France

July 4 2022

Clafoutis

andrestover Bakes, National dishes, Sweet pies cherry, France 0

In principle, it is an oven pancake. An old, classic French dessert from the Limousin region in the southwest of the country, where it is classically made from black cherries typical of the region. The origin of this food is not clear, early recipes are dated sometime in the early 18th century. Traditionally, it is eaten at room temperature and dusted with powdered sugar before serving, sometimes this dessert is eaten with ice cream or whipped cream.
I made Clafoutis according to the recipe published in Larousse’s recipe collection. I used two different pans for Clafoutis a quiche pan and a cast-iron frying pan, but it can also be made in a regular cake mold.

Preparation time: 45-60 minutes
Level: Easy
Quantity: 1-2 cakes depending on the size of the pan. With a 24 cm mold, this amount makes two cakes.

Ingredients:
500 g of cherries, stones removed
100 g of sugar
125 g wheat flour
A pinch of sea salt
3 eggs
300 ml of milk
A little butter to grease the mold
To serve, powdered sugar, ice cream, or whipped cream.

Preparation:

Set the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a suitable-sized baking dish with butter.
Remove the stones from the cherries and place in the bottom of the mold. The amount of cherries largely depends on the taste but they could be in one layer.
Mix flour, milk, salt, sugar, and eggs into a smooth liquid dough. Indeed, neither butter nor baking powder goes into the dough.
Pour the batter over the cherries so that the top end of the cherries is remaining out of the batter.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until the Clafout is golden brown.
Cool to room temperature, serve with powdered sugar and ice cream or whipped cream.
Done!!

June 18 2022

Chicken fricassee

andrestover Bird meat, National dishes bay leaf, champignons, chicken, English, France, heavy cream, thyme, white wine 0

Food whose name comes from the French, but whose first mention can be found in English cookbooks in the 14th century. We can consider the origin of this food to be both great food culture countries. According to different sources, similar foods seem to have a cosmopolitan spread to different cultures. It is a food made using meat browning, mostly with butter, then stewed in broth, often white wine and cream are added. One of the most common variants of fricassee is made with white mushrooms. Chicken meat can be used to make fricassee, also veal and rabbit meat are suitable.

Preparation time: 20 min preparation, 45 min baking
Level: Average
Serves: four

Ingredients:
Four backs of chicken
Four chicken legs
400 g whole small mushrooms. If the mushrooms are large, they can be sliced
50 g butter for browning
100 ml of white wine
100 ml heavy cream
150 ml of water or broth
1 Large Onion chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2 bay leaves
Fresh or dried thyme to taste
To taste Salt and black pepper
0.5 teaspoon flour to thicken the sauce
Herbs to serve

Preparation:
1. Heat butter in a thick-bottomed pan and brown the chicken pieces on each side for a few minutes until nice and brown.
2. Set the chicken pieces aside and using the same pan fry the onion and garlic until golden. Add the mushrooms and fry them with the onion and garlic for a few minutes.
3. Pour wine, broth, or water into the pan and scrape off the browning layer left on the bottom of the pan with a spoon. Add bay leaves and thyme to the sauce. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Add chicken to the pan and simmer under the lid for 10-15 minutes over medium heat.
5. Remove the lid from the pan and simmer the chicken, turning the pieces from time to time for about 30-40 minutes until the chicken is tender.
6. Place the chicken pieces on a plate and add the flour and heavy cream dissolved in a little water to the sauce in the pan. Stir and cook the sauce on low heat for a few minutes until the sauce becomes slightly thicker.
7. Put the chicken pieces back in the sauce.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley or other pleasant herbs for serving.
Serve hot with baked potatoes or vegetables or salad.
Ready!!!

May 14 2022

French onion soup (soupe à l’oignon)

andrestover National dishes, Soups France, onion 0

Historically, French onion soup originates in Paris, France, in the 18th century. Classically, it is prepared with beef broth and caramelized onions, but it can also be easily prepared as a vegetarian variant, simply using water, and who do not have time to boil bones and prepare a broth, several commercial broth mixtures can be used, some of which are quite delicious. I used mixed cheese with roughly equal portions of grated Emmental cheese, cheddar, and parmesan to make my onion soup.

