Eggs cocotte are perfect for every meal! That’s what I love about them. Perfect for brunch when served with a yogurt, a fruit salad and a croissant. Great with a salad or a soup as a light lunch or dinner. Egg cocotte is also a traditional entrée in many French restaurants.

It’s mushroom and ham version is called ‘oeuf cocotte à la parisienne’ (Parisian shirred egg) so I guess it’s been imagined in the City of Light. It’s incredibly tasty AND easy to make. Don’t be afraid to experiment around this recipe, baked eggs are fun to play with!

Next time try adding chives, chervil and tarragon along with the parsley. This herb mix is called ‘fines herbes’, it’s a nice twist on the Parisian shirred eggs original recipe. Don’t be afraid to try them with chicken or veggies, they taste great with a lot of different ingredients.

Preparation time: 10 minutes – Baking time: 6 to 8 minutes

Ingredients (for 1 serving)

1 egg
1 oz (30 g) of ham
2 portobello mushrooms
1 small garlic clove
1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
2 teaspoons of creme fraiche
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 slice of bread
Butter
Salt & Pepper

Instructions

1/ Preheat oven to 500° F (260° C/Th 9).

2/ Peel and slice mushrooms. (You should never wash portobello mushrooms, they would get soaked with water and loose taste as a result. Just grate stalk if there is mud and slice off the end part. Then peel off the cap by grasping the white edge with a knife and pull to peel strips off the mushroom.)

3/ Rinse parsley and peel garlic clove. Chop both.

4/ Heat a frying pan oven medium high heat, add olive oil. When it’s hot, add garlic. Move it around the pan for about one minute so the oil gets a garlic flavor.

5/ Lower to medium heat and pour mushrooms into the pan. Add parsley and a pinch of salt. Leave for 5 minutes stirring from time to time.

6/ Grease 1 ramekin with butter or margarine.

7/ Chop ham scraps and dispose some of them in the ramekin. Alternate with a layer of mushrooms and 1 teaspoon of creme fraiche. Repeat operation once. Add salt.

8/ Break the egg into the ramekin and top with a pinch of pepper.

9/ Fill half of an ovenproof dish with boiling (or very hot water) and put ramekin on it. Bake in oven for 6 to 8 minutes. (It’s ready when white is done but yolk remains liquid.)

10/ Serve with toasted bread.

Looking for a salmon alternative for this baked eggs recipe? Click here.

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.

Here is a perfect summer salad recipe: very fresh and tasty. Mangoes and shrimps combination is close to perfection . I didn’t discover it long ago but I know I’ll be trying lots of dishes with these two…

Preparation time: 10 mn

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

14 oz (400 g) of cooked shrimps
7 oz (200 g) of Portobello mushrooms
1 mango
1 lettuce
1 red onion
1 lime
3 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Peel and chop onions. Squeeze 1/2 lime in a glass and pour onions slices into juice. Leave it so it marinates.

2/ Peel shrimps.

3/ Peel and chop mushrooms. (Peel mushrooms by taking off the white ’skin’ they have on top and cutting their bottom end. If you wash them they’ll get soaked in water)

4/ Peel and dice mango.

5/ Wash and dry lettuce thouroughly. Cut big leaves and pour into a big salad bowl.

6/ Add shrimps, mushrooms, mango dices, marinated onion with its lime juice, salt and pepper.

7/ Add juice from the remaining half of the lime along with olive oil.

8/ Mix well, try it and adjust seasoning according to your own taste.

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.

Here is an original and very tasty winter soup recipe. I’m sure you’ll love the slight cumin flavor and the lime marinated mushrooms… I use dried chickpeas because they taste better (in my humble opinion) and are more nutritional than canned ones but they definitely ask for more organization You’ll need to soak them overnight before cooking your soup. So if you don’t have time, go for canned chickpeas and reduce considerably cooking time.

Preparation time : 30 mn (+1 night soaking of dried chickpeas) – Cooking time : 2 h

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

2/3 lbs (310 g) of chickpeas
1 large onion
1 bay leaf
10 to 12 cups (2, 5 to 3 l) of water
1 cup (25cl) of sour cream (crème fraiche)
1 pinch of cumin powder

Marinated mushrooms

1/2 lbs (310 g) of portobello mushrooms
3/8 of cup (10 cl) of olive oil
1 lime
1 tablespoon of fresh chopped cilantro
1/2 pinch of red chilli powder

Toasted bread

4 bread slices
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt and pepper

Instructions

1/ Rinse chickpeas until water comes out clear, then soak them in about 12 cups of water overnight. (Add cooking salt and a tablespoon of baking soda to it: it helps soften the cheakpeas).

2/ Peel and slice mushrooms. (When cleaning mushrooms you should try to avoid using water, they would get soaked and loose taste). Combine olive oil, cilantro and chilli pepper.

3/ Clean lime, grate zest and squeeze it. Add zest and juice to marinade. Add salt and pepper. Pour mushrooms in marinade and set aside.

4/ Get water to a boil. Peel and slice onion. Pour onion slices, bay leaf and chickpeas into boiling water. Cover (leaving some air coming out so it doesn’t boil over) and leave until chickpeas are tender.

5/ Mix it in a food mixer; add creme fraiche and season with cumin, salt and pepper. (Try it and add seasoning if needed).

6/ Peel garlic clove. Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add the whole garlic clove. Get the garlic all around the pan so the oil gets garlic flavour. Add bread slices cut in half. Leave 1 or 2 minutes on each side.

7/ Serve chickpea soup adding marinated mushrooms on top with bread on side.

Enjoy!