France Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: France

25
Apr
2022

Vogueing A Ham and Cheese Croissant

categories: 1980's Food, 1980's recipes, Bread, France, Magazines

Now you might be wondering why on earth am I featuring a recipe for a ham and cheese croissant? Surely that’s not even a recipe? Well, we are cooking from the Vogue Entertaining Guide from Autumn 1986 which means we are making easy food complicated because that’s what posh people wanted back then.

You or I or most normal people would make a ham and cheese croissant by placing ham and cheese inside a croissant and toasting it. If I was feeling a bit fancy I might grate the cheese. I always add a bit of mustard because I love the ham, cheese, and mustard combo. That’s as fancy as I normally get.

But Vogue in 1986 would have us melting the cheese with some cream and pouring it over the top of the croissant. And if that’s what Vogue wanted me to do, that’s exactly what I did! I feel that someone at Vogue HQ back in 1986 thought making a sauce, somewhat akin to the bechamel used in a traditional Croque Monsieur would make this more…French? Sophisticated? Elegant?

Or, none of the above.

It was messy and made the croissant soggy. And no one likes a soggy croissant!

But there was something here I didn’t want to let go of. And I’d bought a multipack of croissants

I also had some of that cheese sauce left.

So why not give it a little twist?

Ham and Cheese Croissant Day 2 – Better In Than Out

The problems with Day One (apart from having to make a cheese sauce) were the sogginess and the mess. I want to be able to eat my ham and cheese croissant without utensils. However, pouring sauce over the top of the croissant made this impossible.

But….instead of over the croissant, what if I put the sauce in the croissant?

This was a lot less messy. I could pick it up and eat it without having to use a knife and fork which was a bonus and it also meant that the outside of the croissant stayed crispy and flaky. But it was a bit messy, the sauce leaked out onto my hands a bit so it was still not ideal.

Ham and Cheese Croissant Day 3 – The Bruléed Croissant

So the issue with making this with cheese sauce instead of plain cheese is the sauce. For day 3 I thought about how to make the sauce less, well, saucy. Which is how I got to the idea of the bruleed croissant. Same as Day 2 but instead of serving the croissant as soon as I added the cheese, I popped it back into the oven and under the grill for a few minutes.

This was the best so far. The croissant was crispy and flaky. The sauce was not too runny and it took on that lovely flavour of grilled cheese.

Day Four – A Break Day Bagel

Day Four I went into the office and bought a bagel for breakfast from my favourite place. I was getting a little bit sick of ham and cheese croissants. However….

It. Was. Terrible.

Possibly the worst bagel I have ever eaten.

I’m not naming and shaming them because pre-covid they were superb. But I also will not be buying a bagel from them for a while. I have sourced a new bagel place not too far from home which I will try out during the week. As well to the traditional salmon and lox, they also have some combos like a chicken katsu, a miso mushroom and a labneh and za’atar bagel. All of which I cannot wait to try!

Day 5 – The Classic Ham and Cheese Croissant

Sometimes you just have to go back to basics and tell Vogue to take a hike.

Swap out the sauce for a slice of cheese and place your croissant under the grill for a few minutes until the cheese melts. I used a slice of Jarlsberg but feel free to to use whatever melting cheese you have.

Oozy cheese, flaky croissant, no cutlery required to eat. Perfection!

Here’s the recipe from Vogue October 1986. Why you might want it is another question entirely!

For slightly more successful dishes from Vogue October 1986 you could check out the following:

Have a wonderful week my friends!

27
Feb
2022

Death in the Clouds: Chicken Chaud-Froid

categories: Chicken, Chicken & Poultry, Dining With The Dame, France, Poirot

Welcome aboard crime readers and food lovers! Today on Dining with the Dame we are reading 1935’s Death in The Clouds. Our menu option includes a rather fancy-sounding French dish called Chicken Chaud-Froid. James Beard describes it as follows:

“Chaid-froid is a thickened sauce of butter, flour, broth and cream which may be mixed with geliatin and is used to cover poultry…use this sauce to dip the bird…Decorate with truffles, tarragon, blanched almonds, mushroom caps, sliced olives or vegetables”

Well, my budget doesn’t run to truffles but I have made you a Chicken Chaud-Froid inspired by Death in The Clouds!

