One French word: navet, one French recipe: pétales de légumes

navet, masculine noun (un navet, le navet, des navets) = turnip (pronounced nah-vey).

Not most people’s favourite vegetable, but when they are young and fresh in spring their flavour is delicate and not overpowering as it often is in autumn and winter, and they can easily be eaten raw. Or used to accompany a meat dish, boiled briefly then glazed in a sugar and butter mixture.

Un navet is also currently used to denote a flop, when talking of a bad film, theatre performance or book.

My recipe today is a little different to the taste buds: pétales de légumes = vegetable petals.

Main ingredients – looks a bit like a still life, doesn’t it…

For each person you will need:

• One small raw spring turnip
• One small raw beetroot
• One ripe tomato (I used a beef tomato)
• One small courgette (zuccchini)
• and any other vegetables you may feel like that can be cut into fine slices (radishes?), or fruits (oranges, strawberries?)
• salt
• chili flakes
• olive oil
• raspberry vinegar

Preparation:

Wash and trim all the vegetables. Peel the beetroot but do not peel either the turnip or the courgette.

Slice the courgette into as many thin lengthways strips as possible, discarding the first slice, which is just skin (simply for aethetic reasons), and place around the edge of each person’s plate in wavy, curly shapes.

Peel and slice the beetroot into very fine slices and being careful not to taint the courgette with beetroot juice (again for the aesthetics), place an overlapping circle of beetroot slices inside the ring of courgettes.

Wash your hands, the knife and the chopping board. Finely slice the turnip and place another ring inside the beetroot ring. Do not season.

Core and skin the tomato (plunge it into boiling water for a minute or so, the skin will come off easily). Cut into small cubes, place in a bowl with the equivalent of one smallish dried chili (outside and seeds), flaked. Quite a lot of salt (tomatoes need salt), but you can rectify later. One tbs raspberry vinegar. 2 tbs olive oil (if you are several at table increase the oil and vinegar). Mix to a smooth paste with a soup mixer. It makes a sort of rather thick gazpacho-like mixture. Taste and rectify seasoning. It should be fairly chili hot, vinegary, with a good strong flavour of olive oil.  Place a spoonful of this mixture in a tiny bowl in the centre of your vegetable plate. Leave the rest of the tomato dressing in a larger bowl on the table, because it is more-ish and people can help themselves and drown their plates in it if they like. But it looks better to present only a small quantity.

This is an excellent starter, fresh and appetizing-looking, but you can also make a main course of it if you are feeling fragile and only want raw vegetables, maybe accompanied with crusty bread and butter, or viande des grisons (thin cured beef slices). Or parma ham.

Bon appétit!

One French word: moules, a French recipe: moules marinières

moule, feminine noun (une moule, la moule, des moules) = mussel (pronounced mool, never say the s in the plural).

I remember in 1965, arriving at my grandparents’ house in Bordeaux in south-western France with my younger brother on one of the hottest days in living memory. My diminutive grandmother, still then a fantastic cook, although she forgot how at the end of her life, trotted out to the fishmonger next door to get fresh mussels, and made us a big panful of moules marinières. Here’s how she did it:

Main ingredients for moules marinières

For 4 people as a main course you will need:

• 2-3 litres (or kilos, depending on how they are sold) of fresh mussels
• a bunch of fresh parsley
• 4 plump shallots
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 60gr butter
• a glass or two of dry white wine
• pepper (you shouldn’t need much salt)

Mussels cleaned and ready to cook

A word about buying mussels: there is a season for mussels, which varies depending where you are in the world. Mussels are best and plumpest when they are in season and should be firmly closed when you buy them. There are always a few that are not; these should be discarded. They should be cooked immediately and eaten the day they are bought, from a reputable fishmonger where the fish is fresh, well prepared and on lots of ice. Best not to buy them when it is too hot, best also to have a cold bag to bring them home in.

