Crème brulée

(Found inTexts)
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.

4 pears salad with vanilla

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It's a very easy recipe, everything depends on the choice of differents kinds of pears all fully ripe, to give a delicious contrast in the mouth.
February 21^th 2011223 K4.2 40 min.

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,...
October 3^rd 20191.58 M 714.6 2 hours 40 min.

Citrus crunch

(Found inTexts)
These are fine crumbs of candied citrus peel. It can be used to sprinkle a dessert or other preparation to add both crunch and the flavour of the chosen citrus fruit. It is easy to prepare well in advance, and will keep in an airtight jar. This recipe is given for clementines, but can be made with...
February 2^nd 2016228 K3.7 1 hour 20 min.

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.).
January 5^th 2020371 K4 1 hour 50 min.

Broad bean salad with Parmesan

(Found inTexts)
A salad that combines crunchy almonds, tender broad beans, with the flavours of balsamic vinegar, parmesan and herbs.
February 21^th 2011270 K3.8 25 min.

Surprise bread

(Found inTexts)
This recipe is for a large surprise bread so you can make six layers (48 small sandwiches if you divide each layer in 8), with three different flavours: smoked salmon/lime, smoked ham/butter, mayonnaise/chicken.
December 27^th 2020697 K 84.5 6 hours 25 min.

Five hours poultry

(Found inTexts)
Perhaps simplest recipe on this site, but what a result! The idea is to cook the bird, without fat, at low temperature, covered, and for a long time. In this way, the poultry cooks so as to be almost like a "confit": soft and very tasty. The effect is more spectacular with duck because it is a...
January 27^th 2012535 K3.8 5 hours 15 min.

How to prevent butter burning during cooking

(Found inTexts)
Butter, which is excellent for fixing flavours in a recipe, burns if the temperature is too high. It darkens and produces unpleasant small black specks (by the way, note that the famous recipe "raie au beurre noir", ray in black butter, is a kind of sacrilege!).
February 21^th 2011135 K 24.1 3 min.

Rolls of fish in smoked ham

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Pieces of white fish rolled in thinly sliced smoked ham. These rolls are cooked in a little olive oil and served with French beans. The pairing of smoked ham with fish might seem a little strange, but in fact these flavours marry well.
February 21^th 2011306 K4.9 55 min.

New tiramisu

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This new version of tiramisu is easier, and in my opinion much better. You will certainly appreciate, like me, the light creamy taste, this time presented in brandy goblets.
January 19^th 2015374 K3.3 55 min.

Hotpot my grandmother's way

(Found inTexts)
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 inTexts)
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.

Muffin dough

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This dough can be used to make this delicious and classic of the English cooking: muffins. It can be sweet, in different flavours, with fruit, but also savoury in other recipes.
February 6^th 2013556 K5 25 min.

Blackcurrant sorbet for Edith

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If you love the taste of blackcurrants (like Edith), this sorbet is for you...
October 13^th 2010248 K4.9 25 min.

Millefeuille

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Millefeuille is one of the best pastries available, if it is well made, i.e.: 2 layers of light vanilla cream between 3 layers of fine crispy (possibly caramelized) puff pastry.
October 13^th 2010327 K4.6 1 hour 45 min.

Chocolate cream with a crunch, irish coffee mousse

(Found inTexts)
This is a chocolate cream with chopped candied grapefruit peel and caramelized nuts added to give bit of crunch. The small pot of cream is topped with an Irish coffee mousse (flavours of coffee, fresh cream, sugar and whisky).
March 11^th 2011254 K 15 60 min.

Smoked salmon sacristains

(Found inTexts)
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.

Scallops with fondue of leeks

(Found inTexts)
In this very creamy dish, the scallops are pan-fried, then the leeks fondue is added to absorb all the flavours.
March 6^th 2020316 K 24.6 25 min.

Blackcurrant, vanilla and lime verrine

(Found inTexts)
Vanilla-lime, confectioner's custard and blackcurrant coulis, topped with a layer of whipped cream (chantilly) and dusted with a little matcha green tea powder. Light and flavoursome.
September 12^th 2010189 K4.9 1 hour 9 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

sage

This is a plant of which the leaves are used. It's goes perfectly (in my opinion) with white meats like pork, veal or poultry.
August 29^th 202341 K4.2

mint

There are several kinds of mint with different flavours, some stronger than others. The important thing, if you have the choice, is to use the strongest flavour possible (crush a leaf with your fingers, and smell to compare).
August 29^th 202337 K4.2

Basil

This is a plant of which the very smelly leaves are used.
August 29^th 202327 K4.6

Balancing flavours

In the kitchen, we sometimes use ingredients that can be a little overwhelming in taste. Grilled lardons, for example, are very good, they give a great taste to a lot of recipes where they are added, but you have to be objective, they're still pretty fatty!
November 7^th 20205,4575

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

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

Devising a recipe

A question I'm often asked is: how do you come up with your recipes? How do you perfect them? This is something I've already mentioned on this page, but I'll take this opportunity to go into a bit more detail.
October 15^th 201214 K4.4

Cream and sauces

Have you ever wondered why making beautiful tasty sauces is so easy when you use cream? .
October 15^th 201218 K4.4

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

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

Foie gras without force-feeding: it can be done

I adore foie gras... I willingly admit it, I adore foie gras: the texture, the taste, the festive aspect – I enjoy all of it. I really love eating it, preparing it and, most of all, sharing what I have made with my family over Christmas and New Year. ...but then I begin to have doubts Of...
December 15^th 201445 K4.4

Perpetual stock

It's something you have probably have done yourself: cooked or pre-cooked vegetables before adding them to a recipe. This is almost always done the same way: peel the chosen vegetables (carrots, for example), cut them up, boil them in salted water (using a tablespoon or so of coarse salt per litre),...
November 22^th 201625 K5

What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?

This is a question that you may well have asked yourself and which I will attempt to answer. In France the two trades of "boulangerie" (bakery) and "pâtisserie" (patisserie and confectionery) have always been quite distinct, but where exactly do the boundaries lie? .
February 7^th 2017123 K 14.1

Lemon in recipes

Let's take a look at the lemon, yellow or green, which is used in a whole host of recipes, both sweet and savoury. It brings both its taste, and the small acidity that makes its charm. Mind you, I'm not talking about lemon used as an anti-oxidant that prevents it from turning black, or to just spice...
October 23^th 201712 K5

Roasting spices

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 20206,0154.9

The delicate blend of flavors in salads

As I write these lines, we're deep into winter, and it's often time for raclettes, tartiflettes and other dishes that keep us warm, especially when the weather's as cold as it is right now. But we mustn't deprive ourselves of salads, precious sources of vitamins in these cold and sometimes dark...
January 11^th 20213,8184.9

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 20226,8724.7

Parmesan cheese crusts

If you use Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano) in your recipes, you may have already noticed: when you grate it, it becomes (very) difficult near the crust, especially if it is a slightly aged parmesan, as the cheese gets harder and harder. So we stop grating, leaving some crust on top, and a...
September 14^th 202213 K4.8

A few tips on homemade ice cream

If you make ice cream at home, which is a very, very good idea, you'll find a few tips and tricks in this article that should make your life easier. Combined with the site's ice cream recipes, they'll help you improve your production, to the delight of everyone around you, children first.
August 11^th 20244,0595