YELLOW SOUP, with a vibe of cauliflower cheese (soup maker recipe)

We are now in our last few days of our three month stay in France.

We have had a wonderful time.  It's been hard work getting the house and garden back in order after such a long time away - ten months.  The weather has also been very mixed, in fact rather more English than French at times, cool and showery.  

A mists and mellow fruitfulness kind of morning on the day of my birthday party.

You can read about it here.

However, come September we had a return to warmer weather and the month turned into the very reason why it is my favourite time to be in France in the whole year.  Warm days, misty mornings and cool nights, just perfect.

As always, eating out was often unplanned.  That last minute invitation to lunch with friends or the temptation of the menu du jour on a shopping trip.  The result of which is a fridge full of uneaten food and need to be inventive when using it up instead of throwing it away.  

Enter stage left the £4 cauliflower*.  I kid you not!  Fruit and veg seem to be so much more expensive in France than in the UK now and sometimes I balk at the prices but when you're sick of carrots, who can resist a big, fresh cauli?  Hence it would have been criminal to throw any of it away and with half of it looking slightly less fresh in the fridge - time to bring out the soup maker!

I have got into the habit of writing down the ingredients I used each time I make soup so that I can make it exactly the same again if it turns out really well.  Which this one did - and it was bright yellow!

The Emmental cheese was ready grated and from one of those ubiquitous and much maligned bags found in every French supermarket.  We love it and like horses for courses it's perfect for certain things, one of them being this soup.  I stirred it in at the end of cooking and as it didn't melt completely there were flecks of the cheese in the soup - an added bonus, IMHO.

* By the way, one week later we bought another cauliflower of a similar size from the same supermarket for 1.89€ !!  (About £1.60, much more sensible!)

Ingredients

half a cauliflower

2 - 3 medium carrots

1 onion

1 large potato

1 vegetable stock pot

1 tblsp olive oil flavoured with rosemary

1 splash of Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

2 heaped tablespoons grated Emmental cheese

Method

Prepare all the veg by washing / cleaning, peeling as appropriate and cutting into chunks.  Prepare enough to fill the machine to the lower line.

Add water to the upper line, then the oil and seasoning and cook on smooth.

Stir in the cheese as soon as the soup is cooked.

Makes four generous portions.

GREEN SOUP (soup maker recipe)

 

On one of my first shopping expeditions after arriving in France I spotted a soup maker at a bargain price in a shop called Zodio.  It was 32€ so around £28.  I was so chuffed with it that I used it straight away and then offered to get another one for my friend.  The second one I got was reduced even further in price to 26€, so around £23 and even more of a bargain!  No wonder that even in the middle of July there were only three left on the shelf!

It's more or less the same as my Morphy Richards model which I have in my UK kitchen, but without the time display on the control panel.  It did however come with a handy jug!

The weather has been fairly English since we arrived in France, often quite cool, so the soup maker has come into its own several times.  It's also a handy way to use up the inevitable random selection of unused veg.  

One of the things I like about both my soup makers is that the end result is often a bit of a surprise and on this occasion the soup turned out to be a vibrant green colour.  I have no idea why as there were no peas or green veg in it at all!  It was, as usual, delicious!

Ingredients

4 medium carrots

1 onion

1 small leek

1 chunk celeriac

5 mushrooms

2 medium potatoes

one third of an orange pepper

1 veg stock pot

1 tblsp garlic flavoured oil

1 splash Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper

Method

Wash, peel and prepare the veg and cut into medium chunks.  Use enough to fill the machine to the lower line.  

Add the other ingredients and enough water to fill to the upper line and set to smooth.

I hadn't any bread in the house so served mine with garlic flavoured croutons.

Makes 4 good portions.

THE Be-Ro BOOK and their dates of publication.

The 40th and 38th editions.

I have a small collection of old Be-Ro books including the one I bought for myself in the 1970's and a couple of very early editions of my mum's and grandma's.  I updated my collection by buying the 40th edition a few years ago in a supermarket where they were sold with the flour.  Copies of the current edition (41st) can be purchased directly from Be-Ro via their website.  To do that click here.

I naively thought at one time that it might be fun to collect every one ever published but have noticed that they can now fetch a hefty price on Ebay.  Consequently I don't think my collection will grow much more, unless I stumble across one or two in a charity shop somewhere.  That's now less likely as charities are more wise to the value of things than they used to be owing to their volunteers being more internet savvy!

The 21st and 26th editions.

