Salmon stir-fry / Saumon a l'asiatique

What makes this salmon stir-fry extra special? Good quality salmon fillets, fresh seasonal vegetables, and a sauce realised from scratch that my Chinese friend, H, would be proud of. 

Easy, quick, and bursting with flavour, this is a healthy dinner that can be changed endlessly depending on which vegetables you have at hand or which oils and vinegars you prefer. 

Salmon stir-fry (serves 4)

In a bowl mix together 4 tsp soya sauce, 4 tsp sherry or white wine, 1 tsp brown sugar, 4 tsp groundnut oil, 2 tsp water and season with black pepper. Marinate 4 salmon fillets in the mixture for at least 30 mins.

Peel and chop your chosen vegetables. Boil for 10 minutes in salted water and drain.

Grill the salmon for 5 minutes under a hot grill, turning the fillets half-way. During this time, cook a packet of dried noodles in salted water and drain. 

Heat the remaining marinade in a pan, add the vegetables and the noodles and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Divide between 4 deep plates, top with the salmon and serve hot.

Greedy notes:

I chose broccoli, red peppers and carrots and this is what I had available but celery, mange-tout or mini-sweetcorn would all work, as well as mushrooms and bean-sprouts. 

Living in the Charente-Maritime region of France, I decided to replace the sherry with the same amount of red Pineau des Charentes. This delicious, sweet mixture of grape juice and cognac has the same syrupy consistency as sherry and is one of the specialities of the area.

La Rochelle: Salon de la Gastronomie

It's that time of year again..No, not Christmas (not yet!) but La Rochelle's annual Salon de la Gastronomie. After discovering this greedy event last year with Cheri, I was eager to see what this year would have to offer. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see on arriving that the entry fee hadn't increased from last year: 3 euros is nothing for an afternoon of wine-tasting, cake-nibbling and general foodie merriment in a world where everything seems to be expensive. 

We started by doing the once round to try a bit of everything (well I wasn't going to say no to homemade butternut squash soup, pineau jelly or a glass of champagne!) I knew I'd have to make some hard decisions. What to buy out of the tens of delicious products? 

After a lot of deliberation, a bit more tasting and another glass of champagne, Cheri and I managed to whittle down the list to a manageable four items. 

Grape jam with safran 

This French-grown safran from the Gers region is used by Domi and Alex to make a selection of delicious jams, onion chutneys and honey. The delicate and raffined taste of the safran goes wonderfully with this grape jam and balances out nicely the acidity of the grapes. Thanks to Dominique for letting us try the whole range of products and for letting me take a photo of the stand! 

Bordeaux Caneles

Literally can't get enough of these delicious afternoon-tea treats since Cheri introduced me to them on one of visits to Bordeaux. Invitingly crunchy on the outside, soft and gummy on the inside, these beauties have a lovely vanilla taste, enhanced buy a generous dose of rum. Needless to say we ate all six in less than 5 minutes of getting back in the house!

Spiced Bread

All of the flavours of Christmas rolled into one sticky, wickedly rich cake. Perfect with a big steaming mug of Earl Grey while listening unashamedly to 'All I Want for Christmas is You'. Yes, it's Mariah time.

Various sun-dried tomato pastes: indian, wild mushroom and black trumpet mushroom

The last impulse buy of the day, I just couldn't leave without taking home a couple of these sun-dried tomato pastes. Delicious in pasta sauces, curries, or simply spread onto a bit of poppadom as a TV snack, I was already a fan of these Mediterranean delights before the Salon but had only tasted them in their natural state. Special mention for the black trumpet mushroom paste: actually died and went to fungi heaven upon trying this!  

Until next year... 

Wild mushroom hunt / Chasse aux cèpes

Though I still think of myself as a city gal, I am growing to love the countryside more and more, especially as living right in the town centre (all be it a relatively small town) seems to equal being woken up by idiots on motorbikes driving past at 4am and never being able to park outside the house when I've got all the food shopping in the boot. 

Besides the peace and quiet, there are many other things I am learning to appreciate about the French countryside. Wild mushrooms is one of them. 

