Parlez vous Franglais?

I think I must have chosen all the easy ones first. I found it tricky to think of a country this week. But then N got all fancy last weekend and made aioli and there it was: a little bit in a dish left in the fridge crying out to be used up. France it was, then. Good excuse to invite J who's off to France for several months this Saturday. He'll at least be able to rescue us from N's extremely bad Franglais, surely.

I got into a bit of a dither what with Aged Parents arriving last minute yesterday and having to do a speed awareness training all morning today. Travelling Tuesdays takes a little longer than I had to prepare. Never fear - a supermarket is always near! I wandered in to a Waitrose down by where my course had been, looking for inspiration. And, joy oh joy, it has those things in packets which you can just chuck in the oven. I am sure that oven meals are depressing if you cook them all the time but on the odd occasion when I think I want to eat something decent but I do not want to prepare much they are soooooooo fab.

Moules - they even had moules already scrubbed and in a sauce! And a recipe card for a chicken dish involving 'moutarde aux grains'. And 'essential' branded creme brulee (the lack of accents in this post is bothering me. I like to add the correct accents. It's linked in a weird way to my wanting others to spell my name correctly. Don't ask me why. I can't figure out how to do it in Blogger. Arrrgh).


THE DISH
Entree (yes, it's France so 3 courses are compulsory) - Moules Mariniere.

OK, so I cheated. But here's the BBC food website version: 
 Ingredients

• 1.75kg/4lb mussels
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 15g/½oz butter
• a bouquet garni of parsley, thyme and bay leaves
• 100ml/3½fl oz dry white wine or cider
• 120ml/4fl oz double cream
• handful of parsley leaves, coarsley chopped
• crusty bread, to serve

Preparation method

1. Wash the mussels under plenty of cold, running water. Discard any open ones that won't close when lightly squeezed.
   
2. Pull out the tough, fibrous beards protruding from between the tightly closed shells and then knock off any barnacles with a large knife. Give the mussels another quick rinse to remove any little pieces of shell.
   
3. Soften the garlic and shallots in the butter with the bouquet garni, in a large pan big enough to take all the mussels - it should only be half full.
   
4. Add the mussels and wine or cider, turn up the heat, then cover and steam them open in their own juices for 3-4 minutes. Give the pan a good shake every now and then.
   
5. Remove the bouquet garni, add the cream and chopped parsley and remove from the heat.
   
6. Spoon into four large warmed bowls and serve with lots of crusty bread.
   

 
La plat principal -  Chicken with warm bean salad with grain mustard

400g chicken breast chunks
2 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
280g fine green beans, trimmed
400g can butter beans, drained and rinsed
2 tbsp wholegrain Mustard
1 tbsp clear honey
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 red onion, very thinly sliced
Sliced baguette, to serve

1 Toss together the chicken, rosemary, garlic and ½ tbsp of the olive oil. Heat a large non-stick frying pan and cook the chicken for 10 minutes until tender and golden brown.

2 Meanwhile, cook the green beans in a large pan of boiling water for 2 minutes, then add the butter beans and cook for a further 2 minutes until the green beans are tender and the butter beans are heated through. Drain well.

3 Whisk together the remaining 1½ tbsp oil, the mustard, honey and vinegar.

4 In a large serving bowl, mix together the warm chicken and beans, mustard dressing and red onions. Serve warm with slices of baguette.

Actually I didn't really do this - I bought a poussin and roasted it with the rosemary, oil, vinegar, mustard, honey, garlic and onion all in. Then blanched the green beans and threw them in with the butter beans at the end with a slug (ha ha such 'recipe-speak'!) of white Bordeaux (trying to be true to the destination here. Though the beans were Moroccan. Ouch. And the rosemary from our garden. Does that make up for Moroccan beans?).

Deserts - Creme Brulee or chocolate eclairs (are they even French?*)

Sorry, cheated here too. (I may never look back having discovered the joys of Travelling Tuesdays 'ready meal style'). But creme brulee recipes abound. I have chosen a Nigella one here even though she winds me up. Was gonna do a Delia but she annoyingly tells me that the dish originated in Cambridge. How French is that?*

Ingredients

• 600 ml double cream
• 1 vanilla pod
• 8 large egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• approx. 6 tablespoons demerara sugar

Method

1. Put a pie dish of about 20cm diameter in the freezer for at least 20 minutes. Half-fill the sink with cold water. This is just a precaution in case the custard looks as if it's about to split, in which case you should plunge the pan into the water and whisk the custard. I'm not saying it will - with so many egg yolks in the rich cream, it thickens quickly and easily enough - but I always feel better if I've done this.
2. Put the cream and vanilla pod into a saucepan and bring to boiling point, but do not let boil. Beat the eggs and caster sugar together in a bowl, and, still beating, pour the flavoured cream over it, pod and all. Rinse and dry the pan and pour the custard mix back in. Cook over medium heat (or low, if you're scared) until the custard thickens: about 10 minutes should do it. You do want this to be a good, voluptuous creme, so don't err on the side of runny caution. Remember, you've got your sinkful of cold water to plunge the pan into should it really look as if it's about to split.
3. When the cream's thick enough, take out the vanilla pod, retrieve the pie dish and pour this creme into the severely chilled container. Leave to cool, then put in the fridge till truly cold. Sprinkle with demerara sugar, spoonful by spoonful, and burn with a blowtorch till you have a blistered tortoiseshell covering on top.
4. Put back in the fridge if you want, but remember to take it out a good 20 minutes before serving. At which stage, put the bowl on the table and, with a large spoon and unchecked greed, crack through the sugary carapace and delve into the satin-velvet, vanilla-speckled cream beneath. No more talking: just eat.

