Tag: France

Together: Our Community Cookbook

23 December 2024

Food is much more than just food, it’s about culture, about being with friends, family, about learning from other cultures, about talking and sharing memories, about emotions, about special days and celebrations. It brings people together and enhances our understanding of others.

We take part in Jo Stacy’s BKD Cookbook Club and this month the focus is on Christmas recipes for us all to make and share. Our choice is a recipe for a Casserole from Together: Our Community Cookbook.

The book is written by a group of residents, gathering in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London to cook food for their families, friends and neighbours. They began using the kitchen at the Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre and used the kitchen for two days per week, preparing food and eating together. Gradually more local women began to join in, embracing the community and supporting their neighbours. This was the beginning of the Hubb Community Kitchen (‘hubb’ meaning ‘love’ in Arabic).
In 2018 the group published Together: Our Community Cookbook with 50 simple and tasty recipes from the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and other countries.
Food that brings people together, food you prepare for your loved ones.

The book features mouthwatering recipes including Shakshouka (Algeria), Potato Fritters with Cilantro (India), Spicy Peanut Dip (Uganda), Green Rice (Iraq), Fennel and Orange Salad (Italy) and many more.

Food that helped restore hope and provided a sense of home.

Casserole

We decided to prepare Tepsi Baytinijan. To quote Intlak Alsaiegh, the author of this recipe: “Tepsi translates as ‘casserole’ and this is a traditional Persian dish of meatballs in tomato sauce with eggplant. It’s quite rich. You could make it with less oil, I suppose, but then it wouldn’t be so traditional—or taste so good.”

The dish is indeed a rich, tasty combination of small meat balls (ground beef, garlic, curry powder), fried egg plant, fried potatoes, onion, green pepper, tomatoes, tomato paste and tamarind paste, served with basmati rice or crusted bread.
The detailed recipe can be found in Together: Our Community Cookbook or on Food52.

Together: Our Community Cookbook is dear to us, because it shows us that food can unite people. Preparing food from this book will bring you closer to the hope and strength of the Grenfell community.

The book is available via the usual channels and your local bookstore. A portion of the proceeds from the sales will help the Hubb Community Kitchen to strengthen lives and communities through cooking.

We wish you Happy Holidays and a Wonderful 2025!
Mr. Cook and Mr. Drink

Together: Our Community Cookbook
Persian Casserole ©cadwu
Persian Casserole before Baking ©cadwu

Palmiers au Fromage

21 November 2024

It’s Friday evening, friends are coming over for dinner, a nice bottle of crémant d’Alsace is waiting to be opened, you switch on your oven, slice the dough and transfer the slices to the oven. An hour or so later you serve a glass of crémant, accompanied by crispy, lukewarm, aromatic Palmiers au Fromage. Aren’t they lovely?

What You Need
  • Puff Pastry
  • 50 grams of Butter
  • 25 grams of very, very old cheese
  • (optional) Black Pepper and Mustard
What You Do

We used three sheets (12* 12 cm) of puff pastry. Combine the sheets into one by folding the dough. You want to keep the layered structure of the puff pastry. Transfer to the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so. In the meantime, combine 50 grams of very soft butter with 25 grams of finely grated very old cheese until it’s fluffy and creamy. This may take some time! Taste and decide if you want to add more cheese, mustard and/or black pepper.
Dust your work top with flour, roll out the dough, size 12 by 36 cm. Used a brush to coat the dough with the butter mixture. Pick up the left short side of the dough and fold until halfway. Do the same with the right size. It should now be 12 by approximately 18 cm. Repeat. Probably you can’t repeat it after having folded the dough twice. If you think you can, please do so. Now brush halve the dough and fold. The result looks like a 12-cm-long sausage. Wrap in plastic foil, transfer to the refrigerator and let cool through and through.
Preheat your oven to 200 °C or 390 °F. Use a sharp knife to slice the dough-sausage, 0.5 cm is perfect. Cover a baking tray with parchment (baking) paper and bake the Palmiers au Fromage for 10 – 15 minutes or until golden-brown.

