COOKBOOKS GALORE

 I was given a medium sized cauliflower and as it's not my favourite vegetable, struggled to know what to do with it. Have kept a few French cookery magazines, and I found this recipe in a very old one from 1998!  It adds potatoes, lardons [bacon pieces], crème fraîche and cheese to the cauli, which makes it much more interesting You need: 1 medium cauliflower, 100g lardons [bacon bits], 500ml crème fraîche, 3 medium potatoes, 50 g of grated Conté,  a good strong Cheddar or Beaufort cheese, 1 egg and some salt and pepper Preheat oven 200C?Gas 6                 Grease a gratin dish [this amount feeds about 4 people] Break the cauliflower up into florets and peel the potatoes. Cook them in boiling water for 15mins. Beat the cream and egg together and add a little salt and pepper. Spoon the cauliflower into the greased dish, slice the potatoes and add with the bacon pieces. Pour over the cream mixture and sprinkle over the cheese....

 I love apricots, but usually in the supermarket they are in little punnets. I went to a market in another town at the weekend, and to my delight, they were selling them on a stall.  This recipe comes from a free recipe card from one of the French supermarkets. It's a popular recipe with my family. You need: 80g caster sugar and 80g soft brown sugar, 1 tspn vanilla extract, 50g ground almonds, 40g soft butter, 1kg apricots, 125g brioche [slices cut from a loaf], 200ml crème fraîche, 3 eggs, icing sugar to sprinkle Preheat oven 180C/gas4                                Grease a large ovenproof dish. Lay the slices of brioche in the bottom of the dish.  Cut the apricots in half and remove stone. Arrange the halves over the brioche, packing together well.  Sprinkle over the ground almonds and the brown sugar. In a bowl, beat together the eggs, caster sugar, vanilla extract, butter and crème f...

Thought I'd post something different this time. When we lived in France we had a large potager, and courgettes grew everywhere they could find a space! Look away for a minute and you had a marrow! This is my friend G's Tante Marie's recipe to use up some of them. It's useful as an a accompaniment to lots of meals, and is very easy to make. You need for 6: 2 courgettes, 4 potatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tbspn crème fraîche, 100g grated gruyère cheese, 3 sprigs of thyme, salt and pepper Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease a gratin dish. Peel the potatoes and cut into rounds, not too thick,  then do the same with the courgettes. Spoon into the dish, strip the thyme off the sprigs and sprinkle over the thyme, together with the crushed and chopped garlic, pepper and salt. In a bowl mix together the cheese and crème fraîche and spoon over the courgette mixture. Bake in the oven for 25-30 mins. A very simple, tasty dish. It goes well with pork chops or as an accompaniment to a bbq. ...

I love Autumn and its flavours, and one of my favourite is nuts. I know I've mentioned it before, but every Autumn in France we got given a bag of walnuts from my neighbour's tree. She used to make this tart with some of them. I bought a large bag of shelled walnuts on offer at a local deli, so decided to make her tart. I know the taste won't be quite the same, not using fresh nuts, but it will be a lovely memory of Reneé. Preheat oven 200C/gas6.            23cm tart tin Pastry: 125g flour, 75g butter, 25g caster sugar, pinch salt, 1 egg and 25ml water. Mix all the ingredients together into a firm ball of dough. Pop in fridge till needed. Filling: 500g shelled walnuts, 150ml crème fraîche, 60g caster sugar, 1 beaten egg, 1 tspn vanilla extract and icing sugar for the top. Keep enough walnuts back to have enough to cover the top. Put these on a baking tray and put into the oven for a few minutes till they have some colour. Put the rest in a blen...

Lovely Autumnal look to the trees around here, so thought of making something with apples. I love apple cakes, but having just made 2 for a leaving lunch, thought I'd make a tart. Having yet another sort out in a cupboard, I found a bottle of Calvados with just enough left to put in my tart! Got to be a Normandy Tart with Calvados! This is yet another recipe I got from my lovely neighbour in France, and I've made it many times for friends and family. You need: 1 pack of butter puff pastry, 4 medium apples, 160g caster sugar, 50g butter, 1/2 tspn cinnamon, 2 eggs,100ml crème fraîche, 1 tbspn Calvados and some flaked almonds Preheat oven 210C/gas7                       Grease a tart tin lightly Peel and core the apples and cut into thick slices. Melt the butter in a pan and add the apples, 30g of the sugar and the cinnamon. Cook gently for a few minutes, but be careful they don't stick to the bottom and burn! Roll the ...

