Healthy, French, Home-cooking, always fresh, (almost) no cream required!
This is about simple cooking for my kids away from home, family and friends and friends of friends. Not quite recipes, just inspiration.Often, no exact quantities, certainly no scientific potions, but a bit of magic and lots of love! and you could always ask for more details.
Share my love of cooking, enjoy the Pacific West Coast bounty and help me pass along the French Heritage from my Grand-mothers and my Dad who taught me.Salt and Pepper
Even when I don't say so, use Baleine sea-salt and fresh ground pepper from your Peugeot pepper mill, goes without saying!
Category Archives: Main Course
Crown Roast of Pork with Lemon and Herb Paste.
This recipe makes for a very festive roast with original flavours without taking too much time to prepare. I seem to find this cut of pork easily around Christmas and Easter locally but any good butcher should be able to … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course, Uncategorized
Tagged Crown roast, moist and tender pork, pork roast
2 Comments
Orange Recipes for Halloween Dinner
https://thecookingfrogblog.com/2011/10/30/halloween-squash-or-pumpkin-au-gratin/ https://thecookingfrogblog.com/2010/05/06/carrot-salad-summer-crudite-may6-2010/ https://thecookingfrogblog.com/2011/01/31/roasted-yams-a-la-canadienne/ https://thecookingfrogblog.com/2010/11/02/soupe-a-la-courge-at-aux-chataignes-served-in-a-pumpkin/ https://thecookingfrogblog.com/2010/06/12/stuffed-orange-peppers/ https://thecookingfrogblog.com/2010/06/16/roasted-butternut-squash/ https://thecookingfrogblog.com/2011/03/31/blood-orange-tart-with-pistachios/
Posted in Appetizer, Dessert, Lunch, Main Course, Side, Soup, Starter, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Tagged food, halloween recipe, orange, recipes, squash, verygoodrecipes
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La Bouillabaisse de l’Oncle Jean-Louis
Bouillabaisse used to be the soup of the poor in the port of Marseille. You simmered the bony rock fish abundant in the Calanques in a vegetable broth and added better fish according to your budget. It means boiling on … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course, Soup
Tagged bouillabaisse, bouillabaisse provencale, fish soup, food, marseille, recipe, recipes, rock fish, soupe depoisson, verygoodrecipe
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Roasted Pork Tenderloin, wrapped in bacon, more tender and moist
Sometimes you need a nice dinner that does not require a lot of work, maybe after a long day of skiing or a long day period. Most of the time spent on this recipe is roasting time, during which you … Continue reading
Lapin à la Moutarde de Dijon
This recipe is a family staple that I have wanted to feature for a long time. The delay was caused by the extreme difficulty that faced me trying to assemble the ingredients. A little bit of cream is no problem, … Continue reading
Peppers of all colours
The Bell peppers are really sweet right now. They are sweetest in July/August when they can fully ripen before harvest. The local red, orange and yellow peppers are the sweetest of all and they also contain the most vitamin C, … Continue reading
Posted in Lunch, Main Course, Vegetables
Tagged bacon, bell pepper, cooking, food, green pepper, orange pepper, recipes, red pepper
2 Comments
Oysters not quite Rockefeller, a nice treat for Mother’s day
Not that we are necessarily poorer up North in Canada, it is just that our local Pacific Fanny Bay oysters are usually sold shucked and not in the shell. So no way to bake them on the half shell. It … Continue reading
Posted in Appetizer, Main Course
Tagged fanny bay oysters, food, oysters, oysters rockefeller, recipes, verygoodrecipe
2 Comments
Leg of lamb roast with goat cheese & grainy mustard stuffing
Supermarkets in North America are having giant turkey sales for Easter. They could give it to me for free and I would not want it. I cannot celebrate Easter without a spring lamb roast. We used to have the full … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged food, lamb roast, leg of lamb, recipes, stuffed leg of lamb, verygoodrecipe
4 Comments
Poulet Chasseur
The morels are not out on Vancouver Island and this is a good time of year for recipes with white mushroom. I found some baby white mushroom the other day at the grocer and that put me in the mood … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged chicken hunter, food, poulet champignon, poulet chasseur, poulet saute chasseur, recipes, verygoodrecipe