Palmiers ©cadwu
Palmiers ©cadwu

The Art of Sauces: Green Sauce with Quails and Snails

1 November 2024

Many years ago we were looking for a nice restaurant in Fréjus. It was our last evening in France before returning home and obviously we were looking for something special, something typical Provençal. The area of our hotel wasn’t very promising, so we were ready to settle for pizza until we saw a small restaurant with a very interesting menu. It offered Tisane de Romarin, Cailles et Escargots and many other exciting dishes we unfortunately forgot. We entered the restaurant and had a perfect evening.
Combining quails and snails isn’t the most obvious idea, but rest assured, it works beautifully, also thanks to the very intriguing green sauce. It took us some time to recreate it, but after a few attempts we think this is the right version.
The question remains why the two go together well. Is it about fat (quails leg) and no-fat (snail)? Because both are meaty and tender? Because both love the tarragon in the sauce?
Of course, we made a note of the name of the restaurant and of course, we lost it. A pity, although preparing this dish brings us back to a lovely evening in Fréjus.

Wine Pairing

Enjoy your Green Sauce with Quails and Snails with a glass of Chardonnay with a touch of oak. The wine must be dry, mineral and medium bodied. We enjoyed a glass of Bourgogne Couvent des Jacobins as produced by Louis Jadot. The wine partly matured in stainless steel tanks and partly in oak barrels. The result is a wine that has citrus and apple aromas in combination with oak and vanilla. Great with the freshness of the herbs and the richness of the sauce. It balances very well with both the quails and the snails.

What You Need
  • 6 Quail Legs
  • Butter
  • 12 Snails (click here when you want to know which snail to buy)
  • For the Green Sauce
    • 1 Bunch of Parsley
    • 1/4 Bunch of Tarragon
    • Chicken Stock
    • Cream
    • (optional) Beurre Manié or Potato Starch)
  • Black Pepper
What You Do

Wash the snails with plenty of water. Set aside. Warm a heavy iron skillet, warm some chicken or quail stock in a pan and bring a pan with water to the boil. Set your oven to 60 °C or 140 °F.
Now it’s time to make the Green Sauce:
Blanch parsley and tarragon in boiling water for 30 seconds and cool immediately in ice water. Dry. Blender the herbs with some cold stock until you have a very smooth green liquid. Set your blender to turbo! Pass through a fine sieve and store the chlorophyll. It will remain stable for at least a day.
Quickly fry the legs in butter. Warm the snails in some chicken stock. When both are ready, transfer the legs and the snails to the warm oven. Add chicken stock to the pan. Stir. Add cream to the pan. Let reduce for 5-10 minutes or until you’re happy with the consistency. Add chlorophyll until you have the right colour and taste. Be very careful, if you overheat the sauce it will lose its vibrant green colour. Perhaps you need to thicken the sauce with Beurre Manié or Potato Starch. Add black pepper and taste. Serve the legs and the snails in the sauce. Enjoy with crusted bread.

Green Sauce ©cadwu
Green Sauce ©cadwu
PS

You could also use two quails. Remove the breasts and the legs. Use the remainder to make the stock you need for the sauce. To make the dish more refined, remove the main bone of the legs.

Far Aux Mirabelles

5 September 2024

Far Breton is a delicious dessert from the French region Bretagne. Originally there are two versions of Far: a savoury one with buckwheat, butter, milk, eggs, salt and lard (to be served as a side dish) and a sweet one with wheat flour, butter, milk, eggs, sugar and (optional) raisins. The savoury version is a component of the traditional dish Kig ha Farz (meaning ‘meat with far’). The sweet version is better known and nowadays made with prunes, preferably Pruneaux d’Agen. Easy to make and always a pleasure to serve.

Mirabelle (plums) are a speciality from the French region Alsace-Lorraine. The fruit is relatively small, sweet and full of flavour. Often used to make jam or eaux-de-vie. The season is fairly short (a few weeks in August and September only). When you see Mirabelle plums at your greengrocers, then don’t hesitate and buy them. Enjoy them as they are or turn them into Far Aux Mirabelles!

