Petit Salé aux lentilles is a classic french dish from the Auvergne region dish using pork that has been salted by placing the cuts of pork in brine for up to 48hrs.

The meat in this dish is cured in salt so there should be no need to add salt to the dish. Several cuts can be used so it is up to what you prefer or what your butcher has – pork shoulder, ham shank or ham hock, pork belly etc

Ingredients :

• 1kg salted pork
• 600g green lentils
• 5 carrots
• 1 large onion with 2 cloves
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 bouquet garni
• Pepper

Method :

1. Soak the pork in cold water for 2 hours if necessary to remove excess salt
2. Place the meat in a large saucepan and cover with cold water
3. Add the onion studded with cloves, the 3 garlic cloves unpeeled, one carrot sliced in thick slices, the bouquet garni and pepper
4. Cover the saucepan and cook the meat for 1hr30
5. Rinse the green lentils under cold water and add to the pan along with the 4 remaining carrots diced in small squares
6. Cook for another 30 minutes
7. Rectify seasoning if necessary
8. Serve in soup dishes – with some crusty bread.

Sablé cookies are a traditional Christmas fare in France, although they are well loved all year round 🙂 They are from the Normandy region and are delicious plain but you can also dip them in dark chocolate or vary the flavourings – almond, orange zest, cinnamon etc.

The word sable means sand in French which is the term used when the English use the term “breadcrumbs”, as you rub the cold butter, flour and sugar together at the start of the recipe to make texture like breadcrumbs (or sand) before adding the egg.

Ingredients :

• 250g flour
• 125g butter
• 75g sugar
• 1 egg
• A few drops of vanilla essence
• I egg yolk (for brushing cookies before baking)

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Rub the flour, butter and sugar together until you get a breadcrumb texture
3. Make a well in the centre and add the egg and knead the dough into a ball
4. Leave the dough to rest for at least 30 minutes
5. Place on a smooth surface and roll out
6. Use cutters to cut out the cookie shapes
7. Brush the sablé cookies with egg yolk (to get a nice gold colour)
8. Bake in oven at 180°C for 12-15 minutes (keep an eye on them, once they are nice and golden remove from oven and place on cooling rack

Chocolate and pears go so well together, the dark chocolate and sweet moist pears make a lovely combination. I have already posted a pear and chocolate loaf , ideal with afternoon tea, this is more of a dessert which is perfect served with a scoop of ice-cream.

At this time of the year you can use fresh pears, making sure they are nice and ripe. You can always use a tin of pears too though!

Ingredients :

• 200 g dark chocolat (70%)
• 150 g butter
• 120 g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 130 g self-raising flour
• 4 pears

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Melt the butter and chocolat together in a bain-marie (put ingredients in bowl and place bowl in saucepan of water over a low heat)
3. Mix in the sugar
4. Separate the eggs into whites and yolks and add the yolks to the mixture
5. Fold in the flour
6. Beat the egg whites (with a pinch of salt) until stiff and gently fold them into the rest of the ingredients
7. Peel and core pears and slice in half
8. Grease and flour tin, place the pear halves on the bottom and cover with chocolate cake mixture
9. Bake in oven at 180°C for 40 minutes
10. Remove from tin immediately and place on rack to cool

Chocolate Pear Cake

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A biscuit roulé (literally meaning rolled biscuit) is very similar to a swiss roll and particularly popular at this time of year as a base for a christmas log cake, called a bûche de Noel in french.

The actual base for the cake is called a ‘genoise’ which is a sponge cake that uses whole eggs and is a basic building block of much French patisserie and is used for making several different types of cake.

