Category Archives: France

Coq au Vin Recipe

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Ingredients

  • 4 Chicken thighs on the bone (skin removed)
  • 4 Chicken drumsticks on the bone (skin removed)
  • 10 Shallots (peeled but whole not chopped)
  • 5 Garlic Cloves (peeled but not chopped)
  • 1 bottle of a good quality Cotes du Rhone Red Wine
  • 750 ml of good quality chicken stock
  • 500g Lardons
  • 225g Baby Button Chestnut Mushrooms (whole)
  • Olive Oil
  • Sprig Thyme
  • Sprig Rosemary
  • 2 Bay Leaves
  • 3-4 tsps of cornflour

Method

  1. In a thick bottomed casserole on top of the stove line the bottom with olive oil
  2. add the shallots and garlic and lardons fry until starting to just brown
  3. add the chicken pieces (no skins)
  4. fry until just starting to colour so no pink showing
  5. add mushrooms (whole)
  6. add chicken stock
  7. add whole bottle of wine
  8. add thyme
  9. add rosemary
  10. add bay leaves
  11. bring to boil
  12. simmer for 50 mins stirring from time to time.
  13. Taste for seasoning but I find it doesn’t need any salt as the lardons usually are salty enough. Add a small amount of salt if you think it needs it.
  14. in a cup mix 3-4 heaped teaspoons of cornflour with some cold water to a paste
  15. when throughly mixed pour into casserole and stir throughly so the sauce thickens up
  16. cook for a further 10 minutes
  17. Serve with Green Beans and Mashed Potato.
  18. Can be cooked the night before and then thoroughly reheated the next day for even more flavour.

Eggs in pots (oeufs en cocotte)

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Ingredients
150g/5½oz crème fraîche
salt and freshly ground black pepper
pinch nutmeg
handful of chopped dill
4 free-range eggs
To garnish
red lumpfish roe
small sprigs of dill

Preparation method
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
Season the crème fraîche with salt, freshly ground pepper and a pinch of nutmeg.
Place a heaped tablespoon of crème fraîche in the bottom of a ramekin, followed by a little dill.
Crack an egg on top, add a second tablespoon of crème fraîche and sprinkle with a pinch each of salt, pepper and nutmeg. Repeat with three more ramekins.
Place the ramekins in a baking dish and pour enough lukewarm water into the dish to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the egg yolks are set to your liking.
If you like, finish each serving with a teaspoon of red lumpfish roe and a sprig or two of dill.

Recipe by Rachel Khoo

Lemon and Raspberry Madeleines

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For the madeleines
– 3 free-range eggs
– 130g/4½oz sugar
– 200g/7oz plain flour
– 10g/¼oz baking powder
– 1 unwaxed lemon, finely grated zest only
– 20g/¾oz honey
– 4 tbsp milk
– 200g/7oz butter, melted and cooled
– punnet of raspberries
– icing sugar, for dusting

For the lemon curd
– 1 unwaxed lemon, finely grated zest and juice only
– pinch of salt
– 40g/1½oz sugar
– 45g/1¾oz butter
– 2 free-range egg yolks

Method
1. Beat the eggs with the sugar until pale and frothy. Put the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl and add the lemon zest.
2. Mix the honey and milk with the cooled butter, then add to the eggs. In two batches, fold in the flour. Cover and leave to rest in the fridge for a few hours, or overnight.
3. Meanwhile, make the lemon curd. Put the lemon zest and juice, salt, sugar and butter into a small saucepan and heat gently until the sugar and butter have melted. Remove from the heat.
4. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl, then add to the pan and whisk vigorously. Return the pan to a low heat and whisk constantly as the curd starts to thicken. Don’t stop whisking or the eggs will curdle (if the curd starts to boil, take off the heat). Once the curd thickens and releases a bubble or two, remove from the heat and pass the curd through a sieve into a bowl. Place cling film in direct contact with the curd and refrigerate for at least an hour, preferably overnight.
5. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Butter and flour a 12-shell madeleine tin. Put the lemon curd into a piping bag fitted with a small, pointed nozzle and place in the fridge.
6. Put a heaped tablespoon of batter into each madeleine shell and press a raspberry deep into the batter.
7. Bake for five minutes and turn the oven off for one minute (the madeleines will get their signature peaks), then turn the oven on to 160C/325F/Gas 3 and bake for a further five minutes. Transfer the madeleines to a wire rack and leave for a few minutes until cool enough to handle. Meanwhile, wash and dry the tin, then repeat the baking as for the first batch.
8. While the second batch is baking, pop the piping nozzle into the mound in each baked madeleine and squirt in a teaspoon’s worth of lemon curd. Repeat with the second batch, then dust with icing sugar and serve straightaway.

Recipe by Rachel Khoo