FIG, HAM AND HERBY CHEESE GLUTEN FREE APÉRO TART

It's many times that on reading Dominic's blog "Dom in the Kitchen" I have felt inspired compelled to bake something he has posted straight away - or as soon as possible.  That's the case with his Boursin, fig and jambon galette which you can read about here.  

We had friends coming round for an evening BBQ and one of them needs a gluten free diet.  I had previously swooped on a pack of gluten free puff pastry in the supermarket with the idea of using it for some kind of nibbles for apéros.  It occurred to me that an adaptation of Dom's recipe would do the job really well.

I had some purple figs given to me by a friend, the right kind of pastry, some black olives and some ham in stock.  All I needed was the Boursin.  I popped into the village shop and whilst they didn't have Boursin they had their own brand herby soft cheese which worked fine.

It was a delicious tart, very simple to make and a great start to the evening.  The gluten free pastry didn't look quite the same as normal (shop bought) puff pastry when cooked but tasted fine and I would definitely use it again.

If gluten free was not a requirement I would use a pack of ordinary rectangular puff pastry and bake it into small square mini tarts which are easier to hand round and eat for people sitting with a glass in one hand!  Cutting squares from a round pack of pastry produces a lot of waste or some odd looking shapes of tart!  It also occurred to me that the filling would work well made into little filo parcels using filo pastry (known as "brick" in France).  I'll add this to the post if I do try it!

Ingredients

1 pack of ready made, ready rolled gluten free puff pastry

4-5 ripe figs, quartered

2 slices of thin ham, cut into strips

6-8 stoned black olives, halved

1 small pack of garlic and herb cream cheese

a little olive oil for drizzling

 

a little runny honey for drizzling

1 egg, beaten

Method

Take your pastry out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature, about 10-15 minutes.  Preheat your oven to 190°C / 170° fan.  Place a sheet of baking parchment on a large baking sheet.

Unroll the pastry onto the baking sheet.  Make a cut all the way around about 2cm from the edge to create a border but not going through the thickness of the pastry.

Spread a generous layer of the cream cheese over the pastry within the border.  Lay the strips of ham on top and arrange the fig quarters and black olives on top of them.

Drizzle a little olive oil and honey over the top and sprinkle with the fresh thyme leaves.  

Brush the edges of the pastry with beaten egg and bake for around 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the cheese bubbling at the edges.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cuts into 8 - 10 slices.

SMOKED SALMON PATÉ

 

Every so often I make smoked mackerel paté which you can see here.  This time I had some smoked salmon in the freezer so I decided to use that instead.  I also looked for a different recipe and adapted this one by Paul Hollywood from the BBC Food website.

It was easy to make, perfectly delicious and kept for a few days in the fridge.  We had ours with some toasted walnut bread and a glass of something chilled.

I recently spotted a very similar recipe where Boursin cream cheese with garlic and herbs is used instead of plain cream cheese, which sounds delicious.  See here.

Ingredients

200g (or one pack) sliced smoked salmon

100g full fat cream cheese

100g full fat crème fraîche

1 lemon (zest of the whole lemon, juice of half)

2 tsp creamed horseradish or horseradish sauce

1 tsp mustard

Chopped fresh dill (optional)

Method

Put all of the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until almost smooth.  Stop the machine when the texture still has some flakes and lumps. 

Season with salt and pepper and add more lemon juice, horseradish and mustard to taste.  

Chill in the fridge until needed and serve with toast, crusty bread or croutons.

Serves 6-8 as a starter, 2-3 as a filling for jacket potatoes.

QUICHE OF THE DAY - LEEK, BACON AND ASPARAGUS

The asparagus season is well under way and I bought a large bundle on the market.  I added sliced leek, chunky smoked lardons and a sprinkling of Emmental cheese for a delicious and filling quiche.

The circles of ready made, ready rolled pastry here in France is large enough to allow an overlap of my 20cm tart tin.  This prevents the pastry from shrinking away from the edge during blind baking.

Sitting the tart tin on a baking sheet avoids accidents where the loose bottom of the tin is pushed up through the pastry when lifting it in and out of the oven.

