French Potato Pies With Braised Red Cabbage - Mazagran à la flamande - Gluten-free

My filling for this mazagran is one we eat regularly as a vegetable dish particularly at this time of year. It is rich and satisfying and redolent of sunny Autumn days and misty mornings.

à la flamande  

Traditionally a garnish made from braised green cabbage and eaten with pork and sausages, which is how we devour it, we also love Flemish style cabbage made with the red variety.

 As with the tomato fondue I made for my à la provençale mazagran, you can never have enough of this dish so if you have some left over it can be heated up perfectly for another day. The trick with making braised cabbage is that it should be cooked slowly in a heavy-bottomed pan and with a minimum of liquid, so it needs attention from time to time to check it isn't burning on the bottom of the pan. If this happens, do not despair because by that time, usually the rest of the cabbage will be cooked. Do not on any account stir the cabbage, just remove the good from the bad carefully with a slotted spoon. If you have burnt bits at the bottom of the pan but the rest of the cabbage isn't fully cooked, then just remove all that is edible and add it to another pan with a little more butter. 

The other tip is to shred the cabbage finely to allow the juice to flow from it and aid in the cooking. You can achieve this quite well with a grater but if you are pushed for time a food processor is helpful.

 

TEMPERATURES 

Preheat the oven to 220°C or 425°F 

Ingredients for the 'Pastry'

(makes 16)

4 large potatoes

A knob of butter

Salt and freshly ground pepper

White rice flour for dusting

 

Ingredients for the Filling

A ¼ to a ½ of a fresh red cabbage (depending on size

½ a cooking apple

½ a teaspoon of raw cane or coconut sugar1 teaspoon of raw apple cider vinegar or you can make your own as we do by visiting Organikmechanic's Instructable: https://www.instructables.com/Two-Ways-to-Make-Organic-Apple-Cider-Vinegar-in-a-/ 

A walnut-sized piece of butter.

 

Method for the 'Pastry'

Boil the potatoes whole and in their skins until firm but cooked well enough so that  a fork will pierce them easily. 

Peel and then mash with a hand masher, thus avoiding any chance of the potato becoming 'gluey'. 

Add salt, pepper and the butter. 

Set aside to cool. 

 

Method for the Filling

Grate the cabbage, after first removing the thickest part of the white rib.

Chop the apple into small pieces.Alternatively you can put both into a food processor.

Add the above along with the sugar, vinegar and butter to a heavy-bottomed pan.

Place on the lid and sauté until soft.

Leave to cool.

 

 

Assembly

Dust your pastry board and rolling pin with rice flour. 

Work with a handful of pastry at a time, it's easier that way. 

Roll it out and add more rice flour if the potato begins to stick to either the board or pin. 

Using a cutter of your choice, I liked the flower shape for this, cut out the 'pastry' shapes. When you have cut the first one and with the cutter still in place move it slightly from left to right. If it slides easily and the potato moves with it then the rice flour is doing its work. I was so happy to find this solution, as I tried first with potato flour and it was nowhere near as successful!

Place the shapes onto a buttered baking tray. 

 

Cut the lids, so you will be ready to assemble the mazagram immediately you have positioned the filling. 

Prick the lids with a fork to allow for any excess moisture to escape.

Place one teaspoonful of the mixture on each heart leaving a border to allow for a good seal when positioning the potato lid. Make sure to press around the edges of the heart gently but firmly.

Cook for 10 to 15 minutes on the top shelf of the oven, but check after 5 minutes to make sure they're not cooking too quickly. If they are, then move the tray down to the next level.

Serve warm. Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this recipe then please feel free to comment and share it with your friends and on social media.

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from an old farmhouse in Normandie,

All the very best,
Sue

©  Sue Cross 2020

 

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Mini Blini Burger Bites Gluten-free

Buckwheat is an interesting gluten-free option. Due to its triangular shaped seed head which resembles a beech mast, its name derived from the Middle Dutch boecweite means beech wheat. However, it is not related to wheat but rather to sorrel, dock and rhubarb. Native to Northern Europe and Asia it was cultivated in China from 900 A.D. onwards and from there its cultivation spread outwards to Europe and Russia in 1200 A.D. It was finally introduced into the United States by the Dutch in the 17th century.

Buckwheat is still widely cultivated in Russia and Poland and forms an important part of their respective traditional cuisines. Here in North Western France and in particular Brittany, every town has at least one pancake house and every market and fair a row of vendors selling galettes - traditional buckwheat savoury pancakes, folded into a square and served with a multitude of fillings.

