Category: Europe

Oeufs A La Cantalienne & Greens with Horseradish Dressing

What do you do when, you are about 30 seconds away from your front door and realise that you have left two essential ingredients for your planned dinner in the fridge at work?

Oeufs A La Cantalienne

First, swear.

A lot.

Then drum up an emergency supper of Oeufs a La Cantilienne and serve that with a Salad of Bitter Greens with Horseradish Dressing!

Happy days!

How eight hours can change you.  I started the day off being super organised!  For dinner, I had planned to celebrate Meatless Monday by making the cauliflower and chickpea “meat” balls from the Meatball book which is our latest selection from the Tasty Reads book club.  I’d read the recipe that morning and realised I was short a few ingredients – namely basil and parsley for the green sauce which was going to accompany the meatballs.

I had tasted this green sauce on a visit to the Meatball and Wine Bar and it is SENSATIONAL.  As far as I was concerned, no green sauce, no non-meatballs.   You can kind of see the sauce in this picture.  The man in the street looks pretty taken by them too!

Meatballs with Green SauceBut I digress.  We’ll get to the meatball book in due course.  Today is all about the eggs.  And the cheese and the horseradish dressing.

Ouefs a La C2Anyway, back to my super-organised morning, I was early that day so  I stopped in at the supermarket beside the station and bought my herbs.  And stored them in the work fridge for the day.

Where they stayed.

What to do?  I wasn’t going back to get them.  So, another dinner needed to be pulled out of  the ingredients I had in the fridge and the pantry.

Ouefs a La Cantalienne4Now I ‘m going to let you in on a secret.  I actually had the ingredients for a very posh and trés français version of the Oeufs a La Cantalienne.  Because I plan my food within an inch of my life it was on my menu plan for later in the week.   But you could also make a perfectly delicious version of this from ingredients you are likely to have in your fridge.  It’s a great emergency meal!

Oeufs A La Cantalienne WhitesSo what are Oeufs a La Cantalienne?  It’s a French Baked Cheesy Eggs.  The version I was going to make had duck eggs, comté cheese and créme fraiche.  But it would be equally delish with normal eggs, cheddar or swiss (gruyere) cheese and cream or sour cream.  Of course the flavour will be slightly different with each variation but hey, it will all be good!!!

oeufs a la cantalienne5What’s more, these will be on the table in about 20 minutes.  Just enough time for you to pour yourself a glass of vino and make your Bitter Greens Salad with Horseradish Dressing.

Oeufs a la cantalienne6And you know.  Eggs, cheese and cream.  That’s never going to be bad. About 12 minutes in the oven is about perfect.  I got a bit distracted by a reality cooking show on the telly something really important and end up cooking mine for about a quarter of an hour but in another plus, this recipe is pretty forgiving!

oeufs a la c cookedThe bitter green salad with horseradish salad is a perfect accompaniment to this.  I used rocket (arugula), kale, spinach and radicchio in mine but whatever greens you have in your fridge will be fine. This is not a meal to be too precious about!

Bitter Green Salad with Horseradish DressingThe horseradish dressing is….OMG…just make it.  Make it now!!!  So good.  So, so good. I have made this salad, or versions of it about a million times since – with eggs, avocado, steamed beans and broccoli, grilled salmon…and everytime it has been amazing.  It’s my new favourite thing.

Bitter Greens With Horseradish Dressing

And, in a reversal of the initial dilemma of leaving things at work, there was a morning when when I got to work and realised I had left the horseradish dressing for my salad in the fridge at home. Well, there was no eating the salad without the dressing, I kept it in the fridge,  bought my lunch and brought the dressing in the next day!  That’s how good this dressing is. If it wasn’t totally unseemly, I would be licking it off the spoon. (I totally did that when no one was looking).

Oeufs A La Cantalienne

Oh, and when I finally made the non-meatballs?  Total  let down. The green sauce was pretty good but the balls were like the worst falafel I’ve ever eaten.

I should have just made more eggs!

Print

Oeufs A La Cantalienne And Bitter Greens With Horseradish Dressing

A great emergency supper. The Oeufs A La Cantalienne can be made as fancy or as simple as you like and the salad has quickly become a firm favourite!

Ingredients

Scale

For the Oeufs A La Cantalienne

  • 2 duck eggs //eggs
  • 30g Comté cheese//sharp cheddar//gruyere
  • 1 tbsp crème fraiche //sour cream //cream
  • pinch of nutmeg (optional)
  • For the Bitter Greens Salad
  • 2 tbsp mixed toasted seeds – I used pepitas, sunflower seeds and flax seeds
  • 2 cups bitter greens – I used rocket (arugula), kale, spinach and radicchio
  • 1/2 red onion thinly sliced

For the Dressing

  • 3 tbsp creme fraiche
  • 2 tbsp fresh grated horseradish or 1 tbsp prepared horseradish
  • 1 tbsp champagne or white wine vinegar

Instructions

For the Ouefs A La Cantalienne

  1. Preheat oven to 220°C.
  2. Grate the cheese and scatter half over the base of a buttered individual baking dish.
  3. Separate the eggs, keeping yolks intact.
  4. Whisk whites to soft peaks. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
  5. Fold in the remaining cheese.
  6. Pour mixture into the baking dishes and make an indentation in the middle of mixture.
  7. Place an egg yolk in each indentation.
  8. Add a 1/2 tbsp of crème fraiche by the side of each yolk.
  9. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden and set.