It has happened to me!

The quiche puffed up during baking but sank back down again as it cooled.

Ingredients

 

1 ready made pack of shortcrust pastry

8 sticks of asparagus, trimmed and halved

1 pack of smoked lardons

1 large leek, trimmed, cleaned and sliced thinly

4 eggs

2 tblsp cream or crème fraîche

about 200ml milk

a handful of Emmental cheese

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180° fan / gas mk 6.  Grease the base and sides of a 20cm loose bottomed tart tin.

Allow the pastry to come up to room temperature to avoid it cracking when you unroll it.  Line the tin with the excess draped over the edge, line with baking paper and fill with baking beans.  Blind bake for 15 minutes.

While the pastry is baking, cook the lardons in a frying pan on gentle heat.  There should be sufficient fat on them but add a little oil if necessary.  Add the sliced leeks and cook until almost tender.

Cook the asparagus spears in a little boiling water for a few minutes until just tender.

Remove the tart from the oven and lift out the paper and beans.  If the pastry looks damp, return to the oven for another five minutes.

Beat the eggs in a measuring jug with the cream or crème fraîche and make up to 400ml with the milk.  Season with pepper but go easy on the salt as the lardons will be salty.

Spread the leek and lardons mixture over the pastry case then arrange the asparagus on top.  Pour the egg mixture over but don't over fill.  Liquid spilling over the top of the case will cause the pastry to stick to the tin like glue!  

Sprinkle with the grated cheese and return to the oven.  Reduce the temperature by 20° to 180°C / 160° fan and bake for around 30 minutes until lightly browned and set.  There should be a slight wobble but no liquid in the middle.  

Remove from the oven and whilst still warm trim off the excess pastry with a small sharp knife before turning out onto a plate.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cuts into 6 slices.

EGGS BENEDICT

There is a salon de thé called the "Pink and Cosy" in La Roche-Posay where they serve excellent salads, cakes and light meals.  We usually go for the eggs Benedict as the eggs are always perfect and the Hollandaise sauce delicious.  

English muffins are readily available in French supermarkets so I bought a pack and decided to have a go at making eggs Benedict myself.  I used a Jamie Oliver recipe here for the Hollandaise sauce.  (This was my first time at making my own as previously I have used a packet mix.)

It took two of us to make the whole dish.  Getting the muffins toasted in the toaster, the bacon cooked in the air fryer and the eggs poached at the same time as making the sauce seemed to be a two person job.  The sauce requires the full attention of one person and the rest is a juggling act that requires a bit more practice.  Either that or two pairs of hands and eyes in the back of your head!!   However, they were utterly delicious and well worth the effort.

You can poach the eggs in advance, plunging them into cold water when just done, then reheating in simmering water for a couple of minutes.  You can even do them the day before and keep them in the fridge overnight.  

Jamie Oliver says that the way to keep your Hollandaise sauce warm is to pour it into a vacuum flask, warming it first by rinsing out with boiling water.  Or you can try keeping it warm in your bowl over simmering water by stirring every so often until you need to serve it.

Ingredients for the sauce

150g unsalted butter

2 large egg yolks

1 dessertspoon white wine vinegar

a splash of lemon juice (I used Jif lemon)

Method

Put the butter into a small saucepan and melt over gentle heat.  Set aside.

Put the egg yolks into a heatproof bowl over a saucepan containing just simmering water.  Choose a bowl that sits firmly on the rim of the pan without rocking about and make sure that it doesn’t touch the surface of the water.  Break the egg yolks with a whisk and begin whisking.  Whisk in the vinegar.

Dribble the melted butter into the eggs and continue whisking until you have a thick, glossy sauce.  Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately or keep warm.

For the eggs Benedict 

2 English muffins 

4 eggs

4 rashers of bacon.

 Method 

Split the muffins and lightly toast both sides.

Grill or fry the bacon until as cooked or crisp as you like it.  (I did mine in the air fryer.)

Poach the eggs to your liking (see method here).

Place a split, toasted muffin on each plate.  Top each half with a rasher of bacon then a poached egg and spoon over the Hollandaise sauce.

Serves 2.