What You Need
  • 80 grams of Plain Flour
  • 2 organic Eggs
  • 50 grams of Sugar
  • 350 ml Milk
  • 15 grams of Butter
  • 500 grams of Mirabelle Plums
  • 15 ml Eaux-de-Vie de Mirabelle (optional)
  • Butter to coat dish
What You Do

Set the oven to 170 °C or 340 °F traditional. Wash, dry and halve the Mirabelle plums. Discard the pits. Add butter to the milk and heat until lukewarm and butter dissolved. Combine flour and sugar. Add one beaten egg and mix. Add the second beaten egg and mix. Add the milk and whisk until you have a smooth batter.  Coat the baking dish with butter, add the halved Mirabelle plums and the batter. After 40 minutes increase the heat to 190 °C or 375 °F and fan forced for 5 minutes. We prefer the far to be beautiful golden brown even though it seems that a Far Breton is supposed to be much more browned.
Enjoy the far lukewarm as a dessert or the next day cold with a cup of coffee. No need to dust with icing sugar. 

PS

Perhaps you recognize the combination of ingredients. The Far Breton is indeed similar to Clafoutis and Flaugnarde. Far is supposed to be denser than Clafoutis, originates from Bretagne and is made with prunes, whereas Clafoutis originates from the Limousin and is made with cherries. And Flaugnarde? With apricots?
Oh well, let’s simple enjoy these easy to make and delicious desserts.

Slice of Far Aux Mirabelles ©cadwu
Far Aux Mirabelles ©cadwu
Mirabelle Plums ©cadwu

Coq au Vin

29 May 2024

A classic French dish and one of our favorites. Warm, rich and full of flavors. Obviously the dish is about two ingredients: chicken and wine. Use (organic) chicken, preferably with the bone, so a whole chicken, legs or drumsticks. A classic Coq au Vin is made with Bourgogne (Burgundy), a relatively expensive red wine from France made from Pinot Noir grapes. According to some people the wine you use for the stew must also accompany the dish. Which would mean that some of your beautiful Bourgogne ends up in the stew. Not the best idea! We think that the background of this ‘rule’ is about the quality of the wine you use for the stew: in this case you’re looking for a nice, medium bodied red wine with aromas of dark fruit; one you would be perfectly happy to drink. So not some left over red wine, or a wine you didn’t like. A perfect stew requires quality ingredients, that’s all.
Earlier we thickened the sauce using mushrooms; in this version we use Beurre Manié, the combination of butter and flour, which gives the sauce a rich, velvety feel.

Wine Pairing

We decided to open a bottle of Merlot, produced by Le Fat Bastard. An easy to drink red wine with the right aromas and a hint of wood. Worked beautifully with the richness of the sauce, the depth of the mushrooms and obviously the chicken!

What You Need

  • 4 Drumsticks
  • Slice of Pancetta or Bacon
  • 10 Pearl Onions
  • 100 grams Button Mushrooms
  • 2 Garlic Gloves
  • 1 Carrot
  • Chicken Stock
  • Red Wine
  • Bouquet Garni (Bay Leaf, Parsley, Thyme, Rosemary)
  • Black Pepper
  • Olive Oil
  • Soft Butter
  • Flour

What You Do

Cube the strip of pancetta or bacon in, peel the onions, slice and quarter the carrot, peel and finely chop the garlic. Add olive oil to a warm heavy pan. Begin by frying the pancetta or bacon until crispy. Remove from the pan and let drain on kitchen paper. Add (whole) pearl onions and carrot to the pan and fry until golden. Remove from the pan and let drain on kitchen paper. Add chicken to the pan and fry until golden. When golden add the garlic and fry for 3 minutes on medium heat. Add pancetta, carrot and onions back to the pan. Add chicken stock and red wine. The chicken should be nearly covered. Add bouquet garni and leave to simmer on low heat for 45-60 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken.
Clean the mushrooms with kitchen paper and fry them gently in a skillet. Remove chicken and bouquet garni from the pan. Transfer the chicken to an oven at 60 °C or 140 °F. Discard the bouquet. Reduce the liquid. Use a fork to combine 20 grams of butter with 20 grams of flour (or more of both, depending on the amount of liquid). Add the Beurre Manié to the liquid, stir and allow to simmer and thicken for some 15 minutes. Return the chicken to the sauce, add the fried mushrooms, black pepper and allow to integrate for 5 minutes. Serve with a fresh green salad (a vinaigrette of olive oil, white wine vinegar and Dijon mustard will be great) and crusted bread.

