La Recette du Jour

Américaine, armoricaine, who cares when the sauce is this good? I wouldn’t smother lobster in this, but I find monkfish on its own a bit dull. This sauce is anything but dull; I don’t think the cream is conventional, but it smooths out the acidity of the tomatoes and gives an extra unctuousness. Steve adapted the first recipe he found when he went to marmiton.org and typed in “lotte”. And it was quick to make; we got home from work after seven, and it was on the table by eight. This sauce would work well with other firm fish/seafood; I can imagine it with squid, for example. Monkfish is on the expensive side, but you do sometimes get tails relatively cheap.
Recipe for Lotte à l’Américaine »

A la forestière in French cuisine invariably means the dish contains mushrooms, because in autumn every self-respecting peasant is out there scouring the woods for fungi while hoping to avoid trigger-happy hunters. All we’ve scored so far are a few piboules from the poplar tree in our garden, but luckily dried ceps are always on hand to add a secret kick to savoury dishes.

This Jane Grigson recipe (from her Vegetable Book) worked wonders with the woody organic carrots in our veggie box. She serves them in hollowed-out bread rolls brushed with butter and crisped in the oven; I just served them on toasted muffins. They make a good vegetarian starter or light lunch/supper, but would also be an excellent accompanying vegetable for a roast, with or without the bread.

You could just use common-or-garden cultivated mushrooms, but fresh or dried ceps (porcini) will take it into another league.
Recipe for Carottes forestière »

I adapted this from a recipe by Jeremy Lee of the Blueprint Café. It’s rather like pommes Anna, only made with duck fat instead of butter. OK, neither of them is very good for you, but it’s not something you’re going to eat every day! Serve with a simple roast; we had it with the pot-roasted pork I posted a couple of days ago. It is crispy on the outside and melting in the middle — lovely!

Really it should be turned out, but a galette made with enough potatoes for 9 people was so large and so dense I just served it straight from the dish, using a slotted spoon so it wasn’t swimming in fat. If yours is smaller, do turn it out.
Recipe for Potato galette »

This is a recipe from an ancient Sainsbury’s magazine. La Vallée d’Auge is in Normandy, and this name invariably means a dish (usually chicken) that’s cooked with apples, cream, and probably cider and/or Calvados. We don’t eat much pork, but for this occasion (9 people for dinner) we treated ourselves to a fabulous 2 kg pork roast from the local charcutier. It’s quite a lot of work, but the results are worth it. There wasn’t a scrap of it left over.

We served it with a potato galette cooked with duck fat, and followed it with Val’s gorgeous pear upside-down cake, so all in all it was an artery-clogging extravaganza.
Recipe for Pot-roasted Pork Vallée d’Auge »

This is a gloriously unfashionable and unhealthy dessert, which makes any meal seem like a special occasion. Like Beef Stroganoff, I hadn’t made this for absolutely ages, but a 36-hour powercut was a great opportunity to think of a dessert that doesn’t require the oven and uses ingredients that are to hand. Of course it doesn’t do to make it too often, but once in a while it makes a lovely treat.

It is not at all complicated to do, especially as you can prepare the pancakes and butter in advance — the day before if you want. You really should entertain your guests by flambéing it at the table.
Recipe for Crêpes Suzette »

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 »

Tatins seem to be everywhere these days; first Bellini Valli of More Than Burnt Toast, then Loulou, then Ivy came up with their own versions. I saw Ivy’s post just as I had got home with a big bag of apples to make one myself. At a stroke, I tried Ivy’s idea of making small individual ones, using some perfectly-sized shallow gratin dishes. A great idea for anyone nervous about flipping the tatin; it’s much easier with small ones! I think I’ll be making these a lot now, although there is something impressive about a single large tarte tatin fresh from the oven, glistening with caramel and just waiting to be shared with friends.

Finally, if you are really, really nervous about making tatins, try this unconventional method from Zen Can Cook — the results look stunning, and that’s exactly the colour you should be aiming for — though personally I would not use puff pastry.

Once upon a time, tarte tatin meant apples, but now it’s come to cover a much broader spectrum, from sweet to savoury. Some of them are a travesty of what tatin is about in my opinion; it should be simple, not tricked-up with loads of extra ingredients, and the essential point is that whatever you use should caramelise to a rich golden brown; if it doesn’t, what’s the point? Things that produce too much juice or go soggy/disintegrate will not work. Whatever you choose, you must be brave and caramelise it to within an inch of its life; it must be deep golden-brown before you put the pastry on, otherwise your finished tart will be pale and disappointing. So that said, here are a few ideas:

• To a classic apple tatin, add some thin slices of quince for a wonderful added aroma, or mix pears and apples. I always add some grated lemon zest and a squeeze of juice to mine.
• Try a pineapple tatin; it works really well, and is a good use for a fresh pineapple that isn’t as flavourful as you had hoped. Peaches and apricots are good summer candidates too.
• On the savoury front, tomato tatin is obvious and excellent; either one large one as a main course with salad, or small individual ones served as starters.
• Shallots make a fabulous tatin: caramelise whole peeled shallots slowly in butter or olive oil with a sprinkling of sugar, and add some balsamic vinegar at the end. For the ultimate taste and texture sensation, make individual ones, turn out, and top each with a slice of pan-fried foie gras. This is sinfully good!

Strictly speaking, rillettes are a kind of pâté made of pork cooked in its own fat and then finely shredded (very nice, despite the description!). This version is a kind of tuna pâté, simple to make and delicious on toast. You need to use good-quality tuna, preferably “au naturel” rather than in oil — though you can use the latter if you drain it well. Make it at least an hour before you want to eat it; it will keep for several days in the fridge.
Recipe for Rillettes de thon »

I unexpectedly came across some fresh apricots at the greengrocer’s the other day, and even though I have a ton in the freezer and more in jars, I couldn’t resist buying some. We’ve eaten so much apricot clafoutis recently that even though it’s delicious and easy, I decided to make a bit more effort this time. It’s not pastry-making weather, but a root around in the freezer produced a slab of pâte sucrée (sweet pastry), so away I went.

This tart is quite a lot of work if you have to make the pastry too, but the results are excellent, and it’s ideal for a summer party. Serve warm or at room temperature, with crème fraîche or ice cream.
Recipe for Apricot frangipane tart »

It’s apricot time again, the season for another crate of apricots from Julien’s orchard, now officially organic. His first crop was ruined by hail, so mine are from the second, large deep gold fruits with a rosy tinge. I confess I still have lots of jam left from last year, and even a jar of apricots in vodka, so I only took 5 kg this time. Some of them were halved, stoned, and went straight into the freezer between layers of greaseproof paper. Some made yet more jam, and others were simply eaten. That left me with about a dozen, and looking for recipes I happened across Loulou’s clafoutis. I already have several clafoutis recipes, but Loulou’s looked so tempting I just had to try it.

On closer inspection I was a bit worried by the oven temperature of 220C — I thought the eggs would curdle. So I did it at 200, but actually there is enough flour in it to prevent curdling, so I will do it at a higher temperature next time. This time, I just cooked it for longer.

We usually eat clafoutis warm or cold, but Loulou recommends letting it cool completely, and she’s right; it was good warm, but the leftovers were even better straight from the fridge this evening.

Like Loulou, I urge you to cook clafoutis; it’s so easy, and works with nearly any fruit, so you can do it all the year round, even with prunes in winter! Vary the flavourings according to the fruit — for example cinnamon with apples, or almonds with pears.

Recipe for Apricot clafoutis »