A CHICKEN STIR FRY TRAY BAKE

 

I spotted a recipe on FB that looked really easy, quick and very tasty.

The ingredients of a stir fry but baked in the oven.

We had a couple of small chicken fillets in the fridge and all the other ingredients in stock.

We were good to go.  

The recipe included some chilli but we avoid chilli so left it out.

It was still very tasty.

We had ours with plain boiled rice.

It was very tasty, filling, quick and easy.  A perfect weekday dinner.

Ingredients

1 large skinless chicken breast

1/2 a red pepper, seeds removed 

1 small red onion 

1/2 a head of broccoli

1 200g can beansprouts, drained

1 tblsp runny honey

1 tblsp olive oil or a few squirts low cal spray

1 - 2 tsp soy sauce 

1 tsp smoked paprika

Method 

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180° fan.

Slice the chicken and all the veg into bite sized pieces.  

Tip into an ovenproof dish and drizzle over the soy sauce and honey.  Spray with oil spray or drizzle with the olive oil.

Sprinkle over the paprika and season with salt and pepper.

Toss everything around to coat with the flavourings and bake for 20 minutes, stirring half way through, or until the chicken is cooked and the veg tender.  

(I suppose that if your air fryer basket is big enough, or if cooking for one and you halve the ingredients, you could cook this in your air fryer.)

Serves 2

AIR FRYER HERBY POTATOES and home made one-cal spray oil

When it was a really nice day recently we decided to abandon all plans for chores, gardening and DIY and have a late lunch bbq.

It being still only March we didn't quite feel like wheeling the gas bbq out of the barn and setting it all up which would have taken quite a while.  However, last year we bought a small electric bbq at a brocante for 8€ which has been a huge success so we used that instead.

We did some of our chicken, lemon and thyme kebabs (see here), a carrot and red cabbage coleslaw (see here) and some air fryer herby mini potatoes.  When the gas barbecue comes out for the year we will do our potatoes on that instead as the process is just the same (cooking the potatoes in a foil tray on the bbq) but on this occasion the air fryer came into its own and lunch was on the table (outdoors in the early spring sunshine) within half an hour.

Another thing I have started using recently is home made one-cal oil spray.  This is a tip from Nancy Birtwhistle and it works really well, makes spray oil without any additives cheaply and easily.  I bought a glass spray bottle from Amazon that has liquid measurements on the side and which makes the job of making the oil so easy.

We have found our tiny Instant Pot air fryer very useful for lots of things but wouldn't claim that we can cook everything in it.  We still use our main oven a lot.  I don't subscribe to the theory that if you have an air fryer you can do away with the oven any more than you could manage with just a microwave, or slow cooker.  I have found that different kitchen gadgets are ideal for different things but I certainly don't regret getting the air fryer.  I'm not sure I would attempt to bake a cake in it.  If there are two items that need cooking in the oven we would use that instead of the air fryer.  Horses for courses.

Do you have one and what do you use it for?

Some of the things we find it ideal for are:

Chicken fillets

Salmon fillets

Fish fillets

Sausages, bacon and black pudding

Croutons

Frozen oven chips or sauté potatoes

Baked potatoes

Baked apples 

Frozen croissants

Fish fingers

Roasted vegetables

Refreshing yesterday's baguette

Ingredients for the herby potatoes

2 handfuls of baby potatoes or any small, firm potato, washed and cut evenly to size.

spray oil

salt and pepper

dried herbs of your choice

Method

Parboil the potatoes for 5 minutes.  Drain and tip into the air fryer basket.

Spray with a few squirts of oil (or drizzle with sunflower or olive oil)  

Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle over a teaspoon or so of herbs to taste.

Shake the pan a few times then cook at 180C for 8-10 minutes until knife-tip tender.  Shake the pan a few times during the cooking time.

Serves 2.

To make the spray oil

50ml sunflower oil (or other oil of your choice)

15ml cooled boiled water from the kettle

5ml vodka

Measure the ingredients into your oil sprayer and give it a good shake before each use as the oil and water will separate.  Keep in a cool cupboard, not the fridge.

