Jamie Oliver - A Valentine's with Benefits...

I have to admit that I find Valentine's Day one of the most superfluous "holidays" ever. Love on command, all those totally overpriced roses, chocolates and bottles of bubbly - not for me, thank you very much. And what is more depessing than a whole restaurant of tables of two drinking their pink champagne, eating a pink starter, pink main course and pink dessert? Been there, done that, exactly once and we still laugh about it. But somehow my darling husband saw all those guys queuing at the florist's and probably felt kind of funny being seen without anything (Valentine's is huge here in Provence!) . And so what did I get? A beautiful rose and this:

The French version of Jamie Oliver's magazine. Monsieur just knows that I love cooking mags and used to buy far too many of them and recently put myself on a strict magazine detox.

Guess who was first to look through it and decorate it with more than half a dozen page markers? Let me just say that so far these are the only recipes I had time to look at and today we had Jamie's very simple but delicious "Tarte de Printemps" for lunch. The ingredients are easlily found this time of the year, leeks and spinach are about all the fresh produce you find besides various cabbages and squashes in our markets now. So I guess my husband got himself a Valentine's with benefits...

Jamie Oliver's Tarte de Printemps (Spring Tart)
270 g filo pasty
200 g baby spinach leaves
6 slices bacon
6 eggs
200 ml milk
3 medium sized leeks
pepper and salt
Preheat the oven to 180 C, oil a 20 x 30 cm tart tin.
Distribute the filo leaves one by one slightly overlapping the tin and oiling between layering the next filo leaf. Put the spinach in a colander and pour boiling water over the spinach so it wilts. Leave to cool. Finely chop the well rinsed leeks (white parts only). Grill the bacon until crisp, degrease on some papertowels. When the spinach is cool enough to handle, squeeze out as much of the water as you can, then roughly chop the spinach and mix with the chopped up leeks. Crumble the crisp bacon and mix with the spinach and leeks.
Distribute this mixture on the filo pastry. In a bowl mix the eggs and the milk with freshly ground pepper and salt and pour over the tart. Bake for 30 minutes.
PS: The only thing I would probably add next time is a handful of grated cheese into the egg mixture.

Jamie's Tarte de Printemps

Friends go - Recipes stay

It's funny, but some of my very best recipes originate from former friends that for various reasons I am not in touch with anymore. Yesterday when I prepared a spinach potato gratin it made me think about the friend from London that I lost because another (very much ex-) friend told her some bad lies. But then again this very much ex-friend gave me the recipe for the best ever beef stew which no matter what I think of her I will never give up making (the fact that the preparation of this stew involves at least half a bottle of brandy does help -there is always a little swig left for the cook).
And yet another long lost friend is the author of a chicken recipe that everybody, but truly everybody loves. And even if sometimes it is sad:  friends may go - but real good recipes are here to stay!

Finely sliced potaoes covered by just wilted spinach

....and covered by another layer of very finely sliced potatoes

Fresh from the oven: spinach and Potato Gratin

"le beau reste" as the French say

To feed 4 to 6 people you need:

750 g (1 1/2 lbs) potatoes, peeled and very finely sliced. A big bag (500g/ 1lb) of baby spinach leaves, 1 clove of garlic, 300ml (1 1/2 cups) of crème fraîche (or sour cream or double cream), pepper and nutmeg fresh from the mill and kosher salt. A handful of grated cheese (Gruyère is best).

Butter a gratin dish and cover in one even layer of very finely sliced potatoes. Generously sprinkle with freshly milled pepper and nutmeg and kosher salt.

In a big pan heat a few drops of olive oil add the spinach and let wilt. Discard spinach into a sieve, let cool and press out most of the moisture. Distribute the spinach over the first layer of potaoes, then cover with another layer of sliced potatoes. Season as before - generously please as potatoes "eat" spices - i.e. need rather a lot of them. Very finely mince (or press) one clove of garlic and stir into the crème fraîche, sour cream or double cream, dilute with a little bit of milk if necessary to give the cream pouring consistency. Pour over the spinach-potato gratin, sprinkle with a generous handful of grated cheese and let bake in a preheated oven at 180°C/350°F for 40 to 45 minutes. I like to serve this alongside smoked or poached salmon.