To prepare mussels, tip them all into the sink, and under running water and with a small sharp knife, check through each and every one. Any that are broken or that do not close promptly when you press them shut, throw in the bin. Debeard them by pulling on the bit of weed that comes out of one side of the shell with the knife. As you prepare them, put the clean ones into a colander. It doesn’t matter much if, after sorting them, any of the ones in the colander open up. They were closed a short while ago, and are about to be cooked. If any mussels have barnacles on the outside of their shells, scrape them off.

Peel and chop the shallot and garlic. Wash and chop the bunch of parsley.

In a very large pan, over moderate to high heat, put the butter, the shallot and garlic and a little pepper. Add the glass of wine and boil briskly to reduce a little and soften the shallot and garlic. (You can also use good quality wine vinegar instead of wine if you wish, they are very good that way too and in fact that is how I usually cook them.) Add the mussels all in one go, put the lid on the pan, and shake quite vigorously. Cook for a minute or two, raising the lid to see if the mussels are opening, stir to bring the bottom mussels up to the top and distribute the shallot evenly.  Add the parsley and a couple of grinds of the pepper mill. You should not need to add salt. Put the lid back on, stir again, and as soon as all the mussels are open, serve without delay. There is NOTHING worse than an overcooked, shrivelled mussel. They should be just steamed in their own liquid, just open, and very moist. Ladle into large individual bowls with some of the liquid, and keep the unserved ones warm.

Don’t use forks to eat mussels, choose a largish shell, remove and eat the mussel, and then use that shell as an eating iron, pinching and grabbing successive mussels with it. And to save space, don’t just chuck your shells into a bowl, pile them up neatly as in the photo below.

Don’t forget to spoon up the juice or to pump it up with pieces of fresh bread. Serve the mussels with chips (French fries) as the Belgians do (the French copy them more and more). Moules frites, you will see that on menus all over France.

Bon appétit!

One French word: olive, a French recipe: tapenade

Olive, feminine noun (une olive, l’olive, des olives) = olive (pronounced oh-leave)

Olive verte = green olive, olive noire = black olive, de l’huile d’olive = olive oil, de l’huile d’olive vierge = virgin olive oil, des olives dénoyautées = stoned (pitted) olives, un olivier = an olive tree, une branche (or un rameau) d’olivier = an olive branch, du bois d’olivier = olive wood, une oliveraie = an olive grove.

It is also a colour: vert olive = olive green,

and a (very out of fashion) female first name, Olive; but a quite fashionable and inter-generational male first name, Olivier.

Olive oil is of course widely used in Mediterranean, and therefore French, cuisine, as are olives. My recipe for today is tapenade, a paste made with black olives and used to spread on bread, toast, biscuits, blinis, etc. as apéritif nibbles. Recipes for tapenade vary, ingredients sometimes trade green olives for the black, and it is used widely also as an ingredient in other recipes such as lamb or rabbit stew, pasties, etc.

Main ingredients for tapenade

For a cupful you will need:

• 100gr stoned black olives
• 25gr capers
• 25gr anchovy fillets
• 1/2 clove garlic
• about 15cl olive oil
• a little lemon juice

The anchovy fillets can be the very salty, thin, deep red kind, or the less salty, fatter silvery kind. Do not re-salt your mixture.  I also added a few dashes of tabasco, but this is not traditional.

Drain the olives and the anchovies and put all the roughly chopped ingredients plus a tbs or two of olive oil into a mini blender and pulse to obtain a smooth paste. No recognizable bits should remain. If the paste is not smooth enough, add a tiny bit more olive oil, until you get it to the right consistency. It should be like jam that does not fall off your piece of toast, not sloppy.  A bit more liquid than peanut butter? Difficult to say really. It is a little bitter and should be moderately salty.

Spread it onto biscuits, blinis, or squares of toast, or slices of baguette cut at an angle. You may garnish these with chopped chives, half a cherry tomato, or any other embellishment that comes to mind (but you don’t have to, it’s nice just by itself, but not very exciting looking). Try it with a glass of wine before a meal.

Tapenade will keep in a jar, covered, for a few days in the fridge. Do cover it or it will garlic up your whole fridge.

