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 20111.67 M 74.3 4 hours 40 min.

Bouquet garni

(Found inTexts)
Used very frequently in French cuisine, a secret of French chefs, it adds flavour to a lot of recipes, and it's easy to prepare. The basic principle is to make a small bundle of herbs, bind them in green leek leaves and to tie it up, so that the whole thing can be removed and discarded easily after...
March 21^th 2017425 K3.5 15 min.

Herb salad

(Found inTextsStages)
Herb salad is a small salad made with leaves of all kinds of aromatic herbs, it's highly flavoured, and should be considered almost as a condiment. It really is a salad, the leaves are not chopped.
October 13^th 2010234 K4.6 25 min.

Blackcurrant liqueur

(Found inTextsComments)
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...
August 3^rd 2013866 K 44.7 55 min.

Parcels of fish fillet in spinach

(Found inTextsStages)
These parcels are made with small pieces of fish fillet, wrapped in a blanched spinach leaf and lightly fried in butter. They can be served with a salted white wine sabayon (as in the recipe of scallops with crunchy vegetables), a beurre blanc, a dash of olive oil with herbs, or any other sauce of...
March 18^th 2013246 K4.8 2 hours 25 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 2011305 K4.1 1 hour 25 min.

Salmon with sorrel

(Found inTextsStages)
Salmon with sorrel is the perfect mix with tender salmon and the slight acidity of sorrel.
October 13^th 2010313 K 15 1 hour 25 min.

The total turnip

(Found inTextsStages)
The whole turnip goes into this recipe, in which ramekins are filled with both the root vegetable and its leaves.
May 22^th 2025321 K4.4 45 min.

Peach and mint salad

(Found inTextsStagesIngredients)
Here is a very simple, fresh and delicious recipe; the flavour of mint goes very well with peaches.
September 7^th 2012318 K 24 20 min.

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée)

(Found inTexts)
Puff pastry is an incredible assembly of thin layers of butter enclosed in thin layers of dough. After cooking this give a succession of thin crisp pastry leaves that produce exceptional desserts or pies. It's a jewel of French patisserie. Making your own puff pastry is not very difficult, it's just...
January 19^th 2011460 K 63.3 2 hours 45 min.

How to prepare sorrel

(Found inTextsStages)
Here is how to clean and cut fresh leaves to use in a recipe, by removing stalks and central vein, to retain only the very best of the sorrel.
October 6^th 2010447 K3.3 35 min.

How to prepare cabbage

(Found inTextsStages)
Cabbage can be used cooked or raw, whole leaves or in julienne. Here is how to prepare a cabbage julienne.
December 31^th 20131.13 M 13.4 45 min.

Salmon chard rolls

(Found inTextsStages)
For this dish only the green part of the chard is used. The blanched leaves are rolled around grilled salmon portions. The rolls are served coated with a savoury lemon sabayon, or the sauce of your choice.
August 8^th 2010177 K3.8 1 hour 25 min.

How to prepare a lettuce

(Found inTextsStages)
It is much more economical to buy a whole lettuce than separate leaves in a plastic packet. And it's so simple to prepare - you can see how here.
April 17^th 2011410 K4.8 30 min.

Fried rillettes

(Found inTexts)
Rilletes formed into thin cakes and fried. This allows the fat to drain off during cooking and leaves crunchy and tasty discs of lean meat which can be served with mashed potato (purée).
December 11^th 2011130 K4.9 30 min.

Corn salad with croutons

(Found inTextsStages)
Corn salad (or lamb's lettuce) leaves mixed with chopped hard-boiled eggs, mushrooms, spring onions, butter-fried croutons, and - of course - a good vinaigrette dressing.
April 8^th 2012134 K5 55 min.

Little Christmas biscuits

(Found inTextsStages)
These little chocolate biscuits are decorated with marzipan. They are ideal to accompany a festive dessert.
December 23^th 201296 K 24.2 2 hours 45 min.

How to prepare corn salad

(Found inTextsStages)
Corn salad (or lamb's lettuce) is a green salad plant. It can be used like lettuce, but requires careful preparation as it is often grown in sand. Here is how to prepare corn salad from the freshly picked plant to the leaves ready to use.
April 10^th 2013155 K4.1 20 min.

Stuffed cabbage leaves

(Found inTextsStages)
The French classic "chou farci" is made with large green cabbage leaves which are blanched before being rolled into parcels around a sausage meat and cheese filling, then baked in the oven.
February 1^st 2015224 K5 1 hour 25 min.

Pan-fried chicken breast on mozzarella

(Found inTexts)
Chicken breasts pan-fried with sage leaves, topped with thinly sliced mozzarella and preserved tomatoes, then served turned over on a bed of the "toppings".
December 30^th 201976 K4.1 25 min.

