Polpettone di tonno ai capperi (cold tuna loaf)

For ➍
2 tins of 200 g tuna in brine
2 egg whites
20 g Parmesan cheese, grated
2 tbs capers in vinegar
4 anchovy fillets in oil
dressing:
6 basil leaves
1 non-waxed lemon
4 tbs extra virgin olive oil
salt

Drain the tuna and mash with a fork. Combine the tuna, egg whites, cheese, the zest of the lemon and the drained anchovy fillets and whiz in a food processor until you get a uniform paste. Mix in the whole capers.

Soak a sheet of grease proof paper in water for 2 m and lay it flat on the work surface.

Place the tuna mix onto the centre of the paper and form into a thick sausage shape. It help if you do this with wet hands.

Roll up the paper and twist the ends to form a sausage shape. Tie the ends with kitchen string.

Poach the roll in just boiling water for 45 m. Remove from the water and allow to cool. Refrigerate for at least 2 h.

When ready to serve, unwrap the loaf and cut into 1 to 2 cm rounds.

Make a dressing by mixing the olive oil, the juice from the lemon, chopped basil leaves and a pinch of salt.

Serve with green salad leaves (rocket, lambs lettuce) and fresh bread.

*8 to 10 as an antipasto, starter.
**Alternatively, serve on slice of toasted bread.

Belgian horse steak

For ➍
4 horse meat steaks 250 g, 2 cm thick, at room temperature
50 g butter
3 tbs peanut oil
salt & pepper
(4 shallots, chopped)*
(8 tbs of red wine)*

Grind pepper over the steaks. Choose a skillet that can accommodate the steaks with little room left.

Heat the pan. Pour in the oil and add half of the butter. Let the butter foam.

Put the steaks into the pan and fry for 5 m on each side.

Put steaks aside on a warm platter. Sprinkle with salt. Cover.

Remove fat from pan. Add remaining butter and melt gently. Add salt and pepper.* Pour over the steaks.

Serve with double-baked frites and a green salad with fresh mayonnaise.

*Alternatively, omit salt and pepper. Add shallots. Cook and pour in the wine, stir and let evaporate. Pour over steaks. Serve with frites.

The Belgian city of Vilvoorde, near Brussels, was the home of a flourishing horse-trade and, consequently, is still known for its pjeereju (horse-meat) restaurants.
Picture shows a sanded glass pane door of a now defunct local café, where horse merchants fixed their deals.
Visit the Vilvoorde City site.

Boulestin's cod brétonne (cod toast)

For ➍
750 g white fish fillet*
1 tbs minced shallot
25 cl white wine & water**
1 tbs olive oil
50 g soft butter
50 g flour
1 tbs chopped parsley
salt & pepper
4 toasts, buttered

Mix butter and flour into a beurre manié. Cut into small chunks and set aside.

Bring water and wine to a boil. Put fish, shallot, salt & pepper in. Cook on high heat for 5 m, stirring with a wooden spoon to flake the fish.

(Be sure to have the liquid evaporated.)

Off heat, add the beurre manié.

Return to heat for 2 m.

Add parsley.

Pile onto 4 buttered warm toasts***.

Serve with a glass of Muscadet white wine.****

*The original 1920's recipe used rinsed salt cod. All firm white fish will do.
**Use cider instead. Start with a smaller amount, so the liquid evaporates within 5 m.
***Add a little anchovy paste on the bread before putting the fish on.
****Serve with potatoes or rice instead.
*****Use ¼ of quantities to make an individual quick toast.
*****Serve with sliced coeur de boeuf  tomatoes for a full lunch.

French writer Marcel Boulestin turned restaurateur in 1911 when he opened a classy French restaurant in London's Covent Garden. In the interbellum, he became one of the first media celebrity chefs, appearing in a, still experimental, BBC television broadcast in 1937. He wrote for Vogue and published several best selling cook books with free adaptations of French recipes, which were served in his art deco revamped restaurant. His influence was still felt in the 1970's when Georgina Horley quoted this recipe in her popular Good food on budget.