CELERIAC AND POTATO GRATIN

This is a very easy and tasty accompaniment to serve with any meat, chicken or casserole.  It’s fairly rich but a real treat.  I served mine with my version of coq au vin blanc (see here).

There are numerous recipes for it online and I adapted a Jamie Oliver recipe that you can see here because it looked simple.  I put the dish on the table for people to serve themselves as per Jamie's suggestion.  

It was absolutely delicious and there were plenty of leftovers which I reheated by covering with foil and baking at 180° fan for 15 minutes.

Ingredients 

4-6 medium potatoes 

half a large celeriac 

1 large onion 

2 cloves of garlic 

600ml double cream

75g cheddar cheese, grated

Method 

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180°fan.

Peel and slice the potatoes into roughly 5mm slices. Put them into a large bowl of cold water to prevent discolouration.

Peel and slice the celeriac, garlic and onion.  Drain the potatoes and put everything into the bowl.  Add about half of the grated cheese to the bowl and mix everything together. 

Transfer the mixture into a gratin or ovenproof dish in layers and pour the cream over.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and bake for 50 minutes to one hour until the veg are soft (test with the tip of a knife) and the sauce bubbling.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley if you like before serving.

Serves 6-8 generous portions.

CARROT AND ARTICHOKE SOUP (soup maker recipe)

Topinambours, the French word for Jerusalem artichokes, are in plentiful supply at the moment and I couldn’t resist a bagful when we breezed through the market in the wintry drizzle the other week. I have made Palestine soup many times (see here) but decided to have a look in my soup book for an alternative recipe.

This book was a charity shop purchase a couple of years ago and appeared to be brand new.  It’s crammed with excellent recipes for delicious soups, most of which can be adapted for the soup maker.  This time added my "secret ingredient" which is a splash of dry sherry and a good grating of nutmeg - a tip I learned from Nigella Lawson's recipe for vegetable soup in her book "How to Eat" (see here).  I have found it enhances the flavour of most vegetable soups!

A carrot and just one knobbly artichoke!

Next time I think I would hand pick my own artichokes.  Those I got from the market were very knobbly and the devil’s own job to peel!

My Morphy Richards soup maker, which apparently "died" in the middle of last year is now working perfectly!  Why that happened is a mystery but I'm happy for now that it’s still going strong!

Ingredients

1 large onion

1 stick celery 

sufficient Jerusalem artichokes and carrots to fill the machine to the bottom line, about half and half of each

1 vegetable stock pot 

1 good squirt garlic paste or purée 

1 tblsp dry sherry

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg 

Method

Peel and roughly chop the onion.  Clean and roughly chop the celery.  Add both to the soup maker.

Peel and roughly chop the carrots and artichokes and add enough to fill the soup maker to the bottom line.  You can vary the proportions depending on how many of each you have but I used half and half.

Add the stock pot, garlic paste and enough water to fill to the top line.  Season well with salt and pepper.

Cook on smooth.

When done, check the seasoning and stir in the sherry and nutmeg.

A tip for grating nutmeg: grate the amount you want onto a chopping board or plate then tip it into the soup. This saves having to go fishing in the soup for the nutmeg when you drop it!

Makes 4 generous servings.  Would serve 6 as a starter.

BUBBLE AND SQUEAK TWO WAYS

 

Oh, the joy of leftovers!

The first version is simply leftover mashed potatoes and green veg, mashed together.

The mixture was piled into a well greased muffin tin and baked in the oven at 180° fan for about twenty minutes then sprinkled with grated cheese before returning to the oven to finish cooking.  After another ten minutes the cheese was melted.  We had ours with baked beans.  Yum!

For the egg version I used all the leftover veg we had, including carrot and half of a small tin of sweetcorn.  I added some fried chopped onions and leftover spaghetti.  I mixed in a tablespoon of panko breadcrumbs for a bit of texture.

I made depressions in the mixture ready to receive the eggs and baked it for 20 minutes at 180° fan  before dropping an egg into each well.

It was then finished off in the oven at 180° fan for around 10 minutes more until the eggs were cooked but the yolks still runny.  Double yum!

