Lamb Boulangère
As the days lengthen and crocuses start to appear and blossom adorns the trees, I take solace in the fact that the season is turning and, let's face it, things are going to improve. One of my favourite traditional French recipes is lamb boulangère. This harks back to the days when people heading off to church on a Sunday would give a prepped up baking tray of the dish to the local baker who would put it in their cooling oven for the duration of the service. They could then repatriate it, wonderfully slow-cooked, on their way back from church and serve a tasty family lunch.
I'm not sure the younger generation of French people share this attention to detail. On a recent trip to Paris I saw a McDonalds next door to a Burger King next door to a Kentucky Fried Chicken on the Place de la République – quelle horreur!
Never mind, this is a seasonal and satisfying dish, that pairs well with wine and you don't have to be French to make it.
Ingredients: (Serves 4 to 6 Adults)
1 boneless 'butterflied' leg of lamb. [Circa 2 kg]
Pealed and finely sliced (Maris Piper) potatoes. [1.5+ kg]
I white (Spanish) onion, finely sliced.
Garlic x 4 cloves.
Rosemary x 6 sprigs
1 liter of vegetable stock
Ground black pepper and sea salt.
Olive oil.
MethodMethod
Pre-heat a fan oven to 180 degrees C.
Layer the sliced potatoes and onion in a large oblong oven dish. Stud the lamb liberally with small slices of peeled garlic and brush it with olive oil. Place the lamb, skin side down, on top of the potatoes and onions and add the vegetable stock to the oven dish. Place the rosemary sprigs on top of and underneath the lamb. Season everything well with salt and pepper.
Cook the lamb for at least an hour then turn it over whilst stirring up the vegetables so that they cook evenly. Cook the lamb for another hour, you can then turn the oven off and rest the dish in it for a further half hour.
Robin & Jason Yapp
I would accompany that with some steamed sprouts or green beans and a glass of lightly chilled Cabernet Franc.
Joyeuses Pâques!
March Wines of the Month: £96.00 per case (of six bottles) delivered, saving £19.30 on list prices.
Shakshuka
Shakshuka is a restorative North African dish believed to be of Tunisian origin. It is quite quickly and easily prepared and makes for a tasty lunch or light supper dish. There are numerous different twists one can deploy in its preparation so I have deliberately not looked for a recipe online as I didn’t want to get drawn in to an alternative methodology.
Ingredients: (Serves 2 Adults)
Chopped Tomatoes 1 x 400g can.
Medium Sized Spanish Onions x 2
Red or Green Bell Pepper x 1
Large Garlic Cloves x 4
Medium Sized Free-Range Hens Eggs x 4
Sweet Paprika x half a teaspoon
Cayenne Pepper x half a teaspoon
Olive Oil
Coriander – washed and chopped x 1 tablespoon.
Salt
Pepper
Method
In a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan gently fry off the de-seeded and chopped bell pepper, peeled and finely-chopped onions and peeled and finely-sliced garlic in tablespoon of olive oil. Once that mixture has softened to a lightly-cooked amalgam add the tin of chopped tomatoes, the sweet paprika and cayenne pepper and let the whole assemblage warm through. Now crack the eggs open and add them and leave them in the pan until their whites have cooked through to your taste.
Top the cooked dish with chopped coriander and season with salt and pepper as desired. I would serve that with freshly-cooked, warm, billowy, herb-covered bread but you could opt for steamed rice as an alternative.
For a wine accompaniment I would opt for something white, dry and unoaked such as Napier Winery: 'Klein Louis' Sauvignon Blanc 2022, or stay regional with the Tandem: Syrah du Maroc 2021.
Kefir-ly Cultivated
Last Summer, traversing la belle France on holiday, we stayed the night with our old friends Fred and Laurence Filliatreau in their delightful home, set amongst vines, at Château Fouquet, in the hamlet of Brèze, in the Loire valley. It was great to have our first familial get together since the onset of Covid and it involved the appropriate amount of good food and wine. Over breakfast on the day of our departure Fred served us some of his homemade kefir, which was refreshing, gently-carbonated and, to us novices, fascinating.
Fred duly gave us a jar of his precious 'Château Fouquet' kefir culture and very precise instructions about how it was to be kept and fed, on a weekly basis, with organic sugar. At the first opportunity we invested in the requisite equipment for fermenting and bottling the kefir, and after daily updates and instruction from Fred, produced our inaugural batch after our first week on holiday.
