Tomato, Onion and Potato tart

Firstly, yes, I am till alive and I can only offer my sincere apologies for the extended delay since my last post.    I’ve not been in very good health and have had a spell in hospital.

The other day a couple of things happened that made me decide to do this post.    My neighbour and farmer arrived with  a couple of sacks of tomatoes, potatoes and onions, all of which he had grown on the field I own.    When I first moved here, the land I bought included a couple of agricultural fields.   I’m no farmer, and the two fields together were not enough to do much with so I spoke to my neighbour and we agreed he would manage them on my behalf.   He grows a few kitchen vegetables, wheat and straw or hay and I pay him for managing them with the produce.  In fact these days, we just split the produce between us, lovely warm produce straight from the field or straw to add to my own kitchen garden

After he had gone another friend invited me for supper  and I decided I could use the fresh produce to make a tart.  I’m afraid I didn’t measure anything but I’ll tell you what I did.   

 

First I blind baked a pastry tart shell, about 30cms by 20cms (12” x 8”)   I used a rectangular pie dish and lined it with greaseproof paper.

I took about 4 good sized potatoes and  cut them just enough to get them into my food processor, where I used the very finest slice to produce wafer thin potato slices.  I blanched the potato for just a couple of minutes in a little salted water, taking care not to let it burn.   I didn’t use too much water as I wanted to say rather firm.  Once blanched I immediately dipped it into cold water to arrest the cooking, then drained them.

Next I took about three of the medium onions and sliced them  and to the sliced onion I added a bout 5 cloves of garlic also sliced.  I fried the mixture, adding a touch f salt and black pepper until the onions started to caramelise.  Then I put that dish aside.

To assemble the tart, I started by layering about half of the blanched potato in the bottom.  The potato was a bit wet still so I added just a dessert spoonful of rice under the potato to soak up any juices.

On top of the potato I layered tomato, sliced fairly thickly.   Again season with a bit of salt and pepper.

Next, another layer of potato.

Then a layer of the fried onions and garlic before putting the final layer of tomatoes on the top.

I scattered some fresh basil leaves over the dish and returned it to the oven to bake at about 180C (350F) for 20 mins

Beef Bourgignon with a few carrots

FROM MY KITCHEN BLOG, Ian's French Kitchen

The French have a gorgeous traditional beef dish from Burgundy, Boeuf Bourgignon.    I've put my own slant on it here to make it "Traditional English cooking in France".  The wine really should be a bottle of Burgundy red..... but I tend to use any good full bodied red wine.

This recipe is so incredibly easy,  and relies on a slow cooker to gently simmer everything for about 12 hours.

I hope you love it as much as I do

Beef Bourgignon

1 tbsp duck fat (use olive oil if you don't have duck fat)
600g beef shin, cut into large chunks
100g smoked streaky bacon, chopped  (Lardon)
2 onions, peeled and chopped
3 carrots peeled and sliced 
4 garlic cloves crushed, peeled and sliced
2 heaped tablespoons Herbes de Provence
1 small can tomato purée
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
750ml bottle red wine, Burgundy is good 
A glass of water

200gms mushrooms, sliced into largish chinks

In the Slow Cooker
Heat the duck fat in a frying pan and brown the beef for about 3 minutes a side.  (cook the beef in batches)  Toss the browned beef in flour then add to slow cooker.   After frying the beef, fry the bacon, onions and garlic in the same pan, adding a little more goose fat if needed.  Add to slow cooker

Reserve out the Mushrooms and put the rest of the ingredients into the slow cooker.  Give everything a good stir

Cook for 4 hours on the high setting and then a further 8 hours on low.

Add the mushrooms 2 or 3 hours before finishing.  (after about 9 hours cooking)

From time to time check the mixture for liquid and give a stir

Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday..

I love Pancake Day, the local name for today.

Almost without fail, my evening meal is constructed to make provision for the main event... Beautiful pancakes doused in Maple syrup, or hiding sultanas.... or both!!

