Recipes from the roving Foodivore kitchen

Epaule d'agneau a la Mayenne (Lamb Shoulder in the Mayenne style)
Made from ingredients available on the Mayenne River, April 2010.
  • Lamb shoulder - a small one, or just half
  • Puy lentils - half to two-thirds of a cup
  • Celeriac - half a bulb, peeled and cut into smallish pieces (but not diced)
  • Savoy cabbage - half a small head, sliced
  • Wine - a whole bottle. Red or white, even a combination. Whatever you have, in other words.
  • Salt
  • Olive oil
  • Italian parsley - 10 sprigs
On the base of a baking pan place celeriac, then cabbage, then parsley, then scatter lentils over the top.
Rub olive oil over lamb. Lie fat-side up on the vegatable base. Sprinkle with a generous quantity of salt. Pour wine into pan until it nearly reaches the rim.
Cook for 4 to 4.5 hours, uncovered, at 150C.
Some lentils should be a bit crunchy, most soft.
Serve with baguette......bien sur.

PS - following Foodback, we've adjusted the wine quantity up to a whole bottle. It's also been suggested that the lentils could be placed under the cabbage, particularly if you don't want any hard texture from them.


Chicken Beatrice
Made on Queen's Day, April 30th 2010, Amsterdam

  • 1 chicken, cut into pieces
  • 3 tbsp Plain white flour 
  • 1 tbsp ground garlic 
  • 1 tsp nutmeg 
  • 1 tsp cinnamon  
  • 1 tsp salt  
  • 1 tsp pepper  
  • 1/2 tsp paprika  
  • 1/2 tsp chilli powder  
  • 1/2 tsp cardamon

Mix above in plastic bag and shake pieces of chicken. Pan cook in olive oil, to brown on each side. Set aside.


  • 6 shallots  
  • 6 cloves garlic, crushed  
  • 1 cup lentils  
  • 1 apple, peeled and sliced  
  • 1 potato, peeled and sliced  
  • 2 Capsicum (we used long ones), sliced  
  • 3 tsp thyme

In same pan as chicken, brown shallots and garlic. Lay lentils, apple and potato on bottom of oven dish. Lay chicken on top of mixtue.  Sprikle over shallot mixture and thyme.. Lay capsicum over top.  Add 400ml white wine (sav blanc), 100 ml Gin.  Drizzle 2 tsp honey over top.  Put in oven at 180 for 1 hour, covered with foil.  Remove foil, increase temp to 200 and return for 20mins.

Risotto of goat's cheese and chicken, with chicken and rabbit livers
Comfort food for the coldest May on record in Burgundy




Stock (only half of this is needed)
Bones of one chicken, plus the wingtips and feet of two; one golden shallot, halved lengthwise; one teaspoon salt; 3 litres water. Boil slowly, skimming occasionally, until the liquid is halved.

Risotto

  • 1 Tbsp Isigny butter (very pale in colour)
  • Splash of extra-virgin olive oil (XVOO), to prevent the butter from burning
  • 1 largish brown onion, finely chopped
  • 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 750ml warm chicken stock (you might not need the full amount)
  • 375ml white burgundy (chardonnay)
  • 1 cup carnaroli rice (you could use arborio instead, but we couldn't find any)
  • 3 Tbsp cold chicken in medium-size pieces (we used leftovers from a previous roast which had liberal quantities of tarragon and thyme, and this imparted some subtle complexities to the risotto)
  • Small handful of mangetouts (snowpeas)
  • 1 cup goat's brie, sliced
  • 2 Tbsp aged gouda, grated
  • 1 Tbsp chives, chopped
Usual process to start a risotto: fry the onions in the butter and a little XVOO for a couple of minutes; add the garlic; continue to cook until onions are a golden colour (but not brown). Add the rice (and maybe a touch more XVOO or butter if things have dried out too much). Fry until rice is shiny and nearly translucent. Add the wine; allow to boil and be completely absorbed, stirring throughout (and for the remainder of the cooking). Reduce heat to a very slow bubbling boil (or quick simmer). Add stock in small quantities, allowing it be fully absorbed before adding more.
When about half of the stock has been used, add the chicken.
When the rice is almost fully softened (with just a light nutty core), add mangetouts. Remove from the heat. After a minute or two, add the cheese and stir thoroughly. Once all the cheese has melted in, add most of the chives and stir. Serve with the rest of the chives as garnish.

Livers
  • 6 chicken livers
  • 6 rabbit livers
  • 1 Tbsp plain flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Pinch of pepper
  • 2 Tbsp Isigny butter
  • Dash of XVOO
Place dry ingredients into a plastic bag and shake it to mix. Add livers and shake again to evenly coat them.
Heat the butter and XVOO until bubbling, and fry the livers in separate batches.


