I don't fancy yours much

Our festive celebrations have, for some years now, been a mix of French and British traditions.  However, one French tradition we will never embrace is the love of foie gras.  The damn stuff is everywhere at this time of year.  Supermarkets advertise it in all shapes and forms for weeks in the run up to New Year (a more prominent celebration than Christmas here). The food magazines (or gastro-porn as I call them) that I buy are stuffed with recipes involving foie gras.  More than once we've received a foie gras as a present (rapidly re-gifted to others). There is no escape.

I am not going to use this article to publish a bunch of half-arsed online research into the production of foie gras - if you're reading a food site like this then chances are you already know what it is and why I would find it morally dubious.  Judging by its popularity and price, I can only assume that it must taste amazing.  I will never know.  I just think that there are so many other amazing things to eat that the suffering endured by the birds (and everyone who knows me knows I hate birds!) cannot be justified. A rampant carnivore such as myself seldom likes to look too closely at the source of some of the things that grace their table, but even I have a moral compass of sorts.  So we'll stick to the usual turkey and assorted lumps of roasted flesh and just hope there's no foie gras on the menu when we are invited to dine.

Hope your festive prep is all going tickety boo.

Number of mince pies baked so far this year: 84

Bob's Sweet Mincemeat

Ingredients:

• 650g light brown sugar


• 2kg dried fruit (sultanas, currants, raisins)


• 100g candied peel


• 75g flaked almonds


• 4 medium apples. peeled and cored


• 3 lemons


• 2 heaped tablespoons cinammon


• 1 tablespoon mixed spice


• Bushmills Whiskey

Method:

• Roughly chop all the dried fruits, almonds, candied peel and apples in a food processor.


• Place in a large container (one that has a lid)


• Sprinkle in the zest of the lemons, the sugar and spices and mix thoroughly.


• Pour in the juice from the lemons and mix again.


• Splash some whiskey over it all and mix again.


• Cover and place in a cool area for at least 24 hours, stirring occasionally and adding more whiskey if desired.


• Spoon into sterile, air-tight jars and keep in a cool place until needed. (Makes about 6 large-ish jars)

You Won't Believe Your Mince Pies

Mince pies are an integral part of a British Christmas, but are almost unheard of in the South of France.  For those of you that don't know, they are a sweet pie usually made with a shortcrust pastry and filled with a confiture of dried fruits called 'sweet mincemeat' (for reasons that escape me). And whiskey.  In our house there's always whiskey.

In the UK ready-made mince pies will be stacked to the supermarket ceilings by now but there are those who still make their own, using jars of shop-bought mincemeat.  Before we moved to France it never occurred to me to make my own mincemeat, but the prospect of a Christmas without mince pies did not bear countenance.

Traditionally, sweet mincemeat has suet in it, but this again is not available here and I have found that if enough moisture is added in the form of lemon juice and whiskey then it makes no difference to the taste or texture, and you have cut out unnecessary fats.

I would have loved to have shown you a picture of this year's first batch of mince pies but, as usual, the camera cable is AWOL, despite nobody apparently having touched it.

Recipe for sweet mincemeat is here.  Sweet shortcrust pastry favoured by me and mine is here. Last year I made over 240 mince pies. So far this year: 24 and counting........

Bob's Butter Dumplings

Ingredients:

• 100g butter


• 400g sifted flour


• salt & pepper


• water

Method:

• Dice the butter


• Add sifted flour and seasoning


• Rub with fingertips until well mixed


• Add a little water, a dribble at a time


• Work into smooth dough


• Roll into even balls about the size of golf balls


• Pop into the top of your stew and cover, leave to cook around 12-15 mins

Let me show you my dumplings

I never seem to have the time to get recipes written up at the moment, but there is much in store! Honest! I have had a very busy month so have tended to fall back on standard family meals rather than experimenting.  Beef stew, made with a very cheap cut off beef and cooked slowly (I use beef cheek) is substantial and warming for when your people come home after a long winter day. What makes it even nicer is good old-fashioned dumplings.

Whilst traditional British dumplings are made with suet, this is not something available in this country.  Suet has a higher melting temperature than other fats and, apparently, this makes for fluffier dumplings.  I used to get visitors from the UK to bring me suet, but decided I might as well try experimenting with butter.  The results have been delicious, just as fluffy as my suet ones, and with a nice buttery taste. Recipe here.

I am working on our Christmas menu, and will be posting recipes for homemade mincemeat and mince pies, pork pies, tiramisu log, gingerbread men and more. Tis the season to gain 5 kilos.

Cheesecake au dog fur, anyone?

Grrrr. Sunday I made a beautiful rasberry cheesecake, with mixed red fruits on top. The no-bake recipe that I use requires a few hours in the freezer to set, then remove from freezer about an hour before eating.  The Daughter was too impatient to wait for the damn thing to defrost, so when she cut into it in its semi-rock-hard state, it cracked down the middle and half of it ricocheted off onto the floor. Being a teenager, she is a great believer in the '5 second rule'.  Having three dogs and knowing exactly when that floor had last been mopped, I ruled against. Arrrrrgh! Hulk angry!

I was pretty much incandescent and lost all appetite for cheesecake (THAT's how upset I was).  Not my most mature moment, but I put my heart and soul into my food and to see it trashed like that..... well you might as well kick me in the fork and spit in my face.

Other than that, I have been tinkering around with different breads, such as cheesy baps (pwahahahah) and garlic dough balls (balls!), partly because I am enjoying improving my bread-making, partly because having the oven on warms up the kitchen a treat at this time of year. Perhaps I'll post some recipes/tips for breads later this week, but for now it's lunchtime. Hulk hungry. Bon appetit.

Just Add Season

Well the posts are thin on the ground again, but expect things to soon explode in a flurry of seasonal preparations.  Although we thoroughly embrace the culture of our adopted country, sentimentality (and a love of food everywhere) means that there are many British traditions that we include in our Christmas. For a bunch of atheists we certainly put a lot of effort into celebrating somebody else's festival, although I have been known to use some pretty obscure reasons to pop a cork. Today is St Brice's day. True story.

Anyway, brace yourselves, Internet, for my tried-and-tested mincemeat recipe and much, much more.  I am also toying with the an article on the cultural differences between French and British celebrations, if anyone is interested (and even if they're not).

Here's to you, St Brice: here's mud in your saintly eye!

Chocolate Pinwheels

• 240g flour


• 120g butter


• 120g sugar


• 4 tsps cocoa


• 1 medium egg

Method:

• Cream together the butter and sugar


• Beat in the egg


• Sieve in the flour


• Work into a dough, then divide into two portions


• 


• Knead the cocoa into one of these portions


• Roll each piece of dough out into even rectangles, about 1/2cm thick


• Place the chocolate rectangle on top of the plain


• Roll up together, length-wise for small biscuits, width-wise for fewer, larger biscuits


• 


• Cut into 1/2cm slices and placed on a lined baking tray


• Medium oven for about 10 minutes


• 

Chocolate Butter Biscuits

• 250g flour


• 95g butter


• 125g sugar


• 1 tsp baking powder


• 1 sachet, or around 10g vanilla sugar


• Milk


• Nutella

[caption id="attachment_947" align="alignleft" width="500"] Place a spoonful of Nutella in the centre[/caption]

• Rub together flour and butter as if for a crumble


• Add other dry ingredients and mix thoroughly


• Drizzle in a little milk and work into a moist dough


• Divide into approximately 12 even pieces


• Flatten the pieces into circles


• Place a spoonful of Nutella on each


• Carefully wrap the Nutella in the biscuit dough, trying not to leave any 'leaks'


• Place on a lined tin and bake for 15-20 mins at 180.

