Poulet en Cocotte Bonne Femme - with a twist

I got this recipe from the book - Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, Simone Beck, but have adapted it and made a sauce with herbs, lemon juice and capers with the butter and cooking juices.

This dish is very easy a bit of butter melting turn of potatoes and chicken breasts then in the oven for an hour.

The original recipe has chopped bacon and small onions added, you could do this but I didn't fancy a bacon flavour especially when I was going to make the sauce with the juices.

Poulet en Concotte Bonne Femme - Casseroled Chicken with Potatoes, Bacon and Onions

4 skinless chicken breasts, 1 bay leaf, 2 sprigs fresh thyme, 4 tbsps butter

If using bacon and onions - 12 baby onions & 6 rashers bacon rind removed and chopped in 2cm pieces

Sauce - juice 1/2 lemon. 2 tsps chopped capers, 1 tbsp chopped fresh herbs - I used oregano

Preheat the oven 200.c

In a dish that can go in the oven melt the butter, add the potatoes stir to coat in the butter. Salt and pepper the chicken breasts. When the potatoes start to sizzle push to the sides place the chicken breasts in the middle. Turn to coat in the butter. Add the herbs. When the chicken starts to sizzle. remove from the heat, - if you are adding chopped bacon and baby onions add the now then cover with tin foil, then place on the lid.

Bake 1 hour turning the chicken halfway and tossing the potatoes.

When cooked remove from the oven. Remove the chicken, herbs and potatoes. Place the dish on the hotplate on high add sauce ingredients stir until sauce is bubbling, remove from the heat.

The serve slice the breasts place onto the plate with the potatoes. pour the sauce over the chicken.

25th Wedding Anniversary Dinner

Now yesterday was mine and Mr CLI's 25th Wedding Anniversary.

A major achievement these days, considering when Miss Le Coiffure was at High School most kids parents were divorced, we were a rarity still being married.

Our table set for tea

So what did we do for our Anniversary, I cooked a French inspired tea, I even attempted my nemesis the Gateau Helene that I tried to make as a teenager and failed when I dropped it into the dish water.

I did succeed this time except for one minor problem I didn't read the size of the springform tin needed and used mine which is 12" instead of 2 that are 8". so instead of 3 layers of filling we only got 2.

Now this cake isn't sweet, quite the opposite it has very little flour, but does have crushed unsalted nuts and almond meal.

I also cooked a quite simple chicken and potato dish made in the oven, I did alter it and use the butter and cooking juices to make a lemon and caper sauce. I also served a bean salad with it. Both were very nice and will be made again.

Gateau Helene - Recipe by Greta Anna from Her Book - The Greta Anna Recipes

Cake - 250 gm unsalted butter, softened. 1 1/3 cup caster sugar, 4 eggs separated, 1 cup sr flour, 5 tbs crushed unsalted nuts, 5 tbsps almond meal, grated rind and juice of 2 small oranges, 2 1/2 tbsps milk, 2 tsps vanilla extract/essence, 1 tsp baking powder

Fillings from the book - A 600ml bottle of cream is sufficient for all the fillings plus the piping on the top of the cake.

1- Add to beaten cream 6 tsps icing sugar, 2 tsps instant coffee, 4 teaspoons finely chopped almonds

2- Add to beaten cream 2 tsps icing sugar, 4 tsps drinking chocolate, 3 tsps finely chopped walnuts

3 - enough red current jam to spread across the cake, drizzle with 1 1/2 tbsps brandy, sprinkle across 3 tbsps finely chopped glace fruit.

My fillings were

1 - Add to beaten cream 1 dessertspoon drinking chocolate and 2 tbsps shaved dark chocolate

2 - Add to beaten cream chopped glace fruit - I used 1 pear. 1 slice pineapple and 2 apricots

Chocolate Icing - from the recipe

2 cups icing sugar, 2 tbsps cocoa, 4 tbsps butter. Add enough boiling water start with 2 tsps, to form a thick icing. This makes a lot of icing.

I only used 1 cup icing sugar 2 tsps butter, 1 dessertspoon cocoa.

Grease and line base of 2 x 20cm springform pans, if you don't have springform pans using normal tins but line both base and sides as this cake is quite sticky when baked.

