Today I cooked magrets de canard (duck breasts) served with peaches and a delicious potato cake. It took me 30 minutes to make, (perhaps 10 minutes more for the potato peeling and chopping). This is such a ‘gourmet’ lunch, with amazing flavors mixed together. When cooking duck breast, you must be slightly patient – it takes about 20-25 minutes altogether on a moderate heat, and it is very important to drain the duck fat every 5 minutes or the skin of the duck will burn. You want the skin to be perfectly crispy. Duck breasts have a lot of fat and melts fast. Good fat of course – duck fat is healthy for you! The parsley and garlic potato cake is inspired from good times at L’Ami Louis (32 Rue Vertbois, 75003 Paris), one of my favourite restaurants in Paris. L’Ami Louis is legendary for its gargantuan portions of amazing French food served with the finest old Parisian charm. I love going there, especially on Sunday nights, and have a feast. Amongst their superb menu, one dish stands out to my taste, and it’s the galette de pomme de terre (potato cake). This side dish is served with almost anything, topped with a huge amount of parsley and garlic. Pure pleasure.

Ingredients (for 2)

2 large duck breasts
2 peaches (peeled and sliced)
5 large potatoes
6 garlic cloves (sliced fine)
2 handfuls of chopped parsley
1 tbsp butter
Salt & Pepper

Pre-heat the oven on 180° celsius.

Just before you start cooking the duck, start frying on a medium heat the sliced potatoes with one tbsp butter for 8 minutes. Set aside.
In a large cool frying pan, place your 2 duck breasts skin touching the base. Switch on the heat to moderate and start frying. Every 5 minutes or so, when the duck fat melts, pour in a bowl, reserve the fat, and continue frying. Too much oil will make your duck skin burn.
Pour 8 tbps (or more if you wish and according to your taste) of the reserved duck fat onto the potatoes and continue frying till cooked and golden. You’d be surprised at how fast it cooks with duck fat. Flip potatoes constantly. Add salt. By 20-25 minutes they should be cooked. Put potatoes in a small cake mold and press gently with a potato masher or a large spoon so the potatoes take a good shape. You don’t want to mash the potatoes, just press them. Place in the oven for 5-8 minutes.
After 20-25 minutes of duck frying, flip over the breasts and cook maximum 5 minutes depending on how you like your ‘cuisson’ (2 mins if you like the breast rosé/pink). Meanwhile you can fry the garlic in a tsp of duck fat until golden and the sliced peach for 3 minutes. They can be fried in the same pan.
Take the potato cake out of the oven, remove from mold and place on a serving plate. Put the chopped parsley and fried garlic on top. Slice the duck breast (see photo), season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

At L'Ami Louis.

Tonight is the big premier league game between Manchester United & Manchester City – it’s a potential title decider. Tensions are running high. I can feel the electricity running through my husband’s head so I decided to bake a good old steak, mushroom and Guinness pie to make him happy! It’s the perfect football meal, served with a potato salad. Win, lose or draw, this dish won’t let him down!

Ingredients (for eight slices)

800 grs steak trimmed and cubed 3cm
1 large onion (chopped)
2 garlic cloves (chopped)
1 chopped carrot (chopped)
1 bay leaf
A dash of thyme
200 grs coarsely chopped large white mushrooms pre-fried in 15 grs butter
400 ml beef stock
200 ml Guinness beer
40 grs flour
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 egg yolk for glazing pastry

Pastry

2 X 230 grs puff pastry ready-rolled sheet

Pre-heat oven 180° celsius

In a large pan, brown the cubed steak for 5 minutes or until brown on all sides, add the flour and stir well. In another pan, fry the onion and garlic until golden, then add the chopped carrots, thyme and bay leaf for 10 minutes on a low heat. Deglaze with the Guinness beer and Worcestershire sauce and reduce till it becomes thick and glossy. Add to the big beef pan, add the beef stock on cook on a low-heat for 2 hours. Add the pre-fried (in butter) mushrooms 15 minutes before the end. It’s very important to let the beef cool down before pouring in the pastry.

