Extract taken from French Classics by Matthew Ryle (Bloomsbury, £26 Hardback) Photography © Patricia Niven
These Classic French Recipes are Divine
French food is having a real renaissance
This debut book from renowned chef Matthew Ryle is full of those delicious, classic dishes that we all know and love, made easy for everyone
Oeufs Cocotte
When I was growing up, boiled eggs and soldiers was a repeat weekend breakfast. Now I’m a little older and have to cook for myself, I’ve adopted this dish as my go-to instead. Not only is it more delicious, but there’s also no shell to contend with! These are easy, elegant and so quick to put together, yet still feel really special. This version has onions as a base, but chop and change that to your heart’s content. Serve it with toast, or baguette slices fried in foaming butter, and get ready for it to become your weekend treat, too…
Serves
1
Prep time
10 minutes
Cooking time
25 minutes
Ingredients
- For the onion base (enough for 4 servings)
- 50g butter
- 2 onions, finely sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
- 100ml white wine
- Sea salt flakes and fresh-cracked black pepper
- For the baked eggs
- 10g butter
- 1 large spoon Onion Base (see above)
- 2 eggs
- 30g / 2 tbsp Boursin cheese
- 25ml / 11/2 tbsp double cream
- A few chives, chopped
- You will need a heatproof ramekin for each serving.
Method
Melt the butter for the onion base in a sauté pan and cook the onions and garlic over a medium-low heat until they’re very soft, but without colour. Add the wine and cook until completely reduced. When there is no wine left, check the seasoning and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 160C fan. Place a small roasting tin inside. Rub a ramekin generously with the butter, then add a portion (one-quarter) of your onion base. Crack the eggs straight into the ramekin on top of the onion.
Add the cheese in small chunks, then pour the cream over. Cover. (If you do not have a lid, use a piece of foil.)
To make sure your eggs obtain the desired wobbly-set custard texture, they need to be cooked in a bain marie. Place the covered ramekin in the roasting tin in the oven and pour boiling water into the tin to come halfway up the sides of the egg dish. Bake for 10–14 minutes.
When the eggs are cooked, the whites will be completely opaque. Give the yolks a gentle poke; they should be soft to the touch and the overall dish should have a satisfying wobble to it when shook. Finish with salt flakes, cracked black pepper and chopped chives. Serve with toasted sourdough soldiers if you want to keep things healthy, but I’d recommend the butter-fried baguette route every time!
Beef Bourguignon
One of France’s most famous recipes, this is a rich stew originating from Burgundy, a region renowned for its excellent wine and prized Charolais cattle. This is a dish – like so many of the classics – that started as a peasant meal made at home, a way to slow-cook tough, unwanted cuts of meat using ingredients already to hand. Over the years it has been refined. Now, it is the perfect meal if you want to impress but don’t want to work too hard. All that’s required is patience, to allow time and the cooking process to work their magic. Although the timings may look a little daunting, there is actually very little active effort needed during this recipe; it’s only cutting, marinating, then a quick sear in the pan before the oven takes over. Plenty of time to kick back and enjoy your day.
Serves
4–6
Prep time
25 minutes, plus 4–12 hours marinating
Cooking time
4 1/2 hours
Ingredients
- 1 bottle of full-bodied red wine, ideally Burgundy
- 1kg braising beef
- 200g smoked cured belly bacon, such as pancetta
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 2 celery sticks, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1/2 garlic bulb
- 1 bouquet garni
- 25ml /1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 200ml beef stock
- Sea salt flakes and fresh-cracked black pepper
- To finish
- 100g baby onions, peeled
- 100g button mushrooms
- 10g / 4 tsp chopped parsley leaves
Method
Pour the red wine into a saucepan set over a high heat, bring to the boil and simmer for one minute, then leave to cool in a large bowl. This is to remove the alcohol and intensify the flavour.
Cut the beef into pieces, aiming for three centimetre cubes, then cut the bacon into lardons. Put the beef in a large bowl with the lardons, vegetables, garlic and bouquet garni. Pour the cooled wine over, making sure the ingredients are fully covered. Marinate overnight in the fridge, or for at least four hours if you are stretched for time.