Death in The Clouds – The Plot

The stewards on a plane from London to Calais are shocked to find one of the passengers, Madame Giselle, dead in her seat. Some marks on her neck indicate that she may have had a reaction to a wasp sting. A dead wasp is also found on the plane. However. Hercule Poirot who is also a passenger on the plane discovers an African blow dart on the floor and deduces that Madame Giselle, a moneylender to the rich and famous, has been murdered. But who on the plane wanted her dead?

We have:

Lady Horbury, formerly an actress, who is addicted to both gambling and cocaine
Venetia Kerr, a member of the aristocracy and childhood friend of Lord Horbury
Jane Grey, a hairdresser’s assistant coming home from a holiday funded by a large win on a horse
Norman Gale, dentist and admirer of Jane Grey
Armand Dupont and his son Jean, French archaeologists
Doctor Bryant of Harley Street
James Ryder, a businessman who has failed to make a deal that could keep his company afloat
Mystery writer Daniel Clancy

Eleven passengers in the cabin including Poirot plus two stewards (no spoilers here but none of them did it). The twelfth passenger was murdered by a blowdart. And no one saw a thing.

This is a classic closed circle mystery. We know one of the passengers did Madame Giselle in. But who? Poirot figures out who by page 70 in my edition. He just doesn’t understand why! I also figured out who on my first read BUT it was more about me disliking the character and WANTING them to the murderer rather than any true detecting. However, I read this book again last week to refresh my memory of it and the clues are there in plain sight so a careful reading could get you there!

Death in The Clouds – The Covers

I would like to call out the pulpy looking cover on the bottom row second from the right. Madame Giselle’s ugliness is mentioned several times in Death in The Clouds. If that lovely blonde lady is someone’s idea of hideously ugly (Christie’s words, not mine) then that person’s standards are ridiculously high!!!

The Recipe – Chicken Chaud Froid

I’ll be very honest here. The chicken Chaud froid was not to my taste at all. I ended up scraping all the cold jellied velouté off the chicken and making a sandwich with the chicken breast. If cold creamy gelatine chicken is your thing…go for it! For the rest of us….let’s all have a little giggle at my ridiculous attempts to make a wasp out of olives and tomatoes and a plane out of carrot and olives and forget this recipe ever exists.

The recipe I used which is from the 60th Anniversary edition of the James Beard Fireside Cookbook doesn’t actually tell you how to cook the chicken. So, let’s start you off with a basic recipe for poached chicken. And take it from there.

Here’s Jame’s Beard’s take:

And here is his veloute recipe:

From Mr Clancy’s house they took a taxi to The Monseigneur, where they found Norman Gale waiting for them. Poirot ordered some consommé and a chaud-froid of chicken.

-Agatha Christie – Death in the Clouds

The Monseigneur was actually a restaurant in Jermyn Street London in the 1930’s. Here is a picture of the interior.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Death In The Clouds

Cold Tongue
Soda Water and Thin Captain Biscuits
Coffee (several mentions)
Cheese and Biscuits
The meal served on the plane included soup, meat and vegetables, salad, dessert, tea and coffee. (All on a journey from Calais to London which is all of 151 km. These days on a trip from Melbourne to Sydney which is 713 km you’d be lucky to get a pack of peanuts!)
Soup
Tea
A “frenchified” meal at Poirot’s apartment. I would LOVE to know what this was!
Irish Stew
Omelette aux champignons
Sole a la Normand
Port Salut Cheese
Kidneys at breakfast
Orange Juice
Tea and Muffins
Bananas and Beer
Consommé
Sausages and Mash
Sherry / Aperitifs

There is a lot more to say about Death in The Clouds but they would be out of place in a regular Dining With The Dame post like this. This is why next week, we are going to have a Death in The Clouds recap. With a cocktail of course.

