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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 19th, 2023

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  • I make a lot of beef (or lamb) stew without any seasoning (except for two bay leaves) in the instapot (which I resisted as a “dumb gadget” for way too long). It gets frozen and when I’m ready, I just add things to the meat, and you’d never know it was frozen.

    In this case, I had pre-reduced red-wine and roast-garlic sauce sitting in the fridge. Added some tomato paste and then some brown sugar, when it seemed like the wine was a bit sour. If I had an orange, I would have added some zest, that’s a nice trick.

    And butter. Because butter solves anything.





  • It’s not so much a recipe, but a series of secrets.

    Usually I caramelise the onions in a mix of butter, olive oil, ground fennel seeds and salt. To really make it work, I let them cook for about 30-45 minutes at low heat and covered. You’ll know when they’re done.

    Then I add stock. I use a fond de légumes which I make in bulk and freeze, but any stock will do. But the three secret ingredients I found are brewer’s yeast (which you add, and then dissolves), port wine and fish sauce. Really makes a great soup. And though it doesn’t sound authentic, it tastes like it is.

    Top with garlic croutons (you can also rub garlic on dried bread), then for me a mix of beaufort, gouda and aged gouda, and put under the broiler. Sounds elaborate, but soup freezes nicely.


















  • I use the hard plastic moulds, having tried the soft ones. I took a chocolate course from Pascal Pouchon who taught me two things. Freeze in between for a minute or two. So, pour into the mould, pour out by suspending upside down in a bowl, scrape excess chocolate off into self-same bowl, freeze for a minute or two, fill, then use the excess chocolate to cover the bottoms. Then freeze again. The second thing helps with the bowl, a heat gun from the DIY store helps keep the chocolate above in the right temperature zone.