Bistro (eBook)

Appetizers

Rustic pâté with green peppercorns Terrine de campagne au poivre vert

If you’ve never made your own terrine, try this. It is simplicity itself, and you may never use shop-bought pâtés again. If you ask your butcher to grind all the meat, except the liver, then it will be even easier. Serve in slices to begin an informal meal, with plenty of fresh baguette, unsalted butter and French cornichons. It also makes a great sandwich filling.

250 g/1 lb. boneless pork shoulder, minced/ground

250 g/1 lb. pork belly, minced/ground

500 g/2 lb. veal, minced/ground

200 g/8 oz. calves’ liver, finely chopped

1 egg, beaten

2 shallots, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tablespoon coarse sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons green peppercorns in brine, drained, plus extra for decorating

½ teaspoon ground allspice

3 tablespoons Cognac

a handful of fresh bay leaves (see method)

To serve

French cornichons

unsalted butter

sliced baguette

a rectangular terrine mould, 30 x 11 cm/12 x 14 inches

baking parchment

Serves 10–12

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) Gas 4.

Put the pork shoulder and belly, veal and liver in a large bowl. Add the egg, shallots, garlic, salt, pepper, green peppercorns, allspice and Cognac and mix well, preferably with your hands.

Fill the mould with the meat mixture, patting to spread evenly. Arrange the bay leaves on top of the mould and dot with extra green peppercorns. Set it in a roasting pan and add enough boiling water to come half-way up the sides of the mould. Cover the terrine with foil and bake in the preheated oven for about 1½ hours, until a knife inserted in the middle is hot to the touch after 30 seconds.

Remove from the oven and let cool. When the terrine is at room temperature, cover with baking parchment and weight with a few food cans. Refrigerate, with the weights on top. Leave for at least 1 day, but 3 days is best. The pâté will keep, refrigerated, for 1 week. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Mackerel pâté Rillettes de maquereaux

Rillettes, a coarse but spreadable pâté, is normally made from pork or goose. This is a lighter version, made from mackerel poached in white wine, giving it a pleasant, almost pickled taste. Serve this straight from the bowl, passing it around the table at the start of an informal gathering, or spread it on crackers and serve with drinks. There’s no point making this in small batches – but it freezes well, in case this is more than you need, or if you have leftovers.

2 fresh mackerel, about 400 g/14 oz. each, well cleaned, with heads on

1 onion, sliced

40 g/3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces and melted or softened

a large handful of flat-leaf parsley

a few sprigs of tarragon, leaves stripped

freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon

a dash of Tabasco

coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Court bouillon

1 carrot, sliced

1 onion, sliced

1 lemon, sliced

1 sprig of thyme

1 fresh bay leaf

a few black peppercorns

1 clove

750 ml/3¼ cups dry white wine

2 teaspoons salt

To serve

toast or sliced baguette

lemon wedges

Serves 6–8

One day before serving, put all the court bouillon ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to the boil over high heat, boil for 1 minute, then cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F) Gas 2. Make 3 slits in the mackerels on either side, to help the flavours to penetrate the flesh. Put them in a large baking dish and pour over the hot court bouillon. Cook in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Let cool in the liquid, then cover and refrigerate overnight.

The day of serving, remove the mackerel from the dish and lift the fillets, removing as many bones as possible.

Put the fillets, and most of the onion, in a food processor. Add the butter, parsley and tarragon and blend briefly. Transfer to a serving bowl and stir in the lemon juice, Tabasco and a generous grinding of pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Refrigerate until firm, then serve with toast or sliced baguette and lemon wedges for squeezing.

Garlic prawns Crevettes à l’ail

On a visit to France, we went to the elegant seaside town of Hossegor. We window-shopped around the centre, then strolled through the back streets, trying to choose which villa we would buy when we won the lottery. By the time we got to the seafront, we were famished. The first restaurant we saw had chipirons à l’ail written on the blackboard so we sat down, ordered some, and had a most memorable meal. Chipirons are tiny squid, very sweet and delicate, and were unavailable where I lived at the time, but prawns/shrimp are a good substitute. Serve with lots of bread to mop up the garlicky sauce.

