There are many ways of cooking rabbit in French cuisine but with mustard sauce is the most famous of them. In my version of the recipe, I use both Dijon mustard and old fashioned mustard. That’s because old fashioned mustard doesn’t taste as strong as Dijon mustard. It’s a way to get the Dijon’s taste keeping the old fashioned look of the dish.

If you only have one kind, don’t worry, it should work too

Preparation time: 10 minutes – Cooking time: 50 minutes

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

1 whole rabbit (cleaned, in pieces)
4 tablespoons of old fashioned mustard
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons of creme fraiche
1 glass (25 cl) of dry white wine
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 shallots
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Season rabbit pieces with salt and spread them with old fashioned mustard using a kitchen brush or a knife.

2/ Pour olive oil in a large iron-cast casserole. Heat it over medium heat.

3/ Peel and chop shallots.

4/ When oil is hot, add rabbit pieces and leave them 2 minutes on each side or until they get a golden color. Take them off casserole and set aside. (If your casserole is too small to broil all rabbit at once, repeat this step several times).

5/ Pour shallots into the casserole.

6/ Once shallots are translucent, add white wine and get to a smooth boil until the strong smell of alcohol is gone.

7/ Return rabbit pieces to the casserole. Cover and leave over medium/low heat for 25 minutes.

8/ Combine creme fraiche with Dijon mustard and the old fashioned mustard you have left (if any).

9/ Uncover casserole, add mustard sauce and stir well so your sauce is homogeneous.

10/ Leave it simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until sauce thickens.

11/ Serve with potatoes, rice or tagliatelle and top generously with mustard sauce.

My French Classics section definitely lacked beef Bourguignon. It’s an easy to make recipe although it will require time. If you have a pressure cooker, you’ll be able to reduce the cooking time. If not, there is no way you’re going to get away with it! Only time gives this wine sauce its amazing flavor

The most common side dish to be served with beef Burgundy is steamed potatoes but you can also serve it with rice or pasta. Fresh tagliatelle will be perfect with boeuf Bourguignon.

Preparation time: 15 minutes – Cooking time: 4 h 30 to 5 hours – Marinating time: at least 5 hours

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

2.2 lbs (1 kg) of beef cut into 2 inches pieces (Rump roast, chuck roast, sirloin tip, top or bottom round…)
3.5 oz (100 g) of bacon
1 carrot
2 onions
6 portobello mushrooms
1 garlic clove
1 bouquet garni (2 bay leaves, 5 sprigs of parsley, 4 sprigs of thyme)
3 cups of red wine (Côtes du Rhone, Bourgogne…)
1 cup of beef stock
2 tablespoons of olive oil (click here to buy online)
1 tablespoon of flour
Salt & pepper

Side

2.2 lbs (1 kg) of potatoes
2 springs of parsley
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/  The night before (or at least 5 hours before preparing it), rinse and chop thyme and parsley. In a large dish, season meat with salt and combine it with the red wine and the bouquet garni. Cover and leave marinade in the fridge.

2/ Peel and slice carrots, mushrooms and onions.

3/ Dice bacon.

4/ Peel and crush garlic clove.

5/ Heat oil in a large casserole or stew pot over high heat. Add beef pieces moving them so all sides get cooked equally. Keep marinade aside.

6/ Add bacon, carrots, onions and mushrooms. Sprinkle ingredients with flour and stir until flour gets a golden color.

7/ Cover with red wine from the marinade and get to a boil stirring continuously.

8/ Add garlic clove, bouquet garni, beef stock, salt and pepper. Cover and leave over low heat for at least 4 h 30. (Try checking on it and stirring  every 30 to 40 minutes so ingredients don’t stick to the bottom of the stew pot. If your sauce keeps being too liquid, uncover for a while. If it’s not enough, you can still sprinkle a little more flour. Meat is ready when soft.)

9/ 40 minutes before serving, peel and steam side potatoes.

10/ Rinse and chop parsley.

11/ Serve beef Bourguignon with potatoes seasoned with parsley, salt and pepper.

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.)

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.

Great news for all Iphone users, French Cooking for Dummies has an application style theme that allows you to  read it easily when surfing with a mobile device. Fellow wordpress bloggers, here is the plugin . Now let’s go back to the real thing… Have you ever heard of  Spanish pork skewers called Pinchos Morunos? Pork fillet dices marinated in spices. They’re really worth the try…

Preparation time: 20 mn (+ overnight marinade) – Cooking time: 30 mn

Ingredients (for about 10 skewers)

1.1 lbs (500 g) of pork fillets
1 onion
4 tablespoons of olive oil (click here to buy online)
2 teaspoons of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of pimentón (smoked paprika)
1/4 teaspoon of grinded black pepper
1 pinch of saffron
Salt

Instructions

1/ Dice pork fillet. (Smaller pieces will get tastier with the marinade)

2/ Pour cumin, pimentón, black pepper and saffron in a bowl and mix them together.

3/ In a salad bowl, combine meat and spices.

4/ Add olive oil, a pinch of salt and stir again. Cover and leave it marinate in the fridge overnight.

5/ Thread 6 pieces of pork in each skewer.

6/ Heat grill on high heat. Grill skewers until inside meat is no longer pink or about 5 minutes. If you’re lucky enough to be making them on BBQ, they’ll take a little longer (around 15 minutes) but they’ll taste delicious