This speciality is made with minced meat and hard-boiled eggs. It is known as as a Pâté Berrichon or as a Pâté de Paques (Easter pie) because it is often eaten as Easter. It gets it’s name from the Berry region, which ceased to exist after the French revolution.. Today the departments of L’Indre et le Cher make up most of what was formally the Berry province.

It can be eaten hot or cold but it really is delicious served cold with a green salad.

Ingredients :

• 2 sheets of puff pastry
• 300g sausage meat
• 200g minced veal
• 6 eggs (4 hard-boiled eggs, 1 egg for the pâté, 1 egg yolk for the pastry)
• 50g breadcrumbs
• Parsley
• Salt and pepper
• 1 shallot
• Nutmeg
• Optional : A tablespoon of cognac or of a sweet wine

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Hard boil 4 of the eggs, remove shells
3. Finely chop the shallot and the parsely
4. Mix the meat with the shallot, parsely, one egg (beaten), the breadcrumbs and the alcohol (if using)
5. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg
6. Pace one sheet of puff pastry and a baking tray covered with parchement paper
7. PLace half of the meat filling down the middle of the pastry
8. Slice the hard boiled eggs in half and place them on the meat face down
9. Cover the eggs with the remaining meat filling
10. Using the remaining puff pastry cover the meat and press down to seal the pastry
11. Brush the pastry with the yolk of the remaining egg
12. Make 2 large incisions in the pastry to allow the steam to escape while cooking
13. Cook in oven at 180°C for 20 minutes and then lower the temp to 150°C and cook for a further 30 minutes

There is nothing nicer than a good old apple tart – plenty of apples around this time of year and as per usual this is a very simple recipe with a minimum of ingredients but with a great result!

The main difference between apples in France and in Ireland and the UK is that cooking apples don’t exist – eating apples are used which I prefer anyway as you don’t need to add any (or very little) sugar that way.

Ingredients :

• 1 short-cut pastry
• 4-6 eating apples
• Vanilla Sugar
• Butter

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Chop 2 apples into small cubes and place in a saucepan with approximately 2 tablespoons of water
3. Leave to simmer until the apple softens and then mash or use a hand mixer to make a compote
4. Roll out pastry into your tart tin and prick the base with a fork
5. Spread the compote onto the tart base
6. Peel, core and cut your apples into quarters and then slice each quarter3 or 4 times
7. Place the apple slices on the compote, arranging them around in a circle – or anyway you like!
8. Sprinkle some vanilla sugar over the apples and add 3 or 4 small knobs of butter
9. Bake in oven for 30 minutes
10. Enjoy on its own or with some freshly whipped cream or ice-cream

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

The flan is a firm favourite in France (and especially in this house!) and is similar to what is known as a custard tart in english.  I prefer to make it with a short cut pastry but you could make it with a puff pastry.

Ingredients :

• 1 short cut pastry (pate brisée)
• 1 litre of milk
• 3 eggs
• 160g sugar
• 100g cornflour
• 2 sachets vanilla sugar
• 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 vanilla pod

Method :

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Roll out your pastry and press it into your tin , prick the base with a fork and place in the fridge while preparing the flan mixture
3. Beat the eggs with the cornflour, the vanilla extract and 125ml of milk (taken from the 1 litre of milk in the recipe) together in a large bowl using an electric mixer
4. Pour the remainder of the milk into a saucepan with the vanilla sugar, the sugar, the vanilla pod (cut the pod down the middle and scrape out the seeds, put the seeds and the empty pod halves into the milk).
5. Bring to the boil
6. Pour the hot milk into the egg mixture beating all the time with your electric whisk
7. Pour everything back into the saucepan, place on a low heat and stir continuously with a wooden spoon
8. Allow it to simmer for a few seconds so that the mixture will have thickened slightly
9. Pour the mixture into your pastry base (remember to remove the vanilla pod halves at this point) and bake in the oven for 40 minutes at 180°C
10. Allow to cool completely before cutting and store in the fridge

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!

This is a really versatile pastry and it adapts perfectly to both savoury and sweet recipes.

Ingredients :

• 100g butter
• 210g flour
• 5cl water
• Pinch of salt

Method :

I use my food mixer for this but you can do it by hand (its just a lot more work!)

1. Chop butter in cubes
2. Add flour and salt and mix well until you have a mixture that feels like breadcrumbs
3. Slowly add the water until you get the texture required
4. Allow the pastry to ‘relax’ for an hour or two before using

• If I am using this for a sweet desert pastry I add a desert-spoon of caster sugar to the mixture. You don’t have to of course, again it depends on your own preferences.

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