Ingredients :

• 4 eggs
• 150 g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar
• 125g self-raising flour
• 1 pinch of salt
• Jam or nutella

Method :

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C
2. Beat the eggs, sugar (caster sugar and vanilla sugar) and the salt well with an electric mixer until pale, light and fluffy
3. Fold in the flour gently
4. Pour the mixture onto an oven tray that you have lined with greaseproof paper
5. Bake for 12 minutes
6. Prepare a clean, damp tea-towel and place it on top of the oven tray and flip it over so that your cake is on the damp tea-towel
7. Roll the cake with the tea-towel and leave to cool
8. When the cake is cold gently unroll and spread with jam or nutella, re-roll it and sprinkle with a bit of icing sugar et voilà!

*Make sure to roll the cake when it is just out of the oven and still pliable

*You can make a chocolate base by substituting 25g of cocoa for 25g of flour

Beef bourguignon (sometimes also called beef burgundy in english) is a well known traditional french recipe and comes from the Burgundy region of France as do many other famous french dishes such as snails and the delicious appetizer gougères which I recently posted the recipe for.

Ingredients :

• 1 kg of braising steak
• 6 carrots
• 1 onion pierced with 2 cloves
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 orange
• Bouquet Garni
• 100g bacon lardons
• 50g butter
• 75cl (1 bottle) of dry red wine preferable a burgundy wine
• 1 tablespoon of tomato concentrate
• 1 tablespoon of flour
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• Salt & Pepper

Method :

1. The day before put the beef into a large bowl with the red wine, the juice and zest of the orange, the onion with cloves, the clove of garlic, the bouquet garni and the sugar, then cover and leave in the fridge overnight
2. The next day strain the marinade. In a large saucepan brown the meat in the butter
3. Add the flour and the tomato puree
4. Cook for 5 minutes over a gentle heat mixing all the time, then add the marinade and aromates (onion, garlic, bouquet garni)
5. Add the carrots, chopped into large chunks
6. Season and bring to a simmer. Give everything a good stir, then cover.
7. Cook over a low heat for 2 hours (until the meat is well cooked) The lower the heat and the slower the cooking, the better
8. Place the lardons in a saucepan of cold water and bring to the boil for 3 minutes to blanch them, drain once done
9. If the meat sauce is not thick enough, remove the meat and garniture from the pan and cook the sauce until it thickens
10. Put the meat and garniture back in the pan with the lardons, cook altogether for 5 minutes  over a low heat
11. Serve with mashed potatoes

Beef Bourguignon

A gougère is a baked savory choux pastry made of choux dough mixed with cheese, usually gruyère or comté but you can use emmenthal or any hard cheese really – even cheddar!

Ingredients :

• 4 eggs
• 100g grated gruyère (or you can use any hard cheese you have – cheddar, parmesan etc)
• 60g unsalted butter
• 150g flour
• 1 pinch of nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 210°C
2. Pour 25cl of water into a saucepan and add the butter, chopped in cubes and the salt
3. Bring to the boil
4. Add the flour and stir well with a wooden spatula
5. Continue stirring constantly for a few minutes until the dough pulls away from the side of the pot and forms a ball
6. Remove from heat and add each egg , one by one, mixing well between each one (Don’t worry if the batter separates and looks curdled at first, keep beating, and it will come together eventually!)
7. Add the grated cheese and nutmeg
8. Using two teaspoons make small balls of dough and place them on an oven tray covered in parchment paper (dip your spoons in a bowl of hot water between each scoop to avoid dough sticking to them)
9. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until well golden

Tarte Tatin is a well known french apple tart. Research shows that it is called after two sisters, Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin who ran a hotel, Hotel Tatin, in Sologne (region about 100km south of Paris).

The most well known story is that one of the sisters dropped the tart after taking it out of the oven and it fell upside down, but she decided to pick it up and serve it anyway with the apples on top and the pastry on the bottom. Apparently on the sisters menu the tart was called a Tarte Solognote after the region they were living in but when the tart became well known and made it to Paris the name was changed to Tarte Tatin after the sisters.