Part of the production process entails adding a dried (again organic) fig to the demijohn in which the magic occurs. Apparently, when it floats to surface the 'brew is then true', as Danny Kaye might have said. Whether ours was as good as Fred's I’m not sure, but it certainly wasn't bad and, to our pleasant surprise, we managed to bring the culture back from our travels alive and well.
So, kefir has now replaced orange juice on the breakfast table chez Yapp providing a cheaper, and less calorific alternative. It is reportedly excellent for gut health – so should be ideal for post-festive consumption. Those seeking an uplifting soft drink for January should definitely look into kefir, for a less soft imbibing there is always Château Fouquet!
Seasonal Snackage Package and Festive Libations
In the run up to Christmas we always invite a few friends and neighbours round for drinks. Experience has taught us that people like a definite cut off time and it is best to avoid trying to provide a fully catered meal. That said, a few canapés or snacks do provide some sustenance and are always welcome - even a modest selection offers variety and something for everyone. It all got consumed last time which, by my reckoning, means we judged it about right.
Wine-wise, I will be using our Sommelier Selections mixed case as my main festive inspiration this year. In terms of sparkling wine, it is great to have a really versatile fizz to hand and the Crémant d'Alsace from Maison Léon Beyer is just the ticket. It is light enough to drink on its own but pairs well with smoked salmon and any snacks or canapés. On the big day we will probably treat ourselves to a bottle of Gilles Dumangin's majestic '1er Cru' Champagne 'Le Vintage' 2009 but for pouring and partying the Alsace is a magnificent all-rounder. Those looking for stocking fillers will be glad to know that we also stock it in half-bottles.
The 'quaffable' Vouvray Demi-Sec 2019 from Domaine Aubert is a great, off-dry white to serve as a pick-me-up or partner to cheese and the red Saint-Pourçain 'La Ficelle' 2022, which is redolent of summer berries, is fantastic with charcuterie and would also pair well with ham or poultry.
Our stone-fruited, white Côtes du Rhône Villages Sablet has enough weight to pair with seafood or turkey but makes for a crowd-pleasing wine to serve to guests and thirsty family members throughout the festivities.
The popular red Petit Caboche, from Domaine Jean-Pierre Boisson, is ideal for fireside drinking or makes a terrific accompaniment to restorative stews and roasts.
In fully festive mode, I would probably turn my attention to the Cuvée Tradition 2020 from Domaine Richeaume. This big, briary belter is probably too powerful for chicken or turkey but if a rib of beef or leg of lamb are in the offing you can't go wrong with it. With a wealth of wild Provençal herb and berry flavours, couched by supple tannins with peppery undertones, it's a wonderful celebratory drop.
Finally, when the decks have cleared, I will treat myself to a small glass of chilled, sweet Banyuls Réserva from Domaine La Tour Vieille. This marvellous concoction is rich, dark and rounded and is, coincidentally, ideal with mince pies or Christmas pudding.
Joyeux Noël!
Chicken with Chorizo, Chillis, Onions, Peppers and Garlic with Rice
I've come across a few recipes that are very similar to this, but I devised this version years ago and I like it because there is very little to weigh or measure. Most recently, I cooked it for my long-standing, 5 strong book group and they said they enjoyed it. Praise from them is hard won, so counts for something.
Ingredients: (Feeds as many as required – in this case 5)
2 chicken thighs per person – or a leg cut in 2 if necessary.
1 chorizo – circa 225 grams – peeled and sliced into discs.
3 bell peppers – 2 red and 1 yellow looks good.
3 to 4 large coves of garlic peeled and sliced.
Kalamata olives x 70 grams – pitted.
2 red chilies (or 1 red and 1 green) de-seeded and chopped.
2 medium sized Spanish onion – peeled and sliced in fine strips.
1 bottle of Chardonnay – leaving a glass or 2 for the cook.
Olive oil, salt, pepper and Tabasco.
Basmati and wild rice x 75 grams per diner.
Vegan bouillon powder x 1 teaspoon.
Method
Pre-heat a fan oven to 180 degrees C. Wash, de-seed and finely slice the peppers into strips then add them to a large roasting dish. De-seed and slice the chilies and add them and the garlic to the roasting dish, along with the onions and the chorizo. Trim any loose skin off the chicken and add that too - season the chicken with salt, pepper and Tabasco. Drizzle the roasting tin with 2-3 tablespoons of olive then place it in the oven.
After about 15 minutes add a couple of glasses of wine to the roasting dish, stir everything and close the oven door. After an hour open the oven turn all the chicken over and re-season if desired. More wine can also be added now if things look to be drying out – the finished dish should have a wet texture and plenty of liquid.