Here is my own Pancake Recipe, yried, tested and developed ove many years of celebrating this special day in this traditional way...

 

Basic Pancake Batter

(makes eight) except it only really made 5 or 6

75g/3oz plain flour

Pinch of salt

2 large fresh eggs

150ml/1/4pt milk

a dash of water

A little oil for frying

Mix the water and milk and beat in the eggs.   Place the flour and salt in a large bowl, then add half the milk. Whisk until the mixture is lump-free. Add the remaining milk and whisk again until smooth. If you prefer place all the ingredients together in a food processor and blend until smooth, Pour the batter into a jug. The batter can be made in advance and chilled for up to eight hours before use.   I think it improves if left to stand and usually leave it about 30 minutes or so

Heat a 20cm/8in diameter non-stick frying pan until hot, drizzle a little oil over the centre and wipe it around with a piece of kitchen paper. Now pour a little of the batter into the pan and immediately tilt the pan to spread the batter thinly and evenly over the base. Cook for two minutes or until the top is set and the base golden. Turn the pancake over with a spatula or if you are feeling brave, flip the pancake!

Cook for a further one to two minutes or until the base is golden. Transfer to a plate and interleave with greaseproof paper, keep warm. Use the batter and a little more oil to make a further seven pancakes in the same way. Serve simply with lemon and sugar or try them in the following recipe ideas.

French Mushroom, Ham & Goats Cheese Crepe

Fill the pancakes with sliced mushrooms sauteed in oil, a slice of ham, then top with thinly sliced goats cheese. Fold up to enclose the filling then pop under a hot grill until the cheese begins to melt. Serve scattered with flat parsley.

 

Redcurrant and apple

cook the basic pancake and just before serving add a mixture of stewed redcurrants and apple, then roll and serve immediately.

 

Or, simply add a handful of golden sultanas to the pan immediately before adding the batter.    These are great served with Maple syrup.

Hot Cross Bun Day

It's Good Friday, a Christian festival which in many parts of the world is celebrated by a national holiday, although, as it happens, not here in France.

Traditionally, Hot Cross Buns are made and eaten on Good Friday.  I'm not completely sure of the reasons, but think that, like Pancake Day, it's another food feast related to abstinence at Lent.  In this case, those foods which were forbidden during Lent, eggs, butter, milk etc, are once again used to make a delicious dish, in this case a tasty bun.

I determined to make my Hot Cross Buns this morning but things were working against me and it wasn't long before I realised I was running out of time.  Hot Cross Buns are delicious to eat, but take up a lot of time in preparation with bursts of activity interspersed with 20 or 30 minutes wait whilst the dough proves.

Admitting defeat, I turned to the internet for a simple recipe where I could throw everything in a pan and walk away...  and yes, the pan turned out to be my bread maker.  I use my bread maker a lot, but have only ever used it to make...well, bread!  But the recipe seemed easy and gave me the time I needed for other things.  I'll repeat the recipe here, but a big thanks to Bella Online for the original recipe.  I have changed just a couple of small things in that I glazed the buns with warmed honey and omitted the cross!

Well, omitted, is a polite way to say "forgot".  I made the buns, prepared the oven and popped them in before putting together a piping bag to add the cross.... it was only then that I remembered the cross has to go on the buns BEFORE they go in the oven.

The finished buns are not the most gorgeous buns I have ever made and they didn't rise very well.  However, I want to say that I have no doubt that the problems reflect the state of my attention in the kitchen today and are no reflection on the recipe from Bella Online.  They do, however, taste truly amazing.

My own buns   From Bella Online

dough 1/4 cup water - at room temperature or slightly above 1/2 cup lukewarm milk 1/4 cup melted butter 1 egg, lightly beaten 3-1/2 cups all purpose flour 1/4 cup sugar 1-1/2 tsp. active dry yeast 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. nutmeg pinch of ground cloves pinch of allspice 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 cup golden raisins 1/4 cup finely chopped, mixed candied fruit glaze 2 Tablespoons of honey, gently warmed

Although it's not what is recommended in the original recipe, I always use a mixture of flour and water to make the cross, and pipe it on just before putting the buns in the oven.

