BEEF TAGINE WITH PRUNES

We have been rather under the weather for a couple of weeks lately, with horrible colds that we can't seem to shake off and that, combined with the grim winter weather, has had us feeling the need for comfort food even more than usual.

We haven't been up to doing much shopping either so, apart from a dash to the supermarket for some fresh milk and veg, we have been eating up what's in the freezer.  The other day I came across a small piece of stewing beef, called paleron in France, so decided to make another tagine...........we had enjoyed the lamb one so much!

This cookbook is the one I brought to France by mistake, not our favourite but has some nice recipes.  In it I spotted one for beef tagine with prunes which looked easy to do and not too taxing for my cold-fuddled brain.  I adapted the recipe and cooked it along similar lines to the lamb tagine but this time we had it with fresh carrots, broccoli and small potatoes.  We were desperate for fresh veg!  Just what the doctor ordered!  

I can remember clearly the very first time I had prunes cooked with meat.  It was in London in 1972 and I had only ever had prunes with custard or rice pudding before!  They go really well with beef and the lovely spices.

Ingredients 

1 tblsp olive oil

1 large knob butter

2 small red onions, finely chopped

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ ground black pepper

a few strands of saffron

150g stewing beef, trimmed and cubed

¾ of a tin (about 300g) of chopped tomatoes

1 tblsp honey

125g pitted prunes or just a few, as you like

2 tblsp flaked almonds (optional)

Method

Heat the oil and butter in the tagine, add the chopped onions and fry until softened.

Stir in the spices then the meat.  Stir well until the meat is well coated in the spice mixture.

Add the tomatoes and enough water to almost cover the meat and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat, put the lid on and simmer for 1½ hours, stirring occasionally.

Add the prunes, stir well, season to taste and cook for another 30 minutes.

If using the almonds, melt a little more butter and oil in a small frying pan, stir in the almonds, cook until they begin to turn golden brown and add to the tagine just before serving.

Serve with couscous (or veg and potatoes, or pasta)

Serves 2.

LAMB TAGINE WITH DATES

Many years ago, at least fifteen years, possibly more, we were given a book for Christmas entitled "Tagines and Couscous", things that were not part of our usual cooking repertoire.  Then shortly afterwards, Nick came home from work one day with a lovely Emile Henry tagine dish during the January sales, spotted in the window of a gorgeous kitchenware shop which he passed every day on his way to and from the station. (Sadly the shop closed down several years ago.)

The idea of putting a ceramic dish on the hob to cook something seemed very wrong but we crossed our fingers and tried one of the recipes from the book.  It was delicious and we embarked upon a cooking adventure of buying ingredients we had not used before - at the weekends when we had time to do it.  Tagines require long, slow cooking.  

Our opportunities were limited as my dad came round for dinner every Sunday evening and he was not a fan of "foreign food" so it had to be a Saturday or nothing.  Then, a few years later, my GI (gastrointestinal, not American soldier) problem prevented me from eating anything even faintly spicy and the tagine fell into disuse, gathering dust on the top of the fridge.  The shape of them makes them take up too much space in a cupboard!

We dusted it off and brought it back to France with us after our latest trip to the UK at Christmas - such things have to wait until we make the journey by car! Unfortunately we left the recipe book behind but at least that can be easily fetched the next time we fly!  Nick found one of our favourite recipes from it online here which we adapted to use the two lamb neck steaks, destined originally for making haggis, to make our favourite tagine.

I now manage my GI problem by simply leaving the chillies and strong spices out of recipes!  Everything is just as tasty without the searing heat!

If you don't have a tagine you can of course make the stew in a heavy based saucepan with a tight fitting lid or a cast iron casserole dish.

Ingredients 

1 tblsp olive oil

1 large knob butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 small knob of fresh ginger, peeled and grated (or ½tsp ground ginger)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 small lamb neck steaks or 250g lamb, trimmed and cubed

1 tblsp honey

125g stoned dates or just a few, as you like

2 tblsp flaked almonds (optional)

Method

Heat the oil and butter in the tagine, add the chopped onion and fry until golden brown.

