Tartiflette Savoyarde

I first had Tartiflette from my friend Didier's French restaurant. I instantly fell in love with it. It is French cuisine at its best, butter, cream and obviously Reblochon cheese. Reblochon is a French cheese that comes from the Alps region of Haute-Savoie, originally in the Thônes and Arly valleys. It is made from unpasteurized cow's milk and is very soft in texture and nutty in taste. This simple dish is a delectable unique taste of France and the distinctive taste of Reblochon makes it a must for everyone who loves and appreciates French cuisine. Give it a go and am quite sure you will love it. For 4 people you will need...

• 1 Petit Reblochon (200g), sliced in 1 cm slices
• 200ml crème fraiche
• 500g potatoes
• 150g bacon lardons
• 1 large onion, sliced
• Butter & olive oil for frying

1. Start by cooking potatoes with the skin on. Make sure you do not over cook them. Use a skewer to check if they are cooked. As soon as the skewer goes through take them off the heat. Peel them carefully and slice them in 1cm slices.
   
2. Heat some butter and olive oil in a frying pan and fry the onion until translucent and soft. Add the bacon lardons and cook until brown. 
3. Take the onion/bacon mixture out of the pan and in the same pan fry the potato slices until they are golden.
4. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
5. Put half the potato slices in a buttered small oval oven dish  and pour half of the cream and scatter half of the onion/bacon mixture. Repeat the process until you use all the potato slices, cream and onion/bacon mixture.
6. Now to finish the dish, place the Reblochon slices on top and bake for about 15-20 minutes until the cheese is melted. Serve hot with a glass of good French white wine.

Enjoy!!

R&A

Nicoise Salad - Salade Niçoise

Salade niçoise comes from southern France and it is one of our favourite salads. The main ingredients that make up this wonderful salad are tuna and anchovies. We always try to find fresh tuna but sometimes here in England is hard to find and when you find it, it can be very expensive. So we use good quality canned tuna fillets. Also it is usually made with niçoise olives, which are small black olives but any small black olives will do if these are not available. As per every salad there is a myriad versions of the actual recipe so it very hard to find out exactly what goes in a proper salade niçoise. Cucumber, preserved artichoke hearts, radishes, new potatoes, raw green peppers, sweet shallots are all different vegetables that are used...depends where you get the recipe from! Hard boiled eggs are a must as well. Our version for a substantial meal for two people is as follows...

For the salad

• About 100g mixed salad leaves
• 2 ripe but firm tomatoes, sliced
• 8 new potatoes, boiled
• 2 hard boiled eggs, quartered
• A handful of black olives
• 100g French fine green beans, cooked
• 2 tuna steaks (about 150g each, grilled to your liking and left to cool down slightly) or 2 cans of tuna chunks
• 8 anchovy fillets

For the dressing

• Red wine vinegar
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt & pepper

1. This has to be the easiest method ever. Just arrange all the salad ingredients onto the serving plates, leaving the tuna and anchovies for last.
2. Mix the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. The amounts are entirely up to you.
3. Dress the tuna and salad leaves.
4. Serve.

Enjoy!!

R&A