Classic French Recipe: Tartiflette {with free printable}

The traditional French Tartiflette is one of those dishes that are pure comfort food. Made with potatoes, lardons, onions, white wine and Reblochon cheese, it just oozes warmth and cold weather comfort. It’s absolute heaven as far as I’m concerned, but then I could live on cheese and potatoes. It is a recipe that originates from the Alps region called Savoie, and I suppose it is the perfect evening meal after a day in the snow. I don’t originate for there, and when I looked for a Tartiflette recipe on the French cookery forums, I couldn’t find two people who agreed with each other on the correct way to cook this dish. So I can’t guarantee this is exactly as your French grandma would cook it, but I’m sure at least one grandma did.

Anyway, the key with this Tartiflette recipe is, as always, to use the right ingredients. Just like a Raclette is nothing without actual Raclette cheese, you can’t call a dish Tartiflette if you’re not going to use Reblochon cheese, which you can find in most supermarkets in the specialist cheese section (and definitely with Ocado).

Classic Tartiflette Recipe {Free recipe printable}

Serves 4; preparation: 20 mins; cooking time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

1 Reblochon cheese
1 kg of waxy potatoes e.g. like Charlotte potatoes
500 g onions, thinly sliced
200 g bacon lardons
150 ml dry white wine
butter
Black pepper

Method

1. Peel the potatoes and par-boil them in salted water for approximately 15 minutes. Take them out and set aside in a colander. Once cool, cut into thin slices.

2. Whilst the potatoes are cooking, melt a knob of butter in a frying pan and add the sliced onions. Fry them on high temperature for a couple of minutes before turning it down to low/medium and cook until softened. Add the white wine and cook until all the wine has reduced and there is no juice left. Set aside.

3. Fry the bacon lardons in a pan. Once they are cooked, remove from the pan and set aside on a plate covered in kitchen roll to soak up the fat.

4. Put half of the onions at the bottom of an oven dish as well as half the lardons. Cover with the sliced potatoes before adding the rest of the onions and lardons.

5. Cut the Reblochon in half, then cut again horizontally to make four parts. Place on top of the onion mix with the rind facing up. Add some black pepper but don’t add any salt.

6. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes at 180C until golden and the cheese has melted. Once it is cooked, you may wish to put it under the grill for a few minutes.

Bon appétit!

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Classic French Recipe: Daube Provençale

 

daube: meat that is braised then stewed in wine (culinary)

Not to be mistaken for

‘C’est de la daube’: is slang for ‘it’s sh*t’, as in ‘it isn’t worth anything’

 I was going through my French cookery books looking for inspiration for a classic French stew recipe and found this one called ‘Daube Provençale’, which sounds promising not least because who doesn’t love Provence, right? It’s The destination of choice for British retirees and I don’t blame them one bit; it is bliss in every way, between the weather, the wine, the pines, the lavender, L’Occitane en Provence and the gorgeous river creeks you can spend days diving into.

The Daube Provençale is a beef stew that is marinated in cognac, olive oil, herbs and white wine for hours before being braised and then stewed in more wine and vegetables, and served with tagliatelle. I made it last May when the weather wasn’t cooperating and it was lovely, warming yet light enough to suit mid-seasons very nicely.

I don’t often think to eat stew with fresh pasta but it totally works, especially as the white wine marinade makes it into a lighter dish than red wine would have done. It is also, as with most stews, a very nice dish to do in the slow cooker.

Daube Provençale {Free Recipe Printable}

Serves 4; preparation: 15 mins; Marinade: 3 hrs; Cooking time: 3 hrs

Ingredients

800g braising beef
2 tomatoes
1 carrot
4 onions
2 garlic cloves
150g unsmoked bacon lardons
3 tbsp olive oil
100g black olives

Marinade

500 ml dry white wine
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small glass of cognac/brandy (liqueur or shot glass)
a handful of parsley, chopped
1 bouquet garni
salt and pepper

Method

1. Prepare the marinade: pour the white wine in a large bowl, add salt and pepper, the cognac, bouquet garni, olive oil and the chopped parsley.

2. Cut the meat into large chunks, place them in the marinade and leave in the fridge for 3 hours

3. Peel the onions and garlic and finely chop; peel the tomatoes and remove the seeds before cutting them into quarters; peel also the carrot and cut it into round slices.

4. In a deep pan, heat the oil and fry the vegetables and lardons for a few minutes before adding the meat and pouring the marinade over it. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and cook on low heat for 3 hours.

5. Add the olives and bring back to the boil for a minute.

6. Serve with tagliatelle.

Bon appétit!