Not brilliant presentation, but never mind...

Bon appétit!

One French word: petit pois, a French recipe: cake à la feta et aux petits pois

Petit pois  (un petit pois, des petits pois) = garden pea (pronounced peuh-tee pwah).

We’ve had pois cassés = split peas, but these are the nice tender variety that we shall have on our plates in a month or so (I used frozen I have to admit).

Just as a noix (= walnut) is used to indicate a tablespoon sized portion, often of butter, so petit pois denotes a pea-sized portion, of a cream from a tube for instance.

Petits pois à la française are peas cooked with silverskin onions, a little fried bacon (lardons) and the braised heart of a lettuce. It always seems strange to me, but then I was at one time anglo-saxon, that the French really prefer their peas from tins (cans) and not fresh or frozen. We like them bright green, they prefer khaki. Same with “French” beans (haricots verts). One gets used to them, but I could never prefer them.

When you see on a menu “à la Clamart“, it means the meat is served with peas.

Avoir un petit pois dans la tête (= literally to have a pea in your head) means to be stupid, to have a pea-sized brain.

My recipe is for a cake à la feta et aux petits pois = a loaf-shaped cake with feta cheese and peas. This is really useful as an apéritif nibble recipe, you can put it in mini molds to make bite-sized portions (but do reduce the cooking time accordingly). It is also good for picnics or taking to the office. It makes neat slices that don’t make too many crumbs. It contains protein and vitamins.  It is good cold, with mayonnaise, or hot with a homemade tomato sauce. Very versatile, and ridiculously easy to do.

Main ingredients

For four people you will need:

• 150gr flour
• a heaped tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 10cl vegetable oil
• 10cl milk
• 130gr frozen peas
• 130gr feta
• 1/2 tsp salt, 4 grinds of the pepper mill
• a handful of chopped fresh mint
• a handful of grated cheese

Preparation:

1. Heat the oven to 180°C.
2. Grease a loaf tin.
3. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, the salt (but taste your feta first to make sure it is not too salty, in which case reduce the amount), the oil and the milk. I used virgin organic rapeseed oil, which is bright yellow and has a delicate flavour. You can use olive oil just as well.
4. Add the flour and the baking powder and beat thoroughly so that there are no remaining lumps.
5. Bring a very small amount of water to the boil (do not salt it) and put the peas to boil for 3 minutes.
6. Cut the feta into small squares.
7. Chop the mint.
8. Add the drained peas, the feta and the mint to the egg and flour mixture and pour into the mold. Make sure you are using real Greek feta and not some imitation. Not at all the same thing.
9. Put a handful of grated cheese (pale yellow cheese NOT orange cheese, this will spoil the aesthetics of the dish) in a stripe down the centre of the cake.
10. Bake for 40 minutes – it may need 50 but watch it after 40.
11. Unmold and allow to cool slightly if you are serving it hot, cut into slices (slicing is a little tricky when hot as the feta is far from firm). Allow to cool completely if you are serving cold and chill in the fridge.

Any left over cake should be wrapped in tin foil or cling wrap and kept in the fridge. Try not to slice more than you are going to use, it keeps better in one piece.

The colours of this cake are delicate and springlike (printanier, we just had that word). Very appetizing.

Bon appétit!

Day 77 – a French word: soufflé, a French recipe: soufflé au fromage

soufflé, adjective (soufflé (m.), soufflée (f.), soufflés (m.pl.), soufflées (f.pl.) = blown up, expanded, risen …

or a masculine noun: un soufflé

Well everyone knows what a soufflé is, don’t they?

The word comes from the verb souffler = to blow (le vent souffle = the wind blows, je souffle mes bougies = I blow out my candles) and from the noun souffle (without an accent on the e) = breath (un souffle de vent = a breath of wind).

The expression souffler quelque chose can mean to whip away, to steal something, and laisse-moi souffler means give me breathing space, time to breathe.

