Ham with madeira sauce

From The Best Ever French Cooking Course cookbook by Carole Clements & Elizabeth Wolf-Cohen
Serves 4

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter
4 shallots (finely minced)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon tomato puree
6 tablespoons madeira wine
4 ham steaks (6-7 oz each)
salt & freshly ground black pepper (to taste)

Melt half the butter in a heavy med-sized saucepan over med-high heat. Add the shallots & cook for 2-3 min till just softened, stirring frequently.

Sprinkle over the flour & cook for 3-4 min till well-browned, stirring constantly. Whisk in the stock and the tomato puree and season to taste with salt & pepper. Simmer over a low heat till the sauce is reduced by nearly half, stirring occasionally.

Taste the sauce & adjust seasoning as desired. Add the Madeira wine & cook for 2-3 minutes. (The sauce can be made up to 3 dys in advance, chilled & then rewarmed to serve.).

Snip the edges of the ham steaks to prevent curling. Melt the remaining butter in a large frying pan over a medium high heat. Add the ham steaks & cook 4-5 mins (turning once) till the meat feels firm to the touch. Serve immediately with the sauce.

Special Cassoulet by the Hairy Bikers

From Hairy Dieters – How to Love Food and Lose Weight
Serves 6

Ingredients
½ tsp sunflower oil
6 sausages, at least 85% meat
4 celery sticks
3 carrots
2 onions, halved and sliced
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 450g/1lb)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
200g/7oz piece smoked lean gammon, trimmed and cut into 2cm/1in cubes
2 x 400g/14oz cans chopped tomatoes
150ml/5fl oz red wine (or water)
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 bay leaf
4-5 bushy sprigs fresh thyme
400g/14oz can cannellini beans in water, drained and rinsed
400g/14oz can butter beans in water, drained and rinsed
freshly ground black pepper

For the garnish
handful fresh flatleaf parsley
½ large orange, zest only, finely grated

Brush a large non-stick frying pan with the sunflower oil, using the tip of a pastry brush. Add the sausages to the pan and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, turning every now and then until nicely browned on all sides.

Meanwhile, trim the celery and peel the carrots and cut them into diagonal slices about 1.5cm/½in thick.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Add the onions to the frying pan and cook with the sausages for 6-8 minutes, stirring regularly until softened and lightly browned.

Trim the chicken thighs of any visible fat – we find a good pair of kitchen scissors does the job well – then cut the thighs in half.

Add the garlic and chicken pieces to the pan with the sausages and onions and cook for 3-4 minutes, turning the chicken twice until coloured all over.

Transfer everything to a large flameproof casserole dish.

Stir in the gammon, celery, carrots, tomatoes, red wine and 300ml/½ pint cold water, then sprinkle over the caster sugar and chilli flakes. Stir in the bay leaf and thyme and season with lots of ground black pepper.

Bring the cassoulet to a simmer on the hob, then cover with a lid and transfer to the oven. Cook for 45 minutes.

Take the casserole out of the oven and stir in all the beans. Cover with the lid again and put the dish back in the oven for another 30 minutes.

Just before the cassoulet is ready, prepare the garnish. Chop the parsley roughly and toss with the orange zest in a small bowl.

Serve large portions of the cassoulet in deep plates or wide bowls with a good sprinkling of the zesty parsley garnish on each one.

Cassoulet (French pronunciation: ​[ka.su.lɛ], from Occitan caçolet [kasuˈlet]) is a rich, slow-cooked casserole originating in the south of France, containing meat (typically pork sausages, goose, duck and sometimes mutton), pork skin (couennes) and white haricot beans.
The dish is named after its traditional cooking vessel, the cassole, a deep, round, earthenware pot with slanting sides.

Stoved chicken

Ingredients

3 potatoes thinly sliced
1 large onion thinly sliced
1 tbs chopped thyme
3 slice bacon chopped
4 chicken thighs
1 bay leaf
2 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 140 degrees

Place half of potato in the bottom of a heavy casserole, then cover with half of the onion, half of the thyme. Sprinkle with salt and pepper

Heat oil in pan to brown the bacon and chicken.

