Category: Main Dishes

Timbales de crêpes

Natalie Hanson

For 6 to 8 people.

A 1-1/2 quart cylindrical mold is good for this recipe. Make a crêpe batter for 10 large crêpes and 10 small ones.

Mornay sauce

Makes about three cups.

4 Tbsp butter
5 Tbsp flour
2 1/2 cups of boiling milk
Salt, pepper, nutmeg
1 cup of coarsely grated gruyère and some whipping cream

  • Cook the flour and butter together.
  • Beat in the boiling milk and seasonings and boil.
  • Remove from heat and add the cheese.
  • Film top of sauce with cream to prevent a skin from forming.

Stuffing

2 packages of fresh spinach (10 ounces) cooked and drained
1/2 cup of Mornay sauce
1 cup of cottage cheese
1 egg
1 package of mushrooms (10 ounces) minced & cooked in skillet with shallots & butter & 1/2 cup of Mornay sauce.
1 cup of leftover chicken pieces, well seasoned and mixed with 1/2 cup of Mornay sauce
2 cups of mozzarella

Forming the timbale

  • Butter the mold.
  • Preheat oven to 350°F.
  • Cut the 10 large crêpes in half and line the mold with them.
  • One pointed end at the bottom center of the mold and the other folded down outside the mold.
  • Fill the mold with alternating layers of stuffing and crêpes.
  • Fold the dangling ends of the halves crêpes over the last layer of stuffing and top with a final crêpe.
  • Set mold in a pan of boiling water and bake in lower third of oven for 30 to 40 minutes.
  • Unmold on a buttered serving dish and cover with the remaining Mornay sauce.

Supremes à blanc

Natalie Hanson

4 supremes
1/2 tsp lemon juice
salt, white pepper
2 Tbsp of butter

  • Preheat oven to 350°F.
  • Rub the supremes with lemon juice and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  • In an oven proof dish, melt the butter until it bubbles, and put the supremes into it.
  • Cook the supremes a little bit on each side until white.
  • Put the dish covered with wax paper in the oven.
  • Cook for 6 minutes.
  • Take the supremes out of the dish and reserve.

For the sauce

1/4 cup of stock
1/4 cup vermouth
1/2 cup whipping cream lemon juice, parsley

  • Pour the stock and wine with the cooking butter in the dish.
  • Boil down quickly until syrupy.
  • Stir in the cream and boil down again.
  • Taste for seasoning, add some lemon juice.
  • Put the supremes back into the dish and sprinkle with parsley.

Supreme de volaille à l’Ecossaise

Natalie Hanson

4 chicken breasts
2 Tbsp butter
Lemon, salt, pepper
1 carrot, 2 celery stalks, 1 onion (diced)
2 Tbsp of butter

  • Season the breasts with salt, pepper, and lemon.
  • Cook the chicken in the hot melted butter on both sides quickly.
  • In the meantime, in a oven proof casserole, cook the diced vegetables with salt and butter until tender.
  • Put the breasts of chicken on top of the diced vegetables.
  • Cover with buttered waxed paper and cook in the oven for 5 to 6 minutes.
  • Transfer to a serving plate and keep warm in turned off oven.
  • Use the casserole to make the sauce.

Sauce

1/2 cup of whipping cream
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
Parsley

  • Pour the wine and the stock into the casserole with the remaining juices from the chicken breasts.
  • Boil down quickly over high heat until liquid is syrupy.
  • Stir in the cream and do the same again.
  • Season to your taste, pour the sauce over the suprêmes, sprinkle parsley and serve at once.

Supreme de volaille andelouse

Natalie Hanson

4 chicken breasts
2 Tbsp butter
Lemon, salt, pepper
1/4 cup cognac

  • Preheat oven to 350°F.
  • Season the breasts with salt, pepper, and lemon.
  • Fry the chicken in the hot melted butter.
  • Brown on both sides quickly.
  • Add cognac and flambé
  • Put in oven covered with buttered waxed paper and cook for 5 to 6 minutes.
  • Reserve and keep in a warm oven.

Sauce

2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp shallots
1-1/2 cups of tomato pulp
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup crème fraiche
Tarragon, parsley

  • Melt butter and add shallots.
  • Cook briefly.
  • Add the pulp, the wine, the broth, cream, and tarragon.
  • After the breasts of chicken are cooked, drain their juice in the sauce as well.
  • Reduce for about 30 minutes or until thick.
  • Pour the sauce over the chicken before serving and spread parsley on top.