Preparation time: without taking into account the time of preparation of the broth about 1 hour
Level: average
Serves: for two

Ingredients:
500 g of white onion
500 ml of beef broth or water
200 g of grated cheese, it would be good to use either a mixture of cheeses or a Swiss type of easily melted cheese
75 g of butter
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 tbsp wheat flour
4 tbsp cognac
If there is a desire for the soup to be slightly tarter, add a few teaspoons of white wine vinegar
2-4 slices of good rustical bread, cut into slices about 3 cm thick
A little olive oil for roasting the bread

Preparation:
I do not describe the preparation of the broth here. When the broth is ready, then:
1. Peel the onions, cut them in half, and slice
2. Heat 75 g of butter in a thick-bottomed soup pot and brown over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, until the onion is golden brown and lightly caramelized
3. Add the flour, mix well with the onions, add a little water or broth, and mix until smooth to prevent the flour from forming
4. Add the remaining water or broth, stir, season with black pepper and salt, and simmer on low fire for about 15 min.
5. When the soup is boiled, add 3 tablespoons of cognac and divide the soup into heat-resistant bowls.
6. Cut bread into slices about 3 cm thick, sprinkle with olive oil, and roast without oil in a dry pan until golden brown.
7. Set the oven to grill mode, grate the cheese, and sprinkle a thin layer of cheese on the surface of the soup
8. Place 1-2 slices of bread on the surface of each bowl and cover with a thick layer of grated cheese.
9. Place the soup in the oven and grill until the cheese starts to brown Serve immediately after taking it out of the oven.
Ready!!

September 30 2021

Nice salad (Niçoise Salad)

andrestover National dishes, Salads anchovy, France, quail eggs, rucola, tuna 0

It is a fresh, summer salad belonging to the classic of French cuisine, which in the 19th century was called the food of a poor man because it used cheap ingredients such as tomatoes, anchovies, boiled eggs. Many of the world’s greatest chefs have made this salad in their way. I tried to stick to a simple, down-to-earth version. I replaced the chicken eggs with quail eggs and used a salad mix containing rucola, spinach, beets, lollo rosso. Many vegetables such as peppers, cucumbers, radishes can be mixed into this salad. In the case of fish, the use of salted anchovies is more obligatory, but salmon or other fish of your choice may be used instead of tuna. Boiled potatoes add strength to the salad. If the home pre-boiled potatoes, it will take minutes to make this salad.
I think this salad was worth it to try.

Preparation time: about 30 min to 1 hour
Level: easy
Serves: four

Ingredients:

Salad
2 medium potatoes
¼ onion very thinly sliced (red onion is delicious in the salad)
8 quail eggs boiled and cut in half
A large handful of mixed salad
A handful of black or brown olives
A handful of green beans blanched for about 3 minutes
8-10 cherry tomatoes cut in half
4 salted anchovy fillets
1 high quality canned tuna
Freshly grated black pepper and sea salt for seasoning
Basil leaves or parsley for garnishing

Sauce
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Sea salt and black pepper

Preparation:
1. Mix the sauce components evenly and let the sauce wait, it thickens slightly
2. Cut the boiled potatoes into pieces
3. Boil quail eggs for 4 minutes to get hard-boiled eggs, pour cold water after boiling the eggs and let cool. Peel the eggs and cut in half
4. Blanch the beans. Boil the water in a pot, add a little salt, and add frozen beans. Boil for 3 min. Then immediately strain under cold water
5. Place a large handful of salad on a plate and add 3-4 tablespoons of sauce. Add beans, potatoes, and olives.
6. Lift the pieces of tuna over the salad and set the anchovy slices nicely.
7. Cut the tomatoes and eggs in half and put aside the salad
Garnish with parsley or basil leaves
Ready !!

November 18 2020

Coq au vin

andrestover Bird meat, National dishes bay leaf, France, parsley, red wine, rosemary, thyme 0

A classic French dish which means in translation “rooster in wine”. The food, which appeared in recipe books in the 20th century, has become known through Julia Child’s cookbooks. It is not difficult to prepare this food, also it takes some time, but it is worth doing because the result is really tasty.
Chicken (rooster) is marinated in good red wine and stewed with a bunch of spices carrots, onions, garlic, and mushrooms very soft and served with mashed potatoes, vegetables, or even pearl onions.

