Posts Tagged ‘French’
Saturday, November 12th, 2011
The classic French fruit tart has to be one of my favourite deserts. The combination of the sweet, crumbly pastry, the vanilla spiked crème pâtissière and the sharp fruit tick all the boxes for me. I know it’s more of a Summer dish, but I got hold of some late season British raspberries the other day, and decided to make it as part of a ‘welcome home’ lunch at my folk’s house.
The other great thing about this recipe is that once all the elements are made, it’s an assembly job. So you can make everything in advance, then throw it all together a the last minute and lap up the applause like it ain’t no thang. NB. As with most pastry, it’s good to let the pâte sucrée rest in a fridge for at least a few hours, both after making it and after lining the tart mold as this should stop the case shrinking when it’s being baked off.
Ingredients (makes 27cm tart / 8 slices)
For the pâte sucrée
145g All purpose flour
60g Icing sugar
65g Unsalted butter
50g Egg yolks
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Tags: Bake, case, Classic, crème pâtissière, Custard, Desert, French, Pastry, pâte sucrée, Raspberries, Sweet, Tart, Tarte aux framboises, tin, Vanilla
Posted in Recipes, Sweet Stuff | 2 Comments »
Sunday, April 3rd, 2011
Mussels are back in season, and I can think of no better way to do them justice that with the classic French Marinière.
Not only is this recipe incredibly tasty, it’s as fast as hell; from chopping board to stuffing your face in 15 minutes flat as long as your mussels are clean. As an added bonus, mussels are pretty cheap, with a kilo coming in at around 5 or 6 pounds.
Lets do this.
Ingredients
1 kilo of mussels
1 stick celery, finely chopped
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
200ml good white wine
Nob of butter
Olive oil
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Tags: Bread, Broth, Celery, Dinner, Fishmonger, French, Garlic, Kohlrabi, Lunch, Moules Marinières, mussels, Onion, Recipe, Salad, Sea, White Wine
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
So, as mentioned in the previous post, we hit Morocco for our honeymoon. If I’m honest, I don’t think I was that excited about the food as I’d heard mixed reports, and was led to believe there wasn’t much variation. I was kind of expecting expecting tagines, tagines and more tagines, but whilst there were certainly a lot of them about, there’s definitely more to Moroccan cuisine.
There were certain things that really struck us, the first being the amount of sugar the Moroccans use. It seems to be in pretty much everything, from bread to the ubiquitous mint tea, each glass of which must have more sugar than a can of coke. Check out the picture if you don’t believe me.
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Tags: Essaouira, Food Stalls, French, Jamaa El Fnaa, Marrakesh, Mint Tea, Morocco, Offal, Pastry, Patisseries, Pigeon, Sugar, Tagine, Vegetables
Posted in Opinion, Reviews, Travel | No Comments »
Sunday, January 10th, 2010
I was in Paris with the missus for a few days over the New Year period. The weather wasn’t great, but it’s still one of the greatest cities in the World (IMHO). As you might expect the food has a great deal to do with this, and I’m a huge fan of the traditional French bistro.
I love the simple, tasty food, the still tobacco stained walls, the atmosphere and the tradition of it all. Maybe it’s because we don’t have many good examples of this type of place in London, but I’d honestly prefer to sit down at a chequered tablecloth in a back street bistro to a plate of oeufs cocotte and an entrecote, than some foam drenched nonsense from an Alain Ducasse restaurant. No offense Al.
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Tags: Bistro, Bistrot De La Grille, Butter, casserole, French, Garlic, Lentil, Morteau, Paris, Red Wine, Snails, Tarte, Tatin
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 4th, 2010
Happy New Year from Hand To Mouth. Hope you all had a good one.
I had the good fortune to be in Cornwall for Christmas, and then Paris for New Years. Good food was eaten accross the festive period, more on this in subsequent posts, but first of all something for the bread geeks out there.
Whilst in Paris I made a pilgrimage to Poilâne. It may not be a familiar name, but if you love good bread it should be. It’s a bakery in Saint-Germain, and makes the most insanely tasty ‘miche’ or traditional French sourdough loaves. Set up by Pierre Poilâne, a young baker from Normandy in 1932, the shop has been knocking out these beautiful large round loaves ever since to Parisians hungry for something a bit more interesting than the regular baguette.
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Tags: Bakery, Bread, Farine Bise, French, Grey Flour, Paris, Poilâne, Saint-Germain, Sourdough
Posted in Opinion, Reviews, Travel | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
It’s bloody cold in London right now, and add hangovers into the mix from all the Christmas partying, you need some seriously restorative food to get you back on an even keel. This French onion soup ticks all the boxes in terms of comforting, warming and tasty sustenance, and will have you ready for that next session of festive boozing before you can say zut alors!
Ingredients
Olive oil
Large nob of butter
1kg of onions
5 fat cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
70ml French brandy
150ml French white wine
750ml chicken stock
750ml beef stock
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Tags: brandy, Cheese, croutons, French, Garlic, gruyere, Onion, Soup, Soupe a l'oignon, stock, thyme, wine
Posted in Lunch, Recipes | No Comments »
Friday, December 11th, 2009
One of the joys of roasting a chicken is that there are usually leftovers. In fact, we normally buy a bigger bird so there’s more chicken left. This French chicken sarnie is one way to do those leftovers justice. It may be a bit more fiddly than your average sandwich, but as usual, the more love you put in the more flavour you get out.
Ingredients
Leftover roast chicken
Good quality French baguette
Mayo
Dijon mustard
Black pepper
Olive oil
1/2 clove garlic
Rocket
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Tags: Baguette, Chicken, Dijon Mustard, French, Mayo, Rocket, Sandwich
Posted in Lunch, Recipes | No Comments »
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
I’m a big fan of the humble banger, and It’s British Sausage Week, so if you’ve been neglecting one of the Western World’s greatest inventions, nows your chance to make amends. I don’t know why, but food writers tend not to eulogise about the sausage in the same way that they might do about oysters or fois gras, but I read a great article by Matthew Fort on the subject a few years ago which for some reason I kept. I think he sums up the appeal pretty well.
“As far as I’m concerned, the sausage is just about man’s noblest creation. It is a wonder (or should be), a perfect piece of design, elegant and economical…Sausages are classless, as acceptable on the table of the royal family as on that of the Royle family. Is there anyone who does not smile at the sight of a sausage? Who’s mouth does not salivate just a bit at the thought of that first bite?”
So in honour of the banger and British Sausage Week, here’s a recipe for a warming and tasty sausage casserole. It’s a bit of a French remix of a Delia recipe, and is the perfect dish for this time of year.
Ingredients
6 good quality Toulouse sausages
4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
150 g lardons
15 shallots, peeled
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Tags: casserole, French, Garlic, Mashed Potato, Red Wine, Sausage, Shallots, Toulouse
Posted in Dinner, Opinion, Recipes | 2 Comments »
