Notes about Recipes in this book

• Roast chicken with crème fraîche and herbs

  • mharriman on June 12, 2019

    This was a disappointment. I followed the directions. My baked chicken looked nothing like the photo: The cream and herb mixture, put inside the chicken, melted away and was nonexistent upon carving. The thick outer cream and herb layer melted and ran into the bottom of the roasting pan while baking. The cream under the thighs and wings didn’t produce much flavor. The result of my efforts was a layer of baked on brown crust at the bottom of my roasting pan. The 350 temperature did not produce a cooked 3 pound chicken in an hour. Instead it reached 150 degrees at 100 minutes (which makes sense based on my many 400- 450 degree / 1 hour chicken recipes). In sum, the aroma coming from the oven is heavenly but the end result for me was disappointing as I could have just skipped the cream and garnered the same result. A non-repeater. This was also the first recipe I tried from this cookbook and now I’m wondering about the remainder of the recipes.

  • Stephenn31 on October 13, 2025

    I decided to do this for Thanksgiving (instead of turkey) and it turned out better than I had expected. Great aroma as it was baking, and the creme fraiche (I mixed Greek yogurt and milk, and let it sit for a few hours before adding in the rest of the ingredients) seemed to have tenderized the chicken. I did let the chicken rest at room temp with the creme fraiche and herb mix for about an hour before roasting which might have made a difference. The meat was deliciously flavoured. It did take slightly longer than the 1 hour at 350 for the 1.5kg bird to cook, but the skin on the breast meat did turn a nice brown by the end.

  • caresan on May 06, 2026

    I’ve made this a few times and always comes out delicious. I will say with the crème fraiche mixture, you will have extra and only add as much as you need.

• Soupe au pistou

  • Rajcakes on January 23, 2019

    This is so simple and delicious. I would only use 8 oz of the cannellini beans and not the kidney beans next time.

• Tomato salad with parsley and shallots

  • kateiscoooking on November 30, 2020

    This is now my go-to when I've got wonderful, ripe tomatoes. Last night I had three left from our summer garden that I picked when they were really green, ( As I type this, it's the week after Thanksgiving! ) and I had a small eggplant. This made a perfect tomato salad for the fried eggplant!

• Almond mussels

  • NathalieS on November 12, 2018

    Lovely appetizer. It was a crowd pleaser

• Vegetable tian

  • Melanie on April 14, 2015

    I loved this dish! Incredibly healthy (drizzled in olive oil - i.e. significantly healthier than most eggplant recipes) and tasty, even winning over my partner who normally isn't a fan of two of the key ingredients. Although the vegetables need to be thinly sliced, the slicing and layering isn't overly time consuming. The best part is that it can be made slightly ahead of time and only needs half an hour in the oven, meaning it would work well for dinner parties as it looks impressive too. Leftovers are delicious cold.

• Garlic mashed potatoes

  • Melanie on April 18, 2015

    Delicious - no suprises to this dish, just comforting mashed potatoes that tasted great.

• Cherry clafoutis

  • Melanie on March 08, 2015

    I thought this was a solid clafoutis recipe - not the best I've tasted but certainly nothing wrong with it. I left the cherry pits in without any harm.

• Coq au vin

  • Stephenn31 on January 14, 2023

    Delicious on a cold night. Takes time but nothing complicated. I boiled down the liquid a fair bit at the end to thicken up the sauce

• Roasted sausages with red wine and fennel

  • Melanie on April 18, 2015

    This dish was good but not great. Needed at least an extra 20 minutes in the oven in order for the sauce to reduce and components to caramelise and therefore boost the flavour of the dish. I had sliced the fennel and onion as per the recipe, and later realised that it looked nothing like the photo which retains the vegetables as larger pieces - I think it would have helped if there were larger pieces and more time in the oven. Nonetheless, this is an easy weeknight dinner as you are simply relying on the oven to do the work. Served with the garlic mashed potatoes as suggested, which was a good match.

  • Stephenn31 on October 14, 2023

    Delicious and easy fall dish. I’d add the onion and fennel earlier so it softens more. And either add less red wine or reduce it in a pot (but the butter amount was spot on)

• Roast potatoes with herbs and garlic

  • Stephenn31 on January 01, 2024

    Easy and turned out well. Would definitely make again

• Manger

  Author talks about her book.

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• Food52 by Adam Roberts

  The 2015 Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks vs. Brooks Headley's Fancy Desserts.

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