Recipes

Recipes

I had some Dutch and French friends around to eat a few days ago and served up my version of Poulet Bonne Femme, or chicken with bacon and onion. They all enjoyed it and asked for the recipe and I said I'd post it so it's below. We talked food more generally and they were interested in my recipe for trout so that is below too.

First, poulet bonne femme. Chop up some bacon onion and garlic; I allow about two thin rashers of bacon per person and a couple of medium-sized onions and 4-5 cloves of garlic for four people but it's essentially as you wish. You can optionally add some mushrooms if you want. Fry these up in some oil (I use olive oil) to slightly brown the bacon and soften the rest. Then sprinkle on some flour to soak up the oil, keep fryng for 30 seconds or so to “cook” the flour and then add chicken stock and scrape off any material stuck to the bottom of the pan into the sauce. The result should be a slightly thick sauce. Chop up a leek or two and add to the pan with pieces of skinless chicken breast, large or small as you wish. Continue cooking on a low heat until chicken is done. The heat needs to be low and the contents will need occasional stirring as a thickish sauce can easily stick and burn. Otherwise this dish is easy. I serve it with small potatoes and a green vegetable of some sort; I'll put the lot in the same pot if quantities/number if guests allows.

Now the trout. This really couldn't be simpler. Clean the trout, if you bought them whole, and cut off the head and tail. Allow a whole fish or half a fish per person according to size. Slice up a lemon and some fresh ginger and put 2-3 slices of each in each trout and then seal each trout in aluminium foil. Place on a tray in the oven and cook for 20 minutes in a medium heat. Then grind up some fresh ginger (quantity to taste) and add to butter and lemon juice in a small dish and place in a microwave for a few seconds until the butter melts; this makes a sauce in a small jug. Serve with rice and either mangetout peas or a green vegetable of your choice and people can pour the sauce over as they wish.

Voilà, as we say here. Neither dish is difficult or arduous to make and both have been very well appreciated here when I have served them to friends.

English Conversation

The English conversation classes of my friend Steve and I finished this week for the summer; we plan to restart at the end of September. The current participants took Steve and I, and Steve's wife Jo, out for a meal to thank us for the classes and that was greatly appreciated. What Steve and I have found gratifying also is that the regular participants seem to have formed a social group, making new friends for themselves along the way.

The participants have made significant progress over the past year so Steve and I will have to think hard about what we do when we restart. We have already moved on from Steve and I doing sketches and having the class learn new vocabulary and expressions and to simply throwing the class a subject and getting them to discuss it. But we are running out of topics to discuss. Pronunciation still needs attention, and particularly the tonic accent which has no place in French, and probably more work is needed on dealing with specific situations. Anyway we'll have to think over the summer and come up with a suitable formula for September.

Fruitful Times

We are now at the time of the year I love best, not simply because the flowers are all at their best but because the local fruit is too. There are still quite a lot of strawberries to be had and to add to them there are local cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines and melons. All ripe, juicy and full of flavour. With the sun beating down and village summer festivities about to begin, what more could anyone want except………….fingers crossed, it's the 23rd?