And don't even think about making chocolate eclairs, please. Well I expect home made ones are awesome. But really, who's got the time? Life's too short.

THE REACTION
There was a little dressing up in red, white and blue, and I even pushed the boat out and did a rather hasitly coloured in menu card in my best French. I found some good old accordian music but on reflection it would be great to do a bit more about the place too... Just a quick lesson on the Revolution or something. Mr M seemed very annoyed that he couldn't understand any of it and too hungry to have any patience waiting for a translation. I gave them a heads up on the mussels, as I was cooking them, carefully adding that it wasn't the whole meal and at least I hadn't bought snails. But even J looked a little worried, to be honest! To my amazement the Eldest wouldn't even try them. This is very unusual as she's by far the most adventurous of our Travelling Companions. I think it was linked to her vegetarianism. The mussels just looked too much like things that used to be alive. Equally to my amazement Mr Middle actually tried, not one, but two, mussels. This is also very unlike him. Defintely the James factor helped. (Apart from laughing a bit too much at the whining and complaints he was a great Tuesday guest in the general eat-your-food-encouragement department). I think he spat them out though, eventually. The Youngest made a great song and dance about his head wanting to try them but his body not letting him. Yeah right.


THE VERDICT
I don't think we'll be having moules again any time soon.

The chicken in mustard and honey, on reflection, seems a bit of a cheat. I am always torn between authenticity and cooking something I think the kids will at least attempt. What with all our cross-cultural eating and shrinking world it's quite complicated to find genuine recipes (see *) which are 100% from one country. I mean isn't fish and chips supposed to have been invented by a Jewish immigrant? Anyway, it went down OK. No great shakes to be honest. But pretty clean plates. Apart from Eldest's which had been graced by an extravagant 2 quorn fillets which she usually begs for. I think she's developing an annoying dislike (because I love it) for the sweet/meat combo. She just didn't really like the mustard/honey/wine vinegar thing going on. Damn. J and N at least ate it all with affirming noises required.

THE PUD
Oh la la (there was quite a lot of this. And absolutely no sign that J knows any French whatsoever. I am not holding my breath that this will have changed much when he returns from a few months with PGL). Both the boys complained a great deal that the pudding was made entirely of 'creme', as they imagined from the name. It's always easier to get them testing out puddings though and both thought the crunchy sugary topping pretty ace after N got out the blowtorch to create it. So they did finish one off between them. And then Youngest cried when (having not really liked the creme brulee) he realised that the chocolate eclairs also were stuffed with cream. What can you do? Eldest was at least happy. Cream Queen we call her. Suddenly had her appetite back having left one and a half quorn fillets.

Travelling to... erm... England

N's Uncle Steen arrived today from Denmark. He's only been to England once before, approximately 30 years ago. So we thought we'd celebrate with some good old fashioned English fare.

To be honest, it was also a bit of a dilemma - on one hand feeling like we hadn't been 'travelling' for a


while so wanting to do one, but also feeling like I wanted an easy, nice, friendly evening with our guest. So, England was a bit of a compromise. But I couldn't quite bring myself to do something completely easy - we have toad in the hole and fish pie soooo often already that it seemed too much of  a cop out to do that sort of English.

THE DISH
I plumped for Lancashire Hot Pot in the end, thinking at least the boys might be swayed by the crispy potatoes on the top!

I went for a Waitrose recipe. It was minus kidneys, which suited me, and had a few extra veg than most other recipes. Waitrose lancashire hotpot recipe Hope it's OK to give a link. It's rather late and I can't be bothered to do all that cut and pasting etc. ... (added at a later date for completeness' sake... )

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp plain flour
• 1kg Waitrose English Diced Lamb
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 500g tub Joubère Organic Chicken Stock
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 1 Waitrose Cooks' Ingredients Bouquet Garni, for meat
• 800g Maris Piper or other floury potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C, gas mark 2. Season the flour, then toss with the lamb until well coated.
2. Place a large frying pan over a high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and half the meat, and cook for 3 minutes or until well browned. Transfer to a 3.5 litre casserole dish. Add another tablespoon of oil and repeat with the remaining meat. Return the pan to the heat and add the stock and Worcestershire sauce. Stir for 1-2 minutes then pour over the meat in the casserole.
3. Wipe out the pan then add half a tablespoon of oil, the onions and carrots and cook for 4 minutes or until they are starting to colour. Tip the vegetables in with the lamb, add the bouquet garni and season well.
4. Arrange the potato slices on top, seasoning between each layer. Drizzle over the remaining half-tablespoon of oil and season again. Cover with a lid and place in the oven for 1½ hours. Remove the lid and cook for a further hour. Serve with Waitrose Red Cabbage (available ready shredded, in a pack).