For the Salad

  1. Toss the greens and onion together.
  2. Whisk the crème fraiche, horseradish and vinegar together until smooth.
  3. Just before serving, toss through the greens and onion.
  4. Top with the toasted seeds.

Notes

  • The dressing will make much more than you need for one salad. You’ll want to use the extra on everything you eat over the next week!
  • If you are making this for more than 2 people you can cook it in one large baking dish, you might just have to adjust the cooking time to be a bit longer.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 2

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The Margaret Fulton Cookbook 10 – Quiche Lorraine

A quiche is an open-faced tart with a savoury custard filling.  It was originally made with bread dough but short pastry has been substituted in modern recipes.

The pastry should be rolled as thinly as possible…there should be a lot of creamy filling on very little pastry.

– Margaret Fulton

Both of these look pretty good.  But I am very fond of a quiche so more is pretty much more for me!!!  But I totally understand why most people would prefer the understated elegance of the modern photo

Quiche Lorraine
Quiche Lorraine

Here’s the recipe!

Quiche Lorraine recipeHope your week is fabulous.

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The Margaret Fulton Cookbook 5 – Onion Soup Gratinée

Only the pure in heart can make a good soup”

– Ludwig van Beethoven

But any bozo in 1977 could photo it. The sign, the snails, the baguettes.

It’s French.  We get it.

Nous l’avons.

French Onion Soup Gratinee 1977
French Onion Soup Gratinee 1977

The soup looks like a hot mess too.

Whereas this from 2004?  Gorgeous! So elegant.  I just want to grab that spoon and tuck right in!

French Onion Soup Gratinee 2004
French Onion Soup Gratinee 2004

Which is your favourite?

Also, all going well in scheduled post land…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM, LOVE YOU LOTS !!!!

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Related articles

 

The Margaret Fulton Cookbook 3 – Onion and Olive Pie

“When a substantial first course is called for, it is hard to improve on a savoury tart served warm”

– Margaret Fulton

I so totally agree!

MFCB Olive And Onion Tart
MFCB Olive And Onion Tart

I think the Onion and Olive Pie  looks pretty good in both of these pictures. It’s certainly the best looking item on the 1977 page. In the modern picture though, it really shines.

Both make me wonder why this is not called a Tomato and Olive Pie.

If like me, you really want to eat this, here is the recipe.  From the 1977 version.  This ain’t called Retro Food For Modern Times for nothing.

 

Onion and Olive Tart Recipe
Onion and Olive Tart Recipe

Have a great week…if you want to know what I’m up to on holidays check out my daily Instagram!

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Brazo Di Gitano – The Gypsy’s Arm

Cross my palm with silver and I will tell you tales of magic and wonder.  Or just keep reading ‘cos I cooked something really good!

GypsyI see, in your future a little taste of Spain….because today in a final piece of birthday indulgence, I bring to you The Gypsy’s Arm…aka The Brazo Di Gitano.

And what you may ask is the Brazo Di Gitano?  Well remember back at Christmas when my family took against me for bringing a Potato Salad Roll  to our Christmas festivities?  I felt then that despite their negativity it was my duty to bring the PSR to the world.  This did not start well.  My St Patrick’s Day Corned Beef PSR was an mitigated disaster.  But redemption is at hand with The Gypsy’s Arm. 

I LOVE this recipe.  And yes, I am yelling at you because it’s that good. It’s like someone took every lovely taste of Spain and mixed it together and then wrapped it up in potato.  And mayo.

Gypsy's Arm
Gypsy’s Arm

 Why a Gypsy’s Arm?  I have no idea.  But when something tastes this good why question it?  I found the original version of this recipe in Anya Von Bremzen’s The New Spanish Table which I thought was an amazing book even before I discovered it had a potato salad roll.

New Spanish TableSo what’s so good about this recipe?  Well, potatoes and mayo…

 But also tuna, tomatoes, olives, capers, red onions and anchovies.  And to make things even better, I added some avocado to mine, hence the greenish tinge. 

Gypsy's Arm2The flavours of this dish took me right back to a trip to Barcelona a few years ago.  It really is Spain on a plate.  And so easy.

Make your mashed potato and spread out on a tray.

 Gypsy's Arm3I left mine a bit chunky so it was still a bit like a regular potato salad.  Then put your tuna filling on  top.  Spread to the edges.

Gypsy's Arm4Then, shake, rattle and roll!!!

Gypsy's Arm5Don’t worry if it cracks a little, or a lot, you can just press it together.  Plus you will shortly be adding your mayo (and avocado topping) so small cracks won’t matter.

Then, channel your inner Gaudi and decorate the outside of roll as you see fit. 

Gypsy's Arm7
Gypsy’s Arm7

 Trim the edges so you have a nice clean line before serving. 

Gypsy's Arm6Eat and transport yourself back to the streets of Barcelona…

Enjoy!

Barcelona Barcelona4 Barcelona Gaudi Barcelona1 Barcelona - Casa Batllo 4 Barcelona - Casa Batllo Barcelona3 Barcelona2Have a great week!  And there are only 2 days to go for the Birthday giveaway.  Subscribe or get one of your friends to subscribe to win a fabulous vintage cookbook.  Prize drawn on Monday!

 Recipe Card

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