[caption id="attachment_951" align="alignleft" width="500"] Carefully wrap the Nutella in the biscuit dough

Chocolate Butter Biscuits[/caption]

 

Keeping Him Satisfied The Old-Fashioned Way

[caption id="attachment_944" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] Chocolate Butter Biscuits[/caption]

A full biscuit tin can go a long way towards harmony in the home.  Especially when there is chocolate involved.

The Girl was feeling guilty about getting Her Boyfriend in trouble with his parents by leaving his swimming bag on the bus, but he refused to let her pay for the replacements.  Knowing his sweet tooth, and particular love of chocolate, I came up with the idea of a tin full of sugary treats by way of a mea culpa.  In addition to the usual mini muffins etc, I went with some of my Chocolate Butter Biscuits (crumbly, buttery outside with Nutella filling) and some good old-fashioned Chocolate Pinwheels from a recipe in a Good Housekeeping cook book my late ex-mother-in-law gave me twentysomething years ago.

First published in 1953, some of the recipes sound horrendous (kidney and mushroon omelette, anyone?) but others more than withstand the test of time.  I would like to think that the people at Good Housekeeping all those years ago would be pleased to hear that their recipes are still appreciated in 2012, in this case by a teenage boy in the South of France who has no swimshorts but a very full stomach.

Bresse Is Best

 

[caption id="attachment_939" align="alignleft" width="155"] Official Mark Of AOC Poulet de Bresse[/caption]

Writing up the fried chicken recipe got me thinking about the quality of proteins and when to use them.  Although cheap chickens are perfectly fine for lots of meals, if you want a jaw-dropping, knock-your-socks-off poultry experience, then Bresse chicken is the one for you. They are raised in green meadows, with a minimum of ten square metres per bird.  They were the first (of very few) poultry to be honoured by an Appellation d'Origine Controllée (normally restricted to wines, cheeses and a few other specialities).  The legislation ensures that they are reared only in adherence to the time-honoured customs that earned them the honour back in 1957, including being raised on a diet of milk-soaked corn.

The first time we tried Bresse chicken was our first Christmas here in France.  Being only four for the Christmas table, we decided to splash out on quality over quantity and chose a fancy fowl over a tubby turkey.  Having heard how good Bresse chickens were, we ordered well in advance, collected the carefully-wrapped bird on Christmas Eve and gleefully stowed it in the fridge.

Christmas morning brought its usual lovely surprises and one rather horrible shock!  In my ignorance and naivety I had simply ordered a chicken for four people, not thinking to specify that it should be 'prêt à cuire' - 'ready to cook'. We had indeed got a whole chicken between the four of us. A WHOLE chicken, complete with head, feet and innards!

The children screamed and hid.  Husband and I supressed the urge to throw up, surveyed each other bleakly and spoke one word in unison: Google.

If our first Christmas in this lovely country of food and wine was not to be ruined then we had to pull ourselves together and deal with the damn chicken.  We duly googled up information on how to prepare a chicken, whilst downing several glasses of 'courage'. (It was Christmas - morning drinking is not only acceptable but practically compulsory.  Don't judge me.)  Husband tackled the head and feet, then I proceeded to 'empty' it (make sure you get the horrible green sac of disgusting stuff out with all the red bits or it will wreck the chicken).  There were gloves, plastic bags, and (almost) tears.

Despite  the trauma of it all, the chicken was outstanding.  No need to do anything fancy with it: a simple roast with regular basting in its own juices to ensure that you make the most of the oustanding flavour that pervades from the meat through the natural fat.

Shan't be having one this Christmas as we have a houseful, but I'm sure if I rack my brains I can come up with an excuse to order one. Prêt à cuire.

 

 

Bob's Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

• 2 small chickens


• approx 500ml milk


• couple of handfuls of flour


• salt and pepper


• tablespoon chili powder

 

[caption id="attachment_896" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Deep Fried Chicken[/caption]

• Cut the chickens into pieces


• Soak in milk for around an hour


• Mix the flour, chili pepper and seasoning together in a bowl


• Remove each piece of chicken from the milk, shake off excess liquid and roll in the flour mixture until thoroughly coated


• Deep fry in oil at 170˚ for around 15 minutes per batch of 4 pieces

Enough Breasts To Keep Everyone Happy

[caption id="attachment_891" align="alignleft" width="300"] Deep-fried Chicken[/caption]

Whilst our favourite boucher is on holiday, we tend to fall back on the cheap chickens from the Halal boucherie the other side of town.  They are no Bresse chickens, but are decent enough quality considering they are 3 for 11€. They are fairly small, but cheap enough to cook a couple at a time so that everyone can have a breast or two.  Who doesn't like breasts?

Having recently re-read 'Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistlestop Cafe' I was inspired to indulge in some homemade fried chicken.  (If I wanted takeaway there is a KFC about 25km away, but that's pretty much it around here.) The method I use is simple and, in fact, originally based on the 'Sipsey's Southern Fried Chicken' recipe at the back of my copy of FGTATWC.  The simplicity of the coating also means that leftovers keep well overnight for a cold lunch, though it's unlikely you'll find any untouched breasts.....

Burger Me! They Taste Good!

Homemade burgers are always the best, not least because (assuming you get your meat from a reputable source) you know exactly what is going into the food you are feeding your family. Burgers from supermarkets, especially frozen ones, are likely to have too much salt, as well as fat and 'non-meat fillers', whatever they are. Non-meat fillers? Are they breadcrumbs? Starch? Ground unicorn poo?
Anyway, I get my ground beef from the butcher, where they grind the meat in front of me. Not an option for everyone, I know, but make sure you read the labels carefully to see what you are buying.
There is no end to the ways in which you can vary your burgers. This weekend I had the luck to lay my hands on some cèpe mushrooms at market, so I finely chopped some cèpes, some shallots and some flat leaf parsley into the mix. I also added a handful of finely grated fresh Parmesan, a generous pinch of Colmans Mustard Powder and some salt and pepper. Cooked in a little olive oil until pink, I then served them in homemade mini burger buns. There was no need for sauces or garnishes of any kind as the flavour stood up for itself and the meat was good and moist.
These were served as part of a small family buffet, but would do equally well as full-size burgers with homemade fries or vegetable crisps on the side.
Mmmm. Writing makes me hungry.

Pastry Of The Week 8th October: Fondant au Chocolat

Welcome to another Pastry Of The Week Whenever-I-Get-Around-To-It. Don't even ask.
Fondant au Chocolat has nothing to do with icing fondant, as some of my (imaginary) American readers might think, but is a soft, moist chocolate cake, usually with a chocolate glaze on top.  If The Daughter ever recovers the camera cable from the hellmouth that is her bedroom i will show you a picture of it in all its chocolatey glory.
The cake is somehow moist and rich without being too heavy, or tasting underdone.  For the glaze, the boulanger was unable to tell me what the ingredients were as he doesn't make it from scratch.  Unfortunately it is hard to get hold of quite a number of ingredients for breads and patisseries here because it's a 'trade' thing and they are not known or available in shops. Arse.
I have seen numerous recipes for Fondant au Chocolat, so I am going to have a poke around and try one or two out and see if I can come up with a glaze that fits.  Wish me luck, my imaginary friends.