Now rinse the rice thoroughly. Cook it by adding just enough water to be one centimetre above surface of the rice, add the bouillon powder, cover and simmer for 25 minutes on a medium hob. Reduce the heat as the water evaporates and stir frequently. Cooking time should be around 25 minutes and you should not need to drain the rice.
Whilst the rice is cooking check the chicken and turn each piece a final time. Put some shallow bowls in the oven and switch the oven off. After a 5 minute rest, while you lay the table, serve the chicken, chorizo vegetables and juices on a bed of the rice in each bowl. Eat and serve with a white or red wine of your choosing.
(Our book, by the way, was Kevin Barry's excellent 'There Are Little Kingdoms', a pithy collection of short stories from a master of the genre. It too comes highly-recommended).
Scallop and King Prawn Ramen with Vegetables and Rice Noodles
This recipe evolved during the pandemic when I was looking for food that was healthy, easy to prepare and versatile. You can switch the scallops and prawns for diced tuna, chicken or tofu and get an equally satisfying outcome. It does come pretty close to 'cheating' in terms of using ingredients that don't require much work but if that provides a midweek supper that doesn't require much heavy lifting or washing up it is a price I'm prepared to pay.
I cook this in my beloved 5.3 litre 'Le Creuset' casserole pan – other models are available but probably aren't as good.
Ingredients: (Serves 2 to 3 adults)
Mixed Stir-Fry Vegetables x 240g
[I bought a pre-prepared pack containing pak choi, mange tout, green beans, broccoli, chopped onion and chillis and added 2 cloves of peeled and thinly-sliced garlic].
'Singapore Style' Soft Rice Noodles x 300g
Pre-prepared Vegan Ramen Broth x 250g
Scallops (responsibly sourced) x 150g
Pre-cooked king prawns x 150g
Olive oil
Chopped coriander
Lemon x 1
Method
Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and cook the drained scallops and prawns on a high hob heat until they start to sizzle and the scallops begin to brown – stir constantly. That takes about 2 minutes, then should turn the heat down to a mid-level / medium setting. Now add the chopped vegetables and put the lid on the pan. 'Sweat' them down for 3-4 minutes, stirring them intermittently so nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan. Now add the ramen liquid and stir everything until it is gently simmering.
Serve in warm, shallow bowls with the chopped coriander on top and a wedge of lemon on the side. Wine-wise I'd be drawn to an Alsace Pinot Blanc or Riesling or possibly an unoaked Viognier from the Northern Rhône.
Greasy Beans
For as far back as I can remember I have enjoyed travelling in France. A significant part of that pleasure has been in partaking of the rich variety of food and wine available and the Gallic passion for cooking food that is both seasonal and locally sourced. There are some quite vocal people who claim that the younger generation are losing those qualities and that it is getting harder to find classic dishes but I haven't found that to be the case and have enjoyed some outstanding cuisine on recent visits to l'hexagone.
A secondary pleasure is buying great French ingredients and bringing them home to extend the touring theme and recreate dishes at home. One 'must purchase' item that I've enjoyed over decades are Haricots Lingots, which are haricot beans conserved in goose fat, that, when our children were young and not vegan, we re-branded as 'Greasy Beans'. Sadly, those are off menu for our sons these days but happily we have a meat-eating niece who not only loves them but actually requests them when she visits us.
This month's 'recipe' doesn't really require any culinary skills just good ingredients. To serve 3 adults (me, Pippa and the aforementioned niece) I buy 6 good quality sausages with a high pork content and ideally some herbs and garlic in the mix.
I cook those in an oiled roasting dish in a fan oven at 180 degrees C. for around 45 minutes, turning them periodically, so they get nicely-browned all over. For the last 15 to 20 minutes of that cooking time I add a 780 gram jar of the haricots lingots transferred to another roasting dish. You want them to be cooked through and hopefully to develop a bit of a crust on top.
I then serve the beans in a shallow, warmed up bowl, add 2 sausages per diner and a side of wild rocket. You then just need Dijon mustard (in short supply at the time of writing) and a robust, life-affirming red wine such as this month's Côtes du Rhône: Jean-Louis Chave Sélection 'Mon Coeur' 2021.
There you go – 'Greasy Beans' for 3 – come and get them!
Several Summer Salads
While I am not known for being overly-enthusiastic about salads, after much recent nutritional advice from well-informed observers, such as Chris van Tulleken and Tim Spector, highlighting the dangers of consuming too much overly-processed food, they are definitely going to be served more frequently chez Yapp in the future.