Pigeon two ways
1 Pigeon, cut into small pieces
good handful of brown mushrooms, sliced
handful of another mushroom variety
4 golden shallots, sliced
3  cloves garlic, sliced
2 slices bacon/ 100g lardons, chopped
1 cup white wine (chardonnay)
1/2 cup sweet sherry or other sweet liquor or port
1/2 cup creme fraiche (sour cream)
3 sprigs tarragon
2 tsp plain flour
Salt & pepper

Cook onion and garlic in a tab of butter and tsp of olive oil in a heavy based frying pan over a medium heat.  Cook until soft. Add bacon and mushrooms cook for a further 15 minutes.  Remove mixture from pan with a slotted spoon and set aside, return pan to heat.  Coat pigeon in flour seasoned with salt and pepper.  Cook in pan until browned on each side.  Add wine and sherry to pigeon, stir and bring back to heat. Add mushroom mixture and cook until liquid reduced by half.  Cover pan and cook for 5 minutes.  Remove lid and cook until liquid reduce by half again.  Add creme fraiche and tarragon and simmer for 5 minutes. Season to taste.  Serve with crusty bread.

1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
thyme
white wine
orange juice
4 almonds
5 raisins


Carbonnade des trois viandes (carbonnade of three meats)


 A rib-sticking comfort dish inspired by one served at Les Ardennes, Chalons-en-Champagne.
  • Pork ribs (1 per person) - separated from each other 
  • Beef shin or cheek (100g per person) - cut into chunks roughly the size of a golfball 
  • Lamb shoulder (100g per person) - cut into chunks roughly the size of a golfball 
  • 250 g pain d'epices containing orange (this is a spice bread/cake widely available in France. If unavailable, gingerbread is an alternative - though not too gingery - plus a little grated orange zest) 
  • 375ml Ardennes beer (a lightly spicy blonde beer - Leffe or Grimbergen blonde could be used)

Cut the pain d'epices into large dice and place in the bottom of a casserole. Add the beef & lamb; pour in the beer. Cook covered for 1 hour at 150C.
Add the pork, and stir it all together. Cook covered for a further 2.5 hours at 150C.
By this time the meats should all be tender and the sauce quite thick and sticky.

Serve with roast potatoes, or bread, or both.

If you don't want to use these meats you can just use the beef (which works well), or horse (much shorter cooking time for this though as the meat's so tender), or perhaps entirely with pork ribs.


Cassoulet a la Foodivore
Working on this recipe has been such a labour of love, but the eating so richly rewards the effort.... It has provided us with many memorable hours in Najac (June 2010), as well as in the surrounding districts gathering ingredients at markets and other wonderful specialty producers.
The quantities below will feed four very enthusiastic diners, six normal diners, or eight realistic diners who think that more than one meal per day is appropriate.
You'll need to start it the day before it's to be eaten (or see "Cheats" below). On the day, plan on needing to be around for maybe five to six hours. Most of the time you'll have little to do, other than work on your appetite.

  • 1 1/2 cups white beans, soaked overnight then boiled 2 1/2 hours (this can be done while the stock is cooking).
STOCK
  • 1 pig's trotter (fresh, not smoked or cured)
  • Chicken & duck bones (you can remove those from the confits below)
  • 1 celery stick (broken into several pieces)
  • 1/2 onion (cut into large pieces)
  • 2 sprigs of parsley
  • 6 sprigs of thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 400g pork ribs
  • 4 litres water
  • Salt and pepper
Add all the ingredients to the water, except the ribs, and simmer for 2 1/2 hours.  Add the ribs and simmer for a further 1 1/2 hours.   You may need to add a little more water, you'll need approximately 500ml.  Strain the stock, discarding the herbs and vegetables.  The ribs should be set aside and the pork trotter should have the bones and fat removed, reserving the skin and and flesh.  The skin should be cut into 1 inch pieces.  Set aside.

THE CASSOULET
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 1/2 bulbs of garlic, crushed (yes bulbs, not cloves)
  • 1 carrot, finely chopped
  • 60g smoked bacon, chopped
  • 2 duck confit (or 1 duck, 1 goose confit if you can get it)
  • 1 garlic pork sausage (if fresh you should simmer this in the stock slowly for 15 minutes), cut into pieces
  • Pork ribs and trotter pieces from the stock
  • 2 tbsp thyme leaves
  • 1 peeled tomato, finely chopped
  • 2 cups of breadcrumbs (made from day old bread)
Preheat the oven to 200oC.  In a frying pan with a small amount of olive oil, cook the onion, carrot and bacon until carrot is soft.  You can use some of the duck fat from the confit instead if you're feeling extravagant.   Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.

In a large flat earthenware pot, add all of the ingredients except the stock and half the breadcrumbs.  Mix gently.  Gently but firmly press down the mixture to create a flat surface.  Add sufficient stock to almost reach to top of the beans.  If you don't have enough stock, top up with white wine.  Sprinkle over the remaining breadcrumbs and cook for 1 hour.

We think it's best with a full-bodied Meursault (chardonnay). However, it also matches well against lighter reds (from the Gaillac region, for example),

CHEATS: You can use jar or tinned white beans if you're feeling lazy or can't get the dried beans (or forgot that you'd need to soak them overnight before cooking that day).  If you can't get duck confit, you could slow roast fresh duck legs until tender...or if you're really desperate use chicken.
FOODIVORE NON-NEGOTIABLES: we wouldn't make this without duck, pork and garlic. Doubtless, a delicious dish could be made without these - but we don't think it could be called Cassoulet.
OPTIONS: boudin blanc (a white sausage) is an excellent addition. Some lamb can also be added, but not too much - the duck, pork and garlic shouldn't be overwhelmed. In an ideal world, make triple quantity of the stock and boil the beans in that rather than water.

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