Bob's Cookies

Ingredients:

• 300g plain flour


• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda


• 1 tsp salt


• 170g butter


• 215g light brown sugar


• 120g white caster sugar


• 1 sachet of vanilla sugar, or a little vanilla essence


• 1 whole egg and 1 extra yolk


• Chocolate chips, Smarties, nuts or other 'filling' of choice

• Prep time: 10 mins


• Chill time: 30 mins


• Oven time: Around 12-15 mins at 190° C

Instructions:

• Thoroughly mix together all the dry ingredients


• Melt the butter and add, with the eggs, to dry mix


• Mix together thoroughly, making sure there are no dry pockets of mix


• Mix in chocolate chips or other according to taste


• Cover with clingfilm and place in fridge for 30 mins (important)


• Form disks with the dough, about 1.5 - 2cm deep, and about 4cm across


• Place evenly on baking tray, allowing plenty of room for them to expand


• Bake for around 12 - 15 minutes (according to your oven)


• Allow to cool and 'set'

Accept cookies?

I have been using the same cookie recipe for years now, refined from one I found online back around ought five (which I have long since lost the link to - apologies to the originator).  This week The Husband requested a batch to keep his students' spirits up on a technical course he is delivering, and The Daughter likes to take my baked goods to lycée to share with friends, so I have been spreading joy and diabetes throughout.
I find that the trick is to remove them from the oven whilst they are still moist enough not to go too hard upon cooling, but not so moist that they fall apart on the cooling rack.  This will inevitably vary according to your cooker, so just keep an eye on them from about 10 mins onwards.
The recipe is very heavy on sugar, so I only make them as a special treat or as a bribe/thank you to someone doing me a favour. Cookies: acceptable currency in my world.

Hot Cheesy Balls Are Nicer Than They Sound

Are you bored with your balls? Do you wish for more variety, more excitement when it comes to your balls? Do you.......OK I'll stop there.
Meatballs. Sometimes I make them with ground beef, sometimes with pork.  I wanted to change things up from the norm so this weekend I decided to to stuff my balls with buffalo mozzarella.  Take small mounds of the seasoned meat of your choice (in this case ground pork with fresh basil, salt, pepper and a touch of mustard powder) and wrap it around diced buffallo mozzarella to form balls.  The mozz needs to be diced fairly small so that it melts during cooking, without the meat needing to be overcooked.
Sear your balls in olive oil-ed frying pan, then add in tomatoes, red wine etc - according to your own taste - to make the sauce.  For your balls.
When you cut into your balls the mozzarella should ooze out runnily and make a delicious contrast to the rich red sauce.  I never understood the fuss about buffallo mozz as opposed to the cheaper stuff until I tried it. So. Freakin. Worth it.  We now eat half as much mozzarella but, having tasted the good stuff, we'd rather have quality over quantity any day.
Nice balls.

When The Cat's Away The Mice Will Eat Chicken Pizza

The Husband is away this week,so last night it was me, The Daughter, 'Heathers' on dvd and a big ol' homemade pizza with chicken on.  There are many things I won't eat on pizza but chicken ain't one of 'em.  Unfortunately, The Husband is not a fan so we only have chicken pizza in his absence.  I made a standard pizza dough, and topped it with pesto sauce, garlic, strips of chicken breast and red peppers, and buffalo mozzarella. It was goooood.  Hardly worth posting a full recipe, though, so for your gastronomic pleasure today, dear Internet, I have written up my Poulet Sauce Estragon, which is a chicken dish The Husband certainly will eat.  It's worth taking the time to reduce the liquids properly at each stage of the sauce as this builds the flavour beautifully.  It's pretty straight forward and simple to make, but it tastes complicated and a bit of effort with the presentation makes it quite impressive indeed.

Poulet Sauce Estragon/ Chicken with Tarragon Sauce

Serves 4:

• 4 whole chicken breasts


• 30g butter


• 1 tbsp olive oil


• Salt & pepper

For the sauce:

• 2 tbsp (30ml) white vinegar


• 250ml chicken stock


• 90ml dry white wine


• 300ml crème fraîche


• 4 springs of fresh tarragon


• 2 tbsp chopped, fresh tarragon

• Time: approx 45mins


• Oven: 190

Instructions:

• Season the chicken breasts and sauté for 3-5 minutes in the butter and oil


• Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes untikl the juices run clear


• Place on a platter and cover with tin foil (shiny side in) and set aside


• Take the juices from the roasting tin and skim off the fat, then place over a medium heat


• Add vinegar and wine and bring to the boil until liquid is reduced by half


• Stir in the stock and the tarragon sprigs then allow liquid to reduce by half agin


• Stir in the créme fraîche and, once again, cook until reduced by half


• Discard the tarragon sprigs and stir in the chopped tarragon, holding back a little for presentation


• Partially slice the chicken breasts and fan them out a little


• Pour sauce over each breast and sprinkle with tarragon


• Serve with fondant potatoes (or perhaps mashed) and haricots vert

 

Ginger Snaps

Ingredients: 

Makes about 24:

• 170 g plain flour


• 1 tsp baking powder


• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda


• 100g caster sugar


• 2 tsp ground ginger


• Pinch of salt


• 60g unsalted butter


• 40g golden syrup


• 1 medium egg

 

• Prep time: 15 mins


• Oven time: 15 - 20mins at 180

Instructions: 

• Sift together the dry ingredients


• Melt the syrup and butter in a bain marie


• Add this into the dry ingredients and mix well


• Add egg and work into dough


• Divide into approx 24 balls and space evenly on a lined or silicone baking sheet


• Bake for around 15 minutes, monitoring the colour until a warm brown


• Allow to cool and harden slightly


• Hide them from husband

Better Snap To It And Write A Damn Article

Once again my updating of the site has lapsed somewhat due to life getting in the way, but there will be more Pastries Of The Week and a whole lot more now that I have my new study to work in.  Unfortunately, I don't yet have my new 'puter to replace the failed MacBook Pro, so I am banging this out on a creaky old MacMini with a crappy old French keyboard (typos ahoy8).
Back to the food.
Not much experimentation to report at the moment, due to circumstances beyond my control, but I did dig out an old Mrs Beeton recipe for Ginger Snaps . The only potential issue with this recipe is that it includes 'golden syrup' which may be hard to come by outside the UK.  I have been hoarding some since a visitor brought some over last year. (Remind me to tell you about my Marmite tax on the guest room).  I followed Mrs Beeton's recipe as closely as I could, but used butter rather than lard and added levure chimique (baking powder) to type 45 flour (a basic, plain flour).
I also used a recipe The Daughter gave me for butter-free chocolate cake, which I am hoping she will write up on here herself, but then I, of course, layered in caramel spread and Nutella and then smothered the whole thing in caramel chocolate ganache.
Restraint: I have none.