It has taken me until my mid fifties to realise that salads can be interesting and highly-enjoyable to both prepare and eat provided you are willing to make a bit of an effort. I won’t bother giving recipes to follow, as I think salads of all dishes lend themselves to adaptation and innovation, I will just provide images and details of the principal ingredients of salads I have recently enjoyed.
1. Avocado, red onion, red chili, spring onion and chopped sugar snap peas.
2. Watercress, tomato, cucumber and avocado and spring onion.
3. Chickpeas, black olives, red onion and parsley.
4. Goats cheese, walnut, romaine lettuce and toast with walnut oil dressing.
5. Watercress, beetroot and raddish.
6. Basil, burrata, and fried courgette on sourdough toast.
7. Red, orange and yellow tomatoes with basil.
8. Mozzarella, green beans and cherry tomatoes.
9. Chickpeas, chopped radishes, tomato and cucumber.
10. Haloumi, avocado, cherry tomato and parsley.
11. Salade Niçoise.
12. Potato salad with red onion and parsley.
In terms of wine, I prefer white or rosé with salad, nothing with any oak and not too much alcohol. This month’s Vin de Corse Porto Vecchio: Domaine de Torraccia Rosé 2022 would be ideal.
August Wines of the Month: £95.00 per case (of six bottles) delivered, saving £18.30 on list prices.
Lamb steaks with New Potatoes and Pea Shoot and Mint Salad.
Lamb is a perfect summer meat, as it's light and flavourful. New potatoes are in season right now, and they're an ideal accompaniment. They're a bit more delicate than regular potatoes, so they won't overpower the meat. The pea shoots and mint add a touch of freshness and brightness to the dish.
Ingredients: (Serves 2)
2 lamb leg steaks – approximately 300g in total.
8-9 medium sized new potatoes
Pea shoots and fresh mint leaves – approximately 100g
Fresh, low fat plain Greek yoghurt
Olive oil
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper.
Method
Wash, trim and boil the potatoes (halve any larger ones) for about 20 minutes until cooked.
Then rinse and refresh them in cold water, drain them and set them aside.
Fry the leg steaks in a tablespoon of olive oil, on a medium heat, for 5 minutes on each side, until cooked but still pink in the center. Deglaze the pan with a splash of red wine and reduce it for two minutes to thicken it and burn off any alcohol.
Wash the pea shoots and mint leaves, pat them dry then mix them together and dress them with a generous tablespoon (or two) of the Greek yoghurt. Plate up all the ingredients together, dress the potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper (to your taste) and the lamb steaks with the reduced wine.
In warm weather this dish works well served at ambient temperature. Wine-wise I would serve that with a lightly-chilled summer red such as Chinon: Francis et Françoise Desbourdes 'L'Arpenty' 2021.
July Wines of the Month: £92.00 per case (of six bottles) delivered, saving £17.50 on list prices.
Panzanella is an Umbrian and Tuscan salad using old bread, tomatoes and onions, and frequently features chopped cucumber and fresh basil. It is traditionally dressed with a mixture of olive oil and red wine vinegar. There are no hard and fast rules about quantities, and roast peppers, pitted black olives and tinned anchovies are often added to provide extra interest and flavour. Usually, ciabatta would be the bread of choice but French baguettes that are 1 or 2 days old also work well.
Ingredients: (Serves 4+)
1kg ripe tomatoes.
Circa 300g ciabatta or baguette.
1 shallot – finely sliced.
1 red bell pepper.
1 x 50g tin of anchovies in olive oil.
100g pitted black olives.
Olive oil x 2-3 tablespoons (plus the oil from the anchovies).
1 tbsp red wine vinegar.
Handful of (torn) basil leaves.
Salt to season.
Method
Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees C. Tear the bread into bite-sized chunks then place on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and bake for 10 minutes until lightly-toasted. While the bread is in the oven, roast a de-seeded red bell pepper for around 30 minutes and then thinly-slice lengthways.
Dice the tomatoes into large chunks and sprinkle lightly with salt. Mix the tomatoes in a large salad bowl with all of the other ingredients and dress it with the olive oil and red wine vinegar. Toss the salad well and garnish with the torn basil leaves.
I'd serve that in shallow bowls, ideally out of doors and with a robust Mediterranean rosé such as Chateau Roubaud's Costières de Nîmes.
June Wines of the Month: £85.00 per case (of six bottles) delivered, saving £16.20 on list prices.
