Herb olive oil

(Found inTexts)
This flavoured olive oil, easy to prepare, goes very well with Mediterranean cuisine: pizzas, pastas, pan bagnat, etc...

Natural leaven

(Found inTextsComments)
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 history...(note: the ancient Egyptians seem not to have had exclusive knowledge of the process: in Germany evidence of cooking a fermented dough has been found from 8000 BC (the Neolithic era). The...

Five hours poultry

(Found inTexts)
Perhaps simplest recipe on this site, but what a result! The idea is to cook the bird, without fat, at low temperature, covered, and for a long time. In this way, the poultry cooks so as to be almost like a "confit": soft and very tasty. The effect is more spectacular with duck because it is a rather firm meat, tough even, but with this method it can be cut with a fork like a confit. This recipe is applicable to big poultry too, it's also a response to questions like "How to cook a turkey?" or...

Avengers' potatoes

(Found inTexts)
Lurking behind this strange name (see reason below) is a kind of potato-cheese gratin, which is wrapped in thin slices of bacon. It's cooked first on the hob, then in the oven.

Poached eggs

(Found inTexts)
Poached eggs are cooked, without the shell, in barely simmering (nearly boiling) water. White should be firm and yolk soft, that's the difficulty. This recipe teaches you how to succeed with three important points.

How to grill salmon well

(Found inTexts)
This is not as simple as it might at first appear. A properly grilled piece of salmon should be crisp on the outside and moist on the inside. This soft interior is achieved by very strict timing (cooking fish just right is a sign of a true chef), as undercooked it is unpleasant, and overcooked the salmon dries out.

Real home-made chips*

(Found inTexts)
It's not easy to make these - the original "French fries" - well at home, that is, to produce golden and crunchy chips from fresh potatoes. Here is a way of doing it in three cooking stages, which gives very good results: melting in the middle, crunchy on the outside, and a nice golden colour. What's more, everything can be prepared in advance. [Translator's note: I have called these "chips" (the British English term, not to be confused with flat round "crisps", being what Americans understand...

Lobster Thermidor

(Found inTexts)
In this recipe, the lobster are cooked first in a court bouillon (stock), then the flesh is removed and cut into small pieces before being cooked with the cream and alcohol. The dish is browned in the oven to finish.

Oaty walnut cake

(Found inTextsStages)
This is a moist-textured walnut cake with rolled oats, but the real secret comes from dry-roasting the nuts before adding them to the mixture.

Chocolate and vanilla crème brûlée

(Found inTextsStages)
This crème brûlée recipe is a sophisticated combination in three layers: chocolate ganache, vanilla custard, and, of course, a delicious thin crust of caramel. It is more complicated than a simple chocolate crème brûlée, but well worth the effort when you see your guests' reactions.

Toffee apple upside-down cake

(Found inTexts)
With a flavour reminiscent of the French classic tart tatin, this cake is made with a ring of tart apples arranged on a layer of caramel, then covered with the batter. After baking, the cake is turned out while still hot so that the caramelized apples are on the top with the moist cake underneath.

Shiitake eggs

(Found inTexts)
By French standards, this hardly qualifies as an omelette: beaten eggs, simply slammed in the pan with sautéed shiitake mushrooms in soy sauce.

Snow peas sautéed in butter

(Found inTexts)
Here's a quick and easy recipe for spring, when snow peas arrive on the shelves, and it's so simple and delicious just to sauté them in butter with a chopped shallot. This can be a stand-alone dish, or a side dish for meat or fish.

Sorrel mayonnaise

(Found inTexts)
In this original recipe, we add the taste and delicious acidity of sorrel leaves to a classic mayonnaise.

How to prepare cabbage

(Found inStages)
Cabbage can be used cooked or raw, whole leaves or in julienne. Here is how to prepare a cabbage julienne.

Quick orange marmalade

(Found inStages)
Just oranges (organic) and sugar in this simplified marmalade recipe.

Pistachio panna cotta with custard

(Found inStages)
In this dessert, the pistachio panna cotta is teamed with real vanilla custard and topped with a few caramelised pistachios.

Chocolate mousse with hazelnuts

(Found inStages)
Here is a marvellous new chocolate mousse recipe that will delight real chocoholics. This is a rich, gourmet version, though not over-sweet and with the added crunchy texture of toasted hazelnuts. You'll love this one!

Plum tart

(Found inStages)
This tart made with sweetcrust pastry and almond cream is especially tasty with those rather sour little plums that can be found in such profusion in late summer.

Roasted Cauliflower

(Found inStages)
Roasting cauliflower in the oven is a delicious way to enjoy the vegetable: golden-brown on the outside and melt-in-the-mouth inside. In this recipe, the cauliflower is blanched first, then brushed with herb butter before roasting in the oven.