Fougasse aux Anchois

Ingredients: 

For one fougasse around 300g:

• 180g plain flour


• 110ml warm water


• 2g fresh yeast


• 1/2 tsp salt


• 10g roughly chopped anchovy filets


• 1 beaten egg


• Dish of water at the bottom of the oven

• Prep time: approx 1 hour


• Proving time: 2 1/2 hours


• Rest time: 50 mins


• Baking time: 25 mins

Instructions: 

• Make a pile of the flour directly on your workspace, with a 'well' in the middle


• Gently pour in the warm water and work into a dough


• Knead for a full 5 mins until smooth


• Form into a ball, cover with a damp cloth and leave to rest 35 mins


• Crumble in the yeast and work it into the dough for 5 mins


• Add the salt and do the same


• Work in the anchovies, the n form into a ball once more


• Cover with a damp cloth and leave to prove for 90 mins


• Once the ball has doubled in size, fold it in on itself


• Reforrm the ball and leave to rest a further 15 mins


• Roll out the dough into a rectangle approximately 3cms deep


• Place on a baking tray and slash with a sharp knife a few times, then pull at the sides of the rectangle to widen the slashes


• Leave to prove for a further hour


• Thoroughly glaze the fougasse in beaten egg


• Place in the preheated oven for 20-25 mins (don't forget the dish of water), keeping an eye on the colour


• If the fougasse browns too quickly, lower the temperature to 180

Mi-Cuit au Chocolat

Ingredients: 

Makes four:

• 150g patisserie chocolate (75%) plus 4 x 10g squares


• 45g sifted plain flour (plus a little extra for lining ramekins)


• 3 medium eggs


• 100g diced butter (plus extra for ramekins)


• A little icing sugar for presentation

• Prep time: 15 mins


• Freezer time: At least 4 hours


• Oven time: 15-18 mins at 190

Instructions: 

• Butter the insides of 4 ramekins and place them in the fridge


• Melt the 150g of chocolate in a bain marie, adding in the diced butter and gently mixing until smooth


• Remove from heat and add in the flour and eggs,again mixing until smooth


• Take the ramekins from the fridge, dust the insides with flour


• Distribute mixture evenly between four ramekins


• Place 10g chocolate on top of each


• Place in freezer for a minimum of four hours


• Cook for 15-18 mins at 190


• Turn out onto individual plates and dust with icing sugar

Sleep? Well it's hardly as important as food, is it?

Dear Internet,
Lying there at 3am, totally unable to sleep, my head had started buzzing with food thoughts (well there's a shocker!) so I thought I might as well use it positively (I predict some napping later).
Pastry of the week?  Well I've found a recipe in a book on breads that I bought years ago but have never, come to think of it, actually used.  The recipe is actually for anchovy and black olive fougasse, so I shall attempt to adapt it accordingly.  My main concern is how to get the texture to match that of the one from the boulangerie.  I aim to post the results and recipe tomorrow (Friday).
I need to get my bum in gear and write up some more of my tried-and-tested recipes, (as well as a bazillion other things on my list) so I'll make a start this morning with Mi-Cuit au Chocolat.  This gorgeously chocolatey dessert is perfect for dinner parties, or just for when you want things prepped well in advance, so you can relax and enjoy dinner with your family.  They require at least 4 hours in the freezer before cooking, but can be made up to 15 days in advance.  Being made in individual portions means that you have a great deal of flexibilty with regards to numbers, and they look gorgeous too. They are very rich and chocolatey, so I recommend cream or plain vanilla ice cream as an accompaniment.  Even at 4am my mouth is watering at the thought of them.  Good job the new exercise bike arrives this week.......

Pastry of The Week 3rd September: Fougasse aux Anchois

Well here we are with the inaugural Pastry Of The Week (POTW) as chosen by The Daughter: Fougasse aux Anchois. Thanks. That'll be easy.
Fougasse comes in many forms, some an oiled bread similar to focaccia, some, like Fougasse Aigues Mortes, more of a cake.  The Fougasse aux Anchois is a lattice made from either pastry or dough, I'm not sure; it has a pastry-like texture on the outside, but a doughier inside, with (as you may have surmised) chopped anchovies in it, and is a speciality of the South. It is very salty, crispy on the outside and moist and more bread-like on the inside.  I recommend smearing it with cream cheese, or using it as an accompaniment to a mild soup.
At this point I have no idea how to recreate it, so I will be spending some time researching this week.  Further bulletins as events warrant.
Catch you later, special llamas!

 

Pastry of The Week 3rd September: The Results

Being confused as to the nature of the dough/pastry for the fougasse as made by my favourite boulangerie, I did want to ask the boulanger but he was frantically busy evry time I was in there this week and I have no desire to rub him up the wrong way (oo-er).  I settled for trying a bread-based recipe from a book called 'Tous les Pains' that I bought 5 or 6 years ago and have never got around to using (despite bookmarking several recipes).
Looking at the results, I am now 100% convinced that the fougasse we bought was made with pastry and I will have to find a good time to pick the boulanger's brain.  I'm feeling pretty good about the fougasse I made, however.  It looks ok for a first attempt, and we will find out at apéro tonight how well I did as far as taste.
All-in-all, I could quite cheerfully boot The Daughter around the room for choosing that as the first Pastry Of The Week.  It took hours and hours to make, which is probably why the boulanger does a pastry version.  I will update with a verdict on the taste later.  The Daughter had better bloody well like it......

Macarong

Blimey! I hadn't realised how long it was since my last post!  And there won't be many in the next few weeks as it's far too nice out to be inside blogging. Take that, internet!
I shall maybe bang out some stuff soon about my current obsession with parmesan (sooo goooood) and there is a culinary goal for August: master macarons. A stupid  challenging choice, perhaps, given the temperature here in August, but what the hey.
First attempt was yesterday, with a new kit purchased from one of my favourite shops, Marie-Paule Cadeaux (if you're ever in the neighbourhood, pop in and check out the kitchenware and feel free to put points on my fidelity card!).  The initial stages went well, and Daughter and I were very optimistic, but they were still gooey underneath despite the cooking time recommended by the recipe that came with the kit.  We should perhaps have left them longer but we were worried about them going brown.  Looking at other recipes online, the sugar content may be a little out of proportion.  Or we simply cocked it up somehow.  The actual kit (silicone icing pouch and macaron tray) was excellent quality, the accompanying multi-lingual booklet not so much (as borne out by the errors in translation etc).
We shall be trying out various recipes until we find one that suits: further bulletins as events warrant.
I'm going out to play now.

Côtes de Boeuf En Deux Cuissons, Sauce Béarnaise

Ingredients: 

For 5/6 people:

• 2 côtes de boeuf (beef chops - see your butcher)


• 4 sprigs of rosemary


• 8 bay leaves


• Olive oil


• Fleur de sel


• Crushed black pepper

 

For the sauce:

• 2 shallots


• 1 small bunch of tarragon


• chervil (optional - I didn't have any and I can't imagine the sauce being any better for it)


• 2 egg yolks


• 150g melted butter


• 5 cl white wine vinegar


• 5 cl white wine


• 1 teaspoon of crushed black pepper


• Salt

Prep time: 20 mins

Wait time: 1 hour

Cooking time: 20 mins

Oven temp: 180

Instructions: 

For the beef:

• Cover the bottom of a roating tray with the rosemary and bay leaves


• Rub each side of the beef with the fleur de sel


• Heat the oil in a frying pan on a high heat


• Sear each side of the beef for 2-3 mins


• Place the beef in the roasting tray and leave to rest for one hour


• Preheat the oven to 180and cook the beef for 15 minutes for French rare (very bloody in the centre)


• Sprinkle with the pepper before serving

For the sauce:

• Chop the shallots and place in a saucepan with half of the tarragon (choppped), the crushed pepper, the vinegar, the wine and 2 pinches of salt


• Bring to the boil, then simmer on a low heat until reduced to around 2 soup spoons of liquid. (This stage can be done whilst the beef is resting).


• Off of the heat, add 2 soup spoons of water and the egg yolks


• Whisk together


• Either on a very low heat or in a bain-marie, warm the mixture through, whisking constantly


• Once the mixture has thickened so it starts to stick to the whisk slightly, gradually add in the cooled, melted butter whilst still whisking constantly


• Add the rest of the chopped herbs and serve.

