This recipe is from Jill Norman’s At Elizabeth David’s Table and originally published in Elizabeth David’s 1960 French Provincial cooking. This terrine is ideal for a starter, served on toast or with a French baguette, also as a light lunch with salad. It is an excellent addition to a party buffet, smorgasbord. I love [...]
It was terrific cooking Spanish Cuisine last weekend, June 20th, 2026, and what an exceptional class it was with 2 Spaniards attending, thereby creating such an authentic mood in our cooking discussions, and the cooks all excelled! The dishes were so flavourful, the sofregit was a hit, a ‘flavour bomb’, and the Tarta de Santiago [...]
Autumn and winter are the peak chestnut seasons in France and Europe. I was there last September with my travelling friend Rosemarie and one of our day trips was to Fontainebleau, the home of Empress Josephine and Napoleon. I particularly wanted to see Josephine’s rose garden, which I have read about over the years, but [...]
This wonderfully flavourful, crunchy, and colourful salad can be easily adapted to suit your purpose, whether it be as a salad or as a main summertime dish. The salad is said to date back to the late 1800s when it was created by Oscar Tschirky, the head chef of the infamous Waldorf hotel at [...]
Dominique’s savoury vegetable cake, from her Domaine de l'Oiseau in Burgundy This is an unusual and delicious appetiser to enjoy, still warm from the oven, with pre-dinner drinks, or served with butter and a cup of coffee. This cake always brings back happy memories of my time in Burgundy with my daughter Yolanda, at [...]
The French tradition of serving this round, flat, almond, frangipane-filled puff pastry tart on the Twelfth Day of Christmas or Epiphany Day, 6th January, has biblical origins and is when the ‘magi’, or ‘three kings, the three wise men’ arrived in Bethlehem, and visited baby Jesus. A 'fève', or ‘bean’ is traditionally hidden in [...]
To temper dark chocolate in the microwave Place the dark chocolate, a maximum of 500 grams at a time, into a microwave-safe glass or plastic bowl. Heat in 30-second increments, once or twice, stirring in between. It may take 1.30 seconds depending on your microwave. Once you have 50 % solids and 50 % liquid, [...]
In Morocco, the spice shops in the souks sell a large variety of both ground and whole spices that are the foundation of Moroccan cooking. When you buy your spices from the spice merchant, he grinds them for you on the spot, so they are always full of flavour with intense aromas. They typically grind [...]
I often bake this bread for the French Odyssey - Journey through France cooking classes, especially if we are making the walnut and Roquefort cheese terrine. Walnuts are grown widely in SW France, and when I was in the Dordogne with various culinary tours we always took the group to an ancient walnut mill and [...]
I look forward to baking this cake in autumn when mandarins are at their peak; some varieties continue into June and winter, which gives you time to get into the kitchen and start baking. In this cake, the lusciousness of the pistachios and the sweetness of the mandarins, make a perfect and flavoursome match. They [...]