TOMATO MINI TARTS FOR APÉRITIFS

 

These little bite sized tarts are so easy to make and work really well as nibbles for a crowd.

Scoring the lines in the pastry is the only fiddly part.

You can get 48 tarts from one sheet of puff pastry!

(Depending on the size of your tomatoes!)

There are endless variations you could do.

Ingredients

1 sheet of oblong ready made puff pastry

A handful of cherry tomatoes, a mix of colours makes the nibbles more interesting 

A handful of grated hard cheese, any type

1tblsp grated parmesan (optional)

1-2 tsp mustard (optional)

1tsp dried herbs (optional)

Method 

Remove the pastry from the fridge 10-15 minutes before using, otherwise it may crack when you unroll it.

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180° fan.  Unroll the pastry and leave it on the paper it comes rolled in. 

Being guided by the size of your tomatoes, cut the pastry into even squares.  Then mark out border lines just within all sides of the squares but not cutting through.

Smear a little mustard onto each square if using and sprinkle with the grated cheese.

Cut your tomatoes into slices about the thickness of a £1 or 1€ coin and place one slice in each square.  

Lightly grind salt and pepper over the tarts and sprinkle over the parmesan and dried herbs if using.

Transfer the paper loaded with the tarts to a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and cheese bubbling.

Makes up to 48 nibbles.

MICROWAVED POACHED EGGS

I first wrote about how to poach an egg here.  It's the method I use when I have more than one egg to cook and it works well every time as long as the eggs are quite fresh.  If they are not so fresh the whites tend to spread a bit but they still taste good!

A perfectly cooked microwaved poached egg.

Then I spotted on the internet a way to do them in the microwave, which is very handy and quick if I just want to poach one egg for myself.  There were various methods involving mugs, cups, ramekins and other dishes, water on top, water underneath, and I had mixed results including exploded egg all over the inside of the machine!

In the end I arrived at this method and came to the conclusion that the shape of the dish has a lot to do with the success. 

My best results came from using a rather conical shaped dish.

I acquired a set of these little Pyrex dishes (not actually Pyrex but ovenproof anyway) in order to bake a batch of Queen of Puddings (see here) which were a great hit.  The worst results (exploding eggs) seemed to happen when I used a straight sided mug or ramekin.

I also found that these small jars work well as they are about the right size.  They are Weck jars and they are sold in France with paté or rillettes in them.  They have a rubber seal rather like a Kilner jar seal and being oven proof are very useful for various things.  (The lids also make good wine bottle coasters.)

As you can see, they also have a slightly conical shape.

Another rather weird thing I discovered is that the rate of success improved if I put water on top of the egg rather than into the dish before dropping the egg in!

Obviously I have no idea if there is any sensible scientific reasoning behind any of this but as it's now quite a while since I had a less than perfect poached egg using this method I decided to risk sharing it!  I dare say any conical shaped container would work as long as it's the right sort of size.

I recently discovered the quick function button on my microwave too!  One press gives it thirty seconds at 800w, two presses sixty seconds and so on.  This is very handy for cooking the egg just right!  I give it two presses but open the door and have a look when there are still ten to fifteen seconds left on the clock.  If it's not done it goes back in for five seconds more.

Finally, remember to get your toast on first as it takes longer to do than the egg and you want it to be ready on the plate when the egg is nice and hot.

Method

Drop your egg into a smallish slightly conical shaped dish, mug or pot.  Very fresh eggs definitely work best.

Put about 1 tablespoon of cold water on top.

Microwave on high (800w) for 40-55 seconds.  The time required depends on the size of your egg so give it 40 seconds and if the white is still uncooked put it back in for 5 second bursts.  It only takes 5 seconds too long for the yolk to be solid not runny.  Another extra burst may result in your egg exploding all over the inside of your microwave!

Tip the egg into a slotted spoon to drain off the water and slide it onto your toast.  

Poached egg on toast for one!

PIGS IN BLANKETS CASSOULET

This was one of the recipes in Mary Berry's Christmas programme last year.  It looked so good that we bought extra pigs in blankets in order to make it.  You can see the recipe here.

We actually adapted it to a quick version that just serves two people.