I love to make one of these traditional French galettes, but wanted to make it a bit different so added some apples. You need: 2 packs of puff pastry, 3 eating apples, 200g crème fraîche, 200g ground almonds, 100g caster sugar + 40g, 3eggs and 1 egg yolk Preheat oven 220C/gas7                 A baking tray Cut the apples up into small cubes and put into a pan with the 40g of sugar. Caramelise for about 10 mins. Add 1 tbspn of the cream and mix together. In a bowl mix together the rest of the cream and the 100g of sugar, the ground almonds and eggs. Put this in the fridge for 10 mins. Roll out the pastry sheets. Cut out 2 large circles [I used a large dinner plate]. Put one of the circles on the baking tray and cover with the apples. If you have one, put a bean or little fêve in then spoon over the almond mixture. Cover with the second circle of pastry and pres the edges together. Dilute the egg yolk with 1 tbspn water then brush ove...

I love caramel and found this recipe in my magazine cuttings. It's not a difficult caramel to make, as I've had many disasters with it in the past!  You need:  Pack of shortcrust pastry, 2 eggs, 100g caster sugar, 60g butter, 100g walnuts chopped finely and 100g walnut halves For the Caramel: 20g butter, 100ml crème fraîche, 150g caster sugar Preheat oven 180C/gas4                 22cm tart tin For the tart: Cut the butter into pieces and melt for 1 min in a microwave. Leave to cool. Beat the eggs and caster sugar using an electric mixer or hand mixer till white and fluffy.  Add the chopped walnuts and melted butter and gently mix together. Roll out pastry to fit a tart tin which is at least 2.5cm high. Grease the tin then line with the pastry. Add the nut mixture gently. Bake for about 30 mins till golden. Caramel: Put the sugar in a pan and melt till brown. Heat the cream till boiling and pour over the su...

My daughter's favourite chocolate is white, so having recently made my son's favourite dessert, and as she was coming to stay for a week - a very rare occurrence - I decided to make her something using her favourite ingredient. I tried one of these crunchies at a coffee morning, and asked for the recipe. The only cooking involved is melting the chocolate, butter and crème fraîche. You need an 18cm square tin which you line with baking parchment. Break up 300g white chocolate and put in a bowl. Add 150g butter and 1 tbspn crème fraîche and melt together gently over a simmering pan of water. Crumble 100g Amaretti biscuits and chop up 100g candied fruit [I got mine in Waitrose]. When the mixture is melted, take the bowl and add the biscuits, fruit 25g dessicated coconut and 50g toasted flaked almonds. Mix it all together carefully. Spoon into the tin and leave to set in the fridge for 4 hours. Cut into 20 squares when set, using a knife dipped in hot water. It...

I was shopping in Milton Keynes last week and came across a shop rather like the now sadly defunct Julian Graves. They had a special opening offer on walnuts, so I bought a large bag - nuts are good for you, anti-oxidents, omega 3 etc! I wanted to make something different to use some of them, and came across a recipe for a walnut tart. It's from a tourist brochure I picked up somewhere in France, and this recipe, I was informed, is a speciality of the Périgord region. It brought back memories of when we lived in France, and my neighbour had a prolific walnut tree and would give my a huge carrier bag full. The only problem was you had to shell them all! At least the ones I bought were shell-free. Preheat oven 200C/gas6               A tart dish about 23cm or a flan tin with a loose bottom. For the shortcrust pastry -  125g flour, 75g butter, 25g caster sugar, 1 egg yolk, a pinch of salt and 25ml water Make the pastry and line the tart dish o...

I love recipes using apples, and I made this tart for dessert when my children came last weekend. It's unlike the usual French apple tart, as it has cream in the filling with the apples. It comes from a leaflet I picked up somewhere, several years ago, when we were in Alsace, and I've made it many times since. Preheat oven 190C/gas5               You need a large fluted and greased flan tin [preferably with a loose bottom] - 24-26cm. For the pastry : 170g flour, 1 tbspn caster sugar, pinch salt, 125g cold butter cut into cubes and 2 tbspn cold water. Rub the butter into the flour to which the sugar and salt have been added. Add the water and make into a ball. Cover in clingfilm and put into the fridge for about an hour. Roll into a circle, and use the rolling pin to fit the pastry into the flan tin. For the filling: You need 4 apples  - I used Granny Smith, but you could use Golden Delicious or Braeburn, but not Bramleys, as they don't ...