Preheat oven 180.c

In a mixer beat together butter and sugar till light and fluffy 5 - 10 minutes. Add egg yolks mix in. add nuts, almond meal, flour, zest and juice, milk and vanilla. Mix till combined, about 2 minutes.

Beat egg whites till stiff peaks. Add 1 1/3 to mix stir in, then carefully fold remaining whites in, when nearly folded in add the baking powder.

Divide mixture between the 2 tins and bake for approx 45 minutes. Now mine were cooked in 30 because I used wider tins. The cake is cooked when a skewer comes out clean. Remove from oven leave 5 minutes then remove from tins and leave to cool on the cake rake.

Now as I have said before this is a sticky cake so it is best if you peel the paper as soon as possible, taking care that the cake doesn't break. Leave to cool completely before assembling.

Slice the cakes in half then fill each layer with your choice of filling. Top with chocolate icing. Then pipe cream around the edge if you wish.

Picture of the cake from the recipe book

My cake note square and round shapes, lesson learnt read recipe first.

Never mind the cake tasted just as good.

Oh to live in Europe

My all time dream holiday is to spend at least 4 weeks driving around Italy and France to see, eat and cook their produce. My only hope is if we win tattslotto.

I can only do this vicariously at the moment by reading blogs from people that live in France. I recently found 2 blogs for ladies that have houses in France.

Karen Booth lives 6 months in England and the other 6 months in France. Her blog - Lavender and Lovage -has beautiful photos of local produce as well as the recipes using this produce.

http://lavenderandlovage.blogspot.com

The other lady Jude has a house in London and another in Brittany. Her blog is called A Trifle Rushed, what a lovely name.

http://atriflerushed.blogspot.com/

So while I read their blogs I will wish and want and hope that one day I can get to see these Countries for real.

My Best Ever Potato and Rice Salad Recipes

Well I hope all of you that are into football - not Rugby - have recovered from Saturday's excitement. We happened to be staying in Geelong and besides many cars driving around tooting their horns it was relatively quiet where we were staying.

So with the start of daylight savings arggh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I hated as a kid, I hated when my girls were babies and I hate it as an adult why do we need an hours extra heat of an evening when all we won't is cool to rest and sleep. Never mind I will just have to put up with it till it eventually finishes.

Now to cooking I must admit being away for the weekend I haven't done much, but I am planning recipes for this week. Miss Fish likes to know not only what she is eating today but also the days following which can be a bit tiresome when you haven't given it any thought.

I thought today I might give a couple of my favourite salad recipes that I make all the time, in

the vain hope that this nice sunny weather continues.

Potato Salad

1 kg potatoes cut into 3 cm pieces, 4 eggs, 3 rashers of bacon - cut into bite size pieces

Dressing - 1/4 cup each parsley and mint finely chopped, 3/4 cup greek yoghurt, 3/4 cup mayonnaise

Mix together in a small bowl.

Marinade - 2 tbsps good extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp champagne or white wine vinegar, 2 tsps dijon mustard

Whisk together in a bowl large enough to hold the potatoes.

Place the potatoes in the bottom of a large saucepan, sit the eggs on top. Bring to the boil, and boil till tender, but still firm. Approx 12 - 15 minutes.

Drain remove eggs and place into a bowl and cover with cold water. Immediately place hot potatoes into the large bowl and carefully stir to cover with marinade. Leave till cool.

While the potatoes are cooking cook the bacon in a frypan till slightly crispy around the edges remove and drain on paper towel.

When the potatoes have cooled, peel the eggs and chop into a 1 cm dice or slice finely. Add most of the egg and bacon, I retain some to put on top of the salad decoration. Add the dressing to the potatoes, the best way to mix everything together is a bit messy but you won't break up your potatoes is by using yours hand to carefully coat all the potatoes with the dressing and mix through the eggs and bacon.

Place into a serving bowl and decorate with the saved bacon and egg.

Rice Salad

2 cups raw rice, 1 medium carrot grated, 1/2 stalk celery finely sliced, 1 very small can corn kernels drained, 2 tbsps fresh parsley finely chopped

Dressing - 2 tbsps each extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar, freshly ground salt and pepper.

Mix together in a small bowl.

Cook the rice as you would normally. Place in to a bowl to cool to room temperature. When at room temp add salad ingredients and dressing, you need to do this when the rice is still slightly warm for it to absorb the flavours of the dressing. Taste you may need more vinegar or salt and pepper.