Stir in the spices then the meat.  Stir well until the meat is well coated in the spice mixture.

Add enough water to almost cover the meat and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat, put the lid on and simmer for 1½ hours.

Add the dates, stir well, season with salt and pepper and cook for another 30 minutes.

If using the almonds, melt a little more butter and oil in a small frying pan, stir in the almonds, cook until they begin to turn golden brown and add to the tagine just before serving.

Serve with couscous (or potatoes, or pasta)

Serves 2.

CHICKEN BALMORAL AND HOMEMADE HAGGIS with whisky sauce

Whilst back in the UK for three weeks over Christmas we talked about holding another Burns Night Supper and I wondered whether it might be possible to buy some actual haggis to bring back to France (illegally, as it’s a meat product).

I remember eating haggis in my twenties and liking it.  At the time I lived in Leeds and would buy a real haggis, tied up with string, from the excellent food department of Lewis's on the Headrow. That’s not John Lewis, by the way, but Lewis's.  It was a fabulous shop (to me it was almost the Harrod's of the North).  The food department was in the basement with a black and white tiled floor and you could buy all manner of everyday or exotic foods.  Between Lewis's, Schofield's, the old arcades and the fantastic markets Leeds was a wonderful place to shop in the 1970's.

I found several recipes online suggesting how to use haggis, including some for something called "chicken Balmoral" or "highland chicken" where it’s used as a stuffing for chicken breasts.  I thought that sounded more interesting and possibly more tempting that just serving a dollop of it on the plate for anyone unfamiliar with haggis.  I chose one on a blog called "Caroline's cooking" then noticed that there was also a recipe for homemade haggis, a version that has the offal elements reduced to a minimum.  Real haggis contains the kind of offal that few people would enjoy nowadays, plus suet, onion, oatmeal and spices.  This recipe has enough of a hint of offal without the scary bits.

I had a tin of pinhead oatmeal in the cupboard so brought that back to France after Christmas. For the meat element I used neck of lamb steaks which were reasonably priced and the chicken was ultimately wrapped in English smoked streaky bacon, now an illegal import from the UK!  We had long since worked out that most of our friends were bringing their favourite meats and cheeses to France without any trouble so we thought we'd risk it ourselves.  Nobody at the border took the slightest interest in the contents of our car or cool box.  I imagine that after the early post Brexit flush of enthusiasm the border staff have bigger fish to fry than to search for the odd pound of bacon or sausages!

You can see the recipe for Chicken Balmoral here and for the haggis stuffing here.  I modified both recipes and have to say, I wouldn’t make it again, but decided to write about it because our guests enjoyed it!  For myself I decided that my haggis eating days are well behind me but you never know, you might like it!  I also used some of the Oxo cube stock to make a whisky sauce or gravy to go with it.  Once we got going making the haggis we only used two of the four small lamb steaks I had bought so saved the other two to make a lamb tagine.  I enjoyed that much more!

The stuffed chicken filets can be prepared well in advance which makes it an ideal dinner party dish, as long as you like haggis!  Alternatively stuff them with something else!  The whisky sauce was nice.

Ingredients

For the Haggis

a large knob of butter plus 1 tblsp of vegetable oil (more if needed)

250g lamb steaks

½ tsp each of ground cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, allspice and dried thyme

1 onion

100g chicken livers (or other liver)

50g pinhead oatmeal

½ pint / 200ml chicken or beef stock made using a stock cube or stock pot (we made 400ml from one cube and used the remainder to create a whisky sauce)

salt and pepper

For the chicken Balmoral

4 medium sized chicken breasts

12-15 rashers smoked streaky bacon or unsmoked for a lighter flavour

For the whisky sauce

200ml chicken or beef stock (the remainder from making the haggis)

2 tblsp double cream

A good splash of whisky

Method

To make the haggis, cut the lamb steaks into cubes and mince in a food processor until medium/fine.  Add the liver pieces and process again until combined.  

