4 pears salad with vanilla

(Found inTexts)
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.

Finger biscuits

(Found inTextsStages)
These small biscuits, that look a bit like savoy biscuits, are delicious alone or with Champagne, but are also the base for charlottes or Tiramisu.
July 30^th 2021337 K5 50 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.

How to succeed in making sabayon (syllabub)

(Found inTexts)
A sabayon is a delicious and delicate preparation based on egg yolks and sugar, with a liquid added (wine, alcohol, fruit juice, etc), which is then whipped in a bain-marie until it is both light and smooth. Usually sabayon is sweet (syllabub), but you can make it savoury, in which case there is...
November 12^th 2017929 K 54 20 min.

Foie gras cured in salt

(Found inTexts)
This a quite different preparation from the terrine of foie gras, this time it does not go in the oven, the liver is salted for 48 hours and it "cooks" (or cures) in this way.
December 23^th 2017558 K5 2 days 16 hours 30 min.

Four-tier glasses

(Found inTexts)
This starter recipe, served in a glass, consists of four tiers of different vegetable preparations. Each can be made the day before, and it's only the assembly that is tricky.
June 2^nd 2015259 K5 1 hour 40 min.

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

(Found inTextsStages)
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.
January 14^th 2011295 K 15 25 min.

How to add beaten eggs whites to a mixture

(Found inTexts)
It is common in cooking or pastry, having beaten whites mix preparation to another without making them completely fall, here are some tips to help you to.
August 3^rd 2012124 K4.3 10 min.

How to bake blind

(Found inTexts)
This method allows you to cook a tart case, and then fill with a preparation which may or may not need further cooking (fruit, chocolate, crème patissière , etc...).
May 6^th 2017913 K5 1 hour 40 min.

How to prepare a bain-marie

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A bain-marie is the best way to cook or heat a preparation gently without risk of burning.
July 5^th 2013511 K5 7 min.

How to prepare spinach

(Found inTexts)
For most people (and me most of all), spinach brings back bad memories of canteens... But, well prepared, it's a fine and delicate vegetable which goes remarkably well with scrambled eggs, fish, and many another things. Here are two ways of preparing it.
June 5^th 20153.37 M3.5 1 hour 9 min.

How to make chocolate chips

(Found inTexts)
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.
February 21^th 2011272 K3.8 5 min.

Italian Meringue

(Found inTexts)
Italian meringue is made with sugar cooked to 120°C or 248°F. This is different from the French, which is made from caster sugar. The cooked sugar gives a softer meringue which can be added to other preparations or use as it is.
June 2^nd 2015468 K4.3 30 min.

Scrambled eggs (Oeufs brouillés)

(Found inTexts)
French-style scrambled eggs are rather special. It's not very difficult, just a bit long because it's cooked slowly in a bain-marie. Eventually you will get a delicious, refined and delicate preparation which can be eaten "as it is" or added to another recipe.
February 21^th 2011265 K5 30 min.

How to prepare sorrel

(Found inTexts)
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 2010425 K3.3 35 min.

How to divide a preparation evenly

(Found inTextsStages)
It often happens in cooking: one makes a cream for 6 people in a saucepan, then the recipe says "divide the cream evenly between the glasses", which usually gets done by eye with varying degrees of success. To divide out the preparation more precisely, here's a simple tip just using weighing scales.
June 3^rd 201154 K5 20 min.

Praline

(Found inTexts)
Praline is a preparation of caramelized nuts (in this case almonds), with a very characteristic flavour. Either crushed or as a paste, it is used to fill or flavour all manner of things like creams, chocolates, biscuits, etc.
August 3^rd 2012260 K3.5 55 min.

How to prepare rhubarb

(Found inTexts)
Rhubarb and its characteristic flavour can be the basis of delicious desserts, but it needs to be prepared a certain way before using.
October 13^th 2010212 K4.9 30 min.

How to prepare purple artichokes

(Found inTexts)
The small purple artichokes, which are more tender than the larger green ones, are almost entirely edible. But they need to be prepared in a particular way. Here is how to do this fairly easily.
February 26^th 2016660 K 44 20 min.

How to prepare cockles

(Found inTexts)
Cockles are small Atlantic shellfish which can be used in many delicious dishes. However, they need to be prepared with care before cooking. Here is a simple way to do this.
March 13^th 2013537 K 13.7 1 hour 55 min.

