French Cooking Recipes & Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Inspired by Julia Child, this fantastic beef bourguignon is best shared with friends.

These elegant French potatoes are pan fried in clarified butter until golden and crispy.

Fresh sole is pan-fried in clarified butter until golden and finished with slivered almonds, parsley and fresh lemon juice.

An elegant, yet simple dish. Pan-fried beef tenderloin is served with a delicious sauce made with shallots, red wine and dark chicken stock.

Pork tenderloin medallions are pan fried until tender and golden. They are smothered with a rich morel cream sauce that has a hint of Calvados.

Tender mussels are steamed in a classic sauce of shallots, garlic, white wine and butter. Make sure to serve fresh bread with this dish to soak up all of the scrumptious sauce.

Crispy, homemade fries are soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. Simple to make, these twice-cooked fries make for a sinful and delicious treat!

Soft and creamy onions are surrounded by a buttery crust, in this classic Alsatian French tart.

Inspired by the South of France, the combination of flavors in this Niçoise salad are amazing.

This beef tenderloin is served with a rich and elegant peppercorn sauce.

A classic French dessert. Caramelized apples and flaky puff pastry with just a hint of lemon.

Crème Brûlée, a classic French dessert literally translates to "burnt cream". This rich and creamy custard is topped with a sprinkling of sugar which is caramelized to form a sweet and brittle crust.

Seared duck is served with squash purée and is finished with a silky Saskatoon Berry Jus.

Tender pastry filled with smooth pastry cream and topped with fresh summer berries - a perfect summer treat.

Commonly served in France, these Kir apéritifs date back to the middle of the 19th century.

A classic French bistro salad. Baby frisée, bacon, a poached egg and home made croûtons are tossed with a Dijon vinaigrette.

This moist and tender lamb is served with oven-dried tomatoes, a potato galette and is finished with a rosemary-infused jus.

Madeleines are shell-shaped, soft and moist mini cakes with lightly-crisped edges.

Naturally sweet caramelized onions, rich stock, a toasted baguette and gooey cheese makes up this classic, full-flavored soup.

Delicate brill sole is served with a fennel-white bean mash, braised kale and beautiful yellow beets.

Braised in red wine and stock and then finished with cream, these peppercorn short ribs are deliciously rich and perfect for the fall and winter season.

A classic French sandwich. Deliciously rich and wonderful....ahhh Paris!

Pan-seared scallops served with a truffle beurre blanc make up this elegant and sexy appetizer.

Sautéed mushrooms make an excellent side dish and also add delicious flavor to many other dishes.

Pearl onions are slowly braised in dark chicken stock and fresh herbs. Whether served as a side or poured over steak, chicken or added stews, these onions are divine.

Tender green beans sautéed with shallots and minced garlic.

Often forgotten, poached pears make for simple, but elegant, dessert.

Poached pears served with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce and Chantilly cream.

Puff pastry is topped with Dijon mustard, blue cheese, caramelized onions and a poached pear. For a delicious lunch or appetizer, serve these tarts with a simple side salad .

Submersion cooking methods are moist-heat cooking methods that consist of poaching, simmering and boiling. In these cases, ingredients are cooked by being submerged in hot liquids. Most people think that cooking ingredients in a liquid is as simple as placing the ingredients in the liquid and then waiting until they are done; but, the temperature of the liquid in which the ingredients are cooked will dramatically affect the final outcome. In fact, the first rule culinary students are taught is that most foods should never be boiled and this is why professional cooks poach eggs and fish, simmer stocks, soups and stews and generally only boil pasta.

In this lesson, you will learn about poaching, simmering and boiling and how to identify each of these submersion temperatures. The main difference between each of these methods is temperature, which varies only by about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. However, within this temperature range, the food you cook is impacted in very different ways. While these methods may come across as somewhat simple, understanding the key differences between them and knowing when and how to use them is vital in maintaining the integrity of the ingredients that you cook. These methods will not only teach you the art of patience but the secrets to good cooking as well.

Combination Cooking involves both dry- and moist-heat cooking. Braising, stewing and pot-roasting are all combination cooking methods which are excellent for cooking tougher (but often tastier) cuts of meats. These types of cooking methods require long, gentle cooking to turn tougher cuts of meat into those fork-tender dishes that we often refer to as “comfort foods”.

In this lesson, you will learn the few key steps and fundamentals to combination cooking. Understanding these key basics will help you stew, braise or pot roast without the need for a recipe.

