The Little Paris Kitchen (15 page)

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Chilling time: 4 hours
–
overnight

When I was a child, I used to go mushroom hunting with my parents. This was long before foraging became fashionable with Michelin-starred restaurants. Looking for chanterelles,
cèpes, trompettes de la mort,
and many other forest fungi was a bit of a bore for my brother and me, and we would always hope for a rainy day (although a light drizzle wouldn't put my parents off). Needless to say, I don't do much foraging now that I live in Paris, although I like to think that going to the Parisian flea markets could be classified as urban foraging.

SERVES 4–6

• 1 lb mixed wild mushrooms • 4 tbsp butter • 2 shallots, finely chopped • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed to a paste • 4 eggs • 1 cup crème fraîche • 2 tsp Dijon mustard • a pinch of nutmeg • 2 tbsp chopped parsley • salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 325°F and line two 8-ounce mini loaf pans
*
with parchment paper.

Clean the mushrooms carefully with paper towels or a brush, then roughly chop any that are large to make them all about the same size. Melt the butter in a large frying pan and add the shallots and garlic. Once the shallots begin to brown, add the mushrooms and fry for a good 10 minutes until they have released all their juices (if the pan is too small for them all in one go, fry in batches).

Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a bowl with the crème fraîche and mustard. Add the nutmeg and parsley and season with salt and pepper.

Remove the cooked mushroom mixture from the pan with a slotted spoon (to drain off any liquid) and divide between the prepared pans. Pour the crème fraîche mix over the mushrooms and bake for about 15 minutes or until set. Leave to cool slightly before cutting. Best served at room temperature.

*
Or make one large terrine in a 1-pound loaf pan and bake for about 30 minutes or until set.

Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes

Rillettes
are almost always found sitting on a platter of
charcuterie
, but you won't find many people making them at home. They're the kind of thing usually bought ready-made from the supermarket or butcher. The best ones are made from fatty meats, like belly pork, goose, or duck, which are slowly roasted to allow the fat to melt. Everything is then blended to make a coarse pâté, a little seasoning is added, and that's it.

SERVES 4–6

• 2 lb boned pork belly with skin
*
• 2 bay leaves • 1 sprig of rosemary • 2 sprigs of thyme • salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 275°F. Chop the pork into large pieces and place in a large baking sheet with the bay leaves, rosemary, and thyme. Cover the baking sheet with aluminum foil and cook for 3 hours, stirring halfway.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and leave the pork to cool.

Peel the skin
**
off the pork. Discard the bay, rosemary, and thyme and put the meat into a blender with any fat from the pan. Whizz to a rough paste and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving dish and serve at room temperature.

The
rillettes
will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 3–4 days (the fat will harden when chilled, and the
rillettes
will need to be broken up with a fork before serving).

*
You can replace the pork belly with boned duck legs.

**
I put the skin under a very hot broiler for a couple of minutes to make crackling, then I cut it into small bits and season with salt before serving.

Preparation time: 30 minutes Cooking time: 3 hours

Trying to find out what an authentic
salade niçoise
should be made of is like solving a cryptic puzzle. Tuna or no tuna? Cooked vegetables or not? After an extensive survey among my foodie and French friends, I came to the conclusion that as long as it contains ingredients you would find in the vicinity of the Provençal town of Nice, then you can more or less call it a
salade niçoise
.

MAKES 12

For the vinaigrette:
2 tbsp red wine vinegar • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil • ¼ clove of garlic, crushed to a paste • juice of ½ lemon • a pinch of sugar • salt and pepper

• a pinch each of salt and sugar • 12 green beans, topped and tailed • 1 Little Gem lettuce • 1 red Belgian endive • 12 anchovies,
*
drained and boned • 12 black olives (preferably from Nice), pitted and sliced • 6 cherry tomatoes, quartered or halved depending on size • 6 radishes, thinly sliced • 1 green onion, thinly sliced • 2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and each cut into 6 wedges • 2 tbsp capers, finely chopped

TO MAKE THE VINAIGRETTE:
Whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl. Taste for seasoning.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the salt and sugar followed by the green beans. Blanch for 2 minutes, then drain and rinse under cold running water.

Separate the lettuce and endive into individual leaves—you will need 12 leaves in total. Divide the remaining ingredients between the leaves, halving the beans if they are long (they should be slightly shorter than the length of the leaves). Drizzle some vinaigrette on top and serve the rest in a small bowl.

*
I prefer using the plump Provençal anchovies that are preserved in olive oil. These tend to be less salty than canned anchovy fillets, which need to be carefully rinsed and dried on paper towels before use.

•
boiled small potatoes, halved or quartered

•
corn

•
tuna—season a 7-oz piece of raw tuna (preferably yellowfin) and sear in a smoking-hot pan with a little olive oil for a minute on each side, then cut into thin slices.

Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 5 minutes

I remember having to make puff pastry at cookery school during a really hot summer. Our air-conditioning was broken and the kitchen was hot from the previous class, so my pastry and I were both melting in the heat. Not ideal! The pastry had to go into the fridge numerous times before I could finish making it, and I wished I could have got into the fridge myself.

Not wanting to waste any of the puff pastry after spending so much time and effort making it, we used the leftovers to make sweet
palmiers
and
sacristains
with sugar and cinnamon.

Nowadays I save myself the hassle and order puff pastry from my local
boulangerie
. Otherwise, you can buy pretty good puff pastry from the supermarket—make sure you get the all-butter version.

MAKES 30 PALMIERS AND 12 SACRISTAINS

• 8 oz puff pastry

For the
palmiers
:
1 heaped tbsp Meaux mustard (or another grainy mustard) • 2 handfuls of finely grated mature Comté cheese or a mature hard cheese of your choice

For the
sacristains
:
20 olives, pitted • 1 clove of garlic • 1 anchovy fillet

Preheat the oven to 400°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out the puff pastry dough between two sheets of parchment paper into a 16-by-12-inch rectangle. Cut the rectangle in half widthwise, to give two 8-by-12-inch rectangles.