 

Preparation -
Place all the dough ingredients, except the raisins and fruit, in the bread machine pan. Set on the dough only cycle. Add the raisins and candied fruit at the bread machine's signal for adding extra ingredients. Remove the dough from the bread machine at end of dough cycle. Place it in a bowl, cover with a cloth and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into 12 pieces. Shape the pieces into balls and place them 3 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise in warm place until almost doubled, about 45 minutes to an hour. Bake in a preheated oven at 375º for 15 to 18 minutes, or until light brown on top. Remove from the oven. Place the baking sheet full of buns on a wire rack to cool. Prepare the glaze, then spread it over the warm buns. Let the buns continue to cool on the baking sheet.

 

Oh, The top picture above is of my own attempt but the second picture is the "official" photo from Bella Online, which I thought looked better.

Pancake Day

I'm still in the UK, getting ready for my return to the Kitchen Garden in France and today is Pancake Day.

I love pancake day and it brings back many fond memories...

As a child, my mother always made pancakes on Pancake Day and it was a real treat.   Not just for me, either, as my father loved them possibly a little more than I did.  He certainly always got more!

Today also bring back memories of fun evenings with friends.   I remember back probably 30 years ago.  I was living in south Wales and one day I was telling one of my fiends that I'd be making pancakes that evening as it was pancake day.  She looked at me incredulously and simply asked, "Do you know how to make pancakes?"

"Come and see!" I replied

The result was a tradition that we built up over the next 20 odd years where, every pancake day, she and her husband, came for dinner and to help make pancakes.  Thinking back, I don't know how we ever managed to make a single pancake as there was so much giggling going on in the kitchen.

Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras as it is otherwise called, is an old Christian festival dating back 1000 years where there is a feast on the last day before lent, in order to use up the foods that should not be eaten during that time.

In England, since the 15th century, the food has been used up by making pancakes, hence the name "Pancake Day".  The biggest pancake ever made was made in Rochdale in 1994 and measured 15 metres, about 50 feet, in diameter and weighing in at 3 tonnes (6600 lbs).   There is also a tradition in the Buckinghamshire town of Olney to hold a pancake race on Pancake day, where contestants, who must be housewives who have lived in the town for more than six months and wear an apron and scarf or hat, run a race whilst tossing a pancake.

It's quite hard taking a photo of yourself, tossing a pancake, using time delay to allow yourself to get back into the photo, pick up the pan and actually toss the pancake, only to find that it went higher than you hoped and was almost out of the frame!!!

My own recipe is very simple

Basic Pancake Batter

(makes eight) 
100g plain flour
Pinch of salt
3 large eggs
200ml milk
A little oil for frying

Place the flour, salt and eggs in a large bowl with half the milk. Whisk until the mixture is lump-free. Add the remaining milk and whisk again until smooth. If you prefer place all the ingredients together in a food processor and blend until smooth, Pour the batter into a jug. The batter can be made in advance and chilled for up to eight hours before use.
Heat a 20cm/8in diameter non-stick frying pan until hot, drizzle a little oil over the centre and wipe it around with a piece of kitchen paper. Now pour a little of the batter into the pan and immediately tilt the pan to spread the batter thinly and evenly over the base. Cook for two minutes or until the top is set and the base golden. Turn the pancake over with a spatula or if you are feeling brave, flip the pancake!
Cook for a further one to two minutes or until the base is golden. Transfer to a plate and interleave with greaseproof paper, keep warm. Use the batter and a little more oil to make a further seven pancakes in the same way.

• Serve simply by dusting with sugar, adding a squeeze of lemon and rolling.
• OR, as soon as you have titled the pan to spread the batter sprinkle in a few sultanas then cook as before.
• I have a friend who insists on taking the pancake but adding golden syrup instead of sugar and lemon

or try them in the following recipe idea.

