fruit – Page 9 – Myfrenchkitchen

The regulars here on Myfrenchkitchen will by now know how much I love an apéro(apéritif), or amuse bouche, or the spanish tapas.. On weekends it is standard practice in our home to have a glass of wine before dinner with an apéro. I hope one day in heaven there will be some apéros awaiting me on weekends- that and good coffee-or else I will take my business elsewhere…

As all the regulars will alos know, is that everything on Myfrenchkitchen is simple, as these salmon amuses bouches clearly show. The only requisite is “l’envie”, the desire to make it and enjoy it.

La Recette:

Cut 140 g smoked salmon into thin strips, about 2cm wide. If possible, use wild salmon, which is much stronger in flavour. If you have your own gravlax that you made, all the better. Wash and cut green 1 large Granny Smith apple(unpeeled) into matchtsticks. Drizzle liberally with freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Wash a few branches of fresh dill.
Roll about 5 matchsticks of apple and a tiny branch of dill in a strip of salmon.
Arrange on a platter, sprinkle with freshly milled pepper and decorate with lemon slices, dill flowers and serve with cold white wine, rosé, sparkling wine or champagne.
One large Granny Smith apple and 140g smoked salmon (4 slices) make about 14 amuse bouche.Provide for 3 – 4 helpings per person if it is the only apéritif served.

Serves 3-4 people.

Pincée de fleur de sel:

Use fresh fennel or fresh chertvil instead of dill.
Add a dollop of sour cream or crème fraìche when rolling the salmon.
Serve with a bowl of mayonniase or crème fraîche as an accompanying dip.
Use other fruits in season and use smoked ham instead of salmon.

Since we are in the greens today…the hydrangeas are beautiful at the moment with nuances of green and salmon. Two Granny smith apples complete the picture in the barn.

..Green is one of the colours I love for setting tables outside. And blue. And red. And of course white. And ochre. Well, for that matter, all colours! I have a few things here at Coin Perdu which we often use for dining on the terrace in summer: rustic green rimmed glasses, old bottles, green fun plates, green banana lreaf bowls, green pottery bowls..

..Some small wild apples live in harmony with berries and egglantine rosehips..

..the birds don’t shy away from digging into the small wild apples..

..and neither do the horses..

..when going through my artwork in search of painted apples, I realized I have almost nothing. I had to rectify that immediately with a sketch. Green is a difficult colour. So many shades of it in nature. The challenge lies in creating your own green from yellows and blues with touches of reds and purples. That way you get much richer and interesting greens than the greens directly from the tube.

..à bientôt!.

Ronelle

In midsummer, when the sun is blazing hot and the cigales are singing away, we don’t have much desire for eating, except for indulging in ice cream. A cold simmer peach soup is perfect for those days and brings a bit of welcome change to the ice cream menu.

La recette:

Bring to the boil 1 liter of water with 1 vanilla pod, 200 g sugar and the rind of 1 lemon. Remove from the heat, add a handful of fresh mint leaves and set aside to cool.
Peel and cut 6 peaches of your choice into slices.
Add to the warm syrup and leave to cool down completely before storing in the fridge for about 4 hours to infuse.
Serve cold in glasses or bowls and add a handful of fresh red berries of your choice to the soup(optional).
Decorate with fresh mint leaves and serve with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

Serves 6 people.

Pincée de fleur de sel:

I used a mixture of white and yellow peaches.
Macerate the berries with some sugar before adding to the soup, since they may be too sour for the soup.
Add the berries on a little kebab/cocktail stick and stick into the soup, to eat separately.
Leave the berries if so desired.
Replace the mint with lemon verbena for something different.
Serve in frozen glasses for an icy effect.

The signature of Provence is its white limestone..in the countryside, the hills, in the built walls, the drywalls, the houses, the pavings , the flowerbeds, the villages… Some of them new and some weathered handsomely by the mistral and rains of centuries.