This is one of the rare recipes where I am making a sort of a gluten-free alternative, albeit not with gluten-free bread! The burger bun blini was one I thought up because we do make burgers but we find the addition of bread, way to heavy, this in particular when eaten as a complete meal. Buckwheat blinis are light and airy and make a great foil for all kinds of snacks and appetisers, I will be including several more blini-based recipes in the following weeks.

BLINIS

INGREDIENTS

(makes 20)
100g (3½oz) buckwheat flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
A generous pinch of salt
1 egg separated
100ml (3½ fluid oz) milk
Butter or oil for cooking

METHOD

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together and then make a well in the centre.

Beat egg yolk and milk together.

Gradually add the liquids to the centre of the well, drawing the flour from the sides into the egg mixture.

Mix into a smooth batter.

Whisk the egg white until it holds in soft peaks, gently fold into the batter.

Brush a frying pan or griddle with butter or oil. Working in batches drop a heaped teaspoon of the mixture into the hot frying pan.

Cook until bubbles appear, (approximately after 3 minutes), the underside should now be golden.

Turn and cook on the other side (2 minutes). Brush pan with butter or oil between batches.

You can make the blinis a few days in advance and store them in an airtight tin in a cool place. Crisp up before the party by popping them in a oven for 3 minutes at a temperature of 200ºC or 400ºF

Mini Blini Burger Bites

Use a small cutter or if you don't have one a spice jar top works really well, to cut your cooked burgers into mini shapes. Otherwise just cut the burgers with a knife. From each burger I used, which were organic frozen ones, I made five minis, thus with two burgers and the 20 blinis from this mix you will make 10 burgers.

Alternatively I make my own patties, purely from minced beef, seasoned with salt and pepper bound with beaten egg. Then obviously I would just make the mini burgers to match the size of the blinis.

I  completed the burgers with a topping of Batavia salad leaf in a little mustard vinaigrette and each beef patty was laid onto a teaspoon of piperade sauce, which is a traditional spicy Basque tomato, pepper and chilli dish and you can find it in my recipes here.

Enjoy!

All that needs to said now is Bon Appėtit!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from an old farmhouse in Normandie,

All the best,
Sue

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©  Sue Cross 2017 

Chickpea pancake (Pudla) with Parma ham, the Indian classic meets an Italian delicacy.

The Parma ham is optional, this being an experiment we made with our usual chickpea pancake recipe. However, it was so delicious and combined with a fresh green salad, I thought I'd post it as the example of our take on this famous Indian bread alternative.

We eat chickpea pancakes on a regular basis, they make a tasty accompaniment to all kinds of snacks, main course and supper dishes. I was intrigued to marry, what might be thought of as a distinctly Indian, Gujarati 'bread' with an Italian artisanal ham but actually there is a tasty Tuscan flatbread also made from chickpea flour.  'Cecina', baked or shallow fried, also found in the cuisine of the Côte d'Azur, in particular Nice, is said to date from Ancient Rome. It's a bread we have often in the Winter with soup and I will be including the recipe here when the temperatures begin to drop!

A word about Parma ham and other deluxe items

For people who live simply, we include some unusually luxurious items in our organic homesteader/smallholding lifestyle, these being Parma ham and Jambon de Paris, quail eggs and a whole range of seafood. How do we do it? Well the latter two are easy, we raise the quail ourselves and live by the sea, in a major French shellfish area, where gleaning from the ocean bed is pretty much a way of life. 

With regards to the ham, that is gleaning too, of sorts, for when people are paying top dollar for an item they want the best cuts. So the little bit at the end of the ham, and I say that advisedly as in many cases it weighs around a kilo, is sold off by our organic butcher as a talon or heel and at a fraction of the price.

Prosciutto di Parma or Parma ham, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is a raw, naturally air-cured leg of pork. Sea salt is the only preservative used and it can take from one to three years to cure. To find out more there is a film available here

Parma ham is eaten raw as an hors d'oeuvre but it is also a fantastic cooking ingredient.

As you can see once my talon is unwrapped I have an elegant sufficiency for so many recipes. The skin, I hang on the tree for the birds, that is unless my chickens get there first and pull it off the branches!

