Cherry Clafoutis

Clafoutis aux Cerises - Cherry Clafoutis

Goodness comes in ripe little red packages and I am over the moon that it's cherry season once again. I'm sure we have all tried on cherry earrings, moustaches, and hair ties when we were kids - or even older.

I could not let this season pass without making my favourite French recipe. Time consuming as it may be to take out cherry stones, you will thank yourself that you did because this dessert is so worth the bother. A Clafoutis is a creamy, custardy dessert stuffed with fruit, which should just melt in your mouth.
I think originally the stones were left in the cherries, but today I am so very fearful of losing fillings that I do pit them.

I must make an admission here - I made a Clafoutis the other day, not using my favourite recipe but trying out a new one and I'm sorry to say, it was a dud! 

Although the taste was there, the custard was rubbery and definitely not creamy.  Did I over cook it? Maybe, but I baked it for a lot less than the recipe called for.  It was a little embarrassing because I had friends for dinner! However, they weren't too unhappy to see the odd failure and the dish was licked clean nevertheless!

So here is my bog standard recipe - works every time!

Did you know?  Cherries have excellent health benefits if you suffer from Gout, as research shows that they reduce Uric Acid. Also Osteoarthritis flare ups can be reduced by drinking cherry juice every day! Now that can't be a bad excuse. Enjoy!

Clafoutis aux Cerises -  Cherry Clafoutis

Ingredients

2 cups cherries pitted
1 cup milk
3 eggs 
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp almond essence
30 g flaked almonds
60g melted butter cooled
1/2 cup plain flour
50g almond meal
2/3 cup caster sugar
2 tablespoons cornflour
pinch of salt
Icing Sugar for dusting

Pre heat oven to 170º fan forced/325 degrees.

Butter a deep sided dish (around a 3 cup size)
Layer the bottom of the dish with flaked almonds and pitted cherries. Spread them out over the bottom of your dish but don't be too particular.

Whisk 3 eggs, in a large bowl. Add sugar, almond essence, vanilla, cornflour, salt and continue to whisk. Add almond meal, flour and gradually the milk and whisk until the mixture is a smooth batter.

Put the batter aside for 30 minutes to rest.

Place the dish of cherries in the oven and cook for 5 minutes, to allow the cherries to soften a little.

Pour over the batter and bake in the oven for around 30 minutes. The top should be slightly brown and springy. Be careful not to over cook.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Dust with icing sugar and serve either warm or cold. You do not need to add any cream or ice cream to this dessert unless you are feeling really piggish!

Should serve 6 people - unless you have friends like mine that can demolish anything this size between 4 people.

French Bread

Bread making has never been my strong point. I can buy exceptional artisan bread locally - but yes there is a cost involved and a high one. If you can get all the element right, then bread making should really be a pretty easy process, but I did say "if".  Attempts previously have been under proved, over proved, under cooked,  or just plain revolting.

I found a recipe for some French style loaves on line and it look relatively easy and I was very surprised that they turned out into something resembling bread, well edible - but they weren't French! What I really wanted was a baguette!

Here's my first attempt at making French Loaves

Since this attempt I have been reading more about bread making and what's needed to make a good 'baguette' and it seems that steam is needed to get something close to authentic. I decided to try again using a a different recipe and I introduced some steam into the picture to see if I could get the bread I was looking for.
I am sure there are a lot of bakers that can't understand the difficulty we mere humans have with making bread, but I am trying !!!!!

The recipe I found on the web at http://foodwishes.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/perfect-french-baguette-at-home-only.html. Thanks Chef John for sharing this and the little video that goes with it to walk you through step by step.

It's a no knead recipe that seemed to be pretty simple to make, but the proving time said 12 hours in a warm place.  Although it isn't quite winter, the evenings are very chilly and my house cools overnight and I was wondering if it would rise at all. I did not need to worry because I left the light on in the oven for a good 3 hrs to give it a start and that was sufficient to keep it warm and help it to rise. 

Here's a photo of the finished product. Not bad? This is the closest I have got to a Baguette and I think if I keep trying to tweek the recipe I should end up with something close. The density of the bread is pretty good and it turned out to be very light and crusty.

If you have another recipe that you think works well, please let me know, I am desperate to make some more.

Next batch I will add a few more photos, but until then Happy Baking!

Pizza or Pissaladière?

