31.5.12

Recipe risotto with cantharelles (or other mushrooms) and saucisse de Toulouse (or any other sausage you like)

We only prepare risotto when we know we have a small dinnerparty. When you're like me - a: not a professional chef and b:not italian (aka - not used to making GOOD risotto) - I would advise you to make this recipe only for 4 to 6 persons -tops. The preparation of risotto is quite time consuming - you need to stay at the stove the whole time.

I alway's make risotto in two stages -thanks to some very useful advice of Jamie Oliver in his cookbook 'COOK'. You prepare the risotto for 75%, let it cool and rest on a tray until needed. The last part of the preparation only takes about 10 minutes and that you can do whilst your guests are already at the table. 
So thanks to Jamie we sometimes serve risotto at our B&B-dinnerparty. Yesterday evening it was the following recipe:

Yesterday we got the first cantherelles of the season from our neighbour (read: Blogpost: First cantharelles of this season) and I used them to make this delicious risotto as a main course for our table d'hôte. Our guests loved it! I hope you will too.

Risotto with cantharelles and saucisse de Toulouse
:

Recipe: Risotto with cantharelles (you can also use other mushrooms) en sausage

Ingrediënts
(4 - 6 persons)
- 1 oignon
- 2 selery stalks
- 3 cups of chickenstock (2 cups for first part preparation risotto + 1 cup for second part)
- 2,5 cup of risottorice (= 300 gram)
- 3/4 cup white wine
- 4 tablespoons of butter (1 for first part preperations + 3 for second part)
- 4 tablespoons of olive oil
- 6 table spoons of freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 6 table spoons of cantharelles (or other mushrooms if you prefer those)
- 1 saucisse de Toulouse (or any other sausage, like chipolata - but then you'll need like 4)
- 1 clove of garlic
- 3 table spoons of chopped up flat parsley
- some extra butter to sauté cantharelles and fry the sausages in
- seasalt & pepper

Preparation:

Risotto - 1 part - (you can do this well in advance)
- Have a tray ready and drizzled with a bit of oliveoil, to make sure the rice won't stick to the tray.
- Put a wide saucepan on the stove and add a table spoon of butter and 4 table spoons of olive oil
- Chop the oignon and selery into little pieces and sauté the oignon and selery for a couple of minutes. Then add the risottorice and stir until everything is covered with a tiny layer of butter.
- Add the white wine and stir until all the wine is absorbed by the rice.
- Now stir a ladleful of chickenstock into the rice. Keep stiring until fully absorbed by the rice. Then add the next ladle of stock. Continue this process untill a total of 2 cups of chickenstock is absorbed. This will take about 15 minutes. Turn of the heat and let the rice cool off on the tray until needed.

Risotto ready for 75% - cooling of on a tray until further use 
Risotto - second part - getting ready to serve the dish
- Put a saucepan on medium heat and sauté the cantharelles in a bit of butter. Add the garlic and parsley and stir. Keep warm until needed.
- Fry the sausage(s) and keep these warm as well whilst preprare the last part off the risotto.
You need to have these other ingredients of the dish (mushrooms & sausage) totally ready before you finalize your risotto, but make sure they keep warm. Ok, ready? Here we go:
- Put a wide saucepan on medium heat. Pour in half of the remaining cup of chickenstock. Add the cooled risotto and turn up the heat. Stir until everything is practically cooking - then turn heat lower and add a ladleful of the remaining chickenstock (at this stage you have 1/2 cup chickenstock left) and again keep stirring until all the stock is absorbed. Then add the next ladle. Continue this process until all the stock is added and absorbed. This will take about 7-8 minutes.
- Once all the stock is absorbed turn off the heat, add the parmesan and 3 tablespoons of butter - stir firmly. Put a top on the pan and let it rest for one minute.
- Time to plate up: Put the risotto on (pre-heated) plates, put the cantharelles on top and last but not least, cut the sausage into pieces and add to the plate. Serve directly - Bon appetit!

30.5.12

First Cantharelles of this season

Today one of our neighbours came by with a very nice gift. Almost a pound of girolles. What a lovely gesture. A girolle is a small yellow upturned mushroom, better known as chanterelle. The first harvest of this season. He already cleaned and pre-cooked them for us. So all we have to do is prepare a lovely dish with it.