Be-Ro books were first published in 1923, a century ago, and are an interesting insight into social history.  Looking at the earlier editions they were clearly written for the stay-at-home wife and her daughters, right up to those published in the 1970's.  Since then they have become less housewifely.  Over the decades well loved recipes have gradually been changed and new ones added to meet modern tastes and appetites as well as fashions in food.

The older editions can be difficult to date as they don't show the date of publication in them.  Many of the early ones don't have an index either.  As the Be-Ro book was originally published as a helpful booklet to go with the bags of flour that's not surprising.  

Recently I decided to try to find out when one of my mum's favourite recipes, the one for rich coconut tartlets, first appeared in a Be-Ro book - the recipe book she usually used.  I wrote about the tartlets here and then set about finding how far back they first appeared in a Be-Ro book.

I have a copy of the 17th edition where they don't appear and the 21st edition where they do (I don't have any of the editions in between) but typically neither copy has the date of publication.  So I wrote to Be-Ro to ask them.  To my absolute amazement I had a quick reply from Be-Ro with a full list!  So, it was as simple as that, all I had to do was ask!  

It seems my mum's favourite recipe first appeared somewhere between 1954 and 1958, which does make sense.  Being married in 1950 it seems logical that she would have first made them some time between those dates.

The 17th and 32nd editions.

You might also like Karen's blog, Lavender and Lovage, where Be-Ro recipes are often featured.

https://www.lavenderandlovage.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is the list of publication dates as given to me by Be-Ro:

1st 1923
2nd 1924
3rd 1925
4th 1926
5th 1926
6th 1928
7th 1929
8th 1930
9th 1931
10th 1932
11th 1933
12th 1947
13th 1948
14th 1949
15th 1951
16th 1953
17th 1954
18th 1955
19th 1956
20th 1957
21st 1958
22nd 1959
23rd  1960
24th  1961
25th 1962
26th 1963
27th TBC
28th TBC
29th TBC
30th TBC
31st 1967
32nd 1967
33rd 1972
34th 1975
35th 1978
36th 1980
37th 1982
38th 1988
39th 1992
40th 1999
41st & Current Edition 2009

BLANQUETTE DE VEAU MAISON (or veal in white sauce my way).

 

Well, we finally made it to France!  In the end we made a run for it and brought our trip forward by one week, fearing that with the Johnson Variant running rife through the UK, the French might pull up the drawbridge again.  The last few days before we set off were fraught with problems but once we had arrived it was almost as if we had never been away.  You can read about it by looking here.

We have been away for ten months and being back is a total joy in so many ways, one of which is shopping.  In the supermarket I spotted a pack of veal.  It was labelled "pour blanquette à mijoter" which means to stew it in a white sauce.  I can honestly say I have never seen veal for sale in the UK anywhere near to home so it's a treat to find it to both eat it in a restaurant or to cook with.

I consulted my French recipe books and the internet and there are so many different recipes for blanquette de veau to choose from.  Some even require that you start one or two days before serving!  I avoid recipes like those.  In the end, I thought it's just a beef stew, made with no browning, how hard can it be?  I decided to follow my instincts and do a mixture of some of the recipes.

One of the curious things is that you effectively boil the meat.  I suppose that's no surprise considering meat is boiled in any kind of stew, but it reminded me of something a friend once said.  An American living in France for many years, he told me that the French consider English cooking inferior because we boil our meat, which is odd, considering that I have come across plenty of French recipes where the meat is boiled, especially in country cooking, including this one!

The meat and veg are simmered gently until almost tender then the mushrooms are added.  Then a roux is made to thicken the sauce before serving.  I do like a thick, creamy sauce.  Some of the blanquettes I have been served in restaurants have consisted of meat and carrots in a very watery sauce, which is not as good.  Many of the recipes I looked at suggested that the veg cooked with the meat should be discarded, except maybe for the carrots.  Then the dish can be served in a more attractive way with rice, potatoes, pasta and some other kind of veg - often in restaurants a quenelle of some creamed vegetable.  At home there is no way I would throw out perfectly good cooked veg then replace them with something else!

The last step is to season the sauce and this is where I went completely off piste.  I added a splash of cream sherry and it was delicious.  Not really authentic but "my way".

We had ours with some of those slightly golden colour, waxy potatoes that are common in France, and some 'aricot verts - now we're in France it's important to remember not to pronounce our H's!  Oh and of course, a lovely fresh baguette to mop up the juices.

