Blanquette of Chicken with Honey
Recipe courtesy of: La Table d'Olivier Leflaive
We often take our guests to the winery of Olivier Leflaive for a fabulous tasting of white Burgundian wines along with a wine-friendly lunch.
1 quart of water
1 1/2 quarts of dry white wine
wine for deglazing
1 bouquet garni (thyme, bay leaf, parsley)
2 medium onions chopped
2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts escalopes
4-5 cloves of garlic crushed
4-5 carrots sliced
½ pound mushrooms sliced
3 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of flour
grated nutmeg (1/3 of a whole nutmeg)
salt and pepper to taste
a few dashes of soy sauce (optional)
1 ½ tablespoons of grain mustard
1 tablespoon of honey
fresh tarragon, chopped
Combine water, white wine, bouquet garni, onions and garlic into a saucepan and boil for about 45 minutes. Brown the chicken in a pan for 1 ½ minutes a side. Keep warm and deglaze the pan. In a casserole make a roux, stirring together 3 tablespoons of butter with 3 tablespoons of flour. Cook for a minute.
Discard the bouquet garni, pour the liquid from the saucepan through a sieve and combine with the roux, stirring constantly until smooth, then simmer gently. Blend the garlic and onions; add the sauce, then nutmeg and contents of deglazed pan. Season with salt and pepper, soy sauce, 1 ½ tablespoon of mustard and 1 tablespoon of honey.
Cook sliced carrots in boiling water. Sauté mushrooms in butter and add both to sauce. Just before serving, strew the serving dish with tarragon, place the chicken in the dish and cover with sauce.
Bon appétit!
Vegetarian French Lasagna
Serves 6 (or 4 very hungry vegetarians)
I'd planned to make a staple recipe of mine for some vegetarian friends. I couldn't find Ricotta in the Supermarche, so I came up with this.
-two packages of French fresh goat cheese, chèvre frais, 200 grams (10 ounces) each. I used "Petite Billy".
-200 grams (10 oz.) of frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
-1 Courgette, (zucchini) shredded
-1 chopped shallot
-200 grams (10 oz.) of mixed wild mushrooms, chopped fine
-1 small container of crème fraîche épaisse. Sour cream could be substituted.
-1 box of lasagna noodles, Barilla's "no need to cook ahead" variety
-1 600 gram jar of your favorite tomato sauce (I used "Provencal")
-1 egg
-3 cloves of minced garlic
-1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
-1 ball of fresh mozzarella, sliced and cut into small pieces
oregano, salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Centigrade, about 400 Fahrenheit.
Mix one package of the goat cheese with the spinach.
Sauté the wild mushrooms and shallots and set aside. Then sauté the zucchini with one clove of garlic and some butter. Mix the zucchini with the remaining goat cheese.
Add one clove of garlic, half of the Parmesan and half an egg to each of the cheese mixtures.
Put a little sauce on the bottom of the lasagna pan, then the uncooked noodles covered with crème fraise, half the spinach cheese mixture, some tomato sauce. Then noodles covered in crème, then the mushrooms. Another layer of crème covered noodles, then the zucchini. More tomato sauce. One more layer of covered noodles and then the mozzarella. Cover with the remaining sauce and then add more Parmesan. Bake for 20 minutes and let sit for 10.
Bon appétit!
Magret de Canard du Cassis
Breast of Duck with Cassis
Paul and I came up with this recipe using the local red currant liquor, crème de cassis, which adds a subtle fruity flavor to the sauce. Cassis, mixed with Burgundy Aligoté white wine, makes the famous aperitif, “kir”, or when blended with the Burgundy Cremant sparkling white wine, a “kir royal”.
Two servings
1 fresh duck breast
¼ cup of dry red wine (we use a Burgundy or Cote du Rhone)
2 Tablespoons of Cassis
3 Tablespoons of butter
1 small shallot finely chopped
Cross cut the fat side of duck breast on the diagonal, just exposing the flesh below it. In a sauté pan, over high heat, cook the duck 4 minutes on the fat side, drain grease, then 2 minutes on the other side. Pour off any fat and reduce temperature.
Using 1 Tablespoon of butter, sauté the shallot until tender. Add a little wine if the shallot starts to brown.
Add remaining wine and reduce for 3 minutes. Add the cassis, simmer gently until reduced by a third. Whisk in remaining butter.
Slice the breast thinly on the diagonal. Serve with gratin dauphinoise, scalloped potatoes, or noodles, and haricot verte, green beans.
Leek Pie
A recipe from my English friend Rosie, who cooks in her camper van while working with her husband, Jamie, on their barge “Wilhelmina”. In such tight quarters, she manages to turn out this delicious quiche-like tart.
Serves 4
Preheat oven to 200C (400F)
Rub margarine over the surface of a 10-inch tart pan.
Pastry-
Use a scale to measure out:
6 ounces of flour
3 ounces of hard margarine
Combine flour and margarine. Using a table knife, cut margarine into small pieces. Then with your fingertips, crumble the mix until the consistency of breadcrumbs. Add cold water, a tablespoon at a time (8 TB in our case) until the dough forms a ball. Knead lightly. On a floured surface, roll dough with a floured rolling pin until 1/8” thick. Drape the pastry over the rolling pin and lay it on the greased tart pan. Trim the dough to the edge. The pastry can be made several hours ahead if kept chilled in the refrigerator.
Note: Rosie makes a small pastry for Jamie with the leftover dough by making a saucer sized circle, filling it with jarred mince, folding it in half, pinching it closed and baking it along with the leek pie.
Filling -
2 medium leeks
3 ounces grated English cheddar (Rosie claims that even French Comte or Emmenthal won’t give the same result so she brings a supply with her from home.)
4 large/Jumbo eggs
200 CCM (1/4 cup) of milk
Freshly ground pepper – preferably a mix of 5 different types – black, green, etc.
Slice leeks in half lengthwise, clean, and cut into 1/3-inch pieces, using the white part only. Place on the pastry. Cover with cheese. Mix eggs, milk and pepper and pour over the leeks and cheese.
Bake 30 to 40 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Serve with green beans, haricot verte, French bread, and a red Cote du Rhone.
Rosie’s Homeport Crumble
We pick the wild blackberries that grow around our mooring in St. Symphorien for this dish. It’s also made with plums from two of Roger’s trees on the condition that he gets some of the finished product. Either fruit works well.
2 pints of fruit
6 ounces flour
3 ounces hard margarine
3 ounces sugar
a small amount of additional sugar for sweetening if needed.
Preheat the oven to 200C (400 F).
If using plums, cut them in half and remove the stones. Soak either fruit in a little water to clean them, drain, and then boil the fruit in enough water to cover for 10 minutes.
Drain and sweeten to taste with sugar. Put in a six-inch square pan.
Make the crumble by measuring out the flour, margarine and sugar. Rosie uses a scale.
Put the flour and margarine into a bowl, then using a table knife cut the margarine into small pieces. Using the tips of your fingers, crumble the margarine and flour into tiny pellets. Mix in the remaining sugar and blend well.
Put the crumble on top of the fruit and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the crust turns golden brown. Serve with English custard or vanilla ice cream.
