COOKBOOKS GALORE

 I’m guilty of not eating enough vegetables, so I’ve been looking at ways to cook them in interesting ways. This is a French recipe that my friend makes regularly. Sometimes she adds a chop or some other meat to the plate, but it’s great on its own. Preheat oven 180C/gas 4 Grease a gratin dish.  You need: 6 medium potatoes, 3 courgettes, 2 medium tomatoes, half a goat’s cheese, small pot of crême fraîche and 2 sprigs of rosemary  Peel the potatoes and slice them thinly. Slice the tomatoes and courgettes thinly.  Put a layer of potatoes in the dish, then a layer of courgettes, a layer of tomatoes and a layer of crême fraîche. Slice the goat’s cheese and put on top. Sprinkle over the rosemary, some salt and pepper. Bake for 50 mins till the veg are cooked. You can use other vegetables such as mushrooms, aubergines etc and add garlic, or you can change the cheese to Emmental or Parmesan or change the herb to thyme or parsley. Endless possibilities!

 I love apricots, but usually in the supermarket they are in little punnets. I went to a market in another town at the weekend, and to my delight, they were selling them on a stall.  This recipe comes from a free recipe card from one of the French supermarkets. It's a popular recipe with my family. You need: 80g caster sugar and 80g soft brown sugar, 1 tspn vanilla extract, 50g ground almonds, 40g soft butter, 1kg apricots, 125g brioche [slices cut from a loaf], 200ml crème fraîche, 3 eggs, icing sugar to sprinkle Preheat oven 180C/gas4                                Grease a large ovenproof dish. Lay the slices of brioche in the bottom of the dish.  Cut the apricots in half and remove stone. Arrange the halves over the brioche, packing together well.  Sprinkle over the ground almonds and the brown sugar. In a bowl, beat together the eggs, caster sugar, vanilla extract, butter and crème f...

Thought I'd post something different this time. When we lived in France we had a large potager, and courgettes grew everywhere they could find a space! Look away for a minute and you had a marrow! This is my friend G's Tante Marie's recipe to use up some of them. It's useful as an a accompaniment to lots of meals, and is very easy to make. You need for 6: 2 courgettes, 4 potatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tbspn crème fraîche, 100g grated gruyère cheese, 3 sprigs of thyme, salt and pepper Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease a gratin dish. Peel the potatoes and cut into rounds, not too thick,  then do the same with the courgettes. Spoon into the dish, strip the thyme off the sprigs and sprinkle over the thyme, together with the crushed and chopped garlic, pepper and salt. In a bowl mix together the cheese and crème fraîche and spoon over the courgette mixture. Bake in the oven for 25-30 mins. A very simple, tasty dish. It goes well with pork chops or as an accompaniment to a bbq. ...