Oriane's tuna rillettes

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Quick to make, delicious as an aperitif.
February 21^th 2011201 K5 20 min.

Ramekins of duchess potatoes

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Duchess potatoes are a mix of mashed potato and egg yolks, cooked in the oven, in a decorative shape and delicious. In this recipe they top a ramekin containing a layer of mashed potato, cooked leek, and thinly sliced bacon.
March 4^th 2020302 K 24.6 2 hours 5 min.

Stewed plums

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Quick and simple, stewed plums can also be spread like jam.
June 27^th 2010472 K2.6 40 min.

Croque-monsieur

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A classic of French "street food" or bistros: a slice of ham between two slices of bread spread with béchamel sauce. The sandwich is then sprinkled with cheese and toasted in the oven.
August 1^st 2010264 K4 50 min.

Apple semelles (flat apple tarts)

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The French semelle is a flat rectangular tart with a base of puff pastry. In this version, a layer of stewed apple is spread on the pastry, then topped with finely-sliced fruit.
October 28^th 2011160 K4.3 1 hour 5 min.

Carbonnade

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Carbonnade is a dish that comes from Belgium and the north of France. Large pieces of beef are slowly simmered in beer with carrots and onions. Here's a personal version.
November 13^th 2011219 K 14 2 hours 45 min.

Dublin fruit scones

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Scones originated in Britain and Ireland. The Irish version is often made plain and traditionally served with tea. Scones are more of a bread than a cake, eaten split in half and spread with butter or jam, for example. There are also sweeter versions and scones with dried fruit, like the ones I have...
September 12^th 2018122 K4.2 50 min.

How to keep a tart pastry case crisp

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The problem with tarts, and fruit tarts in particular, is that the filling (fruit, cream or whatever) ends up soaking into the pastry and turns it soft. Here is a professional tip for avoiding this problem: spread a thin layer of white chocolate, which does not have a strong flavour, in the bottom...
June 12^th 2013173 K4.7 1 hour

Endive and walnut salad

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This salad has a double dose of walnut flavour: walnut oil in the vinaigrette and crunchy walnut kernels.
May 11^th 201482 K4.9 25 min.

Cigarettes Russes (Piroulines)

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The French name for these tubular biscuits means "Russian cigarettes". Cigarettes Russes are perfect for serving with ice cream or other desserts. The basic biscuit is fairly easy to make; the tricky bit is rolling the tube once cooked.
May 25^th 2014113 K 54.5 50 min.

Flaky chocolate brioche

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This is a rather special brioche: the dough is first layered with butter to make it flaky, then this is rolled around a chocolate filling. The recipe is quite long, but you will be astonished at the result. It is both light (in flaky layers) and rich (with its chocolate filling). As you can see...
November 6^th 202091 K4.5 16 hours 15 min.

Olive twists

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These savoury puff-pastry twists (rather like smoked salmon sacristains) make an ideal aperitif snack. The pastry is simply spread with tapenade.
September 7^th 201873 K3.7 1 hour 40 min.

Olive and pesto bread

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This bread with olives and pesto has a very Italian flavour: a ciabatta dough, herbes de Provence and green olives. The loaf is baked in a tin, with a thin layer of pesto spread in the middle between two pieces of dough, and green olives (with stones removed) pressed into the top.
October 24^th 201777 K3.8 3 hours 60 min.

Sausages with baked beans, French style

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What could be more basic than sausages and beans? This is a rustic French version using dried white haricot beans (or "mogettes") that are first boiled fast, then left to cook slowly with tomatoes and smoked sausages. The long cooking allows the smoky flavour of the sausages to gradually spread down...
March 2^nd 2022143 K4.6 1 hour 4 min.

Jelly-style plum jam

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Lots of people make plum jam, but you can also elevate this to a rather elegant jelly, simply by removing the skins. It's not a true jelly (this is normally made with juice), but leans towards that style: light and, above all, delicious.
October 13^th 2019104 K 13 hours 15 min.