Ingredients

300g veal shoulder or other meat suitable for a casserole, such as chicken, turkey, pork or, if you can get it, rabbit, cut into large bite sized pieces

2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks

2 small leeks, wiped and chopped into chunks

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole

a large glass of dry white wine

1 bouquet garni

a handful of small button mushrooms or 4-6 larger mushrooms, rinsed and quartered

a large knob of butter, about 30g

1 dessert spoon of plain flour

a splash of cream sherry (optional)

a tblsp cream or crème fraîche (optional)

Method

Put the meat and all the veg except for the mushrooms into a large saucepan or flameproof casserole dish.  Add the bouquet garni and the wine.  Season with salt and white pepper (otherwise known in this house as "canteen pepper").  

Pour over enough cold water to cover, bring to the boil and reduce to a gentle simmer.  Skim off any scum that forms at this point.  Cover and simmer for about 40 minutes until the meat and carrots are almost cooked and tender, removing any more scum that forms a couple of times.

Add the mushrooms and cook gently for about 15 minutes more until the meat, veg and mushrooms are tender.  Remove from the heat and leave covered to keep warm.

Next, make the roux by melting the butter in a small pan.  Sprinkle in the flour and beat into the butter to blend together, beating out any lumps, cook gently for a minute or two.  Off the heat, add some of the liquid from the meat and stir in to make a thick sauce.  Add this to the stew - as much as is needed to get the consistency you like.  Add more water if necessary and stir to combine.

Return the stew to the hob to reheat gently.  Season with more salt and pepper if needed and add that splash of sherry and the cream if you like!  Remember to remove the bouquet garni before serving, with potatoes or rice, and other veg.  Plus a nice fresh baguette to clean the dish!

Serves two.

LEMON CAKE

 

The real name for this cake should be "Dom's mum's lemon cake".

It is one of the easiest lemon cakes to make and the recipe comes from Dominic at Bellau Kitchen.  It's his mum's recipe and he recently (two months ago already!) wrote about it as you can see here.

Once I was reminded of it I couldn't wait to make it again myself - I first made it years ago and wrote about it here.  It's a delicious cake with a lovely texture, so quick to rustle up but doesn't hang around - it's very moreish (as my mum used to say).  Highly recommended.

 You may well wonder why there is a picture here of our cat Daisy having forty winks!

Well, at long last we will soon be on our way to France!  It's been a trial getting organised as you might like to read here and there is still much to do.  The blog will be going to sleep for a while and hopefully my next post will be from our house in France!

Night, night!

FILET MIGNON DE PORC

Chez Grand Ma.

We have eaten at this restaurant in the village where we live in France many, many times over the years. My favourite dish on the menu is "filet mignons de porc" and it's delicious.  The pork is tender and succulent and usually served with sauté potatoes (pan fried cubes of herby potatoes), a sprig of roasted cherry tomatoes and a small portion of some kind of other veg. 

In winter we eat inside the cosy restaurant and in summer outdoors in its beautiful courtyard. There is a "menu du jour" at lunchtime and two price bands of set menus in the evening.  This is where we ate when we celebrated getting the keys to our little house in the village on a freezing cold evening in November 2007 and the filet mignon de porc is what we both had.  For me, the great thing about this little restaurant is that you can always get a nice meal all year round, regardless of the month or the weather. On a cold and dark Tuesday evening in February, when there are no tourists and the village is deserted, the restaurant's lights on Grande Rue will be drawing you in for dinner.

So, when I spotted a pork fillet on the supermarket shelf the other day, my heart skipped a beat. It's hard to explain to anyone how much I miss being in France at this time of year and as I placed the pork in my basket I was transported back in time.  It’s funny how food can bring back memories with a jolt and launch you back into a previous time.  

Moules et frites for lunch in the courtyard on a summer's day, or the local trio performing a blues session to enthusiastic diners on a warm evening, the swifts and swallows performing their aerobatics to add to the entertainment, or celebrating a birthday on a chilly December night, the clinking of the glasses adding to the merriment. 

Nick recreated the dish at home and we had ours with a small gratin of potatoes (I confess a purchase from the freezer cabinet and baked in the oven at the same time as the pork) and the usual medley of veg. It was not quite the same as Henri the chef's version but close enough. We sipped a nice red wine with it and reminisced, hoping that we'll be able to return to our house in France this summer.

