Flaugnarde  or flognarde is a baked French dessert with fruit and a  thick flan-like batter hailing from the Limousin and Auvergne region in France. It is similar to a clafoutis, which is made with black cherries whereas a flaugnarde is made with apples, peaches, pears, plums, prunes etc. It can be served either warm or cold.

Ingredients :

• 100g flour
• 100g sugar
• 1 table spoon oil
• 300ml milk
• 200ml liquid cream (or liquid crème fraîche)
• 5 eggs
• 6 apples
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Peel and core the apples and slice into circles
3. Mix everything together in a bowl in the following order : flour, sugar, oil, milk, cream, salt
4. Beat eggs well and add to mixture
5. Butter a round oven dish and spread the apple slices around evenly
6. Pour the batter over the apples
7. Bake in oven for 45 minutes at 180°C

Gratin dauphinois is a traditional french dish that may be eaten as a side dish or as a meal in itself.  It originates in the south-east of France, in a region that used to be called the Dauphinois – which today is in and around Grenoble.

This is the traditional recipe, lots of variants exist, namely that of adding grated cheese (gruyere or emmenthal etc) but once you have added cheese it is no longer a gratin dauphinois! It becomes a simple ‘gratin de pomme de terre’ or ‘potato gratin’!

Ingredients :

• 1.5kg waxy potatoes
• Butter
• 1 clove of garlic
• 50cl double cream
• 50cl milk
• Salt & Pepper
• Nutmeg
• 1 laurel leaf and 1 sprig of thyme (or a bouquet garnie)

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven at 160°C
2. Peel and rinse potatoes.
3. Slice potatoes finely – a mandoline is great for this, just be careful of your fingers 😉
4. Do not wash potatoes after slicing – otherwise you’ll wash off the starch!
5. Heat the milk in a saucepan with the laurel leaf and thyme (or bouquet garnie) and season with salt and pepper
6. Bring to the boil and add sliced potatoes, lower the heat and cook for 10 minutes mixing regularly (to avoid the potatoes sticking to the bottom of the pan)
7. Halve the clove of garlic and rub it round the inside of an oven dish and then rub the dish with a little butter
8. Remove the laurel & thyme from the pan and pour the milk and potatoes into the oven dish
9. Pour the cream over the potatoes
10. Put a few knobs of butter on top of the dish
11. Bake in the oven at 160°C for 1h30

Courgette (or ‘zucchini’ for some of you!) tart – like a quiche with extra veg 🙂

Ingredients :

• 1 short-crust pastry (see here for recipe)
• 1 small onion
• 200g lardons (smoked if possible)
• 2/3 courgettes
• 20cl crême fraîche or cream
• 3 eggs
• Salt & Pepper

Method :

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C
2. Wash and finely chop the onion and the courgettes (grating works well too if you prefer)
3. Gently fry the lardons in a pan and then add the onion and courgettes – fry until the excess water from the courgettes evaporates
4. Add salt (not too much because the lardons will be salty) and pepper
5. In a bowl beat the eggs with the crême fraîche (or cream if using)
6. Roll out you pastry and press it into a quiche dish, pricking the base with a fork
7. Spoon the courgette, onions and lardons over the base of the tart
8. Pour over  the egg and cream/crême fraîche mixture
9. Bake in oven for 30 minutes
10. Serve warm with a tossed salad

*  You can always add cheese too, sprinkling on top of the tart before it goes into the oven.  Or to have a vegetarian tart you could replace the lardons with a hard cheese – cheddar works well. Leave out the lardons, mix approx 125g of grated cheese into the cream and egg mixture and continue as above.