French Mushroom, Ham & Goats Cheese Crepe
Fill the pancakes with sliced mushrooms sauteed in oil, a slice of ham, then top with thinly sliced goats cheese. Fold up to enclose the filling then pop under a hot grill until the cheese begins to melt. Serve scattered with flat parsley.

OH, I used to make the batter in the traditional way adding the milk, beating, adding more milk, beating again etc.  Now... I just throw everything into a food processor and let it do the work.  I can't tell the difference.

Fish in a kind of Provencal sauce

It was Friday and I was running out of food....  Well it would be an exaggeration to say running out of food....  My garden is loaded with salad stuff, I had the few last leaves of cabbage growing and the new crop of Broad Beans was ready for it's first picking.....  but....

So, it was Friday and I was running out of food and I had to prepare lunch.  The solution in my mind was take a look at what I actually had and then create something...which would hopefully be tasty.

There were the last couple of pieces of coley, which I quite like.  I had Courgettes (zucchini), lots, I found a fennel in the vegetable rack and as I dug into the freezer, I found the last few tomatoes from last year,  3 large Marmande, a tomato I find very tasty and which freezes and keeps well.

I could create a fish in a kind of Provencal sauce.

  I got down my big old heavy frying pan from the rack and set it on a medium heat

Provence is olive country so a good tablespoon of olive oil was the first thing in the pan, quickly followed by a generous dose of "Herbes de Provence"....(what else??)

Next I peeled and sliced 4 cloves of garlic and chopped a medium onion, throwing them in the pan as I went.

The pan had now warmed sufficiently to turn down to a low heat.

I chopped the onion and tomatoes and added those.  I really needed more tomatoes but I didn't have any so I opened a tin of Italian plum tomatoes and chopped them before adding them, along with all the liquid

I chopped half the fennel and added that.

When I found the tomatoes, I also found a small aubergine (egg plant) from last year...although, I didn't actually grow aubergine last year!!! so that got chopped and added

A few dates, pitted and chopped and the sauce was beginning to come together although it lacked something...  I added a teaspoon of sea salt and a generous cupful of a sweet white wine I have.

The wine is a home made wine made by a local farmer....  It is made in the same way that Monbazillac is made.  Sadly, he lives a few kilometres outside the Monbazillac Vignoble limits and as he isn't a registered wine producer it remains as a home made wine which he can't sell.   This particular bottle was 25 years old and beautifully mellow and smooth.

The fennel was added next and then the sauce left to simmer gently until the liquid had reduced quite a bit.

In the meantime, I lay the fish fillets in the bottom of an ovenproof dish and scattered a good handful of peeled prawns (shrimp) over them.

Once the sauce was ready I covered the fish with it and then baked in a medium oven for about 20 minutes (180C).

I started off calling this a "kind of Provencal sauce" but I'm not sure anyone from Provence would give it a seal of approval....

Vegetable Soup

I usually buy all my fruit and vegetables at the market on a Saturday morning.  Mostly I buy from a local producer or I buy from Laurent, a greengrocer who buys off small local farmers to save them having to invest the time in attending market with maybe one product.   He also brings in things from Spain, like oranges and strawberries and very occasionally from further afield.... By buying like this, I get to pick the freshest produce available each week.   Don't forget, of course, that the Spanish border is nearer to me than Paris.

Some weeks, I find that my plans have changed and I have a wide selection of vegetables left over when Saturday morning comes round again.

Since I moved to France nearly 5 years ago I have developed my own "Potage" which solves this problem perfectly.  "Potage" is the name given to a soup made from vegetables grown in the "Potager" or vegetable garden.

I make the soup in a slow cooker which allows all the tastes to develop and blend.

The problem of left over vegetables occured last week and by yesterday I had a lot left.... So, I made the soup today, using....cauliflower, celery, celeriac, pumpkin, onion, carrot, Swiss chard, courgette, lemon, fennel seeds, sunflower seeds......

I think that was all...  I added a big dose of herbes de provence , a good teaspoonful of Marmite (yeast extract) and about 500ml (US Pint) of salted water and the same of a light lager type beer.   It then cooked for about 7 hours on the high setting, with just an occasional stir....

