Tag Archives: french

French onion soup

05 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by in Soup and stews

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I bought a whole bag of onions for £1 at my local shop and so thought I’d make some onion soup. It’s super simple, the hardest bit is trying not to cry when cutting all those onions.

What you will need:

6 onions (sliced)
3 garlic cloves (crushed)
1 litre of home-made stock (any kind) or stock cube / or make sure it covers all the onions and then a bit more
A glass of red or white wine (optional)
Tablespoon of butter
Slices of toasted baguette
Grated emmenthal or cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper

There are different stages to this soup and those are the key. I have a pressure cooker, it’s found in most French kitchen’s and is a great way to fast cook soups, stews and you can also steam vegetables. If you don’t have a pressure cooker you can use a casserole.

On a medium heat, in the pot add the butter, once hot add to it all the onions and garlic. You need the onions to soften and golden, this will give a lot of the flavour to your soup. Then you can add your stock, wine and salt and pepper. Reduce the heat and leave for 20 minutes if in a pressure cooker or 45 minutes in a casserole.

Whilst you soup is simmering turn your oven on to 180C. Then toast your baguette slices. Once your soup is cooked add at least half your soup in an oven dish, place the toast to cover the entire dish and sprinkle cheese on top (put as much or as little as you wish, I put loads). Place in the oven for 20 minutes. You can put all your soup in the oven dish but as the bread soaks up so much of the liquid I like keeping the other half to add later. So a few minutes before taking the dish out of the oven reheat the remaining of the soup that’s in the pot.

Remove oven dish and serve in a bowl, add to it some of the soup from the pot.

It’s perfect on a cold winter day.

Mel

French Cuban Chicken

10 Wednesday Aug 2011

Posted by in Chicken

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My colleague Sarah is married to a Cuban man and has become a pro at Cuban cooking. I am always eyeing up her food and sometimes even get a donation towards my lunch club with Claire.

This chicken dish is my take on Sarah’s fried chicken except I cook it in the oven.

What you will need:

4 – 5 chicken thighs
2 tablespoons of cumin powder
1 tablespoon of paprika Chilli flakes (to taste)
1 lime’s juice
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Cooking time:
45 minutes

In a sandwich bag (or bowl) add your chicken, thinly sliced onions and the ingredients (except the oil). This is a bit messy but get your hand in the bag and make sure all the ingredients are mixed together. Close up your sandwich bag (better to place the bag in a bowl) and leave it in the fridge for 20mins – though the longer the better. Preheat your oven to 200C.

Empty all the contents of the bag in an oven dish and pour a little oil over the chicken making sure the onions are covered in oil (you really don’t need to use much). Put the chicken in the oven and after 15mins check that the onions aren’t burning. If they are starting to, stir them a little and leave to cook for a further 15mins.

I had a big salad with the chicken, but there was some left so I brought it to work for my lunch club. Claire had some left-over pasta and they went perfectly together.

For Sarah’s chicken, she lets it marinate for 24 hours (I think) and fries the thighs in oil. Either way is yummy.

Mel

French Tomato Tart

15 Wednesday Jun 2011

Posted by in Tarts, Vegetables

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Tomato tart

I love making tomato tart because for me it means it’s the summer as I always make it when tomatoes are at their most delicious. This is one of my friend’s recipes from France. She lives in the countryside and grows the most scrumptious tomatoes. It’s easy to make and is fresh and healthy.

What you will need:

A tart tin
3 or 4 tomatoes
Herbs (your choice I used thyme)
Dijon mustard
Cheddar or emmental cheese

For the pastry:

200g flour
100g butter (it’s easier if it a bit soft)
50ml of water

Pre-heat your oven to 180C.
You can buy ready made short crust but it is very easy to make. Put your flour and butter in a bowl and with your fingers rub them together. Once the two ingredients have been completely combined add the water and mix until it forms a ball.

Sprinkle a bit of flour on a clean work surface and roll out the pastry with a rolling pin until it will fit your tin. Lay it in the tin and poke it with a fork.

Cover the pastry base with Dijon mustard and then lay your sliced tomatoes on top. Sprinkle with herbs, salt and pepper and then cover with grated cheese. I love cheese so I put quite a lot, you can put as much or as little as you want. Put the tart in the oven for 30 minutes.

It’s nice to have with a green salad and a nice glass of wine.

I’ve got some tomato plants growing on my windowsill, so let’s hope the sun comes out again and I can eat my own yummy home grown tomatoes.

Mel

Here Comes the Sun

10 Sunday Apr 2011

Posted by in Simple meals, The Lunch Club

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I have to confess that this week I haven’t done a lot of cooking. I have hardly been home let alone near my kitchen. I did however have lovely lunches, one of which was shared with at least 5 of my colleagues. It was a perfect lunch club lunch where we all got to sit down and share our food.

 It started off with my return from France and a suitcase full of smelly cheese, cornichons, saucissons, wine, mustard, paté and quite a few other yummy things. I brought so much cheese back that I halved it all and brought it into work along with some saucissons, paté and cornichons. I invited everyone from my team to join me for lunch and enjoy the French goodies, on one condition, that everyone was to bring something along. We ended up with a fantastic feast.

With the sun coming out and the weather being so beautiful I think it’s the perfect way to spend your lunch break. You don’t have to bring back cheese from France, all you need do is bring in a couple of things and share. Why not get a blanket and go find a park to sit in and I promise it’ll help your working day go by (you might even get to start working on that tan!).

 Mel

 PS:
Cornichons (French gherkins that I’ve never been able to find anywhere else but France)

Morel Omelette

05 Tuesday Apr 2011

Posted by in Salads, Simple meals

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Morel mushrooms

Three days in the French countryside and I come back with at least 4 blog’s worth of material!

So I think I’ll start from the very beginning and that would be my father’s excitement at finding about 10 morels (crazy looking mushrooms) under one of his trees. It is the season for this kind of mushroom in France at the moment. Ok, they aren’t truffles but they are still quite a sort after kind. ‘Mushroom pickers’ go off to their secret spots in search of them and in no circumstance do they share their locations. Well that’s how it is in my village.

Mushrooms are a fantastic ingredient to adding flavour to the simplest of things, from sauces to omelettes. My parent’s neighbours have chickens and so we went and bought 12 eggs to make an omelette, to which we added the mushrooms. Now these eggs are nothing like supermarket eggs! The yolk is bright orange and so full of flavour; you really see the difference between a chicken running about the countryside and one that’s cooped up in a cage.

How to make an omelette

When making an omelette I’d say you need about 2/3 eggs per person, butter and anything you fancy adding to it. You also need a very good, non-stick pan. If it’s not non-stick your omelette will end up looking like scrambled eggs.

 So, in a bowl crack your eggs and whisk (do not add any milk). Butter your pan, put on heat and add your ingredients (in this case mushrooms),once they are cooked add your eggs.

 Now, there are two cooking techniques that I know of for the perfect omelette; the French way and the Spanish way. Your omelettes will look quite different depending on which technique you use but they will both give you a perfect omelette.

The French way: Once the side of the omelette on the pan starts to cook fold the omelette in half (so it becomes a half circle) and let it continue to cook for a while. The heat of the folded omelette will cook the inside.

The Spanish way: Once the side of the omelette on the pan is cooked take a plate, put it onto the pan and tip the pan so that the omelette is on the plate. Then slide the omelette from the plate back onto the pan so that the uncooked side is face down.

Serve with a side salad, and there you have it, a healthy and cheap meal.

Caution
Please do not go picking any mushrooms unless you are absolutely sure that they are edible.

Mel