Chicken/Lamb Tagine

'Tagine' simply means 'stew' in Morocco....and once you've grasped the idea you'll be hooked - they're easy and delicious - parfumé, as opposed to spicy!

In Morroco, nomads carry these conical vessels around as their mobile ovens along with a mini-barbeque style tin so that they can grill their merguez sausages whenever and wherever they like.
If you don't have a tagine, a large heavy based casserole will do.





For 4/6 people

1 chicken, jointed ( or chicken pieces)
2 onions, sliced
2 tablsp. olive oil
1 preserved lemon
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teasp. ginger
½ teasp. cinnamon
1 tbsp coriander seeds,crushed
1 cinnamon stick
3 tsp cumin seeds, crushed
1 preserved lemon, chopped finely (optional)
Salt and pepper

Other optional extras:
Dried fruit, such as apricots and prunes.
A couple of handfuls of almonds, sesame seeds or pinenuts, toasted.

Heat the olive oil in a ‘tagine’ or a large casserole dish (with a lid)
Add the chicken pieces and onions and brown together.
Sprinkle in the spices and cook for a few minutes.

Add enough water to cover the meat and bring to the boil.
Add the preserved lemon, season well and cover.

Leave to simmer for at least 1 ½ hours. (you may need to add some water from time to time)
About 20 mins. before serving add the dried fruits.

If you like, sprinkle with nuts and herbs and serve with couscous.

Note:
You can replace the chicken with 1.5 kilos of lamb, from the shoulder, chopped into chunks. Just allow for extra simmering time – about 2 ½ hours.

Tagine is perfect cooked the day before eating, giving the flavours time to develop.

Leek,Potato and Onion Soup

A great believer in soups, here's another one....
LEEK, ONION AND POTATO SOUP
For 4 – 6 people you will need..
4 large leeks
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, chopped
50g butter
850 ml chicken stock /water
275 ml milk
Salt and pepper
To serve :1 ½ tablespoons chopped chives ( I buy frozen herbs in winter….available in all supermarkets here)
2 tablespoons crème fraîche (optional)

Trim off the tops and roots of the leeks, discarding the tough outer layer. Slice them up finely and rinse thoroughly.In a large pot, melt the butter and add the leeks, potatoes and onion stirring them with a wooden spoon. Season with salt and pepper, cover and let the vegetables sweat over a very low heat for about 15 mins.Then add the stock and milk, bring to a simmerinig point, replace the lid and simmer very gently for 20 mins. Liquidise to a purée. Reheat very gently. Add the chives and the cream just before serving.

La Galette des Rois

January 6th, the feast of the Ephinany, and the famous Galette des Rois takes it’s place among the mouth-watering gâteaux and breads in boulangeries throughout France! Haven’t the French heard of new year resolutions to cut out all things wickedly sweet and tasty following an overindulgance of the same over the festive season? Apparently not! Suppose 'Frencwomen don't get Fat' and all that!!

Quand l’appétit va, tout va....when the appetite is O.K, everything is O.K. And so, for the entire month of January, galettes are eaten and Kings and Queens crowned. The youngest members of each family/gathering is sent uner the table to allocate pieces of this traditional cake to all in sundry!

A celebration of when the three kings visited Jesus, bearing gifts, the galette is round in shape, representing the moon, made like a brioche, with a hole in the centre and decorated with candied fruit, or else from puff pastry and almond paste, depending on the region. (Here in Normandy, the almond paste is sometimes replaced by apple purée).

There’s always a fève (a charm) in the galette and he/she who gets it, without choking on it that is (!!!) is king/queen for the day, and has the priviledge of nominating his/her queen/king! Glossy,cardboard crowns are provided for the coronation!

Give it a try..kids love it!!

To make the Galette you will need:

1 packet of puff pastry

For the almond paste: 100g ground almonds

75g butter, softened

3 egg yolks

pinch of salt

Mix together the egg yolks, sugar and salt. Add the softened butter and mix thoroughly.Divide the puff pastry in two.Roll out and line a (greased) tin with half the pastry. Prick with a fork.Spread the almond paste on top, throw in a fève, and cover with the rest of the puff pastry.Bake in a hot oven for 20 – 30 minutes.

Books for Cooks

'NOBODY DOES IT BETTER''........This somewhat arrogant title quite honsetly sounds like something your average Frenchman came up with when the culprit is in fact, Belfast-born, award-winning food journalist, Trish Deseine.
Given her years of culinary experience and her self-development as an Irish foodie in France, we have to take her word for it that well, maybe, nobody does it better!
Having studied her book, I must admit that for all lovers of French food, this one's a treat!
Trish, through a great collection of anecdotes, explains why French home cooking is still the best in the world....Traditional recipés are demystified, but what makes this one really different from other classiques is that modern trends in French cuisine, inspired by the traditions of Moroco, Tunisia, the Réunion Island and the French West Indies are also included, depicting a food culture that's open to ideas from elsewhere......perhaps that's why nobody does it better?
Avaliable from Amazon.com

Winter Warming Soup

Minestrone Soup is one solution to the big freeze that we're all experiencing!
Easy to make,this one's comfort food at its best!
You can use any combination of fresh and frozen vegetables you want....add some tinned tomatoes (no point in buying fresh ones in winter - they're too watery) and some pasta and enjoy with freshly grated Parmesan - delicious...

You'll need.....

1 onion, chopped finely
2 carrots, chopped finely
2 sticks celery, finely sliced
1 green pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 small tin sweetcorn
2 tins chopped tomatoes
2 tablsp. tomato purée
handful of spagetti, broken in two
Salt and pepper
Chopped parsley
Freshly grated parmesan

Sauté fresh vegetables in olive oil for about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, tomato purée, corn and cover with water. Simmer gently until all is soft.
About 10 minutes before serving, add the pasta and continue cooking....you may need to add more water at this stage. Season well with salt and freshly ground pepper. Sprinkle with parsley.
Serve piping hot with fresh, crusty bread and parmesan cheese.

Les Restes!!

Les restes - quite a thing here in France...People are often invited the day after the night before (a party, that is) to eat les restes - the leftovers!! And admittedely, while I do enjoy a good soirée, the best parts for me are l'apéritif and le lendemain.....no plans de tables necessary, no fuss, just mingling, picking at food and enjoying un verre or two in a generally more relaxed ambience than the official gig!
On the recipé front, leftovers are, for me, a great challenge......I don't want to serve up a reheated version of the night before...I want to test my creativity and come up with new ways of serving the menu up.....again!!!
Over the Christmas I tried out a few ideas and would like to share them with you....

For Carina.....Oysters in a Creamy Camembert Sauce.....

A special treat from Normandy, using only the finest of our local ingredients. Quick and easy to prepare, this one is a winner and great for using up leftover oysters....


For 4 people

2 dozen oysters (ask le poissonier to shuck them for you)
1 camembert –au lait cru – from unpasteurised milk
4 soupspoons of crème fraîche
1 glass of cider/dry white wine
3 shallots
pepper
Coarse sea salt

Preheat the oven to 240°C
Remove the skin from the camembert and chop into small pieces.
Peel and finely chop the shallots and place them in a pan with the cider/wine.
Heat gently and allow to reduce before adding the cream, the camembert and some freshly milled pepper.
Pour the water off the oysters. Place a layer of sea salt on a large oven-to-tableware dish, and put the oysters on top. Spoon some camembert sauce onto each oyster and bake for 10 mins.
Serve immediately with some crusty bread and a bottle of chilled dry white or cider.

Bon appétit!