Today, I also went through the fridge and emptied all the odd sauce bottle ends into the pot.... but I didn't put any garlic in as I was running low...  That is the beauty of this soup....anything that you have goes in and if you don't have it, it doesn't matter.

At the end of cooking I assess what the soup looks like and what I feel like.....  sometimes I will blend the whole lot down to produce a rich thick soup....others I will serve it as it is, with juicy bits of vegetables in a glorious liquid stock.  Then, I will serve what I need and pot the rest, ready to cool and freeze.

However, a word of warning to those of you who are used to following recipes.....   This way of cooking, simply using what is available and, perhaps, even including things because they "need using up", can produce some truly superb results.   Your family may well ravenously finish the pot and demand you make it again very soon.... And there, my friends, is the problem....because of the very nature of the way the ingredients are chosen, you will never make another one which is exactly the same!

Frittata

This is a frittata made with Courgette(Zucchini), Pumpkin, Celeriac and Feta cheese

I made it the other day, guided by a recipe I had not tried before, but adapting the ingredients to use up some leftover vegetables.

I used a metal frying pan that I could put under the grill at the end.

Ingredients:

300gms (12ozs) of pumpkin cut into 1 cm cubes
100gms (4ozs)of pumpkin grated
200gms (8 ozs)celeriac grated
200ml (1 cup) Apple Juice
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1 green courgette cut into 1cm cubes
2 salad onions sliced
4 eggs
200ml (1 cup) liquid cream
200gms (8ozs) feta cheese, crumbled
1/4cup chopped fresh basil leaves 
3 tbs olive oil to fry

Method:

Turn the grill on high. Heat the oil in a large 25cms(10"~) frying pan, over a high heat.
Add the garlic and onion and cook until you can smell the garlic/onion mix. 
Add the pumpkin cubes and cook for 3 or 4 minutes, then add the grated pumpkin and celeriac.
Add the Apple Juice and bring to the boil and cook for a further 3 or 4 minutes.
Add the courgette(zucchini) and then carry on cooking on high heat until the liquid has gone again. 

Whilst this is happening beat the cream and four eggs together and then add the crumbled feta and chopped basil leaves and stir it all together.  Once the liquid has gone, turn the heat down and evenly distribute this mixture in the pan.  Cook for a few minutes(6 or 7) until the edges are just set but the middle is still quite runny.

Remove pan from heat and place under grill for about 5 minutes. The frittata should be set and lightly grilled on the top.

Serve immediately accompanied by fresh salad leaves.

I opened a young Bergerac Red to drink with this meal and it went very well, the lightness of the young wine nicely complementing the lightness of the omelette.

A Nice Supper

I made this hot sauce the other evening to serve with some shrimp and smoked salmon that I was having for supper.   I ate the fish, covered in the sauce and accompanied by my home made bread and, of course, salad from the garden.

This is a nice little hot sauce to serve with shell fish, smoked salmon etc..

It takes about 5 minutes to make and keeps well in the refrigerator for a few days.

Ingredients

Tomato Ketchup
1 tsp Horseradish Sauce
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1 tbs Worcestershire Sauce
a couple of drops Tabasco Sauce

I usually make this in a small ramekin.

Half fill the ramekin with Tomato Ketchup.   Add all other ingredients and mix together.  Let stand for about 30 minutes.

Multigrain Bread

300gms multigrain bread flour
200gms plain bread flour
300ml water
a handful of mixed nuts
1 tbs walnut oil
3tsp coarse sea salt
7gms (1 sachet) of dried baker's yeast

I make the bread in a bread machine, setting the machine to run overnight so that I awake to the delicious aroma of freshly baked bread.

Put the water,oil and nuts in the pan
Add the flour.
Create a dip in the middle of the flour, and spread the salt outside of this dip.
Put the yeast into the dip, ensuring it stays dry.

Set the machine to cook on a whole grain programme to finish when you want to get up....

