This is what happens when you buy a dozen eggs for 30p: Pear Clafoutis

Version française ici

 

I do love a bargain. If I had the time I would trawl around supermarkets at the optimum time and hoover up any reduced price stuff I could and put it to good use, stash it in the freezer, etc. Timing is everything however, a good time being last Sunday afternoon, about an hour or so before closing when I happen to walk into a well known supermarket beginning with T on the pretext of buying something else, but then happening to spy that the man with the pricing gun was about to spring into action. I got distracted.

 

So, after acquiring a dozen golden yolked free range eggs for 30 pence, plus a lovely big corn fed chicken for £2.04 which I roasted on a bed on onions with thyme, garlic and lemon (I may blog about this at some point) and various other bargains, including some delicious dessert pears (50 pence) I left,  nearly leaving without the thing I actually went in to buy.

 

Now then, what could I possibly make with my newly acquired bargains?

 

I really like clafoutis, not just because I am a Francophile, but because it is a great way of utilising fruit for a dessert that is not just strewing a crumble topping over it (I would like to stress here and now that there is nothing wrong with crumble; I never ate a crumble I didn't like and there are times when the rubbing together of butter, flour and sugar is just the most therapeutic thing to do, but for impact, the burnished top of a clafoutis with its slight quiver and fruit, like jewels, adorning it gives it the edge on the crumble, just...) and you can use any fruit you like really, The thing to be mindful about is some fruit can give out a tremendous amount of water and ruin the look and the texture of the clafoutis. There certainly is an argument for sautéing  those type of fruits in a little butter and evaporating the excess moisture before putting them into the dish. I considered this when looking at the pears, which were really juicy - definitely too ripe to be eaten with any finesse. But despite being juicy, they were holding their shape when I cut them and so I just put them in without cooking. They were fine, as it happens. though the addition of flour to the batter instead of purely just using a custard mixture of eggs and milk probably helped to absorb any excess moisture that came from when the pears were cooked.

 

The basis of the recipe is one that I found on the Marmiton website which includes alsorts of other fruit like apples and prunes to be used as well as the pears. I just increased the quantity of pears. I also used my own vanilla sugar instead of the sachets (which I know you can get here as well as France but I just have a Kilner jar of sugar in which I put any used vanilla pods so that the sugar becomes infused with the smell and flavour of vanilla). I substituted the rum recommended in the recipe with some Williams Pear Liqueur which I brought back from the last time we were in France, though as I tend to say in most other situations involving drink, any old booze will do. The last, and frankly inspired thing I did which is different to the original recipe was instead of scattering sugar on the clafoutis as it came out of the oven, I decided to scatter it over five minutes or so before it came out, thus creating a sweet crunchy topping to the clafoutis, which when matched with the unctuous eggy custard and clean taste of the pears was something pretty good!

 

Pear Clafoutis, translated and then adapted from the Marmiton website

 

Serves Lola, Finn Mum and Dad plus two others

 

Ingredients:

 

Four dessert pears, peeled, hulled and cut into eighths (with a little lemon juice to squirt over them to stop them browning)

4 eggs

120 g of flour

110 g  vanilla sugar (or caster sugar with a few drops of vanilla extract)  plus a little extra for scattering on top of the clafoutis

400ml full fat milk

20ml pear liqueur (though you could use rum, and actually, it probably doesn't matter if you wish to leave it out)

A little butter, for greasing the dish

 

Method: 

 

Turn the oven heat to gas mark 6/ 180c

  

Prepare the pears, 

 

Combine the flour and the sugar together

 

Add eggs one at a time, adding the milk and liqueur in between times.

 

Grease a suitable pan or dish that will hold the mixture comfortably (there will be some rise of the batter in the oven). Place it onto a baking tray to catch any spillages whilst it is in the oven.

 

Scatter the fruit, or place in a pattern over the bottom of the prepared dish. Pour in the custard mixture.

 

 

 

Place in the centre of the oven and cook about 30  - 40 minutes, or until the custard is set but still retains a wobble. At this point, take the clafoutis out of the oven and scatter some sugar over the top. Return to the oven for five minutes or so until the sugar begins to melt a little.

 

 

 

When you take the clafoutis out of the oven, allow it to cool until it is just warm. The clafoutis will sink.

 

 

 

Serve with cream.

 

Definitely not lost in translation: Chocolate and Banana Clafoutis, ou Clafoutis Chocolat et Banane

 

 

Many, many years ago I was really quite good at speaking French and was verging on fluent. Then I decided to study English at university and the whole thing started to unravel. Years of not really engaging with the language began to take its toll and as the visits became fewer, the more my knowledge waned. Fast forward about 10 years or so and my first visit to rural France in too long a time resulted in me just hearing 'noise' which I knew was French, but which meant absolutely nothing to me. Only when I managed to blurt out the phrase 'Est ce que vous parlez plus, plus lentement s'il vous plait' did I manage to cotton on to the odd word. A real fall from grace for the woman who had discussed the works of Jean Paul Sartre, in French, for her A level oral French examination. I was sad. And annoyed.

 

So, for the recent trip, I decided to immerse myself as much as possible in the language. Searching out French radio on long wave radio, TV5 on the cable telly, Pimsleur French III in the car to and from work, resulting in strange looks from fellow commuters as I sat at traffic lights, remonstrating with an absent Frenchman about my hotel room being dirty. I even rediscovered my gallic shrug, resulting in my losing the panicky squeak when I tried to communicate in a language that was not my own. The result was that I performed a lot better this time around, with about 90% communication and 10% gesticulation. Result!

