ce mercredi je bois - elderflower cordial

Our fields and paths are studded at the moment with creamy white elderflower bushes. In our gardens we consider elder as a nuisance, but out and about it is pretty and fragrant.  I once made elderflower wine, but it wasn't a total success: it fermented in the wine cellar and all the bottles exploded!

This year I shall be making elderflower cordial.  We love this diluted in water as a refreshing summer afternoon drink.  It's surprisingly easy to make.

Ingredients for elderflower syrup

100 elderflower heads  - very well washed!
5 kg sugar
8 lemons (cut in wedges or rounds)
8 limes (cut in wedges)
5 l boiling water
150 g citric acid

Place the elderflower heads, lemons and limes and sugar into a large earthenware bowl, cover with boiling water. Leave to cool, then cover loosely and let infuse for 3 days.

On the third day, remove the elderflower and citrus fruits, drain through a fine-meshed sieve or a filter. Put into a large pot, bring to a boil, then add the citric acid and simmer for 10 minutes.  Fill into hot, sterilised bottles and keep in the fridge. To sterilise bottles simply place them in a warm oven for about 10 minutes.

Delicious diluted with water

Spectacular with a sparkling white wine.

Tchin tchin !

ce mercredi je mange ... a rhubarb fool

My potager is groaning under weight of the rhubarb  at the moment. A few years back, in a moment of unbridled enthusiasm  I unreasonably planted 6 crowns of rhubarb, and ever since we have become one of Normandy's main producers !!

 Luckily we love the stuff.  In tarts, in crumbles and most delectably in a rhubarb fool. A good family dessert, which seems to teeter between traditional nursery fare and sophisticated dinner party.

 

You can use just the rhubarb for a fool, personally I like to stew a few strawberries with the rhubarb, the two fruit are wonderful together. 

So to make a delicious, spring time dessert you will need

700g / 5 cups rhubarb

250g  /  2 cups strawberries

225g sugar / 1 cup

couple of spoons of water

150g / 5 oz creme fraiche

150g  / 5 oz mascarpone

150g /  3/4 cup sugar

Cut the rhubarb into small pieces , hull the strawberries and cook gently in a pan with the water and 2 cups of sugar.  Cook until really soft, leave to cool.

In a bowl, mix the 150g sugar to the mascarpone, then beat the cream until thick.  Gently blend the two together.

Take a look at the cooled fruit.  If there is too much juice then strain some away and reserve it in a small jug.

In a glass simply layer the cream and the fruit compote, so that the pink and white stripes are clearly visible.  Sprinkle a little cinnamon on the top layer of cream and place the glasses in the fridge.  This mixture should be enough to  fill about 6 glasses.  Your diners will appreciate a couple of small almond tuile biscuits with these creamy fools!

Bon appetit!

Paris bar snack

Few edibles can be more traditionally Parisian than an "oeuf mayo", - hard boiled egg served with a dollop of mayonnaise.  So easy, so straight forward but divine when it's just right.

For ever, Paris bars have a had a little 'presentoir'of eggs, complete with the salt.  Clients take an egg, roll it on the zinc-topped bar counter and peel directly, sprinkle with a little salt and in two gulps it's gone!  In today's super-safe, ûber-worried world, health and safety experts fret about salmonella and bacteria, but I think life is too short for that!

So here is my ode to a good oeuf mayo, along with the simplest recipe for a proper home made mayonnaise, which of course is so much better than shop bought.

If you want to be parisian, then put a few eggs on to boil, and while they are cooking ...

 make your mayonnaise ... simply take the yolk of an egg, 

mix it in a bowl with a teaspoon of Dijon  mustard , some salt and pepper

 start drizzling oil into the bowl, mixing it well after each dose

(sunflower seed, vegetable oil,  whatever, best not olive oil though, the flavour will be too strong)

as you put more and more oil into the mixture it will become paler and firmer.

Keep beating all the time.  You can use a whisk for this, I just use a spoon

When your eggs are hard boiled, cool them in water and peel

serve your eggs with the mayonnaise, fresh bread and a little parsley

A Parisian snack - bon appetit!

Photo 1 thanks to le pieton de Charonne, others me

ce mercredi je mange ... une tarte aux fraises

We like to eat seasonal and regional food here.  Grapes in the fall, asparagus in May, plums in October and French strawberries as from now!

Strawberries are a wonderful dessert fruit, most delicious of course when plucked from the garden, still warm in the sunshine, but we'll have to wait a few months for those.   The first French strawberries to appear on fruit stands are large and firm and ideal for using in tarts.  