Roll out the pastry and line your pastry dish. Pour the beef mixture (make sure it’s cool) in the pie dish. Cover with your second pastry disc and seal together by pressing firmly on the side of the dish with your thumbs. Cut off excess pastry dough and re-roll to create 8 leaves to decorate the pie (8 is my lucky number). You can use a knife and cut out leaf-shaped figures and using the tip of the knife, draw the lines of a leaf. Finally, brush the pie with the egg yolk to give it a nice golden hue in the oven. One last thing, take a stick and prick the centre of your pie – so your pie won’t puff up from the middle.

Cook approx 30 minutes – it’s always good to check during the last five minutes – all ovens have different strength.

This is a relatively easy recipe for ‘Oreo’ cookie lovers. These cookies are delicious and look amazing! This is a ‘must-try’ recipe. My kids love these home-made ‘Oreos’. A real treat!
Last saturday I dedicated a whole afternoon trying out various ‘Oreo’ recipes and decided make two types of filling to taste. All the american recipes include ingredients that I can’t find here in Médoc, so I came up with my own versions and they taste great. The vanilla cream is close to the real thing, and the white chocolate cream is very special. So it’s up to you to decide which one you want to try. Try both!

Ingredients (make about 10 large cookies or 20 small)

180 grs plain flour
80 grs unsweetened cocoa powder
7 grs baking powder
Dash of salt
180 grs sugar
110 grs plus butter, room temperature
1 large egg

Filling:

1) Vanilla cream
110 grs butter (room temperature)
280 grs Icing sugar
1 and a half tps vanilla essence

or

2) White chocolate cream
10 cl double cream
180 grs white chocolate (melted)
1 tps vanilla essence
150 grs icing sugar

Pre-heat oven 180° celcius

For the cookies dough: Mix all the ingredients together until you get a good batter that you can easily roll with a rolling-pin. If the colour is not dark enough to your liking, add a bit more cocoa powder until you achieve the ‘Oreo’ dark brown colour. On a slightly floured parchment paper surface, roll out the cookie dough to 5 millimeters thickness and cut out perfectly round shape either with a round cookie cutter or, like I did, a wine glass 5-6 cm diameter). Should you prefer smaller cookies, find a 4-5 cm diameter glass or cookie cutter. Bake on parchment covered baking tray for 9 minutes in you like them not too hard, 11 minutes if you like them crispy. When ready cool on a wire cookie rack.

For filling recipe number 1) Combine the butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence to form a uniform smooth dough, like play-dough. Don’t hesitate to add icing sugar to get the desired texture.

For recipe filling recipe 2) In a saucepan melt the white chocolate. Add the cream and heat on a low fire for 3 minutes. Stir well and leave to cool. Once cooled, add the icing sugar gradually until you get the desired texture.

When the cookies are cool, spoon the cream filling and make your ‘Oreo’ cookie sandwich. I put the cream in a pastry bag with a standard tip and piped the filling to make it look nicer. It’s great fun to make and the kids can assist you in making their dream cookies.

ps: My kids suggested that next time we make this, we should add food colouring to the cream filling so we can make multi-coloured ‘Oreo’ cookies! I like that idea!

Whether you are going to a Michelin star restaurant or at a friend’s house in France, you will most likely be served gougères to accompany your aperitif drinks (drinks served before a meal). Gougères are traditional cheese puffs made with either Emmenthal, Comté or Gruyère cheese. These little luxuries are perfect with champagne or wine (they are often served during wine-tastings) – and so chic if you have them home-made. Originally from Burgundy, these puffs were invented in the 17th century in a patisserie called ‘Le ramequin de Bourgogne’. So next time you have guests, why don’t you dazzle them with these golden puffs.

Ingredients (makes about 40)

250 ml/ 1 cup water
100 g/ 3.5 ounce salted butter
150 g/ 1 1/4 cups plain flour
180 g/ 2 cups grated Emmenthal or Gruyère cheese
4 eggs
A dash of ground nutmeg
1 egg yolk for glazing
A dash of salt and pepper

Pre-heat the over 180° celcius.

