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.

Pollack fillet baked with rice and vegetables.

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This oven-baked recipe teams layers of rice and vegetables (sesame-flavoured rice, sautéed courgettes, onions and tomatoes) with fillets of fish (pollack here) and thyme laid on top. Everything is then cooked together in the oven.

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.

Coconut tuiles

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Delicate tuiles with coconut. Very thin, they are both crunchy and melt-in-the-mouth. Delicious on their own or to accompany an ice-cream or cream dessert, perhaps a sophisticated one like coconut-vanilla cream for Elsa .

Oat shortbread biscuits

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Little biscuits with home-made oat flour (made from rolled oat flakes).

Loin of pork with herbs and julienne vegetables

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Pork loin is cut into individual portions, which are split and filled with herbs before cooking. They are served with crunchy julienne vegetables and a cream sauce.

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.

Real home-made chips*

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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...

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!

How to grill salmon well

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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.

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.

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 2024533 K 433.5

Small, regular pieces

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 202011 K4.5

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 20239,8504.9

The thermometer is your friend

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 20254,6525