Transfer the bacon and chicken to the casserole on top of the potatoes. Sprinkle the remaining thyme and add the bay leaf. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add the remaining onions. Layer the potatoes on top.

Pour the stock into the casserole and brush the potatoes with the pan juices remaining after the browning of the chicken and the bacon.

Cover the casserole and cook in the oven for 2 hours, remove the cover and cook under the grill for another 15 minutes.

Serve.

“Stoved” is derived from the French etouffer – to cook in a covered pot.

Vichyssoise (Leek and potato soup)

Ingredients

600g leeks, white parts only, thinly sliced
250g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1.5 litres of chicken stock
butter

Melt the butter in a heavy pan and cook the leeks, covered, for 15-20 minutes, until they are soft but not browned.

Add the potato chunks and cook over a low heat, uncovered for a few minutes.

Stir in the stock with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and partly cover the pan. Simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft.

Cool, then process the soup until smooth in a blender. Sieve the soup into a bowl. Taste and adjust the seasoning and add a little water if the consistency of the soup seems too thick.

One of my favourite French soups and one that I make on a regular basis. I think this is supposed to be a cold soup; I am just a bit apprehensive about having it that way…

Baked sea bass with tomato confit and black olives

From I Know how to Cook – Ginette Mathiot
Serves 2
Ingredients

1 garlic clove
1 sea bass, about 800g, gutted and cleaned
100ml olive oil plus extra to serve
50g butter
12 sun-dried tomatoes
12 black olives, stoned
pepper
salt
12 basil leaves, chopped

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Rub an oven proof dish with the garlic clove, and place the sea bass in the fish. Pour in the olive oil, lemon juice and 100ml water over the fish, and dot with the butter. Bake for about 16 minutes, basting frequently. To check whether the fish is cooked, insert a wooden toothpick: it should pass easel through the thickest part of the fish. If it does not, cook for a further 5 minutes before checking again. Just before the fish is cooked, add the tomatoes and olives to the dish and return to the oven.

When the fish is cooked, drain the cooking juices into a small pan, place on a high heat and simmer until half the liquid has evaporated. Add a splash of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. To serve, return the reduced sauce to the oven proof dish with the sea bass and garnish with the basil.

This is a Franck Raymond recipe, the head chef at Mon Plaisir at Covent Garden, London. Have to admit I wasn’t a huge fan of that restaurant, I went there once and I thought it was alright, nothing really fantastic. But I suspect my impression of that dinner was marred by the fact that I was sat right next to the cheese board. I actually didn’t know what the smell was until someone unveiled the cheese board by removing the cloth that was covering it.

Anyway, this is a good simple recipe for sea bass. I used sea bass fillets rather than the whole fish. I am now tempted to go back to Mon Plaisir to get a second opinion on the food there!

Pan fried chicken in mushroom sauce

From bbcgoodfood.com
Ingredients

2 tbsp sunflower oil
6 large, free-range chicken legs , halved at the joint so you have 6 thighs and 6 drumsticks
700ml/1¼ pts chicken stock (or water)
50g butter
1 onion , finely diced
400g mixed wild mushrooms
300ml/½ pt dry white wine
284ml pot double cream

Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Fry the thighs for 8-10 mins, skin side only, until golden brown, then transfer to a casserole dish. Fry the drumsticks for about 5 mins each side and add them to the thighs.

Pour the stock over the chicken legs in the casserole. There should be enough stock to just cover the chicken, if not add a little water. Bring stock to the boil and cover, leaving lid slightly ajar. Cook at just below simmering point for 30-35 mins until chicken is cooked.

While chicken is simmering, drain oil from the pan. Heat the butter in pan and add onion. Sweat onion for 5 mins until soft, but not coloured. Turn up the heat, add the mushrooms, then fry for 3 mins until they soften and start to smell wonderful. Pour over the white wine, raise the heat to maximum and boil rapidly for 6-8 mins until reduced by two-thirds. Turn off the heat and leave until chicken has cooked.

Once chicken legs are cooked, strain stock into pan with the onion, mushrooms and white wine, bring back to the boil and reduce again by two-thirds until it is thick and syrupy. Pour in double cream, bring it to the boil, season if you want, then pour it over chicken. Heat chicken through in the sauce for 2-3 mins then turn off the heat and leave for a few mins before serving. This is such an aromatic and beautiful looking dish you should serve it straight from the casserole with the lid on.