Braising is one of the combination cooking methods which involves both dry and moist heat. Meat and/or vegetables are often first browned and then slowly cooked in a liquid until they become fork tender. Succulent and full of flavor, braised dishes fit into every culture around the world because nearly any combination of aromatics, vegetables and liquids can be used to build a braised dish.

In this lesson, you will learn the technique of braising. While many vegetables, such as fennel or Belgian endive can be braised, the ingredients that benefit most from this cooking method are tough and coarse cuts of meat. For this lesson, we are going to focus on braising meats, using beef short ribs as our example. In this lesson, you will learn how to choose and prepare the meat for braising and how to build a braised dish by adding various layers of flavor. You will also learn how to cook a braised dish, test it for doneness and how to finish the sauce prior to serving.

Even though braising may seem like a time consuming process, it is actually quite easy and requires very little work. We will walk you through the entire braising process so you can braise with confidence and best of all, without a recipe.

Stewing is an ancient form of combination cooking which involves both dry and moist heat. Small pieces of meat and/or vegetables are often first browned and then slowly cooked in a liquid until they become fork tender. Stews rely on relatively inexpensive and tough cuts of meat and almost any spice, herb, liquid and/or vegetable can be used to create them.

Appreciated for their comforting and soul-warming qualities, stews are easy to make and a favorite dish in nearly every food culture around the world.

In this lesson, you will learn that the technique of stewing is very similar to braising. There are just a few key differences, which we will cover in this lesson. While a stew can be made with just vegetables, for this lesson, we are going to focus on brown stews, using beef chuck as our example. You will learn how to choose and prepare meat for stewing and how to build a stew by adding various layers of flavor. You will learn how to cook a stew, test it for doneness and how to finish the sauce prior to serving.

These one pot wonders not only require very little effort on the cook’s part, they are even better when prepared ahead of time. By following just a few simple techniques, you will be able to create a variety of hearty and rustic stews without the need for a recipe.

Pan sauces are à la minute sauces made in the same pan in which ingredients, especially meats, have been sautéed, seared or pan-fried. Wise cooks know that the tasty brown bits, also known as sucs, that are left on the bottom of a pan, are as good as gold. By learning how to take advantage of these delicious, caramelized bits, you will be able to create quick and highly flavourful pan sauces, which will take each dish that you make to a whole new level.

In this lesson, we will show you how to properly develop sucs and how to utilize them to build delicious pan sauces. We will also show you how to integrate your own personal twists to build both simple and complex sauces with many layers of flavor. You will learn how to safely and properly deglaze the pan and how to achieve the proper sauce consistency. We will also show you how to enrich and finish pan sauces in order to balance their flavor and give them a beautiful, glossy sheen.

Knowing how to make a delicious pan sauce is one of the differences between an average cook and a skilled chef. That is why the saucier station in any high-end restaurant is a well respected and often sought after position.

Butter sauce is also called a beurre blanc sauce (“white butter”) or sauce blanc. It is a classic French butter sauce that is often served at fancy restaurants. It is considered by some to be a bit more challenging sauce because it has a tendency to split. Beurre blanc or butter sauce goes well with many vegetables and lean meats and is especially delicious in fish recipes and seafood recipes.

In this lesson, we will show you how to prepare a basic beurre blanc. You will learn how to serve and hold beurre blanc and how to fix it if it happens to split. Finally, we will show you how to vary this elegant sauce to make many other delicious sauces.

One of THE first fundamental skills any professional culinary student is taught is how to make a delicious stock. By making and using your own stock, your cooking is guaranteed to be elevated to an entirely new level. Not only is making stock extremely rewarding, it will most definitely taste better and be healthier than anything you can buy. Most store-bought stocks are high in sodium and lack the gelatin that homemade stocks contain. Often dubbed as liquid gold, a well-made, gelatinous stock is what enables chefs to make those restaurant-quality sauces. In fact, great chef begins the week by making and storing a variety of stocks, which is one of the reasons why their dishes taste so good. Basically, if you can simmer water or make tea you can make stock – the process is extremely simple. Many people wrongly assume that making stock takes far too much effort; however, the actual work takes only a matter of minutes.

In this lesson, you will learn the fundamentals of making stock. You will learn about the equipment required, the basic components, the importance of simmering and skimming and how to strain and cool, defat and store stock. While this lesson will walk you through the process of making a white chicken stock, it is important to note that the principles you learn here apply to all types of stock.

