Rachel Khoo, literally in her Little Paris Kitchen

I stumbled on a lovely little show on the cooking channel, hosted by Rachel Khoo.  She lives in a little (and I mean little) Parisian flat and hosts a cooking show from her kitchen which is literally the span of her arm’s length deep and wide.

I would imagine that out of necessity, she would naturally gravitate towards simple cooking because she doesn’t have the storage for kitchen gadgets and a plethora of cooking accoutrements.  Rachel is probably a better version of my younger self.  I love the way she uses an old chippy, antique enamel bowl to do a lot of her mixing.  She has used it in several episodes.  She doesn’t even have a proper stove or oven.  She has two burners and a counter top oven and she manages to use them very well.  Not only that, she ran the smallest restaurant in Paris from her apartment.  French dinner for two by an English girl.  Brilliant.

She is confident enough and refreshing enough to show a clip in her show of a French Butcher who didn’t particularly like her version of steak tartare.  I really appreciate someone who knows the best things in life are often the things that fall outside the lines.

So intrigued was I, that I purchased her cookbook on Amazon (here is the link) and have made five recipes so far.  Three turned out great, two…not so much.  But the recipes that didn’t turn out were my errors and I will try them again, until I get it right.

One recipe I tried was “Nids de Tartiflette” or Cheese and Potato Nests.   A simple and rustic recipe with wine and french cheese, it was really lovely and easy.  Rachel Khoo is really onto something if she is determined to de-mystify French cooking and do it the way the French do at home.  I had great fun with these recipes and great result.

The mystery out of French Food prepared simply.

 Nids de Tartiflette

Click on the title for a link to the recipe.  Here is a snap of my result. Insanely delicious.

Cheese Potato Nests (Nids de tartiflette)