Sunday 16 July 2017

A Provencal 3 course meal

A Provencal 3 course meal needs a lot to do when you prepare it for 5 people. Luckily cooking with friends is always a great way to lessen the work load and give many hands something to do.
The theme of the day was the Provence, a beautiful area of France. We all spent time there and loved it.


Baking a bread for a meal is the start of our Sunday, this time individual loafs sprinkled with thyme and Parmesan to go with the tomato starter. The bread did have a some tomato paste in for taste and colour.


Big Coeur de Beouf tomatoes, cut in half and scooped out the middle bits were filled and served. The wet middle bit with the seeds was cooked in a pot with a bit of veg stock and seasoning, later finished with some  Macchia herbs from Corsica and Tonka bean for special flavour, mixed and put through a sieve as the dressing for the tomatoes. Feta, Onions, more small tomatoes and thyme went into the tomato halves.
For a bit of special kick, we cooked some Quinoa for 15 min, let it sit for 5, drained it and spread it on some plate to cool down and dry out. It was deep fried for 2 minutes to puff up to some Quinoa Popcorn.


Greek Yogurt with smoked sea salt and Papaya Pepper was topped with the Popcorn.

Daube de Boeuf was our main course. Beef with some vegetables cooked on low heat for more then  5 hours, finished with green and black olives. The meat falls apart when you stick a fork in. The best side to it is bread to mop up the sauce. Courgette from the garden in fine slices was the salad.


And finally dessert.
Creme brulee with fennel seed brittle dust.
If you like cough drops with fennel, you are in for a treat. If you hate them, stay away from the dessert.
Take a tbsp of fennel seeds and 2 tbsp of sugar and make a caramel. Spread on some baking paper or silicon mat and cool down and let it set completely. Take a pestel and mortar and make a fine dust.


When you get your creme brulee out of the fridge, sprinkle white sugar on top, take a flame thrower and make a caramel, then finish with the fennel dust.
Some apricot chunks for decoration.







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