I am sitting, quietly thinking, enjoying the last weeks of warm weather. As the trees turn their autumn colours, leaves slowly drifting off their branches and hurried along by wind gusts, its hard to imagine that summer is over so soon. I will welcome the winter this year because we have had so little rain. Gardens are dying and animals have no feed in their paddocks. Cattle and sheep are being fed on hay, a big expense for farmers, but what is the alternative?

It has been dry enough to send brown snakes up to the house and Blue Tongue lizards out from their shrubbery: koalas drinking water from containers put out by caring neighbours, it is the driest period in 38 years.

Early mornings have the autumn air and soon there will be heaters and sweaters and wooly hats and thick soups to take the chill off any outdoor pursuits. But until then lets enjoy what mother nature provides, the warmth of the sun and the colours of a rainbow.

I've just been looking at photographs taken a couple of years ago in France and the gardens are so beautiful and the countryside is so green; I 'm reminded of Brie and French Onion Soup and truffles, so tonight I am going to settle on a French dish!

Do you know the difference between a Pizza and a Pissaladière? If you are not sure then here is a simple explanation. Pissaladière is the French equivalent of an Italian pizza without cheese.

If you drop in to any bakery in the Provence region of France, you are sure to find a version of this. A Pissaladière is full of creamy onions, anchovies and olives. While it is a simple dish the onions must be slowly cooked in butter so they do not brown but become deliciously soft and buttery and melt in the mouth.

Here's a recipe for you to try, loosely based on a recipe of Marie Claire.

While I was hunting around at French Language Courses, I stumbled upon this blog.http://www.frenchmoments.eu/category/blog.

There are some beautiful photographs of France and especially Paris. It is worth taking a look and I am excited to think that I will be visiting Paris later in the year. 

Pissaladière

DOUGH

2 cups plain flour - I use 00 flour
1 teaspoon  dried yeast
3/4 cup warm water
pinch sugar
1/4 cup olive oil

FILLING

1 kilo brown onions finely sliced
125 grams butter
anchovies
black olives
fresh thyme
salt and pepper

Starting with the dough - place the flour, sugar, yeast into a bowl. Add oil to the water and mix then add to the dry ingredients. Bring the dough together. Knead for a few minutes until the dough becomes soft and smooth. Cover and leave in a warm place until it doubles in size.

To make the filling. Slice the onions finely. Add butter to a frypan and add the onions and fresh thyme. Cook on a very low heat for around 1 - 1.5 hours until the onions are transparent and very very soft. Do not allow them to brown. Season with salt and pepper and set aside to cool.

Once the pastry has risen, roll out to a rectangle on to some parchment paper about 40 cm x 30 cms . Place on a baking tray. Brush the pastry with a little olive oil and add all of the onions spreading over the entire surface. Next add the anchovies, which have been cut in half lengthways, in a cross pattern. (see picture) Add black olives. Set aside and allow to stand for another 20 - 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 220º degrees C/200 fan forced and cook the Pissaaladiere for 15 - 20 minutes, until the dough is crisp and brown and the onions have some colour. Turn onto a cutting board and cut into pieces. Enjoy with a green salad and a glass of red wine.

The French Breakfast Table

When I travel overseas, I don't generally pre book accommodation. I like the excitement (one could call it stress) of arriving in a town or city I don't know, dabbling in a language I barely know, and finding somewhere to stay. There are exceptions of course, depending on the arrival time and how long I plan to stay in one place.

My yearning to visit Monet's Garden in Giverny, France a couple of years ago, in peak season, meant that I should be very sensible and pre book some accommodation. But booking over the internet can be disastrous, promising the earth and delivering little. To date I must admit to have been pretty lucky.

So I searched for B & B's close to Giverny  and booked for 2 nights accommodation. The town, a short drive away from the garden, was little more than a one antique shop and school, village. I had fingers and toes crossed.

Claude Monet's famous water lily pond and house in the background

Boats on Monet's water lily Pond

Our accommodation was part of a typical renovated French farmhouse, with chickens, two dogs and a garden to die for. Patrick and Francoise who run La Clos Tanpere at Pressagny L'Orgueilleux , greeted us like friends. http://giverny.org/hotels/tanpere/

Lounge and the breakfast nook at La Clos Tanpere

 Their house was adorned with antiques and  interesting pieces of art, which we were to learn later were all fashion illustrations done by Francoise. The interior was quirky, and deliciously homely and we were delighted by the experience.

