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.)

Can’t get enough appetizer spoons recipes, I just can’t get enough
Their secret resides in mixing textures and getting the flavors not to override one another. In general, 2 to 3  different main ingredients are enough.

In this amuse-bouche recipe, we have a creamy texture thanks to the avocado and mascarpone cheese contrasting with the grapefruit pulp’s distinctive texture. My advice so the flavors are well balanced is to be very generous when topping with the crab flesh. Grapefruit’s bitterness tends to be too prominent otherwise. And don’t forget avocado oxidates pretty quick, so don’t prepare your appetizer spoons too much in advance.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Ingredients (for 15 to 20 spoons)

2 crab claws
1 ripe avocado
1 grapefruit
2 tablespoons of mascarpone cheese
1/2 teaspoon of pimentón (smoked paprika)
Tabasco drops (optional – quantity according to your taste)
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Cut avocado in half and remove pit. Scoop the flesh out with a spoon and leave in a food processor bowl.

2/ Open grapefruit and remove pulp carefully with a teaspoon. Keep juice in a small cup and pulp in a bowl.

3/ In the food processor bowl, add mascarpone cheese, grapefruit juice, pimentón and tabasco (optional). Mix until you get a smooth texture. Add salt and pepper. Mix again. Taste and adjust seasoning.

4/ Crack crab claw and carefully remove flesh. Set aside.

5/ Prepare the Chinese soup spoons by adding to each one a tablespoon of the avocado mixture, followed by a piece of grapefruit pulp. Top generously with crab flesh.

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

Soup season is here! One thing I love about making soup is that you can experiment all you want, you have very few chances to come out with something really bad . Well, my last experiment was this leek and potato soup flavored with blue cheese and I must say it did taste good! It’s a very easy to make recipe that doesn’t need much work on your part. You just heat the leek and potatoes with water and mix everything together… How simple is that?! If  blue cheese’s taste is too strong for you, replace it with cream cheese.

Preparation time: 10 mn – Cooking time: 40 mn

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

1 leek
2 large potatoes
1 onion
5 cups (120 cl) of water
0.7 oz (20g) of blue cheese (a little more if you want some left for decoration)
3 tablespoons of whipping cream
Salt

Instructions

1/ Peel and wash potatoes.

2/ Peel leek by taking off the outside leaves and cutting off both the spoiled end on the green side and the roots on the white side. Wash thoroughly to take off soil that can be left inside.

3/ Peel onion and take off roots on the bottom end.

4/ Heat water in a casserole over medium heat.

5/ Slice leek, cut potatoes into 4 pieces and pour into the water along with the entire onion. Add salt and leave covered for 40 minutes.

6/ Mix together whipping cream and blue cheese.

7/ Liquidize soup and combine it with blue cheese cream. You can add half first, try it and decide how much more blue cheese flavor you wish to add. Season with salt if needed.

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.