During my recent charity walk, my walking buddy, Fran, asked me whether I have a recipe for Yorkshire Puddings. She is French after all and they don’t know about these things, do they? Well, the answer is that I do.
There’s a few of things to remember.
Make the mix and store it overnight in the […]
Some time ago I had the opportunity to work in the kitchen – well, it was more like work experience – at a great establishment called The Lymehurst Hotel in the Lake District under the guidance of Kevin Wyper, a Masterchef of Great Britain.
He made and I ably assisted him in creating the most […]
The bag I removed from the freezer yesterday turned out to be duck and not the chicken legs I was expecting so I decided to make confit with them.
Confit from the Latin word, conficiere, is a method used in France to preserve food before fridges came along… and it usually takes two days including […]
Living in the Périgord-Limousin region meant that we had easy access to duck, something that I love whether it is crispy, confit or magret. And here’s one of my favourite recipes that I cooked with great regularity whilst living there.
♫ ♪ ♫ “A duck walked up to a lemonade stand and he said to […]
♫ ♪ ♫ “France, tu danses avec moi.” ♪ ♫♪ ♫ Daniel Balavoine
I had Conill amb prunes i pinyons – rabbit with prunes and pine nuts in a restaurant near a campsite I was staying at in Catalonia once. I loved it. Then some years later when my then wife and I moved to […]
I introduced this dish at my restaurant, La Grille Bar et Restaurant in very rural France in May 2003 just as the French summer had already commenced. Ahhh, I can see the colours now.
The Limousin diet consists mainly of meat, cheese, bread and red wine so as veal, which was readily available – and […]
I haven’t blogged much this month as I have been pre-occupied with:
1. Four days walking for charity around Marbella.
2. Preparing for my gastronomic trip to the Languedoc.
Now that the walking is out of the way and my feet have healed I can now think about my forthcoming trip to the Tarn in the Midi-Pyrénées. […]
Genoa makes claim to the original pesto from pounding garlic, pine nuts, basil and olive oil. The ancient Romans used to make a similar version and the pesto made in southern France evolved into pistou. There’s also evidence that it actually originated in India but if it did I never came across it when I […]
Camembert, poetry,
Bouquet of our meals,
What would become life,
If you did not exist?
I love camembert and usually it is packed in a round wooden box that makes presentation at the table very pleasing on the eye and the smells whilst it cooks will have your guests drooling. Some boxes have become collector’s items. We have […]
Sous-vide is a method of slow cooking food (in sealed plastic bags) in a water bath. It’s a French invention wouldn’t you know?To buy a half decent Sous-vide gadget will set you back over 200€ but my method is much cheaper and you don’t have to buy anything except food grade cling film (one […]