Deffo becoming an indulgent family favourite. One of the great things about these is that you can make all the filling in advance, batch freeze it, and bring out portions as necessary. Frustratingly, the only place I can find GF pastry is in the chiller cabinets in Auchan, but at least I can find it. Best served with chips and Heinz baked beanz.
Another firm favourite in our house, and something William is becoming more adept at helping to make. I've been making there for years but after ordering some at a cafe in Hossegor, I've started adding grated carrot for extra texture. A winning combo.
There was a pack of rice paper in the cupboard needing used up, so I decided to make some of these. Utter faff. They don't look amazing, but they tasted great. But like I said, such a faff to make.
Cauliflower & Bacon Soup
I was round at Hayley's earlier in the month and she was making this, and it smelled amazing. It's definitely soup weather, and its always good to have a few different blends up your sleeve so I decided to give it a go. I loved it, but William wasn't so sure. "I don't like white soup". Fair dos.
Chilli Nachos
I am the queen of stockpiled frozen dinners. It goes back as long as living in Leith Links and making big pots of bolognese and batch freezing them for quick, easy, healthy dinners when I came in from volleyball training. Even Legs remembers me doing this! Well, for a good Saturday night dinner, I pulled out a couple of bags of Chilli con Carne, but instead of doing rice, I heated it up, laid it over a load of nacho chips, grated the most obscene amount of cheese over the top, and stuck it under the grill. This really wouldn't be a regular dinner in our house, but I don't know why - it was absolutely, devilishly amazing! And perfect Saturday night Strictly fodder.
Pork Belly
Well I say Pork Belly but trying to get an actual pork belly cut in France is impossible. I've even been to proper butchers to try and source some, but they just don't do it here. I stumbled across this poitrine in Auchan and thought I'd try cooking it in a similar fashion. I scarred the top, covered it in garlic, fennel and olive oil and fired it in the oven all day at about 120*C. Once I was happy with it, I ramped up the heat to work the crackling magic. The meat was tasty but the crackling was more burnt than anything else which was pretty disappointing. I'd try it again, and I'd probably make one per adult rather than sharing. Served with mashed potato and sweet and sour cabbage.
Spurred on by my cauliflower and bacon soup earlier in the month, and stumbling across a gluten free smoked ham hock in Auchan, I made a real throw together winter soup that I'm now calling my Cauliflower, Pea & Ham soup. It really was a proper whats-lurking-in-the-fridge effort, but it turned out to be absolutely bloody brilliant and has gone on to be a firm family favourite. After the "white soup" chat from William, I'm pleased to report he likes "green soup". Winning. You can find the recipe for this, here.
Tiramisu
Now, a real step into the unknown for me. Puddings. Someone on the Gluten Free Anglophones in France FB group was posting about the Schär Savoiardi biscuits and how they were great for making tiramisu. In particular, Jamie Oliver's tiramisu, which, they claimed, was incredibly easy. Now, spotting these in Auchan, and also having one eye on Christmas and probably needing to do some sort of pudding at some point, I thought I'd give it a go. It was a little tricky and I had to do new things like separate eggs, and whisk whites until they were still but I got there and it looked great, and tasted like the real deal. I'm really chuffed - I deffo feel like I've got a proper dessert up my sleeve now.
Some real highlights indeed. I've come a long way, baby!
Lorna :)
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