Saucisses de Toulouse

Natalie Hanson

1-1/2 lb of lean pork
1/2 lb of pork fat
1 tsp peppercorns, coarsely crushed
Salt and pepper
Pinch of grated nutmeg
Small sausage casings

  • Work the lean and fat pork through the coarse plate of a mincer or grinder.
  • Add the peppercorns, salt, pepper and nutmeg and mix well.
  • Chill overnight so the spices blend.
  • Saute a small piece of the mixture and taste for seasoning.
  • Soak the casings in cold water for several hours; rinse them with cold water, letting the water run through them.
  • Tie one end of the casing and attach the open end to the base of a fennel or sausage stuffer.
  • Push the casing up the fennel until the closed end is reached.
  • Work the sausage filling through the fennel into the casing, letting the casing fall as the stuffing fills it.
  • Don’t pack casing too tightly, or it will burst during cooking.
  • When a length of casing is stuffed, tie the end closed with string.
  • Prick any air pocket in the sausages with a small pin.
  • To serve, brush with butter and grill/broil; alternatively poach in water for 10 minutes and drain thoroughly.

Roasted pork with garlic

Natalie Hanson

The meat should be prepared 12 hours in advance.

2 cloves of garlic
4 lb of loin of pork
salt and pepper
2 Tbsp of olive oil
1 carrot, 1 onion
1 tsp of flour
1-1/4 cups of stock 

  • Preheat oven to 400°F.
  • Peel the garlic, cut into strips and insert in the flesh of the pork.
  • Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with oil.
  • Place the roast in a roasting pan with the carrot and onion and cook for 2-1/2 hours.
  • Place on a hot serving dish.
  • Strain off the fat from the pan, retaining the juices, then add the flour, replace over the heat and brown well.
  • Add the stock slowly and bring to a boil.
  • Serve this sauce separately.
  • If you wish to vary the size of the meat, allow 30 minutes per lb plus 30 minutes extra.

Serve with Gratin dauphinois.

Roasted chicken with garlic

Natalie Hanson

Serves 4 to 6 people.

French bread, sliced, cooked in the oven at 300°F for 20 min. and brushed with olive oil.
12 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
4-1/2 lb roasting chicken
Salt and pepper
1 or 2 cups of chicken stock
2 Tbsp of butter

Stuffing

10 oz of spinach, cooked and drained
1 cup of sliced mushrooms, cooked
1/2 cup of bread crumbs moistened with cream
1 onion sautéed in butter (lightly cook the chicken liver in it)
1 egg
Thyme, salt and pepper
6 cloves of garlic, parboiled

  • Prepare the various elements of the stuffing as indicated above.
  • Mix the first 4 ingredients together then add the egg and the herbs.
  • Mince the garlic and add to the mixture.
  • Dry the chicken and season the cavity with salt and pepper.
  • Put the stuffing in and truss the chicken.
  • Over medium to high heat, brown the chicken until all sides are golden (about 20 minutes).
  • Turn the chicken breast side up in a baking pan and add the 12 cloves of garlic.
  • Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
  • Pour 1/2 cup of water into the pan and place in a 325°F oven, uncovered.
  • Baste the chicken every 20 minutes and cook for 2 hours.
  • At the end the skin should be brown and crisp.
  • Add chicken stock when necessary.
  • Remove the chicken to a carving platter.
  • Cut it up and place it around the stuffing in the middle of the pan.
  • In the meantime deglaze the cooking juice with some extra chicken stock.
  • Bring to a boil and reduce.
  • Whisk 2 Tbsp of butter at the end.
  • Moisten the chicken with the sauce.
  • Serve at once.

Roast duck

Natalie Hanson

For 8 people.

3 (4 to 5 lb) ducklings
1 Tbsp of cooking oil
1 carrot and 1 onion roughly chopped
Salt, thyme, bay leaf
1/2 cup of Dijon mustard
1 cup of white bread crumbs
2 Tbsp of butter, 2 Tbsp of minced shallots
1/2 cup of Madeira wine

  • Chop ducks’ wings off at the elbows and brown them in cooking oil with the necks, gizards and vegetables in a heavy saucepan.
  • Cover with water, add the herbs and simmer with 1/2 tsp of salt for 2 hours.
  • Sprinkle inside of ducks with 1/4 tsp of salt, a pinch of thyme and tuck in a bay leaf.
  • Pull out any fat from inside neck and cavity.
  • Prick the skin where you see yellow fat under skin.
  • Truss the wings and then the legs.
  • Preheat oven to 350°F.
  • Place ducks breast up in a roasting pan and set in middle of oven.
  • Roast 30 to 35 minutes until breast meat is just springy to the touch.
  • While the ducks are still warm, peel off their skin from the breasts.

