Vegetables – Page 10 – Myfrenchkitchen

Nothing makes a better salad than leftovers.During spring, when all attention is focused on the garden and restoration work on the house, all sorts of salads with leftover meats and fish and vegetables make life so much easier. It is also a time when I stock my pantry heavier than usual with some interesting condiments to add zest to the salads without spending hours in the kitchen in the evenings. It is typically additions like sundried tomatoes, ready made pestos and tapenades, marinated mussels and oysters, canned sardines and anchovies, mackerels, beans and split peas.

For this easy peezy, light and delicious salad, I used the left over salmon and steamed potatoes from the previous evening’s dinner and turned it into a salad with all sorts of other goodies coming from the pantry and the fridge. I served it with toasted pita bread and a cream and dill sauce. What can I say…“cetait un régal tout simple”!

Salmon, potato and mussel salad.

Heat some leftover salmon(flaked) and potatoes(cut into chunks). Add some chopped spring onions and a handful of currants.
Arrange a mix of fresh salad leaves and herbs on a large platter.
Sprinkle with nuts and marinated mussels and sliced marinated tomatoes and artichoke hearts.
Make a cream sauce of a finely chopped small shallot, handful of chopped dill, a cup of cream or créme fraîche and a TBS of mayonnaise. Season with salt and pepper and a squirt of lemon juice.
Top with the warm(not hot) salmon mix. Sprinkle with chopped dill.
Serve immediately with pita breads or a country bread and some extra sauce on the side.

Une pincée de sel:

Use a good mixture of herb salad leaves.
Use mushrooms instead of the fish, if you don’t like fish.
When using chicken, replace the dill int eh sauce with basil pesto or freshly sliced basil.

A contribution to Pie•ography..

Last year I’ve been asked by the creative Jo Packham, creator of Where women cook, to contribute, along with 38 other women, a recipe to her book, Pie•ography. The project was to create a pie which best described each author and write a short biography along with it. I found it quite a challenge, because talking about myself isn’t something I am comfortable with. Nothing wrong with revealing a little bite here and a little pinch there, but sitting down and directly saying: “..and so, his is who I am…” – THAT is tough. BUT…I finally got something on paper and created my pie..so I can tap myslef on the shoulder and say ;..“not too bad, Ronelle, not too bad at all..!”

For fun, I listed 30 tongue in cheek- things you don’t know about me. Read at the bottom if you’re interested.

Thank you to Jo for inviting me to join in..it is a great book and I am honoured to be in the company of highly talented and educated and ambitious women in this book, of whom Jo is of course one. Her creativity is never ending. for me it was a fun and exciting project to be part of!

30 things you don’t know about me:

My worst characteristic is impatience.
My best one is enthusiasm.
I can lift my one eyebrow and drop the other at the same time.
My ankles are rather thick
My feet are quite cute.
I used to trust people easily.
I now put my trust rather in animals.
I am impulsive and it gets me into trouble.
I don’t fit into my wedding dress any more, but it doesn’t bother me.
I don’t fit into my bathing suit and that bothers me.
I still want to do parachute jumping, but I hate flying.
I don’t like sharing the licking bowl when baking.
I hate washing dishes. I also hate stacking the dishwasher. I see no light.
My mom used to say my bladder is situated just under my eyes. It takes very little to make me cry.
I laugh easily and loudly.
I have perfected the puppy eye flutter. Mon chéri is completely defenseless against it.
I hate conflict of any kind.
I don’t believe the truth has to be told at any cost. Sometimes the truth serves no purpose..
I have a great sense of humour. It is my life line.
I love to learn, but I hate to be taught.
I don’t mind making a fool of myself, but I don’t like to be made a fool of by others.
It only takes one glass of wine to have me make a fool of myself.
I don’t answer a telephone.
I am a coffee snob.
I have two experiences in my past which I can’t forgive and forget. They still influence my self image to this day.
I am a nomad, I have to move on every few years.
Autumn makes me sad.
When I am upset I get into bed and cover my head.
I am a Leo.
The sun is my oxygen.

You can find the recipe and how I worked my way to it here.

Pi•ography can be ordered from Amazon.com.

If you want more information, don’t hesitate to contact me(details in my sidebar)

So, until next time…

Amusez vous bien et soyez sage sage!

(Have fun and stay out of trouble!)

Ronelle

“Un rideau de flocons blancs ininterrompu miroitait sans cesse en descendant vers la terre; il effaçait les formes, poudrait les choses d’une mousse de glace; et l’on n’entendait plus, dans le grand silence de la ville calme et ensevelie sous l’hiver, que ce froissement vague, innommable et flottant de la neige qui tombe, plutôt sensation que bruit , entremêlement d’atomes légers qui semblaient emplir l’espace, couvrir le monde.” Guy de Maupassant, boule de suif.

“It was early autumn, then, before the snow began to fly. –(There’s an expression for you, born in the country, born from the imaginations of men and their feeling for the right word, the only word, to mirror clearly what they see! Those with few words must know how to use them.) Men who have seen it, who have watched it day by day outside their cabin window coming down from the sky, like the visible remorse of an aging year; who have watched it bead upon the ears of the horses they rode, muffle the sound of hoofs on the trail, lie upon spruce boughs and over grass – cover, as if forever, the landscape in which they moved, round off the mountains, blanket the ice in the rivers – for them the snow flies. The snow doesn’t fall. It may ride the wind. It may descend slowly, in utter quiet, from the grey and laden clouds, so that you can hear the flakes touching lightly on the wide white waste, as they come to rest at the end of their flight. Flight – that’s the word. They beat in the air like wings, as if reluctant ever to touch the ground. I have observed them coming down, on a very cold day, near its end when the sky above me was still blue, in flakes great and wide as the palm of my hand. They were like immense moths winging down in the twilight, making the silence about me visible.” – Howard O’Hagan Tay John

…Voilà coin Perdu in January! Quiet and silent behind its curtain of white…

..Our barn, where we are living until the house is finished..

..A view on the bench, where I dream and plan, except in winter. Then I dream and plan by the fire..

..Forgotten socks …

..and terracotta pots waiting to be cleaned..

..Two adorable faces, waiting for fresh hay..

..The Eiffle tower, a bit askew in the potager..

..Old barrel rims, waiting to become arches in the potager..

..The wine bottle rack, serving some different purpose every so often..

..The road to la toilette requires snow boots..

..”La toilette” in snow attire..

..Velouté de butternut..

Recipe:

Clean and chop and onion and fry in some olive oil.
Add some cleaned Butternut, cut into chunks.
Cover with vegetable or chicken stock until vegetables are completely covered. simmer until very tender.
Mix to a puree and put back on gentle heat.
Add coconut milk to the soup according to your preference.. Season and leave to simmer gently on low heat for about 10 minutes.
Add the juice of 1 orange, season with salt and pepper.
Serve warm with freshly grated nutmeg and crusty bread.

So, on this quiet, hushed snow note, I leave you..

à bientôt!

Ronelle