Rouille

Ingredients: 

• 75ml peanut oil (or olive oil, or a mixture of both)


• 2 egg yolks


• 1 clove crushed garlic


• Paprika or mild chili powder

Instructions: 

• Beat the egg yolks in a small bowl


• Gradually whisk in the oil until it has the consistency of a mayonnaise


• Add in the crushed garlic and mix well


• Sprinkle in about a teaspoon of paprika or piment doux and whisk


• Cover and refrigerate until use

Béar-naise This In Mind For A Special Meal

This weekend we celebrated the Fête Nationale of our 'patrimoine adoptée' with some very good friends and, of course, some very good food. We started with an apéritif at 12h30, and finished at 21h00. Some lunch!
For the entrée (n.b. America: this means starter, not main course!) we had a classic local Soupe de Poisson (a cousin of bouillabase) which I bought ready-made from the local poissonerie, and served with the traditional grated cheese, croutons (made from small slices of baguette, not diced bread) and a home-made rouille (a tangy, goopy sauce to dollop on the croutons).  For those not so keen on the strong, fishy taste there was terrine de campagne.  On this occasion I bought the terrine from our excellent boucherie, but I do have a very good recipe which I will post another time.
For the plat (main course) I prepared 'Côte de boeuf en deux cuissons, sauce béarnaise'. It was the first time I had cooked côtes de boeuf any other way than grilled over vinewood, so I was a bit nervous for our dinner guests, but they were incredibly good and I can't wait for an excuse to cook them again.  The trickiest bit was the sauce, which requires a lot of attention, but if you follow the steps correctly it's no problem.  Just be sure to have all your ingredients prepped and to hand before you begin cooking.
For the side dish, I took some boiled, diced potatoes, a diced aubergine, a chopped red onion and threw them all in a frying pan with some butter and olive oil. I seasoned and let them cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes then stirred in about a handful of freshly grated parmesan before turning out into a serving dish.
For the cheese course we had some fantastic, locally-made cheese, then for dessert we had my Moussey Chocolate Tart. The dessert was prepared a day in advance as I was fully prepared to be incapable of serving anything complicated by the time we got to the fourth course.  And I was right. Bonne fête indeed.

With the beef: 'Caracterre' 2007 Merlot Cabernet, Maitres Vignerons de Gallargues.

Homemade Bagels

Ingredients: 

• 530g flour


• 1 tablespoon (12g) caster sugar


• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt


• 1 tablespoon (15ml) vegetable oil


• 2 teaspoons (7.5g) dried yeast


• 300-350ml warm water

• Prep time: about 1 hour 15 mins


• Oven time: 20 mins at 220

 

 

 

Instructions: 

• Mix the dough using the above ingredients and knead for a full 10 minutes until smooth


• Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces and let it rest for 20 minutes


• Take each piece and roll it into a 'snake', roughly the same length as the width of both hands


• Wrap a snake around one hand, with the ends meeting on the palm, then smush and roll the ends together, working it into as smooth a ring as possible


• Once all the rings are formed, leave to rest for 20 minutes and bring to the boil a large pan of unsalted water


• Place the bagels in the water, as many at a time as possible without the bagels touching


• Cook for 1 minute, then flip over in the water and cook the other side for 1 minute then remove immediately


• Once out of the water, allow the bagels to dry a little before placing them on a lightly-oiled baking tray


• Bake for 10 minutes, then flip over and bake the other side for a further 10 mins


• Mazeltov! Delicious, homemade bagels!

N.B. If you wish to top the bagels with poppy seeds or whatever, then this should be done after the boiling stage and the bagels placed topping-side-up for the first 10 minutes in the oven.

Hole-ly Inappropriate

Well I gave up trying to come up with a saucy title for this article because I couldn't get past 'hole' jokes which were well beyond saucy and firmly in rude territory. So. Bagels: can't buy a decent bagel for love nor money in these parts, so I decided to have a bash at making them myself.

I was somewhat taken aback when I learned that bagels are boiled before they are baked, but it turned out to be easier than I thought, and an essential part of the process.  Just wish I hadn't used curved tongs to fish 'em out, as they made the boiling water run over my hand! Lesson learnt.

The actual dough is very simple, and if the steps are followed correctly you get great bagels.  However, I have yet to become an expert on shaping them! My bagel rings have yet to turn out as the completely smooth rings one sees when buying professionally-made ones.  They have improved with each batch, and with enough practice I'm sure they'll be looking spiffy.  In the meantime, they taste delicious which is pretty much what food should be about, isn't it?

Sweet Piggy

Ingredients:

• 1 filet mignon/pork tenderloin


• 2 large onions


• 2 handfuls of brown cane sugar


• Raspberry vinegar


• Maple syrup


• Puff pastry


• Egg for glaze


• Salt & pepper


• Olive oil

 

 

• Prep time: 30 mins


• Oven time: Approx 30 mins at 220 (depends on thickness of tenderloin)

Picture:

Instructions: 

• Very finely chop the onions (I used a food processor)


• Heat a little olive oil in a medium saucepan and bung in the onions


• Scatter the brown sugar over the onions, then douse thoroughly in vinegar


• Cook the onions down until pinky-brown and sticky, leave to cool.


• Season the pork with a little salt and pepper, whilst heating a little oil in a frying pan


• On a high heat, sear the meat on all sides


• Lower the heat and cook the pork for a couple of minutes on each side


• Remove from pan and allow to cool slightly, so as not to melt the pastry


• Lay out the sheet of pastry and cover evenly in the onions, leaving a margin around the edges for sealing.


• Place the pork in the centre of the pastry and generously drizzle maple syrup all over it


• Fold the pastry over the meat to make a nice parcel, then glaze with beaten egg


• Place in the oven for around half an hour, until crisp and golden on the outside.

Sweet, Sweet Piggy or Love Me Tenderloin

Filet mignon de porc, or pork tenderloin, is reasonably priced here and fairly adaptable.  I have made a few different 'en croute' versions over the years, but this time I was looking to work up a recipe in honour of our Canadian family member, who is known in this house as 'Maple Ninja' (long story).

 Pork is a meat that lends itself well to sweet sauces, so I wanted to make maple syrup a key ingredient.  Pretty definitively Canadian, eh? So here's what I came up with: Sweet Piggy.  I made another version of the dish where I used par-boiled, diced apple instead of caramelised onions.  Both are good.

Things to remember:

• Make sure you get the pork well started in the frying pan before wrapping in pastry, or the oven time will be too long and the pastry will overcook and the onions dry out.


•  Have the pastry as cold as possible without being frozen, otherwise the warmth from the fillings will make it all goopy and almost impossible to fold over the pork without tearing.


• Maple syrup goes in the recipe, not in your tummy.

Bob's White Chili

Ingredients: 

This is a recipe that has evolved according to our own tastes, and makes no claims to be an 'authentic' dish :)

Serves 4/5:

• 2 large escalopes of chicken, cut into small strips


• 1 large onion


• Large red or green pepper, according to taste


• 500g tin or jar of haricots blanc


• 300ml chicken stock


• Big sploosh of white wine


• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped


• Spoonful of crunchy peanut butter


• Cumin


• Chili pepper to taste


• Sploosh or two of hot chili sauce


• Sprinkle of caster sugar


• Salt & pepper


• Olive oil

Instructions: 

• Heat the oil and soften the onions and peppers


• Toss in the chicken and brown it


• Add in stock and haricots blanc and bring to boil


• Turn down to a low heat and chuck in everything else


• Simmer for about 20 mins or so to allow flavours to blend, but not so long as to let the chicken get stringy


• Serve with plain rice and flatbreads, and a nice, crisp rosé

Moussey Chocolate Tart

Ingredients: 

• 125g dessert chocolate (75% cocoa)


• 35g butter


• 4 eggs, separated


• A half-quantity of the amazing Buttery Biscuit Base

Prep time: around 20 mins

Chill time: at least 2 hours in freezer

Instructions: 

• Prep the base and put in fridge to set


• Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a bain-marie.


