POULET BASQUAISE (easy version)

The poulet basquaise is a chicken stew dish from the south of France. Normally you would do it with chicken maryland, but you often find only drumstick at your local supermarket.


For 2 persons, I buy
4 good quality chicken drumsticks like free range.
6 tomatoes
1 red and 1 green capsicum
1 onion
paprika
the usual suspects : salt peper, olive oil, rosemary




Stir fry the chicken with plenty of paprika in olive oil until it is nicely brown. Remove from the pan,  add oil and stir fry the onions, capsicums first, then tomatoes. Put back the chicken.

 

 

Add water to avoid burning, then let to cook on low heat until the meat starts to fall off the bones. Dont be afraid to cook it for a long time.

I usually serve with a side or rice and bread to soak the delicious sauce in the end.

Once cooked, it can keep for few days, so dont hesitate to make plenty !!

 

APRICOT TART

This is a very delicious and easy to make tart from France. Ideal in summer or to please your in-laws :). Prepare it in advance and store in the fridge to make it refreshing. Perfect for a brunch or afternoon tea.

For a tart:
A sheet of frozen puff pastry.
Enough apricot to cover the tart, so 500g or more or less 8 apricots depending on the size.
2 eggs
3 spoon of cream
almond powder (depending on your taste)
sugar : 100g to be adapted depending the apricots are sweet or not.







Cut the apricots into 2.  Once the frozen sheet of puff pastry is ready, display them to cover the sheet.

Mix the cream, eggs and almond powder and pur on the tart.




Pre-heat the oven at 180, then bake for 35 minutes.

That will smell really good in your kitchen !! :)





 

LAPIN A LA PROVENCALE (easy version)



If you want an alternative to the usual beef/chicken/pork and have a butcher that provides it (you can find adress on the internet usually), rabbit is an excelent meat. As they eat only grass it is particularly healthy and lean.

For 4 persons,

2 rabbbits
6 tomatoes
1 large onion
glass of dry white wine (not too bad quality)
smoked bacon cut in big dice 
herbs : rosemary, thyme, bay leave in quantity










The rabbit you can get from the butcher, may not be cut, in that case, that tutorial will help you.

http://www.marmiton.org/pratique/techniques-culinaires-video-cuisine_decoupe-du-lapin.aspx

Before starting, marinate the cut pieces of rabbit in the thyme, rosemary, salt and olive oil. That will make the whole difference.

When the rabbit is well marinated, stir fry together rabbit and bacon. When the meat is totally white, add the wine and let cook few more minutes

Remove the rabbit, and add fresh oil to the pan and stir fry the onions then add the tomatoes and the rest of herbs. Then the rabbits.
Nothing more to do. Add some water to keep the sauce and cook at medium heat for 50 minutes or so.

I served with a side of mash.

If you are only 4, but no guests, 1 rabbit is enough. French etiquette :  if you have guests, keep in mind you want to serve them the legs which are the best parts (keep shoulders and middle part for yourself unless they specifically ask for it.


 

DIY French Baguette

I must say when you have a good bakery not too far from you, why bother to make bread. But what if you don’t ?

You can get delivered french bread flour  from that website, so I decided to give it a go
http://www.basicingredients.com.au/catalog/index.php?cPath=103_180

So you will need

500g of flour

300ml warm water

35g yeast  salt       

In a big bowl add the yeast at the center of the flour. Start slowly incorporating the water to the flour until you have a nice bowl. If you feel it is not right like too sticky add flour. Or on the contrary add water. Also mixing is very important to incorporate all ingredients so mix well.

 

 

  

Let to rest for 30 minutes under a tea towel. You will see it expand quite a lot.

Spread some flour on a board and make a square with the paste. Fold then roll in a baguette shape or other shape. You can do it several time for even better result.

 

Let to rest for 40 minutes in that shape. It will expand again, so don’t keep the bread too close to each other

 

 

Pre-heat your oven at 250 and then cooked for 30 minutes at 200 or when the crust looks really nice.

MIAM!

IRISH STEW

It’s not because you are not irish, that you can’t celebrate Saint Patrick with a good irish stew !!  Here is my version:

For around 6 persons

• A kilo of lamb shoulder

• 8 medium size potatoes

• 2 carrots

• 6 tomatoes

• 2 branch of celery 
• the usual suspects : rosemary, bay leave, peper, salt etc  

If not done, cut the lamb in dice, and marinate in olive oil with rosemary and basil.

