20 K4.3