• Dice the butter, then add to chocolate, stirring until butter melted.


• Add 2 egg yolks (discard the other 2), mix thoroughly and set briefly to the side, allowing it to cool but not set.


• Whisk the egg whites to snow, then gently fold into the chocolate mixture.


• Gently scoop it onto the buttery biscuit base, cover with cling-film and freeze for at least 2 hours


• Remove from freezer about 20-30 minutes before required, depending on room temperature

Big, Fast and Easy Is How I Like It

Even when they're teenagers, school holidays are surprisingly disruptive (In a good way, sweetie! Love you! xxoxx)  and there are people in and out of the house at all times. Meals need to be flexible, and easily adapted to include unexpected extra mouths to feed.  I try and keep the cake tin full, and enough ready-made pastry in the freezer to knock together extra food in a hurry. A sheet of pastry, smear it generously with some pesto or tomato sauce, sprinkle on some cheese and pop it in a hot oven for about 10 minutes and you have a 'pastry pizza' starter.

Dishes such as spag bol are easily bulked out with extra tomatoes and pasta. Pasta salads are quick and easy, as well as filling, so the protein part of the meal (meat/fish/whatever) can be divided into smaller portions. I finally got my hands on some crunchy peanut butter (not so easy to do here), so my white chili is back on the menu. I usually accompany this with rice and flatbreads which are, again, a good way to bulk a meal out to accomodate last-minute guests.

It's easy to slip into the habit of repeating the same exact recipes time after time so on Sunday, with a new guest to lunch, I decided to go for a lighter, mousse-ier topping for chocolate tartjust to change it up a little. Wild and crazy, I know. The good thing (apart from the chocolatey deliciousness) about this tart is that it is frozen, so it can be prepared in advance and whipped out of the freezer to soften whilst you are eating the main course.

Mmmmm......chocolate.......

Balsamic Chicken

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken escalopes (chicken breasts cut open)


• 200 g of smoked lardons


• A handful of shallots


• 150 ml balsamic vinegar


• 150ml water

• Prep time: 5 mins


• Cook time: around 30 mins

Instructions:

• In a frying pan, brown the lardons then put to one side


• Fry the shallots in the fat from the lardons and put to one side


• Sear the chicken in the remaining fat then remove from pan (I got bored of saying "put to one side")


• Pour the balsamic vinegar into the frying pan and cook on a low heat until it reduces by around 50%


• Add the water and pop in all the other ingredients


• Simmer on a low-to-medium heat until the chicken is cooked


• Serve with some plain rice

What I Did On My Weekend

Well I know that this site is about home cooking, but every now and then it's nice to have someone else take care of the food (and the washing up).  Saturday saw me having my first meal at an Indian restaurant in more years than I care to remember.  Indian food is hardly the first cuisine one thinks of when in the South of France, and the few establishments I had seen in Nîmes failed to tempt me over the years.  We were discussing this with friends (one English, one French, they lived together in England for a number of years) and they highly recommended a place in Lunel.  I made a mental note, and the conversation moved on.  Cut to a year or so later and I am craving Indian food.  I am now kicking myself for waiting so long before following up on the recommendation.  Le Palais des Roses was outstanding! Gorgeous food, with such a tempting menu we were hard-pressed to choose.  In my usual style, I was too busy enjoying the food to remember to take notes on the names of the dishes etc, let alone photograph it, so I will just have to go back for another meal, I think :)  Also, it never occurred to me that there was such a thing as Indian whisky but, thanks to Mr Kohli, I now know that there is, and that it is goooood.

On the home cooking front, I was looking for something different to do with the chicken escalopes requested by Husband.  I found a recipe that interested me and monkeyed around with it, and the result is Balsamic Chicken. OK, so the recipe name is lacking pizazz, but the food is not.

Catch you later, special llamas.

bobxx

Nomming Soon..........

In the autumn I shall be adding another item to the (site) menu: PASTRY OF THE WEEK!

Yes indeedy.  Purely for the education and edification of The Internet I shall drag myself to the Boulangerie Quissac every week and buy a pastry or cake.  I shall photograph it, taste it, then attempt to reproduce it.  Opinion will be sought from friends and family as to the level of my success/failure and the best recipes posted.

At Christmas I took a plate of my mince pies (will post my mincemeat recipe nearer the season) to the boulangerie and the whole staff loved them.  I am hoping that with enough bribes like that I may be able to charm my way into shadowing the boulanger for a shift or two :)

There. Now The Internet has something to look forward to over the summer.

Tiramisu

Ingredients: 

• 3 large free-range eggs


• 100 g brown cane sugar


• 1 sachet of vanilla sugar


• 250 g of mascarpone


• 24 sponge fingers


• 500ml of black coffee, not too strong or it will overpower the dish


• Cocoa


• Shavings of dark chocolate (optional)

• Prep time: 25 mins


• Chill time: minimum 4 hours

Instructions:

• Separate the egg yolks from the whites


• Mix the egg yolks, brown sugar and vanilla sugar


• Add the mascarpone, whisking it all together until even


• Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then fold gently into the mascarpone mixture


• Dip enough sponge fingers in the coffee to cover the bottom of your dessert dish


• Once the bottom is covered, add a layer of the mascarpone mix then sprinkle with cocoa


• Alternate layers of coffee-dipped sponge fingers, mix and cocoa


• Sprinkle on shavings of dark (70% cocoa) chocolate (optional, but we are chocolatey people in this house)


• Refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours


• Remember to take a picture of it

A Bit Hit And Tira-miss-u

Until recently I was dependent on my phone to take pictures for this site, as my horribly-expensive Nikon had fallen victim to the horribly-damp apartment we had to live in for a while.  I finally caved and bought a modestly-priced compact camera as the photos up til now do not come close to doing justice to the food. Whilst there is an improvement, I still failed to take a picture of the coffee-soaked sponge fingers in the Tiramisu that looked like anything other than poo.  Poo in a dish.  This would not be so much of a problem if i hadn't forgotten to take a picture of the finished dessert.  So there it is.  Try not to let it ruin your appetite.

Simple Fruit Pastry

Ingredients: 

To make 4:

• 1 pack of ready-rolled puff pastry


• Couple of handfuls of cherries, or fruit of choice e.g. 3 medium peaches


• 20g unsalted butter


• Caster sugar

Prep time: 5 mins, depending on choice of fruit

Oven: 20 mins at 180

Instructions: 

• Cut out four rectangles of pastry, about 10cm by 6cm


• Evenly cover with pieces of fruit (in this case stoned, halved cherries), leaving a small border around the edges


• Sprinkle caster sugar evenly over the surface


• Dice the butter and distribute among the pastries


• Bake for 20 minutes at 180, then allow to cool


• Serve with the ice cream of your choice

Time To Chop Your Cherry

Fruity desserts: they somehow make me feel less guilty than chocolatey ones.  Never mind how much butter and sugar might go into one - it's got fruit in so it must be quite good for you.  In the same way that cheesecake has lots of calcium. Practically a health food.

An article came through on one of my 'foody' feeds for a light, sweet peach pastry.  Didn't have any peaches in (and figured nectarine was possible the wrong texture) so I replaced the peach slices with chopped cherries.  It takes only a couple of minutes to prepare and is served cold, so can be made a few hours in advance (any more than that and the pastry would get soggy).  The result is a fruity, sweet-but-not-too-sweet dessert that is perfectly complimented by vanilla ice cream (calcium!).

