I Sugges this Recipes

NOT my Wartime Kitchen, but the other one, full of tempting treats and deliciousness!


The first time I tasted smoked salmon was at my Great Aunt and Uncles home in West Kingsdown in Kent.  We used to go down there at Easter and go on exciting trips into London!  I must have been about 7 years old and Aunty Phyllis made us smoked salmon sandwiches, she bought end pieces which were not so expensive, but I was so impressed (a very early foodie!) and loved the smoky saltiness of this delicate fish.
Smoked Salmon is not such a luxury  now with more farmed salmon but it often disappoints being wet or greasy.  Not so the MacGilvray Finest Smoked Salmon sent to me by The Handpicked Food 
Store. Here is what MacGilvrays say about their smoked salmon:

"All of our smoked salmon is sourced by fine food purveyors MacGilvray from the cold clear waters of the Scottish West Highlands.  It has been dry cured and oak-smoked in traditional brick built kilns and we believe it to be the finest available."

The salmon was firm, not too finely cut and just melted in your mouth.  The smoke was subtle and didnt overpower the flavour of the fish.  In fact, it was just how I remember that first taste of delicious smoked salmon in the 1960s!  The Handpicked Food Store is a new venture from the people who bring you well-established The Handpicked Collection  both are well worth a visit for gift shopping. 

Club Chocolat Francais Autumn Collection and a Giveaway

I am feeling really spoiled, first smoked salmon and now delicious french chocolates.  Ive reviewed Club Chocolat Francais before and I have to say that this collection is even better than the last.  There are some stunning flavours enrobed in the very best dark, milk and white chocolate.




This was my absolute favourite from this selection its the Citron Coriandre and it absolutely bursts onto your tongue with an incredible lemon and spice taste that Ive never encountered in a chocolate before.  I also loved the Petales Framboise, again the intensity and freshness of the fruit flavours are really not like anything you get in a standard box of chocs.



Club Chocolat Français comes is a family business, established 20 years ago in Southwest France, in the country side. Their workshops are surrounded by orchards. These orchards provide the plums and hazelnuts  used for the chocolate creations.


If you love Gourmet chocolate, have a look at the Club Chocolat Francais chocolate club, each month you get 34 luxury handmade chocolates delivered to your door  - mmm heaven!

GIVEAWAY

I have three full size boxes of Club Chocolat Chocolates to giveaway to three lucky readers.  Just follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter widget.
This competition is open to readers in the UK and Europe only as Club Chocolat Francais chocolates are handmade using the finest ingredients with no artificial preservatives added. The high quality of our products makes speedy delivery a necessity.

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Giveaway Closed

P.S the winner of the frame goes to: JT, Britt & Bella please e mail us your info!

The world’s first variety of Boursin was created in 1957 in Normandy by Francois Boursin. Inspired by a long-standing traditional dish, fromage frais (fresh cheese), in which guests mixed their own seasoned cheese from a bowl of fine herbs, the expert cheese maker introduced Boursin Garlic & Fine Herbs. His recipe quickly became the first flavoured fresh cheese to be sold throughout France. Boursin was the height of sophistication in the 1970s and probably the first French cheese I tasted.

However, there is a new Boursin cheese which I have been asked to review: Boursin Fig and 3 Nuts or Figue et 3 Noix.  This cheese is a combination of full tat soft cheese, fig nuggets, raisins, pecan nuts, walnuts and cashew nuts.  Its not quite what I expected and took a little time and a few different tastings to work out whether I liked it or not.  Its quite a sweet flavour, due to the figs and raisins, and I found it worked best on a sweetish wheaten cracker.  It would also go well with a slice of apple.

As you may have gathered, if you are a regular reader of my blog, I tend to like to make something with items Im sent to review and Ive been pondering the best way to present this sweet cheese.  In the end I went for quite a retro 70s style canape, the sort of thing my Mum would have served at a party, along with the cheese and pineapple on sticks!  The crunchy bread croute was a great foil for the sweet cheese and I could just see them going down well with a glass of chilled fino sherry or a dry Sauvignon blanc.

Boursin Croutes

The instructions for this recipe are not precise, much depends on the size you make your croutes and how much filling you want to add. Would also be nice to top with a slice of fresh fig, or sliced, red skinned apple dipped in lemon juice. The croutes will keep for a few days in an airtight tin or box.

For the Croutes
Slices of white bread
Butter

1. Heat the oven to 180C
2. Cut the crusts off the bread, roll each slice flat with a rolling pin and, using cookie cutters, cut out circles of bread.
3. Melt the butter and brush both sides of each circle generously with the butter
4. Push down into tart tin.  If the bread seems to be popping back out of the tin, roll up a piece of tin foil into a ball and push it on top of the bread.
5. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until golden brown (timing will vary depending on the thickness of your bread). Leave to cool.

For the filling
For every two croutes you will need:
1 tbsp Boursin Fig and 3 Nuts Cheese
1 tbsp low fat cream cheese
1/2 tsp lemon juice
2 pecan nuts

1. Beat the cream cheese and lemon juice until soft, add the Boursin Fig and 3 Nuts and mix through.
2. Using a Wilton 1M (large star) nozzle, fill a piping bag and pipe into the croutes.
3. Top each croute with a whole pecan nut.



 If you would like to try Boursin Fig and 3 Nuts along with some of the other varieties of Boursin Cheese, the nice people at Boursin have a cool bag full of Boursin Cheeses to giveaway.  Just follow the instructions below to enter:


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