Serre Ponçon
400 grams frozen petits pois
2 shallots
20 grams unsalted butter
40 cl water
10 cl cream
6 eggs
10 cl white vinegar
10 cl red port
5 cl olive oil
Freshly chopped parsley, seasoning
Sweat fi nely chopped shallots with butter
for two minutes in a deep saucepan. Add
the frozen peas and cook a further two minutes, cover
with water and cook a further
20 minutes. Add the cream, bring to the
boil and adjust the seasoning. Leave to
stand. Bring 40 cl of water to the boil add
vinegar, swirl the water, crack each egg in a
ramekin then drop into pan. Once the egg
white has coagulated remove and plunge
into iced water. Combine port and olive oil
with seasoning to taste. Pour soup into six
bowls, place an egg in each, drizzle over
port mixture and garnish with parsley.
500 grams cèpes mushrooms
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small garlic clove crushed
1 fi nely chopped shallot
40 grams butter
1 fresh chicken
2 tablespoons port
1 tablespoon chopped parsley, seasoning
Clean the cèpes with kitchen paper, cutting
off earthy stems before cutting into thick
slices. Heat some of the oil in a frying pan
and sauté the cèpes for 6 minutes with
the garlic and shallot. Remove from heat.
Heat remaining oil and butter in a fl ameproof
casserole and brown chicken on all
sides. Cover, reduce heat and cook slowly
for 20 minutes per 500 grams, turning the
bird from time to time and adding water
if necessary to prevent burning. After 20
minutes add the cèpes mixture to the casserole,
season to taste.
When the chicken is cooked leave to stand
before carving and transferring on to a heated serving dish together
with the cèpes.
Scrape up the pan juices with the port,
bring to the boil and spoon over chicken.
Serve immediately sprinkled with parsley
accompanied by perfect mashed potatoes.
1.5 kg mixed fi sh (any white fi sh can be used)
1 tablespoon sunfl ower oil
2 chopped onions
1 kg medium new potatoes
1 glass white wine
Parsley, bayleaf, thyme, chervil sprigs
Seasoning
1 garlic clove
6 sliced leeks
Sliced baguette
Vinaigrette sauce
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
6 tablespoons sunfl ower oil
Fresh tarragon fi nely chopped
First clean the fi sh, remove heads, tails and
fi ns and cut into large chunks. Heat oil in
large pot. Sauté onions until transparent,
quarter the potatoes and add to onions
with seasoning, cover with water and white
wine. Tie together parsley, chervil, thyme
and bayleaf and add to pot with garlic.
Cover and cook until potatoes are half cooked.
Add sliced leeks and larger pieces of
fi sh, bring to the boil adding more water if
necessary to make a good stock. Cook over
high heat for 15 minutes, add smaller fi sh
and cook a further 5 minutes so fi sh is just
cooked. While the fi sh is cooking, prepare
a bowl of vinaigrette sauce
Carefully scoop leeks and potatoes out of
the stock, cover with a little of the liquid
and keep warm. Discard the garlic and
herbs then pour the rest of the stock into
a soupière (tureen) in which slices of baguette have
fi rst been placed. Plate the fi sh
and vegetables and serve with the tureen
of stock, and vinaigrette sauce. Typically
the fi sh and vegetables are eaten fi rst, with
or without the vinaigrette and fi nally the
soup stock.
CRÈME DE PETITS POIS
Petit pois are delicious year round
Serves 6
POULET AUX CÈPES
Autumn greets the fi rst harvest of cèpes
Serves 4
LA COTRIADE DES PECHEURS
Fisherman's stew from Brittany
Serves 6
Vinaigrette sauce
2 tablespoons cider vinegar