Breton galettes (pancakes)

(Found inTexts)
Of uniquely Breton origin, this is a buckwheat pancake on which you cook an egg with ham and cheese before folding it over. Easy and quick to make, it's an ideal answer to the question "what are we going to eat this evening?".

How to use a forcing bag (piping or icing bag)

(Found inTexts)
The forcing bag is the tool needed whenever you need to deposit a blob of something precisely in a particular place (in a mould, a glass, on a plate, etc). Here is how you do it.

How to prepare leeks

(Found inTexts)
Leeks are vegetables that are often muddy, we must be careful when washing them to remove mud that would be very unpleasant to "discover" the plate.

Sautéd mushrooms with spring onions and cured ham

(Found inTextsStages)
Fresh mushrooms of your choice, cooked just right, thinly sliced spring onions and morsels of cured ham. Straight from the pan to your plate.

How to heat plates

(Found inTextsStagesComments)
In restaurants serving "à l'assiette", wich means that your dish is presented already served on a plate, it's very important for the plates to be hot, otherwise dishes arrive cold and it's the customer that (rightly) becomes heated. At home it's worth doing the same thing: you are sure to serve hot dishes to your guests, and as a hot plate can wait longer than a cold one, it can sometimes help to avoid panic in the kitchen at serving time. Here are some simple ways to heat your plates.

Tomato ladybirds

(Found inTextsStages)
Tomatoes filled with a tuna mayonnaise and rice mixture, in a fun ladybird shape that kids will love, served with a puree of fresh garden peas. A good way to encourage them to eat vegetables.

Sushi

(Found inTextsStages)
Sushi is probably the best known element of Japanese cooking outside Japan. For the Japanese it's a culinary art learned over time from masters, but we can make simplified and easier sushi which are still pretty and delicious. The most common types of sushi are nigiri: a little oval-shaped mouthfuls of rice topped with raw fish, and maki: a nori seaweed roll filled with rice and other delicious ingredients.

How to cook red meat properly

(Found inTextsStages)
Cooking red meat well is not as simple as it might seem. Even if you start with high quality meat, with poor cooking it can become dry and tough. Here's a way that will guarantee you a perfect result.

Like Bounty

(Found inTextsStages)
You will no doubt be familiar with Bounty, the chocolate-covered coconut bar. Here's a melt-in-the-mouth version "on a plate" for a chic dessert.

Chicken breasts in a potato crust

(Found inTextsStages)
In this recipe, instant mashed potato powder is used to give an original crusty coating to the chicken breasts. These are fried and served with peas.

Turban of sole with langoustines

(Found inTextsStages)
The turban is made from a rolled fillet of sole poached in fish stock. Each turban is then filled with sautéed langoustines and a tasty cream sauce, flavoured with langoustine stock. This dish takes quite a long time to make because of the langoustine stock, but you will really impress your guests.

Tagliatelle with cockles

(Found inTexts)
In this recipe, the cockles and pasta are prepared separately, then mixed with the sauce at the last minute. The cockles are first cooked quickly, then shelled carefully (I find it unpleasant to have to do this on the plate) and the cooking juices are used to prepare a cream sauce. The tagliatelle are cooked alongside, then the cockles are added with spring onions and the sauce.

Cucumber, avocado and mussel salad

(Found inTexts)
A bold salad idea that brings together 3 ingredients which rarely end up on the same plate: cucumber, avocado and mussels, in a rémoulade dressing.

Raisin breads (pains aux raisins)

(Found inTexts)
Raisin breads (pains aux raisins) are one of the three viennoiseries found in all good French bakeries, along with croissants and pains au chocolat. It is a delicate roll of yeast-based flaky dough (the dough of croissants) filled with custard and raisins.

Roasted leeks with pesto

(Found inTexts)
Oven-roasted leeks, served in the spirit of leek vinaigrette with chopped hard-boiled eggs, but accompanied by a pesto.

Chocolate orangettes for Erika

(Found inTextsStages)
Orangettes are candied citrus peels (oranges or grapefruit) cut into sticks and coated in chocolate. This delicious confection blends the slightly tangy flavors of candied peels with the sweetness of chocolate.