If you are not going to delay the start, there is no need to worry about keeping the yeast dry.

I'm sorry, bread is funny stuff and I have never successfully made any, using any measurements other than metric.

I have added a new blog caled "Ian's French Kitchen.  There is a link under "Our Links" in the sidebar.  I will post all future recipes to there as well.

Red Cabbage

I picked the last of my red cabbage a couple of days ago.    You may remember, I was only growing it because I bought it in error, not noticing the hand written amendment to the printed label which simply said rouge (red)!!

I have however been very pleased with the dozen plants I had.  I have enjoyed red cabbage in various ways over the past few months particularly liking the leaves shredded and pickled.

I decided to cut the last couple of heads and pickle them, hoping they'll last a few months longer....

To pickle red cabbage I use a mixture of 50% water and 50% vinegar and boil it with some pickling spice.  I now make my own spice blend for pickling.....

Pickling Spice Mixture

Ingredients: 1 tsp Coriander Seeds 1 tsp Chilli Flakes 1 tsp Mixed Peppercorns 1 tsp Yellow Mustard Seeds 1 tsp Ground Ginger 2 Bay Leaves

I use this quantity for 5 litres (5 US Quarts) of vinegar/water, just crushing the bay leaves and then mixing all the ingredients together.  For smaller quantities, I use a tsp per litre (US quart).

I then bring the vinegar, water and spices to the boil and let it simmer for a moment or two.

I put the shredded cabbage into jars and add a teaspoon (probably slightly less) of sugar to each jar before pouring on the hot spiced vinegar and sealing.

I use some conserve jars that are readily available here in France called Le Parfait.  They are really excellent and available in all sorts of sizes and forms.   I like the screw top jars best.

These jars use a disposable capsule to seal the jar and then the screw cap lid holds everything in place.  The problem, nowadays, is that these capsules are getting very expensive and add significantly to the cost of home preserving.  You need to use a new capsule every time you seal a jar.... and they now cost about €0.75 (US$1.00) per capsule.  Today I have modified the capsule in an attempt to make it reusable although the seal will probably only last a couple of uses but even that halves the cost....    I have drilled a small hole in the middle of the capsule which I have then sealed with wax.  I'll tell you all about it in the future if it works out OK.

Today, 18th April is St Parfait Day...hence this piece.

Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns are an age old recipe traditionally eaten at Easter in Great Britain, where an old law permits their sale only at Easter and Christmas.  They are now eaten in many parts of the world.  They are basically a spicy, glazed, currant bun with a pastry cross piped on the top... Not strictly pastry, it's often, simply flour and milk made into a firm batter so that you can pipe a cross shape.

Hot Cross Buns, however, don't seem to be available in this part of France, indeed I suspect they are not available in any part of France as the French people I have talked to didn't know about them.   Now I'm usually happy to adopt my French life and go without whatever is not available, except, that this year I have been invited out to lunch on Easter Sunday and thought, "wouldn't it be nice to take a traditional British thing with me"...   So, none available in the shops, I decided I would simply make some.

Well, that was my first error.  There is nothing simple about making Hot Cross Buns.  If you have the choice between making them yourselves, or buying them from a bakery, choose the bakery!  I have spent the entire afternoon baking about a dozen hot cross buns.

First I had to find a recipe.   As usual, I turned to the Internet.

There was a recipe with a beautiful photo on a site from a British magazine called Woman's Weekly.  Woman's Weekly launched in November 1911 and is still being published today.  It does what the title says, a weekly magazine for women and cookery has always been a strong part of it's subject matter so I thought they could probably be relied on to give me a good traditional recipe.  And they did!

Next I assembled all the various ingredients, , nothing very unusual, flour, sugar, spices, milk, an egg, bakers yeast, all of which I had in my cupboard.

Then to start making the buns.  First start the yeast in a milk and sugar solution.

As  soon as that was happily going I mixed the flour, sugar and spices and and then added the yeast mixture and the beaten egg, formed all this into a dough and left it to raise for an hour and a half.