Shakshuka

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This spicy, ratatouille-style tomato and onion purée can be eaten on its own or to accompany other dishes. Here, I've baked it in individual ramekins, topped with an egg. This recipe originated in North Africa and has spread all around the Mediterranean.
January 19^th 202044 K5 1 hour 40 min.

Hot sesame-cream chicken tartines

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Slices of lightly toasted bread topped with sesame and tarragon cream, morsels of chicken and a little grated cheese. Just popped in the oven for a few minutes to brown. [Translator's note: in French, a tartine is simply a slice of bread spread with something (butter, jam...) or an open sandwich,...
January 22^th 202040 K 30 min.

Tex-Mex chicken burger

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For this Tex-Mex inspired burger the usual beef pattie has been abandoned in favour of fried chicken with chilli, put together with sliced avocado and raw baby spinach.
June 23^th 202132 K 50 min.

Smoky sausage and mash

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This is sausage and mash with a smoky Gallic twist: the smoked sausage (Morteau sausage here) is cooked in with the potatoes, so that they take on its smoky flavour. The potatoes are turned into a French-style purée – softer and richer than British mash.
July 21^th 202138 K 1 hour 35 min.

Thin summer tart "à la grecque"

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A fresh, summery tart with a thin base of pre-cooked puff pastry, spread with a cream-feta mixture, and topped with slices of tomato and cucumber.
July 18^th 202129 K 55 min.

Bread oven

Building a bread oven was until a few years ago a job for the professionals. But now you can buy a kind of kit which allows you to build your own bred oven without professional masonry know-how. You should know that the kits only provide the main part of oven, the hearth, where you light the fire...
October 15^th 20241.18 M3.6

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 2024737 K 413.6

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 2025189 K3.7

Advice on heating oven

For good results with a wood-fired oven, it's very important to manage the heating process well. Here is some advice to help you succeed in this delicate operation.
August 24^th 2024180 K4.0

Closed fire cooking

For this method, the oven is emptied of embers, cleaned, and door closed until it drops to the cooking temperature of 250°C or 482°F. It's the method used for breads, pies and tarts, cakes, etc.
August 24^th 202453 K4.4

Home Automation and CP290 with Excel

If you're using a CP 290 interface to do a bit of home automation and, for example, regulate your heating, you must have used the "Lighthouse" software under DOS and Windows 3.1. Apart from the fact that this software is in English with AM and PM times, and that it wasn't very user-friendly, the...
August 29^th 2023148 K4.2

Asian hornets: Why and how to limit their spread

In France, the Asian hornet is one of the most dangerous insect species, and a formidable predator of our domestic bees. Having arrived straight from South-East Asia, it poses a real threat to local beehives.
October 10^th 20194,6345

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 201149 K4.4

Making the most of seeds: Dry roasting

In cooking, and particularly in baking, there are a lot of seeds we can use, such as linseed, sesame, poppy, etc. Usually, recipes simply say to add them just as they are to the mixture or dough. To make a seeded loaf, for example, prepare a plain bread dough as usual, then, towards the end of...
January 30^th 201559 K4.0

For well opened (puffed) cakes

It's always nice to have a well puffed up cake after baking, not only will it taste good but it looks great too. Let's see how to get this beautiful shape almost every time.
January 23^th 201930 K4.2

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 20206,4104.7

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 202115 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 20216,1464.8

What happens to the bread when you make it?

This bread that we eat every day, and that our baker makes for us, what happens during its manufacture so that it becomes bread? I will try to answer this question, and to summarize the complex alchemy that takes place.
May 28^th 202112 K4.9

How to properly roll out a pie crust?

Very often in pastry making, you have to roll out a pastry before using it for a pie or another dessert. At home, of course, you get out your rolling pin and simply roll it out. Is there a way to get an evenly rolled out dough? That's what we will see in this article.
May 10^th 20237,4354.9

How to sprinkle well?

When in a recipe you need to sprinkle something, that is to say to spread a fine layer of powder (flour, sugar, etc.) on something, powdered sugar on a pie for example, you will probably use a fine strainer or a sieve, this is the best way to proceed. But is that all?
May 23^th 20237,2544.7

A drizzle of olive oil

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 20254725