THE RESPONSE
Well... the 242 was delaying our visitor somewhat and the kids were getting a bit desperate. So the immediate response of Mr Middle was a little disappointing. I had told him that I had also done some good old English mash to soften the blow of lamb stew ("I hate lamb!") but when I dished it up he saw that I had mixed it with (not exactly English) sweet potato, he burst into tears! I think he gets very hungry and then completely panics that he'll be going to bed hungry if he doesn't think he'll be able to eat much. But I had sneakily cooked the kids' meals in swanky separate pots so he was a little bit distracted by that development and then Steen arrived with N and so the tears were soon over without anyone (ie me) getting too stressed. The Smallest seemed pretty sanguine about the idea he was going to have to eat lamb stew... which in itself is an amazing development. Especially given that he was so super hungry.

THE VERDICT
By the time I had dished up for our guest and we'd sung our thanks and tucked in, Mr Middle was almost finished. "I love lamb mum!" (!!!) "M, I want you to write that down for me, in black and white, so that I can remind you next time we have it" I say.  "And get K to sign it too" I add, noticing that the smallest, though he did wrinkle his nose and say "Are you sure this isn't beef?" a couple of times, had also polished off his little pot. The Eldest wasn't quite so sure about her mushroom veggie version. She likes mushrooms (thank the Lord) but I think they get a bit boring. And to be honest I probably don't work too hard at the options I give her. Must do better.

THE PUD
Gosh, what a choice. I guess that's the problem when you choose somewhere you're familiar with. Or maybe England does just do the best puddings. Went for the treacle tart option. I fancy my pastry making skills since I discovered it's pretty easy to do a 'flakey' version of my normal shortcrust, and the pastry always goes down with the kids. Pastry plus syrup seemed a no brainer.

BBC food recipe - Treacle Pud

It looked fancy. But I would say it was a bit lemony really. Not quite sickly enough for my liking! The smallest caned it, but the other two were decidedly sniffy. They had been promised ice cream on this, their first day back at school, and treacle tart was just not cutting it. Lucikly both N and Steen had two helpings, so at least we won't be eating it every day into next week!

Cutting and pasting it here at a later date... and I'm reminded that it seemed a bit long winded. Some recipes are a bit OTT with minute instructions don't you think? I prefer a broad-brush stroke approach. Or maybe I quite like the minute detail so I can confidently ignore some of it! All that egg wash for example. Nah!

Ingredients

For the pastry

• 250g/9oz plain flour
• 130g/4½oz butter, plus extra for greasing

For the filling

• 400g/14oz golden syrup
• 150g/5½oz fine fresh white breadcrumbs
• 2 lemons, zest and juice
• 1 free-range egg, beaten, to use as egg wash

1. First make the short crust pastry: measure the flour into a large bowl and rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (alternatively, this can be done in a food processor). Add about three tablespoons of cold water and mix to a firm dough, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
   
2. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6 and put a heavy baking tray in the oven to heat up. Grease a deep 18cm/7in loose-bottomed fluted flan tin with butter.
   
3. Remove about 150g/5½oz of pastry from the main ball and set aside for the lattice top.
   
4. Roll the rest of the pastry out thinly on a lightly floured work surface and line the prepared flan tin with the pastry.
   
5. Prick the base with a fork, to stop the base rising up during baking.
   
6. Place the reserved pastry for the lattice top on cling film and roll out thinly. Egg wash the pastry and set aside to chill in the fridge (the cling film makes it easier to move about). Do not cut into strips at this stage. Do not egg wash the strips once they are on the tart as it will drip into the treacle mixture.
   
7. To make the filling, heat the syrup gently in a large pan but do not boil.
   
8. Once melted, add the breadcrumbs, lemon juice and zest to the syrup. (You can add less lemon if you would prefer less citrus taste.) If the mixture looks runny, add a few more breadcrumbs.
   
9. Pour the syrup mixture into the lined tin and level the surface.
   
10. Remove the reserved pastry from the fridge and cut into long strips, 1cm/½in wide. Make sure they are all longer than the edges of the tart tin.
    
11. Egg wash the edge of the pastry in the tin, and start to make the woven laying lattice pattern over the mixture, leave the strips hanging over the edge of the tin.
    
12. Once the lattice is in place, use the tin edge to cut off the strips by pressing down with your hands, creating a neat finish.
    
13. Bake on the pre-heated baking tray in the hot oven for about 10 minutes until the pastry has started to colour, and then reduce the oven temperature to 180C/350F/Gas 4. If at this stage the lattice seems to be getting too dark brown, cover the tart with tin foil.
    
14. Bake for a further 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden-brown and the filling set.
    
15. Remove the tart from the oven and leave to firm up in the tin. Serve warm or cold.