Lapin à la Moutarde

Rabbit in mustard sauce:
Don't be fooled if you come to France and see numerous people on market day wandering around with cute little, live rabbits in their cute, little wicker baskets....they're for 'la casserole' and admittedly, do taste great!
Here's a recipé that I've tried and tested time and time again and believe you me it's simply delicious!

Serves 4
4 large/8 small thighs of farmed rabbit
1 tablsp. Dijon mustard (or a mix of whatever mustard you have
2 tablsp. olive oil
Black pepper
300ml white wine/cider
2 bay leaves
2 tablsp. full-fat crème fraîche

Wash the rabbit and dry well. Mix mustard, oil and season well with pepper. Smear this all over the rabbit pieces and leave for at least 30 mins. (or overnight)

Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F
Place rabbit in casserole and roast for 5 mins.
Add wine/cider and bay leaves and cook for 30 - 40 minutes until tender, basting occasionally.

Reduce oven to 150°C/300°F and wrap rabbit pieces in foil. Pour the juice into a pan and boil to reduce. Add the crème fraîche and cook gently for a few minutes.
Put rabbit back into sauce and test for seasoning.

Serve with basmati rice.

Christmas in Normandy

An abundant variety of mouth-watering dishes and delicacies is the highlight of this important family occasion. Called le réveillon (the awakening) and celebrated on Christmas Eve, festivities continue into the early hours of Christmas day. In some homes, the meal is interrupted by the welcomed arrival of le Père Noel at midnight, when gifts are exchanged, while in others midnight Mass remains an important part of Noel.
Amuses-bouche (literally meaning ‘mouth amusers –nibbles) and apéritifs are served at the beginning of this marathon evening of food, wine and conversation. Starters may include foie gras, smoked salmon or oysters, served on their own, or as part of a seafood platter including crabs, lobsters, periwinkles,sea snails, and prawns, served with lemon wedges, crusty bread, salted butter and homemade mayonnaise.

Traditionally, chestnut-stuffed turkey features on the menu, although seafood platters, scallops, duck, goose, capon (castrated and fattened rooster) and game in all its forms are often enjoyed today... Salad and cheese follows and the ever-traditional bûche de Noel (Yule Log) brings an end to this gastronomic evening.....

Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.....?
Eh non, not here in Normandy anyway, as the next day at lunch time , the food and festivities start all over again!

Joyeux Noel!

Savoury Cakes

Oh là là.....les cakes salés!!!!
Savoury cakes are a great change from quiches and other nibbles for a drinks party, served with a green salad, make for a great, light supper or on warmer days, go down well in a picnic basket.....Once you've got the hang of the basic recipé, you can chop and change and come up with some great, original savoury cakes....Blue cheese and walnut, cheese and ham, spinach and goat's cheese..........A very clever French cook, 'Sophie', held a competition( on the net) for the best cake recipé, threw in a prize, and brought out a book on the same....I haven't bought it soooo, can't comment!


The following is a marbled green olive and black tapenade cake ( you can cheat and buy the tapenade) which is a colourful addition to any party, and can easily be transported so that you can bring along your very own, homemade gift!

Basic recipé:
3 eggs
150g S.R. flour
80 ml sunflower oil, heated for 1 minute in microwave
130 ml milk
Salt/pepper

100g grated cheese
100g green olives, stoned and chopped
100g black tapenade
1 teasp. Herbs de Provence

Preheat oven to 180°C/Gas mark 6

Mix the eggs with the flour. Add oil gradually. Then add cheese and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.... Divide mixture in two.

Add the green olives and herbs to one mix and the tapenade to the other.

Pour the green olive mix into a cake tin and then the tapenade mix. Bake for 45 mins.

Serve at room temperature.

A Cheesy Treat!

Camembert in its box

An original way of serving a cheese course... Great as a 'light' lunch or supper, kids love it , adults love it and you'll love it too!

You simply choose a nice ripe Camembert IN A WOODEN BOX. Remove the cheese from the wrapping and cut a cross on top.

Meanwhile, soak the box in some water (prevents burning)

Then put the cheese (minus the wrapper) back in the box, close the box and place on a grill over nice, glowing embers until melted (about 10 mins.). Peel back the skin and serve the hot, melting délice with endive leaves, apple slices, celery or crusty bread.... Nothing goes to waste......great..

(Alternatively, you can place the cheese, minus the wrapper, in it's box, in a moderate oven for about 10 minutes.)

Pont l'Eveque would do the job nicely too!

Poule au Pot
Chicken in the pot


Henri IV of France wanted all households in his kingdom to be able to relish in this great dish every Sunday... There are lots of variations on this recipe, I imagine stemming from whatever products were available locally. This one uses the best Normandy has to offer – chicken (or traditionally, hen) leeks, carrots, turnips and, bien sûr, crème fraîche.


Ingredients Serves 4 - 6
1 broiler, about 2 kilos (chicken will do but tends to fall off the bones quicker) r
2 onions, studded with cloves
3 carrots, peeled and chopped into large chunks
3 leeks, chopped and thoroughly washed (usually full of sand!!)
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
3 turnips, peeled
2 sticks of Celery, cut into long batons
Bouquet garni – Bay leaves, parsley, thyme etc...
Salt and pepper
Water
Tub of crème fraîche


Place broiler/chicken in a large saucepan and cover with water. Add onions, garlic and bouquet garni. Season well. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 2 1/2 hours (1 hour for chicken).

Meanwhile, prepare vegetables.
Add to chicken and continue simmering until vegetables are soft – about 45 mins.
Add a little of the water from the chicken pot to crème fraîche and heat gently.

Serve the meat from the broiler (minus the skin) on a large platter surrounded with vegetables. Pour the crème fraîche into a sauceboat and place all in the centre of the table.

