Recipes from France

recipes from france Recipes from France because we all love reading blogs about life in France For me, one of the joys of reading other people’s blogs about their lives in France is to taste, in a virtual sense, some of the delicious food that they describe.

So many of the blogs I look at are full of great recipes!

I sometimes put on 2 kilos just reading them!

I thought it might be an idea to review some of those great recipes here, on a weekly basis.

However, I’m not going to pick them myself; I’m going to leave that up to the readers of A Taste of Garlic and the creators of the recipes themselves.

I shall review one great recipe from a Life in France blog every Sunday and, obviously, I shall link back to the original site so that readers can find out where the recipe came from.

So, if you have a blog and have a great recipe that you would like to share here, please let me know.

Or, if you have discovered a great recipe on a blog of the sort that I review here, please let me know and I’ll get in touch with the blog owner to ask permission to re-publish the recipe here.

Please get in touch at… contact@aTasteOfGarlic.com

This week’s recipes come from Galloping Gourmets – (reviewed on June the 3rd – the blog with the lots of recipes, lots of horses and a Chicken Run that vies with mine for the title of poshest chicken run in Brittany!)

Now, Mrs A Taste of Garlic and I haven’t tried out these recipes for ourselves yet as we’re still at that “Oh, aren’t all our home grown tomatoes lovely – so much better than the shop bought ones!” stage and, as a result, aren’t quite sick of the glut of tomatoes yet!

We’re getting there, though!

And, as for our cucumbers; well, they’re the size of water melons (or small barrage balloons) and we are, I have to admit, starting to get worried about spending the next 6 months trying to come up with novel cucumber recipes!

There are two recipes here – especially chosen from the host of great recipes on Galloping Gourmets – for all of you who may be starting to worry about your cucumber and tomato gluts!

TOMATO CHUTNEY

Ingredients :

1kg ripe tomatoes, chopped

450g onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 eating apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped

2 tsp mustard seeds

2 cloves

2.5cm piece fresh ginger, grated

300g sultanas

200g light muscovado sugar

1/2 tsp Allspice

600ml malt vinegar

Method :

Put all the ingredients, apart from the vinegar, in a preserving pan or large, deep saucepan. Add half the vinegar and season.

Place the pan over a medium heat. Slowly bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring constantly, until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.

Stir the vinegar into the chutney. Cook for a further 30 minutes, stirring often, or until thickened. If it’s still runny, simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

CUCUMBER AND GREEN TOMATO RELISH

Ingredients :

900 g green tomatoes

900 g cucumbers

1 large onion

1 large green pepper

2 tablespoons salt

½ teaspoon ground allspice

1 tablespoon pickling spice

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

175 g white sugar

570 ml white vinegar – I didn’t have any, so used cider vinegar

Method :

Chop all the vegetables finely. Put in layers in a large bowl, sprinkling each layer with the salt. Leave to stand overnight.

Tip into a colander and drain well.

Put the vinegar, sugar and spices into a pan and stir to dissolve the sugar. Bring to the boil and add the vegetables.

Simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently, until the mixture is fairly stiff but still moist.

Pack the relish into hot, clean, sterilized jars, right to the top.

Cover and seal immediately.

Label when fully cool.

Makes 3 -4 lbs (1.4 kg – 1.8 kg) of Cucumber and Green Tomato Relish. Ready in about 4 weeks.

I reviewed Galloping Gourmets back in June 2010 and remember salivating over the Smoked Salmon Pasta Bake.

At the time I said… “That’s a dish that everyone really should be able to do (you can change the choice of fish, obviously) and GG’s recipe was simple and straight to the point. The spinach idea is clever and probably sets this dish off.”

I also recall the rather posh Vegetable Garden and especially liked the herb wheel which we are going to copy ourselves.

Mrs A Taste of Garlic is going to supervise and I’ll be the one doing all the heavy work!

I suppose that I ought to mention that Galloping Gourmets is married to a man called Mr Tomato King and Mr Tomato King has got an exciting new blog out called Velosolex in Brittany.

The trouble is, if I did mention that, Mrs A Taste of Garlic will only wallop me again!

So, it’s probably best if I don’t!

Why not pop down and say hello to Galloping Gourmets? I’m sure you will find plenty of other recipes to try out!

Thank you very much Galloping Gourmets, for this week’s recipes.

Watch out for something equally lip-smackingly delicious next week!

All the best

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