FEAST
captures the glorious style of Franck Dangereux, one of South Africa's most
skilled and passionate chefs, at both his home and captivating
restaurant, La Colombe set among the lush vines of Constantia Uitsig
under the vivid blue skies of the Cape.
Franck's menus reflect
passion, skill and creativity at his
celebrated restaurant where the gorgeous summers flow into cold crisp
winters. Dining at La Colombe is a memorable feast for all seasons,
sublime tastes and ravishing colours showcasing his wide
culinary expertise.
FEAST
has page after page of lavish stunning photography by
talented Craig Fraser illustrating Franck's divine cooking both homely, bringing all the warmth of his Provençal
background to brilliant life, as well as in his restaurant where the
depth of his superb training is mirrored in the effortless complexity of
his dishes.
Franck
learned the strict classical approach to cooking at the excellent hotel school in Nice - "It was
hell, but building
the foundations properly, accompanied by rigid discipline was vital." Later as
a young impressionable trainee chef he worked in some of the finest
kitchens in the South of France, spending valuable time at L'Oasis in La
Napoule where Louis Outier, one of the most brilliant chefs in France,
became Franck's inspirational mentor.
Summer
is the smell of the jasmine that bloomed outside my granny's house,
the velvety touch of a ripe peach picked straight off the tree,
still warm from the midday sun, and the smell of ripe tomatoes.
BRIOCHE
TOAST WITH PARMESAN, CÈPE MUSHROOMS AND GARLIC FRICASÉE & ROCKET
SALAD WITH HAZELNUT OIL
Serves
8
1
brioche la Colombe, made with parmesan (see BASICS)
1 kg fresh cèpe (porcini) mushrooms, stems cleaned and peeled
16 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
olive oil for frying
1 lemon, cut in half
250 g fresh rocket, washed
3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
150 ml hazelnut oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
4 tablespoons whole hazelnuts, toasted and cracked
salt and pepper
Optional:
Garlic sauce (see BASICS)
Bake
the brioche at 180°C for 25 minutes and leave to cool before slicing.
To
clean the cèpes, brush all the soil off the stem, and cut the small
sandy bits away with a sharp knife. Peel the stem delicately with a
vegetable peeler to remove the slightly leathery first layer of skin.
Make sure you keep the peels to use in sauce or risotto later (dry them
on a flat tray for a few weeks and keep in a jar on your shelf). Cut the
cèpes in half if they are large and cut into 1 cm thick slices – they
reduce when fried.
Peel
and slice the garlic cloves into thin shavings. Put aside on a plate. Wash
and spin-dry the rocket. For the dressing, combine the sherry vinegar,
Dijon mustard, salt and pepper, and whisk. Whisk in the hazelnut oil.
Pour
olive oil to cover the bottom of a very large frying pan and heat. When
the oil smokes slightly, fry the cèpes in two or three batches,
depending on the size of the pan, with the garlic shavings divided
between them. Fry for a few seconds, then toss in the pan without using
a spoon, until they soften and brown. Add the garlic once the cèpes
start to brown. The cèpes should cook on high heat for four minutes,
the garlic for two minutes. Add salt and pepper just before removing the
cèpes and garlic from the pan, then squeeze half a lemon over, toss
again and put on a large plate, and top with the next batch.
Slice
the brioche and place the slices under the grill to brown slightly.
Toss the rocket with the dressing
in a large bowl. Place a bunch of dressed rocket on each plate with a
slice of brioche and a portion of cèpes. Pour over garlic sauce if
desired, and garnish with hazelnuts.
Growing
up in the south of France made the beach a large part of my summer
memories.
FENNEL AND
MUSSEL FRICASSÉE WITH SAFFRON
Serves 8
3 kg mussels
3 cloves
1 bouquet garni
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
200 ml dry white wine
olive oil
8 small fennel bulbs
50 g butter
water
Sticky
rice:
1 cup basmati rice
375 ml water
pinch salt
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
Sauce:
Liquid from the mussels
300 ml crème fraîche or thick cream
8 egg yolks
2 pinches saffron threads
freshly ground pepper
This is a
southern French classic, and very easy to make. There’s a bit of
preparation involved, but it’s worth it. Fennel is the perfect fragrant
autumn vegetable, and mussels are available in South Africa all year
round. They complement each other perfectly in this hearty household dish.
I like to serve it with sticky basmati rice, for the contrasting texture
and to mop up the flavours of the sauce.
To clean the
mussels, see BASICS. Steam in two batches in the biggest heavy-bottomed
saucepan you have, with half the onion, cloves, wine and bouquet garni
added to each batch, plus a dash of olive oil. First steam the mussels on
their own for two minutes on high heat, then add the wine and other
ingredients and steam with the lid on for three minutes. Toss, stir and
put back on the heat. The mussels should all be open in under five
minutes. Transfer all this into another pot and repeat with the next
batch. Leave to cool, then take out the mussels and put them on a plate in
the fridge. Strain all the sauce into a clean pot.
Cut the
bases off the fennel bulbs
and remove any woody outer leaves. Cut in half horizontally, place flat
side down on a board and slice into thin strips slowly on low heat for
about 10 minutes, tossing occasionally. Cover the pan with a lid or foil
and season halfway through the cooking process with salt and pepper. When
cooked, the fennel strips should be soft, but not falling apart. Keep
aside.
To cook the
rice, place all the
ingredients in a pot and put on low heat. Stir initially but don’t touch
again. Cover and simmer for 15 – 20 minutes keeping an eye on it to see
when all the liquid has been absorbed.