Chop the peeled onion finely.

Heat the butter and oil in a large saucepan, add the onion and cook until softened.

Add the meat and spices, fry until the meat is browned.  Add the stock, cover and simmer for 20 minutes until the meat is cooked.  Season with salt and pepper, stir in the oatmeal and cook for another 20-30 minutes.  You can add more pepper and spices to taste as it cooks.  Go easy at first.  Set aside to cool.

Slash each chicken breast, open out and flatten slightly by bashing with a rolling pin.  Place 1 tbslp of haggis in the middle of each one or enough to fill it adequately.  Fold over to close the fillet.

Lay enough rashers of bacon to almost cover a chicken filet on a piece of cling film, place one on top and roll up, leaving the joins in the bacon underneath.  Repeat with the other chicken filets and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes in the cling film on a tray.

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° fan.  Place the chicken filets on a baking tray and bake in the oven for around 40 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

To make the whisky sauce, put the stock into a small pan and bring to the boil.  Stir in the cream and whisky and cook gently until heated through.  Serve immediately with the chicken.

Traditionally this would be served with mashed potatoes and swede, plus a green vegetable such as beans or cabbage.

Serves 4.

ECCLEFECHAN TART

After the success of last year's Burns Night Supper we decided to do it again this year but with a different menu.  The main course and dessert were things I had never made before.  I'll save the post about home made haggis for another day but as Nick said about the dessert "it's a keeper".  I'm not sure the same could be said for the haggis!

I stumbled across the recipe for Ecclefechan tart in a blog called "Them Apples".  You can see it here where it's credited to Jamie Oliver from his book "Jamie's Great Britain".  It's almost a cross between a mince pie and a treacle tart, looks suitably dark and dramatic, and is very rich and delicious.  It also reminded me a little of the Be-Ro butter tartlets that I made a while ago - see here.

My own copy of "Jamie's Great Britain", a charity shop purchase, is currently in our UK house so I couldn't verify the recipe and several other versions of it appear online.  Look it up and take your pick!

This recipe makes quite a large tart and being very rich you only need a small slice.  It would easily serve quite a crowd.  Next time I think I would scale it down a bit (which would be another good reason to go and get a smaller tin!).

I made my own pastry from scratch for the first time in ages.  (Whisky is used to bring the dough together but I'm not quite sure I would do that again.)  I certainly seemed to be out of practice with the pastry making, even with the help of a food processor!  There was much patching of splits and cracks and it was very crumbly, which I found rather disappointing considering that until I got lazy and started using shop bought pastry, I've been doing it since I was about ten years old!  Even so, the tart was lovely and I would definitely make it again, and not just for Burns Night.  It’s a great dessert for the winter months.

As an aside, over the years several people have asked me where I find black treacle in France.  The answer is, I don’t think I ever have!  You can probably get it from the online shopping services that provide British foods to ex-pats in France although I haven't used them myself.  I have occasionally seen tins of Lyle's golden syrup on the "English shelf" in several French supermarkets but in fact I bring mine from the UK.  

Squeezy plastic bottles make it easier to weigh or measure out so I now buy both black treacle and golden syrup that way. 

Lyle's golden syrup is available in squeezy bottles in UK supermarkets but most have their own brand equivalent.  The flavour is slightly different from Lyle's but fine for baking - you might only notice the difference if you like it on your porridge or a crumpet!  I first saw a squeezy bottle of Silver Spoon black treacle in (I think) Asda but the other shop that stocks it is M&S.  I usually get some when we visit the UK by car.  It’s perfectly legal to bring it to France but as it's a liquid you can’t carry it in a cabin bag if travelling by say Ryanair.  It’s fine in your checked in bag but I'd recommend sealing it in a plastic bag or two, just in case of mishaps!