Soufflés rise because they are made of thousands of tiny bubbles of air. No bubbles, no soufflé. They are not complicated to make; there are just one or two golden rules: firm egg whites, and a hot oven that you do NOT open during the cooking time. Hot soufflés must be served very rapidly, because they sink down again. So people must be disciplined and be at table when the soufflé is removed from the oven. It is very impolite to the cook not to be.

Soufflé au fromage

My recipe is for a basic soufflé au fromage = cheese soufflé, in my opinion the best one. It is a very spectacular meal to prepare when one has virtually nothing in the fridge. All you need is a few eggs, some grated cheese and some milk.

For four people you will need :

• 3 eggs
• 125ml milk (1/4 pint)
• 30gr flour
• 30gr butter
• 90gr grated cheese
• salt, pepper

The basis of a soufflé is a béchamel (in my recipe index, but I will go through it again here), to which you add egg yolks and cheese. Followed by the stiffly beaten whites.

Preparation:

1. Heat the oven to 180°.
2. Grease a soufflé dish.
3. Put the milk to warm (it doesn’t have to boil, just warm it).
4. In a saucepan, put a heaped tbs of flour (which is about 30gr) and 30gr butter. As the butter melts, incorporate the flour gradually and let it cook for a minute, stirring.
5. Whisk in the warmed milk, little by little ( a whisk will avoid lumps). When the mixture is smooth, leave to cook for a minute or two, gently.
6. Add the grated cheese (good quality gruyère or emmenthal), stir to melt and mix well. Add four grinds of the pepper mill and half a teaspoon of salt.
7. Off the heat, add the egg yolks, one at a time, stirring briskly.
8. Leave this mixture off the heat while you beat the egg whites, with a pinch of salt, to stiff peak. Make sure the bowl you are using is scrupulously clean, no trace of grease, and that there is no yolk in the whites, or they will not whip up well. You should be able to turn the bowl upside down and the whites will stay in the bowl if they are beaten enough.
9. Fold half of the whites into the béchamel mixture, stirring delicately with a metal spoon, so as not to break them. But at the same time, the mixture must be homogenous. Lift from the bottom to make sure all the mixture is being incorporated.
10. Transfer the remaining whites to the soufflé dish, and fold the mixture in the saucepan into them gently. The mixture should only reach three quarters of the way up the soufflé dish. Place into the middle of a hot oven with no bars above to stop the soufflé rising.
11. Cook for about 30 minutes, without opening the oven. When the soufflé is golden, remove it and serve it from the dish immediately, but only after everyone at table has admired the way it has risen. It doesn’t matter much if it is still a bit goopy right in the middle.

The béchamel mixture

Cheese added

Cheese stirred in

Adding the egg

Eggs added

Folding in the whites

Ready for the oven

My mother used to do a mean cheese soufflé, one of our favourites. But just after the war, when cheese was rationed, she also did a version where she mashed up a tin of sardines and added it to the béchamel in place of the cheese. I preferred the cheese, but this one was ‘interesting’. You can also, instead of the cheese, add some finely chopped ham, some flaked haddock or just lots of chopped fresh herbs.

Bon appétit.

Day 68 – a French word : coquille St Jacques, a French recipe: coquilles St Jacques au thé vert

Coquille St Jacques, feminine noun (une coquille, la coquille, des coquilles) (pronounced ko-ki-y) (no particular stress).

Une coquille = a shell. Une coquille St Jacques = a scallop shell, or a scallop, but the meat of the scallop alone is called une noix de St Jacques. Un coquillage is a smaller shell, the type you find on a beach.

The scallop shell, the coquille St Jacques is so called because it has been the symbol used since the 12th century by pilgrims walking to St Jacques de Compostèle. A carved scallop shell is to be found on the front of houses used by pilgrims at stopover points. The history is too long to set out here, look it up, it’s very interesting.

Widely used in French cuisine, very seasonal, coquilles St Jacques can be cooked in such a variety of ways and are so delicious that they are a real gift to the cook.

Coquilles St Jacques au thé vert

My recipe today is for St Jacques au thé vert = scallops in green tea, which is based loosely on a recipe I found in my frozen food store’s magazine; it just gave me the idea.

