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Tartiflette

A tartiflette is a gratin with potatoes, lardons and onions topped with melted savoyard cheese called Reblochon. It is a traditional mountain recipe and a perfect dish for cold weather !

It is particularly nice served with an Apremont, savoie wine.

Ingredients :

  • 1kg potatoes
  • 250g smoked lardons
  • 2 large onions
  • 150g crème fraîche
  • 1 whole reblochon cheese
  • 1 clove of garlic

Method :

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C
  2. Pre-cook the potatoes in a saucepan of salted water (traditionally the potatoes are sautéed but this dish is rich enough so I prefer to boil them)
  3. In a frying pan gently fry the onions until they are soft and translucent and then add the lardons and continue frying
  4. Remove from heat and add the creme fraîche or liquid cream and mix well
  5. Chop the potatoes and mix in with the onion and lardons
  6. Salt and pepper as necessary
  7. Cut the garlic clove in half and rub the cut sides around an oven dish
  8. Place the potato, lardon and onion mix in the oven dish
  9. Slice the cheese down the middle and place the two round halves crust up on top of the dish
  10. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and nice and crispy
  11. Serve with a green salad

 




Pea and Lardon Velouté

peas

This is a really tasty soup and with peas, lardons and potatoes it really is a meal in itself. The only little hitch is that it is preferable to pass the soup through a mouli before serving to remove any pea skins and bits of lardon and to make sure you get a nice creamy smooth texture.

So it does add a little but of extra work but it is worth it 🙂 And a mouli is a handy kitchen utensil for making really nice purées

Ingredients :

  • 500g frozen peas
  • 6 potatoes
  • 2 onions
  • 250g smoked lardons
  • 50g butter
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Chicken Stock

Method :

  1. Measure out peas and allow to defrost
  2. Peel and chop potatoes and onions
  3. In a large saucepan melt the butter and add the onions, peas, chopped potatoes and lardons and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes stirring all the time
  4. Season with salt and pepper and add chicken stock until all ingredients are covered
  5. Cook for 25 minutes and then blend the soup to remove as many bits as possible and then pass it through a mouli to get a smooth velouté

 

mouli

A Mouli

 

 

 

 




Leek and Potato Tart

PotatoLeek
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 Tart

Courgette

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.

 

 




Flammeküche

Flammekuche

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 🙂

 

 




Tarte Auvergnate

TarteAuvergnate1

Auvergne is a region in south central France, home to the city of Clermont-Ferrand. This recipe is from the region, hence the name,  and uses the local Cantal cheese.

Ingredients :

  • 400g potatoes
  • 4 ripe tomatoes
  • 10cl olive oil
  • 25g butter
  • 1 pate brisée or short cut pastry, see here
  • 150g Cantal cheese
  • 100g lardons
  • Salt

Method :

  1. Wash the potatoes and cook them for 15 minutes in salted boiling water, then strain
  2. Pre-heat oven to 210°C
  3. Place the tomatoes for at least 30 seconds in boiling water, then immediately put them in cold water, this will make it possible to peel them
  4. Once peeled, slice the tomatoes and place them in a dish, add salt and pepper, then pour the olive oil over them
  5. Roll out your pastry and then transfer it to your tin (24cm round tin) and prick the base with a fork
  6. Remove the rind off the cheese and slice and slice it in fine strips
  7. Put the lardons in boiling water for a few minutes until they are cooked, then strain
  8. Spread the lardons with 1/2 of the cheese evenly on the pastry base
  9. Peel and slice the potatoes and place them on the cheese and lardons
  10. Cover the potatoes with the tomato slices  and then pour the tomato marinade over them
  11. Use the rest of your cheese on top of your dish
  12. Cook for 30 minutes at 210°C
  13. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before eating and serve with a green salad

 

*  Depending on where you are it may be difficult to source cantal cheese but you can replace it with a different hard cheese – cheddar would work really well with this recipe!

 

 




Quiche

QuicheLorraine

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