Ingredients

For the pastry

250g plain flour

125g cubed salted butter

50ml whisky

For the filling

1 generous tblsp black treacle

300g mixed dried fruit - I used roughly equal quantities of currants, sultanas, raisins and cranberries

150g unsalted butter, softened

150g soft light brown sugar

3 large eggs

150ml double cream

zest of 1 small orange and 1 small lemon, mixed together

Method

Make the pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour either by hand or using a food processor.  Add the whisky to bring the dough together into a ball (I also had to add a splash of water).  Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° fan / gas mk 4.  Butter a 25cm loose bottomed tart tin.  Placing the tin on a baking sheet makes it easier to get in and out of the oven.

Roll out the pastry to line the tin and prick the base all over with a fork.  Line with scrunched up baking parchment, fill with baking beans and blind bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and lift out the paper and beans.  Bake for another 5 minutes until beginning to turn golden brown and remove from the oven.

To make the filling, cream together the butter and sugar and beat in the eggs one at a time.  Stir in the double cream.

Drizzle the black treacle over the pastry base and scatter the dried fruit evenly over it.  Scatter the orange and lemon zest over the top.  Pour or spoon the filling on top of the fruit and spread it out evenly.  

Return to the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes (mine took about 40 minutes) until almost set.  There should be a slight wobble.

Allow to cool slightly before removing from the tin.  (Mine had leaked here and there and stuck to the base so I served it on the base, on a cake stand.)

Serve at room temperature.

Cuts into 10-12 generous slices.

SOUP OF THE DAY (soup maker recipe)

I know I have waxed lyrical before about how useful I have found my soup maker but.........

Having made the Caesar salad for lunch one day I decided to use the veg and liquid from poaching the chicken the next day in a soup.  It worked really well using a random selection of other veg.  I poured the poaching mixture through a sieve into a jug first to pick out the veg then strained the liquid again to avoid using any unwanted bits in the soup.

My soup maker is a very basic design, doesn't have a sauté function, simply cooks either smooth or chunky but can be used as a blender only.  This is handy if I have made a chunky soup, such as minestrone, then decide I want the chunks a bit smaller.  A quick zap on the blender function makes it a bit finer.

My machine is essentially a large kettle with a blender in it.  Whilst I know that there are some soups that are better made using other means, for everyday lunches and most soups it works perfectly well.  There’s no simmering, stirring, or ladling into a blender to be done.  Once the veg are chopped and you switch it on it does all the work while you do something else and a perfectly good home made soup is ready less than thirty minutes later.  You can add a little spice, a few chopped herbs and a swirl of cream when served in the bowl or, my personal favourite from a Nigella Lawson recipe, a splash of dry sherry and some freshly grated nutmeg.  

There are numerous websites and cook books available to give you ideas, although many of them use machines with extra functions.  If a recipe needs fried or roasted ingredients I do that while chopping the rest of the veg.

One of the veg I like to use now is Jerusalem artichokes as a couple of these add a unique smokiness to the flavour of any soup.  I always buy a few when I see them as they also seem to keep quite well in the fridge.

For this soup I used

The veg and parsley from poaching the chicken (celery, carrot and garlic)

1 large carrot

1 largeish potato

1 medium onion

1 large leek

2 smallish Jerusalem artichokes

3 broccoli stalks, woody outer layer removed

1 chicken stock pot

Method

Having put the poaching veg into the soup maker add enough prepared other veg to fill to the bottom line.

Add the strained poaching liquid and enough water to fill to the top line.

Add the stock pot, give it a good stir and cook on smooth.

Makes 4 generous bowls of soup.

CHICKEN CAESAR SALAD

One of the bars in our village changed hands last winter and is now a very popular bistro style restaurant called Brody's, serving excellent pizzas, lasagne, burgers and salads.  My absolute favourite salad is their chicken Caesar salad.  After a few of those I wondered why I never make it at home and thought it was time I did.  My version is similar to the one they serve.

The chicken ready for poaching.

I now make it quite often using leftover roast chicken or a poached chicken breast, although you can of course buy packs of cooked chicken breast which do the job very well.  You can also cook the chicken breast in an air fryer, adding a few spices if you like, which takes about ten minutes at 180°.  