In France, the coral of coquilles St Jacques is highly prized. I know that in some other countries it is not. Whatever the reason, the coral certainly makes for a better and more exciting presentation.

Be careful what type of scallops you are buying; there are several types which call themselves scallops but which are not as big or as flavoursome (particularly the very tiny ones). I have used large French pecten maximus. They are the very best when you need whole molluscs for presentation, big and fabulously tasty. Chlamys opercularis are smaller but still sweet tasting. These are better used when making sauces or vol au vent (puff pastry cases). Zygochlamys patagonica come from Argentina and are similar to opercularis. The ones you are most likely to find in North America are Placopecten magellicanus from Canada. These are large and have good flavour when fried, poached or steamed. Don’t overcook scallops. They should be seared or steamed, coated in sauce and served rapidly.

Raw coquilles st jacques (apologies for the blurred photo)

For two people you will need:

• 6 large coquilles St Jacques
• 1tbs Japanese Sencha or Gyokuro green tea, or another variety of your choice, but they must be high quality leaves
• a mixture of snow peas, broad beans, soy beans and water chestnuts (I can buy the mixture already done and frozen (at Picard Surgelés for readers in France), you may probably have to mix your own), about 200gr per person in all. Don’t miss out the water chestnuts, they give a good crunch.
• 1tbs Kikkoman soy sauce (do not use just any old soy sauce, you’ll ruin your recipe)
• 1tbs olive or peanut oil
• 1 large tsp honey
• salt, pepper

Preparation:

1. If they are frozen, soak the coquilles St Jacques in the fridge overnight in a mixture of milk and water. If you have fresh ones, use them as they are.
2. Make an infusion of green tea: 1tbs in 20cl of water not quite at boiling point (boil a kettle, wait two minutes, then pour). Filter the tea after 3 minutes, keep the leaves.
3. Prepare your vegetables, whether fresh (steam for 15 minutes)  or frozen (a couple of minutes in the microwave). Divide between two bowls, add a little salt and pepper, and keep warm.
4. Pat the scallops dry. In a hot, non stick pan, sear the coquilles with no oil or butter, for about 1 minute on either side. Take them out of the pan and put them to keep warm with the vegetables.
5. To the pan add the oil, soy sauce, honey and tea, and cook briskly to reduce to a syrup.
6. Replace the coquilles St Jacques in the pan and cook briefly, not more than a minute altogether, turning to coat in the syrup.
7. Transfer them back on top of the vegetables, add any juice left in the frying pan, sprinkle with a few of the tea leaves you kept on the side. These are actually quite good, and you may find you want to add a few more.

Seared scallops

Cooking the scallops briefly in the syrup discolours them because of the soy sauce. If you prefer not to have them discoloured, sear them for a shade longer, and do not put them in the syrup. Just place them on top of the vegetables and pour a little syrup on top.

This is an unusual and delicate dish, suitable as a starter for a classy dinner party, or as a main dish (if I were doing it as a main dish, I’d add some cooked udon noodles in the bowl under the vegetables).

Coquilles St Jacques and lovely green vegetables

Drink green tea to accompany, of course.

Bon appétit!

Day 63 – a French word: courge, a French recipe: soupe poireau/courge

Courge, feminine noun (une courge, la courge, des courges) = squash (pumpkin or marrow) (pronounced coorj).

Une courgette (zucchini) is a baby courge.

The family is enormous, of course, here are two photos of the type I used: a courge musquée. It is one of the tastier types of squash, a bit like a potimarron. Not just tasteless pumpkin which needs added flavouring to be in any way interesting. Quite sweet and nutty.

A packet of Courge Musquée seeds from Vilmorin, the French seed specialists

A photo of a courge musquée from Rustica.fr

The family of recipes is enormous too, of course. Mine is for a leek and squash soup: soupe poireau/courge. This is a soup which is not mixed, not smooth; the vegetables are left whole.

