Notes about Recipes in this book

• Fig and chicken liver salad (Salade de figues et foies de volailles)

  • Starrysky on September 04, 2017

    One of my favorite salads

  • amystar on January 22, 2022

    lovely salad. when figs are in season i make this salad often. the only thing i need to be careful of is not burning the livers whilst making sure they are cooked through. however some charcoal bits on the sides makes them very tasty

• Puy lentil salad with goat's cheese, beetroot and a dill vinaigrette (Lentilles du Puy avec un fromage de chèvre, betteraves et une vinaigrette d'aneth)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Excellent combination of lentils and goat cheese. (Page 15)

• Warm potato and apple salad with black-pudding crumbs (Salade tiède de pommes de terre et pommes avec des miettes de boudin noir)

  • Ro_ on December 17, 2019

    I enoyed this recipe a lot more than I had imagined I would! Since I was making this for a main course for two people, I doubled the quantity of potato and boudin noir, but I only had one apple so couldn't double that - however I think the proportions worked out fine. The contrast of the crunchy apple with the boudin, the fresh mint and the apple purée underneath was absolutely delicious, with the sautéed potatoes holding everything together. My only nitpick is that Khoo suggests that you can make individual boudin 'crumbs' in the frying pan, which didn't work for me at all as as soon as I stirred / shook the pan they all formed into one gloopy boudin squidge. However I just used a teaspoon to dot the boudin into the warm salad, and it worked out fine.

• Winter salad with a goat's cheese mousse (Salade d'hiver avec une mousse au fromage de chèvre)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 21.

  • Ro_ on January 02, 2023

    This looked pretty but I found it a bit underwhelming. Admittedly I did get bored whipping my uncooperative cream and gave up before it got to a mousse-like consistency, but apart from that I stuck exactly to the recipe. There was way too much of the goat cheese/cream for the quantity of salad, and overall it was too sweet. I'd have prefered the goat's cheese just broken into pieces rather than whipped up with all the cream, and I think some walnuts across the top of it might have been nice to give it a crunch and a different taste element, but I probably won't repeat this anyway.

• Eggs in pots (Oeufs en cocotte)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 29.

• Soufflé omelette with a Basque pepper relish (Omelette soufflée et piperade)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 30.

• Pistou soup (Soupe au pistou)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 33.

• Cheese and potato nests (Nids de tartiflette)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 37.

  • Ro_ on November 16, 2022

    These were nice, but not as nice as a traditionally-made tartiflette in terms of texture and the flavour of the potatoes. They were quite starchy prepared like this.

• Cauliflower bake with hazelnut crunch crust (Gratin de choufleur avec une chapelure aux noisettes)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 40.

  • Jojobuch on July 25, 2016

    I really like the crunch from the hazelnuts in this dish

• Mac 'n' cheese (Gratin de macaroni au fromage)

  • Ro_ on January 17, 2023

    An easy and delicious macaroni cheese recipe. I used a mixture of gruyère, mature cheddar and elemental and the balance was just right. My other half went crazy for this, there were no leftovers...

• Crispy rabbit with Meaux mustard (Lapin croustillant à la moutarde de Meaux)

  • Jojobuch on July 25, 2016

    I replaced the rabbit with chicken thighs - the flavour from the mustard came through nicely, though I didn't quite get the crunch I was hoping for, as the thighs lost a bit of moisture, thus steaming the bread crumbs

  • Ro_ on June 01, 2023

    Easy and delicious, and a perfect recipe since I found reduced rabbit legs in the supermarket. I used panko breadcrumbs and the coating came out beautifully crispy. Would make again, and would be interesting to try with chicken legs.

• Steak tartare

  • Ro_ on July 30, 2020

    Classic steak tartare, what's not to like. I must admit I used ready-minced steak though rather than cut up my own.

• Cheese, ham and egg sandwich muffins (Croque madame muffins)

  • Running_with_Wools on November 08, 2020

    These little croque madame are baked in a muffin tin. They're easy and delicious.

