A Riveting Return to Rive Droite!

It was a real pleasure to return last week to Rive Droite, the restaurant of my dear friends, Charles-Henry and Ségolene de Valbray in Alençon. Not only was I to meet their new chef, Christophe Renou, but he was going to give my group of friends a cooking class in the restaurant kitchen for the first time. Christophe worked as head chef in London at Gordon Ramsey’s Michelin 3-star restaurant, L'Aubergine and with Gilles Goujon, another 3-star chef, at L’Auberge du Vieux Puits before coming home this past summer to his native Normandy to take over the kitchen at Rive Droite. As you can imagine, Charles-Henry and Ségolene are thrilled to have him.

We were invited into the kitchen for coffee.  Then Christophe gave us each an apron and a work station with a cutting board and sharp knives. This class was definitely hands-on. The first dish we were to tackle was a Roquefort Cheese Soufflé, one of his signature dishes in London. The recipe is really quite simple, but amazing. These individual little soufflés can be made up any time, cooked and kept in the refrigerator for up to a week. When the guests appear and the time arrives for the first course, all you have to do is pop them back in the oven on a cookie sheet and poof, they rise and are ready!!  They are delicious and hold their shape.

Then we moved on to the main course, a Confit of Lamb Shoulder with Pommes Boulangere (baker’s potatoes). We all got busy chopping onions and carrots and slicing potatoes. We helped roast the lamb in very hot pans until caramelized and then everything went into a large roasting pan to cook for 3 hours. As we relaxed, Christophe told us a story about about Pommes Boulangere.

They were a traditional specialty for Sundays because housewives would put the dish together before church, dropping it off at the baker’s on the way. He was finished making his bread and croissants, but his oven was still pipping hot, so he would slip everyone’s potato dish into his oven while the family was in church, ready to be picked up after service. Hence, Pommes Boulangere!

We ended our class by cooking Christophe’s Chocolate Fondant, an individual chocolate cake with a runny center. This was served with homemade mint sorbet.

When our work was done, we took off our aprons and sat down in the beautiful dining room overlooking the river for our feast. Christophe had actually cooked our lamb confit the day before because of the long cooking time. Every dish was remarkably delicious and we had the translated adapted recipes to recreate them for our friends and family at home. It helped to have an eager young english-speaking chef who loved to do his homework for the class.

Roquefort Cheese Soufflé

For 8 people

Butter: 40 gr

Flour: 40 gr

Milk: 260 gr

Roquefort cheese: 160 gr

Egg yolks: 4

Egg whites: 5 

Salt and pepper

Butter and flour dust 8 molds and put in fridge

Put the butter in the pan and let it melt but not burn

Add the flour to make a roux, stir well

Add the milk to it, and boil three minutes

Then add the Roquefort, stir it in and it cool down

Add the yolks, mix, and set aside

Whisk 150gr of egg whites with a pinch of salt and sugar

Add the two mixes together slowly and fold them gently

Take the 8 molds and fill them with the mix

Cook in a bain-marie (gas mark 7/180 degrees C) for 20 minutes

Take them out of the oven in the bain-marie and let cool in it

Remove from bain-marie and refrigerate up to one week

When ready to serve, put them back in the oven, heat for 5-10 minutes at 180 degrees C. until they puff up

Can be served with a green salad, sprinkled with a few walnuts, and drizzled with walnut vinaigrette

Enjoy

A Day in the Country with Alix

Alix de Lauzanne is a young woman I have known for 13 years since I attended her Uncle Charles-Henry de Valbray’s wedding in Morocco.  She is now married, the mother of four delightful young children, and lives happyily one hour outside Paris in the tiny village of Jonquieres, near Compiegne.  Alix started a business several years ago, Private Kitchen, giving cooking classes to friends and neighbors in her large, well-appointed country kitchen.