A little molecular gastronomy

Long-cooked meat becomes meltingly soft. What happens to achieve this result?
August 29^th 202346 K4.4

Other cookery websites

List of my other favourite sites.
August 29^th 2023218 K3.9

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 2023610 K 93.6

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 2023332 K4.0

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 2024221 K 13.9

Make your own hot-wire or styrofoam cutter

A filicoupeur is a hot-cutting tool for polystyrene, which can be used to enhance any piece of polystyrene you've salvaged, and to do all kinds of things with it: model building, model making, arts and crafts, and so on. See here how to make your own.
February 20^th 2024539 K 433.5

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 2023256 K4.0

The steam machine

Fogging is an essential element in a bread oven. It's not easy to see, but it's the presence of fog that makes breads golden brown. To get steam on a regular basis, you can put a ramekin full of water in the bottom of the oven, or spray the inside with a sprayer, but this solution requires you to...
August 24^th 202467 K4

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 2023337 K 13.6

Slashing loaves

When it's time to put them in the oven, the dough pieces for future breads or viennoiseries need to be "lamés", i.e. made with a very sharp blade, by making quick incisions at the top, known as "grignes". Let's see how it's done.
August 29^th 2023292 K 43.6

The amateur baker

You may have noticed over the pages of this site, I am passionate about everything that is related to the bakery: I love making bread, pastries, maintain my leaven, etc.. This page contains links to all the different parts of the site where we talk about bread: recipes, special pages, etc.
October 15^th 2024205 K 44.1

Stand mixer tools

Whether we call it a stand mixer, food processor, or simply refer to it by brand (Kenwood, KitchenAid, etc.), this machine is a valuable tool for amateur cooks, bakers or pastry chefs like ourselves. All these machines come supplied with 3 different tools. Let’s take a look at their names and...
November 2^nd 201938 K4.5

Properly cooked! (the taste)

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 201119 K 14.6

Good fridge management

We all have a fridge at home – it's an indispensible part of the kitchen and so much a part of the furniture that we tend not to pay it much attention. But often, out of habit, we don't use it properly. Here are a few tips to help you get more from your fridge. .
April 19^th 201130 K4.4

Too much sweet and savoury

There is a food trend which is creeping in everywhere in France right now: mixing sweet with savoury. In some restaurants, it is becoming difficult to order a classic dish, like “roast veal” for instance, without being served fruits in the garnish or honey/conserves/syrup in the sauce or cooked...
November 3^rd 201128 K4.5

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 201716 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 201724 K5

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 201713 K5

The golden-brown finish on puff pastry

Let's take a look at the tricky matter of producing puff pastry with an attractive, golden-brown finish. French pastry chefs call this "dorure" (literally, "gilding"). Behind this quirky term there lurks a real problem (and the solution): when using puff pastry (pâte feuilletée) for a pie, or...
February 8^th 201849 K 24.6

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 201825 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 201858 K4.6

The green of leeks

We are all, consciously or not, very sensitive to the colour of our food. That's why a red strawberry will always seem more appetizing than a pale one, even if it's not necessarily true. This is true for red, but it is also true for the green of certain vegetables.
March 30^th 202020 K4.0

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 20209,3964.7

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 202115 K4.9

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 202117 K4.6

Burgers and cheeses

A quick look at burgers(article from 2 weeks ago), and in particular the cheese in burgers, many of you have asked me about this, and how to get cheese to melt in your burgers.
April 24^th 202110 K4.8

The color of the bread crumb

When you go to buy bread, at your baker's, at the time of the choice, if you hesitate of course, you will undoubtedly be very sensitive to the color of the crust, and you will be right. The color of the crust, from golden, to sometimes very dark, deep brown almost black, depending on the maturity...
April 30^th 202222 K4.6

The 3 secrets of Parisian flan

A flan Parisien, or boulanger, is a simple yet delicious cake. A cream, a mixture of milk, eggs and sugar, is poured into a raw pastry base and baked in the oven until the pastry and cream are cooked. This is the simplest version of the recipe, probably the original one, but nowadays the cream...
July 21^th 202316 K4.7

The aromatic power of sugar

In the kitchen, sugar doesn't just sweeten, it also has an exceptional ability to capture flavors. Combined with aromatic ingredients, such as citrus zest, it acts as a veritable sponge for aromas. By taking the time to let the sugar soak up the flavors, you can transform your desserts, making...
December 25^th 20247,4195

Travel cakes

You may have come across the term "travel cakes" ("gateaux de voyage" in french) for certain pastries, so let's take a look at what they're all about.
January 27^th 20257,736

Cake moulds

When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?
August 25^th 20259,1535