125 ml/½ cup olive oil

1 kg/2 lbs. prawn/shrimp tails, with shells

8–10 garlic cloves, chopped

a large handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

lemon wedges, to serve

Serves 4

Heat the oil in a large frying pan/skillet. When hot but not smoking, add the prawns/shrimp and garlic and cook for 3–5 minutes, until the prawns/shrimp turn pink. Be careful not to let the garlic burn.

Remove from the heat, sprinkle with salt, freshly ground black pepper and parsley and mix well. Serve immediately, with plenty of lemon wedges on the side for squeezing.

Crudités

Crudités are a classic appetizer, especially in Parisian cafés and bistros, and they are a favourite of mine. The combination of ingredients given is fairly representative, but it does vary. Canned sweetcorn and tuna are common, as are hard-boiled/cooked eggs. You could quite easily make a meal of this by increasing the quantities or adding other ingredients to make it more elegant and contemporary. Try quails’ eggs, sliced cherry tomatoes, peeled blanched broad/fava beans or wafer-thin red onion slices.

2 tablespoons wine vinegar

¼ red cabbage, thinly sliced

250 g/8 oz. baby new potatoes

200 g/7 oz. fresh asparagus spears or fine green beans

3 medium carrots, grated

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

3 cooked beetroot/beets

1 medium cucumber

a handful of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

fine sea salt

1 baguette, sliced, to serve

Vinaigrette

3 tablespoons wine vinegar

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

10 tablespoons sunflower oil

freshly ground black pepper

Serves 4

To make the vinaigrette, put the vinegar in a bowl. Using a fork or a small wire whisk, stir in the salt until almost dissolved. Mix in the mustard until completely blended. Add the oil, 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking/beating well between each addition, until emulsified. Add pepper to taste. Set aside.

Heat the vinegar in a saucepan. As soon as it boils, remove from the heat, add the red cabbage and toss well. Salt lightly and set aside until the cabbage turns an even deep, fuchsia colour.

Meanwhile, put the potatoes in a saucepan with sufficient cold water to cover. Bring to the boil, add salt and cook for about 15 minutes, until tender. Drain, peel and slice thinly.

Bring another saucepan of water to the boil. Add the asparagus and cook for 3–5 minutes, until just tender. Drain and set aside.

Put the carrots, lemon juice and a pinch of salt in a bowl and toss well; set aside. Cut the beetroot/beets in quarters lengthways, then slice thinly to get small triangular pieces. Peel the cucumber, cut it in quarters lengthways and slice.

Arrange small mounds of each ingredient on plates, alternating colours. Add a few spoonfuls of vinaigrette to each one and sprinkle with parsley. Serve with a basket of sliced baguette.

Goats’ cheese tart Tarte au chèvre

Unlike most dishes cooked with cheese, this is very light and elegant, perfect to serve before a rich stew. It is also very moreish and you could be tempted to make a meal of it with a simple green salad. Alternatively, you could make individual tarts for a picnic, buffet or dinner party. Serve with a white wine from the Loire.

200 g/1½ cups plain/all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting

100 g/7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

a pinch of salt

3–4 tablespoons cold water

Goats’ cheese filling

3 eggs

200 ml/¾ cup crème fraîche or sour cream

3 Crottin de Chavignol goats’ cheeses, about 50–75 g/2–3 oz. each

50 g/2 oz. Gruyère cheese, finely grated

a small bunch of chives, snipped

fine sea salt

baking parchment and baking weights or dried beans

a loose-based tart pan, 27 cm/11 inches diameter

Serves 4–6

To make the pastry, put the flour, butter and salt in a food processor and, using the pulse button, process until the butter is broken down (about 5–10 pulses). Add 3 tablespoons cold water and pulse just until the mixture forms coarse crumbs; add 1 more tablespoon if necessary, but do not do more than 10 pulses.

Transfer the pastry to a sheet of baking parchment, form into a ball and flatten to a disc. Wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate for 30–60 minutes.

Roll out the pastry on a flour-dusted work surface to a disc slightly larger than...