Coq Au Vin ©cadwu
Coq Au Vin ©cadwu

Baba Au Mandarine Napoléon

27 April 2024

On April 27th, we celebrate the birthday of the King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. The Dutch royal family is also known as ‘de Oranjes’, which is reflected in the use of the colour orange when referring to Dutch royalty. Actually, there is no link between the royal family and the colour. The ‘orange’ in their name refers to the French city of Orange, a Principality one of his ancestors inherited in 1544.

Over the years we prepared Orange Sabayon, Queen’s Soup, Orange and Almond Cake, Bouchée à la Reine, Orange Flan and Canard à l’Orange on this day. What better way to celebrate a birthday than baking a Baba, a flavourful and moist cake? Traditionally a Baba au Rhum (preferably with raisins or currents) is served with a syrup based on brown rum. Today we use a delicious Belgian liqueur: Mandarine Napoléon. It’s a unique mandarin liqueur, made from macerated Sicilian mandarins and cognac. It was originally created in 1892 by Napoleon’s physician. Rich, long, intense en delicious!

What You Need
  • 10 large Baba’s
    • 4 grams of dried Yeast
    • 100 ml Milk
    • 15 grams of Sugar
    • 200 grams All Purpose Flour
    • 2 Egg Yolks
    • 2 Eggs
    • 100 grams of Butter
    • 80 grams of chopped Candied Orange Peel
    • 2 grams of Salt
    • Butter to coat the moulds
    • Finely chopped Candied Orange Peel
  • Syrup
    • 500 ml of Water
    • 200 grams of Sugar
    • 200 ml Mandarine Napoléon
What You Do

The milk should be lukewarm and the butter melted but not hot. Start by combining milk, yeast and sugar. Mix well. Add the sieved flour and mix. Now it’s time to add the eggs and the egg yolks. Use kneading hooks to mix very, very well. This may take 10 minutes. The result should be an elastic, sticky dough. Add the butter, mix and then add the salt. The dough is now even stickier. Coat the moulds with butter. Add the dough to the moulds and let rise for approximately 2 hours. They should double in size. Preheat your oven to 200 °C or 400 °F and bake for 15 minutes depending on the size. Keep an eye on the baba’s, you may want to reduce the heat after 10 minutes.
In the meantime add water and sugar to a pan. Warm the mixture until nearly boiling. Stir and make sure the sugar is completely dissolved. Now add Mandarine Napoléon to taste. Leave to cool. Add an extra splash of Mandarine Napoléon to give the syrup an extra push. Allow the baba’s to cool somewhat, remove from the mould and let them soak in the syrup for a few hours, or longer. A day or two will be perfect, Sprinkle with finely chopped candied orange peel and serve at room temperature.

Baba au Mandarine Napoléon
Baba au Mandarine Napoléon

Chicken with Morels

1 March 2024

A few weeks ago we bought the first fresh morels of the season. They looked beautiful but unfortunately, they were very bland. Not the typical pancake, buttery taste, not the intriguing aroma. Pity, but worth a try.
This week we bought some great looking dried morels at our favourite epicerie. Dried morels are as tasty as fresh morels, which makes them very different from all other mushrooms. Dried cèpes are such a disappointment. We bought 15 grams and talked about preparing veal with morels and madeira. Monsieur Max, who runs the epicerie, mentioned he preferred to combine them with chicken. Great idea, we said, let’s do that.

The dish relies on the quality of the chicken, the morels and the white wine. Ideally this is Vin Jaune, a wine produced in the Jura in the far east of France and made from Savagnin grapes. This wine is often compared to Fino Sherry, but we think it has more character and length. It also not fortified, so no alcohol was added.
We served the chicken and morels with fried oca. A combination that worked very well, because the oca brought freshness to the dish. Perhaps its oxalic acid?