2 Comments
Soupe de moules aux légumes (mussels in vegetable soup)
Months including an “R” is the best time to eat shell fish, the saying goes. This is not only a safety recommendation, the hot months have no “R”, but also a matter of taste. The colder the water, the better … Continue reading
Posted in Appetizer, Lunch, Main Course, Soup
Tagged food, French mussels recipe, mussel soup, mussels in sauce, recipe, recipes, soupe de moules
4 Comments
Steelhead trout
Winter is not the best time for fresh fish selection and this week the only choice was Steelhead trout. That was the reason I bought it, that it was fresh. I had not expected it to be so good. In … Continue reading
Slow cooked beef shank with tastes from Provence
Doesn’t “Slow cooked beef shanks” sound a lot more complicated and fancy than “beef stew” or “boeuf bourguignon”? Well it does, but it is not! This is a very easy to cook dinner with incredible flavours. The meat is tender … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged Beef shanks, beef stew, boeuf bourguignon, fennel, food, french beef stew, Julia Child, provence stew, recipe, recipes, slow-cooked beef, verygoodrecipe
6 Comments
Sable fish and Scallops on hazelnut pesto with sepia ink rotini and fresh hedgehogs
It is not heart shaped nor red but I think that plate could make a very successful Valentine’s day dinner if you are lucky enough to celebrate. Fresh sable fish, sometimes called black cod, has just arrived to Vancouver Island … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged black cod, food, hazelnut pesto, pesto, recipe, recipes, sable fish, scallops, valentine's dinner, verygoodrecipe
4 Comments
The best home-made comfort food is Lasagna!
Home-made lasagna is just enough work that you feel rewarded for serving a healthy home-made dish without incurring too much trouble, especially with the ready to bake pasta now available at all grocery stores. This is the point of this … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged comfort food, food, home-made lasagna, lasagna, oven ready lasagna, ready to bake lasagna, recipes
2 Comments
Quick chicken thighs en cocotte
I just don’t feel much like eating these days, don’t feel like cooking. There has just been too many good meals, too many “French” (5 courses) menus, way too many cookies, chocolates and other treats. It felt somehow expected and … Continue reading
Too rainy to BBQ ? Bake the salmon!
The weather has been damp and grim, too cold and wet to step outside to the BBQ. Most of my friends are in Mexico or Hawaii escaping the local desolation of our rain forest climate. I had this beautiful Spring … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged baked salmon, food, Le Creuset, maple syrup, mustard salmon, recipe, Salmon filets, verygoodrecipe
1 Comment
The green vegetarian quiche
This is a smooth quiche and it does turn out a nice green colour. All the ingredients can be stored in advance which is nice if you are renting a place which is far from grocery stores. This is also a … Continue reading
Posted in Lunch, Main Course, Vegetarian
Tagged artichoke quiche, food, leftover salmon, quiche, recipes, salmon quiche, spinach quiche, vegetarian quiche
1 Comment
Tasty tender lamb stew in sauce
This stew is another one of my winter favorites, it is easy to make, the lamb meat is inexpensive and the sauce is not fat, but very tasty. For three people, I had three shoulder lamb shops and about as … Continue reading
Pork tenderloin in mustard cream sauce minus the cream
The mustard sauce is perfect with the tenderloin as it keeps it really moist. Tenderloin being very lean would tend to get dry easily, so a short cooking time and a good sauce are required. I start by chopping about … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged Dijon Mustard, dinner, food, mustard sauce, pork tenderloin, recipes, sauce moutarde
1 Comment
Poached salmon
There is really no need to own a poissonière or a turbotière to poach fish. They are great to use if you own them, but for most of us not worth the space they take on the kitchen shelf. Are … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged food, poach fish poached fish, poached salmon, poissoniere, recipe, recipes, turbotiere
3 Comments
Bison Bourguignon
