What to feed a pregnant friend??

Hmm... maybe not

On Saturday night we were all having a few drinks down the pub and one of my very dear friends announced that she's pregnant (as she glared at our glasses of wine and pints).

I know nothing of babies or pregnancy, I have never been pregnant myself and this is the first of my friends to be 'in the family way' (really, what a ghastly expression). The two words that sprang to mind were 'Folic acid' and 'spinach' okay that's three words, stop being so pedantic. I couldn't tell you what foods contain Folic acid and I imagine spinach is something to do with iron? (and I don't suppose I should be offering her a Guinness...).

It seems I am going to have to do some research then aren't I? I have just gone online and bought a book about pregnancy cooking. Call me a cynic but even just scanning through the available books online I already have a strong feeling that all the books are likely to be rather preachy and uninspiring but if recipes need some tweaking to make them more fun and interesting then bring it on.

Oh and just to make things more complicated she's dairy intolerant, so any advice on tasty things to feed my friend would be very welcome and I'll be posting all the recipes I come up with.  

Boulangère potatoes

Boulangère potatoes

I forgot to take a photo of the
finished dish... sorry!

Usually if I was to make some sort of gratin with potatoes it would always be gratin dauphinoise as the mixture of cream, potatoes and garlic is truly one of the greatest dishes. However recently we had the neighbours round and I was serving a roast chicken with rich garlicky sauce to be followed by a very decadent chocolatey dessert, so I thought we should have something less artery clogging. It was incredibly yummy to the point that Mr Neighbour and lovely fiancé were fighting over the last scrapings of the dish.

The name comes from boulangerie, (french bakery) as it is meant to be like a baguette with its very crispy top revealing an incredibly soft underneath.

Boulangère potatoes

Serves 4

75g butter

1kg floury potatoes, such as maris piper

1 medium onion

400ml Stock (preferably chicken, but vegetable would also work)

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 170ºC.

Butter an oven-proof dish with half the butter. Peel the potatoes and onions and slice as finely as you can, I would recommend using a mandolin for this. Make a layer of potatoes over the bottom of the dish with the discs overlapping, follow by a layer of onion and a good grinding of fresh pepper and salt. Repeat layering potato, onion, seasoning, ending on a layer of potatoes.

Press it all down firmly. Pour on the stock slowly, you may not need all of it, you want all the potatoes to be submerged but only just. Dot with the remaining butter then bake in the oven for about 2 hours until all the stock has been absorbed by the potatoes, the top is crispy and potatoes are tender.

Random Tip 1: Perfect melted chocolate

Perfect melted chocolate

Firstly, always use the best chocolate you can.

Chocolatey goodness

The trick to cooking chocolate without it seizing is to make sure everything your using is perfectly clean and does not come into contact with any water or steam. Put a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the bowl does not touch the water and that no steam can escape round the edges. Don't use a wooden spoon as they can hold water, a metal spoon is good or my preference is a rubber spatula. If your chocolate should seize, your best of starting again but if you have no more chocolate then you may be able to save your chocolate by adding liquid, depending on what you are making butter or cream may be a good idea, or maybe some rum, chocolate loves booze.  

Some people choose to melt their chocolate in a microwave, but I hate microwaves so don't expect any tips on that!

Breton Flan

The Flan* Mission

*That's 'flan' to be pronounced with an outrageous french accent to get it right: 'flohn'.

When I was younger my family had a small cottage in the depths of the countryside of Brittany, northern France where I spent almost every holiday. I am sure my love of fantastic food and beautiful countyside originates in all those weeks away.

Anyway that's the context for you, the point is one of my favourite memories when I drift off into nostalgia is the beautiful Breton custard pastry 'flan'. Made with dried apricots, prunes or my preference being for the plain; it is a simple but incredibly yummy treat.

I have set myself a mission to find the perfect recipe for flan, one that will satisfy all my memories of time spent in France.

Joanne Harris' version.
Yummy but not right.

My hunt began rumaging through my own bookshelf. The only book to have anything close was The French Kitchen by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde, the recipe did not have the thin pastry that I am after but I tried it anyway to see if the custard was right. I did it with prunes and ohh it was yummy (and lovely fiance's first taste of this french treat I have gushed about so often). But it wasn't right, tasted very buttery (quite a lot of melted butter went into it) and the top was sprinkled with sugar which is just plain wrong. Flan as I know it should have an almost leathery 'skin' on the top (not making it sound appetising there) none of this sugar business. So it was a fail in terms of nostalgia but still a yummy dessert.

Then a few days ago I was in St. Pancras train station getting a train to see the in-laws and saw that Paul (the french bakery store, not a random chap) was selling flan, naturally I could not resist. Oooh it was tasty but oooh no it wasn't right. This time there was pastry holding it together, making it something you can eat on the move (as it should be) but the pastry was too crumbly and cake-y. The custard was certainly closer than the Joanne Harris but had too much wibble about it (maybe not the technical word there...).

So dear readers, the hunt continues and I will keep you informed. But please do send me any recipes you may have for it and I will put them to the taste test!

Take one... bacon collar joint

Take one... bacon collar joint

I love meals that leave you with tasty leftovers, I don't mean 'heat them up in the microwave' leftovers (for the record I hate microwaves but more of that another day), exciting leftovers that naturally lead on to other meal ideas. Tonight I will be cooking up a bacon collar joint, cooking it in cider with veggies; the weather is cold and miserable outside and it sounds most suitable.  Then tomorrow night that lovely meat will be cooked up with some mushrooms in a tasty sauce and wrapped up in pancakes with cheese on top (one of lovely fiance's favourite meals).  There should still be enough left that the day after we'll go for something a bit less decadent and have a tasty soup from it.  So there you have it, three days of tasty, autumnal food. Other options you could try for the leftovers would be in a risotto with peas, a tasty addition to macaroni cheese - good macaroni cheese is one of life's great pleasures so do it properly.

Bacon collar joint cooked in cider

A cooking joint does not an interesting picture
 make- so here's a pig instead

serves 2 with lots for lovely leftovers

1 bacon collar joint about 1.5 Kg

1 carrot peeled and chopped

1 leek chopped into chunks

1 small eating apple, cored and chopped into 8 (no need to peel)

Good quality cider to cover

1/2 tbsp black peppercorns

1 bay leaf

Sprig of thyme

For the sauce-

Knob of butter, unsalted (the meat is very salty so you will not need to put in any extra salt)

1 tbsp plain flour

Reserved cooking liquid

Put your bacon joint in a pan with water to cold water to cover, bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 minutes.  Then strain off the water.  Clean out the pan and then put the joint back in along with all carrots, leek and apple.  You can either put the spices in loose or it would be neater to tie them in a square of muslin (or an unwanted pair of old tights seems to work well!).  Now cover the whole lot with the cider (hoping there is a little left over for an aperitif) bring to the boil and then simmer for about 1 1/2 hours until it can be easily pierced with a knife.

When it's ready, remove the pork and veggies and keep warm, (this is where you will be grateful if you have put all the spices together rather than having to pick out all the pesky little peppercorns).  Keep the cooking liquid to make a beautiful sauce. Melt a small knob of butter in a pan and then sprinkle in the flour and heat until it fizzes.  Now add your cooking liquid a little at a time stirring all the time until you reach the desired consistency.  Taste for seasoning but I'd be amazed if you need any salt.

It is rich, especially with the sauce so I'd recommend a simple accompaniment and  of course a nice glass of cider!