This is a special recipe for me, one of my top 5 favorite. Again, nothing very recommended for a strict diet but believe me duck parmentier is succulent

It’s a French classic, the classy version of ‘Hachis Parmentier’ (Shepherd’s pie). The original recipe doesn’t use Comté cheese, you can replace it by parmesan cheese or simply skip the cheese part.

Preparation time: 15 minutes – Cooking time: 30 minutes – Grill : 10 minutes

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

2 legs of duck confit (Click here to buy online)
1.6 lbs (750 g) of potatoes
1.4 oz (40 g) of Comté cheese (Click here to buy online)
3 tablespoons of crème fraiche
2 tablespoons of parsley
1/2 tablespoon of butter
1 pinch of nutmeg
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Peel potatoes and cut them into 2 or 4 pieces depending on their size (bigger pieces will need more time to be done).

2/ Boil potatoes into salted water for 30 minutes (they’ll be easier to mash if overcooked). Drain water and let them chill.

3/ Meanwhile,  take duck legs off their fat and separate meat from bones and skin.

4/ Rinse and dry parsley. Chop it.

5/ Heat a pan over medium-low heat, fry duck meat  with a little bit of duck fat from the can. Add parsley and leave for 10 minutes stirring often.

6/ Mash potatoes (you can use a a food mill or potato ricer, if you don’t have any use a potato masher or heavy fork.) Pour mashed potatoes into a pan heated over low heat. Add butter, cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir well.

7/ You can use either an ovenproof dish or individual round pastry cutters. Whatever you’re using grease it with a little bit of butter and add a layer of duck topped with a layer of mashed potatoes.

8/ Grate Comté cheese and sprinkle on top of duck parmentier.

9/ Heat oven on grill position and bake for 10 minutes or until cheese has a golden color.

10/ Serve right away with a salad. (If you used individual round pastry cutters, separate melted cheese with a knife and carefully take cutter out.)

It’s freezing cold in Paris… I’ve been dreaming of potatoes and melted cheese for days! French traditionnal cuisine is full of that kind of dishes from our mountain regions. Tartiflette is one of them. Do I need to say my favorite? All I can say is, if you’re a cheese lover definitely go for it!

Each time I’ve been living abroad from France, Reblochon was THE cheese I always brought back with me when I had a chance to visit my homeland. Now you know what to get when someone asks you what souvenir you would like from France! If you can’t wait to try it, here is Reblochon cheese I found on amazon. I’ve been impressed by its price though, much more expensive than what it actually costs here.

But lets get back to this tartiflette recipe. By now, you all understood Reblochon cheese is the main ingredient for this dish! I’m not a conservative cook when it comes to traditional dishes. As long as it tastes good, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t use the original ingredients…but I can’t think of anything that could replace Reblochon in Tartiflette. Sorry

The hot melted cheese combines with the white wine and cream to form an inimitable sauce, I’m just telling you this…

Preparation time: 20 minutes  – Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients (for 6 servings)

1 Reblochon cheese (500g – 1.1 lbs)
2.2 lbs (1 kg) of potatoes
0.5 lbs (250 g) of bacon, diced
1 cup of creme fraiche
3 tablespoons of small chives
1 tablespoon of butter
1 glass of dry white wine
1 onion
Salt and pepper

Instructions

1/ Clean potatoes and cut them by half.

2/ Boil potatoes into salted water for about 30 minutes (They’re ready when a knife enters easily). Then, you’ll take them off water and let them chill.

3/ Meanwhile, peel and slice onions.

4/ Melt butter in a frying pan. Add sliced onions.

5/ When onions are translucent, add bacon dices and leave over medium heat for 5 more minutes stirring often.

6/ Preheat oven to 460° F (240° C / Th 8).

7/ Peel and slice potatoes.

8/ Rinse and dry small chives. Chop them.

9/ In a bowl, combine creme fraiche with wine and small chives. Season with salt and pepper.