Sugo bianco (Tuscan white sauce)

For ➍/ 75 cl*
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 sweet Italian sausages**
2 large fresh porcini mushrooms, brushed & chopped
1 medium zucchini, grated
4 fresh sage leaves, coarsely chopped
3 tbs fresh cream or mascarpone
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Heat a saucepan. Heat olive oil. Make the onion soft.
Strip the skins away from the sausages and crumble the sausage meat with a fork or your fingers.
Add the sausage meat to the onions and continue cooking very gently, stirring occasionally, until the meat has browned.
Add the grated zucchini to the pan, also add the sage. Stir well, and cook on medium heat until the zucchini bits are softened. Stir in the chopped mushrooms. Add a few tbs of water. Raise the heat to medium and cook rapidly until most of the liquid has evaporated or been absorbed.
Take the sauce off the heat, and stir in the cream. Return briefly to the heat.
Season to taste.
Serve immediately over gnocchi, fusilli, or other short, curly pasta. Mix the pasta and sauce for 1 m, so the sauce really clings to the pasta, not that the pasta swims around in sauce.

*Leftovers can be frozen for a short period.
**Or any good fresh thick sausage with rather coarse meat. It can also be made with strips of wild boar or pork.

This white sauce, sometimes called ragu' bianco, has no tomatoes, and can be served with a variety of pasta.

Oven baked fries

For ➍
4 medium sized Russet potatoes, rinsed & dried (peeled if wanted)
2 tbs plus 1 ts olive oil
1 ts herbes de Provence
½ ts sea salt

Preheat oven to 200°C.
Pour 1 ts of oil on baking sheet and spread around with a paper towel, greasing the sheet before you add the potatoes.
Slice cleaned potatoes lengthwise into thick slices, then slice those slices into smaller potato strips. Dip them dry. Place on the baking sheet and drizzle with 2 tbs of oil. Toss the potatoes in the oil to coat. Place in oven for 25- 35 m. Remove the tray every 10 m to toss and stir the potatoes, then returning to the oven. Cook until browned.
Remove from the oven. Immediately add salt and herbes de Provence. Toss and serve.

.

Obviously not the famous Belgian frites, but good as a quick substitute.
The fries can also be baked in a microwave oven. 

Baked fries @ microwave

For ➍
4 medium sized Russet potatoes, rinsed & dried (peeled if wanted)
2 tbs plus 1 ts olive oil
1 ts herbes de Provence
½ ts sea salt

Slice cleaned potatoes lengthwise into thick slices, then slice those slices into smaller potato strips. Dip them dry. Place on the baking sheet and drizzle with 2 tbs of oil. Toss the potatoes in the oil to coat.

In a microwave oven, spread fries in one single layer and cook for 7 to 8 m on high.

Cover the fries when in a dish. Or spread them on, and cover them with, parchment paper for a crisp baking.

Hemingway's favourite Paris sandwich

For ➊
a slice of crusty bread or baguette
5 radishes
butter
salt & pepper

Slice the radishes thinly.

Butter the bread thickly.

Sprinkle with salt & pepper.

Serve with a cold lager beer.

American writer Ernest Hemingway ate these simple sandwiches often at the Montparnasse Closerie des Lilas in 1920's Paris. The Closerie, now a fancy restaurant and brasserie, started humbly as a diligence coach inn in 1798. Around 1900, the owner of the bal Bullier, a dance hall, planted 1,000 lilacs plants around the the place.
It became a popular meeting place for generations of writers and artists s.a. Baudelaire, Verlaine, Gide, Jarry, Alain-Fournier, Verhaeren, Maeterlinck, Modigliani, Appolinaire, Oscar Wilde, Hemingway, Dos Passos, Fitzgerald, Henry Miller...

Saint-Tropez chicken (poulet provençal)

For ➏
10 chicken pieces 

juice of 1 lemon
4 tbs olive oil
4 tbs honey
12.5 cl rosé wine*
2 garlic cloves, bruised
1 tbs mixed (Provençal) herbs with lavender

Put the jointed chicken into a large freezer bag. Mix the lemon juice, oil, honey and wine. Stir to dissolve the honey. Pour the mixture into the bag, chuck in the garlic and herbs, seal and refrigerate overnight.

Heat the oven to 170°C. Place the chicken, skin-side up, into a roasting tin with its marinade. Cover with foil.

Cook for 2 h.

Remove the foil and turn up the heat to 200°C.

Cook for another 15 to 25 m or until the skin of the chicken is bronzed. (Be careful, the honey can burn.)

Place the chicken on a warmed plate and pour or spoon off any excess fat from the juices.

Put the tin on the hob, add 12,5 cl of water. Deglaze the pan juices to make a glossy, golden gravy.

Serve with a potato gratin.

*Use a dry, spicy rosé, like Côtes de Provence.