Wine Pairing

We opened a bottle of Arbois Savagnin 2018. This complex, white wine is made from the same Savagnin grape and is also produced in the Jura. It comes with aromas that will make you think of nuts, curry and even umami. When tasting it, you may think the wine is off, given it is slightly oxidized. In this case it’s a good thing. Enjoy the savoury, nutty taste of the wine in combination with the various flavours in the dish.

What You Need
  • 3 organic Chicken Thighs
  • Butter 
  • 1 Shallot 
  • 15 grams dried Morels
  • 50 ml Arbois Wine
  • 50 ml Double Cream
  • 1 Egg Yolk
What You Do

Check if the morels are clean. If not, use a brush to clean them or rinse with water. Soak the morels in fairly warm water for at least 30 minutes, depending on the quality. In the meantime, finely slice the shallot lengthways. Pat the chicken thighs dry and halve. Fry the thighs in butter until golden brown, perhaps 4 minutes. Set aside and cover with aluminium foil. Fry the shallot in the remaining butter on low heat for a few minutes. Drain the morels, pat dry with kitchen paper and halve lengthways. Keep the soaking water. Add the morels and combine. Leave on low heat for a few minutes. Add the wine and leave to reduce by half. Add some morel juice and reduce. Add cream and allow to warm through and through. Allow to simmer for a few minutes, add the chicken. Leave on low heat until the chicken is done, perhaps 15 minutes. Now it’s time to taste the sauce and see if you have enough. Happy? Beat one egg yolk. Slowly add the mixture from the pan to the egg yolk (this is called ‘marrying the sauce’). Then transfer the mixture to the pan. Warm carefully, otherwise it will split. To serve, place the chicken pieces on a warm plate with some morels on top. Cover with the rich, aromatic sauce.

Chicken with Morels ©cadwu
Fresh Morels © cadwu

Flammkuchen

15 February 2024

We continue our series of very simple, tasty dishes by preparing Flammkuchen (Tarte Flambée in France, Feuerfleck in Austria). The dish originates from the Alsace. The first part of the name refers to fire and flames. The story is that bakers baked bread in wood fired ovens. The oven would initially become too hot, and the bakers had to wait for the oven to cool and reach the right temperature. The Flammkuchen would be the indicator. If it was ready within two minutes or so, then the temperature was right. If it would burn, the oven was too hot, but nothing was wasted. 

The dough of Flammkuchen is extremely simple, but also a bit puzzling. In all cases it’s flour, salt, olive oil and water. Some suggest adding egg yolks, others yeast. Adding yeast makes it into a bread dough. Doesn’t it seem obvious that the bakers would use the already prepared dough? Adding egg yolks seems odd too us. Why make a more expensive dough for a product that was to be used as an indicator only?

Back to yeast or no yeast. Which brings us to the question: isn’t Flammkuchen a kind of pizza? They do look very similar, and both are baked in a hot oven, but there are differences. Traditionally Flammkuchen are covered with crème fraîche, lardons and thinly sliced onions. The Flammkuchen should be very thin and very crispy. We think the bakers didn’t use their bread dough but made a quick, simple dough with the sole aim to test the temperature of the oven. Perhaps only water and flour?

Another difference is that Flammkuchen were not on the menu of restaurants until the 1960’s. Probably you would buy them at the local bakery or make them at home. Thanks to the global popularity of pizza, Flammkuchen have gained some visibility.

Drink Pairing

Flammkuchen are tasty, crispy, flavourful and not complex. Enjoy with a glass of white wine, with a beer, or your favourite drink.

What You Need
  • For the Dough
    • 250 grams of Flour
    • 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
    • 125 ml Water
    • Pinch of Salt
  • Crème Fraîche
  • Black Pepper
  • Mushrooms (we used Trompettes de la Mort)
  • Red Onion
What You Do

Pass the flour through a sieve. Add a pinch of salt and mix. Add water and olive oil and quickly turn the mixture into a dough using your hands. Don’t kneed too long. Leave on room temperature for an hour. Pre-heat your oven to 220 °C or 430 °F. Roll out until very thin, 2 millimetre is perfect. Add black pepper to the crème fraiche and mix. Place the dough on baking or parchment paper in a baking tray, cover with a layer of crème fraiche, add mushrooms and sliced onion. Bake for 10-12 minutes or so and serve immediately.