Here is my favourite recipe: an almond rich pastry, amaretto flavoured creme patissiere, fresh strawberries and a light glaze.  Serving this at dinner generally provokes a moment of silence, as guests take their first spoonful of the pastry/cream/fruit combination.

Because I don't like the creme patissiere too firm,  this is not the best behaved tart to slice and serve.  To avoid extra difficulty, I make the cream and the pastry ahead of time then assemble at the last minute.

The pastry is dead easy, just throw the following into our mixer and whizz until  it has formed a round  ball.  Leave in the fridge for a short while, roll out to fit your tart mould, then back blind  at 190 until golden brown.

6 oz or 1 1/2  cups of flour

1 oz or 1/4 cup of ground almonds

3 oz or 1/2 cup sugar

 pinch of salt

3 egg yolks

3 oz or 1/.2 cup butter

To make the creme patissiere you will heat 1 litre of milk in a pan with a split vanilla pod.  While it's heating mix in a bowl 6 egg yolks, 1/3 cup flour and 1/2 cup sugar.  Pour the hot milk over the eggs and sugar mix then pour back into the pan and stir gently until the cream starts to thicken.  Watch this carefully, it doesn't take long.   Pour back into the bowl and leave to cool.

Once this is cool I beat up some fresh cream until fairly thick and mix the cream into the creme patissiere, along with a good tablespoonful of amaretto liqueur.  Leave in the fridge until ready to assembly the tart.

You only need to make the glaze now.   Simply cook a small handful of strawberries in a pan with orange juice and sugar to taste.  When thoroughly cooked press through a sieve and mix in 1/2 teaspoon powdered gelatine.

To assemble your tart, remove the pastry case from the tart mould (this isn't obligatory but it looks so much prettier), cover the pastry base with the cream then carefully lay the strawberries all over in neat circles.  If the strawberries are enormous you may want to cut them in half.

Pour the glaze over the strawberries and smile graciously as you bring the tart to the table amidst applause from a deliriously happy crowd! 

And,  if you enjoy this recipe and one day you're feeling saintlike, you might like to make up small individual tarts and .... prepare yourself for instant stardom!

photos all found at Google images

ce mercredi je mange ... une quiche lorraine

When I told you about my improvised lunch over the weekend, several people were kind enough to ask for recipes.  So here is my recipe for quiche lorraine.  Easy to put together, child's play actually, and everyone loves it for a quick lunch or snack.

My ingredients tend to be fairly haphazard according to what is in the fridge.  However the quantities that are important for a 10" tart mould are the pastry, 5 eggs and about 2 cups of cream.  Sorry about the calories, but milk simply doesn't give the same result.

I preheat my oven to 425°F or 220°C.  Line a tart mould with home made or shop bought pastry dough.  I pre-bake the pastry using beans to keep it flat.

While the pastry is browning slightly cook about 10 slices of bacon or 200 g of bacon cubes in a pan.  In a bowl mix the cream and eggs along with some salf and peopper.

Remove the pastry case from the oven, scatter the bacon pieces, a good cup of grated cheese, then pour in the cream and egg mix.

Bake until the filling is risen and golden brown, check with a clean knife that it is cooked through.

A popular alternative in this house is when I add some cooked spinach  to the cream and eggs, and top the quiche with slices of goat cheese.  Leeks are a winner too.

Whatever the combination, little more needs to be added than a good side salad.

Bon appetit!

ce mercredi je mange ... une tarte au citron

LEMON TART - most people like it, I love it.  Preferably not too sweet, preferably without a meringue topping,  Just good pastry, and a VERY lemony filling.  For years I made my friend Martha's (not that Martha, my Martha!) great lime tart with  simple lime curd filling, no baking required,  great for parties because the curd could be made a couple of days ahead.

This winter I've been experimenting with different baked lemon tarts.  I wanted a lot of flavour and a quick easy recipe.  Here is the one I prefer, no grating of rind ( I hate that job!), no eggs to be separated, child's play!  In fact my daughter loves to make this herself.

To make the tart you will need  a pre-baked pastry case, using your favourite recipe, or using store-bought pastry (I won't tell!).  Pre heat your oven to  350°F (165´C.

For the filling:

1 good-sized lemon, rinsed and dried (I try to use organic because the rind is eaten here)
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) sugar
1 stick (4 ounces or 115 grams)  butter, cut into small  pieces
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons (14 grams) cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon table salt

 Slice the lemons into fairly thin rounds, this is just to remove any pips.  Pop all of the lemon except for the pips, into a food processor along with the butter and sugar.  Pulse and mix until all of this is really smooth and totally mixed together.  Now simply add the eggs , starch and salt and mix again.