Creamy polenta with green asparagus

(Found inTexts)
A deliberately creamy polenta (because we won't be grilling it afterwards), into which we'll add green asparagus and spring onion, cooked separately.

Charcuterie board

(Found inTextsStages)
Here's a very simple, very quick, and amazing recipe for aperitif plates, made with chips, cheese and charcuterie.

Spicy seafood plancha

(Found inStages)
A mix of diced fish and uncooked prawns marinated with spices and then simply cooked on a plancha. The fish benefits from the acidic citrus note provided by the lime, and the prawns from a little vinegar.

Seared tuna with lemon and lime

(Found inStages)
This is a very simple way to prepare and cook tuna - a fish that tends to dry out very quickly if you are not careful about how you cook it. In this recipe the tuna medallions are marinated in a mixture of olive oil, lemon and lime, before being seared briefly on both sides. Serve with rice cooked beforehand, then just heated through in the left-over marinade.

Homemade plancha

The plancha is a cooking method that originated in Spain. It consists of a very hot metal plate on which food, usually cut in small pieces, is cooked with little fat.Contact with the hot plate means that cooking is very rapid, only a few minutes, and there is an obvious "cooked" side. Food is well...
June 3^rd 2024285 K 43.7

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 2025196 K3.7

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 2023243 K 13.6

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 2023343 K 13.6

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

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 201222 K4.4

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 201222 K4.4

You've probably heard it before: "Cover your pan, it'll boil faster", but is it true? Let's find out.
February 27^th 201533 K 13.4

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

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

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 20218,1134.9

Let's talk about fish: It's not a scoop, it's much more pleasant to eat fish from which all the bones have been carefully removed, even if it's a rather painful and time-consuming job, the result is worthy of your efforts. Here are some important points to keep in mind.
October 16^th 202116 K5

Do you know the wines of the Jura? Maybe not, it's a small appellation, 2000 hectares, with a production of wines that are both very atypical and very typical, even unique for some of them. Let me tell you a few words about it.
May 14^th 202215 K4.9

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

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 202415 K5

Often in a recipe, you have to "baste" vegetables, for example, before sending them to the oven. What the author means by this is that you need to put oil on top of the vegetables to cook them in the oven. Typically, we just quickly drizzle oil over the vegetables, hoping not to miss any, but...
July 13^th 20258,5234

You've just finished a meal that you really enjoyed. The server approaches with the usual question: “How was it?” And then, as a natural reflex, you simply reply, “Yes, it was very good.” However, when the meal was truly outstanding, this brief exchange deserves a little more. .
July 7^th 20261,353 35

When plating or serving a dish—whether hot or cold—on a plate, it’s very important to make sure they’re both the right temperature; in other words: if the dish is hot, the plate should be hot, and conversely, if the dish is cold, the plate should be cold. Is this really important? Let’s...
September 2^nd 20268603

Arrange on plate

(Found inTexts)
Serving up a dish on a plate which will go directly onto the table in front of your guests. To arrange on the plate.
14 K4

Lèchefrite

(Found inTexts)
Large rectangular metal plate with a small rim that comes as an accessory with your oven.
19 K4.4

Transfer

(Found inTexts)
Sometimes we need to transfer the contents of a pan to a dish or plate. This is often to rapidly stop something cooking, as the dish it is transferred to will always be cooler, or it might simply be to free up the pan for something else.
18 K4.1

Plated up ("à l'assiette")

(Found inTexts)
A dish that is served to each guest in individual portions on a plate, rather than one that is placed in the center of the table.
12 K4.4

Mandolin

(Found inTexts)
A mandolin is used to cut ingredients (fruit, vegetables, etc.) into very even slices or small sticks. It consists of flat bed with an adjustable blade (plus a range of additional different plates or blades) over which the items are pushed to and fro.
17 K4.1

Vegetable mill

(Found inTexts)
Vegetable mills have been around for a long time, and are fairly simple: a revolving plate forces the vegetables (or fruits) through a grill plate (the size of holes varies). Of course it takes a bit of effort and elbow grease, but unlike a blender - which pulverises everything - a vegetable mill...
15 K4.5