Blackcurrant liqueur

(Found inTexts)
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 2013845 K 44.7 55 min.

Couscous

(Found inTexts)
In couscous, the meat and vegetable mixture is rather long to cook, but not difficult. And the couscous itself (a kind of coarse semolina) is simple and quick to prepare.
November 16^th 2017511 K4.3 2 hours 40 min.

Home-made terrine of foie gras

(Found inTexts)
Preparing your own home-made foie gras from raw is immensively satisfying: good quality liver and a simply amazing flavour – much better than anything you can buy. This recipe is a bit tricky, but quite within everyone's grasp, as long as you follow the 3 most delicate stages carefully. These are,...
December 17^th 20235.23 M 64.2 4 days 15 hours 50 min.

Natural leaven

(Found inTexts)
Leaven is a natural raising agent, a fermented mixture of water, flour and the microscopic yeasts which are present in the air. It's a delicate living substance, sensitive to the external environment. The recipe is around 4000 years old and dates back to the Egypt of the Pharaohs, via a beautiful...
April 3^rd 20201.69 M 304.0 7 days 15 min.

Leavened bread

(Found inTexts)
It might be harder to achieve good results than with traditional yeast bread, but what a flavour! It also keeps better. This recipe is designed for baking bread in a wood-fired oven but, of course, you can use the conventional oven in your kitchen.
May 23^th 20171.19 M 23.8 6 hours 30 min.

Peach and mint salad

(Found inTexts)
Here is a very simple, fresh and delicious recipe; the flavour of mint goes very well with peaches.
September 7^th 2012308 K 24 20 min.

Sushi

(Found inTexts)
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...
October 13^th 2010330 K4.5 1 hour 40 min.

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.
October 13^th 2010467 K2.7 1 hour 25 min.

Pear compote

(Found inTexts)
Stewed pears are not as easy to prepare as stewed apples, as they contain more juice and you risk ending up with more of a coulis than a compote. So here are two simple methods to help you succeed.
April 26^th 2012460 K4.3 40 min.

Home-made potato crisps

(Found inTexts)
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.
March 19^th 2014104 K3.9 30 min.

Ham à la Russe

(Found inTexts)
Ham "à la Russe" is a slice of cooked ham rolled up around a macédoine of vegetables in mayonnaise.
September 10^th 2014102 K4.3 8 min.

Beef Wellington

(Found inTexts)
Beef Wellington consists of a beef fillet (or tenderloin) that is first seared, then cooked in the oven in a puff pastry crust stuffed with a mushroom duxelles and morsels of foie gras. The recipe is rather long, but fairly straightfoward. Here I show you all the tips to help you make it sucessfully...
December 24^th 2023116 K5 1 hour 40 min.

Raspberry sorbet

(Found inTexts)
To make a seriously good raspberry sorbet, the fruit must be of the best quality, of course, but there is another little secret: you need to remove all the seeds to make a really smooth coulis. It is this smooth coulis that makes the sorbet so deliciously velvety.
July 5^th 201744 K4.6 2 hours 20 min.

Rich hazelnut buttercream

(Found inTexts)
This delicious preparation is an alternative to almond frangipane: a nutty buttercream enriched with eggs, designed to be cooked into various pastries.
November 15^th 2017151 K4.1 40 min.

Winegrowers' sausage casserole

(Found inTexts)
This sausage casserole is a simple mix of vegetables with smoked sausage, but the cooking liquid in this case is dry white wine (and hence the name). The casserole is cooked long and slow in the oven with a lid. This allows all the flavours of the vegetables, wine and sausage to mingle harmoniously.
March 19^th 201857 K 2 hours 40 min.

Baked potatoes with poached egg and tuna sauce

(Found inTexts)
You will no doubt have baked potatoes the classic way, but here's a version inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi, served with a delicious tuna and caper sauce, and a poached egg.
September 27^th 202034 K 1 hour 20 min.

Macaronade mixture

(Found inTexts)
Macaronade is the sweet almond and egg-white mixture (inspired by macarons (the original french macaroons) that French pâtissiers use as a topping on cakes and brioches. It forms a delicious crust when baked.
November 25^th 202064 K 2 min.

Clementine confectioner's custard

(Found inTexts)
This clementine confectioner's custard makes the most of the delicious fruity flavour by using both the juice and zest.
January 23^th 202232 K 30 min.

Hazelnut and chocolate biscuits

(Found inTexts)
This is a quick, simple recipe: the chocolate ganache topping and hazelnut sweetcrust pastry can both be prepared in advance.
March 16^th 202219 K 60 min.

Escalope cordon bleu

(Found inTexts)
Escalope cordon bleu, or "cordon bleu", is a great classic of French family cooking: a cutlet of poultry (often chicken) that is folded over a slice of ham, béchamel sauce and strips of cheese, then breaded and baked in the oven. It's a delicacy that most French children have eaten at home, or at...
March 31^th 202412 K 1 hour 35 min.