Ingredients 

1 400g pork fillet

1 large shallot, chopped

half a pack of chestnut mushrooms, thickly sliced

some white wine

1-2 tblsp full fat crème fraîche

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180° fan / gas mk 6.

Heat a little olive oil and a knob of butter in a frying pan and brown the pork on all sides.  Cutting the fillet in half will help to fit it in the pan and with handling.  Transfer to a small roasting dish, add a splash of wine and roast for about 15-20 minutes depending on how well you like it to be cooked.

While the meat is in the oven, add the shallot and mushrooms to the frying pan with a little more oil if necessary and cook gently until soft but not browned.  Add a little wine and season with salt and pepper.  Then add the crème fraîche and stir in, adding a little more to thicken it as you like.

Remove the meat from the oven and allow it to rest for five minutes.  Slice into thick medallions and serve with the sauce poured over.

Serves 2.

RHUBARB AND STRAWBERRY CRUMBLE CAKE

 

I used the same recipe for this cake as for the summer fruit streusal cake which I first made last year.  It's one of those endlessly adaptable recipes that never fails to please and comes from the excellent little book "The Weekend Cookbook" by Catherine Hill.

This time I used a few slim stalks of rhubarb from the garden, choosing the reddest ones in preference to the green, and a handful of strawberries.  The golden caster sugar gives it a slightly caramel flavour and the demerara sugar topping a bit of crunch.  I did wonder about adding a little vanilla extract but it didn't need it.  Rhubarb and strawberries go well together and it was a delicious cake with a nice texture.

The crunch was diminished after a couple of days as I stored the cake in the fridge because of the fresh fruit, but it was still good to eat.  It really is a lovely cake to have either with a cup of tea, a glass of chilled rosé or served warm with custard for dessert.  Highly recommended.

However, I dropped a bit of a clanger with the cake tin, having decided to use a 20cm square tin instead of a round one for a change.  My brain was obviously temporarily disengaged and when the cake came out of the oven I realised that turning it out was going to be a problem.  I had lined the bottom with baking paper but it was a solid tin, not loose bottomed and it suddenly occurred to me that having to tip it upside down to turn it out might mean that I would lose some of the crumble topping.  Rats !!

Luckily, the cake had risen more or less to the top of the tin so once it had cooled for about ten minutes (to make sure it had set and was not too fragile for some athletics) I put a large chopping board on the top, gripped them together firmly, tipped it upside down and removed the tin and the baking paper.  I now had the cake upside down on the board so pressed an oblong cooling rack onto the bottom of it.  With no mean feat of dexterity I gripped the sides of the board and rack with both hands and turned it back the right way up.  It worked and I lost only a few crumbs of the topping.  

*The moral of the story is: either use a loose bottomed tin of some kind, OR, put long strips of foil or paper in the tin so you can lift it out when cooked without inverting it!

In any case, I think it's one of those cakes that cuts more easily into squares than triangles and I would do the same again.....

Ingredients

For the topping

 

50g cold butter, cubed

75g plain flour

50g demerara sugar

50g flaked almonds

 

For the cake

 

125g cold butter, cubed

225g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

100g golden caster sugar

2 eggs, beaten

3 tblsp milk (approx.)

300g of fruit, a mixture of rhubarb and strawberries

 

Method

 

First make the streusel topping by putting the butter and flour into the bowl of a food processor.  Blitz until the stage of large breadcrumbs with a few lumpy bits (so not too fine).  Tip the mixture into a small bowl, add the sugar and flaked almonds and stir to mix together.  Set aside.

(You can of course do the rubbing in part by hand.)

 

Butter and base line a 20cm loose bottomed square cake tin*.  Preheat the oven to 170C / 150 fan / gas mk 4.

 

Without washing the food processor bowl (or the mixing bowl if rubbing in by hand), make the cake mixture.  Put the flour and baking powder in and blitz (or stir) for a couple of seconds to mix.  Add the butter and process until the fine breadcrumbs stage.  Then add the sugar, eggs and 2 tblsp of the milk.  Process  until smooth and add a little more milk if necessary to get a dropping consistency.

 

Transfer the mixture to the tin and level the top.  Chop or cut in half any larger strawberries, chop the rhubarb into 1cm dice and arrange on top of the cake mixture.  Sprinkle the streusel mixture on top of that.

 

Bake for 35-40 minutes (mine took 55 minutes) until done and the cake passes the skewer test.

 

Leave in the tin to cool for 15 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

 

Cuts into 9-12 slices.

* See notes in text!