Alix de Lauzanne in her kitchen

I have been wanting to attend one of her classes for several years and yesterday, my new culinary buddy and good friend, Toni and I took off in the early morning sunshine for Jonquieres.  We arrived a little after 10am and enjoyed tea in the kitchen while we waited for the rest of the group to arrive.  We were five plus Alix, and as we donned our aprons, Alix explained how she likes to teach.  Because she and her clients all live far from a big or even middle size city where shopping is easy, she likes to show people how to create delicious meals using only ingredients which can be bought in a supermarket (Carrefour is where she goes).  Our class and lunch for the day was to be Mille-feuilles de canard au gorgonzola et au chutney, Osso Bucco and Tarte tout chocolat facon “Laduree”.

We began with the Osso Bucco because it needed to cook for one hour.  All of us worked at preparing the carrots and the garlic.  Alix had quite a few short cuts and tricks to share.  She said she always uses frozen (Picard) chopped onions, as onions freeze well and this reduces kitchen tears!  BUT, she never uses frozen garlic or shallots as they don’t freeze well and the bitter germ in the garlic is never removed.  She further added that browning the veal first does not add that much to the flavor, so she did not do it and the dish was put together in 15 minutes, and the result was indeed delicious.

Osso Bucco served with tagliatelle

Then we attacked the chocolate tart, which is Alix’s lighter version of Laduree’s celebrated tarte tout chocolat, with considerably less butter and chocolate.  The quality of the chocolate is important here – it must be 65-75% cocoa, and the butter must be sweet butter, but Alix throws in a pinch of fleur de sel for a little salty bite.  We made the pate sablee (short pastry) and then the chocolate ganache, put the two together and refrigerated the tarts for two hours.  When we were ready for dessert, we decorated our tarts and they looked as good as they tasted.

The last dish we made was our first course, the mille-feuille with duck breast, gorgonzola and chutney.  We made the chutney first, then cut filo dough into rectangles and buttered and cooked them for our pastry layers, and finally we assembled the dish and then enjoyed it immediately.  It was lovely to look at, and the combination of the pear chutney, gorgonzola and smoked duck breast was heavenly.

Mille-feuille with duck breast and gorgonzola
served on a bed of chutney

We enjoyed lunch and conversation around Alix’s dining room table with the sun streaming in and a good time was had by all.  I recommend a trip to Private Kitchen (www.privatekitchen.com) for all of you who live in Paris.  Alix will pick you up at the train station if you don’t have a car and she speaks excellent English, so if you put together your own group, she can teach the class in English.

P.S. There is a great brocante (bric-a-brac shop) where we went after lunch, which should be a part of your day if you go!

Alix’s Adaptation of Laduree’s Famous Chocolate Tart (serves 8-10 people)

Pate Sablee au Chocolat

200g (3/4 cup) flour (T45)

120g (8 tbsp) sweet butter (cold)

75g (1/4 cup) powdered sugar

25g (2 tbsp) ground almonds

12g (1 tbsp) cocoa

Pinch of fleur de sel

Chocolate Ganache

300g (1-1/2 cup) chocolate, 65-75% cocoa (Alix likes Nestle Corse Noir)

300g (1-1/2 cup) heavy cream

50g (3-1/2 tbsp) butter, room temperature

Instructions

Pate Sablee:

1. Mix all the ingredients by hand or in a mixer.  Note, this is a very dry mix.
2. Fill individual moulds or a large tart mould with a thin layer of the dry mix.  Press down firmly and evenly.
3. Cook in a 180C (350F) oven for 25 minutes – cool.

Ganache:

1. Cut the chocolate into small pieces.
2. Warm the cream until just boiling and pour over chocolate pieces and whisk gently, being careful not to touch the bottom of the bowl (otherwise the chocolate will congeal into a large mass, and it is very difficult to break up at that point).
3. Whisk in the pieces of cold butter until smooth.
4. Pour the chocolate into the moulds and refrigerate for 2 hours.
5. Decorate with chocolate shavings and cocoa.