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

Making your own bread

You'll find a whole range of bread and pastry recipes on this site, but before you get started, perhaps you'd like to know more about the subject, get some tips and tricks, and find out what the main mistakes beginners make? If so, this page is for you.
August 22^th 2024565 K 63.9

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 2024258 K 43.7

Flours

At the most basic level, wheat grain is put through a mill, which produces a white-ish powder flour... Well, actually it's not quite that simple. First of all we need to distinguish between the different grains that can be made into flour: wheat of course, but also rye, barley, buckwheat, etc. So we...
June 3^rd 2024728 K 413.6

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 2023300 K3.9

A Mendeleiev periodic table in 3D

It's an old idea that was in my mind for years: making a real periodic table of Mendeleiev (who always fascinate me) in 3D, where in each element box, there is some atoms (at least) of this element.
August 24^th 2024201 K 13.6

Small history of elements classification

The road to Mendeleev's table of tables has taken centuries. Here's a brief chronology.
August 24^th 202441 K3.9

Solar lighting

As you know, every square feet of our planet receives huge amounts of energy which is sent by the sun. This energy, free, infinite, non-polluting is at our hands, but unfortunately for some sad reason we continue to use fossil fuels with all their harmful consequences to our environment.Is it...
August 29^th 2023236 K4.0

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 2023308 K 13.6

Soured dough

Underneath this strange name lies a baking secret: when you want to give a bread or pastry dough (without leaven, but with yeast) a certain percentage of fermented dough must be added, i.e. the same dough made the day before, and left to ferment overnight in the refrigerator.
August 25^th 2024146 K 24.1

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

Well-cooked meat

Have you ever noticed that if you like your meat well done, it invites strange looks? For instance, in a restaurant, when asked “How would you like that cooked?” If you reply, “Well done,” it is almost as if you are swearing….
May 21^th 201130 K 14.4

The time of the jams

We are well into summer as I write this, and this is the time when most of the fruit is giving or about to give in full. And for many of us, it will also be the time for jams and jellies, one of the best ways to preserve fruit for the next winter.
July 12^th 202124 K4.5

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

Children and vegetables

This is an attempt to address the question that all parents and grandparents, maybe you included, face so often: how can we get children to like vegetables? And at the same time, we might get away from the familiar, day-in, day-out round of pasta, chips, toast.. Well, I can hear you say, it's...
March 9^th 201712 K5

Candied fruits: don't get ripped off

Do you like candied fruit? You might like to nibble a handful or add it to a recipe, like a classic fruit cake or delicious Italian specialities like panettone or sicilian epiphany pie.
June 21^th 201757 K 24.2

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 20179,1685

The mock CAP baker's certificate exam

The next instalment in my life as an apprentice baker at the French INBP professional school. I’m now halfway through training and it’s still as exciting as ever, and exhausting – but maybe I’m just getting old, or both… Anyway, a few days ago we had to go through the mock CAP exam. A sort...
May 1^st 201817 K4.4

The 3 essential knives

You must have heard a chef or cook say: "There’s no good cooking without good ingredients". This is very true, of course, but for any amateur or beginner it is equipment that really counts to start with. What I mean is that you should not skimp on kitchen equipment, good utensils, a food...
May 30^th 201821 K5

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 French baguette and UNESCO

As you may have already read here or there, France has initiated for some time the procedure to try to have the French baguette classified as an intangible world heritage by UNESCO. When you put it like that, it sounds a bit namby-pamby, and it would be tempting to imagine an American (for...
March 18^th 202011 K4.9

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 20206,4254.6

Zester like a pro

Have you heard of the microplane? It's an extraordinary tool that allows you to grate very, very finely, and therefore zest with disconcerting ease. Here's some information about it.
December 25^th 20204,7924.9

Croutons

Do you use croutons, that typically French trick of toasting small pieces of bread on the side to add to a recipe? They're just delicious, but you need to know 2 or 3 things about them. .
December 30^th 20206,0625

The perfect boiled egg

Making boiled eggs is always a delight and it pleases the young and old alike. This little transgenerational side puts them on the list of "things to do on Sunday evening when you don't know what to do" in many families (including mine)... That said, it's not that simple, you have to pay...
January 30^th 202113 K4.7

Let's go easy on the salt

In terms of cooking, I'm probably not teaching you much, salt is ubiquitous, we put it in almost all our dishes, in varying amounts depending on our taste, some like salty, others less, others still not. Its main role is the flavor, the taste, we say that it is a flavor enhancer, ie it reveals the...
February 20^th 20215,1584.8

The return of the vegetable grater

If you are of a certain age (say +50) you may have known, when you were a kid, something that your grandmother had in her kitchen set, the vegetable grater. A kind of mill, to be turned by hand, and which with cutting discs of different sizes, allowed to grate a lot of vegetables, carrots first...
March 20^th 202112 K4.6

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 20215,8354.9

A stable cutting board

As soon as you have something to cut in the kitchen, the best thing to do is to use a cutting board, it protects your table or work surface, and their material is made to protect the edge of your knife, that is to say that it is soft enough, in short it is the ideal thing. But simply put on the...
May 22^th 20215,9825