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 2023574 K 93.6

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 2024433 K4.0

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.
August 30^th 2024187 K3.7

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

The name of the elements

The names of the elements in Mendeleyev's table are generally derived from Latin, Greek or German, and refer to properties such as color, brilliance or geographical origin. Here's the origin of each element's name.
August 24^th 202473 K3.6

The dissociation of a preparation

It may have already happened to you: You prepare a sauce, a cream, a ganache etc. and then suddenly or almost, the whole thing dissociates, and from a smooth mixture that you were preparing with love, you end up with a horrible thing with a more or less solid part and another liquid part. It's...
January 22^th 20228,5184.9

Preservative oil, an asset for taste

When you prepare a dish using an ingredient that has been preserved in fat, for example a springtime mixed salad with tuna in oil or sun-dried tomatoes, you're probably going to make a french dressing (vinaigrette) next. In that case, why not use the preserved oil from the tuna or tomatoes?
June 5^th 20243,9965

Clean your mixer easily

If you use a "bowl" or "blender" mixer, as opposed to a plunger, you've probably noticed that it's a bit of a hassle to clean it after use. And yet, with a simple trick, it can be done very quickly. See how here.
June 26^th 20244,1975

A few tips for effective kneading at home

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 2021272 K 23.7

There is vanilla and vanilla

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 20179,1715

85 grams of eggs?

Some time ago, I already spoke to you about the difference between baking and pastry-making, I emphasized, among other things, the precision of pastry-making which requires grams, cm, degrees and minutes. That's why, on the one hand, you have baking and cooking, where a certain tolerance is...
November 26^th 201848 K4.6

The skin of the almonds

If you like almonds, in their dried fruit version, you must use them quite often in cooking or baking, whether powdered or whole. It is not obvious, but in fact there is 2 kinds of almonds in the market, wholesale with or without the skin. .
February 8^th 202019 K4.7

How to avoid lumps

You've probably come across this unpleasant phenomenon where, when you try to incorporate an ingredient (usually a solid or powder) into a preparation (usually a liquid), the mixture doesn't mix properly and you end up with little "balls" or little lumps of the solid part that refuse to mix with the...
October 9^th 202016 K4.8

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

The proper use of a pastry bag

Ever used a pastry bag? Handy, isn't it, but unfortunately not very easy to fill. In fact, to be comfortable with this tool, you'd need 3 or 4 arms, which isn't very common. Does that mean it's a goner? No, of course not. Here are 2 or 3 tips to help you get comfortable with it.
December 5^th 20205,3684.7

Thermal inertia or "out of the fire"

When you're cooking, you need a lot of heat to cook, and most of the time it's on the fire, literally if you're on gas, more indirectly if you're not. An expression that comes up quite often is "Off the heat", but what does it really mean?
December 12^th 20206,4264.6

The 3 secrets of successful mousses

When you make a traditional mousse, that is to say without using a siphon, whatever the recipe, it's always the same principle: on one side you have a dense mixture, very tasty, and on the other side egg whites beaten until stiff. All the difficulty of the success of a mousse, it will be to mix the...
April 3^rd 20216,2924.6

The so-called "nervous" meats

You've probably heard this before, we're talking about "nervous" meat, or meat with nerves, to describe what is indicated by the blue arrow on the left. This is a piece of beef, and what we call a nerve is not a nerve, it is in fact collagen (chemists sometimes call it a "collagen sink"), a...
April 16^th 202127 K4.5

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 20214,7344.8

How to break eggs properly?

It is a very common gesture in pastry, bakery and of course cooking: breaking eggs to incorporate them into a recipe. You have eggs (which professionals call "shell eggs" to differentiate them from liquid eggs in cartons or cans), and you must break them to incorporate the contents into your...
June 26^th 202110 K4.8

Cooking scallops

We are, as I write these lines, in the season of the scallops, if you like that it is necessary to benefit from it as much as possible, although it is alas not cheap. I like scallops a lot, but I have to admit that it has naturally little taste, or, said differently, it takes the taste of what...
November 23^th 20218,9935

The return of the "Norman hole"

You maybe know the "trou normand", this old gastronomic custom typically French which consists in taking a (small) glass of calvados, generally between the last course and the dessert? It's something that seems a bit anachronistic nowadays, having a glass of an alcohol of more than 60° in the...
December 18^th 20219,2924.8

The super powers of cornstarch

I start this new year by evoking an old product, that you most probably have in your cupboards, a white powder, often in a small cardboard package with a slightly outdated look, only the "gluten free" is relatively recent, it is simply cornstarch, hence its name of maïzena. It's used for a lot...
January 14^th 20229,706

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 20226,8754.7

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