One poached chicken breast makes plenty of salad for the two of us or would make a starter for four.  I doubt this Caesar salad would pass muster with the authentic salad police but it's a formula we enjoy.  You can obviously omit the ingredients you don't fancy or add other things you like, such as a bit of chopped cucumber.  Some recipes suggest adding bits of crispy bacon which sounds very tasty but I haven't strayed that far yet!

You can also poach the chicken from frozen which is very handy.  I frequently freeze chicken breasts individually, bagging them separately from a large pack from the supermarket, to thaw out one at a time for future use but they work perfectly well from frozen here, just taking a few more minutes to cook in the poaching liquid.

The salad ready for the dressing.

The thing that makes it a Caesar salad as opposed to just chicken salad is the dressing.  I have in the past used home made Caesar dressing based on this recipe here which contains no anchovies.  It came in very handy for a guest who was allergic to most kinds of fish.  Mostly though I use shop bought Caesar salad dressing and have found Heinz readily available in France and very good.  Some others are a bit too thin and not creamy enough.

For the croutons I break up into chunks the dried slices of baguette sold in a local supermarket.  Such things are readily available here for people to serve as apéros with patés or numerous other spreads.  You could make your own or buy packets of cubed croutons (or leave them out).

Since first writing this post I have attempted to make my own croutons by simply drying out some thin slices of yesterday's baguette on a baking tray in the oven part of our wood burner.  It seemed to work!  The temperature was about 200°C and they were in for about ten minutes, turning them over once, until a nice golden brown and crisp.

One thing that is worth the effort is making sure you have the right kind of lettuce, such as iceberg or romaine.  It needs to be crispy and somehow it doesn't work with the floppy kind!  

Ingredients

For the poached chicken

1 skinless chicken breast

1 medium carrot, peeled 

1 stick of celery, washed

1 fat clove of garlic, peeled 

a few stalks of fresh parsley or a pinch of dried parsley

For the Caesar dressing 

2 tblsp mayonnaise

a squeeze of lemon juice or  ½ tblsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp mild mustard such as Dijon

a splash of Worcestershire sauce

1 small clove of garlic, grated

1 tbslp grated parmesan (shop bought ready grated is fine)

For the salad

a chunk of crispy lettuce, washed and shredded (not too finely)

a handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

a few stoned black olives, halved

½ a red onion, peeled and finely chopped (or use a spring onion)

¼ of a red pepper, de-seeded and finely chopped 

a handful of crisp croutons 

1-2 tblsp grated parmesan

Method 

To poach the chicken breast, roughly chop the carrot and celery and put them with all the other poaching ingredients into a medium saucepan.  Add enough water to cover the meat, season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat to a simmer immediately and cook for 15 minutes until the chicken is tender and cooked through.

Lift the chicken out of the liquid and set aside to cool.  You can discard the liquid and veg or use them to make homemade soup.  When the chicken is cold cut into chunks.

For the Caesar dressing, put all the ingredients into a small bowl and mix together, adding extra ingredients to taste.

To assemble the salad put everything into a large bowl, add the chicken and enough dressing to just coat the salad - don't drown it.  Mix thoroughly.

Serve with crusty bread or, if feeling indulgent, a bowl of chips.

Serves 2 as a main course, 4 as a starter.

A BAKER'S DOZEN thirteen of my favourite recipes of 2024

First up is COCK-A-LEEKIE SOUP

This was the starter at our Burns Night Supper last year.  It was really good so when I was asked to stand in for someone who was unable to make their soup for the "fête de la soupe" event in the village the following month I gladly offered to make it again.  Little did I know that not only would I have to make at least six litres of it, that’s two huge stock pots full, but also I would have to stand at a bench at the front of the hall, alongside all the other soup chefs, to serve it all evening.  To add insult to injury I also had to wear a chef's hat which said "cock-a-leekie" on the front of it.  This amused everyone, especially the French, and I had a lot of explaining to do, but the soup was very popular!

