Tomato acidity, ricotta freshness, mustardy sharpness, herby crust …only 4 steps to make summer tomato ricotta tartlets, including the crust ! I appreciate this recipe because I use 1 egg yolk and 1 egg white so no need to waste or to store any extras in the refrigerator. The shortcrust is not there to contain the filling but closer to a...
Simple is great too so these appetizers require more assembling and less preparing but a little effort will make it tastier ! Once you get the cherry tomatoes and mozzarella balls and fresh basil leaves, then you can decide whether you use prosciutto or pancetta or other smoked and cured meats or you may decide to leave aside the cured meat and...
With this heat, comes the urge to take it easy, hang out in the garden and perhaps go to the beach, but has your summer vacation already begun or will you have to wait some more ? Why not pretend you’re already on vacation and make some small fish skewers at home, whether with small sardines or with large anchovies. You can either grill them...
As I promised, here’s rhubarb recipe number 2 ! We began with a dessert a few days ago and now it’s time for a rhubarb syrup recipe with 3 versions, a simply sweet rhubarb syrup recipe, a spicy rhubarb syrup recipe and an herby rhubarb syrup recipe. With 1 kg of chopped rhubarb, you can probably end up with around 2 litres of syrup and...
Chicken is just one of those foods you can do so much with, whether using only the wings, the drumsticks, the breasts or the whole beast. Cooking it whole obviously takes longer and looks great, but then you have to carve it correctly, unless you’re eating it at home and simply attack it with your fingers that get stickier and stickier. My...
What better way to celebrate than with a sip of champagne as well as a bite of champagne cake with champagne frosting ! The idea came about for France’s national holiday called Bastille Day on July 14th, which is also the reason I used red and blue berries to decorate it like France’s blue, white and red flag, but ideally I would keep...
Anytime is a great time to enjoy different types of flatter breads such as french fougasse or italian foccacia or greek lagana and others too. But summertime seems like a great opportunity to experiment with and to taste the many variations which can be served with marinated and/or pickled vegetables, cheeses, cured meats, etc.. I had previously...
"Summertime, and the living is easy" . . . so it’s also time for you to roast some vegetables ! Well, to be honest, life is easier if you have a mandoline to slice the vegetables thinly and evenly before roasting them ! Yeah, yeah , ha ha ! Obviously with this summer heat, I try to make things as simple as possible which is why I...
It’s rhubarb season ! This unusually tangy vegetable is used for sweet as well as savoury dishes. My friend and neigbour was kind enough to bring me about two and a half kilograms of rhubarb stalks from his parents’ farm north of Paris last week so it was time for me to prepare 3 dishes with it ! We’ll start with the simplest and...
My next door neigbour in Paris who is originally from Beirut showed up one day at my door with these wonderful, moist, sweet coconut balls, topped with golden raisins. Usually I’m the one who is supposed to cooks stuff but her sweets were divine and as she mentioned, they were also quite easy to make so I wanted to share this recipe with...
In summer, we have more free time to prepare things so we don’t have to prepare them later when it’s too hot and sunny and it’s also a good time to time to take care of things that we didn’t have time to do before, like cracking all those walnuts that we have leftover from last winter. Obviously, the basil will be growing...
Fresh summer berries, flowers petals, cool and creamy filling, and kadaif shredded filo dough (like angel-hair used in several Mediterranean countries for sweet and/or savoury preparations and that I’ve already used in my Easter hazelnut & chocolate cheesecakes) … What could be better as a summer dessert ? It’s easy to...
I have always found that the tart taste of rhubarb was fantastic with pork. My first trials with rhubarb were always with savory dishes, sweet dishes came much later ! I often cook my meat with lemon juice but this time, rhubarb would be enough, with a little honey and ginger and garlic. Don’t forget that the rhubarb must be disgorged of its...
These buns are neither cakes nor pastries and not to be confused with a dessert ! These breads are more like traditional bread in which there is cocoa powder, dried fruit and nuts and pieces of chocolate. To be enjoyed during breakfast with butter and honey or jam or simply as a snack. I used a dutch oven or hot pot (with lid) to bake them and a...
ASPARAGUS ... so weird & funny-looking ! I know I usually use filo dough pastry sheets when I bake but there are more varieties of prepared types of pastry dough out there than you expect ! Brik pastry sheets, usually used in North African countries is round, thicker and sturdier and there is no need to double it up as we do with filo...