I know what does Coleslaw and Italian have to do with France?

Well many moons ago someone, whose feedback I welcome and value, suggested that I give out some recipes for the food that I have learnt to cook in France; it was in response to my blog about how I can really cook now because I have had to learn to improvise, and work things out  for myself, to achieve the food that we like and miss from when we lived in the UK, but none of it is French!! (For those who wish to view this have a look in the food in France category of my blog. Anyway, I digress….)

There will be recipes for Mois’s  Chinese (yes you can get it over here, but we are working on a budget) Mois’s kebab, spicy chicken burgers,  Mois’s Italien – get it!! I see adverts on the TV and think mmmm that looks nice and then I work out how you could make them and add my own spin. For example the paprika burgers that are being advertised on UK TV at the moment (yes we have satellite!) but look out for that recipe because I have again added my own spin. We are trying them tomorrow.

I have always been able to cook, I am not committed to cooking, would not want to enter Masterchef of anything like that, but I have always understood cooking, and for me it is all about the taste. So if you want to follow the recipes that I am going to blog about be prepared, there will be not exact measurements, because you have to taste your food as you cook it, so just follow the ingredients and make it to how you like it.

Here we go…

Coleslaw – or should I say the American kind?!

A dear friend of ours dished us up this coleslaw one day and Rich, who is not a fan of coleslaw, nommed it (that is Essex for ate it all and more!) We both loved it and the recipe is simple:

White cabbage, cut as thinly as you can – think about it you don’t want great big hunking bits of cabbage in your mouth! Put the cabbage in a large bowl that gives you enough room to stir it around for when you add the sauce.

The Sauce:

Mayonnaise

Dijon Mustard

Rice wine vinegar

Sugar.

Basically put the ingredients (not the cabbage) into a bowl and mix it together until you get the flavour you like, some may like more sugar, some may like more mustard whichever way you like it, but trust me it is gorgeous.

Then look at your cabbage and decide if you have made enough of the mixture to cover the cabbage, and then add to the mixture and make some more because you can bet your bottom dollar you haven’t!!

Add the mixture to the cabbage and make sure all of the cabbage is coated.

Simples!

Nom away…….

 

The best mixture ever for Italian dishes.

So as always I was watching TV and I cannot take credit for this, the great chef Michelle Roux Junior gave me this idea. He said that the mistake people make with garlic bread is that they do not add parsley. Yep parsley!!

You will need at least two bulbs of garlic – seriously it is not garlic bread without garlic.

A large bunch of parsley that is as deep a green as possible.

Buy a what is called in France a Hatcher – basically a blender.

Put the peeled (I feel I have to say this as I know that some people will just take things literally) garlic into the hatcher/blender with the parsley; you may have to do this in batches so make sure you have garlic and parsley in together not individually or they will not blend well. Then hatch/blend away.

You can put this mixture in containers in your fridge and then add it to butter (a lot of butter! Garlic bread without butter is NOT garlic bread) in a bowl and put it in the microwave. Once the butter is melted stir the mixture and then spoon over your cut bread, wrap in tinfoil and put in the oven on about 180 degrees for about 15 minutes and nom, nom, nom,nom…..

But I did not stop there, I added fondant cheese (the most wonderful ingredient I have found in France and more of that in future recipes!) to the mix loading the bread and voila! You have cheesy garlic bread.

Then I thought to myself that mixture would be great added to my spaghetti bolognaise, parmejano chicken (my recipe for that is on it’s way), you add it to roast potatoes the list is endless. I have even made a flavoured oil with it – look out for my oils later.

So go on I dare you this weekend – give it all a go, and please ….. let us all know how you got on I really want to hear you comments.

Happy cooking

Moisy