While the rice
cooks, make the sauce. Warm the strained liquid from the mussels cooking
in a pot on the stove. Add two pinches of saffron and leave to infuse. Mix
together the crème fraîche and the egg yolks. Bring the liquid to the
boil and rapidly whisk in the cream/egg mixture. Simmer on a low heat for
five minutes, without boiling, to thicken.
To serve,
mix the mussels and fennel together in the middle of a large serving dish.
Garnish and pour over the sauce. Serve the rice in a separate dish.
FREE-RANGE
CHICKEN PARCELS WITH MUSTARD AND BASIL STUFFING AND ROASTED LIMES
Serves 8
2 large
free-range chickens, about 1.7 kg each
rind and juice of 2 limes (use green lemons if you can’t find limes)
4 tablespoons Maille Dijon mustard (smooth)
100 g breadcrumbs (do not use processed cornflake crumbs. Plenty of shops
with bakeries sell proper bread crumbs made from stale bread – these are
perfect, and inexpensive)
100 g butter, softened slightly
6 heaped tablespoons finely chopped basil
salt and pepper
toothpicks
4 more limes, cut in half
Free-range
chickens are not injected with antibiotics, and their flesh is firmer and
tastier. Plus they’ve at least had a bit of a life. To get escalopes you
need to first debone the raw chicken (see HOW TO). I leave the skin on the
breasts for added juice, but it’s up to you which you prefer. Cut a slit
into the thicker part of each breast and flap this open to increase the
surface area for stuffing.
Mix the
breadcrumbs, butter, mustard, chopped basil, salt and pepper, lime juice
and grated rind in a bowl. Using your hands, work into a soft paste. Make
finger-sized sausages of this paste and place one in the centre of each
chicken piece. Roll the chicken around the paste – it doesn’t have to
overlap, just meet at the top. Secure each parcel with toothpicks.
Preheat the
oven to 220°C. Place the chicken pieces in a roasting pan, with the
halved limes arranged between them. Drizzle with olive oil and roast for
40-45 minutes, until the limes start to brown and soften. Don’t turn the
chicken parcels while cooking.
Serve one
chicken parcel and a roasted half-lime on each plate, so that each person
can squeeze the pulp and juice of the roasted lime onto their chicken.
This dish is very good with cold chickpea salad (see recipe) or potato
gratin (see BASICS).
If you’re in
a hurry, you can use shop-bought, filleted chicken pieces, but it’s hard
to find free-range chicken portions, and it takes something away from your
involvement in this dish. It feels great to have done the whole thing
yourself, planned your day and taken time to debone the chicken.
To make
bouillon with the chicken
carcasses at the same time as the parcels and make brown stock in the same
way as beef stock (see BASICS). Or make a white stock by placing the
uncooked carcasses in cold water and boiling them with onion, garlic,
carrot and bouquet garni. This stock is perfect for soup or risotto.
I don’t
actually like meringue on its own, because it reminds me of chalk. When I
was a child I made the crucial mistake of eating some chalk – you try
everything as a kid, particularly if you’re interested in food.
Meringue
sets my teeth on edge in the same way. But I have discovered that when
meringue is cooked slightly sticky on the inside and combined with other
things, such as the berries and cream in this dish, it creates magical
layers of texture.
LAVENDER-SCENTED
MERINGUE WITH SUMMER BERRIES AND CREAM
Serves 8 – 10
Meringue
base:
7 egg whites
pinch salt
1 teaspoon white vinegar
400 g icing sugar
2 tablespoons lavender flowers, removed from the stem
Filling:
250 g raspberries
150 g strawberries (don’t wash these too much, unless they have sand in
them, as the pips on the outside have the most flavour. If the
strawberries are huge, halve or quarter them, otherwise leave whole)
125 g blackberries
250 g blueberries
125 g youngberries
800 ml whipping cream
100 g icing sugar
lavender flowers to garnish
Add a pinch of
salt to the egg whites and whisk on full speed in a large metal or
porcelain bowl. They will firm up very quickly. Once the eggs are fluffy
and white, start adding the sugar, slowly and in small amounts, still
whisking. If you add all the sugar at once it will saturate the egg whites
and the meringue won’t rise properly.
When all the
sugar is dissolved, line your biggest oven tray (the fitted tray in the
oven is best) with foil. With your hand, spread a little oil on the foil.
Scoop the meringue mixture onto the foil and shape it into disc, with the
sides a little higher than the middle, like a big nest. Don’t make it
too thin in the middle as it might break when cooked. (If it does break
when you remove it, it’s not the end of the world, just put it back
together with the cream – it’ll still taste as good.) Sprinkle the
lavender flowers on the meringue, a few in the middle for flavour, but
more on the rim, where they will still be visible once the filling has
been added. Bake at 100°C for 2 ½ - 3 hours.
Traditionally
the meringue shouldn’t be brown, but if you prefer it slightly brown on
the tips, just increase the oven temperature slightly. Take the meringue
out of the oven and let it cool on your serving platter – this should
have a bit of a rim around the meringue to catch any berries that fall
off.
Whip the cream
by hand in a wide, shallow bowl, using a good-sized whisk with a regular
circular motion to get air bubbles into the cream. Within about 2 minutes
the cream will start to thicken. Add the icing sugar gradually and
continue whisking until you’re happy with the consistency of the cream.
It should be soft enough to pour but not liquid. Don’t overwhisk or
you’ll end up with sweet butter, and there’s not much you can do with
that.
When the
meringue is cold, pour the cream over it. Arrange the berries on top of
this, mingling the colours. Decorate with lavender flowers, on or off the
stem. You can make the meringue beforehand, but once the meringue has been
put together it must be eaten immediately, or the base will start to go
soggy.
Photographer:
Craig Fraser
Published
by Quivertree Publications, South Africa
info@quivertree.co.za
www.quivertree.co.za
