Salade Niçoise, French Tuna Salad

It turns out there are quite a few versions of Salade Nicoise, and I was going to stick my neck out and say the only thing that people agree on is that it has tuna and egg, but I’m not feeling that bold. 

On a hot summer’s evening in the South of France this is what I made 

Serves 4-5

A big handful of washed, chopped lettuce per person

1kg cooked and chilled salad potatoes, sliced

1/2 sweet onion, sliced 

1 large beef tomato cut into bite sized chunks

1/2 a cucumber cut into chunky half moons

2 tins tuna, drained

1 hard boiled egg per person, chilled, peeled, and quartered

About 10 black (or green) olives per person

Olive oil

Red wine vinegar

Pepper & salt

Assemble in the order listed above. I served it up on 5 pasta bowls, trying to cater for everyone’s likes and dislikes - my disabled daughter can’t chew lettuce, other daughter doesn’t like tomato, I don’t like egg...

You could make a vinaigrette dressing but I just put the oil and vinegar in the table and let people do it themselves. 

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Mediterranean Squid & Potato Stew

I had 'Ragout d'Encornet' a few years ago in a restaurant better known for it's pizzas in the South of France. I kind of recreated it in our self catering apartment later that holiday.

Tonight, realising I had bought too little fish for a fish stew, I decided to add potatoes to make this into more filling dinner.

Serves a hearty 4

500g squid, 'lamelles d'encornet', or white fish
500g white potato
half a large bulb of fennel
1 large onion
1 large clove of garlic
1 carton of pasta
200ml white wine
200ml recently boiled water
1 tsp smoked paprika

Peel and thinly slice the onion. Add the olive oil to a casserole and soften gently over a medium low heat whilst you dice the fennel and potato.

Push the onion to one side one it starts to brown and add the fennel.  Fry gently for 5 minutes then mix with the onion, push to the side, and add the potato.  Fry for another 5 minutes, add the garlic, mix around then add the rest of the ingredients apart from the fish. Bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer, then cover and cook gently for 30 minutes or the potato is tender.

Add your fish or squid in bite sized pieces, and poke just under the surface. Simmer gently with the lid on for 5 minutes until the fish is just cooked.

Season and serve with couscous, pasta or crusty bread.

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Slow Cooker Cassoulet (Duck, Sausage & Bean Casserole)

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An unofficial New Year's Resolution is to use our slow cooker at least once a week.  The weather seems to lend itself to stews right now, plus in this new term I now need to have tea ready by 4.30pm on Monday and Tuesday.

As a practise run I made a slow cooker Cassoulet yesterday.  Cassoulet is a casserole from the Languedoc region of France typically containing a combination of sausages or pork, goose, duck or mutton and haricot beans.  The duck is usually 'confit' which is salt cured and cooked in it's own fat.  But Evans the Butcher's in Alresford doesn't stretch to that, and I'm not sure I would want such a rich ingredient so soon after Christmas, so I just used a pack of two duck legs.

This stew turned out a lot bigger than anticipated, and I estimate it costs little more than £1 a serving.

Serves 8
2 duck legs
6 pork sausages, herby if possible
100g smoky bacon or lardons
1 onion, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 glass white wine
400ml passata (or liquidised can of tomatoes)
1 chicken stock cube
2 tbsp plain flour
250g haricot, cannelini, or pinto beans (soaked overnight)
1 tbsp olive oil
Large bay leaf
Sprig of rosemary

Soak the beans overnight or for 8 hours.  Cassoulet is traditionally made with white beans but I haven't been able to find any for months now in supermarkets so I used pinto beans.  After soaking, drain and bring to the boil in fresh water.  Boil rapidly for 10 minutes without the lid on, then simmer for 30 minutes with a lid on.  Drain, reserving the cooking liquid.

Whilst the beans are cooking, heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the duck legs.  When browned place in the warming slow cooker, then lightly brown the sausages, place them in the slow cooker, and finally brown the chopped bacon, onions and garlic and scrape this all into the slow cooker.

Place the frying pan back on the heat and de-glaze with the wine, scraping off all the meaty bits once it starts boiling.  Crush the stock cube and dissolve this in the hot wine.  Mix the flour thoroughly into the passata and then add to the frying pan together with 2 cans of the cooking water from the beans.  Stir the heating tomato mixture and the flour will start to thicken the sauce.  Once the sauce starts to bubble, pour over the meat in the slow cooker, add the beans and give a good stir to mix everything in and get all the meat under the sauce.  Poke the bay and rosemary into the sauce.

Cook for 7 hours on high, checking every now and then that it is not sticking to the bottom, or overnight/throughout the day on Auto.  If concerned it will stick to the slow cooker dish you could always leave out the flour with the passata and instead stir in a tablespoon of cornflour mixed with a little cold water to a double cream consistency 45-30 minutes before the end of cooking time with the slow cooker turned up to high.  Have to say though that the cornflour is as yet untested in this household.

Flake the duck flesh off the bone and chop the sausages up to ensure everyone gets a bit of everything.  Serve with mash, baked potatoes, garlic bread, whatever! Plus green vegetables or salad.

Soupe de Poisson - Cream of Prawn Head Soup

Prawns are not a regular feature of our meals, but we had exactly 10 of them as a taster between five of us last week barbecued as a kind of Gambas Pil Pil.