In browning the PIBs the blankets (bacon) came off - the sausages became unwrapped but that was not a bad thing!  In fact it gave me the idea that the cassoulet would be just as good another time made with chipolatas and lardons! 

It was utterly delicious, perfect for a Friday night supper (or any night of the week!).  Because it contains a whole tin of beans we just had ours with extra veg; carrots and broccoli.  I used my lovely small old Cousances cast iron casserole dish, a present from my Aunty Vera in the 80’s.  She had bought it during the early trend for cast iron pots and pans but couldn’t get on with it, preferring her 1970’s Pyrex dish instead - the white one with the orange flower pattern.  I'm sure many of us remember those and I dare say some of you will still be using one!

We obviously used ready made uncooked PIBs but it would be perfect for cooked leftovers, just putting them in last thing with the beans once the sauce got going.  The advantage there is that they would probably stay in one piece!

Ingredients 

1 tblsp sunflower oil 

10 pigs in blankets (or the whole pack of 12!)*

2 small shallots, peeled and chopped

1 stick of celery, washed and sliced

2 small cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed or grated

1 400g can of chopped tomatoes 

1 400g can of haricots verts or other white beans eg butter beans, cannellini beans, chick peas, drained and rinsed

a splash of white wine (or water) used to rinse the empty tomato tin

1 tsp dried parsley or sage

1 tsp Dijon mustard (or just a spot of English mustard)

1 vegetable Oxo cube or any stock cube or stock pot

1 tsp chicken gravy granules if needed

1/2 tsp sugar if needed

Method 

Heat the oil in a heat proof (cast iron) casserole dish or sauté pan.  Add the shallots, garlic and PIBs and fry gently, stirring, to colour them.  Don’t worry if the bacon unwraps itself from the sausages!

Stir in the tomatoes, beans, and herbs, crumble in the stock cube and bring to the boil.  Add the wine and simmer gently uncovered for about 10 minutes until the sausages are cooked through. *this is the stage where you could add cooked leftover PIBs.

Season and taste the cassoulet.  Add the sugar if the tomatoes seem a bit sharp.  Add the mustard and stir in the gravy granules to thicken the sauce if it’s a bit thin.

Serve with any extra veg you like.

Serves 2.

You might also like these other sausage dishes:

Italian sausage and bean stew

Sausage and lentil stew

Sausage traybake

Sausage and potato quiche which could also be adapted to use leftover PIBs.

SALMON WITH BRAISED CABBAGE AND BACON

The weather has cooled down a lot and although there are some warmer days forecast it definitely feels autumnal now and we feel more like "proper cooking" as opposed to barbecues, quiches and salads.

This is a version of something I cooked a few years ago to a much more involved recipe.  

The sauce is one we make regularly which also works well with chicken or pork.  It’s a method we call "camp cooking" as that’s how we used to cook ourselves a decent dinner while on holiday - chicken in a creamy sauce done in a frying pan, having brought a separate pan of potatoes up to the boil and left to cook by themselves.  It’s amazing what you can do with a one burner camping stove with a little imagination.

For this version, the cabbage was cooked until just done then stirred through the hot sauce.  The salmon fillets were cooked plain and simple in the air fryer, or you could oven bake or fry them.  I added some courgette just because we have so many to use up but you could leave that out.  We had ours with plain boiled potatoes as the dish is already very rich - and delicious!

Ingredients 

half a small hard white cabbage, roughly shredded

1 small courgette, diced (optional)

a splash of vegetable oil

1 onion or shallot, chopped

a small pack (125g) lardons (we prefer smoked)

2-3 tblsp full fat crème fraîche

2 small salmon fillets

a few snipped chives

Method

Cook the shredded cabbage in boiling water until just tender.  Drain and set aside.

Cook the salmon fillets separately using an air fryer or by baking in the oven or in a frying pan.  They will  take 12-15 minutes.  Keep your eye on them as it’s easy to overcook and they’re best if just done and flaky.

In a deep sauté pan or large frying pan heat a splash of oil and add the onion, courgette and lardons.  Cook on medium heat until the onion and courgette are just tender.