Our neighbour really knows what he's doing (thank god), he's a pro - he sells his harvest to lots of local restaurants - so I feel totally at ease to serve these fresh mushrooms to our guests. Tonight I'm preparing a cantharelle- risotto with and sausage from Toulouse. Tomorrow I will show you the picture of the dish and give you the recipe offcourse.


Gift from our neigbour -  fresh cantharelles


28.5.12

Sunset in a bowl: Recipe - yellow pepper soup with a spicy chorizo-oil


I just adore this dish. The colours remind me of a sunset on a warm day in July.
An ideal soup for the summer. Eat it outdoors with a glass of white wine and some crusty bread.  


Ingrediënts:

- 1 oignon
- 2 stalks of selery
- 3 cm piece of fresh ginger
- 1 table spoon of butter
- 2 yellow peppers, seeds removed and chopped into pieces
- 3 small carrots, chopped into little pieces
- 4 cups of chickenstock
- pepper & salt
- 1/4 cup of sour cream
- olive oil
- chiliflakes
- 1 ounce chorizo

Start with the preparation of the chorizo-oil. Bake the chorizo in a non-stick frying pan with a splash of olive oil at medium heat. After a couple of minutes red grease will start leaking from the chorizo. Turn off the heat and pour the red-greasy oil through a sieve. Add chiliflakes to your liking and maybe a little more olive oil. Set aside.

Chop the oignon and cut the selery into little pieces. Grate the ginger, you'll probably end up with 1/2 teaspoon of pulp. Melt the butter and add oignon, selery and ginger and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the peppers and carrots and cook for another 5 minutes. Pour in the chickenstock, stir well, and let it simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on the pan. Puree the soup in a blender and add salt and pepper to taste.

To serve swirl some sour cream into the middle of the bowls of soup and add some drops of the spicy -chorizo olive oil to taste. Bon appetit!






Cheesefestival Rocamadour

Every year at Whitsun there's a goatcheese-festival in Rocamadour, called 'Fête des fromages de Rocamadour'. We haven't had the change to visit one before, but this year we're in luck and able to leave our B&B for a couple of hours. So, off we went - to Rocamadour.

As it turns out, the festival is situated on a local rugby-field (and it surroudings) near Rocamadour, instead of within the walls of the medieval city. There's a farmersmarket with lots and lots and lots of cheese. And wine offcourse, because in France wine and cheese go hand in hand. Most farmers sell  'Rocamadour' - the little round goat-cheese, with its soft subtle structure. The produce of official 'Rocamadour AOP' is under strict regulation. Amongst (tons of) other rules- only farmers situated around Rocamadour are allowed to make this specific cheese. Besides the cheese there are also lots of craftsmen showing their skills and selling their products: Beautiful wooden cheeseboards, home made marmelade and even soapproducts made of goat-milk.














Soap made of goat-milk


One of our neighbours is also present. Her 'Rocamadours' have been awarded the gold medal 2012 at a concours in Paris. We're so proud of her! People are standing in line to buy her cheese at this festival. We also serve her award winning Rocamadour at La Panacée .

Our neighbour



and her award winning Rocamadour cheese


At the other side of the terrain local chefs stand behind their BBQ, grilling meat for the picknick. In a large tent two chefs are preparing a large pot of aligot. (mash potato with garlic and cheese).



chef behind BBQ-grill



Preparing a large quantity of Aligot

It's a pity we couldn't stay to enjoy this picknick-lunch. It all looked delicious. We had to hurry back to our own guests. Maybe next year......

Fête des fromages de Rocamadour - for more information: http://fromages.rocamadour.free.fr/

27.5.12

Welcome to foodblog: Our French Kitchen

Welcome to Our French Kitchen!

l love food and everything that comes with it. Always searching for new ideas, online as well as offline. I collect cookbooks and am a huge fan of Nigella Lawson. On this blog I would like to share recipes and stories from our French kitchen.

I live in France and run a B&B with dining facilities (chambres & table d'hôtes as the French call it) together with my partner Arjan. During season our guests can join us for dinner six times a week. In our kitchen we prepare French classic dishes as well as our own creations. We are just a couple of foodlovers with no professional training, but after three B&B seasons I dare to say that we have some 'semi-pro' cooking skills.

Guests often ask us for our recipes and that is how I got started on writing a foodblog. For quite some time now I've been writing one in our native language (Dutch), but now it's time to take it to the next level.
In order to share ideas, recipes and thoughts with you all, I'm finally taking the plunge and starting this English version.

I hope you'll enjoy this foodblog and would love to hear from you.