After that I vowed I would make sure I knew exactly what I was letting myself in for before volunteering for anything else!

Number two is PARSNIP, DATE AND CLEMENTINE CAKE

This traybake raised a few eyebrows with the French members of our walking group but it all got eaten!

Number three is the spectacularly good CARAMEL BANANA CAKE

I love a banana cake and this was simply wonderful.

Number four is NOUGAT DE TOURS

A delicious tart based on a recipe local to our region of France.  I made it several times last year.

Number five is SMOKED HADDOCK GRATINS

Tasty little starters that are incredibly simple to make and can be prepared ahead for a dinner party.

Number six is SAUSAGE PATTIES

A very tasty way to use up a bit of leftover sausagemeat and so good it was worth buying extra to make them again!

Number seven is GIFFLAR ROLL PUDDING

A delicious way to prove that you can make a version of bread and butter pudding out of virtually any baked bread!

Number eight is BROCCOLI, CAULIFLOWER AND SPRING ONION SOUP

I made a lot of soup last year and this was one of the best.  Mostly I just use up whatever veg need using up.  Sometimes they turn out better than others, but this one was lovely.

Number nine is SALMON, PEA AND POTATO QUICHE

Another "waste not, want not" recipe using one leftover salmon fillet but worth getting the ingredients to make it again.

Number ten is a revisited COFFEE AND WALNUT CAKE

You can’t beat a good coffee and walnut cake and this is my favourite recipe so far.

Number eleven is PARKIN

A very popular cake, dead easy to make using ordinary porridge oats.

Number twelve is TARTE AU CITRON

A classic dessert that everyone loves.

Last but not least, number thirteen, CHOCOLATE AND ALMOND CAKE

A gluten free and very rich cake that makes a delicious finale to a dinner party and a perfect end to my year in the kitchen on both sides of the English Channel!

BANANA ON TOAST and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

At the start of this brand new year I feel that there is less "new year, new you, a healthy start" and more "comfort food" still around.  One can ponder why this is but personally, let’s just say that I have more or less given up watching the news and listen to my favourite music instead.

Recently I have not baked anything new to post about but have worked my way through old favourites.  I might pinch an idea from one of my favourite blogs, Lavender and Lovage, and do a little post about my own favourite recipes of 2024.

My mum was fond of a banana sandwich.  She would walk home from work every lunchtime, a distance of about a quarter of a mile, for her "dinner".  When my grandmother was alive and we all lived in the same house, this would be something cooked by her.  After she died my mum would have some kind of snack.  I never asked why she preferred to do this rather than eat in the works canteen but suspect that she liked a bit of her own space away from the chatter and clatter of her workmates.  Also, probably, to save a few shillings a week.  My dad went to work with home made sandwiches and a bun every day and she would have a snack and a bun at home.  Except that when she was "on a diet" she would resist the bun!

Her favourite snacks included cheese (cheddar or cheshire) and Jacob's cream crackers, toast and jam, a lettuce and tomato or potted beef sandwich or, if there were still any left in the fruit bowl, a banana sandwich.  This was usually made with white bread, "wonderloaf" type, buttered.  The banana would be sliced thickly onto the bottom slice and sprinkled with ordinary white sugar then the second slice squashed on top.  During the school holidays she would make the same for me.

I now prefer banana on toast, especially for breakfast, but think of my mum every time I take the first delicious bite! The ultimate comfort snack! 

Instructions 

Take a slice of your favourite bread, for me wholemeal or granary.

Toast it lightly and spread it thinly with your favourite spread, for me salted butter, but could be peanut butter, Nutella or even pineapple jam.

Take a banana of your preferred ripeness, for me ripe but not too soft.

Peel the banana and lay it on the toast in two halves.

Squash it onto the toast with the back of a fork and dust it lightly with ground cinnamon.

Eat and enjoy while the toast is still just warm.  

A SLIGHTLY BELATED HAPPY NEW YEAR !!