TARTIFLETTE

Comfort food at its very best especially during this freezing spell in France - Tartliflette - 'invented' in the 70's in the Alps, this recipe has certainly put Reblochon cheese on the map!

Our gîte in the snow

Potatoes, cheese, lardons, onions and white wine - not for 'operation transformation' but what a treat!

Serves 6

1 kilo potatoes

1 bay leaf

2 onion(s) sliced

60g butter

150g pancetta or chopped smokey bacon

1 *Reblochon cheese 500g halved and sliced

Coarse salt and pepper

75ml white wine (optional)

Method

1.Boil the potatoes with the bay leaf until al dente, about 15 mins.drain and set aside.  Peel and slice in to slices of 6mm.

2.            Meanwhile fry the onions and pancetta or lardons in half the butter until soft. Remove from the pan. Melt the remaining butter and add the potatoes. Cook for 5 mins then add the bacon and fry together until the bacon is cooked and the onion is caramelised in the juices. If using wine, add a splash and let it cook down into the other ingredients.

 Season well.

3.            In a buttered oven-proof dish, place the sliced potatoes and lardon mix.

4.            Place the reblochon, crust up, on top of the potatoes and lardon mix.

5.Bake in a preheated, moderately hot oven until the cheese melts and bubbles. Allow to cool slightly to avoid tongue-burning on cheese, and enjoy !

*The Reblochon can be replaced by Emmantal, Cantal, Tomme from the Pyrenees or even a goat’s cheese – a great way for using up a leftovers from a cheeseboard – just experiment in the happy knowledge that potatoes, butter, lardons and melted cheese  go sooo well together – it doesn’t get much better than this !

Boeuf à l'Indienne

I've gone a bit crazy for beef cheeks!
To be honest, I'm never buying 'bourguinonne' beef again - steak pieces, or whatever you may call them! The simple truth is that:

• No piece of beef has given me that 'melt in your mouth' satisfaction that beef cheeks have and
• I can cook them in my new toy next time I'm in the west - in my slow cooker and 
• I have about 8 kilos of them waiting for me in the butcher's freezer in Carrick on Shannon and am desperately trying to come up with recipes (my butcher got a bit carried away!)

During the Christmas break I made a traditional Beef Bourguinonne and used them cut in chunks - easy, perfect and very tasty served with mashed potatoes to mop up all that lovely sauce ;)

Today, a tad more adventurous, along with a better equipped kitchen and ingredients press, I prepared Beouf à l'Indienne whichi will be served up tomorrow night - I started this morning, left the beef simmering in the Rayburn all afternoon, have just added some creamed coconut and will leave all overnight so that the flavours will develop beautifully.

Bœuf à l’Indienne (serves 6)

1.5 kilos Ox cheeks, in chunks

1 kilo carrots, sliced

1 red onion, chopped

olive oil

2 tablespoons Tandoori paste
2 cloves

1 tablespoon flour

Bouquet Garni

salt/pepper

Water

Creamed Coconut

Heat the olive oil in a large pot and fry the meat in batches to seal the flavours.

Add the onion, flour, cloves and the Tandoori paste and cook for a minute before covering with water.

Add the carrots, the Bouquet Garni and cover with water.

Bring to boil, cover and simmer on the stove or in a moderate oven for at least 3 hours.

Add the creamed coconut and leave overnight (time permitting)

Serve with Basmati Rice, Nan bread, Poppadoms.....

Beef Cheeks 

Happy New Year 2013

We're back to Normandy and back to 'normal', whatever that means!
We had a fabulous time in the west of Ireland and enjoyed our first Christmas and New Year in our cosy, little cottage tucked away in the bogs.
The girls amused themselves for hours over the decoration of the Christmas cake and did a great job -

Philippe tried to get in with the 'neighbours' -

And Ellen did us proud with her simple but elegant Christmas table -

Menu planning was certainly a challenge, due to limited cooking facilites, but thanks to a slow cooker (Crock Pot) and some pectin 48 ( cooks the egg in the crème brulée so no oven needed!) our Christmas dinner was all about fine dining ...

