There are so many ingredients you can top baked potatoes with, it’s always difficult to choose! This baked potatoes recipe uses portobello mushrooms flavored with garlic and parsley. It’s really easy to make, the only thing you need to take into account being potatoes baking time. For medium sized potatoes, it should take around one hour. If your potatoes are bigger, it will take longer. If you don’t have enough time, don’t worry, you’re allowed to trick. You can boil potatoes instead of baking them, nobody has ever complained

Preparation time: 20 mn  Baking time: 1 h

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

8 medium sized potatoes
7 portobello mushrooms
4 tablespoons of parsley
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of butter
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C/Th 6).

2/ Wash potatoes and dry them with a clean clothe. Pierce them using a fork (5 times should be enough; it allows steam to get out the potatoes when baking).

3/ Wrap potatoes in aluminum foil and bake them for 1 hour.

4/ Peel and chop mushrooms and garlic. (Peel mushrooms by taking off the white ’skin’ they have on top and cutting their bottom end)

5/ Pour olive oil in a frying pan and heat it over medium heat. Add garlic.

6/ Clean and chop parsley.

7/ Pour mushrooms and parsley in the frying pan. Cook until mushrooms have a nice brownish color. Add salt and pepper.

8/ When potatoes are tender, cut a line in the middle. Add a piece of butter, a pinch of salt  and the mix of parsley and garlic mushrooms.

9/ Serve them right away.

Perfect with a grilled meat or a lemon stuffed chicken.

En papillote is the easiest and probably healthiest way of cooking fish. I use this technique quite often because you can basically put any fish you like with any vegetable you have left in the fridge in a papillote. It’s very simple, you  seal in an aluminum foil precooked  veggies and fish (or fish fillets) and bake it for 10 to 15 minutes. There are endless recipes. If you’re going for a diet meal don’t use butter or oil, ingredients will steam on their own juice.

This rainbow trout recipe is made with a lime tarragon butter and a mix of red peppers, leek and Portobello mushrooms. Don’t be afraid to invent your own variations, with the vegetables you like more .

Preparation time: 10 mn  Cooking time: 20 mn

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

4 rainbow trouts (cleaned and ready to cook)
6 Portobello mushrooms
2 leeks
1 red pepper
1 lime
4 tablespoons of butter (at room temperature)
1 1/2 tablespoon of tarragon
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt and pepper

Instructions

1/ Peel and cut leek.

2/ Clean and cut red pepper in 2 parts. Take seeds off and dice pepper.

3/ Peel mushrooms (by taking off the white ’skin’ they have on top and cutting the end of it) and slice them.

4/ Pour olive oil in a frying pan and heat it over medium heat. Add red pepper and leek.

5/ Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C/Th 6).

6/ In a bowl, blend butter and tarragon. Squeeze lime and add juice to the tarragon butter.

7/ Place each trout on a piece of aluminum foil and stuff them with the tarragon butter.

8/ Fold aluminum paper sealing the end parts and pour leek, mushrooms and red pepper on top of the trout. Add salt and pepper.

9/ Finish sealing the pouches and bake in oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

Serve rainbow trouts in their papillote with potatoes or rice. Great with gratin dauphinois.

Have you ever tried Comté cheese? It’s a cooked cheese like Gruyère although it is much tastier. It has a great nutty flavor which makes it perfect for a zucchini gratin. If you can’t find any, don’t worry, zucchini marries much more cheese varieties You can make this zucchini gratin recipe with swiss cheese or cheddar if you like.

Preparation time: 15 mn  Cooking time: 30 mn

Ingredients (for 4 to 6 servings)

2.2 lbs (1 kg) of zucchini
2 eggs
4 3/4 cups (20 cl) of creme fraiche
1/4 lb (125 g) of Comté cheese
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 pinch of nutmeg
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Peel zucchini and slice top off.

2/ Cut zucchini into thin slices. (If you slice them too thick, they’ll take a long time to cook.)

3/ Heat a pan over medium heat. Add oil and cook zucchini covered for about 15 minutes stirring regularly. Add salt and pepper.

4/ Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C/Th 6)

5/ In a bowl, mix eggs, creme fraiche, half of cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

6/ Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a baking pan. Then add a layer of zucchini topped with creme fraiche and cheese mixture. Repeat with another layer of zucchini, the rest of the mixture and finish with cheese.

7/ Top with salt and pepper. (Zucchini have a pretty sweet taste, they need to get more salt than other vegetables. Don’t hesitate to try and season according to your own taste.)

8/ Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until your gratin has a nice golden color.

9/ Serve right away.

It’s a perfect side dish for lemon stuffed chicken or fish for example. For a vegetarian meal, you can serve this zucchini and Comté cheese gratin with a carrot and orange soup and a nice salad.

This recipe is a variant of the traditional French floating islands served with ‘crème anglaise’. It’s a great classic in French cooking : here is the chocolate version! It’s not really difficult to make, the most difficult part being getting nice and puffy egg whites. It’s all about training, don’t get discouraged if your first attempt fails! You’ll still have 2 egg whites left in case you need to make some more .

Preparation time: 20 mn

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

2 1/2 oz (70 g) of dark chocolate
24 cups ( 1 l) of whole milk
5 eggs (5 egg yolks and 3 egg whites)
8 1/2 tablespoons of caster sugar (6 + 2 1/2 tbsp)
2 teaspoons of unsweetened chocolate powder
2 1/2 cups of water
1 pinch of salt

Instructions

1/ Cut chocolate into dices. Take 12 cups of milk into a boil.

2/ In a salad bowl beat egg yolks and 6 tablespoons of sugar until white. Add boiling milk stirring well.

3/Pour mixture into pan and heat over low heat for 8 to 10 minutes stirring slowly with a spatula until it gets thicker.

4/ Take it off heat and add chocolate dices and 1 teaspoon of chocolate powder.

5/ Pour in a salad bowl and beat energetically for 3 minutes. Then, let it cool down.

6/ Get 12 cups of milk and 2 1/2 of water to simmer in a sauté pan.

7/ Beat 3 egg whites and a pinch of salt until stiff. Add 2 1/2 tablespoons of sugar and beat again for 1mn.

8/ Take square pieces of the stiffed egg whites with 2 tablespoons. Put them one at a time on simmering milk and poach it for 2 to 3 minutes. Once done, put them on kitchen paper so the extra liquid gets out. Let it cool down.

9/ Pour cream into 4 nice dishes. Add islands on top and sprinkle with chocolate powder.

10/ That’s it! Ready to serve.