I plan to try it next with pear (which I shall pre-cook) and brown sugar.  That's got to count as one of my 'five a day', surely?

Baked Cheese

Ingredients:

• Round of cheese, such as Camembert, that comes in a wooden case


• Clove of garlic, thinly sliced


• Dribble of white wine


• Fresh, crusty bread

• Prep time: 2 minutes


• Oven: 20 minutes at 200

Instructions: 

• Remove any plastic or paper packaging from the cheese, place back in wooden box


• Pierce the top of the cheese and insert thin slices of garlic according to taste


• Drizzle the surface with dry, white wine


• Leaving the lid off the box, wrap the whole thing in tin foil, shiny side in


• Place in preheated oven for 20 mins


• Remove foil and serve with chunks of bread

Getting Baked

When I was a teenager, I thought myself very sophisticated when invited to friends' houses for fondu (gasp!). And all that lovely, melty cheese and crispy baguette (or 'French bread'  as we called it) is not to be sniffed at.  However, these days I have a few issues with fondu:

Cost: Even here in France where we have cheese out the wazoo, if there are maybe six of you at table, enough decent-quality cheese for uninhibited dipping will set you back a fair bit.

Hassle:  After you've fiddled about with the fuel etc etc, someone needs to monitor the heat and cheese levels almost constantly, as the cheese at the bottom of the pan can scorch quite easily.  This gets harder and harder as the wine goes down.

Mess: We, as a family, are definitely not the kind of people that trip off to bed after a dinner party with the dishwasher humming and the worktops gleaming.  Greasy, crusty (possibly burnt) fondu pot is not nice to wake up to.

This is where the northern French favourite of Baked Cheese comes in.  Whilst the cheeses used are stronger than fondu tends to be, and therefore not to everyone's taste, it is a lot less hassle than fondu whilst still as convivial. Rounds of Camembert or similar are wrapped in foil with a little garlic and white wine and baked in the oven for about 20 minutes.  When you open them up, you can tear the 'skin' open and there is nothing but liquid cheese inside for everyone to dip their chunks of bread in.  And when it's over, the foil, cheese box etc all goes straight in the bin. Easy peasy.  Makes a brilliant starter, snack, or part of a buffet-style casual meal amongst good friends.

Sticky Lemon Chickie

Ingredients: 

For 2 or 3 people:

• 2 large chicken breasts, cut into small chunks or strips


• Either olive oil sesame seed oil, depending on whether you are a fan of the extra flavour of sesames.


• Couple of decent-sized lemons, or a small bottle of lemon juice


• Sploosh of dry, white wine


• Handful of caster sugar


• A little salt and pepper

Instructions: 

• Heat the oil in a frying pan


• Bung in the chicken and toss in the oil until it has seared all over


• Sprinkle the sugar over the chicken then drench in lemon juice and wine


• Season lightly and cook over medium-to-low heat until the chickie becomes lightly browned and sticky!


• Serve immediately whilst still hot and sticky!

Fast, Hot, and Sticky

Just a quick one today. (That's what she said).

On Mondays I often don't feel like spending hours in the kitchen, as we usually have 3-course meals on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. My Sticky Lemon Chickie is almost zero prep and only 10 mins or so (depending on how small you cut the chicken breasts) on the stove.  It goes really well with rice or jacket potato.

Happy Monday.

Harry Nilsson Cake

Ingredients: 

• 250g butter


• 250g caster sugar


• 300g flour


• 3 medium free range eggs


• 1 sachet (approx 11g) of baking powder (or use self-raising flour)


• 75g desiccated coconut, plus extra for topping


• 2 small limes


• Couple of large spoonfuls of Rose's Lime Marmalade

Prep time: 10 mins, if using an electric whisk like me!

Oven temp: 180 (fan-assisted)

Cook time:  Depends on cake mould/tin.  Listen to the cake, and if it's no longer making noise, it's cooked.  If it's making smoke, it's overcooked. ;)

Instructions: 

• Cream together the butter and sugar


• Add the eggs, mixing thoroughly


• Sift in the flour and baking powder, but hold off on mixing


• Add the coconut and the zest and juice of the limes


• Mix thoroughly, adding a little milk if necessary, until smooth and even.


• Pop into lined, greased tin or (I prefer) a silicone mould and bake.


• Once the cake has cooled, smear the top with the marmalade and coat in coconut.

Basic Cake Mix

Ingredients: 

• 250g butter


• 250g caster sugar


• 300g sifted flour


• 2 medium eggs (preferably free range)


• 1 sachet (11g) baking powder


• Milk as necessary

• Prep time: 5 mins if using an electric whisk


• Oven temp: 180 in a fan-assisted oven


• Time: depends on cake tin/mould used

Instructions: 

• Thoroughly cream together butter and sugar


• Mix in eggs


• Sift in flour and baking powder


• Add milk a dribble at a time, whilst mixing to an even texture (I like to use an electric whisk)

Put da Lime In de Coconut

Cake. Love it.

I have a basic cake mix that I use for everyday cakes for lunch boxes and snacks; I simply change the flavouring/additional ingredient, such as vanilla, banana, cocoa etc.  Sometimes, however, to make the best of a flavour, it needs to be changed-up a little.  With my Harry Nilsson Cake (here's the song/brainworm.  You're welcome.) I added extra egg to counteract the dryness of the coconut.  The layer of Rose's Lime Marmalade between the sponge and the coconut topping also contributes to the moistness of the cake, as well as strengthening the lime flavour without making it too tart.

Respect is due to Mr Harry Nilsson and his most excellent song for the inspiration for this recipe.

Moules Provençale

Ingredients: 

For two people:

• 1 kilo fresh mussels, cleaned and de-bearded


• 3 or 4 decent-sized tomatoes, diced


• About 150g chopped shallots (I used only 2 shallots but they were the size of lemons)


• 2 chopped cloves of garlic


• Large knob of butter


• Olive oil


• Fresh, chopped rosemary, thyme, parsley


• One or two bay leaves


• Half a bottle of dry, white wine

Instructions: 

• Melt the butter and a sploosh of olive oil in the bottom of a large pan (that has a tight-fitting lid)


• Toss in the shallots and garlic, covering them in the oil and butter


• After a couple of minutes, bung in the tomatoes and fresh herbs, stirring often


• Once the mixture has softened, throw in the mussels and the wine


• Place the lid on firmly and cook for 5-10 minutes, or until the mussels are open (stir occasionally so that they cook evenly)


• Serve with fresh bread

Moule Love This

Moules (mussels) are very popular 'peasant food' around here. At around €2.50 - €2.90 per kilo for fresh-from-the-Med seafoody goodness, you can feed a lot of people for very little cash.  We are also fortunate enough to be not-so-very-far from Bouzigues, birthplace of the best oysters in the world, so we can have a dinner for 6 of raw oyster starter and mussel main course for around €20.

The moules must be properly cleaned and 'de-bearded' before cooking.  Scrub them with wire wool and yank the beard downwards to remove.  Alternatively, delegate the task to a nearby teenager or houseguest, as it is tedious and can make your fingers sore and you have much better things to do with your time.