Salade Niçoise

BBC GoodFood 101 Mediterranean Dishes
Serves 4
Ingredients

5tbsp olive oil, plus a little extra for frying and drizzling
2tsp finely chopped fresh oregano
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
16 new potatoes, halved
100g green beans
4 X 100g fresh tuna steaks
handful of black olives, pitted
8 anchovy fillets, thinly sliced in strips
16 cherry tomatoes
4 small eggs, soft boiled, halved
grated parmesan, to serve

Whisk the five tbsp of olive oil with the oregano and enough of lemon juice to taste, in a large bowl. Season, set aside

Cook the potatoes in boiling, salted water for 10 minutes or until tender, adding the beans for the last 4 minutes . Drain well and toss well while warm in the dressing.

Heat a little oil in a large frying pan. Add the tuna and fry over a high heat for 2-3 minutes on each side. Add the olives, anchovies and tomatoes to the potatoes and gently toss. Scatter the salad over four plates, top with the tuna, eggs, Parmesan and a drizzle of oil.

Basque chicken

From I Know How to Cook by Ginette Mathiot
Serves 6
Ingredients

1 x 1.2 kg chicken
3 tbsp olive oil
250g tomatoes
6 sweet green peppers
125g mushrooms, sliced
150g smoked ham, diced
Salt and pepper
150ml white wine
2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley chopped

Joint the chicken, dividing the legs and wings into two. Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan and fry the chicken pieces for 5-10 minutes over a high heat until golden, cooking in batches if necessary. De-seed and chop the tomatoes. Cut the peppers into quarters and de-seed.

Add the tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms to the pan with the chicken. Add the ham and season with salt and pepper. Pour in the wine, cover and cook over a medium heat for 40 minutes.

Arrange the chicken pieces on a serving dish. If necessary, simmer the cooking liquid to the desired consistency, then pour it over the chicken. Sprinkle with the parsley.

Chicken chasseur

I really started cooking when I went to New York and bought this cook book, The Best Ever French Cooking Course. Chicken chasseur was one of the first recipes I used from it and after it, I was really hooked on this dish, i must have cooked this on average once every month. I didn’t used to like food with tomatoes but after this, i kept buying tomatoes in bulk to use in my cooking.

Dredge 8 chicken thighs in flour, salt and pepper and pan fry them till they are brown on both sides. Remove from pan. Saute 1 onions, sliced into rings, 1 garlic clove, sliced, and 250g mushrooms, quartered, till they are golden. Return chicken to the pan with the juices and add 4 tbsp white wine. Bring to the boil. Add a 400g can of chopped tomatoes and enough chicken stock to just cover the chicken thighs and simmer till the chicken is cooked. Serve with pasta or rice.

Mustard pork chops

From Nigella Express
Serves 2
Ingredients

2 pork chops
2 tsp garlic oil
125ml cider
1 tbsp grainy mustard
75ml double cream

Cut the fat or rind off the chops, and then bash them briefly but brutally with a rolling pin between two pieces of clingfilm to make them thinner.

Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan and cook the chops over a moderately high heat for about 5 minutes a side. Remove them to a warmed plate

Pour the cider into the pan, still over the heat, to de-glaze the pan. Let it bubble away for a minute or so, then add the mustard and stir in the cream.

Let the sauce continue cooking for a few minutes before pouring over each plated pork chop. If you are having gnocchi with it, make sure you turn them in the pan to absorb any spare juices before adding them to your plates.

This is the kind of French food I absolutely adore: French bistro food, meat with a good sauce. Simple to make and very pleasing on a cold rainy autumn/winter afternoon.

My only modification to this dish is the use of normal dijon mustard rather than grainy mustard. Don’t see the point of buying a new bottle of mustard just for this recipe. I guess it would be better with the grainy mustard, adds a bit more bite to the pork.

I have a lot of sauce left over and so I am saving it up for more gnocchi goodness on a work night.

I added pork and apple sausage to the sauce with the gnocchi and it’s absolutely heavenly.