Add the crème fraîche a spoonful at a time, stirring on low heat, until you have plenty of sauce.  Season with black pepper but very little salt.  Tip the drained cabbage into the pan and stir through the sauce.

Place the salmon on the bed of cabbage, sprinkled with snipped chives.  Serve with plain potatoes or pasta.

Serves 2.

COURGETTES ON TOAST #2

Blogger friend Angela recently posted about leftovers, how not to waste them and how to make a delicious meal from what could easily be just thrown away.  Sometimes it takes quite a bit of imagination to do that.  See here.

Whilst on holiday in our gite in Brittany on a rainy day we decided to stay indoors and do some painting.  The gite was a long way from any shops so I aimed to produce lunch from what we had in rather than go on a long trek for supplies.  What we really fancied was beans on toast but we had no beans!  We did have sliced bread for sandwiches but also had half a baguette from the day before, so I decided to use that.

It turned out really well, almost like ratatouille on toast!  Very tasty and something I would do again.

However, on return from our holiday we found that our rogue courgette plant had produced these monsters!  Even with quite a bit of imagination I'm not sure we can keep them from the compost heap!

Ingredients 

A splash of olive oil

Half a small courgette 

Half each of a small red and a small green pepper, de seeded 

Four mushrooms 

Two small tomatoes 

1 tsp herbes de Provence (or a dash of chilli flakes or Worcestershire sauce would work)

A sprinkle of grated parmesan

Two eggs

Half a stale baguette

Method 

Wash and dice all the veg.  Heat the oil in a small saucepan and add the veg and herbs, adding the tomatoes last and cooking gently until soft.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cut the baguette into four chunks.  Slice through into halves vertically and remove the crust.  Toast.

Serve the veg piled onto buttered toast, sprinkle with parmesan and topped with a fried egg. (Or poached, or scrambled if you prefer, but sometimes only a fried egg hits the spot.)

Serves 2.

TOMATO SAUCE

Our tomato harvest has been less than normal this year, as we only planted four plants, but we are still not keeping up with the supply.  So as per previous years I have been hunting for ways to use them and this time, I decided to make tomato sauce.

I found a recipe for a simple tomato sauce on the internet and adapted it, as always, to what I had in stock.  I used most of our home grown tomatoes, reserving a small dishful for use in salads and sandwiches.  The original recipe was for 500g of tomatoes but I had three times that when I weighed the ones that were ready for using so I scaled it up.  You can see the recipe here.

1½ kilos of tomatoes made a full litre of the most delicious garlicky sauce, perfect for pasta or for adding to pies, stews and soups.  After using some straight away I divided the rest into 300g portions using ziplock bags for the freezer.  If you flatten the sealed bags before freezing they take up less space in the freezer.

Ingredients 

500g / 1500g ripe home grown tomatoes 

2tblsp / 6tblsp extra virgin olive oil

4 / 12 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped 

a good handful of fresh basil or 3 tsp dried basil

Salt to taste

Method

Roughly chop the tomatoes, removing any scarred or damaged bits.  No need to peel.

Heat half of the olive oil in a large saucepan on medium heat.  Add half of the tomatoes, turn the heat down to low and add the garlic.

Add the remaining tomatoes and cook gently until they begin to break down, stirring regularly.

Add the remaining olive oil and salt to taste and cook on a low heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring regularly.

5 minutes before the end of cooking add the torn basil leaves and/or dried basil.

When cool transfer to a food processor and process until as smooth as you want it, or use a stick blender in the pan (be aware it may splatter and tomato stains can be very stubborn).

Makes 33cl / 1 litre of sauce which will keep for a week in the fridge.  Freezes well.

You might be interested in other ways I have used tomatoes:

airport potatoes

preserved roast tomatoes

ratatouille

roast salmon with courgettes and tomatoes

gazpacho soup

smoked salmon and halloumi stuffed courgettes

roasted cod with potatoes and tomatoes

stuffed chicken fillets

tomato, ham and goat's cheese tart

noggle end tomato tarts

roasted tomato soup

courgette and tomato gratin

easy tomato and cheese tart

green tomato chutney