In a saucepan, bring the water and butter to a boil. Add the flour, stirring very fast and take immediately off the heat. By now the batter will be roughly in the form of a soft ball. Add the eggs, one by one and stir. It’s important to add the eggs slowly – don’t worry if it looks too thick, just continue to stir as it will eventually become a smooth batter. Finally add the cheese, salt & pepper and stir to a good dewy batter.

Prepare a baking tray line with parchment paper. You have two choices for preparing the gougères: either put the dough in a pastry bag with a standard tip and pipe walnut sized mounds, or spoon and shape with the help of two teaspoons and evenly shaped ball (again like the size of a walnut). Glaze with the egg yolk for a golden baked finish. Sprinkle the puffs lightly with grated cheese.

Leave an adequate space between each gougères and bake for 25 minutes approx or until puffy and golden. Serve immediately.

ps: You can prepare these in advance and either refrigerate or freeze them. Just take them out again before serving and heat in a high-heat oven for 5-7 minutes.

Most French people in my entourage know how to make a good quiche Lorraine – this dish is as classic as a baguette and is part of the french culinary heritage. I did find out recently that it was originally German, but somehow turned French when cheese was added to the recipe in the Lorraine region. It’s the perfect light lunch to have, some sort of comfort food for most. My father-in-law loves this quiche, and I serve it with a spinach salad, roasted pine nuts, radishes and avocado. Simple and delightful. As I am a busy mom, I use Herta’s pate feuilleutée (ready-rolled puff pastry), the quality is excellent. But when I have time, I will make my own pastry. It is best to use your pastry straight from the fridge when it is still cold – I find the results are better. Nothing beats a home-cooked quiche Lorraine fresh from the oven. And here’s the best part, it takes about 10 minutes to prepare.

Ingredients (for 4-6)

200 grs chopped bacon
4 eggs
150 ml crème fraiche
2 handful or grated Emmenthal or Gruyère
100 ml milk
5 grs ground nutmeg
salt and pepper

Pastry

230 grs sheet of puff pastry (bought in store)

Pre-heat your oven 220° degrees celsius.

Fry the lardons without any oil until golden and cooked. Place aside on kitchen towel to absorb excess fat. In a bowl, mix the eggs, milk, crème fraiche, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Whisk the mixture till it becomes light and slightly frothy. Roll out your pastry and line your baking dish. Pour the egg/milk mixture, sprinkle the grated cheese and bacon evenly. Bake for 30 minutes and leave to rest 5 minutes before serving.

To serve with spinach salad with roasted pine nuts, radishes and avocado.

Ingredients

200 grs baby spinach leaves
A handful of pine nuts
6 radishes (finely sliced)
1 avocado (chopped)
5 tbps Olive oil
Red wine vinegar
1 tsp mustard
Salt and pepper

Prepare the vinaigrette in a salad bowl, first add olive oil, whisk in the vinegar, then the mustard, followed by salt and pepper. In a frying pan, place the pine nuts and roast for 5 minutes on a low heat or until golden. Leave to cool. Toss in the washed spinach leaves, sliced radishes, chopped avocado and sprinkle with the pine nuts.

Whenever I make pancakes, I always think of my favourite ‘pancake’ movie scene in ‘Something’s gotta give’ with Diane Keaton. She makes late-night pancakes in her smashing kitchen with Jack Nicholson, and it’s simply a perfect moment. So here’s my ‘Something’s gotta give’ pancake recipe. This is always a real treat and the kids love it when I stack the pancakes like a tower and pour the maple syrup before serving. The buttermilk is the key ingredient to make the pancakes extra fluffy and tasty, but I admit it’s not always easy to get it. So should you be out of buttermilk, here’s a tip on how to make it: (for 500 ml) mix 500 ml full-cream milk and juice of a small lemon. Shake well and leave to stand for 15 minutes. I love cooking with buttermilk, and it has become one of my favourite ingredients for marinating chicken.