Preparation time: 2-3 hours, additional marinating time 2-4 hours or overnight
Level: average
Quantity: for four

Ingredients:
1.5 kg pieces of chicken (ham or leg)
150 g of bacon sliced
About 10 mushrooms sliced
300 g of thin carrots cut into wheels
1 bottle of good red wine
1 large onion finely chopped
4 medium garlic cloves chopped
1 tablespoon flour
50 ml of cognac
Salt and black pepper for seasoning
3 bay leaves, a few sprigs of thyme and rosemary, and a bouquet of parsley springs bound to the bunch
To serve, 1 can of pearl onions and 200 g of small mushrooms
50 g of butter for frying of garnish

Preparation:
1. Season the chicken with black pepper and salt
2. Prepare a bouquet of spices. Bind with bay leaves, thyme, rosemary, and parsley
3. Place the seasoned chicken with the bouquet in a large bowl, pour over a bottle of red wine and marinate for 2-4 hours or overnight
3. Slice the finished bacon, slice the carrots and mushrooms, onion and garlic
4. Once the chicken is marinated, heat in a thick bottom pan couple of tablespoons of oil very hot and brown the chicken pieces until they are properly browned. Fry 4-5 pieces of chicken at a time, then the oil in the pan will not cool down too much during browning.
5. Brown the bacon pieces until crisp and set aside
6. Brown the carrots, mushrooms, onions, and garlic until golden brown, add the flour and brown lightly. Then add the cognac and mix well, also from the bottom of the pot. Pour over the marinade, add the bacon, and also a bouquet of spices.
7. Place the chicken in the marinade and simmer on a low heat stove or oven at 150 degrees for about 1.5 hours.
8. To prepare the garnish, heat butter in a pan, add pearl onions and mushrooms, fry lightly for a few minutes.
9. Serve the chicken with the sauce and garnish.
Ready !!

September 30 2020

Boeuf Bourguignon

andrestover Beef , National dishes beef, champignons, France, garlic, onion, oregano, parsley, rosemary, thyme, carrot 0

One of the most delicious casserole dishes in French cuisine, the preparation of which is not as complicated as it seems to be. The traditions of this food date back only to the 19th century. In the 20th century, it was started to be served in Parisian bistros. Julia Child has polished this food to perfection.
Boeuf Bourguignon is a beef stew made in a red wine sauce with carrots, onions, garlic, mushrooms, and sometimes even with bacon.
I wasn’t following any particular recipe, but I based on the best of the notes of Julia Child, Anne Willan, and other great chefs.
Preparing this food is a relatively long process, but the result is worth the effort.

Preparation time: 3-4 hours when the meat is marinated
Level: average
Quantity: for six to eight

Ingredients:
About 1-1.5 kg of boneless beef
A few tablespoons of cooking oil to brown the meat
2 tablespoons flour
Salt and pepper for seasoning
150g bacon
300g small mushrooms
2 medium onions, cut into sectors
2 cloves of garlic
2 medium carrots

Marinade
1 medium onion sliced
1 celery stalk sliced
1 medium garlic clove
Fresh herbs (red, thyme, rosemary)
0.5 teaspoons Black pepper and salt
1 bottle of red wine
2 tablespoons oil

Preparation:
1. Prepare the marinade. Pour red wine into a bowl, chop onion, celery, garlic, add fresh herbs, shake in black pepper, season with salt, add a small amount of oil
2. Cut the meat into 3-4 cm cubes and add the marinade. Marinate overnight.
3. Lift the meat out of the marinade and drain well through a sieve. Fry the meat in a thick-bottomed oven dish in a few tablespoons of oil over high heat until golden brown
4. Sift the marinade out of the herbs and pour the marinade over the browned meat, cover, and place in the oven at 160 degrees for at least 3 hours. Season with black pepper and salt. Be careful with salt, bacon is added to the food, which gives extra saltiness.
5. Cut the bacon into strips and brown and set aside
6. Fry carrots in a little oil, add garlic and mushrooms, and fry slightly
7. When the meat is stewed for two hours, add the bacon, carrots with garlic, and mushrooms. Peel onions, cut into slices, and add to the stew. Add a small amount of flour mixed with cold water to a smooth paste and mix with food. Simmer for about 1 hour until the meat is very tender.
8. Serve the food with boiled potatoes or mashed potatoes. Garnish with fresh parsley if desired.
Ready !!

