Five Easy French Recipes to Make at Home

Last month I had to cancel my annual spring trip to France and England, and at this point chances are looking slim that I’ll get to reschedule any time soon. Like many others in confinement, I turned to the kitchen for comfort, entertainment, and almost-immediate gratification.

Missing Paris and the French Riviera, I thought I’d try my hand at making some simple French recipes that I’ve recently run across, and guess what! It’s actually easy to bring France home, even for an unsophisticated cook and baker like me.

I hope you’ll join me and try at least one of the recipes below; they really are failproof.

1. Baguettes. This recipe is super-easy to make and the end result is rather addictive – consider yourself warned. You can smother your crunchy baguette in butter for breakfast, enjoy it with some Brie as an afternoon snack, or with a salad for dinner. Recipe courtesy of the lovely Anina Belle Giannini at Le Chef’s Wife.

 

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2. Nothing brings the French Riviera into your kitchen like a simple and fresh Salade Niçoise (video courtesy of French Cooking Academy). Since it is full of veggies and has the added benefit of tuna as lean protein, you won’t come out of confinement looking like you’re wearing your little sister’s jeans. For a fun reading, try this variation of the recipe, which bans the tuna and replaces it with anchovies – it is Nigel Slater’s version and I won’t even try to argue proper ingredients with him.

 

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3. The jeans situation could change, of course, if you indulge a bit too much in this delicious Cherry Clafoutis from Jill Colonna’s blog, Mad About Macarons. Make sure you share it with your significant other and you should all be alright.

4. Oh, and if you’d like the above-mentioned better half, ahem, to help in the kitchen, why don’t you teach them this Raspberries and Whipped Cream Crêpes recipe from Rodica Godlewski’s beautiful blog? You might even get a few giggles trying to flip perfect crêpes without landing them on the floor (true story).

 

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5. For a bit more sophisticated snack, Gougères look fancy but they’re actually very easy to make. My favorite recipe is the one I posted recently, by pastry chef Jean Marc Diop of Hostellerie de Levernois in Bourgogne.

Et voilà! Easy enough, isn’t it? Let me know which one(s) you tried, and how it all turned out, in the comments section below.

This article was originally published on Renata’s blog here.

For more French food inspiration, head to our Taste of France website here.