10/ Grease an ovenproof dish. Start by arranging a layer of potato slices at the bottom of the dish. Top with bacon dices and onion, then spread the  cream mixture on top. Repeat with another layer of everything.

11/ Grate Reblochon’s rind lightly with a knife. (Don’t take it off! Just grate what’s coming off easily).

12/ Slice Reblochon cheese into 2 thinner circles, each one having rind on one side and inside cheese on the other side.

13/ Place both circles on top of the potato layers with the rind side up and bake in oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until crust is golden and cheese sauce is simmering.

Serve immediately with green lettuce and vinaigrette.

I’ts perfectly fine to eat the Reblochon’s rind (it’s the best part!), although if it’s a few days old it might have a pretty strong taste

So what was this homemade fish stock recipe for?… Well… A veggie fight!

Mel of Bouchon for Two and Leela of She Simmers organize a veggie challenge each month. And December is… battle fennel!

So I bought fennels and spent days wondering how I was going to prepare them. First, option was a salmon, fennel and some fruit carpaccio. But I couldn’t decide which fruit… Orange, mango, papaya, pear?… Which one would you add it?… I haven’t made up my mind yet but I’m not giving up on that one

Since the recipe submitted has to, somehow, reflect its cook; mine definitely needed some butter and cream Let’s keep it French and forget about cholesterol!! Alright, you’re allowed to replace the cream by a plain yogurt if you really need to! But be aware it will taste different if you switch butter for margarine…

So, here is my dish: sea bass fillet and its aniseed sauce served with fennel puree and crispy fennel fries.

Preparation time: 25 minutes – Cooking time: 30- 35 minutes

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

Sea bass

3.3 lbs (1.5 kg) of sea bass fish (approx. 2 big ones)
3 tablespoons of Olive oil (click here to buy online)
Salt & pepper

Aniseed sauce

6 tablespoons of olive oil (click here to buy online)
3 tablespoons of chopped dill
1 teaspoon of aniseed liquor (Pastis, Ouzo etc.)

Fennel puree

3.3 lbs (1.5 kg) of fennel bulbs (approx. 3 bulbs)
1 1/2 cups (375 ml) of homemade fish stock (recipe here)
4 tablespoons of creme fraiche (or plain yogurt)
3 tablespoons of chopped dill
1 oz (30 g) of butter
Salt & pepper

Fennel fries

1.1 lbs (500 g) of fennel bulbs (approx. 1 bulb)
4 tablespoons of flour
Salt

Instructions

1/ If you’re lucky, your fish merchant will remove the fillets for you. Mine just cleans it, then, client is on its own! If you’re a first timer, check Chef Simon’s explanation here. You can either keep the skin on the fillets or remove it. Store fillets in the refrigerator and use heads, bones and fins to make your own fish stock.

2/ Rinse fennels and dry them. You can take the outside leaves off if they don’t look so good. Slice leaves giving them a fries shape. Keep aside the slices of the last fennel for the fries.

3/ Prepare the aniseed sauce: mix together in a blender olive oil, dill and aniseed liquor.

4/ Melt butter in a pan. (Keep low heat so butter doesn’t get brown. If it does, change it; eating it is carcinogenic… At least, that’s what my mum always told me )

5/ Add fennel (the puree part) and leave covered for 8 minutes stirring from time to time.

6/ During that time, flour the fennel you kept aside and turn your deep fat fryer on. If you don’t have one, heat 2 cups of olive oil in a pan over medium- high heat.

7/ Go back to the puree, add fish stock to the fennel in the pan and leave it simmer until all liquid has evaporated.

8/ When oil is hot, dip fennel fries in it and leave them until they get a golden color.

9/ When fries are ready, put them on a plate covered with kitchen paper. Add salt and keep in the oven over low heat so they don’t get cold while you finish.

10/ Liquidize fennel the best you can (it tends to get stuck in the blender, but don’t worry if it’s not mixed well).