This does not sound right, no bisons in the Bourgogne, that’s for sure! This bison meat stew though was better than any genuine boeuf bourguignon. I know you are already thinking Julia Child and all the trouble involved with cooking … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged Bison, boeuf bourguignon, bourguignon, cooking, dinner, food, healthy stew, recipe, recipes
7 Comments
Chanterelle Omelette
It was quite foggy and it rained a lot yesterday, but it was not a bad day to go mushroom picking on Vancouver Island. My friend Sharon and I covered miles and miles trying to identify new picking grounds without … Continue reading
Posted in Lunch, Main Course
Tagged Chanterelle, chanterelle omelette, chanterelles, cooking, food, mushroom, omelette, recipe, recipes, white chanterelle, wild mushroom
2 Comments
Chanterelle Quiche
I have been picking again last week-end and found a few chanterelles. It was too dry up until now and they were small and scarce, the good thing being that the flavor is very intense. I decided to make a … Continue reading
Posted in Lunch, Main Course
Tagged chanterelle quiche, chanterelles, food, quiche, quiche aux chanterelles, recipe, recipes
3 Comments
Tomates farcies, a wonderful alternate to burgers
If there is no BBQ available, ground beef will do very well in “tomates farcies” or stuffed tomatoes, a perfectly healthy dish for a student budget. You need two small to medium size tomatoes per person. A large one would … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged budget meal, cooking, food, french cuisine, ground beef, ground bison, recipe, recipes, stuffed tomatoes, tomates farcies
2 Comments
Chicken in “Gros Sel”
Of course, this dish is for show, pretty amazing when you break the salt crust to deliver a moist chicken with incredible flavour. No such thing as dry chicken breast. It is not a lot of extra work but there … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged chicken, coarse salt, cooking, food, French cooking, french cuisine, gros sel, kosher salt, moist chicken, recipe, recipes, salt
2 Comments
Gratin de Poireaux
This is a nice filling dish and my vegetarian guest tonight seem to love it, I had no left-overs. Pick your leeks well, only young leeks that do not have a woody core in the centre. The centre should be … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course, Side
Tagged cooking, food, gratin, gratin de poireaux, leek au gratin, leeks, poireaux, recipes, vegetarian
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Cheese Soufflé, a French family tradition
This is perhaps the ultimate cliché of French home-cooking, a staple of a typical French diet. It is always exciting as you never know if it is actually going to rise and even worse, you never know how quickly it … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged Cheese souffle, food, french, French cooking, pictures, recipe, recipes, soufflé au fromage, souffle
1 Comment
Daube de Provence
My maternal grand-mother, Mamie Odette, was born in Molière-sur-Cèze north of Alès in the Gard in the heart of Provence, in 1900. Her father was the guard at the railway crossing and she married a tax collector who was a fine gourmet. … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged beef stew, cocotte, daube, food, Le Creuset, pressure coker, Provence, recipe, recipes
4 Comments
Canard aux olives
This is a roasted duck with green olives. I bought a fresh grade A Canada duck weighing two kg and that was just enough for three. Duck meat is very tasty, rich in nutrients and quite different from chicken. It … Continue reading
Apple Sausage Bake
This recipe was passed onto me verbally by my mother-in-law just after I got married, it was one of those Campbell soup recipes that encouraged the use of Campbell cans with every dinner, disguised as your own cooking. So I … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged apple, campbell tomato soup, food recipe dinner, recipes, sausage
3 Comments
Pacific Fanny Bay Oysters in blue cheese sauce
Fanny Bay oysters are farmed on the East coast of Vancouver Island. They are a fairly large and very tasty oyster that is best eaten cooked. You will need an average of four oysters per person as a main course, … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course, Starter
Tagged blue cheese, Fanny bay, fanny bay oysters, food, oysters, recipe, recipes, vol au vent
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Beurre Blanc sauce on Spring Salmon Steak