But breakfast was a whole story in itself. There was a table laid for us in a nook in the lounge. This lovely antique table sported a pretty embroidered white table cloth and spotted china in the shape of hearts. Small sugar cubes in a silver bowl, embroidered napkins and red roses petals strewn over the table. I don't remember what we had to eat but the table setting has remained firmly implanted in my head and my heart. It was beautiful.
Arriving back in Australia, I decided to recreate what we now call the 'French Breakfast Table'.
On Sundays, my husband and I lay the table and we take it in turns to make breakfast, a leisurely affair with new recipes and surprises. The only rules are you can't make the same recipes two weeks in a row and there are no rose petals. I don't normally share this with others, but we had such a lovely breakfast on Sunday, that I thought you may enjoy it and it could also bring a little joy into your lives.

Blueberry Pancakes with Vanilla

I have made many a pancake in my life, but these just have to be the best ever! They make small fluffy, American style pancakes.

This made 8 pancakes

11/2 cups milk

1 punnet of blueberries, washed

3 tsps vanilla extract

2 cups of self raising flour

Butter melted

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 egg
1/4 cup caster sugar

Plain yoghurt for serving

• Into a large bowl sift bicarbonate of soda and flour 
• In a small bowl beat egg and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, stir in sugar.
• Fold the egg and vanilla into the flour, adding the milk a little at a time until you have a lovely batter with no lumps.
• Fold in the blueberries and the last teaspoon of vanilla extract.
• Melt some butter in a small saucepan and use this to coat a non stick fry pan.
• Using a large spoon, spoon some batter into the frypan and cook reasonably quickly turning once one side is brown.
• The blueberries should be just starting to melt.
• Serve with a dollop of plain yoghurt and a sprinkle of icing sugar

It's Raining Tomatoes

My vegetable garden has been badly hit by a week of  40+ degree temperatures. Some plants have perished and some are chucking out fruit like there is no tomorrow. Unfortunately, the tomato plants  I bought a few months ago must have been wrongly labelled. So instead of having 3 normal sized tomatoes and 3 cherry tomatoes, they are all cherry! So I have a few hundred baby tomatoes and really, they aren't great for making sauce, so I have hunted through my stack of recipes which are tried and tested, to see what I haven't cooked in a while.
Here is the first; a very simple but tasty dish which uses up your excess tomatoes. You can use ready made puff pastry, but making your own is so much more fun and it really doesn't take more than 10 mins, plus resting time.

Tomato and Thyme Tart Tatin

Lay pastry over the top and tuck in

Ingredients

Puff Pastry

250g Plain flour
250g Butter at room temperature, but not soft
Pinch salt
<100mls Cold water

• Mix sieved flour, salt in a large bowl.
• Add chunks of butter and rub in to flour, so it resembles large breadcrumbs.
• Because there is a lot of butter, you will still see large chunks of it, so don't worry, this is how it is supposed to look.
• Add water in two or three batches because you don't want it to get too wet and mix to a soft dough.
• Knead it a little until it is in one smooth round ball, wrap in cling film and put in fridge to rest for 30 minutes.
• Roll pastry in one direction until it measures twice the size you started with.
• Fold into thirds, cling film and rest again for 20 minutes.
• Pastry is ready to use and you roll it out to the size, a little bigger than the pot you are cooking your tomatoes in. 

I only used half of this pastry for the recipe. The rest I double wrapped in cling film and put in the freezer for next week.

While pastry is resting for the second time, start making the tomato filling.

Browning off nicely

Ready to Eat

Filling

400g of cherry tomatoes
Few sprigs time
Salt and pepper
1/4 Cup of sugar 
1/4 Cup water
1 Red Onion very finely sliced
1 tbls Balsamic vinegar
1 tbls Olive oil
knob of butter

Heat oven to 200 degrees fan forced 

• In a pan suitable to put in the oven and on the cook top, add butter and oil caramelise the red onion, adding a pinch of sugar. Remove when cooked about 10 minutes.
• Add sugar and water and shake the pan gently, do not stir, to make caramel for the tomatoes. As soon as you see a hint of brown around the edge remove from the heat.
• Add balsamic vinegar and stir. Add tomatoes and some thyme (I usually add a small handful) and gentle stir it all together. 
• Now add cooked onions and stir again.
• Once you have rolled out your pastry, gently lower it over the cooked tomatoes, tucking in the edges. 
• Slit the top of the pastry in two or three places with a sharp knife.
• Cook in the oven for around 30 minutes until crisp and golden.
• Once out of the oven, leave in pan for 10 mins and then gently ease the sides away from the pan. Place a plate on the top and invert.
• I usually leave this for another 10 minutes before serving. 
• Decorate with a sprig or two of thyme and serve with a green salad.