11/ Add cream and dill, then liquidize again. Season with salt and pepper.

12/ Prepare sea bass: In a frying pan, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Add sea bass fillets, heating them on the skin side for 3 minutes, then 2 minutes on the other side. Season with salt and pepper.

13/ Serve sea bass on top of the puree adding some fennel fries and aniseed sauce on the side.

Fabada is a famous bean stew from the Spanish Asturias region located north west of the country on the Atlantic coast. It’s a very tasty stew that takes a while to get ready but doesn’t require much effort on your side. You’re not even allowed to stir it because you could break the beans! Peel and chop one onion and you’re basically done with your part

I sometimes use beans I can find in France. It’s definitely not the same taste but it does the job. What you can’t replace are the cooking chorizos, the onion morcilla and the bacon piece. Fabada recipe doesn’t ask for many ingredients because these three give it all the great taste. In Spain, you can buy already made packs with all the meat you need to make fabada; it’s called « Compango ».

It’s a great dish I like to make often even if I wasn’t always a Fabada lover! When I was 15, I spent a month with an Asturian family in order to learn Spanish. They were really nice, I kept excellent memories from them. A few days after I arrived, the family mom made a huge fabada and I must say I kinda liked it the first day… But wasn’t so convinced the next 6 days I ate it!!!
Imagine, middle of august in Spain, eating hot bean stew for a whole week! I never understood how they could eat that during summertime, eating can actually make you sweat! It took me years to have fabada again

Preparation time: 5 mn (+ overnight soaking for the beans) – Cooking time: 4 hours

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

1.1 lbs (500 g) Asturian beans (click here to buy online)
20 to 24 cups (5 to 6 l) of water
2 chorizos (to-cook kind) (click here to buy online)
2 Spanish morcillas (black pudding with onions) (click here to buy online)
5 oz (140 g) of bacon (not sliced)
1 onion

Instructions

1/ The day before, soak beans in about 10 cups of water and leave them overnight.

2/ Throw water out and pour beans in a large casserole.

3/ Peel and chop onion (very thin).

4/ Cover beans with 12 cups of water. Add chopped onion and whole chorizo, morcilla and bacon.

5/ Get it to a smooth boil and skim the foam. (You may need to skim the foam more than once, don’t hesitate to do so). Reduce the heat to low and leave covered.

6/ After about one hour and a half, add 2 cups of cold water. Cover and leave over low heat.

7/ After 4 hours of slow cooking, fabada is ready.  (Most of the time, you won’t need to add salt as the different pork pieces added are usually pretty salted already.)

8/ Serve beans in bowls or soup plates topping with pieces of meat.

Filet mignon, in French, doesn’t only refer to the beef piece of meat. It’s also commonly used for pork tenderloin…No fat, it’s the best part . This bacon wrapped pork filet mignon is stuffed with a French cow cheese called Beaufort. Its taste is very similar to Comté cheese and a little bit tastier than Gruyère but you can easily replace Beaufort by one of these two if you prefer. Prepare your kitchen string, here we go!

Preparation time: 10 mn  Cooking time: 30 mn

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

1 pork tenderloin (1.7 lbs (800g))
6 oz (170 g) of Beaufort cheese (Click here to buy online)
12 slices of bacon
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Preheat oven to  400° F (200° C – Th 7).

2/ Remove silver skin and remaining fat from pork tenderloin.

3/ Cut tenderloin in the middle without getting to open more than one side. Leave extremities closed so cheese doesn’t escape when cooking.

4/ Dice cheese and stuff inside tenderloin. Season with salt and pepper.

5/ Wrap bacon slices around pork filet mignon and tie it up with kitchen string.

6/ Dispose wrapped tenderloin in an ovenproof dish.

7/ Pour a dash of olive oil, add salt and pepper and bake in oven until bacon looks crispy and inside is entirely cooked.

Serve with fried potatoes, green beans or mashed potatoes.