La Recette du Jour

I haven't made biscuits for years, but today I wanted to make some simple, buttery sultana biscuits, and to my surprise a trawl through the most likely suspects on my bookshelf (Delia, Jane Grigson, Katie Stewart, Georgina Horley) came up blank. I ended up googling, and even that took a while. But eventually I hit lucky, and less than half an hour later I was able to sample the result. Very nice, albeit a bit crumbly; I might add a spot of milk next time, as the dough was very short. I added sultanas, but see suggestions at the end of the recipe for alternative flavourings. This recipe makes about a dozen.

Credit: from tafn.org.uk, but the site was down when I visited so I used Google's cache.

Someone asked today how to make a gratin dauphinois without the cream separating and going oily. This is Edouard de Pomiane's answer. However, I often leave out the flour with no ill effect. He specifies white Dutch potatoes -- I'm not sure what he means by this, but I generally use waxy ones, as that's about all we can get round here. Quantities are not very exact.

... known in our household as poulet aux cinquante gousses d'ail. British people used to find the idea terribly shocking, but I hope they don't any more. As everyone should know by now, garlic that has been cooked for an hour and a half is mild and creamy. The fresher the garlic the better -- it's especially good with new season garlic. Squeeze it out of the skins and spread on pieces of toast if you want.

This is a great dessert to follow a substantial one-pot meal (such as couscous, for example). In addition it's healthy, low-fat, easy to do, and is prepared entirely in advance. What's not to like?

This classic Italian pasta dish is a good one for the pressure cooker, and substantial enough to serve as a balanced one-pot meal.

Tip: if you want to make a large quantity and freeze/reheat some, extract the part you are going to keep before you add the pasta. If you don't, it will soak up too much liquid and go all stodgy.

Wow, my first attempt at a blog competition: Hay, Hay, it's cheesecake all the way, courtesy of Peabody. Also my first attempt at food photography; ah well, I can only improve!

I often find cheesecake too sickly, but this one is light and delicious, and went down a storm for tea after choir rehearsal. As a bonus, it's very easy to make, and an excellent way of using up home-made lemon curd. Ideally, make it the day before and chill overnight.

Just catching up with the backlog of recipes held elsewhere and not entered here yet. This is yet another Kaliyoga one. Tiny tartlets make lovely petits fours with coffee. Left-over poached plums can be eaten on their own, with cream, ice cream -- or mascarpone of course.

It seems a terrible oversight that I do not yet have an entry for ile flottante, my favourite French nursery dessert. This is ace home cook Louisette's way of doing it. This is one large island -- the spoon-sized blobs of egg white floating in a sea of custard are oeufs à la neige. Ile flottante is easier to get right in my opinion, and certainly more manageable when cooking for a crowd.

From Good Housekeeping; a lot of work, but worth it for a special occasion, and you can make the cake ahead and freeze it. I think you could use lime instead of orange; I love the combination of lime and white chocolate.

This makes a very large cake -- at least a dozen servings. Reduce by half for a 15-cm tin; baking time will be the same.

Early-season strawberries are often pretty tasteless, but sometimes you just can't resist buying them because they remind you that spring is here. Usually I brighten up dull strawberries by halving them and marinating with a little sugar and a splash of Carthagène or Muscat for a few hours; this really brings out what flavour they have. I've also been known to use black pepper and balsamic vinegar. Today I found another way of enhancing them which made a very nice change.