Just peachy

A Pithivier is a French pastry or pie with an almond frangipane filling, very similar in fact to a British Bakewell tart. Although it looks plain from the outside it contains a filling that is sticky, sweet, nutty and altogether delicious.

There are plenty of variations on the recipe both sweet and savoury, my own twist was to add peaches both for colour and to cut the richness of the frangipane. I was slightly worried that the juice from the peaches would turn my pastry into a soggy mess but I needn't have worried. The peaches worked brilliantly with the almond filling, my only regret is that I didn't add more!
I used this recipe by Wolfgang Puck as a guide, I simply added tinned sliced peaches (in the summer I would use fresh) in between layers of frangipane filling.

Crème fraîche

Crème fraîche is a delicious soured cream from France that is made using a bacterial culture added to fresh cream. It is similar to regular sour cream although much thicker and richer with a fat content of around 30%.

Crème fraîche is an incredibly versatile ingredient which is fast becoming a favourite in my kitchen. You can use it as a dip or dollop it on top of a bowl of chilli, it's also delicious served alongside fresh berries or as an alternative to cream with any dessert.

One of my favourite ways to use crème fraîche is as a pasta sauce. I add it to hot pasta with some herbs, a few vegetables, parmesan and maybe some bacon or smoked salmon and hey presto! a delicious meal in under 20 minutes.
I made this pasta dish using crème fraîche, bacon, chopped fresh tomatoes, mushrooms and parmesan (in other words whatever I could find in the fridge!) It was very quick and really tasty.

Tarte Aux Pommes or French Apple tart

I've got to hand it to the French, no one can make pastries quite like they can. A visit to a French patisserie is as much a treat for the eyes as it is for the stomach, the hard part is knowing what to choose! Who can resist an éclair with freshly whipped cream? I know I can't! While their fruit tarts are such beautiful works of art it seems a shame to eat them!
For the most part I'm happy to leave patisserie to the professionals, the level of skill required to produce such elegant pastries is way beyond me. That said I did attempt a classic French apple tart, which although simple still makes an impressive dessert, great if you want to show off!I was pleasantly surprised at just how easy this was to make, although as I had a lot of very small apples to peel it was a little time consuming. The end result was excellent the perfect combination of crisp buttery pastry and soft sweet apples, made even better with a generous pouring of cream but then, what isn't?.

You can find a great recipe for this tart here.

Classic French Coq au vin

Last night I cooked the classic French dish, Coq au vin. When I was making this I was reminded of the Blackadder episode where Baldrick offers Blackadder Rat au vin, when asked what exactly that entails Baldrick replies it's rat that's been run over by a van!!
Luckily I didn't have to resort to anything scraped off the road! For my Coq au vin I used chicken legs although to be truly authentic I should have used a cockerel rather than chicken. Traditionally it was the old, and therefore tough birds that were used, hence the need for long slow cooking.Coq au vin is delicious and simple to make, unfortunately it seems to have gone out of fashion, I say it's time for a comeback! Very few ingredients are required for this, it can vary a bit but it always contains onions/shallots, bacon, mushrooms, chicken, red wine and a bouquet garni. These are cooked together for a good few hours until the chicken is meltingly tender and the wine has reduced to an intense and delicious sauce.
I was really pleased with how this came out, it was packed with flavour and really tasty. I served mine with French bread but it would be great with mashed potatoes too.

While I didn't use a recipe but this recipe by James martin is almost identical.