Dominique’s vegetable cake from Burgunday

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 [...]

Galette des Rois – Epiphany Tart, the Tart of Kings

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 [...]

By |2025-01-16T17:28:12+11:00January 16th, 2025|Christmas and festive food, Festive, Festive Food, Festive Food, French food, French Odyssey cooking class, Galette des Rois Epiphany galetter, Recipes, Tarts|Comments Off on Galette des Rois – Epiphany Tart, the Tart of Kings

Chocolate – how to temper it and why it is important to do so

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, [...]

By |2024-08-17T13:39:15+10:00August 17th, 2024|Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate - how to temper, Cook Real Food, Desserts - fruit, Festive, French Odyssey cooking class|Comments Off on Chocolate – how to temper it and why it is important to do so

Ras el hanout – the magical Moroccan spice blend

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 [...]

By |2024-08-16T18:20:08+10:00August 16th, 2024|Cooking classes, Marrakesh, Moroccan spices, Moroccan spices, Morocco, Ras el hanout, Recipes, Spices|Comments Off on Ras el hanout – the magical Moroccan spice blend

Wonderful emails from happy class participants bring a lot of joy to hearts

The lovely, kind, and most appreciated comments from you, our cooking class participants, bring us a lot of joy in knowing you gained and learned from your cooking class day. Sharing my cooking techniques, methods, and recipes all of which focus on making your life in the kitchen happy, is what Cooking on the Bay [...]

By |2023-11-10T14:57:35+11:00November 6th, 2023|Cooking classes, Testimonials - feedback from classes|Comments Off on Wonderful emails from happy class participants bring a lot of joy to hearts

Pithiviers with duck confit and mushrooms

On one of my early visits to France years ago, we stayed in a divine little Chambre d’Hôte, L ’Impasse du Temple, now called a Maison de Maître. It was located down a difficult to find narrow laneway, pre-GPS days, in a pretty, tiny town called Léran, in the Midi Pyrenées, near Mirepoix, a beautiful [...]

By |2023-08-19T16:49:05+10:00August 19th, 2023|Braising, Culinary Travel, Duck confit, Duck confit, Food, France, French food, French food, French Regional Cooking, On the Ridge at Kureelpa, Pithiviers - duck|Comments Off on Pithiviers with duck confit and mushrooms

Shortcrust pastry – Pâte Brissé

Both Pâte Brissé and Pâte Sucrée are short cut pastry; Pâte Brissé is the same as Pâte Sucrée but without the sugar. Ingredients: 200g flour 100g cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces 1 egg yolk ½ tsp salt, omit if using salted butter 3 tbsp, 45ml, ice cold water - or [...]

By |2023-06-15T14:37:00+10:00June 15th, 2023|French Odyssey cooking class, Pastry - Short Crust - Pâte Brisée, Pastry Making, Pastry-Making, Recipes, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Shortcrust pastry – Pâte Brissé

Coronation Quiche

A few days before the Coronation of King Charles III, the BBC published this ‘official’ recipe from Buckingham Palace, created by Mark Flanagan and Lucy Wilson.  My long-time friend and cooking ‘partner’ Christine, who years ago inspired me to join her in learning to cook good French food, was quite taken by this quiche [...]

By |2023-06-19T12:04:58+10:00June 14th, 2023|Broad beans, Eggs, Mayonnaise, Mayonnaise, Recipes, Salads, Spinach, Tarts, Vegetables, Vinaigrete, Vinaigrette, Vinaigrette for salads|Comments Off on Coronation Quiche

Learn how to cook healthy, everyday meals – Give Real Food Real Flavour!

Do you want to learn how to cook healthy, everyday meals? Then my Cook Real Food – Eat Real Food Low Carb Healthy Fat program is just what you need. The beginning of the new year is a great time to start thinking about health and fitness; this program is a perfect starting point.  This [...]

By |2023-01-23T13:37:30+11:00January 23rd, 2023|Books and reading, Cook Real Food, Cooking classes, Desserts - chilled, Flavour, Flavour, Flavour, Healthy Family Meals, Low Carb, Salt, Salt - Murray River Sea Salt, Samin Nosrat|Comments Off on Learn how to cook healthy, everyday meals – Give Real Food Real Flavour!
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