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 202391 K4.2

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 2024195 K 13.9

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 202379 K3.8

rosemary

This is a kind of shrub, of which the small branches are used.
August 29^th 202349 K4.2

parsley

There are different kinds of parsley, the two main ones are curled parsley and flat-leaf (or Italian) parsley. The most important difference between the two, except the leaf shape, is taste: flat-leaf parsley has much more flavour.
August 29^th 202363 K4.1

fresh coriander (cilantro)

This is a plant of which the leaves are used fresh. It has a very subtle flavour which is remarkable in salads. It is an indispensible ingredient in Asian and Mediterranean cuisine. The seeds are also available (like white pepper grains but paler), which have a different taste.
August 29^th 202343 K4.2

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 202343 K4.2

sorrel

This is a plant of which only the leaves are used. There is a wild species, very tasty, with small red and green leaves, and a cultivated variety with large green leaves.
August 29^th 202344 K4.3

tarragon

Tarragon is a herb with strongly aromatic leaves. These are used for their characteristic flavour that goes very well with meat and fish.
August 29^th 202352 K4.1

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 202339 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 202352 K4.6

Chervil

Chervil is very similar in appearance to parsley, but its leaves are smaller, and its taste (delicate) is very different, sometimes with a slight hint of licorice.
August 29^th 202332 K4.4

Basil

This is a plant of which the very smelly leaves are used.
August 29^th 202328 K4.6

The power of sayings and beliefs in the kitchen

One day, in the comments on the recipe for beaten egg whites, a young woman asked if you could beat egg whites stiff while having a period, as a friend had told her it wasn't possible. Sometime later another person commented that for mayonnaise it had been (get this!) scientifically proven that a...
February 6^th 201150 K4.4

20 measures to protect your privacy

As we use more and more new technology, we leave ourselves increasingly vulnerable to companies who make money out of collecting our personal data. For instance, when we use the internet, we need to be wary of what is collected about what we do, our habits, etc. Here is a list of simple...
April 16^th 201318 K3.9

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 201651 K4.3

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 201628 K5

The right way to use a blender

You may well have a blender in your own kitchen. You know, that useful gadget that allows you to liquidize stuff at high speed into a smooth liquid. Of course, the most obvious use that comes to mind is for soups: if you have boiled some vegetables in water, with just a quick blast of the blender,...
May 31^th 201721 K5

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 201821 K4.7

Cleaning endives

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 202023 K4.6

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 202112 K4.9

Let's rehabilitate the burger

The burger is a sandwich that is very fashionable at the moment, and as for all other sandwiches, the worst (often) rubs shoulders with the best (much more rare). In principle, I'm probably not teaching you anything, it's a sandwich made of a small round bun, rather soft, like a sandwich bread,...
April 10^th 20217,2934.9

Let's rehabilitate spinach

We are currently (as I write this) in the season of fresh spinach, and it is a delicious vegetable that unfortunately has a bad reputation among a lot of people, children and teenagers in particular. I wonder if this lack of appetite isn't due to what I call, probably unfairly, "school food...
May 7^th 20215,8044.8

The "pith" of the cauliflower

When using cauliflower in a recipe, there is a lot of preparation work at the beginning: removing the leaves, taking the tops or florets, etc. It's a bit tedious, but in the end you're left with the best of the cauliflower, ready to be used in your recipe.
February 5^th 202211 K4.9

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 20227,8914.7

Sorrel and its cooking

Do you like sorrel? This delicious plant with its beautiful bright green leaves, whose subtle acidity goes very well with many other things, including in particular cream, to form with salmon the emblematic dish of the 70's, "Salmon with sorrel" on which was built the beginning of the fame of the...
March 19^th 20229,4225

The salad spinner is not only for salad

Where we see that the salad spinner can be used for many other purposes.
March 25^th 20229,0494.8

Shall I take the tops off?

If you buy your vegetables at the market, at a farmer's stand, once you have chosen a bunch of carrots or beets for example, you must have already heard this proposal from the salesman: "Shall I pull the tops? This sentence is his proposal to remove for you all the tops, which he puts aside, to...
May 7^th 202210 K4.9

Celeriac soups and the 3rd ingredient

Do you like celeriac, a vegetable that is not always a big hit? If your answer is "no" or "not so much", it is perhaps that you have in mind the celery remoulade, the emblematic starter, with the eggs mimosa, of the bistrot kitchen. It's very good, well if you like it of course, but it's a bit...
May 21^th 202210 K4.9

The preservation of bread

Eating fresh bread is always a delight, the crust crumbles deliciously, you take full advantage of the taste of your bread (80% of this taste is in the crust), it is a fleeting moment to enjoy. Who hasn't already eaten the crouton or croutons of his baguette, on the way back from the bakery? ...
June 11^th 202212 K4.7

How easy is it to chop herbs?

Whenever you have fresh herbs - parsley, chervil, coriander, mint, etc. - to incorporate into a recipe, we tell you to chop them up. In this case, "chopping" means separating the leaves from the stems, keeping only the leaves, and chopping them more or less finely. It's not very complicated,...
September 12^th 202310 K5

Toss the salad

When you've finished preparing a salad, green or otherwise, it's usually time to add the dressing and toss. It's often said to "toss the salad", which means to season and mix. Is it easy? Not so easy...
March 8^th 20248,9335

Sauce and salad: When and how to mix them?

When dressing a salad, there's a kind of golden rule: add the dressing very shortly before serving, especially if your salad contains crunchy elements such as croutons or fresh vegetables, which will retain their crunchiness or crispiness. But, as is often the case in the kitchen, there are...
November 29^th 20244,8225