Just like the real thing but without the béchamel sauce – surprisingly good!
Cheat’s croque monsieur – serves 2
4 tbsp crème fraîche
100g Gruyère, grated
a little freshly grated nutmeg
soft butter
4 slices of sourdough bread
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 thick slices of ham
green salad, to serve
Heat the oven to 220C/Fan 200C.
Mix the crème fraîche with the grated cheese, then season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.
Butter the slices of bread on one side, then place on a baking tray, buttered-side up. Toast under a hot grill until golden.
Spread the untoasted side of two of the slices with mustard and top with the ham and half the cheese mixture. Put the other piece of toast on top, toasted side-up, and spread over the rest of the cheese mixture. Season with black pepper.
Put the tray into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden and bubbling. Serve with a green salad.
(Original recipe from Rick Stein’s Simple Suppers, BBC Books, 2023.)
There are a few bits to this but it’s not complicated – trust the process and start the night before, dinner will be easy tomorrow. Serve with a green salad.
Wine Suggestion: We think this dish works really well with a fruit forward, medium bodied red like a Grenache. We’re particularly enamoured at the moment by Jesus Romero’s Rubus, a Garnacha Tempranillo blend made with minimal intervention. Good grapes that ferment themselves in tank, then left to settle for a few months and bottled with a touch of sulphur to keep it stable. Pure brambly red fruits with a purple fruited core, gentle spices and tannins and an easy, but complex nonetheless, finish.
Chicken, chorizo & spinach pie – serves 6
1 tbsp olive oil
125g cooking chorizo or chorizo ring, skin removed and chopped
2 onions, thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
250g baby spinach
200g leftover roast chicken, shredded
4 tbsp crème fraîche
500g Maris Piper or similar potatoes
2 x 320g sheets ready-rolled puff pastry
plain flour, for dusting
125g mature cheddar cheese, grated
1 egg, beaten
Make the filling first. Heat the olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat and cook the chorizo for a few minutes or until the oil is released. Add the onions, season and cook for 10 minutes or until soft and starting to caramelise.
Add the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes, then add the spinach in batches, stirring until wilted. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chicken and crème fraîche. Season to taste, then tip into a bowl and leave to cool, then chill in the fridge.
Peel the potatoes and thinly slice. Boil in salted water for about 5 minutes or until tender. Use a slotted spoon to remove the potato slices from the water and set onto a cloth-lined tray to dry and cool.
Unroll one of the pastry sheets on a floured surface and roll out to make a square shape, transfer to a lined baking sheet and cut out a 28cm diameter circle (a dinner plate will help with this). Chill in the freezer for 5 minutes to firm up.
Season the potatoes and lay a quarter of them onto the pastry circle, leaving a 2.5cm border around the edge. Next add a thrid of the chicken and chorizo mixture, then a third of the cheese. Repeat these layers, gradually forming a dome shape and finishing with a layer of potatoes.
Brush beaten egg all around the border.
Next, roll out the second sheet of pastry and drape over the top. Smooth over the filling and press the edges together to seal, then trim off the excess pastry and crimp the border. Brush with the egg and chill again – you can cook the pie at this stage or you can leave it in the fridge until tomorrow.
Heat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6.
When the oven is heated, brush the pie again with the remaining egg and score gently down the sides with a sharp knife. Cut a small hole in the top to let out the steam.
Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4 and bake for a further 40 minutes or until golden brown and piping hot throughout (especially important if you’ve had it in the fridge for a long time). Rest for about 5 minutes before slicing.
(Original recipe by Tom Mitchell-Dawson in Sainsbury’s Magazine, September 2023.)
This is made with packets of mussels in garlic butter sauce which you can easily pick up in the supermarket on your way home – no need to make it in time for the fish shop and no fiddly prep. You might want a bit of crusty bread to mop up the sauce.
Wine Suggestion: We couldn’t go past a good Muscadet and with ever greater choices out there we’d recommend you explore beyond some of the classic cuvées being offered. Jérémie Huchet’s Clos les Montys is an unique terroir with some very old vines. Not within the Sévre et Maine appelation this could easily be overlooked, but you get something special in the glass: aromas of lemon, jasmine, and pears with hints of a fresh herb. Juicy, well-balanced and elegant, it finishes very long and refreshing.
Tagliatelle with mussels & crème fraîche – serves 4(easily halved)
300g dried tagliatelle
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
150ml dry white wine
200ml crème fraîche
2 x 450g packs mussels in garlic sauce (we used Carr & Sons from Dunnes)
a good handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
2 tbsp chopped tarragon
Heat the olive oil in a deep frying pan, then add the onion and cook gently for about 10 minutes until softened and starting to colour. Pour in the wine, turn up the heat and bubble until it has almost evaporated.
Meanwhile, bring a large pan of salty water to the boil and cook the pasta according to the timings on the pack.
Add the crème fraîche to the onions and bring to the boil, then tip in the mussels and cook for about 5 minutes until piping hot and open (chuck any that don’t open away). Drain the pasta and return to the pan and tip in the mussel mixture. Stir in the herbs and serve with some crusty bread if you like.
The rich sauce here is inspired by the sherry-like Savignin from the Jura. It’s a while since we’ve been there so we had to settle for dry sherry which still made a delicious sauce. Green beans and some new potatoes are perfect on the side.
Wine Suggestion: We think this works with a mountain wine of some sort, where you get the bracing freshness of altitude but can also get depth and body to stand up to the flavoursome sauce. In the absence of a Savignin in the fridge we turned to a Côtes du Jura Chardonnay by Chevasu-Fassenet. Rich, creamy, with hints of oak and a layer of oxidative flor mingled in with the fruit giving this a grip and extra zip.
Sautéed sea troutwith sherry sauce – serves 2
50g butter
1 shallot, finely chopped
60ml dry sherry
300ml chicken stock
100g full-fat crème fraîche
½ tsp dry sherry
1 tsp finely chopped parsley
a pinch of sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
sea trout fillets, enough for 2
Heat 30g of the butter in a pan and gently cook the shallot until softened. Add the sherry and chicken stock, then reduced by three-quarters. Whisk in the crème fraîche and reduced for a couple of minutes, then whisk in the rest of the butter.
Reduce the sauce until it coats the back of a spoon, then take off the heat and add the extra ½ tsp of sherry and parsley. Season with a pinch of salt and sugar and keep warm.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the trout, skin-side down, for about 4 minutes. Turn when the skin is crispy and finish cooking briefly on the other side.
Serve with the sauce, some green beans and new potaotes.
(Original recipe from Rick Stein’s Secret France, BBC Books, 2019.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 