Mushrooms seem to be one of those foods that people either love or hate. No-one just 'doesn't mind' mushrooms. Cheri hates them. I love them. However, Cheri does love going hunting for them in the woods. I think it's his hunter-gatherer instincts coming through. However, I also like to think of myself as a curious Lara Croft style adventurer(minus Angelina Jolie's body the crop top of course), so when our countryside-residing friend invited us to accompany him on a chasse aux cèpes, I put on my wellies and grabbed my plastic bag.

However, we were not the only ones on the prowl for wild mushrooms. My friend explained that these delicious and ridiculously expensive fungi can be found more or less abundently depending on weather conditions, and also the position of the moon. Apparently today was an excellent wild mushroom gathering day, will all conditions reunited. Apparently we weren't the only ones to know this.  

Thus, the hunt required a keen eye, a certain discretion and a good amount of bluffing. After spotting several of the little beauties just next to another elderly couple of mushroom hunters, Cheri craftily incited them to move on: Il n'y a rien ici, quelle dommage! At 15 euros the kilo, one can't afford to play Mr Fun Guy. 

One hour and two plastic bags full later, the mission was a success. I'm planning on freezing half of the mushrooms to make chicken and mushroom pie or a wild mushroom risotto. The other half are going in tonight's dinner, lovingly cooked with garlic, fresh parsley and olive oil to make a perfect winter omelette filling.  

Autumn salads / Salades d'automne

Don't get me wrong, I love winter food; it sticks to your bones, fills you up and keeps you warm! I'm not ready to give out on summer just yet though. One of the advantages of living in the South of France is that the thermometer is stuck at 24 degrees even though it's October! This doesn't, however, mean that we can cheat the seasons. One look at the market stalls where the tomatoes and aubergines have been replaced by turnips, apples and grapes testifies to an undeniable fact: autumn is here. 

Autumn is my favourite season. I love the colours of the trees, the cooler temperatures mean no more sunburn and I have an excuse to make tasty autumnal dishes like this brie, hazelnut and grape salad.

This idea came to me from a similar salad in the 'October' volume of my Sud Ouest Gourmand collection. I really love this set of cookery books. Not only do they feature seasonal recipies (being based on the months of the year) but they also use ingredients that are normally easy to come by in the area.

Chop up half a block of brie, wash a big bunch of black grapes and cut them in half. Wash your salad leaves (I chose rocket as I like the peppery taste but you can use any seasonal leaves) and mix together in a big serving bowl. Sprinkle over some roasted hazelnuts for a bit of extra protein and a nice crunchy texture. 

The little secret to this recipe is the dressing. As this is quite a sweet salad due to the grapes and the brie can be a bit rich, you need something acidic to cut through the flavours. 

  Squeeze the juice of half a lemon into a little bowl. Add salt and pepper, two teaspoons of balsamic vinegar and 4 teaspoons of olive oil. Whisk together with a fork. Finely dice a shallot and add to the mixture. Drizzle over the salad. 

This dish is enough on its own for two people as a lunchtime meal but if you want to make it a bit more filling serve with a slice or two of country ham. 
  

This dish is easy to make, really tasty and perfectly in harmony with the seasons. What more could you ask for? Maybe seconds!

Let the eating begin

I first knew I was a greedy guts when I realised I enjoyed the weekly food shop more than shopping for clothes or CDs...Food, eating it, creating it, tasting it, buying it, has grown ever since from a basic need for fuel into a real passion, inspired no doubt by the generous meals made for me by my Mam and Nanna (generous both in the emotions put into them and the dishes themselves).

Life has taken its twists and turns since high school, and as fate would have it, I washed up on the Atlantic coast of France in 2009 in the Charente Maritime region. What started out as a summer job (accompanied by a summer romance) has turned into a permanent change of country, a change of language, a change of lifestyle, but most of all a change of cuisine!

Well, speaking thruthfully, not really a change, more of an evolution, a fusion, a mixture of all that makes me miss my mother's British cooking and all that excites me about France and it's opportunities to let my tastebuds roam: new restaurants, undiscovered ingredients, balades gourmandes, enormous markets, delicious wine.

Let the eating begin...