Category Archives: Recipes

Sunny Sunday afternoon cream tea

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What a day we had in London today! Spring is on its way and it was the perfect day to sit in the garden for some or run a marathon for others… To mentally support the marathon runners I decided to bake scones! Scones were and still are one of the best british specialities I discovered when I moved to the UK. By making my own scones I also discovered buttermilk and self-raising flour which we don’t find in France or other European countries as easily as here. Scones should not be too dry, they should be well risen, light and fluffy inside, and my favourite part is when you can split them in two with your hands when just baked to release their amazing buttery smell. I really struggled at the beginning to create good scones and improving the recipes was hard when you are not familiar with British bakes. This recipe is adapted from Delia and everyone always compliment me on these scones!

The best tips I can give are: Continue reading →

Craving for summer fruits

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Spring is great and I know I will never have enough time to make the most of all the greens available out there, but these days I am craving for juicy big Burlat cherries! Picking cherries as a summer job is a very bad idea, but picking cherries from the tree to eat straight away is the best thing ever. We used to hang upside down from a branch with my sister with our mouth full of chewed cherries and their juices would come up to our nose to mimic a nose bleed. An activity that of course never impressed my mum who got very scared the first time she saw us walking back with blood all over our faces.

The Burlat variety of cherry is a big, deep dark red, juicy and very sweet type of cherry and it is one of the most common table cherry in France. Eating them the way they are when fresh is absolute heaven, but their firm and juicy flesh is also perfect in a clafoutis. Continue reading →

Beetroot and caramelised fennel tarte tatin

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I was inspired by Canelle et Vanille for this recipe, which is one of the most beautiful blog I visited so far, please have a look, her pictures are simply stunning. Her recipe gives you the gluten free option, mine gives you a faster and cheaper way to make the pastry.

Ingredients
-For the pastry:

  • 125g slightly salted butter
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 125g rye flour
  • 125g plain flour
  • A pinch of salt
  • 50ml of water

-For the filling:

  • 250g of normal beetroots
  • 250g of golden beetroots
  • 250g of candy beetroots
  • 7 little pearl onions
  • 1 big fennel, washed
  • Half a golden onion
  • Half a red onion
  • 2 tbsp of vegetable oil
  • 4 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
  • 100g grated emmental

Switch the oven in at 200C. Wash the beetroots carefully so you don’t pierce the skin, do not cut the roots yet and chop the leaves off by leaving at least 5cm of stalks. You will chop them off later, but right now you want to make sure their beautiful colour don’t leak out. Wrap them individually in foil and cook in the oven for 40 minutes or until soft when you insert a knife.
Meanwhile make your pastry. Mix the flours and the butter together until you get crumbs and then add the egg, salt and water to form a compact ball. Wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge for 1h.
Chop the fennel and the onions finely and fry them in the oil over a medium heat. When they start to soften, add the balsamic vinegar and mix well. Cook for an extra 5 minutes to caramelised slightly. Set aside to cool.
When the beetroots are ready, turn the oven down to 180C. Cut away the roots and stalks and peel the beets. Cut them in half and position them face down in a cake tin. Arrange them the way you want around the tin. Spare beets can be chopped to fill gaps, but here I’ve used pearl onions.
Pour the caramelised fennel on the beets and add the grated cheese on top.
Take the pastry out and roll it to roughly the size of the tin then place it on top of the cheese, tucking under the edges. Cook for 30 minutes until the pastry is cooked. Leave the tart inside the tin until you can handle the tin without burning your hand then place a plate on top of the tart and flip it over. There might be some beetroot pieces still stuck inside, just unstick them and position them back where they belong on the tart.

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Madeleines

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Madeleines are classic little French cakes. You can have them for breakfast, with tea or as a little “gouter” which is our 4pm cake snack for children in France when they come back from school. They should be light with a strong buttery taste.
I tried a recipe from my BBC good food magazine from Michel Roux Jr, but there were lemon Madeleines. Even though the recipe was a good base to start experimenting, classic madeleines should not be that lemony. So here is my version and I hope you will enjoy it. I used my work colleagues and my trapeze fellow learners as guinea pigs and they all loved it. Someone even asked if I had bought them!
One thing to keep in mind is that madeleines dry very quickly so always keep them in an airtight container. Or let them become stale and dip them in tea!

 

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Ingredients to make 12 normal size madeleines

  • 100g good quality slightly salted butter
  • 2 medium eggs
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 100g plain flour
  • 1tsp of baking powder
  • 2 drops of almond extract
  • Optional: remove 25g of flour and replace with the best hot chocolate powder you have. I used my hot chilli chocolate powder for this recipe.

Start by melting the butter slowly, once melted, make it bubble for an extra 5 minutes to cook it slightly which will give the distinctive madeleine taste. Set aside to cool down. Whisk the eggs and the sugar together until fluffy and pale in a bowl. Then mix in the flour, the almond extract and the baking powder and fold in the slightly cooled butter. Leave the mixture to rest for about 10 minutes. Brush some melted butter on the Madeleine moulds, if you don’t have any you can use little rectangle moulds. Spoon the mixture in the moulds up to nearly the top and let it rest for 15 minutes. Switch your oven on at 200C and when it’s hot bake the Madeleine for 11 minutes. They should look golden on the top and the edges should have a slightly darker colour. The top should be cooked and not sticky but still soft to the touch when pushed down. If you still had some more mixture in your bowl, cook them after your first batch is done..