Once it had risen I worked in the fruit and then made the individual buns, before leaving them to rise again for a further 1/2 hour or so

Next I added the cross that gives them their name, then off to the oven.

As they were baking, I started to get the idea that I had chosen well and the recipe was going to be delicious.  The smell from the oven was mouth watering....

The recipe called for the hot buns to be glazed as soon as they came out of the oven which is what I did next.

So, several hours after deciding, I have about 16 Hot Cross Buns.  They look and smell great and I'm struggling to wait till they are cool to try the first one.

 

For the full recipe, go to the Woman's Weekly Hot Cross Bun recipe

Things I did differently:

I varied the recipe a little.  I made my own mix of spices using Ground Nutmeg, Ground Ginger, Ground Cloves, Ground Cinnamon, Ground Mace, 1/2 tsp of each and then added another tea spoon of Ground Cinnamon.  I mixed strong white flour (300gms) and wholemeal flour (200gms) and I substituted whatever fine brown sugar I had in the cupboard. 

And yes, having succumbed to temptation, they were delicious.

Baked Chicken

I have a friend who eats chicken.....lots of chicken.    When I say she eats lots of chicken I mean she eats chicken, at lots of times, breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night supper......  you get the idea.  I remember, recently, she was staying with me and, as with all our guests, off we went to Villereal for the Saturday morning market.   She hadn't had any breakfast before we left, settling just for a cup of coffee so when we arrived, the first task was to organise breakfast.   Now, I often have breakfast at the market...  I go to my favourite boulanger/pattissier  and buy croissant or apple turnovers or whatever takes my fancy.  Sometimes they have something seasonal, like last week, when they had a  "Poisson d'Avril" which was like a huge apple turnover but filled, not with apple but with a delicious almond paste......

 

But I digress, on the particular visit in question, I went off to my bakery to buy "Chausson au Pomme", an apple turnover and my friend went off in search of her breakfast....  Imagine my surprise when she returned to the bar, where I had ordered us a couple of noisettes, holding a large piece of spit roasted chicken.   The owner of the bar was completely unphased though, and when he brought our coffees simply wished us both "Bon Appetit" and announced he would bring a warm cloth so she could clean her fingers when she finished.

All this sprang into my mind the other day when I was searching through the freezer looking for something simple to cook for dinner and came across a couple of portions of chicken.

I decided to bake them with my herb and cheese crust.  It's very easy to make, smells gorgeous when you are preparing it and doesn't let you down when you come to eat it.

Baked Chicken in a Cheese and Herb crust

Serves 4

4 portions of chicken,
100gms (4oz) bread, (I use a stale crusty baguette),
100gms Strong hard cheese (I used Mature English Cheddar)
1 medium egg
Handful of Parsley
Sprig of fresh Mint
Sprig of fresh Basil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Wash the chicken and dry gently

In a food processor blend the bread, cheese and herbs.

Beat the egg and dip chicken in egg then coat generously with breadcrumb mix

Cook in the middle of preheated oven (180C) for 45 minutes

 

It's a pity the boffins in Silicone Valley haven't come up with a way to send smells, as this really did smell so gorgeous, even before you cooked it.

Clam Dip

We have had a couple of days off from our garden whilst we have entertained some family.

A few friends came for dinner last night and I made a nice clam dip which we served with a second, avocado, dip and raw vegetables as part of the aperitifs.

Here is the recipe for the Clam Dip:

INGREDIENTS

2 x 61/2 oz cans chopped clams
5 small cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
750 grams Fromage Blanc
125ml single cream
Juice of half a lemon
Good dash Worcestershire Sauce
A few drops of Tabasco (to your own taste)
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

METHOD

Drain clams.
Mix garlic, Fromage Blanc, single cream, lemon, sauces and salt and pepper and adjust to a thin dip consistency by adding cream or fromage blanc.  The mixture will thicken in the Fridge!.
Add Chopped Clams and blend with a stick blender
Blend until the clams are small enough.
Put into fridge for at least two hours before