August 31 2020

Tomatoes stuffed with goat cheese

andrestover National dishes, Side dishes France, goat cheese, parsley, thyme, tomato 0

Tomatoes Farcies Au Fromage de Chèvre, one of the Provencal country cuisine’s appetizers, is easy to prepare and gives a restaurant-like meal both in shape and taste.
There are many good tomatoes available in the fall, use this time at the beginning of autumn to prepare this food.

Preparation time: 30 min
Level: easy
Quantity: for two to four

Ingredients:
Four medium-sized tomatoes, a total of about 500-600g
Salt and black pepper for seasoning
A few tablespoons of olive oil
200 g of soft goat cheese
2 finely chopped garlic cloves
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
4 slices of toast (optional)

Preparation:
1. Cut off the top of the tomatoes, hollow the tomatoes with a spoon
2. Season the tomatoes inside with salt and pepper
3. Mix goat cheese with chopped garlic and spices
4. Fill the tomatoes, pour over the olive oil
5. Bake in an oven-baked oven at 200 degrees C for about 20 minutes
6. If you used toast slices, then toast the bread in a dry and hot pan, cut a plate of tomatoes under the bread slice, lift the tomato to a slice of toasted bread when serving
Serve warm.
Ready !!

March 30 2019

Italian-style Charlotte cake

andrestover Bakes, Desserts, National dishes France, whipped cream, cake 0

A classic French dessert with a number of variations, depending on the region and the cafés-restaurants that make it. One of the options is to make a Charlotte cake using biscuit, whipped cream, and compatible berries. This Charlotte is made for Airi’s birthday, and its preparation was finally not complicated when it was finally taken. I used it to produce an English biskvit, which tastes better and has more sponge-cake texture.

Preparation time: 2-3 hours
Level: More complicated than average
Quantity: one cake 12-16 slices

Ingredients
Biskvit

85g sugar
4 big eggs
135g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
0.5 teaspoons vanilla sugar

Filling
600 ml 35% whipped cream
1 full tbs of gelatin
3 tbs of sugar
400g of fresh strawberries

For strawberry puree
A handful of strawberries with a little water crushed puree

Other ingredients
1 pack or few pieces more of Savoiard cookies
200g of strawberries sliced
150 ml of whipped cream for decoration
200g of fresh raspberries
Lemon balm leaves

Preparation
1. Whip the eggs with sugar and vanilla in a light and fluffy foam
2. Mix flour and baking powder
3. Sift flour into the egg foam, mix gently with a spoon. Don’t use an electronic mixer.
4. Bake in 24 cm mold at 200 degrees for 20-30 min.
5. Allow to cool and cut the biscuit in half to two discs
6. Cut a using scissors 1 cm layer from edge of the each biscuit to fit the Savoiard cookies (please read below).
7. Place the biscuit disc on the serving tray, lift the 24 cm cake mold onto the biscuit so that the biscuit remains in the center of the mold.
8. Cut one end of the Savoiard’s cookies (about half a cm)
9. Place the cookies on the inside of the mold until a uniform circle is formed
10. Crush a handful of strawberries with a little water and gently moisturize the biscuit layer
11. Cover the layer of biskvit with strawberries
12. Chop roughly the 400g of strawberries into pieces
13. Melt gelatine on low heat in small amount of water
14. Whip the d cream until soft foam
15. Stir the strawberries into the whipped cream, add the melted gelatin and mix thoroughly.
16. Pour half of the mixture of whipped cream and strawberries onto the biscuit layer and spread well with the spoon.
17. Place the second biscuit layer on the whipped cream mixture and moisturize with strawberry puree
18. Pour the mixture of the rest of the whipped cream and strawberries onto the biscuit layer, spread evenly and put into the fridge overnight.
19. After 10-12h remove the cake mold ring
20. Whip 150 ml of cream with 1 teaspoon of sugar, put in a pastry bag and spray about 5-6 cm wide circle at the edge of the cake, leave a free space for the berries in the center.
21. Raise fresh raspberries and lemon balm leaves in the middle of the cake.
Ready to serve.
Ready !!

