Leeks are in season! And this leek and potato tart makes a lovely evening meal or lunch with a green salad. I made it with lardons but it is also lovely with smoked salmon.

See the following for some similar recipes : Quiche or Courgette Tart

Ingredients :

• A short-cut pastry (recipe here) or a puff pastry
• 5 medium sized potatoes
• 3 leeks
• 3 eggs
• 150ml of milk or creme fraîche
• 200g bacon lardons or 4 slices of smoked salmon
• 100g grated cheese (I use gruyere but any hard cheese works)
• Salt & Pepper

Method :

1. Wash and peel potatoes
2. Wash leeks, remove any withered outer leaves and trim off then end of the roots and the green leaves (leave a little green as this will have more colour to your dish)
3. Chop potatoes and leeks and cook in salted boiling water for approx 20 minutes (until cooked)
4. Roll out pastry and press into a quiche tin, prick the base with a fork
5. If using lardons fry in a pan, when cooked spread on the pastry base, if using smoked salmon cut into strips and do as for lardons
6. Beat the 3 eggs with the milk or creme fraiche, salt, pepper and grated cheese
7. Strain potatoes and leeks and add to the lardons
8. Cover with the milk and egg mixture
9. Cook in oven for approx 35 minutes at 180°C until nice and golden

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.

This recipe is called Poulet Forestier in french which translates to “forest chicken” in english. The word forestier in the name comes from the sauce which is called une sauce forestière because of the mushrooms in the recipe and is a perfect autumn dish. Typically a forestier sauce does not have mustard in it but I find it gives a little something special to the sauce! 🙂

The below serves my family (2 adults, 3 children), I would say it serves 4 adults perfectly.

Ingredients :

• 4 chicken fillets
• 40g butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 20cl dry white wine
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 15cl chicken stock
• 250g mushrooms
• Salt & pepper
• 1 tablespoon of mustard
• 20cl of creme fraîche or liquid cream

Method :

1. Heat the butter in a large pan and brown the chicken fillets
2. Sprinkle in the flour and mix well, then pour in the white wine and continue mixing
3. Add the chopped onion, the garlic, the chicken stock and the mushrooms
4. Season with salt and pepper and then cover the pan and leave it to simmer for about 30 minutes
5. After 30 minutes remove the chicken fillets from the pan.
6. Add the mustard and cream (or crème fraîche) to the pan and mix well so that you get a nice creamy sauce
7. Put the chicken back in the pan and serve hot with potatoes or rice.

Flammeküche is the Alsatian word for what is called a tarte flambée in french. It has a thin bread dough base with crème fraîche, fromage blanc, onions and smoked lardons. This Alsatian street food is very easy to make at home and is perfect as a light evening meal with some salad, or as a finger food or starter.

For the base you’ll need a bread dough, if you don’t feel up to making your own or don’t have the time you can buy a ready-made pizza base which works pretty well too or if you are in France you can buy a raw bread dough in your local boulangerie or supermarket.

 Ingredients :

• 500g bread dough
• 20cl crème fraîche
• 200g fromage blanc
• 2 onions
• 300g of lardons
• Rapeseed oil
• Salt, pepper and nutmeg

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to its hottest setting 250° – 270°
2. Finely slice the onions and fry them gently over a low heat until they become translucent
3. Do the same with the bacon
4. Mix the crème fraîche, the fromage blanc with the pepper, nutmeg and salt (if using, the lardons may be salty enough!)
5. Roll the dough as thinly as possible on a baking sheet
6. Using a spatula, cover the dough evenly with the cream mixture
7. Spread onions and lardons on top
8. Cook in the oven for about 10 minutes, until the dough looks crispy

*  You can add cheese or mushrooms etc. to your flammeküche if you wish 🙂

There are lots of quiche recipes but this is the original, traditional ‘quiche lorraine’ from the Lorraine region in eastern France which doesn’t include cheese! But once you have the basic quiche you can then add whatever you want : cheese, onions, leeks, courgettes etc depending on your tastes. It is perfect served warm with a side-salad.

You’ll need a pâte brisée for this recipe, which is simply the french version of a pie or tart pastry. I think its known as short cut pastry in english (open to corrections on that!)

Of course you can buy a ready-made pastry in the supermarket but really pastry is so easy to make and so much nicer when you make it yourself it is a pity not to!

Heres my recipe for pate brisée

Ingredients :

• 1 pate brisée
• 4 eggs
• 30cl crème fraîche
• 150g lardons
• Salt & pepper
• Nutmeg

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Roll out your pastry into a tart dish and prick it with a fork
3. Fry the lardons until the are cooked
4. Mix the eggs and creme fraiche well.
5. Add salt if using (add sparingly because with the lardons you may have enough salt already) and pepper and nutmeg
6. Spread the lardons around on the pastry
7. Pour the eggs and crème fraîche mixture over the lardons
8. Place in the oven for 30 minutes, until golden brown on top