Pour into the pastry shell and bake for about 40 minutes.  It will still move a little when you take it out, and will just begin to turn golden brown on top.  Let the tart cool then remove from the mould.  I forgot to say that I prefer to use a loose bottomed tart mould for this recipe, the tart looks so pretty on a plate.

You can eat this one warm, but I prefer cold, sprinkled with a little icing sugar.  This of course means it can be made ahead, Yay!

Bon appetit!

Recipe thanks to Smitten Kitchen

ce mercredi je mange ... une buche de Noel

The traditional French dessert for this time of year is the Buche de Noel.  Served of course at Christmas, but also at New Year's Eve dinners such as we'll be having at the end of this week.

The beauty of this dessert is that it's rich without being heavy, and - most brilliantly - can be prepared ahead of time.

Behind the fancy French name, which only means Christmas log, there hides nothing more than a  chocolate flour-free cake, rolled with a chestnut and cream filling.

The ingredients I use are

FOR THE CAKE

9 eggs separated

225g / 1.13 cups sugar

75g / 0.375 cup cocoa powder

FOR THE FILLING

350g / 1.75 cups chestnut purée

2 spoons cream

FOR THE DECORATION

10fl oz cream

50g dark chocolate

First preheat your oven to 180 C and line a baking sheet with waxed or greaseproof paper.

Separate the eggs, and beat up the yolks with the sugar, until they pale slightly.

Add the cocoa powder to the egg and sugar.  Mix well.

Beat up the egg whites until stiff, add a large spoonful of egg white to the cocoa/egg mixture This will loosen up the mixture and make it possible to fold in the rest of the egg whites gently.

Pour the mixture into the lined baking tin and bake until firm and springy.

This takes about 25 minutes.

Sprinkle another piece of waxed paper with icing sugar or cocoa powder 

and turn the slightly cooled cake out upside down.

Gently peel the paper off the back of the cake and leave to cool.

Soften the chestnut purée in a bowl, then blend in the whipped cream.  Spread ths mix over the cooled cake, then using the paper roll the cake up.  At this stage I tuck the paper firmly in all around the cake and leave it to set for a while in the fridge.  Even overnight, no harm can come.

 When you're ready to decorate, then unwrap, cut a piece off each end of the 

roll and position to resemble cut branches on a log!! 

 Gently cover with whipped cream, and draw lines of melted
chocolate to look like lines on the bark. 

Carry to the table and prepare yourself for applause and gasps of amazement, 

this one is  guaranteed to impress!!

ce mercredi je mange ... une tarte poire amandes

For my "ce mercredi je mange" post, (this Wednesday I am eating) I thought I'd share another great recipe  that I used at the brunch - pear and almond tart.  A true winner of a dessert that I  often make - using pears in the winter and peaches in the summer.

First make up, or use a ready made, rich sweet pastry.  Roll it out and bake blind at 180C until golden.  It's definitely worth while doing this step to ensure that the pastry base of the tart is crisp as opposed to soggy.

This recipe is best baked in a 30cm / 12" loose bottom tart mould, failing this do as I do here, and use two lengths of wax paper, to line the mould, left to overhang on each side.  That way when the tart is cooled, you can use these paper 'handles' to lift it out without dropping or breaking

Here I used dry beans to bake blind, but if all else fails I sometimes 

lay a couple of forks on the wax paper.

 Peel 4 or 5 good sized, just-ripe pears, cut in half lengthwise and remove the cores.

Arrange the pear halves, cut side down, neatly around the pastry case.

 Now to make the almond mix.

Pop into your mixer (trying hard not to think about calories)

250g / 8 oz  butter

250g / 8 oz ground almonds

250g / 8 oz sugar

 When it looks like breadcrumbs, add 2 large eggs.

Beat  until well mixed then spoon the , rather stdgy looking, mixture ovr the top of the pear halves.  Don't worry if it looks a mess at this stage, it will sort itself out as if by magic in the oven!

Pop into the oven at 160 C.  While this starts baking, and as an option, you can roll out any pastry left over from the case and cut into strips.  After the tart has been baking for about 15 minutes, lift it out of the oven, and lay 4, 6 or 8 strips across the tart.  Up to you how you do this.

The tart takes about an hour to cook, you can test if it's done with a knife stuck into the middle.  If it comes out clean then your tart is ready.  Best served slightly warm, but cold is good too!

Bon appetit!

If any of you want to try this, send me a photo and I'll add your picture to 

this post and link back to you.
 .................

Now look at this beautiful pear tart that Gina sent in from her lovely blog Gina Ceramics
Thank you Gina, this looks delicious