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.

Guacamole

(Found inTexts)
For this typically Mexican recipe there are two main methods: smooth mashed avocado (made with a blender), or simple mashed avocado (made with a fork) with small pieces. And you can add, or not, finely diced tomato. You will find the first version (smooth) below.
November 26^th 2011293 K4.1 1 hour 25 min.

How to prepare tomatoes

(Found inTexts)
Yes, I know you will say to me: why peel tomatoes? The answer is very simple: it's much better, gives a better texture, softer in the mouth. The skin is tough, adds nothing to the taste (and you will have noticed that commercial tomatoes have practically no taste), and finally it's there (on/under...
June 6^th 2012327 K 24 40 min.

Stewed apple (compote)

(Found inTexts)
Here is a very basic but delicious recipe, and the pitfalls to avoid.
November 8^th 20172.42 M 14.8 1 hour 15 min.

How to use gelatin

(Found inTexts)
Gelatin is a gelling agent use in some desserts where a rather firm texture is required when cold. It can also be used to stabilize a dessert (mousses especially) that you need to keep longer than usual.
July 9^th 2018404 K4.8 7 min.

Béarnaise sauce

(Found inTextsStages)
This very tasty sauce, flavoured with tarragon, chervil and shallot, with its hint of acidity, is perfect for grilled fish or meats. Its well-known as a difficult sauce, but here are all the tips that you need to succeed.
May 22^th 2016338 K4 1 hour 6 min.

Pâté de campagne

(Found inTexts)
Here is a personal version of the famous country pâté. It's an interesting recipe to prepare in large quantities because it keeps well and freezes easily. The secret of a good pâté is of course the ingredients, but also how it is cooked.
October 3^rd 20192.06 M 23.7 7 hours 55 min.

Cornmeal baps for Anne

(Found inTexts)
These small round baps are made with a mix of wheat flour and fine cornmeal. The dominant corn gives a moist and very yellow crumb.
October 24^th 2017256 K4.3 5 hours 55 min.

Pistachio powder or paste

(Found inTexts)
Pistachio paste has a similar texture to almond paste, but the similarity ends there, as its flavour and colour are quite characteristic.
October 13^th 2010370 K 154 50 min.

Quick bramble jelly

(Found inTexts)
Fruit jelly is jam made with the juice only. All the skin and seeds are strained out, which gives a very smooth texture. Here's a quick recipe which will give you an excellent jelly, and which keeps the full flavour of the blackberries thanks to its very brief cooking.
July 5^th 2013275 K4.2 50 min.

Terrine of foie gras

(Found inTexts)
This simple way preparing a terrine of foie gras is ideal for beginners. In this recipe the liver is passed through a sieve or vegetable mill rather than kept in large pieces. The final appearance is smoother, less marbled, but just as delicious.
June 2^nd 2015247 K 15 17 hours 8 min.

Liège waffles

(Found inTexts)
Liège waffles have a very distinctive texture: quite dense with the crunch of sugar crystals. They also have a characteristic form: round and fairly small. Then there's that special flavour that comes with the delicious light caramel crust.
July 12^th 2011255 K5 1 hour 55 min.

How to make fleur de sel (salt flakes)

(Found inTexts)
French "fleur de sel" is a salt with a special texture, formed by the action of the wind on salt marshs. The wind dries the surface of the water which has a high salt concentration (this will later become sea salt) producing thin flaky crystals.
May 4^th 2011235 K 43.9 1 hour 7 min.

Like Bounty

(Found inTexts)
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.
August 1^st 2011146 K4.6 1 hour 55 min.

Royal icing

(Found inTexts)
Royal icing is a mixture of egg white and icing sugar. From its pasty consistency when fresh, it dries to give a lovely white crust.
February 12^th 2012193 K4.7 15 min.

Potatoes with prawns

(Found inTexts)
This recipe, originally from Belgium, consists of baked potatoes which are hollowed out and filled with fried prawns. A cream and white wine sauce is then poured over the potatoes before returning them to the oven.
January 14^th 2016115 K3.8 1 hour 50 min.

