Family bearing food creates fun times

Food, glorious food is fundamental to the French people’s expression of family life and never was this expressed more warmly than when husband Olivier’s adult children and their partners visited bearing gifts of food.

French-born Patricia brought her own home-made Les Recettes beef soup as well as a renowned French dessert – Clafouti, a baked egg dish from her French grandmother’scookbook .

“My grandmother is still alive and living near Paris, but she gave me her cookbook saying “You will have more use out of it than
I will’’,’’ says Patricia. “It contains everyday recipes for the French family.’’

She flicks the well-thumbed pages of her precious hand-me-down French cookbook. Les Recettes Faciles by Francoise Bernard is the old-fashioned kind of cookbook, published in 1967. In the style of the era with simple printed recipes and instructions only without any of the glossy photographs of the nouveau genre, personality cookbooks which jam today’s bookshop shelves. Despite being almost 50 years old, it is Patricia’s favourite reference point when preparing a recipe. She says its recipes are as enduring as
French cuisine.

French people do have a love of cooking; that whole experience of being in the kitchen preparing food,’’ says Patricia, who was born near Paris and raised in Brittany.

“But preparing a particular dish is also a way to share, of showing your love for the family, which was what I wanted to do with my soup. “Soup is such a comforting food, so warm and filling.’’

Patricia says she remembers her great-grandmother who only died 10 years ago and how her grandmother and own mother, Elizabeth, were all exceptional cooks.

“I have great childhood memories of mum cooking for long Sunday lunch which gave us lovely tradition of that whole fact of how food lovingly prepared connects people and how everyone gathers around the table and sharing a dish, tasting it, talking about it,’’ she recalls.
“I went through a stage in my 20s of rejecting how the
females in my family cooked in the traditional way with all crème fresh, the butter and very very
rich foods.’’

However, the traditional Clafouti has remained a family favourite, she says.

“I wanted to cook something with fruit and I had some really nice cherries on hand. It’s a very simple dish and tasty.’’

She says her grandmother was christened Marie Louise but because she was born on May 1, France’s Remembrance Day when Lily of the Valley floral sprigs are sold on each street corner throughout France, she was called Muguette.

“So there are lovely memories surrounding each recipe I use from my cookbook.’’

Here Patricia shares her Recette pour le Clafouti, from Les Recettes Faciles de Francoise Bernard, 1967.

Preparation and cooking time: 1 hour

Very easy and not expensive

Ingredients

500g of tasty cherries; 60g flour; 125g caster sugar; 3 eggs; 2 glasses of milk (equivalent of 2 cups); A pinch of butter; pinch of salt.

The clafouti is a traditional French dish from the Limousin region and is like a thick flan-like batter. I recommend doubling all quantities above (except for the cherries) to get a decent sized dish, like the one baked for Nadine and Olivier at Hindmarsh Island.

The cherries can be replaced by apples, prunes, or plums.

Method:

Warm up your over to about 180 degrees (fan forced)
Wash and remove the cherry stems, dry with a tea towel, for extra flavour: do not remove the stone
In a mixing bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt. Then gradually add the eggs and the cold milk, stir.
Butter a deep baking dish, lay the cherries at the bottom. Pour the cake mix on top.
Bake for about 45 minutes or until the blade of a knife thrust into the cake comes out clean.

(35 minutes into the cooking time, I scattered some extra
sugar on top to make the cherries look nice and the clafouti golden)
Can be served warm or cold, vanilla ice-cream or cream complement it nicely!

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