La Recette du Jour

A couple of weeks ago, Joanna nominated me for a Tree of Happiness award. You simply have to list six things that make you happy. So here goes; I’ve tried to make at least one of them food-related!

1. Lazing in bed on a Sunday morning with a purring cat curled up against my shoulder, knowing I don’t need to get up for work.
2. Swimming in a tropical lagoon surrounded by multi-coloured fishes, or just sitting on the beach watching and listening to the waves.
3. Snuggling up by the log fire on a winter night with a glass of red wine and a new book to read.
4. The fact that we took a risk, sold our house, gave up our jobs, and moved to the south of France to start a business — and it worked! Eleven years on, I still sometimes pinch myself to see if it’s true. I would have spent my life regretting it if we hadn’t done it.
5. The moment when you sit down at the table in a special restaurant, feeling hungry, and open the menu.
6. Singing Bach, Handel, Mozart, or Cyrillus Kreek.

I’ve wimped out on choosing the other six bloggers to pass the award on to; I’m picking six recent commenters on my blog, plucked out at random. Don’t feel obliged to do this if you don’t want to, and thanks to Joanna for thinking of me.

Bellini Valli of More Than Burnt Toast
Sally of Blogging for London
Betty (again!) of La France Profonde, And So Forth, and Cuisine Quotidienne
Ivy (again!) of Little Ivy Cakes
Sarah of Quelques gouttes de nous
Talented artist Steffi of Miss Matzenbatzen

I’ve been hoping for several months that I would be paired with Bellini Valli of More Than Burnt Toast for Taste & Create, and it finally happened! I was delighted, and looked forward to spending some time browsing her site. Unfortunately work and other stuff got in the way; and by last week I had a list of “only” a dozen or so recipes I wanted to try, and no time to try them.

Finally yesterday I had some free time,so I looked for something quick to do (in passing, I discovered that oddly enough Val — or at least her friend Lillian — was the originator of the crater banana bread I cooked for the last round of T&C). I hovered over the apple pancake, the apricot and ginger scones, the lamb sliders and half a dozen others … but finally, the pear upside-down cake looked irresistible for a chilly autumn day.

I used some of our local herb-flavoured garrigue honey, and Louise Bonne pears. Fresh thyme is hard to come by at this time of year, even here, so I sprinkled on some dried. Apart from that and my usual conversions, I followed the recipe exactly. It got the thumbs up from both of us, served still warm with a dollop of crème fraîche. OK, maybe it doesn’t quite reach the gingery, caramelised heights of my Best Dessert Ever, Springfield Pear Cake — the combination of pears and ginger can’t be beat in my opinion — but it is pretty darned close. The caramelised honey gave it a delicious spicy flavour, and the sponge was feather-light. I will definitely be making this again … and again … and again.

Thanks Val for an enjoyable browse and a delicious dessert — I’ve tucked several other recipes away for later!
Recipe for Honey and pear upside-down cake »

This is a nice variation on the traditional fish pie with a mashed potato top and cheesy sauce, based on an idea from WorldWide Recipes that includes shrimps and scallops. With all due respect to the Chef, I think putting scallops in a fish pie is a bit of a waste of scallops, so I would always recommend using whatever mixture of not-too-expensive fish you fancy. My absolute favourite version is with real Finnan haddock, but sadly that is completely unobtainable here; the nearest you can get is that ghastly bright yellow stuff that stains everything it touches. On this occasion, we used some fillets of firm white fish and a smallish piece of salmon. Feel free to put shrimps or prawns in too, if you fancy them.
Recipe for Fish pie »

Around here we don’t have to wait till November for our vin nouveau, like those upstarts in Beaujolais; it’s ready by the third week in October. You don’t have to use new wine for this recipe; any dry white wine you fancy will do. Or dry cider, if wine is too expensive! Try to get some good honey though, not the tasteless supermarket sort. I used herb-scented garrigue honey from a nearby village. It’s easy and quick to make, and is a good alternative to our other standby casserole of pork blanquette paprika. Serve it with a potato gratin, or if that’s too much bother, Ebly or pasta.

Pork and prunes are a classic combination, but most recipes use relatively expensive tenderloin, while for this one a cheaper cut such as shoulder is fine. I haven’t included a photo because I just couldn’t make it look attractive! But the sauce is a lovely rich caramel colour, and it’s delicious — I would certainly serve it to guests. This recipe would probably work really well in a slow cooker too.
Recipe for Pork with prunes and vin primeur »