  • Ro_ on April 10, 2023

    The recipe says white bread, but I happened to have granary so used that. I thought these were a smidgy fiddly for a breakfast dish, and the result was tasty but not oh-my-god-amazing, to be honest I'd probably rather just make a traditional croque madame/monsieur rather than have it in muffin shape.

• Buckwheat pancakes (Galettes)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 77.

• Sugar puffs (Chouquettes)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 84.

• Cheese puffs (Gougères)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Like the touch of topping them with seeds instead of/as well as the cheese. Page 87.

• Madeleines with lemon curd (Madeleines à la crème au citron)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 88.

  • lhudson on August 23, 2015

    The flavors are great and this recipe ended up be easier to make then I thought it would. Made both the lemon curd and the batter early in the morning then put it all together later in the day.

• Dulce de leche brioche buns (Briochettes au dulce de leche)

  • angrygreycat on December 01, 2018

    I have these rising right now - they smell really strongly of orange. I'm hoping that calms down a little when they are baked. Perfect recipe for Sunday morning book club as it incorporates an overnight spell in the refrigerator before the second rise.

  • angrygreycat on December 02, 2018

    These were so easy and came out great. They all went at Book club. The orange was toned down in the final product so that I did not even notice it.

• French toast with cherry and basil compote (Pain perdu avec compote de cerises et basilic)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 95.

  • Jojobuch on December 31, 2020

    Nice simple French toast. The basil adds an interesting note to the compote but I would have preferred it without.

• Onion and crème fraîche tart (Tarte flambée)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 106.

• Cured sausage, pistachio and prune cake (Cake au saucisson sec avec pistaches et prunes)

  • Joanclemence on April 27, 2020

    It was a bit dry

• Carrot salad (Salade de carrottes râpées )

  • Ro_ on August 01, 2020

    Needs double the dressing + a bit of honey or sugar + to be left to macerate for a while. A bit dry otherwise and the flavours don't come out properly.

• Olive bread (Pain brié)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 115.

• Sweet clafoutis (Clafoutis sucré)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 116.

• Savoury clafoutis (Clafoutis salé)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 116.

• Rosemary, lavender and goat's cheese bread (Fougasse aux romarin, lavande et fromage du chèvre)

  • Ro_ on June 25, 2023

    This was a "nice not great" bread. The texture was good, but the flavours didn't come through very strongly, and I wanted more from it. I also didn't manage to do the leaf pattern thing with the slashes, despite my best efforts the marks just disappeared.

• Iced cauliflower and potato soup (Crème vichyssoise au chou-fleur glacé)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 120.

• Wild mushroom terrine (Terrine forestière)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 131.

• Salad Niçoise wraps (Rouleaux de salade Niçoise)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 135.

• Elephant ears (Palmiers)

  • Ro_ on January 15, 2023

    I followed the suggested method for making them then freezing them unbaked, and cooking from frozen. It worked well. These were pretty easy to make (ever so slightly fiddly to cut up) and tasted nice, but maybe not "wow" enough to put on the must-repeat list.

• Puff pastry twists (Sacristains sâlés)

  • Ro_ on February 05, 2023

    These were pretty easy to make, and a very adaptable recipe. I don't particularly like black olives or tapenade, so I used a little jar of tuna/rataouille paté to fill some of these. They were a little floppy when coming out of the oven (probably because it was a wetter filling than anticipated) but firmed up well, and were delicious. Would repeat.

• Cheese soufflé (Soufflé au fromage)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 160.

  • Dishyrishie on July 25, 2015

    Great use of mustard and cayenne in the base mix, but we've had better soufflés. This one doesn't cook out the flour in the base and you can still taste it.

  • Ro_ on May 04, 2023

    This was my first time making a soufflé, and I was pleased with the results and that it wasn't as complicated as I might have thought. I like that you can make the cheese sauce in advance. I would probably cook for a fraction longer than the 15m I gave them next time, but still good.

