Five on Friday

Friday's come around again in the blink of an eye, time to join Amy @ Love Made My Home for her Five on Friday gathering which is fast becoming my favourite blog party.
My Foodie Five this week are......................

#1 Dining in.

When the Senior Partner came back from buying our daily bread last Friday morning he brought with him a bag of luscious dark red cherries.
My first thought was I'll make a "clafoutis aux cerises" for dessert tonight.
My clafoutis is loosely based on a recipe in Patricia Wells cook book "At Home in Provence" which I've had for donkey's years.
I've made cherry clafoutis many times and it always goes down well.
Here's the how to info.
Wash the cherries (about 1kg) leave the stones in for added flavour but remember to watch out for them later!
Preheat your oven to 220 °C.
Put the cherries into a baking dish, add a good glug of a sweet eau de vie such as Kirsch for added cherry ness (I didn't have Kirsch last week so used a sweet Marsala wine instead, the almond flavour went well with the cherries) and 2 tbsp. of white granulated sugar.
Put the dish into the middle of the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes.
Whisk two large eggs with 100g sugar until frothy, add 6 tbsps. of crème fraiche or double cream whichever you happen to have in the fridge and the same amount of full fat milk.
Remove the dish from the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 180 °C, drain the cherries reserve the juice for later and let the cherries cool slightly.
Pour the batter over the cherries and bake until golden in colour with no wobble, approx. 20/25 minutes.
Serves 8 but I usually halve recipes for eight since there's just the two of us.

Allow the clafoutis to cool a little then sprinkle icing sugar over the top, grill on a very high heat for about 2 minutes to caramelise the top. I left mine in a bit too long which is why it's so dark!
Serve warm with ice cream or cream. If you like you can also pour the reserved juice over for an extra hit of cherry ness. Yum!

2# Dining out.

On Saturday we drove over to Grandcamp Maisy on the coast for lunch at La Marée .
The restaurant is just opposite the harbour where there's always something to see, fishing boats going to and fro bringing in the fresh catch and the occasional tourist boat heading out to the landing beaches.

We both chose the 2 course Menu Terroir.
The entrée included slices of smoked salmon, a salmon tartare timbale and egg mimosa.
This was followed by - a piece of perfectly cooked cod resting on a bed of finely diced ratatouille.
Instead of dessert we shared a plate of "Les Trois Normandes"  Normandy's famous Camembert, Livarot and Pont-L'Evêque cheeses.
The wine, a gold award winning Graves Blanc, was recommended by our waitress and complemented the food perfectly.

#3 Picnic time.

Did you know that on the 18th June folks all around the world will be celebrating International Picnic Day?
My lovely friend Sarah, who's blog Hyacinths For The Soul is truly beautiful, reminded me of that fact recently and suggested that I join in the fun by sharing once again my "Teddy Bears Picnic" post from 2009.
I'll do that tomorrow but in the meantime here's a sneak peek of some of my bears enjoying themselves in the garden.

#4 Picnic Food - outdoors.

Chilled cucumber and avocado soup is perfect for a picnic, so easy to make and so easy to take along using some of our favourite jam jars to transport/serve the soup in.

Peel and dice one large cucumber (leave seeds in and reserve some dice for decoration) and one very ripe avocado - tip into your blender, add a quarter cup of chopped cilantro or parsley, a finely chopped jalapeno pepper, ditto one spring onion, zest and juice of half a lemon, s & p to taste, one cup plain yoghurt and one of cold water.
Blitz until smooth (ish).
Pour into jam jars, add a sprig of cilantro/parsley and a few of the reserved cucumber dice for decoration, put the lids on the jars and keep chilled in the fridge until it's time to head off on your picnic.

#5 Picnic food - indoors.

After an afternoon spent working in the garden a "fridge picnic" is the quickest way to get food on a plate and us back on the sofa watching Euro 2016.
Yawn.
Personally, I'd much rather be watching the Great British Sewing Bee.
Just saying.

Melon and prosciutto are a favourite aperitivo/canapes combo here in France, I'm sure households all over the country will be enjoying them during Euro 2016.
I added chunks of torn up mozzarella and halved cherry tomatoes over a mesclun of mâche (lambs lettuce), roquette (rocket/arugula) and basil leaves.
A few twists of black pepper, a pinch of Fleur de Sel de Guérande,  a drizzle of olive oil and the salad was done.
The only cooking I had to do was grill a few slices of baguette then rub the deliciously charred surfaces with a peeled garlic clove.
So easy to put together and delicious too, add a large glass of chilled white wine and you've got a perfect couch picnic.
Do you have plans to go on a picnic tomorrow?
Indoors or out?
I'd love to hear what you'll pack in your basket.

Follow the link to see who else is joining Amy today.

bon weekend