Soupe poireau/courge

For two people you will need:

• A very large fat leek, washed and chopped
• A little olive oil or butter
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 250gr of chunked steamed courge musquée (or raw, just cook the soup longer)
• 1 stock cube  and 600ml water (or 600ml home made stock)
• A thick slice of stale wholemeal bread (2.5cm/1″)
• 100ml liquid cream
• Grated cheese

The slice of bread in the soup pot

Preparation:

1. Sweat the cleaned, chopped leek in a little olive oil or butter, on low heat for 5 minutes
2. Add the garlic and the stock cubes followed by the water (or home made stock instead of cubes and water)
3. Cut a thick slice of stale wholemeal bread and add whole to the top of the soup (this will pump up a lot of liquid, so make sure you have enough).
4. Cook gently  for 20 minutes if you are using steamed courge, or for 30 minutes if you use it raw.
5. Serve the soup as it is, with the chunks and slices of vegetables, one garlic clove per warmed bowl.
6. Add a good dash of cream, and share the slice of bread between the two bowls, generously covered with grated cheese.

Grated cheese to top the soup

You can also add the bread at the end, a thinner toasted slice, covered in cheese. But I prefer the rusticity of the big soup-soaked slice.

This is not a tidy dish to eat. Slurps and strings of cheese and so on abound. But it is cheap and healthy fare, and a way of using up the courge that you have left at the end of winter.

Bon appétit!

Day 56 – a French word: pamplemousse, a French recipe: salade de pamplemousse au concombre

Pamplemousse, masculine noun (un pamplemousse, le pamplemousse, des pamplemousses) = grapefruit (pronounced paan-pler-moosse)

BUT mousse by itself is a feminine noun (une mousse, la mousse, les mousses) = froth, or a mousse (as in chocolate mousse for example), or moss, or slang for a beer.

My recipe for today is for salade de pamplemousse au concombre.

Salade pamplemousse concombre

For 4 people, you will need:

• 2 grapefruits
• 1/3 cucumber
• 4 cherry tomatoes
• a fresh red chili if you like it
• a few lettuce leaves
• 2 tsp honey
• 2 tsp nuoc mam (Vietnamese fish sauce)
• 2 tsp oriental sesame oil
• the juice of a lime
• salt and pepper

Preparation:

Halve the grapefruits and, with a grapefruit knife, remove the segments into bowl. Keep any grapefruit juice for another use.

Wash the cucumber and cut into 1cm slices, and each slice into six triangular pieces with the peel. Add to the grapefruit segments.

Cut each cherry tomato into four pieces. Add to the grapefruit.

Make the dressing: in another bowl combine the honey, nuoc mam, sesame oil, lime juice, salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the grapefruit, cucumber and tomato and mix well. Chill for at least 30 minutes before serving, stirring occasionally to blend the flavours.

Place washed and dried lettuce leaves on individual serving plates. Spoon the mixture on top of the lettuce carefully, heaping it up, and only adding about a teaspoon of liquid. You don’t want the plate swimming in dressing. Finely slice the chili on top if you are using it.

This is in fact a Vietnamese inspired dish. But since Vietnam was at one time a French colony, I am allowing myself to include Vietnamese dishes among my French recipes. Their food is so delicate, inventive and full of flavour that I can’t resist it!

Cucumber and grapefruit salad

Bon appétit.

Day 53 – a French word : crevette, a (French) recipe: salade de mangue verte

Crevette, feminine noun (une crevette, la crevette, des crevettes) = shrimp (pronounced really as it looks, cre-vet, with the r in the back of your throat, no particular stress on either syllable).

Crevette rose = prawn, crevette grise = tiny grey shrimp, crevette cuite = cooked shrimp, crevette crue = raw shrimp, crevettes décortiquées = shelled shrimp, pêche à la crevette = shrimp fishing,

Crevette is a nice nickname for a child that is tiny. C’est une crevette.  And the sea-horse emblem of Air France is called la crevette.

