In addition to a fairly hefty collection of legitimate cookbooks, I have also accumulated -- often for free -- a number of small recipe brochures and mini-cookbooks. And sometimes they are of surprisingly high quality.Take this little "carnet" that I think I picked up for free with a Sunday edition of the Midi Libre newspaper.
It's a tiny volume, about the size of a diary, and contains just 45 recipes from the Languedoc-Roussillon and Aveyron areas.
Each recipe is accompanied by a cheery photo, and the dishes I have concocted from it have been universally excellent.
For example, last Sunday I went back to a "Tarte aux pommes de terre et aux pélardons" that I had tried out some time back. A pélardon is a small goat's cheese which is not necessarily available where I live -- but any nice goat's cheese, such as Rocamadour, will do. It certainly did for me.
This is an eggless savory tart, and takes a little more effort to put together than a quiche, mainly because you have to precook the potatoes, then peel and slice them. You then put them on the base of your pastry crust and distribute the goat's cheese over them. (I upped the number from three to four and sliced them down the middle for a total of eight pieces, about one per slice of tart.) After that, you spread some crème fraîche over it all -- a fun step -- and top it with grated gruyère and some suitable herb or herbs.Yes, this was something of a dairyrama, but a delicious one.
Here is the Sunday Stovetop before...
And after, complete with my now signature non-hidden papier de cuisson. Even French readers have commented that they didn't know it could be put in the oven with the ready-made pastry crust.
Hmmm, I didn't do a very good job cutting the paper this time, though. Must have been that nice glass of white wine in the "before" photo.I also just realized this is the third quiche or tart I've posted about in the past few months. I promise a change for my next post.
In the meantime, Happy Easter to all of you who celebrate it!
No comments:
Post a Comment