Our usual choice when eating moules is the widely-popular, incredibly-easy-to-make, Moules Frites: mussels and chips.  Sounds better in French.  Just pop some butter, olive oil, chopped shallots, garlic and parsley in a large pan with a lid, wait til the shallots are softened then bung in a couple of kilos of de-bearded moules and a bottle of dry white wine. Place the lid firmly on and cook until moules are opened - usually only a matter of 5-10 minutes, depending on the quantity of moules.  There will quite often be one or two that won't open, but don't keep them on the heat hoping for 100% to open, or the others will shrivel and overcook.  Best eaten with homemade, thick-cut chips (fries), with crusty bread to mop up the sauce. Popular additions to the sauce are Roquefort cheese, or peppercorns and cream.

This weekend, we decided to change it up a little and have Moules Provençale. This is similar to the above, but has tomatoes and more herbs and would be eaten without fries, just bread or perhaps some local rice.

There are, as with so many traditional dishes, an impossible number of variations and opinions on the recipe so I read a dozen or so and came up with a simple, easy version that tasted very good indeed, accompanied by some homemade thyme bread.

Pissaladière

Ingredients: 

For the topping:

• 6 tbsp olive oil


• 1 kg onions, peeled and thinly sliced


• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped


• 1/2 tbsp thyme


• 1 bay leaf


• 5 tbsp Tapenade


• 60g anchovy fillets in oil


• Handful of pitted black olives

For the base:

• 7.5g dried yeast


• 1 tablespoon olive oil


• 1 teaspoon sugar


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 300g flour

Prep time: 2 hours

Oven time: approx 20 mins at 220

Instructions:

For the base:

• Put aroung 100ml of warm water in a jug or bowl


• Sprinkle in the yeast, sugar and salt


• Place somewhere warm until it begins to bubble.


• Measure out the flour, drizzle in the olive oil and rub together


• When the yeast mixture is bubbling, pour into a well in the middle of the flour and mix.


• Work the mixture, adding more warm water as necessary to form a dough.


• Knead for appox 10 mins until smooth.


• Place back in the bowl, cover with a cloth and leave to rise for approx 1 hour, until doubled in size.


• Punch down the dough, roll out to roughly same shape as your baking tray


• Lightly brush baking tray with oil, place dough on tray


• Cover and leave to rest 10 mins before adding topping

For the topping:

• Heat the oil in a saucepan with a tight lid


• Bung in the onions and stir until onions are covered


• Reduce heat to minimum and place lid firmly on and allow to simmer, stirring occasionally


• Once onions are softened and transparent, add garlic, thyme, bay leaf and a little salt and pepper


• Cover and cook for a further 5-10 mins, remembering to remove the bay leaf once done


• Spread the tapenade on the base, then distribute the onion mixture evenly over the top


• Place the anchovies evenly over the surface, traditionally in 'x' patterns, adding the olives at the end.


• Bake for approx 20 mins until crust is golden.

Tapenade

Ingredients: 

• 300g olives (remove pits after weighing)


• 3 anchovy fillets


• 1 large garlic clove


• 2 tbsp pine kernels


• 1/2 tbsp capers (rinsed to remove excess brine)


• 120ml extra virgin olive oil (needs to be decent quality as will be consumed uncooked)


• Juice of half a lemon


• Salt and pepper to taste

• Prep time: 5 mins


• Refrigeration time: 24 hrs

Instructions: 

• Place olives, anchovies, garlic, pine kernels and capers into a blender


• Blend until it forms a course paste


• Add olive oil, lemon juice and seasoning and blend for a further 15 seconds or so


• Place in a clean jam jar (or similar), close tightly and refrigerate for 24 hours

Olive Your Guests Will Want The Recipe

Boom! Another quality pun, brought to you by the Queen of Prevarication. ( For someone who wishes to be a published author, I spend a lot of time avoiding my keyboard.)

Today, imaginary readers, I offer you my tried and tested recipe for Tapenade, an olive-based spread for snacks and hors d'oeuvres, as well as for use in other recipes, such as the comically-named Pissaladière.

Tapenade can be made from either green or black olives, but we as a family prefer black. They needn't be expensive ones, tinned ones will do.  Some may find the inclusion of anchovies in the ingredients a little off-putting, but they combine with the others to make a well-rounded, savoury flavour.  It has a strong taste, but one that is redolent of the sunny Mediterranean cuisine that I love. It can be eaten on the day of preparation, but I find it is best made 24hrs in advance to give the flavour time to mature.  Sealed in an air-tight jar and refrigerated it will last up to a week. Serve in a bowl, accompanied by slices of baguette, allowing guests to spread their own according to taste.

Pita bread

Ingredients: 

• 1 sachet dried yeast


• 1 tsp sugar


• 120ml warm water


• 450g flour


• 1 1/2 tsp salt


• Approx. 240ml tepid water


• Vegetable or sunflower oil

• Prep time: approx 2 hours


• Cooking time: Approx 6 minutes per tray of pockets


• Preheat oven to 260

Instructions: 

• Sprinkle the sugar and yeast into the warm water and leave in a warm place until foaming


• Sift together the flour and salt, making a well in the middle


• Pour in the yeast mixture and work it in


• Gradually add the tepid water as necessary until all the flour forms a dough


• Turn out and knead for 10-15 minutes until smooth and elastic


• Place in a bowl that has been coated with vegetable or sunflower oil and roll it around until it has the oil on all sides


• Cover bowl with cling film (optional, but I find it helps) and leave in a warm place to double in size


• Roll out the dough into a sausage (see pic!) and cut or pinch it into 10-12 pieces


• Roll the pieces out until 12 - 15cm across and about 1/2cm thick then leave them to rest for 10 minutes


• Place as many pockets as will comfortably fit on your pre-heated baking tray


• Bake them for 3 - 4 minutes until they puff up


• Flip them over and bake another couple of minutes


• Remove from oven, wrap in a clean cloth and gently press down to deflate them


• If not for immediate use they should be sealed in an airtight container/food bag as soon as possible

You've Gotta Pita Pocket Or Two

Pita bread: one more from the seemingly endless list of things I've been meaning to get around to. Pita bread has been a favourite of mine since childhood, but good pita bread is not easy to come across here in the South of France.  The vacuum-packed crap from the supermarket can often taste chemical-y, I think.

I was pleased at how simple they were to prepare (a basic dough, leave to double in size etc) but the cooking is a bit fiddly and requires your full attention.  The oven needs to be very, very hot and the baking tray should be pre-heated on a shelf at the very bottom of the oven.  The bread is cooked for 3-4 minutes on one side, then flipped over and cooked another couple of minutes on the other, so keep a good pair of tongs handy and keep an eye on the progress of the bread, as ovens often vary.  It's a bit of a hot and fiddly chore to do a whole batch, but the results are delicious.

Try adding poppy seeds or herbs etc to the dough to change it up a little.

There. Whole paragraphs without a single double entendre or reference to alcohol. Perhaps I'm maturing.  Perhaps I need a glass of wine......

West Highland Terrier Not Included

 Lovely, lovely new cooker is here. Been too drunk busy to write about it properly before, but the Bastard Oven is no more and the lovely new Smeg has arrived.  The model we chose was a compromise between desire and budget. Having had for some years a 'piano' cooker (as they are known here) with 5 gas burners and a large oven, there was no way a food-obsessed individual such as myself was going back to a basic cooker.  However, my dream cooker runs into several thousands of euros and my budget does not.

The Smeg CG90N is reasonably priced, nice efficient gas burners and an oven that heats to 200 in 5 minutes.  So far it's been easy to clean, but let's see how I feel about that when the novelty wears off.

The first thing I baked was a batch of scones.  Husband thought it highly amusing that I sat there with a grin on my face, watching them rise beautifully, but after the horrible struggles with Bastard Oven it was a pure joy to produce such light, even results. I am a happy cook.