Ingredients for pancakes (makes about 25)

400 grs all-purpose flour
40 grs white sugar
10 grs baking powder
700 ml buttermilk
100 ml milk
3 eggs
60 grs butter, melted
a pinch of salt

15 grs butter (for frying)
Berries for garnishing

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix the eggs with the buttermilk, milk and melted butter. When you are ready to make the pancakes, mix all the ingredients together and stir well. Please not that the thicker you batter is, the thicker your pancakes will be. If you prefer finer pancakes, the batter should be smoother. You can decide with how much milk you add.
Heat a skillet or large frying pan with a small cube of butter. Scoop one ladle of batter to make a round pancake (I do about 3 in my pan). When you start seeing bubbles forming (about 2 minutes) flip over. Pancake should be golden brown. Serve hot with maple syrup and berries.

If you want to make banana or blueberry pancakes, simply add in the batter.

I love to make this desert for my friends when they come and visit. It’s so pretty, extremely delicious and very impressive! I had it for the first time at St John Bread and Wine (94-96 Commercial Street London, E1 6LZ), an English bistrot style eatery in London with amazing food. I can still remember the first bite, and couldn’t wait to have one again. So I decided to make this desert at home.

Ingredients

6 egg whites (room temperature)
260 grs caster sugar
50 grs icing sugar
1/2 tsp salt
30 cl whipping cream
a handful of strawberries, raspberries, chopped lychees and blueberries for each meringue

For the syrup

60 grs sugar
120 ml water
a dash of rose-water/essence
A small handful of chopped lychees, raspberries and sliced strawberries

Pre-heat your oven 140°C.

First of all, you have to make the meringues. Make sure the egg whites are at room temperature. Whisk until the whites become quite firm and start sprinkling the caster sugar ‘en pluie’ like raindrops still whisking away. Towards the end, I add vanilla essence, or orange flower essence. It’s your choice.

When they are stiff and ready, take a large slotted spoon and place a meringue swirl shape on the baking tray covered with parchment paper. I make about 8 meringues. Bake for 1 hour to 1 and a half hour (check them after one hour). When ready take out and leave to cool. I like my meringues Italian style, meaning soft in the middle.

Now, you have all the time to prepare the syrup for the meringues. Boil water and add sugar, rose-water until it becomes syrup-like. I then add pieces of lychee, raspberries, and a few sliced strawberries, to add flavour and colour. I love how the lychee gives it a slight acidic taste. It goes well with the sweetness of it all. I get inspired from Pierre Hermé’s ‘Ispahan’ macaroon, with the lychee, rose cream and raspberries mix (If you haven’t tried the Ispahan, it’s a must! Pierre Hermé, 4 Rue Cambon 75001 Paris). When the colour looks right, place aside and let it cool.

The rest is so easy, just slice any berries you want – I personally add a few more chopped lychee, fresh raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. But you can alternate and use, mango rhubarb, passion fruit… any fruit really!

When you are close to serving, whip up some cream. I don’t add sugar to the cream, because the meringues and syrup have all the sugars I need. Place a meringue on a serving plate, tap it gently to ‘break’ the center of the meringue. Add the whipped cream, a few spoons of the syrup and the fresh fruits on top. Then add a final spoon of syrup to make it all glisten.

This is my favourite desert in the world!

On week-ends we love having galettes. Galette is another word for savoury pancake made with buckwheat flour and served with savoury garnishing. If you go to a market and order a pancake, you will often be asked galette or crêpe. A crêpe today is referred to as a pancake made of wheat flour and served with sweet garnishing such as sugar, jam, chocolate. There really are no strict rules as it is very common to have savoury crêpes these days. Being a busy mom, I buy my galettes at the local fromagerie (cheese store) – the quality is excellent. But when I have time, I prepare the batter myself. It’s such a delicious classic meal from Brittany. Cider is perfect to accompany this meal, but buttermilk is the traditional match.

Ingredients

6 galettes
6 eggs
6 slices ham
1 pack white button mushrooms (rinsed and sliced)
Grated Emmental or Gruyère cheese
Butter

Fry the mushrooms in a frying pan with the butter, set aside. It takes about 4 minutes. I like to fry the eggs sunny side up just before so they are ready and warm. Set aside.

For each galettes, repeat the same procedure: melt a small amount of butter in a frying pan and place the galette. Add the piece of ham, sprinkle a handful of cheese and cook on a low heat till the cheese melts. Put the fried egg on the cheese, add the mushrooms on top and season with salt and pepper. Fold the pancake (see photo). Serve with a salad.

