Cuisines
French recipes
Technique-led cooking built on butter and patience.
French cooking is the one that gave the rest of Europe its vocabulary, which is why so much of what follows sounds technical: a roux, a reduction, an emulsion, a rest. None of it is difficult and all of it is specific. What the tradition is really teaching is that a small number of operations, done properly, will carry almost any ingredient — that a sauce is a reduction plus a fat, and that the difference between a good one and a bad one is patience rather than skill. The recipes gathered here range from the everyday to the ceremonial: a vinaigrette that takes two minutes and is the most useful thing in this collection, an onion soup that takes an hour of stirring before anything else happens, and the pastry work that made the reputation.
19 recipes
Raspberry Sorbet
Sieved raspberry puree frozen with a measured sugar syrup and beaten every forty-five minutes, which is what keeps it scoopable.
Mayonnaise
Egg yolk, oil and acid whisked by hand into a thick emulsion, with the drop-by-drop start that decides whether it holds or splits.
Lemon Tart
A sharp lemon cream baked low and slow in a blind-baked sweet pastry case, so it sets to a smooth cut rather than curdling.
Green Beans with Brown Butter and Almonds
Beans blanched hard in salted water and chilled in ice, then reheated in butter browned with flaked almonds.
Gratin Dauphinois
Thin potato slices simmered in cream on the hob until their own starch thickens it, then baked slowly until set.
Glazed Carrots
Carrots cooked in one layer under a paper lid until the butter, sugar and stock reduce to a syrup that coats them.
Everyday Vinaigrette
A mustard-emulsified dressing built on three parts oil to one part acid, a ratio worth memorising so you never need the recipe again.
Dark Chocolate Mousse
Dark chocolate lightened with whisked egg whites and set by nothing but cocoa butter, which is why it needs no cream and no gelatine.
Crème Caramel
A baked custard turned out under its own caramel, cooked in a water bath at a low temperature so it sets smooth rather than pitted.
Classic French Omelette
Three eggs cooked in under a minute in a hot buttered pan, stirred hard then rolled, so the outside stays pale and the centre soft.
Cherries Jubilee
Cherries in a light syrup flamed with kirsch and spooned burning over vanilla ice cream, which is a dish and a performance at once.
Apple and Almond Tart
A shortcrust case blind baked, filled with almond frangipane and fanned apple, so the base stays crisp under a wet filling.
Sourdough Boule
A lean loaf raised on starter alone, folded rather than kneaded, retarded overnight and baked covered so it steams itself.
Sidecar
Cognac, orange liqueur and lemon shaken cold and served up, sharp and clean, in a glass with a sugared rim if you want one.
Lobster Thermidor
Lobster meat returned to its shell in a mustard and brandy cream sauce, glazed under the grill until the top is spotted brown.
French Toast
Thick slices of stale bread soaked in an egg and milk custard, then fried in butter over medium heat so the centre sets without the crust burning.
French Onion Soup
Onions cooked down for an hour until they are jammy and dark, then finished under the grill with a raft of bread and melted cheese.
French 75
Gin, lemon and sugar lengthened with champagne — a sour that arrives in a flute and drinks far more easily than it should.
Bechamel Sauce
A white sauce built on a cooked butter and flour roux, with the milk beaten in by stages so it thickens smooth instead of lumpy.