Brownies

(Found inTexts)
Brownies are traditional North-American tray-baked cakes: always moist in texture, usually with chocolate and pecan nuts. Brownies should still be soft in the middle, so need to be slightly undercooked.
March 8^th 2020106 K4.1 35 min.

Oat financiers for Louise

(Found inTexts)
These moist little petit-four cakes are called 'financiers' in French, as they are similar in shape to gold ingots! They go very well with tea or coffee. In this version, the usual ground almonds are replaced with rolled oats, blended to a powdery texture.
October 21^th 2012105 K 23.9 45 min.

Pistachio madeleines

(Found inTexts)
Firm on the outside, soft in the centre and with a prominent pistachio flavour, these madeleines are truly delicious.
March 10^th 2019110 K 25 1 hour 40 min.

Pancake batter

(Found inTexts)
Here is a pancake batter that is a little more sophisticated than the traditional version. The pancakes will be tastier with a softer texture.
February 2^nd 2020324 K3.8 15 min.

A little molecular gastronomy

Long-cooked meat becomes meltingly soft. What happens to achieve this result?
August 29^th 202339 K4.4

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

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

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

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 2024170 K 44.1

In praise of slow cooking

You will no doubt have noticed that in cookery, it's often the actual cooking process that gets neglected. This is understandable; it comes at the end of the recipe and getting the dish in the oven is something of a relief (ah, that's done!), which frees us to cope with what's left: tidying the...
February 9^th 201137 K4.2

Devising a recipe

A question I'm often asked is: how do you come up with your recipes? How do you perfect them? This is something I've already mentioned on this page, but I'll take this opportunity to go into a bit more detail.
October 15^th 201214 K4.4

Cream and sauces

Have you ever wondered why making beautiful tasty sauces is so easy when you use cream? .
October 15^th 201218 K4.4

Different kinds of pastry and dough

When cooking in general, and particularly in baking, we can make and use many different kinds of pastry and dough. All built on the same "base": flour - a powder to which we add fat, liquid or both to produce the dough which is then cooked. .
November 6^th 2012106 K 14.0

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

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 201720 K5

Foie gras service

For the upcoming christmas meals you too may be sacrificing to the tradition of foie gras? If so, I suggest you take a look at everything that revolves around serving foie gras: how to serve it, and what to eat and drink with it.
December 23^th 201711 K4.9

Egg yolks and caster sugar

We often come across recipes where we need to mix egg yolks with caster sugar. This would appear to be a very ordinary and simple thing to do but, be warned, these two ingredients can behave oddly together.
February 15^th 201875 K 24.3

Is it really necessary to cream egg yolks?

Let’s try and answer a question that crops up in cookery and patisserie, even if it verges on the existential: do the egg yolks in a custard recipe really need to be beaten until pale, or not?
February 28^th 201839 K4.3

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

Fruits and their syrup

As I write these lines, we are finally in the summer, the holidays are approaching, and above all, the fruits are pouring onto the market stalls, if they are ripe, it's time to enjoy them to the full! .
July 24^th 20197,9364.7

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

The infinite variety of salads

Making a salad for a meal, a few ingredients of your choice and a sauce to bind it all together is still one of the best ways to cook something really good quickly and simply. And since there is often a "fresh" aspect with the vegetables in the ingredients, not only does it taste good, but it's...
March 13^th 20216,4364.6

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 20216,2914.6

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 20215,8364.9

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

In praise of the whetstone

Have you ever seen a butcher or a chef sharpen his knife before using it? Usually he uses a special tool, a long thin cylinder made of very hard metal. And in a smooth and elegant gesture, he very quickly passes the edge of the knife against the rifle, which makes a very characteristic noise,...
June 5^th 20216,8654.8

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 20229,705

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 20228,5174.9

Soup vs. potage

It's true that we're finally coming out of winter as I write these lines, and that we'll all be making, no doubt, a little less soup and potages, but even if it's out of season, it really is a simple and delicious dish, which is one of the always easy answers to "What's for dinner this (Sunday)...
April 9^th 20225,868