Spicy marinated olives
1 jar of olives, mixed if you like, drain if necessary. (I use Crespo black olives, with stones but no juice in the jar.)
½ tsp chilli flakes
1 large garlic clove, crushed
Freshly ground black pepper
A sprinkle of sea salt
1 tsp mixed herbs
Olive oil to cover
Take some of the olives out of the jar and eat them, you need to make some space for shaking.
Put other ingredients on top of the olives in the jar, ending with the olive oil (only put enough oil into fill half the jar), then shake vigorously for about a minute.
Put in the fridge then give them a shake every time you remember to. They will be delicious in a few days, better if you can leave them for longer… great in salads, on pizzas or, with a cold glass of pineau, as an aperitif in the sun.
Humpbuckle Hint
Use the oil after the olives have been eaten to make your salad dressing, or just top up with more olives (it saves on the washing up)
Chana-sag-aloo-dal (madras)
Serves 4 hungry/greedy people
This is a perennial favourite in our house because one of the few things we really miss from the UK is a good curry, so we have created this combination of several of our favourite dishes and is a fabulous combination. (Chana is chick peas, sag is spinach, aloo is potatoes and dal are lentils.) If you are lightweights and like your curries milder, use ordinary curry powder and add more a bit later if you want and have some natural yogurt on standby to cool things down if necessary. Wine is always good with curry, especially a tasty red syrah (shiraz). The curry and lager combination is a myth in terms of its ability to cool the mouth, as is water, but yogurt works. If you like it hotter, add some chilli powder but this level of hotness ensures that you can still taste the flavours of the spices and vegetable ingredients….mmm
Humpbuckle Hint: we have found ingredients for Indian food difficult to source in France. However, Spices of India, deliver to France and if that were not enough, they are really friendly and helpful too.
2 large onions cut into chunks
1 tbs sunflower oil
4 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp whole galangal
1 tsp whole cardamon pods
1 large tbs madras curry paste (I use Pataks)
2 tsp madras curry powder
1 level tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp garam masala
½ tsp tamarind paste or 1 tsp mango chutney
500ml hot water or stock from cooking the potatoes.
400g cooked diced potatoes
400g tin of chickpeas
200g frozen chopped spinach
200g frozen leaf spinach
400g cooked brown lentils
1 carton of tomato passata or a large tin of tomatoes
Heat the oil in a large, solid pan on a medium heat. Add the onions and whole spices. Cook for about 7-10 minutes, stirring regularly, until the onions are soft.
Add the garlic and cook gently for about 2 minutes. Add the curry paste and the other spices. Cook for a further minute or two, stirring to mix all the spices with the onions. The smell by now will be incredible and will make you want to eat it straight away, but patience is required and starting to cook curry the day before or the morning before you eat it will allow the flavours to infuse and intensify.
Add the water, tomatoes, tamarind or chutney and spinach then bring to the boil. Break up the tomatoes a bit if they are tinned whole ones.
Turn the pan down to a low simmer. Ensure the spinach is thawed and mixed in.
Cook with a lid on for about 10 minutes. Add the potatoes, lentils and chick peas and stir all in.
Simmer for another 10 minutes with the lid on, checking after 5mins that it is not sticking.
There should be ample sauce to soak into your rice when you serve it, so if it seems a bit dry add some more water, about 50ml at a time. The sauce should be a very rich, dark brown and fairly thick.
If you find the sauce is too sloppy don’t panic, as you can add a large tablespoon of flour, stir in to disperse on a low heat then cook for a further 5 minutes.
Taste the curry and adjust seasoning. I do not add salt as the spices are so tasty, but you may prefer to. More spices can be added at this point if you like.
Serve with basmati rice, naan, chapati… on a jacket potato…. Whatever you like… Enjoy.
Vegetarianandveganfrance.com & 3placedesarbres.com. Vegetarian & Vegan recipes from the kitchen of a vegetarian chambres d’hotes in the heart of France
Fondant au chocolat
This is a recipe given to us by a lovely French woman, Isobel. It is absolutely delicious, easy to make, but definately not one for vegans.
160g dark chocolate (you can substitute this for what ever you have in the cupboard – we tried it with half dark chocolate and half milk chocolate with nuts in it and it was fantastic)
190g butter
150g sugar
100g flour
6 eggs
Heat the oven to 220 degrees c.
Melt the chocolate with the butter
Mix the sugar and the flour then mix in the eggs, two at a time.
Then mix the chocolate/butter mixture into the sugar/egg/flour mixture.
Pour the mixture into moulds (you can use indvidual muffin moulds or a large cake tin)
Humpbuckle Hint: If you are feeling really naughty stick a chunk of chocolate into the middle of the mixture (experiment with your favourite chocolate).
Cook on the top shelf for 7 minutes (it really only takes 7 minutes so pay attention!)
Nut pâté
Some people scoff at Nut pâté or nut roast, but if it is done right it wonderful (just because you are vegetarian or vegan, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a Sunday roast!)
1 med onion chopped finely
1 med carrot grated
3 med mushrooms chopped finely and/or some crushed up bits of dried mushrooms eg ceps, bolets (optional)
300g ground nuts: peanuts, walnuts, almonds, pecans, chestnuts, cashews, pine nuts….