October 29 2018

Tarte tatin

andrestover Bakes, Sweet pies apple, cinnamon, France 0

A French cuisine classics, which was made in the 1880’s at the Hotel Tatin and became the signature dish of the hotel. It is made in classical fashion on the basis of buffy pastry, using caramelized sugar, usually apples, but also pears, plums, and other fruits.
The cake is easy to make and preparation is relatively quick.

I baked this cake for Krista’s birthday, using not classical pastry but shortcrust pastry which is fragrant, gluten and dairy-free.

Preparation time: 20 min preparation, 30 min baking
Level: easy
Serves: one cake 12-15 slices

Ingredients:

Pastry
185 g high-quality wheat flour or gluten-free flour (Mix 7)
0.25 teaspoons of sea salt
75 g of sugar
3 egg yolks
0.5 teaspoons of vanilla sugar
90 g of milk-free butter

Filling
125 g sugar
0.5 teaspoon of cinnamon
0.5 teaspoon vanilla sugar
25 g butter
6-7 Royal Gala apples

Preparation:
1. Mix flour, cold butter, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla sugar to the dough and roll it on baking sheet thin in shape and size of frying-pan
2. Peel apples and cut into four sectors, heat the oven to 200 degrees C
3. Caramelize in the heat-proof frying pan in low heat the sugar, vanilla sugar and butter until the caramel is lightly brown. Take the pan from the fire and add cinnamon. Miz well.
4. Lay apples in the pan to the caramel bottom nicely in a circular shape and cover with a dough. Using fork make some holes in the dough and place the cake to the oven and bake until the dough is light brown. Move the pan and make sure the dough is loose from the edges of the pan and the cake “moves” in the pan freely
5. Put serving platter above of the pan and turn the pan together with the platter over using fast movement. Remove the pan.
Serve immediately. This cake is good with ice-cream.
Ready !!!

October 28 2018

Duck à l’Orange

andrestover Bird meat Duck, France, rosemary, thyme 0

The Duck à l’Orange or canard à l’orange is dish belonging to the French classic. Duck is cooked with oranges and herbs and served with orange-based sauce. This food can be made also by duck breast but this time I did it using whole duck.
The preparation of this food is not as complicated as it seems, but not super-simple either. In any case, it is worth to try and the result is food with crispy skin and delicious soft meat.

Preparation time: 20 min preparation, 2-2.5 hours cooking
Level: medium
Quantity: four to six

Ingredients:
One duck, 2-3 kg
A small bunch or rosemary
Small bunch or thyme
4 oranges
1 medium onion
2-3 garlic cloves
1 tbs tomato paste
25 ml cognac
Salt and black pepper for seasoning
2-3 tbs olive oil
3 tbs sugar
1 tbs cider vinegar

Preparation:
Duck
1. Cut off the ends of the duck wing, remove excess of fat if necessary
2. Cut thyme and rosemary roughly, add the salt and pepper, rub the mixture inside of the duck.
3. Cut 2 oranges into four quarters and fill the duck with the oranges
4. Heat the oven to 250 degrees, place the large pan into the oven for the collection of the fat, add about 300 ml of water into the fat collecting pan, place the duck to the rack placed above of the fat collecting pan and cook for 30 minutes. During that time duck will be soft and skin very crispy.
5. Lower the heat to 200 degrees C, turn duck after each 20 min during the 2 hours. After 2 hours the duck will be soft and fragrant and skin will be very crispy.
6. Jolien stripes from the orange peel, boil 3 min and cool-down. Use for serving.

Sauce
Chop the onion, garlic finely, chop 1 teaspoon of rosemary and thyme and fry in a little olive oil for 10 minutes.
2. Add tomato paste and boil the sauce for 20 min at low temperature
3. Squeeze 2 juice of oranges and add to the sauce. Season with salt and pepper
4. Caramelize in a separate pan sugar with a cider vinegar at a low temperature of about 5 minutes and add to the sauce
5. When the duck is ready, pour from the fat collection pan a little fat and duck juice into the sauce. Pour the rest of the fat into a separate jar for later use. Add the cognac to the fat collection pan and ignite it. Burn until the alcohol is vaporized, pour the liquid that remains to the sauce and serves.
Serve with potato-root celery-parsnip puree and woked carrots.
Ready !!