Tag Archives: jean-christophe novelli

Chicken, Leek, Port Salut and Mushroom Fricassee, with Wholemeal Croutons

Posted on by Abi

Today I am sharing another wonderful recipe by Jean-Christophe Novelli and Port Salut. Having made this recently we can certainly recommend it! 🙂

Ingredients:

4 x skinned and boneless chicken breasts (cut into thin strips)

2 leeks, trimmed, washed and cut into thin slices

2 x spring onions (trimmed and chopped into thin roundels)

1 clove of garlic (peeled and crushed)

100g chestnut or button mushrooms (sliced)

100g Port Salut (thinly sliced)

50g Port Salut (cut into cubes)

50g breadcrumbs

75ml double cream

25g butter

1 bunch of chives (chopped)

4 slices of wholemeal bread (cut into fingers)

25ml olive oil

1/2 tsp dried herbs

1/2 glass white wine

1 tsp paprika

For the wholemeal croutons:

Place the bread fingers on a baking tray. Brush with olive oil and dried herbs and season with cracked pepper.

Bake in a hot oven until crisp and golden brown, serve on a side plate alongside the fricassée

Method:

Heat a griddle pan, brush the chicken strips with a little olive oil and season with salt, pepper and paprika.

Char-grill the chicken until well coloured and cooked through, remove from the pan and keep warm.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter over a low heat and then add the leeks and spring onions and sweat until tender.

Add the garlic and mushrooms and continue to cook until the mushrooms are tender and soft.

Add the white wine and cream, and bring to the boil.

Add 100g of Port Salut (thinly sliced) and simmer until the cheese is melted and the sauce is thick, and then sprinkle in the chives.

Add the strips of chicken and stir until coated with sauce.

Place in an oven proof serving dish and set to one side.

In a bowl combine the remaining 50g of Port Salut (cut into small cubes) with the breadcrumbs and scatter over the top of the dish.

Bake in a pre heated oven (160⁰C) until the crumbs are crisp and golden and the cheese has melted (approx. 15 minutes).

 

 

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Celebrate Bastille Day with Jean-Cristophophe Novelli’s Crispy granary bruschetta, with poached egg, spinach and a Port Salut glaze Recipe!

Posted on by Abi

This Saturday (14th July) is Bastille Day in France. To celebrate famous French chef Jean-Christope Novelli has created two fabulous recipes in conjunction with Port Salut. Today I’m very pleased to be able to share one of these with you all ‘Crispy granary bruschetta, with poached egg, spinach and a Port Salut glaze’.

Ingredients

4 large eggs

2-3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar

4 thick slices of ciabatta bread

25ml olive oil

1/2 tsp dried herbs

400g washed baby spinach leaves

For the glaze

100ml double cream

4 egg yolks

100g Port Salut (thinly sliced)

50g butter

Sprinkle of ground nutmeg

Place the slices of ciabatta on a baking sheet, brush with olive oil and season with dried herbs, salt and pepper.

Place in a hot oven (180⁰C) and bake until crisp and golden brown (approx. 5 mins) then set aside on serving dishes.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add a couple of tablespoons of white wine vinegar.

Stir with a whisk to start a circular motion in the water and crack in the eggs one at a time, immediately turn down to a simmer – 3-4 minutes for a soft egg, 5-7 minutes for a hard poached egg.

In a saucepan, bring the cream to the boil and reduce for a few minutes to thicken and then remove from the heat.

Stir in the Port Salut and the eggs, allowing the cheese to melt.

In a frying pan, add the butter and the spinach, cover and bring to the boil. When soft and wilted, strain to remove any excess water.

Season with salt and pepper and spoon an equal amount onto each slice of ciabatta.

Top with an egg and mask with the cheese and cream mix.

Place under a hot grill until bubbling and golden brown.

Garnish with snipped chives and serve.

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Flora Cuisine Review

Posted on by Abi

It will be no big shock to you all when I say I love food! Whether it’s savoury or sweet I’m equally happy. But sometimes it can seem like an uphill struggle keeping healthy and eating tasty food. Diet foods are all well and good, but they are often less satisfying than their full fat cousins. So I was delighted when I was contacted and asked to review Flora Cuisine!

You may have seen the recent adverts where Vernon Kay and his Mum are happily cooking away in the kitchen. But did they convince you to dump the oil/butter and give Flora Cuisine a try? From a health point of view the new Flora is high is Omega 3 & 6 and contains 45% less saturated fat than olive oil. It is in fact made from a blend of rapeseed, linseed and sunflower oil. Rather than just give you my personal opinion I can give you the opinion of several people as I decided to give Flora Cuisine the ultimate challenge, to cook for a dinner party.

As Flora cuisine has the backing of the famous chef Jean-Christophe Novelli it seemed only right to try out one of the recipes he’d created using this new ingredient. After several minutes of salivating in front of the computer we settled on Glazed Baked Stuffed Red Peppers for the main course. For the dessert I decided it would be better to try out a recipe not intended to be used with Flora Cuisine, Chocolate & Pear Pudding.

The Peppers

I love love love stuffed peppers, I’ve eaten them in this country and abroad. So I was absolutely gobsmacked when these particular stuffed peppers turned out to be the nicest I had ever eaten! I really was genuinely shocked that having eaten them in wonderful restaurants in the UK & Greece these beat them all. Of course you could put this down purely to the recipe, but I don’t think that’s the case. The Flora Cuisine was very easy to cook with, nothing stuck to the pan and the beef mince didn’t ooze an oily slick as it sometimes can when cooking with oil. I asked what the others thought of the peppers, they couldn’t stop raving about them and I was ordered to give them all the recipe post haste. If you would like to try them out too you can find this recipe and many more at www.floracuisine.co.uk.

Chocolate & Pear Pudding

This pudding was the perfect end to our meal, and it cooked perfectly using the Flora. We poured a little in the dish and brushed it around to grease. The pudding came out beautifully and again there was no buttery residue and it hadn’t overly crisped the sides of the pudding as traditional greasing can sometimes do. If you would like to try this recipe out it was created by Nigella Lawson and can be found on her website here.

Would I recommend Flora Cuisine?

Yes I would, not just to those people who are trying to be healthier but to everyone. It is a quick simple way to cut down on fats and increase your Omega 3 & 6 intake. It’s also easy to use and can be substituted in virtually any meal. I have heard it makes the most delicious roast potatoes. Price wise it’s very competitive as well with an RRP of £1.99, although I have heard it is appearing on special offer in some stores currently.

Could it be improved in anyway?

Maybe slightly larger bottles, but only because it’s so useful I suspect we’ll get through it quickly. It also has to be kept in the fridge, I don’t think that can be improved upon, just worth noting you wont find it next to the bottles of oil.

 

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