Ingredients :

• 1 short cut pastry – recipe here (add a tablespoon of sugar to the recipe for a sweet pastry)
• 4-6 apples
• 100g sugar
• 50g soft brown sugar
• 50g butter
•  Juice of 1 lemon

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Peel and cut apples into quarters and sprinkle the juice of half a lemon over them
3. Take 100g of the sugar and add in an even layer to a heavy-bottomed saucepan or an oven proof dish suitable for the tart
4. Heat the sugar over a moderate heat.
5. Use a silicone spatula or a wooden spoon to move the liquefied sugar from the edges of the saucepan to the center.
6. Carefully watch the sugar until it reaches exactly the right amber color
7. Add half the juice to the caramel
8. If your pan isn’t oven proof and not suitable to use for the tart pour the caramel into the tart dish (otherwise use the same dish)
9. Place the apples on the caramel (rounded side down), trying to completely cover the base. Add any remaining apples on top of the base layer
10. Cube the  50g of butter and place on apples
11. Sprinkle the soft brown sugar over the apples
12. Cover the apples with the short-cut pastry taking care to press down around the sides of the pan
13. Sprinkle some sugar over the pastry (this will help prevent the pastry from getting too wet from the apples)
14. Bake for 30 minutes at 180°C
15. Remove from oven and using a plate turn the tart upside down but leave in tin/pan for a good 10 minutes before removing (this will avoid any apples sticking to the pan)
16. Serve warm with some ice-cream

The tarte tatin before cooking

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Rillettes are a meat (usually pork or duck) “paté” type preparation where the meat is cooked slowly in fat and then shredded and mixed with some of the fat to form a spread. Rillettes are delicious served with bread.

This is extremely simplified version of  “rillettes” but is really lovely served as an aperitif or even as part of a starter.

Ingredients :

• 1 tin of tuna in brine or water (150g approximately)
• 1 cream cheese (St.Moret or Philadelphia etc) of the same weight as the tuna
• Salt & Pepper
• Chives

Method :

1. Drain the tin of tuna and empty into bowl
2. Miw well with cream cheese
3. Season with salt and pepper
4. Add a good dose of chives – not just for the taste but also for the colour
5. Serve with some fresh bread

Madeleines are one of France’s  favourite small cakes. In this recipe I’ve used a madeleine tin to make savoury bites for an aperitif – perfect size to eat with drinks and a little surprising for guests to see madeleines cakes that are actually savoury!

This recipe uses jambon cru, which means cured ham. You can use one of several types of cured ham – parma ham from Italy, Serrano ham form Spain etc. Obviously being in France I alway use Bayonne ham!

Ingredients :

• 3 eggs
• 150g self-raising flour
• 10cl sunflower oil
• 12.5cl hot milk
• 100g grated gruyere (or cheddar or any hard cheese you fancy!)
• 175g cured ham
• 75g green olives
• Salt and Pepper

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Slice ham and olives
3. In a large bowl beat the eggs with the flour, salt and pepper
4. Slowly add the oil and the hot milk, mixing all the time with a whisk
5. Add the grated cheese, ham and olives
6. Spoon the mixture into a madeleine tin and cook for 15 minutes

Another loaf cake – this one is perfect for gouter but is also a nice breakfast cake!

Ingredients :

• 125g butter
• 100g sugar
• 3 eggs
• Zest and juice of two oranges
• 125g self-raising flour
• Icing sugar

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Cream the butter and half the sugar (50g) together
3. Separate the egg whites and yolks
4. Add the egg yolks, zest from two oranges and the juice of one orange to the butter and sugar and mix well
5. Slowly mix in the sieved flour
6. Brat the egg whites with the remaining half of the sugar (50g) until stiff
7. Gently mix the egg whites into the cake batter
8. Pour into a greased loaf tin and bake for 30 minutes in pre-heated oven at 180°C
9. Use the juice of the second orange to make a glaçage, mixing it with icing sugar until you get a sweet slightly thick sirop
10. Place loaf on cooling tray and, while it is still warm, pour the orange glaçage over the cake