herbs – Page 12 – Myfrenchkitchen

Our potager is bursting with courgettes and we can’t keep up with eating them. With vegetables one doesn’t have to do much in summer, the vegetables are good just on their own. Which is why any salad or carpaccio is a good idea.

Recette:

Cut 4 small to medium courgettes into thin slices. Layer onto a plate and drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil and leave aside for 30 minutes to marinate.
To serve: Divide the slices among 4 plates by spreading them evenly on each plate. Drizzle with some more olive oil and lemon juice, a teaspoon of sundried tomato paste, and a drizzle of balsamic syrup. Season with fleur de sel and freshly milled black pepper. Add some olives of your choice, shavings of Parmesan cheese and finish off with rocket/arugula leaves.

Pincée de fleur de sel:

Use green pesto instead of the tomato paste.
Add dry roasted pine nuts.
Use small black Greek olives.
Add chopped sundried tomatoes or semi-oven roasted tomatoes.
Use crumbled goats cheese instead of Parmesan cheese.

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Summer evenings at Coin Perdu

Our evenings are spent around the fire..we start off with a glass of icy cold rosé while the fire is lit and we munch on a little apéritif, a must to keep my legs from going jello from the wine. It is something quick and easy..fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden, baguette slices with some sliced sauccisson of the region, or melted Camembert over the fire with baguette slices, or fresh radishes with salt(a big favorite!).

summer evening 2 09-05-2013 20-29-044

In the meantime, while the fire is coming on, mon chéri still fiddles with some activities around the garden, like mowing the lawn, feeding apples to the horses who are allowed late afternoons to graze on the lawns, cleaning the fountain orother small tasks around the house.

I am mostly sunken deep into an Adirondeck by the fire in the shade of the tilleul tree. My feet are up and I have a book in my hand. It is my favorite time of the day and I savor every minute. War will break loose if someone expects me to do anything else than reading my book, sipping my rosé and enjoying the early evening ambiance. At that hour am in my zone and refuse to be disturbed.

After dinner, we linger as late as we can around the fire. As the coals burn away and the horizon turns dark, we start moving away from the fire, lazy and slowly. It is time to call it a day.

**And some summer music for these summer evenings…

Girls in their summer clothes – Bruce Springsteen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8PB1a1c9zA

Enjoy!!

..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.