Tried that more than once they end up like cakes, for the lfe of us cant find the flour we used begining to wonder if it was uk plain flour, never had a problem in the uk
should be ok with the flour they sell for making crepes " fluide " always works for me !
Flour in France is so confusing some time back we made yorkshire puddings and they turned out perfectly but for the life of us we cant find the flour, in the uk its plane flour here since our success we have never been able to reproduce them having tried 45, 55 in all its various packages such a simple thing is proving to be a major problem
Lots of new Food Lovers in France Members! Bienvenue and Bon Appetit to all.
I would like to thank everyone for your advise on double cream. Really helpful.
Thanks again
If anyone is thinking of trying their hand at a baking or cupcake business, have a look at this, and it might inspire you.
My friend Tracy has been building her business Tasty Treats since September 2012, an she is doing really well.
She is an inspiration not only on how to bake, but how to get registered as an Auto Entreprenneur!
Seem to be loads of kiwis around just now. Any jam or chutney type recipes please?
Fig chutney is wonderful, I confess to eating roughly four to six kilos of it per year. That looks like a recipe I shall follow, similar to the one I use already but variants make for the variety that makes food interesting.
Glad you like the jam. We are only just going to scrape through this year, hope to make lots this autumn.
Brian, thank you so much for your fig info... i've not seen it 'til now (must have my settings wrong) but i did follow your recipe and the fig jam is LOVELY! my employers are here in a couple of weeks - so hopefully they'll be impressed... in the madness of my figgy research i found this recipe - made it from frozen figs and it's stunning - so thought i'd share... NOTE... I used figs from the freezer - must have been thrown in there last summer
Fig Chutney
2 kg figs quartered
1 kg sugar
3 onions chopped roughly
500g mixed raisins and sultanas
1/2 lt good quality red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons Ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons chilli sauce (sweet or not up to you!)
6 garlic cloves crushed
Place all ingredients together and bring to the boil, simmer for 2 hours or until it's a consistency you like! jar while hot, and it'll keep forever - it gets better with age says the recipe - but it tastes pretty great now
(apologies to anyone if it's your recipe... long live sharing!)
Anybody, everybody interested in fasting/dieting have a look at this piece by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/jan/18/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall-fast-diet
I do fast, but Christmas saw me slack off and not reduce my cholesterol and carbohydrates as per the regime advised in November. I am now going to follow this regime of my own accord but may eventually order the book he is referring to and compare. I need to shed at least eight more kilos, so I shall go for it sooner rather than later and do not snack on my fast days at all, just drink water and white tea. It would be good to compare with anybody else who is fasting as well.
Teresa, we have a cellar full of fig jam, juice and so on. Our trees give us vast amounts. Fig jam is easy. We make a chunky one with figs simply cut in half or quartered and one with figs broken down as smooth as possible. Both are made more or less the same way. Figs have their own high sugar content, so we put them to cook and add the sugar as they soften. We use roughly two thirds of the weight of the figs sugar and use natural cane or molasses sugar rather than white processed stuff. So, let's say 500g figs and 320g molasses sugar. Use less sugar and my experience is that it is then very liquid and does not set well. Once it is bubbling a bit we add lemon juice to take the sweet edge off, so adding slowly and tasting to test. That is left to cook until it is glutinous. The rough one is potted straight away, hot to prevent it going off and so that it makes a 'vacuum' seal when it cools. The other we then break down with a hand mixer. A blender type is not very useful for sticky stuff. We use a wooden spoon to search for pieces and work it until it is all very small, then back in the pot and reheat. Once hot enough into jars. The breaking down and reheating seem to somehow bring the taste out more. I use the crude one for eating with plain yoghurt or fromage frais and the other on a good dark brown bread toast.
oh dear... i have to make FIG JAM for my new employer... the freezer is stuffed with frozen (whole) figs... the pantry bursting with clean bon maman jars, the larder empty of the previous cooks 'award winning' jam... (my ears ringing with "she was a hopeless housekeeper, but we lived on her figgy jam" - or something like that)
i'm not a novice jam maker, but i've never made the fig variety - especially from frozen? all recipes i can find are a combination of figs, vanilla, lemon juice, sugar - in wildly varying proportions
please, jam - ers, take pity on my plight
x merry
teresa x
That’s very interesting. I will drop into Picard when I next go to Macon.
@Sarah H Thanks, we have several PIcard shops around us, will drop in next time I go past.
Hi Steve, Picard do it.
and Toupargel
http://www.toupargel.fr/surgeles-4-blocs-de-pate-feuilletee-pur-beurre-a-etaler,793.htm
and another online frozen food supplier
http://www.geldrive.com/pate-feuilletee-pur-beurre-en-bloc-2x250g-,1732,7,19.htm
Supermarkets don't seem to do it for some reason.
Which supermarkets have rectangular ready made puff pastry ? Can only circular ones
Hi Judith, Welcome to the Food Lovers in France Group. We do a similar food night once a month in the Pau area, organized by the Anglophone club I am a member of. Last night we did Thanksgiving together. It is a lot of fun and also have the same principle as you. You could start a discussion on the Food Lovers in France group to see if any foodies live in your area and also, as Catharine says, post in the regional area.
I think that recipe was Jim Higginson's. It does sound good. I have yet to make it-but I will! Check out the other recipes on the list too (located under the information box on the Food Lovers group page).
Mary
Hi Judith - that sounds like great fun. Why don't you post in the regional Brittany groups too - sure there will be people interested!
Just joined your group - it was the butter chicken recipe that caught my attention. When I lived near Narbonne a friend organised a Secret Curry Society (mainly because if we didn't keep it small we were trying to cook for too many people). Now I live in Brittany and wonder if anyone else would be interested in joining if I started one? We used to take it in turns to cook for 6/10/12 or so every month and charge for the ingredients plus a bit for running around etc and the guests would buy their own wine (or beer).
Contact me if you are interested - I live near Guingamp so within a reasonable radius of there would be good!
Thanksgiving: spotted this earlier:
"Michael Dresser in his Baltimore Sun Paper's wine column, Vintage Point, writing about the difficulty of recommending wine for Thanksgiving dinner writes:-
Thanksgiving is America's national chow-down feast - the one occasion each year when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty. In France, by contrast there are three such days: Heir, Aujourd'hui and Demain"
Group of friends and ourselves went out for a meal this afternoon at the local hoteliers college a very good meal with a bottle of Gaillac rose
Bisque d’étrilles en capuccino
* * *
Darne de saumon grillée, Flan de légumes
OU
Pavé de saumon à l’unilatéral,
Beurre Maître d’Hôtel, Tatin de courgettes
* * *
Gourmandise sucrée de nos pâtissiers
MENU à 12 Euros
(Café compris et hors boissons
must admit considering they were all students and very nervous being confronted with a group of 9 Brits they did themselves proud i would recommend trying your local college if they are anything like the one in Mazamet a very good meal at a reasonable price its a fixed menu so if you dont like it there is no alternative