(Basmati rice works well with this one.)


Bon appétit!

Irish Love Story

An elderly man lay dying in his bed. While suffering
the agonies of impending death, he suddenly smelled the aroma
of his favourite scones wafting up the stairs.


He gathered his remaining strength, and lifted himself
from the bed. Leaning on the wall, he slowly made his way
out of the bedroom, and with even greater effort, gripping the railing with both hands, he crawled downstairs.


With laboured breath, he leaned against the
door-frame, gazing into the kitchen. Were it not for death's agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven, for there, spread out upon the kitchen table were literally hundreds of his favourite scones.


Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of love from his
devoted Irish wife of sixty years, seeing to it that he left
this world a happy man?



Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself
towards the table, landing on his knees in rumpled posture.
His aged and withered hand trembled towards a scone at the edge of the table, when it was suddenly smacked by his wife with a wooden spoon ........................

"Feck off", says she...."they're for the funeral!"

Coquilles St Jacques - scallops - are on every fishmonger's stall here at this time of year. We're lucky enough to have ones that are fished locally, great value for money and if you buy more than 5 kilos, the poissonier will clean them out for you too - le bonheur!
This recipé is seasonal, tasty, and easy to make with a certain show-off factor that'll dazzle all-in-sundry!



Scallops with Leeks and Crème Fraîche

Ingredients
Serves four
16 scallops (3 or 4 scallops per person) out of their shells and thoroughly cleaned – that’s the hard part - ask your fishmonger nicely!
4 leeks (only the white part) sliced into rounds
1 clove of garlic, crushed
Butter and olive oil for frying
1 pot of crème fraîche
Salt and pepper
Chopped chives
Optional:
‘Fleurons’ (little cresents of puff pastry – found in supermarkets here/maybe ordered at the boulangerie.... look great on top of the finished dish)

Directions:
1. Melt butter with the oil in a large saucepan (I use my Le Creuset one as it’s tableware too and saves on the washing-up) and add the garlic, then the leeks. Cook them gently for about 15 minutes taking care not to burn them. (Sometimes I add a little grated carrot, just for colour).
2. Put the lid on the saucepan, so that they steam away gently. Add the cream and mix thoroughly. Reheat gently and add salt and freshly-ground pepper.
3. Slice the scallops horizontally, so that they’ll cook quicker. Melt some butter and a drop of olive oil in a large frying pan and add the white part of the scallops, cooking gently over a low heat. It’s a question of 2 minutes. Quickly add the roes (the orange part of the scallop) and cook for 1 minute.
4. Meanwhile, reheat the ‘fleurons’ in a moderate oven if you are using them.
5. Stir the scallops into the leek, carrot and cream mix. Add some chopped chives (frozen if it is at the end of the year as there are none left in the garden.)
6. Put on nice big white plates, with the fleurons delicately placed on top and serve with basmati rice.

P.S You can freeze fresh scallops really well too!!

Raspberry Charlotte

Try out this delicious dessert made from sponge fingers, raspberries and fromage frais. It melts in the mouth and because you don't have to cook it, it's easy food at its best. You prepare it in advance too, which is really great!

Ingredients

300g raspberries (frozen will do the job)
15cl orange juice and a dash of Cointreau/Grand Marnier
30 sponge finger biscuits/Madeira cake sliced into fingers
400g fromage frais
80g caster sugar
2 sachets vanilla sugar - about 14g (optional)




Directions

1. Line the base and sides of a charlotte tin or pudding bowl with biscuits that you have dipped in the orange juice and alcohol mixture.
2. Whisk the fromage frais with the sugars.
3. Place half the fruit in the tin or bowl and cover with half of the sweetened fromage frais.
4. Dip a few more biscuits in the orange juice and place on top of the fromage frais layer. Add a layer of fruit, a layer of fromage frais and finish with some more (dipped) biscuits.
5. Cover the tin. Place in the fridge and leave overnight. The next day, turn over onto a plate....and indulge yourself!
Bon appétit!

Cream of Pumpkin Soup

 Crème de potimarron  – Cream of Pumpkin Soup
 (with Chestnuts and Vire Andouille or Truffle Oil Cream)

For 8 people:
1 small potimarron – pumpkin variant with a slight chestnut flavour, cut into chunks
150g carrots, sliced
150g leeks, sliced
150g onions, sliced
150g potatoes, sliced
50g butter/ 2 tblsp. olive oil
2 litres chicken stock/water

To serve: (optioanal)

• 4 slices Andouille de Vire (Chitterling sausage - optional) roughly chopped
• 100g chestnuts (vacuum-packed are readily available), crumbled
• Crème fraîche

or

• Whipped cream with a drop of Truffle oil

Sweat the vegetables in melted butter/olive oil for about 10 minutes.
Add stock/water and simmer gently for about 20 mins./until the vegetables are soft.
Blend in a liquidizer.

Place the andouille in a pre-heated pan and add the crumbled chestnuts.
Add to soup and serve with a good dollop of crème fraîche.....
or
Serve with Truffle oil cream.

The 'hearth of the home'

It's done - it's in - and we're all very happy.....We've recently installed our Rayburn wood-burning stove and I can safely say that we just love it!!
My kitchen is, however, no longer a place I can escape to - himself and the kids being too afraid to enter should I request that the dishwasher be emptied or anything else along those lines.....He's even bought himself an armchair...and is talking of putting a TV in here too... Doesn't he understand the 'gendarmerie' sign on the kitchen wall anymore?
Not to worry, we do Darby and Joan quite well in fact!!
The food is great, the temptation to cook enormous (as the oven is always warm)but best of all is that warm feeling in the morning....as two sleepy-eyed, little girls make their toast on the hot plate....
the simple pleasures in life.....
A bientôt!