Our March Read will be The ABC Mystery which is another Poirot mystery but a lot darker than Death in The Clouds.

Happy reading and eating!

19
Jan
2022

Last of the Cheese Platter Quiche

categories: 365 Good Reasons To Sit Down and Eat, Book Club, Cheese, France

Hello friends, this weeks recipe takes the leftovers at the end of a cheese platter – the scraps of cheese, leftover nuts, maybe a bit of Proscuitto and turns them all into a delicious quiche. In theory that is. I, for one, think that leftover cheese belongs to the realms of unicorns and heffalumps. I personally have never known such a phenomenon. However, tomorrow, January 20, the world is celebrating Cheese Lover’s Day so there should be cheese platters aplenty. If ever there was a time to see that elusive creature, the leftover piece of cheese it will be then!

The quiche is very simple so you could jazz it up by adding some of the herbs or vegetables you may have languishing in your fridge! I used some parsley and some spring onions in my cheese as well as 4 types of cheese, some walnuts and some bacon.

Last year (for a few months), I implemented my Fridge, Freezer Pantry week which is my attempt to reduce kitchen waste. The last week of each month, we will not visit the supermarket but will eat only what is currently in our fridge, freezer and pantry. The practice kind of fell by the wayside during the year but I have brought it back for 2022 and recipes like this will help to ensure that I keep it going!

Last of The Cheese Platter Quiche – The Recipe

The recipe comes from 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down and Eat, the same book that brought us Detox Soup earlier this month.

The strange thing about this quiche was the walnuts. It was not that they tasted bad, they were a lovely addition. However, I think I am so used to having the contents of a quiche be fairly soft that finding a chunk of something hard in my quiche was disconcerting for me. Next time I shall cut my walnuts into smaller pieces so it is not as startling! It would be super if instead of buying pastry you made your own and added the chopped walnuts into that!

Just to be a little extra cheesy, here’s a very cute cheese pun.

Have a great Cheese Lover’s Day!

24
Oct
2021

Coeur A La Creme – Murder on The Orient Express

categories: 1970's recipes, A-Zof Cooking, Dining With The Dame, France, Poirot

Hello crime readers and food lovers! Welcome to part two of my Murder on The Orient Express Trilogy! We started last week with the fun collab with Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers. Today is a regular Dining with The Dame and next week we will have an added bonus. For now though, let’s focus on my recipe of choice for Dining with the Dame which is a classic French dessert – a Coeur A La Creme, the recipe for which comes from my old favourite, The A-Z of Cooking!

And just to be clear, this dessert is French, not Belgian!

Murder on The Orient Express – The Plot

We touched on this last week but here is a quick recap. Hercule Poirot boards the Orient Express in Istanbul, the train is unexpectedly crowded for the time of year. On the first night, Poirot is approached by an American, Samuel Ratchett who offers Poirot money to protect him as he has been receiving death threats. Poirot does not like him and refuses. Later that evening, after a course of events that either awake him or keep him awake, Poirot learns that the train is stuck in a snowdrift in the middle of Yugoslavia.

The next morning, Poirot wakes to find that his neighbour, the odious Mr Ratchett has been stabbed 12 times and is now resoundingly dead! With no one able to get on or off the train, due to the snowdrift, the murderer has to still be on board. As the police can also not reach the train, Poirot takes on the job of hunting down the killer.

We have:

A mysterious red kimono
A burned letter with the words “member Daisy Armstrong” still legible
A handkerchief bearing the letter H
A pipe cleaner and a box of matches different to those used by Rachett
And twelve passengers who may not be entirely who they seem!

