limes and lemons – Page 3 – Myfrenchkitchen

In my garden, we have delicious grapes growing all along our terrace and balcony. I have no clue what they are called, but I devour them. I have planted my two favorites in the potager: Chasselas and Muscat; of which we had our first harvest this year. The wine grapes( the domaine of mon chéri) will hopefully be planted next year with proper fanfare when all our friends and children and their friends will show up(hopefully!) with muscle and vigour to help. They will be rewarded with great food…cooked by me of course!

. I managed to grab the last two bunches of grapes of this season for a dessert I have been planning to post, but haven’t yet found the time to do it. I bought the last of les raisins d’Italie, a nice green and firm grape, perfect for this dessert.

What else can I say. I just simply love dessert. Leaving a restaurant without finishing my meal off with dessert, is…to say the least, sad, or better yet, depressing. It needn’t be a fancy affair. A yogurt. Or a fruit. A scoop of ice cream. In this case fruit and yogurt and a luscious cream. Oh, and a drizzle of Armagnac lit up to a pretty blue flame. Et voilà, c’est fait. Dessert is served.

La recette:

200 g Greek yogurt( the sour of the yogurt adds a nice flavour to the dish)
200 g mascarpone cheese
1 vanilla pod
2 TBSP castor sugar
500 g grapes , stems removed(You can use mix of black and green grapes, although the black grapes do do tend to lose their colour during the cooking process.
2 TBS butter
3 TBSP brown sugar
juice and grated rind of 1/2 lemon
50 ml Armagnac

► Whisk the mascarpone until light. Add the yogurt. Slit open the vanilla pod, scrape out the seeds and add to the mascarpone/yogurt cream along with the castor sugar. Mix well, cover and refrigerate until needed. Wash the grapes (of your choice) and remove the stems. There is need to remove the seeds, unless you can do it without breaking the grape. Melt the butter and sugar in a large pan. Add the grapes, lemon juice and grated rind. Let simmer over gentle heat for about 4 minutes. Be careful not to break the grapes open. Heat the Armagnac in a little saucepan, remove from the heat and light up with a match. Pour the flaming alcohol immediately and gently over the grapes. Leave to simmer for another 2-3 minutes until slightly syrupy. OR Pour the warm Armagnac onto the grapes and flambée. Take care not to splash the flaming alcohol. Leave to cool down a little. Place a generous dollop of mascarpone in each bowl/plate and spoon in a helping of grapes. Finish off by drizzling some syrup over the grapes and cream. Enjoy.

► Serves 4 people.

To set food alight, is something everybody always enjoy. with ooh and aahs, mesmerized by the flames licking the food, we stare at the show. It can of course be very dangerous and not at all should children be allowed to do it. For those inexperienced, don’t do it like you see chefs doing it on television with big drama and whooshing up to the ceiling.with 50 ml of alcohol, you already get a spectacular flame, so if you want to be on the safe side, split it up into two flambés. Don’t lean over the casserole you are about to flambé and stand far enough away, but still close enough to have control on what you are doing. You can pour a little alcohol into stainless steel soup ladle with long handle to heat up directly over a flame and light up, then pour the burning alcohol over the pan for effect. Or you can add the alcohol to the warm grapes and then set alight. In both cases, switch off all other gas flames on the stove, stay away from candles and any other flames. If you feel unsure, skip the flambé step. just pour in the Armagnac alcohol over the grapes and let it cook for about 3-4 minutes for the alcohol to cook off. Enjoy and be safe above all else!

à bientôt, Ronelle

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.