I wanted to reblog this as it’s quite close to us and because I use ‘piment d’Espelette’ all the time.

I used to hate grapefruit until my friend, Lucie, recently put me straight. One of the things I love about Lucie is her enormously resolute talent for ‘putting people straight’; now I’m Team Grapefruit, especially if served with crab. Crab and grapefruit is a marriage made in heaven, even more so with a bit of chilli for ‘zing’. I am big on harmonious combinations and for me one of the biggest culinary sins is the confounding Surf ‘n’ Turf. When I’m trying to decide if two ingredients will go together, I think about their natural habitats and how far-fetched it would seem for them to find themselves on the same plate. Lobster and beef? I don’t think so. As we plunge headlong into cep (porcini) season, I find myself once again skating on thin ice. Given the chance, my reckless anarchist of a husband will happily add ceps to absolutely everything. I sometimes have to resort to my ‘Flavour Thesaurus‘ to convince him that ceps and chocolate, coconut or crab do not, in fact, make for a palatable union.

Crab is a healthy source of protein, calcium, magnesium and selenium and grapefruit is rich in vitamins A and C. This fresh and fragrant salad is adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe.

Ingredients (serves 4)

2 pink grapefruits

200 g white crabmeat (I used tinned)

1 tomato, chopped

2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

6 fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces

extra virgin olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 handfuls crispy green salad

Carefully peel and segment the grapefruits. Place the crabmeat in a bowl with a tablespoon of grapefruit juice, the chopped chilli, basil leaves, salt and pepper and olive oil. Mix well. Add the salad and tomato to the bowl with the grapefruit segments, add a little more olive oil and salt and pepper, tossing well. Arrange the mixed salad and grapefruit segments in a bowl with the crab over the top. Sprinkle the remaining basil leaves and serve.

Owning our horses is, I would imagine, similar to parenting four high-spirited and obstreperous teenagers. I’m always expecting the ‘gendarmes’ to roll up to inform us that they’ve been detained for questioning and would we like to come and bail them out (I’d have to think about that one ;-)). Our neighbour invited them to graze on her field recently to keep the grass down. In the middle of the field is (or was) an impeccable grange full of hay. Obviously I’m not a horse, but given the choice, I would think that fresh green grass would trump dusty, year-old hay any day. Apparently not so; by yesterday evening one of them (I’m not naming names) had head butted the door to the grange (it boasted a horse’s head-shaped hole) and was calmly helping himself to the meticuously stacked hay inside. Oh the shame!
Ingredients (serves 6)
Pastry
80g spelt flour
50g chickpea flour
50g butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of sea salt
Roughly 6 tablespoons of cold water
Filling
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 leek, washed and chopped
1 small courgette, peeled and chopped
5 onions (sweet if possible), peeled and sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons of honey
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
2 tomatoes, sliced
6 slices of goat’s cheese
8 leaves of fresh basil to decorate
To make the pastry, begin by cutting the butter into small cubes. Sift the flours and a pinch of salt together into in a mixing bowl, also adding the cubes of butter. Rub in and blend by hand until the mixture becomes crumbly. Add the olive oil, combining well and then add the cold water, mixing rapidly with a spoon. Remove the mixture from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until you obtain a ball of pastry (if the mixture isn’t ‘sticky’ enough to form a ball, you may need a drop more water). Wrap in a clean cotton tea towel or some cling film and leave to ‘rest’ in the fridge for about two hours. This relaxes the dough and makes it easier to use.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Fry the leek, onions, garlic and courgette in the olive oil until soft (about 15 minutes). Add the seasoning and honey and set aside. Roll out the pastry and line a tart tin . The pastry will be quite crumbly so you’ll need to be gentle and patch up the holes (I’ve become quite an expert ;-)). Blind bake the pastry for 12 minutes and then fill with the onion mixture, adding the sliced tomatoes, goat’s cheese and basil on top. Sprinkle the top with black pepper and little more paprika and bake for about 20 minutes. Serve hot.

This recipe is courtesy of Lora who came to stay recently (thanks Lora! :-)). It meant welcome respite from kitchen duties for me, but also respite for everyone elses’ taste buds which had been viciously incinerated by my tandoori chicken seasoned with copious amounts of very hot chilli powder. According to Léo, I had applied the spices with ‘unusually frenzied enthusiasm’. He confiscated my chilli stockpile as, apparently,  I am no longer to be trusted. Whatever — if it means delicacies such as these, I’m trying to think up other ways to cause grevious bodily harm to my guests ;-).
Ingredients
750g courgettes, cut into cubes
3 eggs
3 tablespoons spelt flour
175g Feta cheese, cut into cubes
100g Comté (or other hard cheese), grated
1 tablespoon cream
salt, pepper, nutmeg