2 crushed garlic cloves
1 tsp mixed herbs
½ tsp hot paprika
1 tbs crushed dried basil
1tbs gram flour (chick pea flour)
1 tbs brandy
1 tbs soy sauce
2 tsp sweet paprika
50g breadcrumbs
S&p
4 tbs chopped parsley or 2 tbs dried
150ml veg stock
150ml red wine
Put the oven on to 180°C
Heat the olive oil in a medium pan on a medium heat. Add the onions and mushrooms, cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and grated carrot, cook for a further minute. Add the veg stock and red wine, bring to the boil then add the dried mushrooms, herbs, spices and turn off the heat.
Put the nuts into a food processor if not already ground, whizz them up for a minute or so. They need to be well processed but some odd lumps are fine, they will give texture to the pate.
Mix everything together in the pan, add soy sauce, breadcrumbs gram flour and brandy.
Spoon the mixture into individual muffin cases (I use silicone moulds) cook for about 20 minutes. They are cooked when they are brown and feel spongy to the touch. They can be served cold as pate with salad or hot with roast dinner.
Humpbucke Hint
Wrap individual cooked nut roasts in puff pastry and cook for a further 15 minutes for a fabulous nut roast wellington. Slices of fried portobello mushrooms, onions or tomatoes can be added under or on top of the roast, inside the pastry.
Enjoy with a nice glass of Merlot.
Pâté de pommes de terre a la façon galloise….
This dish is a twist on the fabulous Limousin dish that appears to be vegetarian already. This is not pasta or pâté, the origin of the name is unknown to me and the name itself is misleading, even to the French. It is a lovely pototo pie. This is comfort food at its best and can be eaten hot with a huge green salad, or cold in picnics with a cold glass of Chablis.
2 packets of puff pastry (round, ready rolled here in France, or buy a block, cut in half and roll into two same sized rectangles, the shape and size doesn’t matter)
500g potatoes, sliced and boiled until just soft, allowed to cool.
1 med onion, sliced
1 med leek, sliced
½ tsp mixed herbs
100ml crème fraiche
1 tsp veg bouillon powder
Freshly ground black pepper
Don’t start handling the pastry til you need it otherwise it goes floppy and useless…..Heat the oven to 200°C. Thoroughly drain the potatoes. Place half of the pastry on a baking tray and plonk half of the potato slices on it, leaving about 2 inches of pastry free all around,
followed by half the onion, then the leeks. Grind pepper over, sprinkle some of the veg boillon powder, the mixed herbs then the rest of the onions, then potatoes, more pepper and veg boillon. Spoon the crème fraiche onto the potato layer, spreading roughly over them, not in a particularly scientific way…
Take the second piece of pastry and plonk it on the top.
Now this bit is a bit tricky: join the two pieces pastry around the edges just squishing it round to make pasty type edges. The rougher this is the better it will be as you will have nice thick bits.
Humpbuckle Hint:
In the neighbouring Auvergne they substitute some of the crème fraiche for blue cheese. Vegetarians beware: all AOC (appellation d’origine controllee) cheeses are made with animal rennet or ‘presure animale’ or ‘coagulant animale’ as it is called here.
You can brush the pastry with egg or milk before putting it in the oven. Cook for about 30-40mins, reducing the temperature to 180 degrees after about 20 mins, cook until golden brown (adjust timing dependent on your oven but always start with a hot oven)
Vegetarianandveganfrance.com & 3placedesarbres.com. Vegetarian & Vegan recipes from the kitchen of a vegetarian chambres d’hotes in the heart of France
Crunchy Mixed salad
I find alot of salads really boring. Who wants to eat just lettuce? Whenever we make a salad we look at what we have in the fridge/cupboard and then work around it.
Here is an example:
For 4 people as an accompaniment, or 2 people as a main.
5 lettuce leaves
3 tomatoes
1 large beetroot (cooked)
1 large carrot
1/4 small red onion
1 courgette
1 piece of Brocolli
100g cooked chickpeas
1/4 small red cabbage
Chop the carrot finely, or grate it into a large bowl. Chop the onion, finely. Tear the lettuce leaves and add them to the bowl. Add the chickpeas.
Chop everything else into rough chunks (around 1cm) and add them to the bowl. With the brocolli we use everything, stem included – it is lovely.
Mix well. When ready to serve add salad dressing (this one is ideal)
Enjoy.
Humpbuckle Hint: don’t be afraid of using vegetables in your salads. Just ensure that hard vegetables (like carrots) are grated or chopped finely.
Honey mustard vinaigrette
I make my salad dressing with a lot of vinegar, which is not everyone’s taste, but I have had French people saying they didn’t like salad at all before and eating it at every meal with this dressing on!
100ml olive oil
50ml white wine vinegar (tarragon, chilli or garlic infused if you like)
25ml balsamic vinegar
1 tsp runny honey (or raw brown sugar to make this recipe vegan, this will require more shaking of the dressing later)
1tsp mustard: Dijon, grainy or Savora… or a mixture
½ tsp herbes de provence… or any mixture of herbs you like
1 med garlic clove, crushed.