French chocolate mousse recipe to die for

Last time I tried to master the chocolate mousse was a disaster. I couldn’t make the ‘mousse’ part stick and it ended up being more of a custard. But it is a staple of French cooking and I felt like I was letting the team down; you can’t claim to be any kind of decent French cook if you can’t make a basic chocolate mousse. But which chocolate mousse recipe to choose? There are hundreds of versions online so how do you know which one will taste the best? Well, my mother-in-law is French and she makes the best chocolate mousse I’ve ever eaten, as in, seriously blissful, so I thought I would start there. Why is it the best? It makes a dense, rich and utterly addictive chocolate mousse. So I tried to replicate it in the hope that I would manage to produce a half-decent version. Did I succeed in my attempt? Well… Let’s just say it’s a good thing I got past the ‘bowl of dog vomit’ stage that I instagrammed as it happened. Yes, this is part of the recipe sharing process here at A Frog at Large, the failures are shared as loudly, maybe even more so, than the successes, so you know it’s All Real.

Ingredients

• 180 g chocolate (I recommend 70% dark chocolate for this)
• 4 eggs (separate the whites from the yolks but keep everything)
• 75 g butter
• 90 g caster sugar

 

Method

1. Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie i.e. in a glass bowl set over hot water for a gentle melt.

2. Add the butter, then, away from the flame, add the egg yolks one by one whilst whisking with the sugar.

3. Whisk the egg whites to make stiff peaks, then add them carefully to the chocolate mix.

4. Place the mousse into a serving bowl or individual ramekins and keep in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

5. Eat!

Note: the chocolate mousse is  even better when served with a big dollop of fresh squirty cream on top to cut through the big hit of rich chocolate.

 

Classic French Recipe: Sauteed potatoes with persillade

I have an unapologetic addiction to potatoes in all their forms, and one of my favourite dishes is simple sautéed potatoes, but I had never made them with a persillade before. I don’t know why, as it doesn’t get more ‘classic French recipe’ than potatoes and parsley.

Before you start worrying about how complicated this recipe is likely to be, let’s look at what ‘persillade’ actually means. It comes from the French word for parsley, ‘persil’, and in its most classic form it is a simple mixture of parsley and garlic. There are a few other ingredients you can add depending on what dish it means to complement. Its freshness and crunch lends itself well not just to potatoes, but also to fish, meat and vegetables.

French recipe for Sautéed Potatoes with Persillade

Ingredients

1 kg waxy potatoes, cut into 2 cm pieces

2 tbsp vegetable oil

300 g smoked bacon lardons (optional)

25 g butter

For the Persillade

Small pack of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

1 tsp/1 sprig tarragon leaves, chopped

1 echallion/banana shallot (or 2 small round ones), finely chopped

2  garlic cloves, crushed

Method

1. Boil the potatoes for 5 minutes so they are nearly cooked. Drain and leave in the colander for a minute to steam out.
2. Mix all the persillade ingredients together in a small bowl. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the lardons and cook for 8 to 10 minutes until they are slightly caramelised. Add the potatoes, then the butter.
3. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly until they turn golden brown. Spoon out any excess fat and stir in the persillade. Adjust the seasoning for taste and eat!

We had roast chicken with our sauteed potatoes with persillade but you can serve it as a side dish to just about anything.

Classic French Recipe: sauteed potatoes with persillade

I have an unapologetic addiction to potatoes in all their forms, and one of my favourite dishes is simple sautéed potatoes, but I had never made them with a persillade before. I don’t know why, as it doesn’t get more ‘classic French recipe’ than potatoes and parsley.

Before you start worrying about how complicated this recipe is likely to be, let’s look at what ‘persillade’ actually means. It comes from the French word for parsley, ‘persil’, and in its most classic form it is a simple mixture of parsley and garlic. There are a few other ingredients you can add depending on what dish it means to complement. Its freshness and crunch lends itself well not just to potatoes, but also to fish, meat and vegetables.

French recipe for Sautéed Potatoes with Persillade

Ingredients

1 kg waxy potatoes, cut into 2 cm pieces

2 tbsp vegetable oil

300 g smoked bacon lardons (optional)

25 g butter

For the Persillade

Small pack of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

1 tsp/1 sprig tarragon leaves, chopped

1 echallion/banana shallot (or 2 small round ones), finely chopped

2  garlic cloves, crushed

Method

1. Boil the potatoes for 5 minutes so they are nearly cooked. Drain and leave in the colander for a minute to steam out.
2. Mix all the persillade ingredients together in a small bowl. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the lardons and cook for 8 to 10 minutes until they are slightly caramelised. Add the potatoes, then the butter.
3. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly until they turn golden brown. Spoon out any excess fat and stir in the persillade. Adjust the seasoning for taste and eat!

We had roast chicken with our sautéed potatoes with persillade but you can serve them as a side dish to just about anything. Bon appétit!