A table !!!
Vichyssoise – otherwise known as leek and potato soup! The autumn evenings are perfect for soup and this particular one is an all time favourite in this house. Home-made soup is cheap, easy and really tasty!
It is sometimes called vichyssoise here in France but to the best of my knowledge that refers to potato and leek soup served chilled – I’ve never tried it cold and am not about to 🙂
This is another savoury loaf (or cake as they say in french!) which is perfect as an aperitif or finger food for a buffet. Personally I prefer the ham and olive loaf, the recipe for which you can find here, but this is a good alternative if you are cooking for someone who doesn’t like olives 😉
I love lemon flavoured cakes and desserts but I like them to have a really strong lemon flavour so this lemon cake is only going to be the one for you if you really appreciate the tangy fruit too!
The icing is optional as even without, the cake is very lemon-y!
The temperature for the cake is 170°C and it really needs to be no higher, as you can see from the picture my cake got slightly too done on the outside because I wanted to double up and bake it at the same time as a brown bread loaf so everything went in at 180°C – I won’t be making that mistake again!
A velouté is a french term meaning that the soup has been thickened, in this case using chicken stock, flour and butter, giving it a smooth and creamy texture. The word velouté comes from the word velour which means velvet. Mushrooms are in season at the moment so when I found I had too many left in the fridge I decided to make a mushroom velouté – a great way to use them up and a great starter or lunch!
I was trying to think of a suitable name in english for this dish but couldn’t so I just stuck to the french one. Endives are mostly called chicory in english but are also called endives too.  A gratin means when a dish is topped with a golden crust, often using cheese or breadcrumbs by baking or cooking in the oven with an overhead grill.
A hachis parmentier is a french version of what is called shepherds pie in the english speaking world. Shepherds pie is traditionally made with lamb whereas as hachis parmentier is usually made with beef or duck. Hachis comes from the french verb hacher to chop or ‘mince’ and the word parmentier comes from Antoine-Auguste Parmentier the man who introduced potatoes to France.
