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Welcome to French Food
Focus. The name describes the intent of this blog. I'll focus on food
and because I live in rural I hope you enjoy my ramblings about rural France!
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This is our village. Our house is the white one at the top right. |
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We had some friends over for Sunday lunch yesterday. Everyone had a nice time; conversation flowed, wine flowed and everyone left feeling relaxed A simple Sunday Lunch and satisfied. Just how a Sunday lunch should be. The preparation was a joint effort this time. Linda prep'd the vegetables and made the dessert. I did the starter & the main course. The main course was leg of lamb. First I boned it as you can see below.
I hated to throw away that beautiful bone, but Rupert can't have it and I didn't have time for stock making; so out it went. Next I filled the cavity with anchovy filets and fresh rosemary.
You can just see the anchovy filets. I then tied the leg up to keep in the fillings. This is important for flavor and it, like the boning, makes caving much easier later on. To finish I cut some slits into the top where I placed a few more anchovy filets, freshly ground pepper and more fresh rosemary. Here's the leg tied and then ready for the oven where it will be roasted at a low (130 C) temperature until the internal temperature at the thickest part reaches 140 degrees F. This will take roughly 3 hours if the lamb is at room temperature to start with.
Next I made some courgette tarts ( Zucchini to my American countrymen) This is a recipe from Gary Rhoades who is a well known English chef. I like his style. Anyway you start by cutting the squash into thin rounds.
As you can see I used my posh mandolin (a birthday gift from Linda) to cut the squash. You could use a food processor with the right blade or do them by hand. The important thing is to make sure they're thin and as even as possible. Here's an illustration of the thickness.
Next you parboil the courgettes very briefly in water. Just a few seconds. In this case just long enough for me to take a picture.
Pour them out into a colander and put them under cold running water. This stops the cooking and keeps their color vivid. Next you need to dry them which I do on paper towels as below:
Now you need to cut out your pastry. I'm using store bought flaky pastry as what you can buy in France is better than I can make. Today I'm doing individual tarts. At other times I may do one large tart. It just depends upon how I feel and how many people I'm serving.
Next slice up some onion thinly and gently fry it in butter until its soft, but not browned. The best onions are any mild variety; white onions here, Vidalia, Maui or Walla Walla's in he states. Or, as today, I just used plain old yellow onions.
I'm now ready to assemble the tarts. This is very easy. Just place a small mound of the onions in the center of the pastry round. Then start laying squash slices around the perimeter leaving a small gap along the edge. Overlap the slices and start a second round inside the first once the first is finished. Continue until the onions are covered. Easy and pretty. Sprinkle the tops with fresh thyme and a generous grind of pepper.
Bake then in a hot (230C) oven until the crust is browned and the courgettes are soft. Serve hot! So, that was our starter. Meanwhile the vegetables had been prepared ready to cook to accompany the main course of roast lamb.
We had Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, braised leeks and boiled potatoes with butter & chives. All very nice with the lamb. To accompany all this I made a gravy from the lamb juices having deglazed the roasting pan with some red wine and added some full cream.
We skipped cheese and went onto Linda's cranberry & apple crumble. The crumble is a very popular dessert in England and can be made from a whole variety of fruits.
The apples sautéed in butter with some sugar and cinnamon.
The cranberries boiled up with a bit of water and sugar; just until they burst. Next Linda made the crumble top which is two kinds of flour plus oatmeal plus butter.
Then she assembled the whole thing ready for the oven.
Below is the crumble ready for cooking.
The jar of cinnamon on top is just a reminder and an indicator of size.
The crumble was delicious and in the English fashion was served with hot custard sauce.
All in all a very satisfying Sunday lunch which we thoroughly enjoyed. I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Do try making the little courgettes tarts. They're easy to do and are always a great hit. Next, I have to start working on the Christmas hamper to take to England
Its a tough life!
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