Cooking French in the US
Shredded Carrot Salad is a staple of French everyday food. Quick and easy to make, it is also incredibly healthy. Dressings vary, but usually include oil and/or vinegar with a variety of herbs and spices. I recently discovered that adding orange juice makes for a delicious dressing! My dressing is thus a mixture of orange […]
This Onion Tarte Tatin is a fun way to make an onion tart, applying the traditional apple tarte tatin technique to onions. The idea is to cook the onions in a skillet on low heat, with the sweet flavors of honey and cinnamon, along with nutmeg, pepper, and balsamic vinegar to top it off. Then, […]
Charlotte is a classic French dessert, that usually contains a cold mousse and fruits, surrounded by lady fingers. I love the combination of strawberries and lemon, so my charlotte is a strawberry-lemon charlotte. A French charlotte is light and fresh, and is easy to make: you don’t even have to bake it! In France, it […]
Boursin® Mushrooms are a great idea for using French Boursin® cheese to make a fun and tasty appetizer or side dish. The idea is to stuff mushrooms with Boursin® cheese, and bake them in the oven. Extremely easy, and delicious! Ingredients Boursin® cheese is fairly easy to find in the US. I use the Boursin® with […]
Stuffed eggplant and peppers is common in Provence, where these vegetables are plentiful. The eggplant and peppers are stuffed with meat, onions, garlic, tomato, herbs and olive oil, which makes this a light, healthy and delicious dish. I use ground turkey meat for my stuffing. This makes the dish even lighter and healthier than it […]
Visiting my in-laws for the holidays, I was asked to make quiche, and since they like mushrooms, it ended up being a mushroom quiche. This mushroom quiche is easy-to-make and delicious! Everyone loved it! Recipe As always with quiche, you will need to either make the quiche crust yourself (recipe here) or buy an […]
I just posted a recipe for tapenade, a provençal black olive spread. As a follow up, I wanted to show you a great way to serve tapenade, in a puff pastry shaped as a star. The tapenade star puff pastry is very easy to prepare, and makes for a very beautiful appetizer. Recipe You will […]
Tapenade is a speciality from Provence. It is essentially pureed dark olives with capers, anchovies, and olive oil. You can serve it with slices of bread as a great appetizer dip, or spread it on little toasts. Tapenade is also used in many tart fillings (tomato tart for example) or savory puff pastries. Though you […]
Tarte au Sucre is a speciality from Northern France, the city of Lille and its surroundings. Though it is called a tart, it is more akin to a sweet pastry. It ressembles a brioche with a sugary creamy filling. Tarte au Sucre is very much sweet comfort food, a very comforting note to the end […]
Goat cheese salad is a staple of Parisian cafés. It is one of these everyday salads that you find everywhere. Though there are some variations on what the salad contains, all goat cheese salads include warm goat cheese, usually on toasted bread. It is the combination of fresh cold greens with warm goat cheese that […]
The Kouglof, a raisin-filled brioche (sweet bread), is a speciality from the French region of Alsace (North-East of France). Due to the proximity to Germany, Alsatian specialities tend to ressemble German specialities. In this case, the Kouglof ressembles a German sweet bread with rum-soaked raisins, yet it comes with its own distinctive features, that makes […]
These almond raspberry tartlets are delicious and they look amazing. They are also very quick and easy to make. The perfect sweet treat for your guests, served as an appetizer or a dessert. You can buy tartlet shells at your grocery store, which makes the tartlets even easier to make. If you prefer to […]
Tomates farcies, which means stuffed tomatoes, is a very common everyday meal in France. It is easy to make, and pleases the whole family, including kids. It is typical to serve it for dinner, with rice on the side. A quick, easy, and delicious family dinner! Recipe This is my personal recipe. Ingredients are […]
The Gateau de Savoie is a light airy cake, named after the Count of Savoie who invented it in the 14th century. After the French revolution, two parisian chefs came up with the idea of using starch instead of flour, making the cake even more airy. Gateau de Savoie is delicious as a dessert or […]
Lyonnaise salad takes its name from the French city of Lyon, where it originated. Lyon is well-known for its rich culinary heritage. The salad is a delicious combination of greens, crisp lardons (bacon), warm poached egg, and croutons. Traditionally, the greens are bitter frisée, but arugula or other bitter greens work just as well. I […]
This Chocolate Tart is a French classic. It is delicious, and quite easy to make. The perfect dessert for chocolate lovers! A few notes about the recipe Though you could use heavy whipping cream, I decided to use sour cream for the chocolate filling. It turned out delicious. Since this dessert is a tart, […]
My Valentine’s Day Cookies are similar to the Halloween Sablés Cookies I loved making for Halloween. The idea is the same, but, since these are Valentine’s day cookies, I am using heart-shaped cookie cutters and strawberry preserve for the red color. I also decided to use a different recipe for the dough, that does not […]
Pains au lait are delicious sweet buttery buns, perfect for breakfast or sweet afternoon snacks. They are easy to make, and kids love them! Pain au lait is a little similar to brioche as it is sweet bread, yet different, in that the only liquid used is milk. Hence the name: “pain” means “bread,” and […]
Healthy and delicious, the Nicoise Salad is a speciality from the city of Nice, on the French Riviera. Hence the name nicoise (meaning “from Nice”, actually spelled “niçoise” in French). This salad comes in different variations. At a minimum, it contains tuna and/or anchovies, tomatoes, olives, hard-boiled eggs, and olive oil in the dressing. It […]
This is my French contribution to Super Bowl Party Food: Nutella® Soufflé! Easy to make, and delicious! Plus, because it is a soufflé, it is actually quite light, while still having the delicious taste of Nutella®. This is a dessert everyone loves, including kids! Great party food, or a fun way to end a meal! […]
Tomorrow, February 2nd, is the French holiday of “Chandeleur,” when the French traditionally eat crepes to celebrate. In France, the savory crepes are made of dark buckwheat flour, whereas the sweet crepes are made of white all-purpose flour. Most Americans are familiar with the white crepes, but less so with the buckwheat crepes, so I […]
