Duck livers are available from your poultry shop or supermarket; I buy mine from my nearby supplier, Luv-a-Duck; they come fresh in large 2kg bags, so I freeze them in small packages of 200 - 300g pouches. You can substitute chicken livers for the duck, if you wish. Interestingly, the chicken livers have a darker [...]
Makes 2 loaves There are many versions of this recipe. Anne Willan, of La Varenne Cooking School in Burgundy, included her pain d’épices in a couple of her many books on French Cuisine, ‘The country cooking of France’ and ‘Real Food’. Recently, in St Jean de Losne, Burgundy, our host cooked her grandmother’s pain d’épices for [...]
The amuse-bouche is the French word for appetiser. In Australia we tend to call these little pre-meal delicacies ‘hors d’oeuvres’, and to the Italians they are antipasto. In France in the 15th century, hors d’oeuvres was used as an architectural term that referred to an outbuilding, the 'hors d’oeuvre', or 'outside the work'. By the [...]
There are a few variations on this classic salt cod dish from the south of France. Basically, it is a purée of salt cod, olive oil, milk, garlic and sometimes potato and cream. Some cooks omit the garlic, I like it included. The Basques like it with peppers, tomatoes and garlic, the Bretons prefer it [...]
