How to prepare tomatoes

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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 the skin) that the awful chemical products that the fruit receive during growth, are concentrated (treatments, pesticides, etc...).

Tender tuna

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Cooking tuna can be tricky: undercooked it is unappetising, overcooked it dries out rapidly. Here is a method which guarantees that your tuna will be perfectly cooked and tender.

How to make ravioli

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In theory, making ravioli is fairly simple: just roll out wide bands of thin fresh pasta dough and encase small pieces of pre-prepared filling between two sheets of pasta. In practice, it's a bit trickier than that and having the right equipment is important. This recipe shows you how to make beautiful ravioli step by step.

How to cook caramelized puff pastry well

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When puff pastry is caramelized to use in patisseries like millefeuille, French chefs call it a "feuilletage" (which means "lamination" or "leafing"). This is baked on its own before being assembled with cream, fruit, etc. The baking needs to be carefully managed: the pastry should puff into layers, but not swell too much (just a few millimeters normally). To achieve this, we need to follow a special method that I have explained for you here.

Stuffed prunes

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Stuffed prunes are a sweetmeat made with halved dried prunes sandwiched together around a morsel of marzipan flavoured with Armagnac.

Stuffed pumpkin gratin

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The small squash used here is the Japanese chestnut pumpkin or "potimarron". For this gratin, we scrape out the seeds and fill the centre with a mixture of two sorts of fried meat (chicken and bacon), chestnuts and cream, then bake it in the oven until the pumpkin flesh is soft. Served straight from the oven like this, the pumpkins look really appetising. Just dig in with a spoon.

Home-made potato crisps

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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.

Nougat

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Nougat is a sweet made with honey and almonds that has changed very little since ancient times. The nougat we know today is the Montelimar variety, in which egg whites are added to the basic recipe for a lighter texture. Here is a simplified version.

Fish "à la Bordelaise"

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Fish "à la Bordelaise" is a fillet topped with a crust of breadcrumbs, herbs and onions cooked in white wine, then oven-baked until golden brown. It is a classic frozen family meal that many French children have grown up with, but here is a home-made version that is far better.

Pear and chocolate tart with a hint of mint

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Thick slices of poached pears in a blind-baked sweetcrust pastry case, their centres filled with mint-flavoured confectioner's custard, and surrounded by a chocolate cream, set by baking briefly in the oven. The flavours of pears, chocolate and mint work perfectly together to create a truly exceptional tart. You'll love this one!

Chestnut and hazelnut biscuits

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Here's a really simple recipe for little nutty biscuits, combining hazelnuts with a double dose of chestnut flavour: flour and purée (crème de marrons).

Angevin plum pâté

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The Angevin pie, as its name does not indicate it, is a dessert, a kind of plum pie made with a shortcrust pastry. It is a dessert from the old days, which has crossed the ages while remaining in Anjou (the famous "Loire valley" in France).

Triple-Cheese Pumpkin Gratin

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The small squash used here is the Japanese chestnut pumpkin or "potimarron". For this gratin, we scrape out the seeds and fill the centre with a mixture of three sorts of cheese and cream, then bake it in the oven until the pumpkin flesh is soft. Served straight from the oven like this, it is good to dive into the gratin with a spoon.

Flaky brownie brioche

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This beautiful brioche contains the typical ingredients you'd expect in a brownie: chocolate, butter, brown sugar and pecan nuts. But these are not just thrown into the mixture; the brioche is layered with them to create a delicious culinary bridge between Europe's viennoiseries and the all-American brownie.

Croissant dough apples

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Thick slices of apples, rolled in sugar and surrounded by a strip of crescent dough, which, after a spell in the oven, become delicious puff pastry apples.

Baker's apple soles

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You may already be familiar with apple semelles, but here's a gourmet baker's version where the puff pastry is replaced by puff pastry (croissant dough), which is baked upside down.

How to make tart cases

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It's not easy to make beautiful, even tart cases, but here I'll let you into the secret of how the professionals do it. You will see that there are a lot of little details that make all the difference. It's a bit technical, but don't worry, I'll guide you through the important points.

Raisin breads (pains aux raisins)

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Raisin breads (pains aux raisins) are one of the three viennoiseries found in all good French bakeries, along with croissants and pains au chocolat. It is a delicate roll of yeast-based flaky dough (the dough of croissants) filled with custard and raisins.

Shortbread tart with sweet apricots and rosemary

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In this shortbread tart, the apricots, which are generally rather acidic after cooking, are first poached in syrup to give them a particular sweetness, which goes very well with the rosemary.

Oatmeal and chocolate shortbread

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For this recipe, shortbread with oats and chocolate.

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 2024547 K 433.5

When we cook, bake or pastry, we often have to cut food into small pieces, often cubes, to incorporate them into a recipe or preparation. How do you get regular pieces fairly quickly?
November 28^th 202014 K4.5

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 202312 K4.9

There are many recipes or foods that require a (very) precise cooking temperature: foie gras, sugar for caramel, meats and fish, and not forgetting pastries. For these few examples, getting the cooking temperature wrong can spoil the whole recipe or dish: undercooked, it's no good or misses the...
April 10^th 20255,7285

When making pie dough (shortbread, shortcrust, sweet...), it's always a good idea to make a lot at once, and then divide it into pieces, which you can freeze. I've already pointed out the mistake not to make, which is to form a ball before freezing. It's difficult to roll out afterwards because...
March 9^th 20263,0795

Pastry shims or rulers

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Pastry shims are 25 cm (10") long strips of varying thickness, often 3, 5 and 10 mm, which allow you to roll out dough (shortbread, shortcrust, etc.) to exactly the right thickness, limiting the action of the rolling pin.
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