We enjoyed

• Irish smoked salmon with brown bread, lemon and black pepper, washed down with Champagne
• Thai Soup - scallops and julienne of celery and carrot in a coconut milk, lemongrass and prawn stock
• Ox Cheeks with a creamy mash and roasted asparagus
• A selection of Irish Cheeses with Tomato Relish
• Vanilla and Tonka bean Crème Brulée 

The New Year was brought in in our 'local' as we bopped away to DJ Dermot followed by a singalong of 'come -all -ye' type classics.  Philippe made his début and sang 'Champs Elysées' for all in sundry!

A few days of welcomed rest followed and on our return my better half claimed that coming home to Normandy didn't have the usual 'home sweet home' effect on him.  He reckons that Doogra is becoming 'home' for him too - happy days ahead in our 'home from home'!

Bonne Année 2013!

Rainbow country - Doogra ;)

Another Christmas idea from Normandy...

Le Trou Normand - a shot of Calvados - traditionally served on a special occasion.... wedding, christening, Christmas etc., between the fish course and meat course, the idea being that the palate is cleared to make room for more!
 Trust me this 'Calva' certainly burns its way down! Not for the lighthearted and with people drinking less spirits than in the past, today it's often served with an apple sorbet - un délice!

However, should you prefer a more seasonal sorbet the nest one may be worth trying -

Cranberry sorbet ( lasts ages in the freezer – so it’s fine to make ahead of time)
Serves 8-10 as a small course
500g frozen cranberries
300g caster sugar
500ml water
Zest and juice of 1 orange
Cook all the ingredients in a saucepan until the cranberries are very soft. Blend them until smooth and then strain them. Discard the pulp and freeze the juice in a plastic container.

Our little grey home in the west!

This is where we'll be spending our Christmas - our very own little corner of God's country (!), a place called Doogra (originating from 'black garden' apparently) in the bogs in the west of Ireland.
On the food front it may be a challenge as facilities are limited but it'll be great!
My favourite butcher Ciaran has required I call him to remind him that I want 'jaws,' as he says,
for the Christmas dinner - otherwise known as 'Ox Cheeks' - a firm favourite in our house!
The recipe is based on one from Yannick of Le Petit Bourg..

Ox cheek –joues de bœuf

For 20 people :
4 kilos meat
700g onions
4 carrots
2 sticks celery
½ bulb of garlic, sliced
Thyme
2/3 bay leaves
10g pepper, ground
1 kilo tomatoes (tinned will do!)
½ pot Blackberry jelly
3/4litres decent wine (not plonk)
2 litres veal stock**
Marinate the meat for 2 days with everything except the jelly.
Separate meat form veg and strain, keeping the liquid marinate. Heat this slowly and skim anything that comes to the surface very carefully.
In a large pan heat a little olive oil and add meat to seal the flavors.  Add the veal stock and the wine.  Reheat and cover well.  Place in oven (150°C) for 4 - 6 hours or in a slow cooker.
Serve with seasonal mash......

Veal stock
2 kilos veal bones
4 litre water
½ kg veg – onions,carrot, celery, leek
12 peppercorns
Roast bones, place in stock pot, add water and boil. Skim, and simmer gently.  Add washed vegetables, bouquet garni and peppercorns. Simmer for 6 – 8 hours uncovered. Skim and strain.

Freezes beautifully!

Christmas Morning in Doogra - note the blue skies !!

Drinks for the festive season!

It's that time of year again when we start to think about entertaining and what better way to make one's loved ones feel welcome than wiht a homemade beverage?
Here are some ideas to impress your guests...


Apéritif Maison (Le Petit Bourg)

1 litre/4 cups red wine – Merlot is perfect
12cl/1/4 cup Calvados (apple brandy though any brandy would do I'd imagine)
150g/6 ozs. sugar
2 tablsp. Chicory
1 vanilla pod
1 cinnamon stick
Juice of 3 oranges


Mix all together and leave for a couple of days. Strain into holy water bottle.....
and enjoy!


