Tarte aux Pommes Normande – Open Apple Tart

My mum’s apple pie was the perfect way to end a Sunday roast. As were her apple crumble and custard and apple sauce cake. This Elizabeth David recipe for apple tart was one she sometimes used too. Hard, sweet eating apples are best; they don’t go soft and mushy like sour English cooking apples. It’s all […]

Cuissot de porc frais en sanglier

Leg of pork marinated in wine How to make pork taste like wild boar. We’ve taken this recipe from Peter’s battered and much-loved copy of Elizabeth David’s ‘French Provincial Cooking’. It’s not something to attempt if you’re pushed for time, the meat needs to be marinated for four days. This is a method of making […]

Côtes de porc Vallée d’Auge

Grilled pork chops with cider sauce This is a delicious way to serve pork chops; we think it goes well with mashed potatoes. Elizabeth David, whose book ‘French Provincial Cooking’ this recipe comes from, suggests straw potatoes, or a purée, or simply a plain green salad. You decide. For 4 4 pork chops 3 or […]

French Provincial Cooking, Elizabeth David

If I had to leave town in a hurry and only had time to pick up just one cookery book, this would be the one. It was the first book that really got me interested in food. I’d left home, gone to art college in London and was living in a grotty flat in a […]

Crème flamande

Cream of onion and potato soup A simple to make but delicious soup from Elizabeth David. For 5-6 225g (½lb) potatoes 1 large leek 2 large onions few sprigs of parsley 85g (3oz) single cream knob of butter Cut all the vegetables except one of the large onions into large pieces and simmer them in […]