SEA BREAM IN A GARLIC BOUILLON by Gérald Passédat, 3 Michelin star chef and undeniable King of Mediterranean cuisine. This dish may look simple to make but there’s nothing simple about the taste – it’s utterly delicious and guaranteed to impress. Serves 4 | Preparation time: 2 hours | Cooking time: 2 hours 15 minutes Ingredients […]
This delish Pan Bagnat recipe makes enough for 4 very hungry people! A speciality of Nice, the term means “bathed/wet bread”. Sometimes you’ll see it wrongly spelled “pain bagnat”, with the French word for bread, pain, rather than the local pan. This is a popular lunchtime dish and you’ll find it sold in boulangeries and […]
A delicious and simple vegetarian sandwich idea: French style pan bagnat made with free-range eggs, cornichons, red onions, fresh vine tomatoes,lettuce and fresh herbs, all STUFFED into a crusty baguette, and served with olives and extra salad vegetables. Ingredients for four people: 1 large baguette a little olive oil lettuce leaves 2 x hard boiled […]
A delicious savoury clafoutis recipe that is simple to make, delicious to eat, a French taste sensation that’s perfect for a light lunch or a special starter… Ingredients 1 yellow courgette, sliced + 1 green courgette, sliced 100g cherry tomatoes, halved 2 garlic cloves, crushed 4 eggs, beaten 3 tablespoons creme fraiche or 3 tablespoons […]
A classic romantic French menu that anyone can make anywhere. Lay a red and white check tablecloth, a few flowers in a small vase or glass jar (moderation in flowers is very French), chill a bottle of white, pop a bottle of Champagne, let the red wine breathe. Play a little bit of French music, and […]
This delicious fish dish is perfect for any day of the week. Daniel Galmiche’s pan-fried red mullet recipe with Thyme is a French classic, shared from his French Brasserie Cookbook, The Heart of French Home Cooking, a taste sensation… Preparation time 20 minutes, plus making the potatoes Cooking time 15 minutes Ingredients 4 garlic cloves, […]
A scrumptious dish for classic Provencal vegetable gratin from Chef Daniel Galmiche, Michelin star chef and author of the French Brasserie cookbook – The Heart of French Home Cooking… Preparation time 20 minutes, plus making the aubergine caviar Cooking time 1 hour 5 minutes Ingredients 2 large yellow courgettes, cut into long 5mm/¼in-thick slices 125ml/3fl […]
This delicious and very easy to prepare recipe is from The French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook… This recipe is ideal for busy cooks who don’t have lots of time. Mireille Guiliano says “These days, most people don’t have time for elaborate meals, myself included. For most of my career, I worked at least 10-hour […]
Flavours of the Aveyron… Having been privileged to meet one of France’s top (3 Michelin stars) chefs, Michel Bras, I was curious to know more about the two dishes which he said for him, summed up the essence of the Aveyron. Aligot and Flaune are his choices… Classic French Aligot recipe Aligot is a dish […]
French chef Daniel Galmiche of The Vineyard shares this wonderful goats cheese quiche recipe with us and if you’ve never had goat’s cheese quiche before then you are in for a real treat! We asked Chef Galmiche why goats cheese instead of the normal cows cheese? “This quiche says summer to me – the […]
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I love all my animals, five cats, three dogs, four geese, 13 ducks and 25 chickens. They’re part of the family though the birds don’t live in the house with us. At least not permanently. When they’re a bit poorly, I’ll bring them in for some TLC until they’re well enough to go out. Sometimes […]
I live part of the year in Provence and one day I was reading Le Monde and a headline about a “sexy politician” caught my eye. “Well, those are two words you don’t see together very often,” I thought. So I read the article and found out that there had been a poll asking French […]
It was lunchtime in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés area of Paris, and I was ravenous looking for a place to eat away from the usual tourist traps. I turned down a quiet street and saw the most unassuming bistro. In fact, I wouldn’t usually have considered going in but I decided to take a chance. As soon […]
Catharism has been described as “the most successful heresy in history”. In Languedoc, “Pays Cathare” signs dot the countryside. One cannot drive far in any direction without coming upon the ruins of a Cathar fortress. Who were the Cathars? “Cathar” is allegedly derived from the Greek word, katharos, meaning “pure”. The Cathars were also known […]
The people of Provence have been raising sheep for centuries. You see flocks of them all over the countryside, grazing under the watchful eye of shepherds. But Provencal summers are scorching hot and sheep have heavy wool coats so they’re moved to cooler pastures. The transhumance in Provence The answer to dealing with the heat, […]
There have been many famous families in history. Take the Curies, for example: Marie Curie won two Nobel Prizes and her husband, daughter and grandson each won one. Quite the talented family! And then there are the Wright brothers and the Brontë sisters. And let’s not forget those comic masters, the Marx brothers. But imagine […]
“They are NOT babies, they are chickens” remonstrated my French neighbour Jean-Claude. He had come to inspect the eight point of lay hens and two “babies” with which I had returned from the local street market. “I’m going to call that scrawny baby one Eaglet” I said “Non, non, non” came the emphatic response “You […]
“When I move to France I only want to have French friends”. This was a line in an email I received from a couple of Brits. They wanted advice on where to move to in France and this was one of their criteria. They also wanted to be near a town that has a market, […]