In the meantime, peel and cut all the vegies. I like the fact it looks really colourful.

In a frying pan, brown the meat with garlic. I like to add a bit of cumin for the taste, even if it is not very irish. At this stage, it usually smells really good :)  

Reserve the meat and stir fry some onions. Add the veggies, stir fry, and add all the meat.

Cook for at least an hour. Personally, I cut the potatoes in not too big chunk, so it kind of melts in the sauce, but you can add full potatoes at the end for a more irish experience.

Dont forget to add bread and butter on the table

It was a big success yesterday ! Enjoy with a traditional cider or dark beer like Guiness and an irish coffee at the end :)

 

 

 

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK !!

Veal scaloppini with greens beans in tomato sauce.

(South of France)

I love Veal. Veal is versatile and does not only go with creamy mushroom sauce. Here is a good way to accommodate veal in a lighter and more colourful way.  

·         Here is my list of ingredients for 2.

2 scaloppini of veal from your favourite supermarket, few tomatoes and green beans, rosemary and basil if you have. For side, I used toasted bread with a drizzle of Olive oil.

 

 Separately boil the green beans until you like the consistence (not everyone has the same taste), and prepare the tomato mix from the cut tomatoes and herbs

 

 

 

 

Start cooking the tomatoes, and when cooked add the green beans.

Cook the veal in a frying pan. It should be quite quick. Don’t overcook it, it can stay slightly pink in the middle.

Serve with the side of Bread!

Orange cake

I am a really big fan of banana bread! But I was looking for an alternative to it for the morning. When doing  a crepe party, a guest brought me a lot of oranges to do orange juice and there was many oranges left. It reminded me of this orange cake recipie which looks like a bit like banana bread in texture, but with an orange taste.

For one normal size cake:

2 oranges, 3 eggs, 300g self raising flour, 150g sugar, 25g of almond powder (optional), 50g butter and a spoon of cream.

I prepared the flour, sugar, and almond powder separately and incorporated a bit of orange zest. The 2 oranges are peeled and ready for the processor

 

 

Process the orange to the point it is quite smooth, but pulp remains. Remove the seeds though! ;) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finish to mix everything. It will look like this.

 

 

 

 

 

Bake for 35 minutes and enjoy!

 

 Note: if you cook it for young kids, you can skip the orange zest which is a bit bitter.

Moroccan style taboule (my version)

This one is always a hit at barbecue party as a side for the sausages. It is not made with parsley but mint and much more couscous than the Lebanese version, so usually the Australian guys really like it.

 For 2 big serves, or few small serves, you need:

One tomato, a quarter of capsicum, couscous, 2 lemons, mint and olive oil. (or alternative oil depending on your taste).

Cut in small dices tomato and capsicum and pour the couscous on it until you get a balance mix like in picture below. Add the mint and stir well. The juice of tomato will start cooking the couscous.

Do the dressing by pressing a lemon (if very juicy) or 2 lemons (if not too juicy) and pour same amount of oil, with salt and pepper.

Pour on the couscous. The idea is that the couscous should be moist from the dressings, but not too much. The lemon will cook the couscous.

Wait at least an hour. Don’t store in the fridge during the time it is cooking.

If you have not put enough lemon, it will cook slowly, but if you put too much, it might become soggy from the dressing.

Stirr from time to time, and taste before serving. ;)

I advise to make it in advance and store in the fridge for more freshness before taking it to a barbecue.

 

Ham Cheese Tomato Quiche

Quiche is by definition a cheap dish, loved by students when they have nothing left in their fridge, or almost. There is nothing fancy about a quiche, but it can be quite delicious and it has this feel of comfort food with still being reasonably healthy. I like to do it during the week when I want to do a quick win with my boyfriend.

What you will need:

A sheet of frozen puff pastry, a glass of milk and 3 eggs. Contents is adaptable, but for this one, I have slices of tomatoes, ham cut in dices (from a good butcher) and parmesan cheese, or any grated cheese you like.

 

Mix the eggs and milk. Prepare the frozen puff pastry in a tart dish, and when unfrozen, put the ham and tomatoes. Then pour the mix on top of it, and add slice of cheese according to your taste. Usually I put a lot of cheese, because my boyfriend really likes it.

You can precook the puff pastry, but it is not mandatory.

Cook for roughtly 25 min at 200 degree, or until you see the puff pastry and cheese are darkening. Enjoy!