• Onion crème brûlée (Crème brûlée aux oignons)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 170.

• Coq au vin on skewers (Brochettes au coq au vin)

  • Ro_ on May 31, 2021

    This was slightly laborious for a barbecue recipe, but actually the result was very nice. This would be the kind of thing I'd repeat if I was doing a "fancy" barbeque, or just wanted to serve one thing on the barbecue. But for your bog-standard friends-and-family barbecue it's a bit of a faff.

• Chicken and mushrooms in a white wine sauce (Poulet aux champignons avec une sauce au vin blanc)

  • Breadcrumbs on December 04, 2015

    p. 187 – This was a quick and delicious way to put a dent in the 3kg box of ‘shrooms we picked up in the county. The sauce recipe could easily be halved as there is far too much for the required amount of chicken. I served this w mashed potatoes and sautéed kale. I think it would be terrific atop buttered egg noodles or, even as a filling for a chicken pie. A versatile, week-night friendly meal that I’ll definitely make again. Sauce could be made ahead.

  • Ro_ on November 29, 2022

    Nice dish, which I served with pasta. Made a change to tomato-based pasta sauces. There is a lot of sauce, so this definitely needs to be served with pasta, rice, maybe bread - something to mop it all up.

• Burgundy beef with baguette dumplings (Boeuf Bourgignon avec des quenelles de baguettes)

  • Ro_ on February 05, 2023

    This was a nice, simple recipe without too much faff but delivering on flavour, which I liked. I went slightly wrong with the dumplings, as I was making a half batch but added a full egg which made them quite soft and liquid. They still held together and cooked nicely, and it's a great way to use leftover stale bread, but can see they would be nicer if a bit firmer.

• Steak and root-vegetable fries (Steak et frites de légumes racines)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 205.

  • Ro_ on February 12, 2023

    The root vegetable fries were pleasant, but there's no getting around the fact that they just aren't crunchy, and I want crunch from my fries. Also I thought I could sneak the parsnip past my partner (who doesn't like parsnip but I thought wouldn't notice) but he wasn't having any of it. So I probably won't repeat this.

• Duck breast with an endive and raspberry salad (Magret de canard avec salade d'endives et framboises)

  • Dishyrishie on January 25, 2017

    Simple but tasty. Needs the bitter salad leaves to make the most of the contrast.

• Chocolate mousse with cocoa nibs (Mousse aux éclats de chocolat)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 222.

• Apple millefeuille (Millefeuille aux pommes)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 225.

• Floating islands (Iles flottantes)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 236.

• Meringue and chestnut-cream mountain (Mont Blanc)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 241.

• Vacherin 'hotdog' with rosemary rhubarb (Vacherin 'hotdog' avec rhubarbe au romarin)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Beautiful, quirky presentation. Page 242.

• Chocolate lava cake with salted caramel filling (Moelleux au chocolat coeur fondant caramel salé)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 249.

• Champagne sabayon with strawberries and cherry tomatoes (Sabayon de Champagne avec fraises gariguettes et tomates cerises)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Interesting combination of strawberries and cherry tomatoes. Page 250.

• Fontainebleau with a carrot cinnamon coulis (Fontainebleau avec un coulis de carotte et cannelle)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Interesting combination of carrot and cinnamon in a dessert. Page 254.

• Grapefruit and pepper meringue tartlets (Tartelettes au pamplemousse et poivre meringuées)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Interesting combination of grapefruit, meringue and black pepper. Page 258.

• Cherry tomato and vanilla compote (Compotée de tomates cerises et vanille)

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 265.

• Vinegar

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 273.

• Vietnamese pistou

  • nancyinpink on April 21, 2013

    Page 33.

• Boston Globe by T. Susan Chang

  There may not be much that’s new in this book, when you come right down to it, but it does have nicely curated and fairly reliable recipes, winsome photographs, a charming voice, whimsical endpapers..

  Full review