If you seriously want to learn how to cook well, you need to know how to make stock. By simply using stock rather than water in almost any area of your cooking, you can effortlessly add delicious flavor to the food you cook – even to everyday rice and grains. By having quality stock on hand, not only will you have the foundation of a great dish, you will also be excited and motivated to cook a variety of new dishes.

Learning how to sauté is an important task for any home cook or professional chef. It is one of the fastest and most common dry-heat cooking methods used to cook bite-sized pieces of food in a pan.

When learning how to sauté, there are a few things you need to understand before you can master this cooking technique. In this lesson, we will cover these key steps required for sautéing success.

The omelet is one of the fancier ways one can enjoy eggs. For many, it’s a Sunday brunch favorite where they can watch a chef make it right before their eyes. Served plain and simple, or filled with your favorite ingredients like a cheese omelet, a perfectly-cooked omelet can be a sublime eating experience.

In the professional cooking world and in culinary schools, the ability to make a perfect omelet is also a sign of a well-trained chef. The great thing though is that while it does take a bit of practice, making a great omelet is within everyone’s reach.

This lesson will guide you through the process of making impressive omelets whether they are plain, filled with various ingredients or made with egg whites. Omelets are delicious for breakfast, especially when served along side some golden-fried hash browns; however, if served with a nice light salad, they also make for a quick and nutritious lunch or dinner.

Eggs are extremely versatile and an indispensible ingredient in both culinary and pastry kitchens. Despite their importance in cooking, many people don’t know a lot about eggs.

In this lesson, you will learn about the anatomy of an egg. You will learn how to buy and properly store eggs and how to determine the freshness of eggs. You will also learn two basic ways to cook eggs: boiling and scrambling. Here you will learn how to properly cook eggs in water to achieve either a soft, medium or hard yolk. You will learn how to peel eggs and how to identify if an egg in its shell has been cooked or not. You will learn how to scramble eggs to achieve either small and creamy curds or large and fluffy curds. You will also learn how to season and finish eggs.

Whether you use eggs to make breakfast, a mid-day treat or dinner, with this lesson, you will not only know how to choose the best eggs for the foods you make, you will also be able to serve perfectly-cooked boiled and scrambled eggs every time.

Emince is a culinary term referring to a type of knife cut that means to thinly slice.

Julienne is a French culinary term referring to a particular knife cut. The food is cut into thin, matchstick-like strips, which measure:

1/8" -inch x 1/8" -inch x 2" -inches

The terms is used by professional chefs and in cooking school.

Lardon is a French culinary term referring to thin strips of bacon cut approximately 1/4" -inch thick.

Mirepoix is a French culinary term that refers to aromatic vegetables. These vegetables are used at the beginning of the cooking process to build the flavor profile of a dish, whether making things such as stock, soup or sauces. Most often, mirepoix consists of onion, carrot and celery; however, any vegetable can be used to create specific flavors.

Mise en Place is a French culinary term used in cooking school and means "setting in place". It's the act of gathering and preparing all of your ingredients before you start cooking so you will be organized during the cooking process.

Brunoise is a French culinary term referring to a knife cut that means to first cut the ingredient into julienne and then into a fine dice, which measures:

1/8" -inch x 1/8" -inch x 1/8" -inch

The terms is used by professional chefs and in cooking school.

This instructional cooking video on The Water Test | Heating the Pan, is part of the Rouxbe Cooking School.

This cooking video is taken from the lesson on
How to Pan Fry .

This instructional cooking video on Browning the Meat for Braising, is part of the Rouxbe Cooking School.

This cooking video is taken from the lesson on
Braising | Combination Cooking.

This instructional cooking video on Making a French Butter Sauce, is part of the Rouxbe Cooking School.

This cooking video is taken from the lesson on
How to Make a Butter Sauce.

This instructional cooking video on Cooking Food by Sautéing, is part of the Rouxbe Cooking School.

This cooking video is taken from the lesson on
How to Sauté.

This instructional cooking video on How to Scramble Eggs, is part of the Rouxbe Cooking School.

This cooking video is taken from the lesson on
Eggs | Anatomy, Boiling & Scrambling.

This instructional cooking video on How to Poach Eggs, is part of the Rouxbe Cooking School.

This cooking video is taken from the lesson on
Eggs | Frying, Basting & Poaching.

This instructional cooking video on Introduction to Pan Sauces, is part of the Rouxbe Cooking School.

This cooking video is taken from the lesson on
How to Make Pan Sauce.

This instructional cooking video on Positioning Your Guide Hand , is part of the Rouxbe Cooking School.

This cooking video is taken from the lesson on
Handling a Chef's Knife.