Good tip, thanks!

Yeah, I really got to start looking at photos before I post them. The picture does make it look a bit … poop adjacent.

I’m sorry to say just a bad photo on my part, I should have lightened it up before I posted it. Very embarrassing. I promise it’s much nicer in real life and taste good too.

Edited photo. Is that cheating?

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.

I roasted red onions with the potatoes and then mixed them into beef. They get some of the crunchy bits of potatoes coated on them, which works well I think.

Too late - already gone!

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.

If anyone can tell me how to make this work with imgur, I’d be super grateful!

Didn’t stop me from eating it.

Thank you, I was happy the way the picture turned out.

They sell cook’s butter (called «Brut de Baratte») which is about half the price and really nice to work with.

My excuse is lard and vegetable shortening is hard to get here. My reason is butter is great.

They can be made with oil, but my oil ones never really set up properly.

It’s a lovely place, and great beaches to explore when they allow dogs. Great views of the city from there.

To get that crisp and shiny ‘snap’ you need to temper the chocolate. As it was explained to me, though I should probably look it up, there are two fats in chocolate with different melting points. You raise the temperature to melt both, lower the temperature to solidify both, then raise it slightly to melt one again. I found this video from Callebaut, who’s a pretty good supplier. Obviously, you would use a bain marie and a thermometer instead of a very expensive, but very cool chocolate melter.

YouTube nocookie link: https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=NnhSM97zFG8

That may take a bit more energy than I currently have. But I will say I’ve switched entirely to hand tempering, which works much better for small batches. If I make large batches, I eat 7/8 of the chocolate. Small batches, only half.

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.

See above, but basically, praline, caramel and cookie (made from pâte brisé) in different combinations.

From Stéphane Denis, in Saint Malo. Really nice Pain au Chocolat as well!

It’s not mine, from the Hotel Lutecia. I’m rooting for natural flavours, but that may be a fantasy on my part. Nevertheless, very tasty.