Basic chickpea pancake

 

Ingredients

140g (5oz) sifted chickpea flour

A generous pinch of sea salt

250ml  water

5 cloves of garlic

1 medium (red) onion

Oil or butter for cooking

Method

Put flour and sea salt into a bowl. Slowly add the water whilst mixing, so as to form a smooth batter. Peel and finely chop the garlic and onion and add to mixture. Leave to stand for at least half an hour.

Adding the Parma ham

 

Slice and chop a small quantity of ham. To bring out the flavour,  sautée for a few minutes and add to batter.

As an alternative to this try adding fresh turmeric root, chopped and  sautéed, along with other spices such as coriander, chillies and black pepper.

Melt cooking fat in a frying pan, I use certified sustainable organic palm oil. Depending upon the size of your pan, ladle in sufficient batter to form one or two thin pancakes, about 125mm (5") diameter. Leave to cook for approximately three minutes. Lift the edge of the pancake to test if it is cooked, it should be a golden brown in colour. Flip over but add additional fat to cook the second side, as these pancakes are butter-hungry!

Once cooked, set aside in a warming drawer or low oven. We added a freshly picked salad from the garden dressed with a simple vinaigrette of olive oil and raw apple cider vinegar.

Enjoy!

Please feel free to comment, ask questions and share.

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from an old farmhouse in Normandie,

Sue

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© 2014 Sue Cross

  

Clafoutis aux prunes - Limousin batter pudding with plums. Gluten-free version.

A clafoutis [pr. klafuti] is essentially a fruit tart without pastry, which comes from the Limousin region of France, famous for its enamels, porcelain and beef cattle. There are other similar recipe regional desserts and probably as equally well-known is the far breton, which as Brittany is just around the corner from us here, I will be posting soon.

Although often made with cherries, a clafoutis can be made with a wide variety of fruits and also as a savoury dish. In the following recipe I'll be making a gluten-free version with some 'quetsch', which are large damson-like plums, these are from a friend's tree.  I will also shortly be posting a savoury version of this recipe and one for small individual tarts. I will be making the latter with all purpose flour/plain flour but which obviously could also be made by following my gluten free recipe below or with your own favourite gluten-free choice for the flour.

I have eaten clafoutis on a couple of occasions in restaurants and have found it too sweet and heavy. That is because it is often made with non-traditional sweet cherries, in my opinion it needs the 'bite' that tart varieties of fruit can give. I also think it needs a really good whisking up when the milk goes in and I also believe a fine, light flour such as arrowroot helps to lift the batter. In addition, I thought the mix needed some 'fat' with which to carry the the flavours, although using raw Normandie dairy, helps a lot.

Ingredients

Plum halves to cover the bottom of dish

80g (3oz) of potato flour

20g ( ¾oz) of arrowroot

80g (3oz) of sugar

300ml of milk (I use raw local creamy milk from Normandy cows)
2 eggs (or 4 bantam eggs)

1 table spoon of melted coconut oil or butter

50g (1 ¾oz) of ground almonds

Optional - Rapadura (raw cane sugar) for sprinkling on the plums.

Cooking times

30 to 40 mins or until the top is well set and golden at 180°C or 350°F

Method

Butter your pie dish generously and place upon it, cut face downwards, the halves of plums with the stone removed. Use enough plums to cover the dish, I'm using a 25cm or 10" square, with an internal depth of 25mm or 1". 

(Optional) Sprinkle with a little rapadura (raw cane sugar). This will give a little caramel touch to the plums, which are quite tart and I'm using less sugar in the batter than would be used traditionally.

Place all your dry ingredients in a bowl but keep back a little sugar for sprinkling on the clafoutis when it comes from the oven. Mix well.

Add the melted coconut oil (or butter) and mix again.

Make a well in the mix and add eggs, incorporate by bringing the dry ingredients gradually in towards the centre. You can do this by hand or with a beater if you wish. Beat well to obtain a smooth paste.

Add milk slowly, whisking all the time to obtain an homogeneous batter. This is a thin batter - do not worry!

Pour over plums and put immediately into the oven

When cooked the clafoutis will 'spring back' when you touch it with your finger tips and it will also be a beautiful golden brown.






The clafoutis can then be sprinkled with the remaining sugar just to give it a little crunch and extra texture. You can eat it straight from the oven, but I usually have some left over for the next day. I just store it on the window ledge, I do not have a fridge and I think it might go soggy if you were to put it in one, so a pantry or cool place would be best.