Cocktail for 30 people….

2 bottles gin
1 bottle vodka
1 bottle crème de cassis
7 litres orange juice

Mix all together and serve chilled with little bits of fruit (optional)

Mulled Wine


1 Bottle of Bordeaux red wine
½ bottle Port
Same quantity of water
Freshly ground nutmeg
Cinnamon stick
Sugar

Heat up all together and add sugar to taste

Kir Royale
Put a drop of Crème de Cassis in the bottom of a champagne glass and top up with sparkling white wine/cider/perry



Quarante quatre: (forty four)
Bit late for this one - mine has been waiting for dégustation since August, but here goes...
Simplicity at it’s best and a great ‘digestif’.  Impress your neighbours and/or friends by offering them an after-dinner Calvados homemade liquor.

Alternatively, you may like to serve a little 44 with white wine as an apéritif!

You will need:
1 litre of  Calvados
1 orange
44 sugar lumps
44 cloves or
44 coffee grains

and 44 days of patience!

Pour the Calvados into a large Kilner jar with  44 sugar lumps and 44 coffee grains or ...... if you’ve opted for cloves....
Stick the 44 cloves into an orange and add to jar.
Wait at least 44 days before tasting.
( Quarante quatre will, however, keep for centuries in the Kilner jar)

Beef on the bone for the Wildes of Turloughmore !

Definitely one our favourites when in the west of Ireland. Ciaran, our butcher, (who swears that we knew eachother in a previous life!)has the best beef I've ever tasted and has these steaks off to a fine art. Usually in Ireland this is the traditional Sunday roast - boned, rolled and tied and roasted (usually for ages! )
So ask you butcher not to bother boning and rolling -  a great alternative Christmas dinner.
 (Also called Châteaubriand)

So good that Ciaran, my brother, when tasting these babies said ' Oh man, if you told me this was human I'd still have to eat it Sinéad'....wow, what a compliment!

You'll need:

•  1 ribeye steak - fairly thick - one does 4 French people - 3 Irish!! **
•  Coarse unrefined sea salt. Place some salt all over the meat and leave (out of fridge) for   about an hour before cooking over very hot coals - rhis ensures that the meat cooks evenly throughout.

** 2 Australien as one guest pointed out :)

• 10 mins.each side for medium rare, 
• 15 for medium and so on

Leave to 'rest' wrapped in foil for at least 10 mins. before removing bone and slicing.
Serve with Garlic butter and Gratin Dauphinois (garlic potatoes) aswell as a few greens.
Our girls love Yorkshire Puddings with this too.

  Garlic butter (beurre d’escargot)

•  2 large cloves garlic, crushed
•  100g/4 ozs. unsalted butter, at room temp. 
• 25g/ 1 oz. chopped parsley
•  Black pepper
•  A little lemon juice 

 Crush the garlic cloves on a board under the blade of a large kitchen knife. Add a pinch of salt and work into a smooth paste. Scrape the paste into a bowl and add the butter, lemon juice, parsley and black pepper. Mix together well and then spoon onto a sheet of cling film and shape into a log about 3cm thick. Wrap in more cling film and chill or freeze until needed.

  GRATIN DAUPHINOIS

•  1 kg/2 ½ lbs potatoes (150-200g/5 – 7 ozs. per person approx.)
•  3 cloves of garlic, crushed 300ml/1
•  ¼ cups double cream/crème fraîche
•  300ml/1 ¼ cups milk s/p nutmeg (optional) 

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F Gas 2 Butter a large gratin dish. Peel and finely slice the potatoes. Rinse in cold water to wash off the starch. Dry with kitchen paper. Arrange the potatoes in the gratin dish with the garlic, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix the cream and milk together and pour over the potatoes. Bake in the oven for a little over an hour.