Holiday eating in the Riviera Part 2: The French Kitchen

Of all the recipe books I use frequently my absolute favourites are of course 'Ottolenghi' and 'Plenty' (by now everyone knows about my obsession here), the La Duree 'Sucree' book (a beautiful birthday present from my friend), and maybe more unusually the author Joanne Harris' cook books 'The French Kitchen' and 'The French Market'. It seems that not only is Joanne Harris an excellent writer (my holiday read being her latest book 'Peaches for Monsieur le Curé') but she knows her food too; following her on twitter I know she is a woman after my own heart (she loves cake, wine and France). Naturally she's right up there in the list of people I admire (particularly after seeing her speak at Ilkley Literature festival a few years ago) and her cook books have some excellent recipes.

Following my previous post about the holiday cooking on my family holidays I will talk about what my boyfriend and I made. As we were in France it seemed only right to make some of the recipes from a French cook book and the apartment we stay in conveniently has its own copy of The French Market'. Of course my other all time favourite had to appear, so a well-loved recipe from Ottolenghi's 'Plenty' was also used.
So our menu went something like this;

The starter of Ottolenghi Sweet Potato Patties (served with Lemon and Coriander Yoghurt Dip) which can be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/feb/10/foodanddrink.recipes and the main course of Lemon Mustard Chicken with Gratin Dauphinois from 'The French Market' and 'The French Kitchen' respectively and served with a giant salad. The sweet potatoes in the supermarker Carreefour were literally the biggest I have ever seen (see below);

We didn't make a pudding this year (last time we made Tarte Poire Belle Helene also from 'The French Market' which was a big hit) because we felt there would be more than enough to eat (there were even leftovers). I love the mustard chicken recipe as it is so simple to make and tastes amazing, hence why I made it whenever my boyfriend would visit me at university. 


Recipes from 'The French Kitchen' and 'The French Market' both by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde

Dijon Mustard Chicken (or Poulet à la moutarde de Dijon)   
Serves 6 (we doubled the recipe)

6tbsp Dijon Mustard
zest and juice of 2 lemons (unwaxed)
3 cloves of garlic (peeled and crushed)
2tsp paprika
6 chicken breasts
Olive oil for baking sheet (I found it doesn't need much)

Mix together all the ingredients for the marinade in a bowl and add the chicken. Mix together so the chicken is well coated. Marinate for 1 hour minimum. Heat the oven to 180 C/gas mark 4 and lightly grease a baking tray with olive oil. Place the chicken on the baking tray and cover generously with the marinate. Roast for 25 minutes, ensuring the chicken is cooked through. 


Gratin Dauphinois
Serves 6 (again doubled)

1kg potatoes (King Edwards/Maris Piper/Idaho/Desirée - we found 'gratin' potatoes in the supermarket but not sure what kind they were)
1 clove of garlic, crushed and peeled
100g butter
600ml single cream
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
100g gruyere cheese (we used grated parmesan instead as it is less heavy)

Heat oven to 150 C/gas mark 2. Peel and finely slice potatoes (the recipe says with a food processor but we had to use our own fair hands and victorinox knives - see picture of Jeff below). Place potato slices in a bowl of cold water to remove excess starch then drain well. Use a salad spinner to dry thoroughly (luckily the apartment had a giant one).  Rub a large shallow ovenproof dish wiyh the garlic clove and a little butter. Heat the remaining butter with the cream in a large pan, bringing it to the boil. Crush and add the leftover garlic and season with salt and pepper. The recipe then says to add the potato slices and cook together, simmering for 8 minutes, however we just heated the sauce and layered it with the potatoes in the ovenproof dish. The result was equally as good. Finally add the gruyere on top (or parmesan as we used) and season again with salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for 1 1/2 hours and serve hot (I secretly quite like it cold too).

Jeff (manically) slicing potatoes for the Gratin Dauphinois

(Naturally) Heart-Shaped potato 

Finally here are some pictures of the dinner table with the main course (the pattie making process was too hectic for photos). We started with some very nice prosecco and rose cava and then had lots of red and white wine with the main course (there were no sober evenings). 

Mustard Chicken and Gratin Dauphinois

The giant salad

Holiday eating in the Riviera Part 1: descriptions

So another summer has come and gone (if you can ever call it that in England) and with it the Family holiday. After last year in Majorca, this time it was back to Nice, France to an apartment we love 2 minutes from the sea. Along with my parents and two sisters we also had everyone's boyfriends which mean cooking was now a feast-like affair.  With my sister as head chef for the week, we all had a night of doing our cooking; with my dad's classic spaghetti bolognaise (a particularly good one this year), my eldest sisters kitchen wizardry, my boyfriend and I's French kitchen style meal and my middle sisters asian stir fry. The culmination of all this was a giant feast on the last night where we ate everything left in the fridge and had the most elaborate tapas meal of my life; from the classic homemade patatas bravas, onion, potato and vegetable tortilla (resourcefully made in a cake tin and put in the oven), spicy chorizo fried with red peppers, to the giant plate of stirfry noodles left over from the night before, chicken wings, poached salmon (?), fried calamari, avocado, salad and all the other additions such as cous cous, carrot salad, olives and tzatziki. It was the craziest mix of food but somehow it just worked as you can see by the pictures below of both my plate (first serving so not everything is on there) and of the table laden with the contents of the fridge. Definitely a good idea for the end of a self catering holiday and we ate better than going out to any restaurant nearby.

My plate with tortilla and patatas bravas and the table about to collapse under all the food.

Dessert came from my favourite patisserie in Nice 'Patisserie Lac' http://www.patisseries-lac.com/, these people make the most amazing desserts and macarons (this time I tried the passion fruit and caramel one which had the most beautiful flavour). We chose the tarte tatin, raspberry and passion fruit mousse (a favourite on this holiday and I am dying to find a recipe!), un délice (square chocolately/praline heaven), the extremely rich chocolate mousse 'dome' coated in bitter dark chocolate, the nutty pistachio crispy wafer thing and the amazingly light white mousse with raspberry (see right) and a wavy shaped white cake which had the most delicate creamy flavour of all of them (with hints of lime). I wish I could remember all the names/could find them on their website. A place everyone has to go if they visit Nice. We were lucky this year as they have open a new one on Rue Giofreddo round the corner from where we stay. It was meant to be...

Clockwise from top; tarte tatin,chocolate mousse 'dome' (just underneath), raspberry and chocolate mousse, nutty pistachio wafery thing, raspberry and passion fruit mousse, le délice and the wavy lime mousse cake. I wish I'd written down the names!!

So this blog post doesn't give you a recipe but allows me to share some of my recent favourite food moments. In the next post I will talk about some actual recipes.