Tonight was Father’s Day dinner and we had wild Pacific Spring salmon, also called Chinook or King salmon. It was served with a sauce au beurre blanc, fresh peas, and Ravioles de Romans. Ravioles are a small herb ravioli from … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged beurre blanc, chinook, cooking, dinner, food, France, king salmon, recipe, recipes, spring salmon
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Morel cream sauce on Roast Chicken
In Ontario, we used to go Morel picking in the Ganaraska Forest and come back with baskets full of the delicious spring fungi. My luck has not been good here in BC, I have not found my own spots and … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged chicken, cooking, dinner, food, morel, morel cream sauce, morels, recipe, recipes
2 Comments
Stuffed orange peppers
This is an easy thing to make, it looks amazing, the ” but” being that it takes time to make. Mostly time to cook though, not a lot of work, so a pretty good menu choice. Most people will eat … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged cooking, dinner, easy, food, orange peppers, recipe, recipes, sausage, stuffed peppers
5 Comments
Sweet salmon dinner in 15 minutes
Running late today and a million excuses for it. The best one is that I got a new PC and I am still setting it up, so bear with me. That does not count as a valid excuse for not … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged dinner, food, main course, mango, orange peppers, recipe, recipes, salmon
3 Comments
Canada duck with cherry jus
The simple way to make duck is to roast it in the oven exactly like the roast chicken from May 27th, except longer, much longer… and even then my last duck was not tender. So unless you are cooking magrets … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged cooking, duck, duck fat, food, jus, matsutake, pine mushroom, recipe, recipes
2 Comments
B.C.’s free lunch:Dungeness crab with garlic butter
Who says there is no free lunch? Well there is in BC if you get a tidal waters fishing licence for $21/year. With a licence, you may catch and bring home four Dungeness crabs every day for lunch or dinner … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged cooking, crab, dungeness, fishing, food, Le Creuset, recipe, recipes, stock pot
3 Comments
Poulet à la sauce diable (qui pique!)
In a cocotte brown the chicken legs, breasts, thighs in olive oil, skin removed. Add a large chopped onion, 2 cloves garlic, one small bayleaf, fresh thyme, 1 tbsp Dijon mustard, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, 1 tbsp lemon juice, … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged chichen, cooking, culture, Dijon, food, french, mustard, poulet, recipe, recipes, sauce diable, vinegar
2 Comments
Blanquette de veau de ma grand-mère
This is from a very old book called : “La Véritable Cuisine de Famille par Tante Marie” published in 1926 that belonged to my Grand-Mother. My 81-year-old mother made this for me yesterday using about a pound of veal brisket, … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged Blanquette, Blanquette de veau, food, French cooking, recipe, recipes, veal shank
1 Comment
Simple Roasted Chicken (Poulet roti)
This is something that we seem to eat once a week because nobody ever gets tired of it and it is such a simple dish to make. You usually also get, if not leftovers, at least some bones for a … Continue reading
Slow roasted beef
The meat can’t be too lean, otherwise the roast will be dry, you can select a pot roast type meat such as blade or even a top sirloin. Both cuts are inexpensive and the “slow-roasted beef” is a good option … Continue reading
SableFish on sorrel (black cod)
Sorrel is hard to find and very expensive in North America, so unless you grow your own, you can cheat by combining the sorrel with beet greens. Blanch the greens of a bunch of beets and a bunch of sorrel … Continue reading
Lamb chops on the Grill
Any kind of lamb chops will work well, so long as they have about the same thickness. Remove most of the fat strips on the sides. One hour before cooking, prepare a paste with half a cup Maille Dijon mustard, … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course
Tagged bbq lamb, dinner, grill, lamb, lamb chops, Maille Dijon prepared mustard, que, recipes, rosemary
2 Comments
Beef Tongue with Capers
Buy the beef or veal tongue from a good place, it should be very fresh and from a young cow. Only keep the tongue muscle part proper, by cutting off what does not look smooth. Depending on the size of … Continue reading
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