Hope you enjoy this dish, it is simple and yet an ode to the fine organic ingredients and succulent seasonal fruit.


Please feel free to comment, ask questions and share.

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from an old farmhouse in Normandie,

Sue

Return to 'WHAT'S ON THE MENU' for more Simply Organic Recipes

© 2014 Sue Cross

Scottish Oatcakes, Organic Gluten-free Recipe, Raw Normandie Goats' Cheese and Dr Johnson's Dictionary.

This is the beautiful and romantic Lake of Menteith on the Carse of Stirling, it also has the distinction of being Scotland's only lake. On one of its three islands, Inchmahome, is the the 13th century priory of the Black Canons, once a place of sanctuary to Mary Queen of Scots and Robert the Bruce. The island is also the final resting place of the romantic and charismatic couple The Gaucho or Don Roberto and Gabriela de la Balmondière, 'La Española', who were in fact the 19th Laird of Ardoch, Robert Cunninghame Graham and his wife, a stage-struck bohemian poet and beauty from the Yorkshire Ridings. Their incredible fairytale life is well worth researching. It is also home, when the weather permits and the lakewater freezes over, to the world famous Bonspiel curling tournament. Nearby is the Highland Boundary Fault which, as the name suggests divides the Lowlands from the Highlands - the land of the oatcake. Traditionally each community had its mill with which the local crofters ground the oats, the only crop that would grow in the harsh Northern climate. The oatmeal was used to make porridge, of course but also oatcakes, often referred to as 'the bread of Scotland'.

As the recipe for the oatcake was handed down through families, it is difficult to know its exact origins. However, like the ancient Mongolians, who used their shields to cook their food, documents show that in the 14th century the Chieftain and his clan used theirs to bake oatcakes. It is even believed that the Romans, whilst in the country, to misquote Saint Ambrose; 'did as the Scotch did' and survived on oatcakes!

As for Dr Johnson in his famous dictionary of the English Language, published 1755, under the entry for the grain he wrote: 'Oats n.s. [aten, Saxon.] A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.'

To which the writer Walter Scott returned: 'Did you ever hear of Lord Elibank's reply when Johnson's famous definition of oats was first pointed out to him? 

"The food of men in Scotland and horses in England," repeated Lord Elibank; "very true, and where will you find such men and such horses?"'¹

 

Gluten-free oats

Oats do not contain gluten, however it is best not to buy and use them, if you are gluten intolerant, unless they are labelled gluten-free. Oats can be contaminated by stray plants when other cereal crops are grown in close proximity. For this reason countries like France, where there are no large dedicated  oat-growing areas, can not guarantee their oats to be gluten-free. This is why people often get confused about why all oats are not labelled as suitable for those allergic to gluten.

Ingredients

 
225g - 8oz rolled oats
1 generous pinch salt
1 tablespoon butter or butter and palm oil, dripping, bacon fat or lard
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 8 tablespoons of hot water Extra oats for sprinkling

Method

 

Chop up oats using a coffee grinder for a few seconds so as to retain the texture of the oats without making a flour.

Mix the dry ingredients and add the melted fat by pouring into the centre of the mixture.

Using a wooden spoon handle stir well whilst incorporating enough water to make a stiff dough.

Powder your hands, bowl or board with chopped oats or oat flour and knead the dough, working quickly.

Using plenty of chopped oats, roll out either into a thin round or divide dough into half and roll into two rounds (traditional).

Traditionally the rounds are then marked out into wedges but we roll thinly and cut out biscuit shapes.

Place on a buttered baking tray put in an oven pre-heated to 390°F or 200°C. Cook for approximately 20-30 minutes. Or, if you decide to make the traditional wedges, cook on a medium heated griddle or frying pan for approximately 3 minutes. When they are cooked the edges will begin to curl and turn golden brown.

These can be eaten with any of your favourite cheeses. Traditionally they are eaten with honey, game, smoked salmon, soup and cheese. Below is one of our favourites raw local organic fresh goats' cheese rolled in herbes de Provence and cornflower petals - delicious!

Now meet some of the goats, just in from the fields and having their supper in the barn.

Thanks for dropping by and if you have found this post enjoyable please share and do feel free to comment and/or ask questions.
All the best,
Sue

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© 2014 Sue Cross
¹ Letter from Sir Walter Scott to Mr Croker March 14th 1829, The Croker Papers Vol ii p. 35