French starters

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

Any suggestions for tasty starters?

Last week we stayed with friends and for a starter had St Marcellin cheese and sliced apple wrapped in bacon and baked. It was delicious. I made it again at home this evening because my friend insisted I brought the remaining cheese home.

When we are in France, we do like to have starters, but tend to stick to tomatoes in cream, lettuce, piedmontese or tabouleh. I'm not particularly keen on crudites, so other tasty suggestions would be appreciated. Nothing too time consuming though - also, nothing with mouldy cheese or camembert although others may be interested. The most disgusting thing I have ever tasted was camembert croutons in a restaurant in Evreux.

It would be also interesting to have suggestions of other tasty French dishes which are easy to do when camping. We tend to barbecue a lot, but would like more variety from the Escalopes de veau a la creme, tartiflette, beef in red wine with olives etc. We only have 2 gas rings, a poor grill and a remoska (electric cooking tin which is like a small oven - I can get a small roast or 4 quail in it).

Suggestions to use fish would be good as I never know what to do with most of it and find most recipes in English books pretty uninspiring.

Thanks

[letrangere]

Hi Jill,

Gosh, that starter you had in France recently sounds wonderful, must make a note of it.  Coquilles St Jacques is one of my favourites to make as a first course, it's not particularly fiddly and you have the right bits of the stove/grill to do it.  Recipes in all books and variations too, I sometimes add chopped tomatoes and herbs (what's that called?).  Also, not always necessary to use scallops, a fleshy white fish is an excellent substitute.  And dish also makes a good light lunch with salad and bread. 

Also on fish, how about moules marinieres?  Quick and easy, only downsides are you need a huge pot and they are messy to eat but if you're camping, no worries.

I sometimes serve a French version of Italian mixed anti-pasta, ie assorted charcuterie served with a ratatouille and plenty of bread of course.  This too though can also be almost a meal in itself.  Incidentally, a friend who spent a year in Aix as a student once told me that the woman she lodged with always kept a pot of ratatouille on the back of the stove and that it was best to make it at least a day or two before serving to allow the flavours to melange.

I have a casserole dish that I do repeatedly and it never fails to please, it's a variation on the famous dish from the SW, pintade (though you could use a chicken) in figs.  It's a deliciously summery dish but I did it recently in winter too substituting pears for the figs.  Oh, and apples and fennel was a lovely combination too.  Trick is to include a generous amount of dessert wine and to cook it long enough until the bird juices and the fruit almost caramelise.   Haven't time now but I'll post recipe later today.

bon appetit!

M 

 

[Tourangelle]

A spoonful of prawn cocktail mixture placed inside half a ripe chilled avocado makes a quick summer-like starter. I don't know if it is especially French, but I have only ever been served it here.

[Teamedup]

I would say that all those salade composé are the thing that is very french.

From the very basic any lettuce or endive you fancy and some cubes of comte and cubes of cooked ham or walnuts and vinaigrette. Now I like these very very simple salads. However, many people love lots more on their salads. And my husband loves salads with several of the following on them.............: Croutons, lardons, poached eggs, caille eggs..........:blush no idea what they are in english,) blue cheese, chevre chaud, chicken livers, parma ham......... and the list goes on. And then there is all the other stuff to add like olives, tomatoes, poivrons and cucumber and some nice bread.

And this is the sort of thing I would certainly make when camping.

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

Thanks for these suggestions - good thing I've just eaten breakfast or it would have set me off wanting to eat.

TU - Caille is Quail. We got into Quail a few years ago when we went to a prehistoric meal in Languedoc Roussillon and they flattened quail and plastered them in garlic before cooking over an open fire. Mmm! Even though I'm not really into fiddling with boned. Not tried the eggs though. We did cook quail plastered in garlic while camping last year.

Of course you forgot to mention the gesiers for the salades composes. I dared myself to eat them in a restaurant the other year and found they weren't at all bad.

MWJ - I think it's true what you said about ratatouille being better the next day. We sometimes use left overs on cold pasta to make a salad. But I think it goes for garlicky tomato sauces anyway. Spag Bol is tastier if you reheat it the next day. What I also like is left over All'Amatriciana sauce - bacon, onions, tomatoes, garlic etc - great for breakfast on toast with an egg scrambled into it!

[Keely]

A nice easy starter is goats cheese with honey and walnuts - it tastes better than it sounds!!

Grill slice of goats cheese on a piece of baguette, place on green salad and drizzle warm honey over top. Sprinkle with walnuts.

First had this in Cahors as the cheese course, but makes good starter.

[zeb]

 

mmmmm.....yummy!

Our easy summer favourites are

Garlicky eggs:

Hard boil eggs, when cold cut in half and scoop out yolks and mix with crushed garlic, mayonnaise, sea salt and ground black pepper. Fill the eggs and place prettily on bed of very ripe, sliced tomatoes (which have been sprinkled with sea salt. Drizzle citron vinaigrette over and serve with crusty baguette.

Warm lardon and mushroom salad:

Fry lardons and mushroom chunks in little olive oil with some herbs. Set aside to keep warm. Deglazed pan with estragon vinegar. Place mushrooms and lardons on bed of mixed salad leaves, drizzle estragon/oil mix over the top and add a few pinenuts. Again, serve with crusty french bread.

Ricotta and spinach stuffed mushrooms:

One large flat field mushroom per person. Take off stem and chop finely. Mix with some thawed out frozen spinach, ricotta cheese, a little garlic, parsley and season well. Spoon onto the mushrooms, sprinkle with parmesan, drizzle with olive oil and bake in oven for half an hour.

Salmon terrine:

3 or 4 (wild if possible) salmon fillets (about 400gr), tablespoonful of creme fraise, 2 whisked egg whites, tbsp lemon juice, chopped dill and seasoning. Poach salmon gently (so that it breaks up easily) for a minute or so and remove skin. Mix everything together, spoon into terrine dish or ramekins and poach in bain marie until set. Chill and serve with crusty bread and gherkins and a cold chablis.

I could go on............