I'll post another tomato recipe later in the week.

Are You a Good Egg?

There are many times in my life when I have found myself truly in awe of nature. The complexity of a structure versus the simplicity of design.
There is nothing simple about an egg. It is sophisticated, intelligently packaged, a highly portable, a highly nutritious, protein fix. A perfect, natural occurrence without interference by man! (Not much anyway) So I have a great love of this very versatile product.

I used to keep chickens and would be so excited when I found a new laid egg, still warm. Now there are no chickens, but I search out the best free range eggs available locally.

When I lived in Sydney, I would spend Friday evenings after work browsing the shops for an hour or so, then I would meet up with my husband and we would head to our favourite little restaurant in a basement in Albion Street. It was usually very full by the time we arrived, but being regulars we would be guaranteed a seat. The interior was basic, subdued lighting, red walls, wooden tables, a blackboard menu, great atmosphere and cheap!

We always ordered a carafe of house red or white and we would sit back and watch the waiters take orders, serve tables and wait for our food to arrive. Service was fast, food simple, fresh and delicious.

We only ever ordered Omelette and salad, my favourites being "Omelet fine herbe" or "Savoyarde", cheese and potato. Every omelette was beautifully made, elegantly served with crusty baguette and a side of vinaigrette to splash on the salad.
One of the house specialities was Bouillabaisse. This arrived in large white bowls with a mound of steaming mussels, succulent fish pieces and a mild but superbly seasoned, sauce. And it was all served with a minimum of fuss and maximum pride. 

La Guillotine in inner city Sydney, began operating in late 1960's and is still operating as a restaurant. They have moved premises, around the corner from the original, but the red walls remain and the omelettes are the same, although not served as the traditional folded one. They have extended the menu but omelettes are still the hero on the menu.
Recently, a relative called in for lunch at La Guillotine and commented that "it was a nice experience, not trying to be trendy, basic food but good quality" "breath of fresh air"!

Photograph by Ian Drummond

I haven't been to Sydney for a while, but I am can guarantee that on my next trip I will make a heading back to La Guillotine. The restaurant is now located at 518 Kent Street, Sydney.

So where is this all leading? - you guessed it, omelettes.

A few people have told me that they lack confidence in making an omelet , because it always turns out like scrambled egg. Now you may think it is rather funny, that some people can't make an omelette, because to me there is nothing simpler if you follow the rules. If you are one of those people that tremble at the thought of making one then read on, this is classic French cooking.

Omelet aux Fines Herbes

For each person allow:
2 - 3  eggs 
2 tablespoons of mixed herbs - parsley, tarragon, chervil (you can just use parsley)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon water
knob of butter or tablespoon of oil

Warm a non stick frypan on low heat until it is hot, add a small knob of butter and swish it around the pan, making sure it does not burn.

Whip eggs very slightly just to break the yolks, add a tablespoon of water

Add eggs to the pan and immediately begin to stir the eggs with a fork while shaking the pan at the same time. This will ensure the eggs don't stick. Keep stirring the uncooked bits of the egg so that they begin to set. Make sure the pan is covered with egg and there are 'no gaps'. 

Once the eggs have started to set, stop shaking  and stirring.

Season with salt and pepper, add your filling - herbs, quickly. This last bit needs to be done very quickly so the omelette does not over cook.

Tilt the pan away from you and allow the omelet to slide up the side of the pan. Now using your fork, fold this part over the filling, fold the opposite edge over as well. Slide the omelet onto a plate, making sure that the 'fold' is underneath or seam side down. Add a sprinkling of parsley or a sprig to decorate and serve immediately with a green salad and some fresh bread to mop up the runny bits! Or pan fry cubes of potato with a little lemon zest and season with salt.

Now tell me, how easy is this?