My recipe for today is une salade de mangue verte aux crevettes = green mango and prawn salad. It is Vietnamese, not French at all, but I did warn you I’d use recipes from former French colonies. And on top of that, it’s not my recipe, I adapted it from a lovely book called Green Mango and Lemon Grass  which I can highly recommend. It is not only a cookery book but talks about South East Asian culture and is fascinating.

Salade de mangue verte aux crevettes

The recipe is really easy, you just need a few basic Asian ingredients, and of course green mangoes. Mine were on the ripening side of green, but still quite hard and the dish was stupendously good. Get them as green as you can.

For 4 people you will need:

• 4 green mangoes (about 800gr), peeled
• 2tsp caster sugar
• 4 kaffir lime leaves chopped into very fine strips (or the finely grated peel of two limes)
• 4 finely sliced shallotts
• 1 finely sliced spring onion
• 4 tbs chopped coriander leaves
• 2  tiny red chilis, sliced
• 2 tbs nuoc mam (Vietnamese fish sauce)
• 600gr fresh peeled cooked prawns (about 25gr each)

Close up of green mango and prawn salad

Preparation:

1. Cut the flesh off the mangoes and grate as you would for grated carrots. Same sort of shreds, not too fine, not too thick.
2. Put the grated mango into a large bowl with the caster sugar and mix for 30 seconds with your fingers.
3. Add all the other ingredients apart from the shrimp. Mix well.
4. Add the shrimp and serve immediately.

Two bowls of salade de mangue verte aux crevettes

Looks good, doesn’t it? Just had it for lunch. Fantastic.

Bon appétit.

Day 42 – a French word: sarrasin, a French recipe: blinis au sarrasin

Sarrasin, masculine noun (le sarrasin, du sarrasin) = buckwheat; (un Sarrazin, des Sarrazins) = Saracen.

Buckwheat is a cereal, the dark flour of which is very much used in Brittany where I live, to make savoury pancakes (galettes). Sweet pancakes (crêpes) are made with wheat flour.

Sarrasin or Sarrazin is also the word for Saracen, a mediaeval term designating Arabs and Muslims in general.

The cereal was introduced to Brittany by Anne de Bretagne, Duchess of Brittany and wife of the French king Charles VIII (interesting story in French). The land in the region was poor and buckwheat grew well, becoming a staple in the form of galettes. The cereal originated in Egypt and its name comes from its dark colour, reminiscent to the mediaeval mind of the dark skin of the Saracens.

Blinis au sarrasin

My recipe for today is for blinis au sarrasin to eat with smoked fish (or caviar if you have any to hand). Blinis are Russian, not French of course, the word blini is already a plural and means pancakes. But made with buckwheat, they take on a distinctly Breton flavour. They are easy to make and so much better than packaged versions.

For about 24 small blinis, you will need:

• 100gr buckwheat flour
• 100gr plain flour
• ¼ tsp salt or to taste
• ½ tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp quick yeast
• 200ml milk
• 40gr salted butter
• 2 eggs

Bubbles in the blini

Preparation:

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Warm the milk and the butter and add to the flour.
3. Stir well with a fork so that there are no lumps and leave to sit at room temperature for half an hour, covered with a tea towel.
4. Beat the eggs and add them gently to the mixture. It should be heavy in consistency, more so than a normal pancake batter, more like American breakfast pancakes, so that it will not spread all over the pan. The finished blini should be about 6cm across. But don’t try for perfection and symmetry, these are home-made.
5. In a non stick frying pan, put two tbs of the mixture as many times as the pan will hold without the blinis spreading and sticking to each other. I do them one at a time in a small pan.
6. Cook for 1-2 minutes, until bubbles rise and burst. Turn and cook 1-2 minutes on the other side. Keep them warm under a folded tea towel.
7. Serve with smoked fish, sour or heavy cream and lemon juice. They are also good to use as bread to scoop up hummus or avocado dip.

Blinis au sarrasin et saumon fumé

Blinis do not keep well. Eat them all, and quickly. And don’t worry if the first two are not a success. This is always the way with pancakes. Put a stray piece of smoked salmon on these and eat them while you cook, or give them to the dog.

Bon appétit.