A pot-au-feu is a french beef stew, which uses mostly inexpensive cuts of beef that need to be cooked for quite a long time in a bouillon seasoned with root vegetables and a bouquet garni.

According to the french chef Raymond Blanc, pot-au-feu is “the quintessence of French family cuisine, it is the most celebrated dish in France. It honours the tables of the rich and poor alike.”

It is a perfect dish for a cold January day and even when the meat and vegetables are gone you can get another meal out of it by using the broth as a soup. In France this broth is usually served with special soup pasta called cheveux d’ange (or angel hair in english) added to it.

I make this using my pressure cooker as do most french people. So I am estimating that it will take 2 to 3 hours in a regular saucepan.  If using a pressure cooker, you’ll need to cook the dish at first for 30 minutes and then remove the carrots, leeks and turnips before continuing to cook the meat and seasoning for another 45 minutes.

Ingredients :

• 1.2kg stewing beef (I usually use cheek and tail)
• 2 marrow bones (optional!)
• 1 onion studded with 3 cloves
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3 leeks
• 1 kilo carrots
• 3-4 small turnips
• I branch of celery
• Bouquet Garni
• Salt and Pepper
• Potatoes to serve

Method :

1. Peel and wash the leeks, carrots and slice in half
2. Peel and wash turnips and chop in large chunks
3. Fill a large saucepan with 2 litres of water and add the clove studded onion, the carrots, the leeks, the turnips, the garlic cloves, the celery branch and the bouquet garni.
4. Season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil, then add the meat
5. Cook over a gentle heat for 10 minutes, removing  the foam the comes to the surface (this is called “écumer” in french!)
6. Put the lid on the saucepan and cook for approximately 3 hours until the meat is really well cooked
7. Wash and peel potatoes and cook them separately in a saucepan of salted water
8. When your pot-au-feu is ready you can serve the broth as a starter or enjoy it the following day – its a meal in itself, really tasty and full of goodness 🙂
9. Serve with potatoes, gherkins and strong mustard
10. If you are having the marrow bones serve with toasted bread

Pot-au-Feu Ingredients (Image from Wikipedia)

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 🙂

Some other soups on MyFrenchTable : Courgette Soup ; Mushroom Velouté

Ingredients :

• 300g leeks
• 600g potatoes
• 1.5 litres of chicken stock
• 30g butter
• 10cl crème fraîche (optional)

Method :

1. Peel and chop the potatoes and wash and chop leeks
2. Melt the butter in saucepan and add chopped leeks and cook over a medium heat until the soften
3. Add the chopped potato, mix well and continue cooking for another 5 minutes
4. Add the stock and pepper
5. Bring to the boil and then lower the heat and leave to simmer for about 30 minutes
6. Strain the vegetables but keep the stock
7. Purée the vegetables and put the back in the saucepan with the crème fraîche (if using) and a ladle full of the stock
8. Put back over a gentle heat and mix well. Slowly add the stock back in mixing all the time until you get the consistency you like (as thick or as liquid depending on your preference)
9. If you are going to follow the french tradition of a vichyssoise once the soup has cooled down place in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving or just enjoy in hot!

*Of course you can simply mix the stock and veg together without going through the process of straining and adding the stock back in. Doing it the way outlined above just means that you only add in as much stock as you need to get the consistency required.

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