Cut up the duck:

  • Remove the legs and separate leg from thigh.
  • Cut skin into strips and place in baking dish.
  • Paint legs and thighs with a thin coating of mustard, roll in crumbs, season to taste and put in another baking dish.
  • Cut the breast meat into thin slices and reserve in warm oven.
  • Add the rest of the carcass to your cooking stock and make sure it cooks for at least 1/2 hour (see first paragraph for 2 hours total cooking time).
  • Drain, degrease and reserve this duck stock for the sauce. You should have about 1 cup.
  • Melt 2 Tbsp of butter in a frying pan, sprinkle in the shallots and cook slightly.
  • Pour in the Madeira wine and the duck stock.
  • Reduce gently while doing the final roasting.
  • Reheat oven to 400°F.
  • Half an hour before you plan to serve dinner, set skin strips and duck legs in the upper third level of the oven.
  • Roast skin until brown.
  • Remove them with a slotted spoon and place on paper towel to drain.
  • Toss with salt and pepper.
  • Roast legs until just tender for 20 minutes.
  • Keep both warm in turned off oven until ready to serve.
  • Set the thin slices of breast meat in a pan.
  • Cover with some of the duck stock and bring to a gentle simmer to poach the meat.
  • Arrange it on a hot platter and boil down the cooking juice until syrupy while you arrange the legs and the skin cracklings on the platter.
  • Pour the juice over the breast meat and serve at once.
  • Pour the rest of the sauce into a gravy boat for additional serving.

Pork roast with apples

Natalie Hanson

3 boned rib end loin pork roast (boned and tied, about 6 lb each)
Salt, oil
6 small apples
2 Tbsp of brown sugar
3 Tbsp of butter
1/2 cup of water
1 cup of light beer 

  • Preheat oven 450°F.
  • Rub salt over the roast and grease the roasting pan with the oil.
  • Brown the roast and the bones for 20 minutes.
  • Reserve the bones.
  • Meanwhile peel the apples whole.
  • Core each 3/4 of the way through.
  • Put 1 tsp of brown sugar and 1/2 Tbsp of butter in the hole.
  • Add the apples to the roast and the bones.
  • Reduce temperature to 375°F, add 1/2 cup of water to the roasting pan and roast for another 40 minutes.
  • Baste frequently and add water as needed.
  • Pour a cup of beer in the pan and continue cooking for another 50 minutes, basting constantly even as the pan juices become syrupy.
  • Remove the roast and make sure the internal temperature reads 150/160°F.
  • Allow it to rest for 5 minutes.
  • Cut the strings and slice.
  • Degrease the pan juices, adding the juices spewing out of the roast.
  • Bring to a boil.
  • Taste and correct seasoning.

Pork chops with mustard & cheese

Natalie Hanson

The rib end of a loin (blade cut) is the end nearest to the shoulder. It is the best choice for this recipe. The center loin or loin end often becomes too dry.

The first 8 ribs cut into 1/2″ will serve 4-6 people since the first 2 chops are a bit fatty. Caramelized (Cortland) apple slices are a good complement to this dish.

Ask the butcher to cut 1″ off the end bone to make it easier to fit all the chops in the skillet.

3 Tbsp of butter
8 pork chops
salt, pepper
1 1/2 cups of grated swiss cheese (6 oz)
2 Tbsp of Dijon mustard
1/2 cup of dry white wine (some additional stock may be needed)

  • Melt the butter in a heavy skillet.
  • Brown the chops, without crowding them, on medium-high heat for 4 minutes on each side.
  • Sprinkle salt and pepper.
  • Discard the fat in the skillet, lower the heat to medium-low, cover and braise the chops 5 more minutes on each side.
  • Meanwhile, grate the cheese.
  • Do this at the last minute so the cheese does not pack.
  • Turn the broiler on.
  • Spread about 1/2 tsp of Dijon mustard on 1 side of each chop, then sprinkle half the grated cheese.
  • Broil a minute or two until the cheese starts to gratiné.
  • Turn the chops over and do the other side with mustard and cheese.
  • Reheat the juices in the skillet and deglaze with 1/2 cup of white wine.
  • Bring to a boil until the liquid is slightly syrupy.
  • If you do not have 1 Tbsp per person, add some stock and reduce again.