Once July 14 – the French national day – has passed, for me that always signals the beginning of the summer holidays and provides inspiration for today’s recipes. What better than a taste of France for lunch or dinner?
Even if you are not off to the beach or going abroad, sharing with friends a meal redolent of the French countryside will put you in a holiday mood. And you probably already have most of the ingredients at hand, or can readily purchase them to produce an impromptu French Sunday lunch.
Have a look in the deli section of your local supermarket for cheeses, charcuterie and country pâtés. There you have the makings of your first course and the cheese course – but you also need a trip to one of the many local bakeries for some crusty bread or rolls. My favourite at the moment is De Bono’s in Għajnsielem for their soft finger rolls, and I always make sure to arrive there as close to 10.30am as possible on Sunday mornings.
Add cornichons and moutarde de Dijon to the pâtés and charcuterie, and some fresh fruit for the cheese platter. You will not find figs now, but think about a few fresh fig leaves or vine leaves on which to serve the cheese; it makes for a very fresh and attractive presentation.
For a classic main course, a simple roast chicken is hard to beat. Put a lemon and a handful of fresh herbs in the cavity, and use extra herbs such as chives and parsley or lemon balm to flavour a sauce made from the cooking juices and a splash of wine, rounded out with a spoonful or two of cream.
If chicken does not appeal, use the herbs mixed with mustard, breadcrumbs and seasoning to make a crust for racks of lamb.
This is an easy main course to prepare for any number, as one rack will feed two people, so all you need do is multiply and line up the racks in your roasting tin.
Chined and trimmed, they will roast in little more than 20 minutes; and allow them to rest for 10 minutes before cutting up.
Pork fillet is another quickly cooked dish to which you can give a French flavour. You can sauté medallions of the pork and make a sauce with the pan juices and a little Dijon mustard.
Prunes plumped in red wine can be heated in the sauce and this produces a dish such as you would find in the Loire Valley.
A stuffed loin or shoulder of pork is more time-consuming, but good value for a larger gathering.
Madeleines are surprisingly easy to make and quick to bake. Served warm, with a sorbet, an ice cream or bowl of fresh fruit salad, these make for a delightful note on which to end a meal of French flavours. Or you might want to make a clafoutis, that delicious and easy batter pudding, traditionally made with cherries, but adaptable to many fruits, such as plums, apricots, figs (fresh or dried), sliced pears or peaches.
A nicely chilled Beaujolais or Chinon from the 2009 or 2010 vintage is perfect with the charcuterie, and the same goes for 2009 Burgundy or 2005 Bordeaux with the chicken, pork or lamb.
Staying French, look for a Monbazillac or Cérons to serve with the clafoutis or madeleines.
• The second, enlarged edition of Frances’s latest book, The Scented Kitchen, published by Serif, is available online, post-free, for £10 from the Book Depository at www.bookdepository.co.uk.
Madeleines
Makes 24
100g caster sugar
100g self-raising flour
Pinch of salt, about half a coffee spoon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
130g unsalted butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 220˚C, gas mark 8. Butter and flour madeleine moulds or bun tins. Sift together the dry ingredients. Beat in the eggs and then mix in the melted butter.
Pour the batter and the mixture, which is really quite liquid, into the prepared moulds, and bake in the top half of the oven for five to seven minutes.
Remove from the oven once the madeleines are golden, well-risen and with the characteristic ‘bump’ in the middle. The recipe multiplies well, certainly by up to 10.
You can add, with the eggs, lemon zest or vanilla seeds, orange-flower water and grated orange zest.
Alternatively, you can use vanilla sugar or lavender sugar.
Roast stuffed shoulder of pork with olive sauce
Serves 6 to 8
Ask your butcher to remove the blade and bones from a shoulder of pork, but to leave in the shank bone which makes for much easier carving. Remove as much visible fat as possible.
1 shoulder of pork, boned as above, weighing about 2kg, boned weight
For the stuffing
200g fresh soft breadcrumbs
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp toasted pine nuts or flaked almonds
2 tbsp sultanas or chopped dried apricots
2 to 3 cloves of crushed garlic
Grated zest and rind of 1 lemon and 1 orange
2 tbsp juice
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
1 tsp thyme
½ tsp marjoram
Mix all the stuffing ingredients together and place in the centre of the opened-out shoulder. Fold the edges of the meat over, tie it round three times to form a rosette shape and place in a roasting tin.
Roast for 20 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 220˚C, then turn the heat down to 150˚C, gas mark 3, and roast slowly for about two-and-a-half to three hours.
Allow the meat to rest for at least 15 minutes in a warm place before carving.
At the same time, as you turn down the heat, you can put in a dish of potatoes and onions.
Peel and thinly slice both, and layer them in an oiled ovenproof dish, lightly seasoning each layer with a little salt and pepper and a trickle of olive oil. This is even better if you put the pork on top of the vegetables for the last hour of cooking, together with any cooking juices, from which you have skimmed the fat.
For the olive sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp flour
300ml pork or chicken stock
4 tbsp black olives, stoned and chopped
½ tsp fresh thyme
Zest and juice of half a lemon
Gozo salt
Freshly ground black pepper
In a saucepan on a low heat, stir the flour into the oil and cook for five minutes, making a roux.
Gradually blend in the stock and cook until smooth and the flour no longer raw tasting.
Stir in the olives, lemon zest and juice to taste, bring to the boil and season to taste with salt and pepper.
This is very good using the zest and juice of the local sour orange in place of the lemon.
Clafoutis
Serves 6
50g unsalted butter
4 eggs
5 tbsp flour
400ml milk
1 tbsp kirsch (optional)
50g sugar
400g stoned cherries or other fruit as described in the introduction above
Generously butter a 20cm to 25cm pie dish or quiche dish or individual dishes. Heat the oven to 180˚C, gas mark 4. Meanwhile, beat the eggs, flour, milk,kirsch and sugar together until you have a smooth batter.
Put the prepared fruit in the dish, pour the batter over the fruit and then add the remaining butter. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes until a deep golden brown. The pudding will sink somewhat as it cools.
Best served warm with cream or vanilla ice cream.