This chicken dish was not created in the French Riviera resort Saint-Tropez, but called after it by Nigella Lawson for its golden skin. The recipe closely resembles other chicken recipes of the nearby Provence, where white wine would be used, herbes provençales and maybe a tomato or 2. The cooking method remains the same.
A quicker version for 2 can be made with 2 chicken pieces, and half of the other ingredients. Adjust cooking time by ⅓..
Picture shows the Château de la Coulerette rosé wine label.
Read chicken tip.
Read more Provençal recipes: fresh tuna & salade niçoise , salade niçoise dressing, Provençal garlic sauce, old-fashioned salade niçoise.

Pesce all'acqua pazza (Naples fish stew)

For ➍
4 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1 l water****
2 tbs flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
12 grape or cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
¼ ts red pepper flakes*
1 ts sea salt
2 tbs fresh oregano
1 kg sea bass or red snapper fillets**

You need an ovenproof pan, deep and large enough to hold the fish in one layer and contain the boiling water.
Add the water, olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, red pepper, oregano and salt to the pan. Put on heat.
Turn the heat to medium and allow the water to simmer for 20 m.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200° C.
Put the fish in the pan skin side down. Make sure it is covered by the water.
Put pan in the oven and cook for about 15-20 m.***
A few m before serving, add the parsley.
Put the fish on warm plates, with a little bit of the liquid and some tomatoes.
Serve with good tasty bread, that will absorb some of the liquid. A dry white wine, preferably South Italian or Sicilian, will make a nice companion.

*Use dried red peppers instead, or chop some peperoncini.
**Use any firm white fish, like codfish (merluzzetti).
***Another method keeps the pan on the stove, covers it and let the fish slowly cook for 15 m or so.
****Reduce the amount of water to get a thicker sauce.

The 'acqua pazza', meaning crazy water, is a method rather than a strict recipe. It is known all over the South of Italy as a kind of fish stew. (In Tuscany, a soup is called aqua pazza, but that is a different thing.) The name seems to be derived from a dish conceived by Neapolitan fishermen of the Isle of Ponza, before the coast of Naples. To avoid paying taxes on salt, an expensive state monopoly in the late 19th century, they went crazy and used salty seawater to cook fish. (No one uses seawater anymore, just add salt to the water...).
Depending on the kind of fish, the added ingredients might vary. Add fennel for instance or grilled artichokes. Replace some of the water with some white wine.
Try the posh gamberoni all'acqua pazza with shrimps, and fennel.

Klondike baked salmon

For ➍
4 (Alaska) salmon fillets (thawed)
2 tbs mustard
2 tbs butter, melted
1 tbs honey
4 tbs fresh bread crumbs
4 tbs finely chopped pecans or walnuts
2 ts chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Blend mustard, butter and honey in small bowl. Set aside.

Mix bread crumbs, nuts and parsley in another small bowl. Set aside.

Season salmon fillets with salt and pepper. Place on non-stick or spray-coated baking sheet or broiler pan. Brush salmon with mustard-honey mixture. Pat bread crumb mixture onto top surface of salmon. Bake for 10 m per 2.5 cm of thickness, or until salmon flakes easily when tested with a fork.

Serve with side dishes like green beans or cinnamon applesauce.

The Klondike river, in Canada, near the Alaskan border, is best known for the famous gold rush in the 1890's, which spread to the Alaskan peninsula. Before there was gold, there were fish. Fish have supported the people of Southeast Alaska as long as there have been people. In 1878, fish canning came to Alaska. The Alaska salmon is considered one of the best in the world. It is now shipped frozen, and still canned as well.
Picture shows the Lynx brand wrapper.

Cinnamon applesauce

For ➍
450 g Cox's apples (or Granny Smith, or Golden Delicious)
25 g caster sugar
½ lemon, juice only
4 tbs water
½ cinnamon stick**
knob butter

Peel, core and cut the apples into rough small dice.

Place in a thick-based saucepan with all the remaining ingredients. Cook, covered, on a medium to low heat with a lid on top for 15 m. Stir to ensure even cooking.

Once cooked and tender, with some of the apple starting to purée, remove from the heat, discarding the cinnamon stick. Add butter. Whisk the apples to a sauce consistency, with some chunks left.

Serve warm.

*Use greater equivalents and freeze. Use with grilled chicken, meatloaf, (Klondike) baked salmon, pour on a French toast, cake, or melt over bourbon vanilla ice-cream.
**Or a good pinch of ground cinnamon.