Buckwheat pancake batter (sarrasin)

250 grs buckwheat flour
2 eggs
30 grs melted butter
1 pinch salt
500 ml milk

In a large bowl, mix the buckwheat flour and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs in the center, slowly combine and stir the milk, melted butter and salt. Make sure to stir constantly and firmly so you won’t get lumps in the batter. Cover with a plate and leave to rest for at least an hour.
Heat your oven on a low heat so you can place your galettes to keep warm. When the batter is ready, melt a teaspoon of butter in a frying pan. Add one ladle of batter to form a pancake. Fry approx 2-3 minutes on a medium heat until golden. Flip sides and repeat.

This Italian pear cake is so elegant in its simplicity. This is why it is my husband’s favourite cake. He is not really a ‘cake’ person, but this one makes him very happy, especially with a perfect cup of espresso. My aunt gave me this recipe and I am ever so grateful. Her husband was Italian and she always has a magic touch in the kitchen. The most important ingredient are ripe pears. We are a big family and love having platters of seasonal fruits on the kitchen table, and it’s always a pleasure to finish off over-ripe fruits. So I use old pears for this cake – they melt in beautifully. The corn starch makes the cake fluffier and airy, very Italian style. Just how I like it.
This recipe is easy and the result is grand.

Ingredients

3 ‘very’ ripe pears – peeled & cut into chunks
150 g/ 1 & 1/4 cup plain flour, sifted
150 g/  3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
30 g/ 1/4 cup corn starch
1 pinch salt
90 g/ 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp butter (slightly melted)
3 eggs
Icing sugar (to sprinkle/ decorate on cake)

To serve:

Whipped cream (optional)

Pre-heat the oven 180°C. Cream the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift the flour, corn starch, salt and baking powder together. Add the flour mix and stir well, add the butter till the batter is smooth. Line a 24 cm cake pan with parchment paper, and pour in the batter. Peel the skin off the pears, cut in chunks and drop them on the cake, gently pushing down each piece of pear. It doesn’t matter if the pear sticks out of the cake it will all blend in. Bake for 30 minutes max. Leave to cool before serving. When cool sprinkle icing sugar on cake. Serve with whipped cream on the side.

Summer night dinner at home.

My daughter Louise climbing the apple tree during dinner.

Ingredients:

1 whole farm chicken
A few rosemary and thyme sprigs
1 lemon (cut in quarters)
1 bay leaf
4 garlic cloves (skin on)
olive oil
Sea salt and pepper

For the gravy:

All the juices from the roasting pan
Half glass white wine
1 tbsp plain flour
Salt & pepper

I roast a chicken at least once a week. In France, I always buy the poulet fermier jaune (farmer’s yellow chicken – it basically means that it is corn-fed chicken). The flesh is yellower and richer in taste.
Take the chicken out 2 hours before roasting. Cooking meat straight from the fridge dries it out. I have learnt how important it is to roast meat at room temperature – that really is the secret to a great juicy chicken, therefore a successful gravy. Place the chicken on a roasting pan, salt and rub olive oil all over the poultry, salt lightly in the cavity and stuff the rosemary, bay leaf and thyme sprigs, the garlic with the skin on and the lemon cut in quarters. Leave to rest.
In a full-on 240°C pre-heated oven, place the chicken in the center. Then lower the heat to 190-200°C and cook for 1 hour. I don’t do anything to it for 1 whole hour.
When ready, take out the chicken, cover with a tinfoil then a tea towel. Place the roasting pan filled with the chicken juices on to a stove on medium heat and add the wine. It should be bubbling away so let it reduce for a few minutes. Sprinkle the flour and whisk the sauce until it thickens to a perfect gravy. Pour in a serving dish and there you have a delicious gravy flavoured with lemon, thyme, rosemary and wine. Simply divine.

I serve this dish with roast potatoes, a corn salad and sucrine lettuce. I usually roast two chickens because there is nothing better that cold chicken sandwiches for the next day’s lunch.