Paris visit

                                       We enjoyed our Silver Wedding Anniversary trip to Paris.

       Didn't want to go to museums this time and I wanted to visit the big department stores in the Boulevard  Hausseman. This is the Galeries Lafayette. A fantastic dome.

It's such a beautiful building.

We went to the basement Food Hall and wow - what a feast for the eyes. These are a few of the delicious cakes on offer.

 Some hams and sausages.

And of course, the famous Poilane bread.

We went on a tour of the area around our hotel with our friend's son, who lives in Paris. In one of the lovely glass topped arcades I found this shop selling biscuits - can't remember its name!

 This is the famous Fauchon shop in the Place de Madeleine. They sell macarons and I bought some to try - delicious!

For our Anniversary dinner we went back to a lovely restaurant we'd found on our honeymoon. It's called 'Julien' and now belongs to the famous 'Brasserie Flo'chain.

It's Art Deco style inside, amd is now a listed building.

Here we are enjoying our meal.

Altogether a very happy time.

Apple and blueberry cake

This is a recipe from my friend Annick.
I bought some frozen blueberries last week and made some muffins with them, but had half a bag left. What to do with them? This cake was the answer.
You can serve it warm, with creme fraiche or cream as a dessert, or cold with a cuppa.

Here's the recipe:

225g sr flour

1/2 spn salt

125g butter or margarine

175g granulated sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

2 large eating apples, cored and sliced

125g blueberries

icing sugar

Preheat oven 190C/170C fan/gas5

Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.

Put the flour in a bowl with the salt; add the butter or marg and rub it in.

Add 125g of the sugar and the eggs and mix together.

Spread half of this mixture into your tin - I found this very difficult until I used a flat spatula.

Layer the apples and blueberries on top and sprinkle with the rest of the sugar.

Spoon in the rest of the mixture.

Bake for about 45 mins [ my oven isn't very reliable and it took 40 mins]

Cool in the tin for 10 mins then put on a wire rack to cool.

Sieve some icing sugar over the top.

I have to say that this isn't the most attractive looking cake you'll ever make, but it's certainly delicious.

We ate ours with a cuppa.

Sultana and cranberry teabread

We love teabreads and have a slice with a cuppa in the afternoon. Very British!

This one is very moist and moreish. Try it!

225g dried cranberries
225g sultanas
350ml black tea [warm]

preheat oven 160C/gas 3/325F
soak the fruit in the tea for about an hour [I used earl grey tea and it was a lovely flavour]
then add
250g wholemeal flour with 1 tspn baking powder added to it
 2 tbspn brown or muscovado sugar
25g melted butter
1 beaten egg
mix it all together with a spoon
grease a 2lb cake tin and pour in the cake mixture and level the top
bake for about an hour; cover the cake with foil for the first half hour then take it off
test to see if it's cooked and if not, give it another 5-10 mins and then check again
let the cake rest in the tin for 15 mins, then cool on a wire rack
eat it with some nice butter!


you can use any dried fruit that you have; I didn't have enough cranberries, so chopped up a few dried apricots to make up the weight
you can also try experimenting with different teas to see which you like best

Souligne beef casserole

Had a good time in the UK at Christmas, but came back with bronchitis.
Am feeling fine now, so thought it was time I started to post on here again.
Am trying to use up the food in the freezers, so found some beef and decided to make a casserole. It's bitingly cold here today, so just right for a nice tasty casserole.

Having looked at lots of recipes, nothing really inspired me, so I decided to make my own recipe.
 It's for 2 very generous portions and is a meal in itself. Maybe some nice crusty bread to mop up the sauce?
Here it is ready to cook.

200g beef
2 leeks sliced
3 carrots chopped
tin chickpeas
2 tbspn tomato puree
bouquet garni
1 cinnamon stick
250ml beef stock
200ml red wine
s&p

Brown beef in a casserole dish. Add chopped eeks and carrots and cook gently for 2 minutes.
Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer gently until beef is cooked - the time depends on the cut of beef you're using. I used beef shin and it took 11/2 hours.
That's it!
I know in lots of recipes they tell you to add tinned chickpeas just before the end, but I love them to absorb all the flavours in the casserole.The cinnamon stick gives it a lovely flavour.
Interesting thought, my husband calls it a stew - is it a stew or a casserole? Does it have to be cooked in the oven to be a casserole? Ideas?

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

My first post for a while. Lost my enthusiasm! Hope to get it back soon!.
Off tomorrow to the UK for 15 days.

Have a very Happy Christmas.

Sausage and pumpkin casserole

This post was intended for yesterday, Halloween, but for some reason I was unable to post it.

This is the lovely pumpkin I bought for a euro.

There was a great pile of them, and the lady in front of me in the queue took one from underneath, and you can guess what happened - yes, we chased pumpkins down the road!

This recipe is from yesterday's 'Saturday Kitchen'.

here

I changed the recipe a bit by using a tin of baked beans instead of the cannellini beans and I didn't add the tin of tomatoes or the white wine vinegar. We found the sauce too thin, so I thickened it with cornflour.

Doesn't look very appetizing, but it was delicious.

I still have a lot of pumpkin flesh left to make some soup.

Green tomato chutney

Like many others, we planted too many tomatoes this year, so we have lots of green tomatoes. Today I made some chutney with some of them.

This recipe made 2x 500g jars and a small jar [one used for baby food]. It's from a French cookery magazine.

1kg green tomatoes, finely chopped
500g onions, finely chopped
500g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
2 fresh green chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1 tspn powdered ginger
1 good pinch ground cloves
1 good pinch turmeric
50g sultanas
250g brown sugar [use muscovado if you want a darker chutney]
30cl white wine vinegar

Mix the tomatoes, onions, apples and chillies together in a large pot. Add the garlic, ginger, cloves and turmeric. Then add the sultanas, sugar and vinegar. Stir it all together.

Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and cover.

Let it simmer for about 11/4 hours, till the chutney has thickened and is soft.

Put into sterilised jars and label. Leave it for at least 3 weeks in a cool, dark place before using.

it will keep for 6-12 months if well sealed.

This is one of the finished pots.

I also made some quince jelly, but it was a lot of effort and the recipe [from Marguerite Pattern] only made one jamjar of jelly. Shan't bother with jelly again. Too much work!

I used all these quinces to make one pot!

Tollhouse cookies

I've read about the name of these cookies, how at the tollbooths on the roads people would stop and buy a drink and a cookie.
This version comes from Hannah Miles' new book 'The big book of cakes and cookies' which has 365 recipes for new cakes and well-loved favourites.
Hannah was a finalist in Masterchef 2007, and has a lovely blog which is on my list of favourite blogs - Hannah's country kitchen.
Here's the recipe:

125g butter
350g plain flour
1/2 tspn bicarb.
2 tspns cinnamon
100g caster sugar
100g soft brown sugar
1 tbspn golden syrup
1 large egg, beaten
100g chocolate chips
100g chopped walnuts

Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4
Makes 20 cookies

Sieve flour, soda and cinnamon into a bowl.
Melt the butter and syrup in a saucepan.
Add the choc. chips and walnuts and egg to the flour mixture and then add the butter mixture. Mix it all together with a wooden spoon.
Divide the dough into walnut sized pieces and put onto greased baking trays. Make sure you leave a space between each one.
Press the tops down lightly.
Bake for 12-15 mins till golden brown and just firm.
Leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes then put on a wire rest.

My variations
I didn't have any chocolate chips so I broke up a 100g bar of dark chocolate, and I didn't add walnuts.

Souligne news

I haven't posted in a while because I couldn't add photos, but now it's sorted.
It's a glorious autumn here, still warm, and the trees are now beginning to turn colour. It's the time of year when we gets lots of fruit and veg. from our neighbours and friends, things we've not grown or haven't room to grow.
We've had lots of figs, quinces, cabbages, leeks and beetroot.
Have already posted about the fig and almond tart I made, and I've been trying out new fig recipes.
We loved Nigella's 'Figs for 1001 nights' and I also cooked them with honey, cinnamon and a little orange liqueur. Tonight I'm going to use them as starter with parma ham.
As for the quinces, think I'll try to make some quince jelly from Jane Grigson's great 'Fruit book'. It's supposed to be good with meat.
I love Jane Grigson's recipes as they're very straight forward and I've always had good results with them. I have her 'Vegetable book' and 'English food' and have used them a lot for inspiration.

Fig and almond tart

Am on a roll today!
Yesterday our lovely neighbour Maurice, aged 86, gave us a tray of figs. They were very ripe so had to do something with them quickly.
Last night I cooked some with honey and served them with mascarpone - delicious. Today I made a fig and almond tart. I bought ready made pastry so it didn't take long to make.
I found the recipe on the good food channel site.It's by David Massey.

for 6

350g shortcrust pastry
100g ground almonds
10g flour
100g caster sugar
100g unsalted butter
2 eggs
9 figs halved

preheat oven 180C/gas4/350F

Roll out pastry to fit a 23cm flan tin and bake blind for 15 mins or till base is firm.
Beat butter and sugar together till fluffy. Add the eggs. Fold in flour and ground almonds.
Spoon the mixture over the pastry and arrange the halved figs on top.
Turn oven up to 190C/gas 5 and bake tart for about 35 mins. or until almond fillings has set.
Serve with mascarpone.

When you take the tart out of the oven, you can glaze it with apricot jam which has been lightly boiled till it's become liquid.

Helen's apple cake

Yet another apple cake! We still have some more Bramleys to come - a great year for them.
Helen is a friend who is an excellent cook. She made this cake during one of our visits and it's really delicious. Bob,my husband,hates bananas, but loves this cake. He doesn't know that there are any in it!!!

This amount makes 2 generous 2lb loaf cakes, but I usually halve the recipe. I'm not sure if it would freeze.

250g unsalted butter
250g dark brown sugar
500g sr flour
4 large apples, peeled, cored and chopped
5 small ripe bananas
500g sultanas
4 large eggs
cinnamon and mixed spice to taste [I use a lot as I love them!}

Preheat oven 180C/gas4/350F

Beat sugar and butter together till fluffy.
In another bowl beat eggs and bananas together and then add to the sugar mixture.
Add the apples and mix well.
Add the spices to the flour and then add gradually to the mixture, mixing well after each addition.
Divide between the 2 tins and bake for about an hour. In my oven it took longer than an hour. Test with a skewer to see if done and then cool on a wire rack.

Courgette and walnut loaf

I love teabreads and loafcakes. This one is quite healthy as it uses wholemeal flour, sunflower oil and nuts. It's one of my Mum's recipes so is in ounces.
recipe:


3 eggs
4fl oz sunflower oil
8oz wholewheat flour
3oz light muscovado sugar
1 tspn baking powder
1 tspn bicarb. of soda
1 tspn cinnamon
1 tspn allspice
5oz grated courgettes
4oz chopped walnuts
2 oz sunflower seeds

Preheat oven to 180C/350F/gas4

Lina a 2lb loaf tin.
Beat eggs and sugar together and gradually add in oil.
Sift flour into another bowl and add the baking powder, bicarb,spices and nuts. Add the courgettes and mix well.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and spoon into loaf tin.
Bake for about 40 mins. Cool slightly in tin and then turn on to a wire rack.