Baking Flammkuchen on a higher temperature is preferred, but then you can’t use baking or parchment paper. Best is to use a pizza stone. The baking time will be 3 to 5 minutes on 300 °C or 570 °F.

Flammkuchen ©cadwu
Flammkuchen ©cadwu

Chicken with Fennel and Sage

18 January 2024

We start 2024 with a series of simple and tasty recipes. It’s such fun to prepare delicious food with only a handful of ingredients. James Tanner is author of Takes 5: Delicious Dishes Using Just 5 Ingredients with over 90 recipes, ranging from Roasted Red Bell Peppers with Anchovies to Scones. Short shopping lists, easy recipes and tasty results: what more can you ask for!

This dish combines fennel with chicken, pancetta and sage. The mild anise flavour of the fennel works very well with the pancetta. The aromatic, slightly bitter flavour of sage is great with the chicken. And believe it or not, after having simmered in butter for some 15 minutes the dish comes together. Rich, fresh and uplifting.

Wine Pairing

A light to medium bodied red wine will be great with the dish. Unoaked, fruity, not too complex: a wine made with Pinot Noir, Tempranillo or perhaps a red wine from the Beaujolais.

What You Need
  • Organic Chicken Thighs (boneless)
  • Small Fennel
  • 6 Leaves of Sage
  • Pancetta
  • Butter
  • Black Pepper
What You Do
  1. Halve the thighs and fry in butter
  2. In the meantime dice the fennel
  3. When the chicken is nicely coloured, add the fennel
  4. Combine, wait for a few minutes
  5. Dice the pancetta
  6. Devein and chop the sage
  7. Add pancetta and sage to the pan and allow to simmer on low heat for some 15 minutes
  8. Add black pepper just before serving
  9. You could decorate with some fennel leaves.

PS

Takes 5: Delicious Dishes Using Just 5 Ingredients was published in 2010 and is available (probably second hand) via the well-known channels for something like 20 US dollar or Euro.

Thank you Fred!

11 January 2024

In 1965 Yolanda and Fred de Leeuw took over Slagerij De Leeuw, previously owned by his father. They turned it into not only the best butcher in Amsterdam, but also the place to go for excellent home-made pastrami, the most delicious Bresse chicken and their smoked sausages. They started importing truffles for Urbani, had the best US beef and later the prestigious Kobe beef. Every Christmas they would have a brochure with an overview of culinary products (all home-made) and exceptional food. How about Chapon de Bresse (en demi-deuil) or Pauillac Lamb?

For Fred and Yolanda it was not about extravagance or running an expensive shop. It was about quality. About offering the very best to their customers. And yes, it was expensive, but it’s better to enjoy excellent pork once a week than eating mediocre meat every day of the week from poor animals stuffed with antibiotics. They retired in 2000, but their philosophy continues to be important.

In an interview with Fred and Yolanda, published last year, they make a number of interesting comments, for instance: “It’s better for everybody to grow less animals on more ground during a longer period. Better for the farmer, better for the animal and better for the consumer.”

We couldn’t agree more. Such a pity we continue to rush to supermarkets, the cheapest salmon, the cheapest chicken, more for less, without worrying too much about animal welfare, quality, taste and the impact on the environment and the climate.

We can hear you thinking: “So you’re saying the poor should eat beans and turnips, leaving the meat for the rich and well to do?”

Of course we don’t.

We’re saying that we all should understand that meat is an expensive product. And that three chicken wings for just €2,90 is only possible if the chickens live an awful life.

We are part of a vulnerable eco-system and we should help protecting it.

Fred de Leeuw passed away on October 21st 2023. We will remember him for his passion for quality and we thank him and Yolanda for sharing it with us. The last time we met, summer 2023, Yolanda and Fred talked with so much enthusiasm about a new restaurant they discovered, a restaurant focused on vegetables.
Fred said: “We’re butchers and we will always be butchers, but you won’t believe how delicious their food is.”

Het Vleesboek - Yolanda en Fred the Leeuw
Fred en Yolanda de Leeuw