French Dessert Recipes - Tarte Tatin

Just spent a lovely morning with my French teacher learning how to cook the classic French dessert Tarte Tatin. The lesson was in French and it was great for our vocabulary learning! It was really easy to make and the result was wonderful. Here is the recipe in English: peel and core six yellow golden delicious apples and sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent discoloration, add 100g butter to a frying pan on a low heat, when melted add 100g vanilla sugar (ordinary sugar will do), stir until the mixture thickens and becomes caramelized. Add the apple slices to the sugar mixture and coat the apples in the sauce. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring now and again to prevent burning. The mixture should be a rich golden brown. Meanwhile heat your oven to 200 degrees. When the apples are cooked tip them into a buttered flan dish or tarte tatin tin if you have one. Take a packet of ready-made and ready-rolled puff pastry and unroll it and lay it across the tin. Fold the excess pastry into the case around the edges. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. When it is browned take it out of the oven and leave it to rest for 15 minutes. When cooler but not cold put a plate over it and turn it over onto the plate. Et  le voilà ! Serve warm or hot with vanilla ice cream or creme fraiche.

French Winter Recipies

What better time than now to experiment with a few French recipes while there is five inches of snow on the ground and I am wondering what to fill the boys up with next! Tonight I hit on the idea of tartiflette - a dish that I have had in various restaurants in Poitou Charentes which is always delicious and very filling. It actually comes from the Haute Savoie region of France and is a staple in the mountains, just what is needed on a very cold day! The basic recipe says fry some chopped onion, garlic and smoked bacon lardons in a frying pan until just crisp. Meanwhile slice the potatoes thinly and cook them in a pan of water for about 5 minutes. After this, drain the potatoes. Rub a garlic clove around a casserole dish and then begin layering the potatoes with the bacon and onion mixture, a layer of roblachon cheese (or any mixed cheeses), single cream and fresh black pepper. Continue layering until the dish is full and finish with grated cheese on the top. Put in a medium oven for 20 minutes until brown and bubbling. If you are vegetarian just leave out the lardons and maybe replace them with some garlic mushrooms, Yum!

Snow!

After a bitterly cold week the snow finally fell and we had about six inches making the roads totally impassable and meaning that we have to stay home for a few days. The French farmers predicted this ages ago but I didn't really take any notice, now I'm wishing that I had. So thats why there was so many huge bags of salt for sale in the supermarkets!

My friend was due to land at Limoges airport on Sunday but her flight was cancelled and there was no way that I would have made it to the airport. They do not grit the country roads here at all so I am not risking going out in the car. Luckily I was prepared after last year's snow and I have enough food in and milk but the water pipes are frozen and we are having to go next door for fresh water. It is not as if you can pop to the local shop here - the nearest one is 3km away and I doubt it will be open! The boys are enjoying some time off school with their friends who arrived to play and haven't gone home yet! The log supply is running low and I am just hoping that the wood man will be able to get here in his truck when he can get out. In the meantime, just have to enjoy the view and at least the sun is out!