Pour the marinated ingredients through a sieve over a bowl and leave to drain for a few minutes, reserving the red wine. You want the ingredients to be as dry as possible, so they get maximum caramelisation in the pan.
Preheat the oven to 120C fan.
Place a large, heavy-based pot which has a lid over a medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the oil, followed by the beef, turning until all the pieces are nicely browned all over. Remove from the pot and repeat this process with the lardons, then finally the vegetables and garlic bulb, keeping the bouquet garni separate. Once the vegetables are nicely browned, reduce the temperature and evenly sprinkle over the flour, then cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
Gradually add the red wine to the vegetables, stirring, to form a smooth sauce that starts to thicken. Then add the beef stock in the same way. Follow with the coloured beef, lardons and bouquet garni. Check the seasoning, cover with a lid and place in the oven for three hours.
After three hours, everything should have begun melding together nicely. At this stage, you want to remove the vegetables from the sauce. The easiest way to do this is to place a large colander over a clean pan and pour everything into the colander. Now that the sauce is in a clean pan, pick out the beef and lardons from the colander and return them to the sauce, discarding the vegetables, garlic and bouquet garni.
Add the baby onions and button mushrooms to the beef, then place back in the oven for a final hour. At this stage your sauce should be luscious and thick: beef completely tender and melting and all vegetables nicely cooked. Finish with the chopped parsley and serve.
Crème caramel
This velvety set custard, infused with vanilla, with its rich, dark, caramel syrup, balances indulgence and lightness and is surprisingly easy to make, so it’s one of France’s most popular desserts. It’s a dish I first came across long before I appreciated what I was eating, and no, it wasn’t this luxurious version… It came in a plastic pot with a tag on the bottom which, when you pulled, as if by magic slipped out of its packaging on to your plate.
Although the flavours were not memorable, I remember the silky mouthfeel and always try to replicate it. Here, I’ve used a mix of milk and whipping cream, for the perfect texture. You can use vanilla extract instead of pods, but it won’t have quite the same special flavour. This is a great make-ahead recipe and will sit happily in the fridge for a few days.
There are two main points to consider when making crème caramel: first, the colour of the caramel must be a deep brown: too light and it will taste merely sweet with no caramel flavour. Second, the egg mixture must be cooked until just set; it still needs to have a wobble, otherwise you’ll lose that magical melt-in-the-mouth texture.
Serves
4
Prep time
Prep time
Cooking time
50 minutes
Ingredients
- 140g caster sugar
- 20ml / 4 tsp hot water
- 2 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
- 200ml whole milk
- 100ml whipping cream
- 2 vanilla pods, split lengthways and seeds scraped out, or 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 small ramekins, each 9 x 5cm
Method
Preheat the oven to 130C fan.
Start by making caramel. Have a bowl (or sink) of cold water to hand. Put 100g of the sugar in a heavy-based saucepan in an even layer. Add the measured hot water and allow the sugar to absorb it for a few minutes, then set over a medium heat and leave to dissolve. You can help it along by shaking the pan, but do not stir. Once a syrup forms, it will turn golden and then to a rich caramel colour. To stop the cooking, place the base of the pan in the bowl (or sink) of cold water. Divide it between four ramekins, each nine by five centimetres, then place in a roasting tin.
Whisk the eggs, yolk and remaining 40g of sugar in a bowl. Bring the milk, cream, vanilla seeds and pods, if using, to the boil in a saucepan, then pour slowly over the egg mix, whisking all the time. Pass through a sieve into each ramekin. Add the vanilla extract, if using.
Place the roasting tin in the oven and fill with enough boiling water to come halfway up each ramekin. Bake for 35 minutes, or until just cooked and still wobbling.
Cool, then chill for at least two hours, or overnight. Serve in the ramekins, or run a knife around each, turn out on to a plate with a rim and watch the caramel lakes spread out.