This book is so amazingly plotted, so well written that it brings my obsessive little heart joy to think about it. Every little detail in this is plotted to the nth degree, and yet when you are reading it, it feels effortless.

Murder on The Orient Express- The Covers

The American version of Murder was called Murder on the Calais Coach. Not quite as catchy is it? I love the pulp fiction cover with the woman in the red kimono and am completely baffled by the one on its right. What are those things? They look like some weird brass band instruments!

The Recipe – Coeur A La Creme

Murder on the Orient Express has a surprising lack of food. I was hoping we would have some Turkish food from the Istanbul scenes and then some very posh French food while onboard. No such luck! My choice of a Couer a la Creme came from this passage:

‘Poirot sat down and soon found himself in the favoured position of the table which was served first and with the choicest of morsels. The food too, was unusually good.

It was not until they were eating a delicate cream cheese that M.Bouc allowed his attention to wander to matters other than nourishment. He was at the stafge of the meal when one becomes philosophic”

Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express

Coeur A La Creme is my take on that delicate cream cheese. And I am so glad I chose it. It is absolutely delicious!!! Next to that Ingrid Bergman Trout that I made last week, it is one of the most gorgeous, delicate, delicious things I have ever eaten. Think the lightest most delicious cheesecake you have ever eaten and you are nearly there! And it comes from something as gross as cottage cheese!

Coeur a la Creme is traitionally associated with romantic occasions such as Valentine’s Day. But as we are talking Murder on The Orient Express and we are in spooky season, I hope all those romantics out there will forgive me for making it a bit stabby!

Other Food Mentioned in Murder on the Orient Express

Perrier

Coffee (Multiple times)

Eggs – Eggs always make an appearance in these books! I wonder if writing about Poirot’s egg-shaped head so often made Dame Agatha hungry for them!

Orange juice

Mineral Water

Chicken no sauce

Boiled fish

Tea and biscuits

Cognac

Stay tuned next week for the third and final instalment of the Murder on the Orient Express Extravaganza!!! If you are reading along, next up is Three Act Tragedy so get reading!

Breaking news!

Dining with the Dame now has its own instagram page so if you are reading along or cooking along or just want to share Agatha Christie related recipes or book posts you can now hit me up there too!

03
Oct
2020

Orange and Cinnamon Creme Caramel

categories: Desserts, Food Holiday, France, Orange

Happy Caramel Custard Day everyone! Yes indeed there is a day for every sort of food imaginable and October 3rd is Caramel Custard Day! I am celebrating with a Moroccan twist on the classic French dish with an Orange and Cinnamon Creme Caramel.

No one in my family, except me, is a great lover of sweet things. As a result, I didn’t have too many desserts growing up. The one thing we did have and which my mum cooked to PERFECTION was a creme caramel. So, I know what a good creme caramel looks and tastes like. The caramel needs to be a nanosecond away from bitterness, the custard smooth and silky, the top a shiny mirror glaze and the almost ombre effect of the darker caramel soaked custard at the top and the paler pure custard at the bottom.

My problem is, I have, up until now been absolutely terrible at making it myself! I tried to make a creme caramel recipe from Cantina THREE times. Twice the caramel went all crystally. Another time there was no sauce only a hard set toffee that was stuck to the bottom of each of the serving dishes!

Not so with this recipe which came from Lousie Frank’s Winter which is a fabulous book. I’ve made many great dishes from it and, as it was a Tasty Reads selection will no doubt pop up here again!

The Recipe

This version of a creme caramel was lovely. The cinnamon came through quite strongly, the orange not so much. When I make this again, I will sprinkle some orange zest over the top of the completed desserts to really ramp up the taste of the orange. You could, of course, leave one or both of them out completely if you are not a lover of orange or cinnamon and this would still be a damn fine Creme caramel.

So on October 3rd what do we say to Caramel Custards? We say…

Have a great weekend everyone!