La Recette du Jour

Taste & Create time, and I seem to be firmly stuck in the risotto groove. My partner this month is Cuisine Heart, and after browsing her blog I found several recipes to interest me. After the fabulous pear and gorgonzola risotto, I was tempted by her caramelized apple, onion and cheese risotto. Also I was running out of time, and it was easy and quick to do, using ingredients from the storecupboard. It’s basically a standard risotto method, except that you caramelize the apples and onions instead of just gently softening them in the oil, and use dry cider instead of white wine.

Verdict: OK, it is not up to pear and gorgonzola standards, but it was delicious and unusual. The only cheese I had was a stub of Comté and lots of parmesan, so I made do with those and didn’t add cream at the end. I loved the tart fruitiness of the cider and apple. We ate it on its own, but it would be nice as an accompaniment to roast pork. The photo is just further proof of how unphotogenic risotto is.

Thank you, Rossella of Ma che ti sei mangiato! I cooked Rossella’s leek risotto for Taste & Create, and she told me about this recipe. She said it was divine, and it is. Creamy, rich, with the perfect combination of pears and gorgonzola, and walnuts to add crunch. One of the best risotti I’ve ever had. Vegetarian too! No photo, because I already know risotto isn’t photogenic.

Even if you’ve never cooked risotto in your life, you owe it to yourself to try this. Don’t be scared — risotto is really easy. But you must use proper Italian risotto rice, otherwise it will be a travesty.

Recipe for Pear and gorgonzola risotto »

Ratatouille makes it a real pleasure to be vegetarian. Don’t get me wrong; far too often, “ratatouille” is a mushy, tomatoey mess swimming in red, slightly sour juices. Sometimes it even has carrots in it. That is not the dish I’m talking about. The real thing is a lot more work, but well worth the effort –especially as it’s even better when left overnight. It’s equally good hot or at room temperature, as a main course or as an accompaniment to grilled or roast lamb for confirmed carnivores.

I learned to do it decades ago from that holy bible of French cuisine, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Beck, Bertholle, and Child. Even Julia and her friends, who are no strangers to hard work, admit it’s a lot of effort. But my very first attempt at their recipe proved how worthwhile the extra work was and now I never do it any other way. As with moussaka and lasagne, I do generally make more than we intend to eat, and either eat the leftovers the following day, or freeze them.

Recipe for Ratatouille »

I have become a dedicated follower of Fi’s blog, which is about all sorts of domestic matters other than food, including keeping chickens, gardening, and domestic life in general. She is also very adventurous on the self-sufficiency front, making her own bacon and salami. She’s posted about frittata a couple of times, so when I was short of ingredients and time I turned to her.

This frittata recipe is now officially a default dinner. I made it with what I had: lardons, cantal cheese, diced artichoke hearts, and a sprinkling of basil, with a couple of new potatoes steamed, sliced, and laid on top. Steve thinks Spanish omelette is the work of the devil, and even he liked it!

Taste & Create IX already! I was lucky again, and was partnered with another person who likes pasta and vegetarian dishes: Ginny of Just Get Floury. Once again I could see several recipes that intrigued me. I started with Ginny’s mum’s recipe for Ceci ‘n Chard and I’m sorry to say I was a bit disappointed: cheap and very healthy, but it just didn’t taste very interesting even after I threw some sliced sausage and chilli flakes into it to liven it up a bit.

Never mind! I did a lot better with my next choice: goat’s cheese, caramelised onion and artichoke quiche. It was simple to make, and delicious. I didn’t have any marinated artichokes, so I used a can of artichoke hearts, diced, and added a sprinkling of fresh basil simply because I had some. I used a fresh goat’s cheese from a local farm. I cooked it at quite a low temperature (170C) for about 40 minutes, because I like my quiche to have a silky smooth texture. As Ginny says, this recipe could be adapted in all sorts of ways, depending on what you have in the fridge: I think it would be nice with spinach or tomatoes instead of the artichokes — or even the stalks left over from my chard experiment!

As for the balsamic caramelised onions … I’ll make more next time, because they are the sort of leftovers I like to have!

Another recipe from Rossella’s Ma che ti sei mangiato. I didn’t have any courgettes unfortunately, and I think it would have been better with. Next time I will roast and peel the pepper first for a more intense flavour. Quick to make, and vegetarian.

Recipe for Tagliatelle al buffone »

Taste & Create has come round again already, and I haven’t even posted anything since last time! This time it’s a different kind of challenge: Nicole emailed me to say my partner’s blog is entirely in Italian! I should have guessed from the title … Ma che ti sei mangiato.

Still, since I know French, Latin, and a smidgin of Spanish, and I’ve been to Italy a couple of times, how difficult could it be? I love Italian food, so I have a pretty good vocabulary of food items, and I can usually understand the gist of what Italians are saying to me once I’m fortified with a couple of glasses of wine. So I set forth to explore.

Honestly, with the aid of the photos there were loads of recipes that appealed to me enough to make the effort to understand them (a little Babelfish was required here and there). But I decided to start with a really simple one for which I fortuitously had all the ingredients: leek risotto. It was simplicity itself to make, and I liked the result, even if Steve wasn’t so keen (he thought it was too sweet, but I think I reduced the wine a bit too much). Sorry about the photos, risotto just isn’t photogenic, but it tasted good! Look for at least a couple more recipes from Rosella soon, and thank you Nicole for the introduction!

Recipe for Leek Risotto »

Sea bass, called bar in most of France, is called loup de mer on the Mediterranean, apparently because of its aggressive behaviour. It’s a delicious fish, with glossy silver scales and firm white flesh, but expensive enough to be an occasional treat. Yesterday our fishmonger had small ones at 16 euros a kilo, but they were beautifully fresh, and not farmed, a rare thing among fish these days. So I bought two, and with a big bag of moules de bouchot for mouclade, my purchases came to just over 17 euros.

Usually I cook bass the Catalan way, simply with tomatoes and lemon,or else grill it on the barbecue with fennel if it’s summer, so I’d just asked the fishmonger to gut them and leave the scales on. However I felt like a change, and Steve kindly agreed to fillet them. This is a very simple, healthy recipe and it was excellent, served with some sliced potatoes left over from a baked dorade earlier in the week.

Recipe for Loup de mer en papillotte »

So this seems like something so basic you don’t need a recipe, but it’s surprisingly easy to get wrong, as I know from experience. The key is not to overdo the potato, or you will end up with something stodgy and dull. Stick to equal weights of fish and potato; the rest is a matter of taste..

Recipe for Fishcakes »

I came across this recipe on a Swedish blog while googling Jansson’s Temptation. It immediately caught my attention because one of my favourite breakfast fry-ups used to be diced bacon, apple and onions, with a fried or poached egg on the side. I haven’t made that for ages, and here was the same tasty combination as a quick and filling supper dish. I had to try it and the results were excellent. A new default dinner!

I have tweaked the proportions a bit from the original because I found it a bit floury (though cooking it for a bit longer might have solved that problem). Though Swedish, it’s recognisable as a savoury clafouti.

This makes four very generous servings; we had it with smoked chilli jelly on the side, which was delicious. A salad or simply steamed green vegetable would be good too.

Recipe for Swedish oven pancake »