As my mother did, I kept all the heads, tails, and shells and rang her for her advice.  She (I find it hard to believe she's 82) said just simmer them for 20 minutes with a bayleaf.  But I had a richer fish soup in mind, more like the Soupe de Poisson we enjoy in the South West of France.  So, based on a Recipe in Claudia Roden's Mediterranean Cooking, this is what I came up with.

Serves 2

10 large large prawn heads, tails & shells
1 small onion, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 glass of wine
Tin of tomatoes
1 bayleaf
A couple of sprigs of thyme
A couple of sprigs of flat leaved parsley
A pinch of paprika
A few strands of saffron
1 tbsp brandy

In a saucepan, soften the onion and garlic in the olive oil.  When they start to brown add the prawn heads etc and stir around for about 5 minutes.  Add the wine, enough water just to cover the trimmings, and the rest of the ingredients.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

Take of the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a liquidiser.  Liquidise for a couple of minutes until smooth.  Strain the liquidised soup through a sieve back into the saucepan, squashing down the puree to squeeze out every last drop of goodness.  Check for seasoning.

In France, this is served with large croutons, grated emmental cheese, and spicy garlicky mayonnaise-like rouille.  But I won't be going this far.

Pan Bagnat or Mediterranean Salad & Focaccia or Baguette Sandwich

Making focaccia the other day meant I had some suitable bread to try out Pan Bagnat, a provencal salad filled sandwich.

The recipe I have from Claudia Roden's Mediterranean Cooking uses baguette.  But Provence is close to the Italian border (which has moved around a bit over the centuries), and I would not be surprised if it has been made with what I was brought up in Italy calling Pane Genovese (Genoese bread), and what everybody else now calls focaccia.

Serves 1 hungry person

1 piece of focaccia, roughly 20cm x 15cm or a 20cm length of baguette
1 small garlic clove, crush or thinly sliced
1 tomato, thinly sliced
2-3 slices hard boiled egg (optional)
4-5 black olives (optional)
2-3 anchovy fillets (optional)
A few cucumber slices
2-3 slices of sweet bell pepper, any colour
Sprinkling of chopped onion or spring onion
A few drops of vinegar
A drizzle of olive oil
A few sprigs of basil, parsley or thyme (optional)
Pepper and salt

As you will see from how many things I have marked as optional, this sandwich filling is quite literally a very moveable feast.  I don't like egg, and anyway would never have a boiled one floating around waiting for a use.  I do love anchovies and olives, but only had anchovies on the day I made it.  To me, essentially, the key ingredients are the garlic, tomato, bell pepper, onion, oil & vinegar, seasoning and herbs (if you have some) for a little taste of the Mediterranean.

Take your baguette or focaccia and carefully slice it down the side to open it up. If using baguette squash both halves of the bread flat with the palm of your hand to make the surface as flat and as wide as you can.

Drizzle the oil on all the open sides of the bread, lay the tomato on first (you want these juices in particular to soak into the bread).  Lightly season with salt & pepper and then continue layering in your filling, lightly seasoning as you go as the salt will draw out the lovely flavoured juices of your salad ingredients.

When filled, press the 'lid' of your sandwich down firmly and wrap tightly in cling film.  Ideally this sandwich is best made the night before or first thing in the morning to be eaten at lunchtime.  Then the juices will have mingled together soaking into the bread.  But even a 10 minute wait is sufficient.  Even avid meat eaters may be surprised how filling this sandwich is!

Tapenade or Olive Dip & Pasta Sauce

The bright warm weather over the last few days and begun me thinking about spring and summer food.  So whilst the kids were thrilled with hearty cauliflower macaroni cheese for tea last night, I thought I'd make Dad & I a lighter pasta dinner with a taste of the South of France.

Tapenade is a Provencal dish.  A salty tangy olive paste  to be eated with crudites or crusty french bread.  It is also a quick pasta sauce.

1 jar or tin of pitted olives (165g drained weight)
1 small garlic clove
1 small tin anchovy fillets, and their oil
2 tsp capers
Sprig of thyme or pinch of dried
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp brandy (optional!)
2-3 tbsp olive oil

Place all ingredients in a mini food processor and blend until smooth.  Add a little more olive oil or brine from the capers if you want a looser consistency.

Serve as a dip or pasta sauce. Freezable.

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Ratatouille or Provencal Vegetable Stew

Is this Provencal stew a 70s dish.  I remember my mum making this when I was a child in the 1970s but I didn't hear of it much since then.

Serves a hearty 4 as a main

1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 aubergines, cubed
2 courgettes, halved lengthways & thickly sliced
1 red or yellow pepper, seeded & chopped to similar size as other vegetables
1 can chopped tomatoes, or 2 large beef tomatoes, diced
salt & pepper
1 tbsp crushed coriander seeds (optional)

Start by frying the onions in the olive oil whilst chopping the other vegetables.  I prefer to add the peppers next, then the courgettes, aubergines, and finally tomatoes and garlic. But there really is no reason for this orde, apart from the garlic which I don't like to burn so add at the end.

Add the coriander if using, and season a little. Cover and bring to the boil, then turn a simmer until the vegetables are soft.  Check and stir every now and then to make sure if it is not drying out and sticking to the bottom of the pan.

The resulting stew should be quite thick and pulpy.  It can be eaten hot or cold and in my opinion is better the day after making!

Ratatouille can be eaten on it's own, with crusty bread, pasta, beans, chickpeas, white fish, pork chops. The list is endless.

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