Strozzapreti al sugo di carne (Italian meat sauce for filled pasta)

For ➏
6 tbs butter
2.5 kg chuck roast, cut into 3 cm cubes
3 onions, halved & thinly sliced
75 cl bottle Chianti or other fruity red wine
750 g can peeled tomatoes with juice
1 cup brewed espresso
500 g strozzapreti* or other twisted pasta

Preheat oven to 200°C. Melt 1 tbs butter in large ovenproof pot over medium high heat. Sprinkle beef with salt and pepper. Working in batches, cook beef until browned, about 4 m per batch.
Transfer beef to large bowl. Reduce heat to medium. Add remaining 5 tbs butter to pot and melt. Add onions and cook until soft, stirring frequently, about 5 m. Return beef and any accumulated juices to pot. Add wine, tomatoes with juice, and espresso. Bring to boil, cover, and transfer to oven.
Braise beef until tender, about 2 h. Using 2 forks, break beef apart into more manageable chunks. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta.
Stir strozzapreti or other filled pasta into beef mixture and serve.

*'Strozzapreti' means 'strangled priest' or, rather, 'priest choking himself on food'. A similar name, 'strangelopreti' is used in the North for a gnocchi-like food.

Rodekoolstoemp met worst (Flemish red cabbage mash & sausage)

For ➍
4 coarse pork sausages*
butter
½ red cabbage
2 Jonagold apples, peeled & cubed
100 g/2 tbs sugar (or 2 tbs red currant jelly)
2 tbs vinegar
4 tbs water
cinnamon
laurel
pepper & salt

Discard white heart and outer leaves of the cabbage.

Julienne the cabbage. Rinse with cold water.

Melt butter in pot. Add the sliced cabbage.

Moisten with water and vinegar. Add salt, pepper and a leave of laurel.

Simmer for 30 m. Add cubed apples. Cover and simmer for another 10 m.**

Meanwhile start baking the sausages in some butter on medium heat, without pricking the skin.

Remove the laurel. Thicken the cabbage with sugar or red fruit jam. Simmer uncovered for some m allowing the liquid to evaporate.

Add cinnamon.

Serve with boiled or steamed potatoes***.

*Use coarse pork meat sausages, or black paunches/boudins. Alternatively, serve with baked or grilled meat balls.
**Enhance the taste by sautéing some onions before adding the cabbage to the pan.
Winter cabbage will take about 1 h in total, summer cabbage 30 m.
***You could mix the potatoes and cabbage into a stoemp ('stamppot' in official Dutch), a typical Belgian and Dutch way of mashing potatoes with winter vegetables.

Scrambled eggs @ microwave

For ➊
2 eggs
1 tbs unsalted butter
pinch of salt*
dash of milk or water

Place all ingredients in microwavable container.

Stir with a fork.

Microwave for about 1-2 m. Take it out, stir again, put to microwave for 1-2 m.

Let stand for 1 m while baking toast.

Serve on toast.

*Optional.

Read more scrambled eggs recipes: slow cooked eggs with rosemary, oeufs brouillés.

Friuli winter salad

For ➍, ➏ as a starter
230 g (green) leaves, a mixture of radicchio*, watercress & endives
150 g speck or raw bacon in 1 piece
150 g spicy Italian sausage
125 g cooked chestnuts
1½ tbs groundnut oil
30 g toasted walnuts
seeds from ½ pomegranate**
dressing:
½ tbs balsamic vinegar
4 tbs extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper

Cut the speck into cubes, about 2 cm square. Take the skin off the sausages. Break the sausage meat up into little chunks. Cut the chestnuts in half. (When already broken into chunks, leave them alone.)
Make the dressing by mixing all the ingredients together. Tear the radicchio leaves into pieces and pull the leaves off the endives. Put them into a broad shallow bowl.
Heat 1 tbs oil in a frying pan and cook the speck and sausage over a high heat until well coloured and cooked through. Throw this onto the leaves.
Heat the remaining ½ tbs oil and quickly sauté the chestnuts until they are hot. Season with salt and pepper.
Throw them, and the walnuts onto the leaves. Add the dressing and toss.
Sprinkle the pomegranate* seeds over the top and serve immediately.

*Replace with (purple) endives.
**Pomegranate seeds can be replaced by a fried egg.

The (Süd-Tiroler) speck is a juniper-flavored ham from the Tyrol region, now split between Italy and Austria. Speck bears both the tradition of Mediterranean salt curing and central European smoking.
Read more Friuli recipes: Friuli cherries' strudel, Trieste beef stew.
More pomegranate salads: pomegranate,endives & feta, pomegranate, tomatoes & garlic, warm lamb salad with pomegranate & mint, pomegranate & cucumber salad, pomegranate & quinoa salad, pomegranate fruit salad