Squirt lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper and ¼ tsp sea salt
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Put it all in an old, clean jam jar (or you can use the jar and oil that you have bought feta, artichoke hearts, or some other lovely antipasti like sundried tomatoes or peppers in olive oil).
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Close the lid tightly and shake for a minute or two.
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Open it up and dip your finger in the lid to taste. All the ingredients should be emulsified and it should be the colour of caramel.
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Adjust seasoning and shake again.
Vegetable Paella
We prepared this and took it along to our carnival shindig, as they haven’t heard of the concept of “vegetarian alternative”, to read more about our experiences click here.
This recipe is vegan, and is wonderful.
Serves 4.
3 Medium onions, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, diced
150g sweetcorn
150g peas
200g green beans (cut into 2cm pieces)
400g easy-cook or brown long grain rice (100g per person) – brown rice is better for you (and tastier), but may require longer cooking and won’t take up the colour of the saffron as well as easy-cook rice
A good pinch of saffron (crushed in a pestle and mortar) or half a teaspoon of powder
2 tbs sunflower oil
6 plump cloves of garlic (sliced)
1 litre vegetable stock
100ml dry white wine
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 tsp sweet paprika
½ tsp hot paprika
2 tsp fresh or dried parsley
1 tsp brown sugar
1 pepper, sliced
½ tsp sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Heat the oil on a medium heat in a good sized solid pan
Fry onions gently until they start to soften.
Add carrots and garlic, fry for 2 minutes.
Add vegetable stock, wine, salt, black pepper, rice, herbs, sugar and paprika. Bring to the boil. Simmer until the carrots and rice are just cooked, about 15-20 minutes, stirring regularly to avoid the rice sticking (if using brown rice this will take longer, about 25-30 minutes). Add all other ingredients and cook on a low heat for a further 5 minutes. Check seasoning and adjust to taste. Most of the water should have been absorbed, but the paella should not be too dry and should be a golden yellow colour. Add a little more water if necessary.
Serve with large, fresh, organic lemon wedges, sprinkled with a few Spanish black olives and a jug of cold sangria
Humpbuckle Hint
Any fresh, seasonal veg can be added. Asparagus is particularly good, cut into 2cm bits. Broccoli or courgette are also good. They will require cooking, so add about 10 minutes into the cooking time of the rice and carrots.
Homemade lovely crusty grainy bread
…for the cook with lots of bread to make and not much time for kneading.
Ingredients:
420ml warm water
1 level tsp of salt
750g bread flour: a mixture of whatever you like but I use 500g multi cereal bread flour and 250g of locally grown and milled wholemeal flour.
1 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp sugar
Optional Extras:
1 generous tablespoon of linseeds
1 tablespoon of sunflower seeds (and any other seeds you like: sesame, pumpkin, onion…..)
A couple of tablespoons of chopped, mixed pitted olives (marinated in olive oil and chilli for a couple of weeks first if you like)
A couple of tablespoons of sundried tomatoes chopped into bits, also marinated if you like…
1 tbs chopped mixed herbs, fresh or dried…. Any other things you think would be nice like basil or chives, just chuck it in.
Recipe:
Now for the complicated bit: put the water and salt in a bread maker.
Add flour and everything else.
Put the bread-maker on to the bread dough setting.
After all that effort you need a rest. Sit down, have a cup of tea and read a book for a bit.
At the end of the cycle, unplug the bread-maker and leave the dough for about half an hour.
Remove, cut into 3 or 4 loaves.
Place on one or two baking sheets with enough space for them to increase in size.
Humpbuckle Hint: Use a pastry brush to wet the loaves, with a little bit of water.
Generously sprinkle with poppy, sesame or onion seeds.
Leave for about an hour to prove, then put the oven on as high as it will go.
Wait til it’s hot, put the loaves in, cook for 10 mins then reduce heat to 180°C if fan assisted, 200°C if not, Cook for a further 10- 15 minutes.
Cool for as long as you can wait then smother in lovely, French, gritty salted butter (in moderation, etc etc…..) and enjoy with some delicious soup, stew or on its own is really filthy…
Lemon Cheescake
150g speculoos biscuits
50g melted butter
250g mascarpone
250g cream cheese
2 lemons: zest and juice
50g caster sugar (more if you don’t like it tart)
2 tsps agar agar powder dissolved in 100mls boiling water (if you used boiling water from a kettle you will need to bring the mixture back to the boil – stick it in the microwave for 30secs).
Crush biscuits, mix with melted butter. Put into a loose bottomed flan tin* and chill.
Beat the mascarpone, cream cheese and sugar together until there are no lumps. Add lemon juice and zest then cooled agar agar mix. Combine all ingredients, put onto biscuit base and chill for about an hour.
* or you can make individual ones like the one pictured (will make at least 6)
Humpbuckle Hint:
top with some lovely, tart, fresh fruit like slices of kiwi fruit, French of course, in season. Or strawberries or raspberries… or whatever you fancy
Vegetarian and Vegan France 