Most of the recipes in this book (Michel Roux At Home) are straightforward and give maximum pleasure for minimum effort. It’s the food I was brought up on and that we as a family enjoy.
In France I shop at the markets, but when in London I go to the local shops as much as possible. I’m lucky that near my house I have a good greengrocer, fishmonger and butcher, all just a few minutes’ walk away.
Whether at the market or the local London shops, I seldom set out with an exact idea of what I’m going to cook. I prefer to be inspired by what looks good on the day. Perhaps I’ll see some beautiful fresh mackerel and decide to enjoy it simply grilled. Then at the greengrocer’s I might find some new season’s asparagus – a perfect accompaniment – and that’s supper settled. On high days and holidays, though, I’m happy to spend a bit longer cooking something special for family and friends.
My family are originally from the north of France and Burgundy, where the cooking is rich in butter and cream, but these days I find myself gravitating much more to the food of the south, featuring olive oil and lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.
My home in France is in the south, in the Ardèche, which is where my wife and her family are from, and that’s my style of cooking now.
The beauty of using good, fresh, seasonal ingredients is that you don’t have to do a lot to them. They speak for themselves.
This show-stopping dessert was one of my Uncle Michel’s favourites.
Souffléd pancakes with oranges & grand marnier
Ingredients
This recipe serves four
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4 oranges
250g crème pâtissière (see below)
6 free-range egg whites
Pinch of sugar
50ml Grand Marnier
20g icing sugar, for dusting
Pancakes
1 free-range egg
75g plain flour
1 tbsp caster sugar Pinch of salt
210ml milk
1 tbsp clarified butter (see below)
Method
1. First make the pancake batter. Beat the egg in a bowl, then whisk in the flour a little at a time. Add the sugar and salt and mix well with a whisk. Stir in the milk to make a smooth batter, then leave it to rest in a cool place for at least an hour.
To cook, brush a frying pan or crêpe pan with a little of the clarified butter and heat. Ladle in less than a quarter of the batter and cook the pancake for 1 or 2 minutes on each side, turning it with a palette knife. You should get 4 or 5 pancakes.
Andrey Burstein / Shutterstock
2. Segment 2 of the oranges and squeeze all the membranes into a pan to extract any juice. Add the juice of the other 2 oranges to the pan. Place over a low heat and reduce by half, then strain into a bowl and set aside at room temperature.
3. Put the crème pâtissière in a bowl, place it over a pan of simmering water and heat gently. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites with a pinch of sugar until they form soft peaks. Take the crème pâtissière off the heat, whisk in the Grand Marnier and beat briefly, then add one-third of the egg whites. Mix well, then carefully fold in the rest of the egg whites with a spatula. Preheat the oven to 240°C.
4. Lay a pancake on a board and spoon a quarter of the crème pâtissière mix over one half. Add a few orange segments, then fold the pancake over and press down gently to seal the edges. Repeat with the remaining pancakes, crème pâtissière mix and orange segments.
Put the filled pancakes on a lightly greased baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for 2-5 minutes. Remove and dust them generously with icing sugar, then place under a hot grill for 4-5 minutes, so that the sugar melts and becomes partly caramelised.
To serve, slide each pancake onto a plate. Pour some of the reduced orange juice around each one and add a few orange segments. Serve at once.
Crème pâtissière
Method
1. Place the egg yolks and about 20g of the sugar in a bowl and whisk until pale. Sift in the flour and mix well.
2. Put the milk, the rest of the sugar and the split vanilla pod in a pan and bring to the boil. As soon as the mixture bubbles, pour about one-third of it on to the egg yolks, stirring continuously.
Pour the mixture back into the pan and cook over a gentle heat, stirring continuously, for 2 minutes.
3. Tip the mixture into a bowl and immediately cover with cling film to prevent a skin from forming. Leave to cool.
Ivanna Pavliuk/Shutterstock
Clarified butter
Ingredients
250g butter (make less unless otherwise needed, as this recipe only demands 1tbsp).
Method
Melt the butter in a pan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and set aside to rest, then pass the butter through a sieve, lined with muslin or other fine cloth and placed over a bowl, to remove the white solids.
Recipe featured in ‘Michel Roux At Home’ by Michel Roux, published by Seven Dials (2024). Photography by Cristian Barnett