 

Anyway, you may be wondering where I am going with this and up to now there has been a distinct lack of recipe mentioned. I was in the supermarket in France just before returning to the UK and I happened upon the magazines. I resist the temptation to buy food magazines in this country because it's a slippery slope. I buy one, I'll buy two, I'll buy them every month and before I know it I'll have piles of them all over the house, but I figured buying a French one would be 1) a one off, and 2) a good way to immerse myself in a language that I had rediscovered a love for and that I wanted to use. So this is what I bought:

 

 

 

...and there are lots of lovely recipes I want to try, but I started with this one, Banana and Chocolate clafoutis.

 

My alterations to the recipe were few. The original recipe calls for 180ml of milk to be added to the chocolate mixture. I added 60ml because I was concerned about the 'runniness' of the raw batter mixture. I didn't think it would set and so erred on the side of caution. It might have been that my eggs might not have been as 'gros' as the ones called for in the recipe. Either way, I would exercise a bit of caution in case the batter becomes far too runny. I also added a pinch of salt to the batter mix to bring out more of the chocolate flavour.

 

Several words about bananas. You want ones that are pleasingly yellow and slightly yielding. If they're turning black I don't think they lend themselves to this recipe. You want bananas that are going to keep their shape and not disintegrate to mush. Yuk. keep those for banana bread.

 

Clafoutis chocolat et banane, translated and adapted from the recipe in the French publication 'Cuisine de Grand-Mere'

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad, generously.

 

Ingredients:

 

100g of dark chocolate

50g butter

50g caster sugar

3 large eggs

2 tbsp cornflour

180ml full fat milk (I used 60ml, see explanation above)

a pinch of salt

3 large bananas

 

Method:

 

Preheat the oven to 180c (Gas 6)

 

 

 

Melt the chocolate gently in a bain marie or double boiler - basically in a bowl placed over simmering water. Don't let the bowl touch the water or else the chocolate will seize.

 

 

 

When the chocolate is melted, add the butter and combine.

 

 

 

Then, add the sugar. Stir to combine.

 

Let the chocolate mixture cool slightly, so that it doesn't scramble the egg that you are about to add to it.

 

 

 

Beat the eggs together, then slowly add them to the chocolate mixture. Stir until the chocolate mixture and eggs are well combined.

 

 

 

Add the cornflour little by little, whisking it in and taking care not to create (or leave!) lumps in the chocolate batter. Add a pinch of salt.

 

Lastly, add the milk to the batter, little by little, until the mixture is well combined. You may want to add less milk.

 

Butter six ramekins, or one larger souffle type dish (actually, I used a cake pan).

 

 

 

Slice the bananas and place into the bottom of the ramekins or dish.

 

Pour the batter mixture over.

 

 

 

Place in the oven for 20 minutes for ramekins or 30 mins for a larger dish. The clafoutis is ready when it is set but with a little wobble.

 

Allow to cool slightly.

 

 

 

I served this with cream and it was tremendous!

 

 

Avec mes excuses à mes amis français ... C'est Clafoutis! Cherry, kirsch and white chocolate clafoutis.

I have been lucky enough to spend a little time in Limousin, in France, where this dish originates. I always feel that when I attempt something French, it has to be "la bonne chose" but then I discovered that French women have their own little ways of producing famous dishes that I decided I should be less hung up about it and be prepared to experiment a little. Which is why, when I saw this recipe, I had to try it and personally, I believe it to be the best clafoutis I have made to date. I used cherries, so faithful to the original recipe then, but I was intrigued by the seam of white chocolate which melted betwixt fruit and custard that, when cooked is not at the forefront, but I believe you would miss it if it wasn't there. I think it is also the first time I have cooked a clafoutis where the whole custard has been set, but earlier failures may be due to my ineptitude rather than 'recipe fail'.

The custard contains ground almonds. The recipe suggests that after letting the custard stand for a while, you put the custard through a chinois or other sieve. I didn't, and personally liked the slightly rough texture of the ground almonds in the custard. Each to their own if you ask me.

Cherry Clafoutis with Kirsch and White Chocolate (from 'Summertime' by Galton Blackiston)

Serves 6

Ingredients:

11oz large pitted black cherries (on this occasion I used good bottled cherries and it was pleasant enough. Cherries in season would be stunning)

4 tbsp kirsch

1 1/2 oz plain flour

2oz ground almonds

2oz caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

4 tbsp melted butter, plus extra for buttering ramekins, or dish

10fl oz double cream, plus extra for serving

half a bar of good white chocolate (this equalled nine squares for me; I used Menier)

icing sugar, for dusting.

Method:

Place the cherries and kirsch in a bowl and leave to marinate for about an hour or so.

Meantime, prepare the batter: Place the flour, ground almonds, caster sugar, eggs, melted butter and double cream in a mixer and mix until thoroughly combined. Leave to settle for a little while and then pass through a sieve if you are of a mind to. I didn't.

Preheat the oven to 180c/Gas Mark 4

Place six, large well buttered ramekins (or use a big bowl like I did) on to a baking sheet.

Divide the cherries and white chocolate between ramekins, if using. or just put the cherries at the bottom of a big bowl and top them with pieces of white chocolate. Reserve the liquid from the cherries and add to the custard batter and mix well.

Pour the custard over the cherries and chocolate.

Bake in a preheated oven for about 35 - 40 minutes for ramekins, nearer an hour for one big bowl. You're looking for a light brown sponge like topping. If you think the top is browning but the centre isn't setting, lightly cover the top with foil and keep checking. This is what I did about 40 minutes into the cooking process.

When out of the oven, dust with icing sugar and serve warm, with cream.

Bon Appetit!