Gordon Ramsay's French Inspired Recipes

Starting out as a young chef, my biggest influence was definitely French cuisine, and when I was 23 years of age, I was determined to learn as much as I could, so I set off for Paris to work in some of the most demanding and exacting kitchens in the world, and my passion and love for French food really took hold. When I was living in France, I got to know two very distinct traditions of French food. On the one hand, there was the delicious haute cuisine I cooked all day in the restaurant, and on the other hand, there was the food you ate in people's homes, which is a lot simpler to make, but still absolutely delicious. My ultimate French-inspired lunch is very light, bright, and really takes me back to when I lived in Paris. It's my take on the salad niçoise, served with a delicious goat's cheese and pear tartine. Think of the niçoise as an assembly job of delicious ingredients, brought together with a fantastic dressing. The secret behind my salad niçoise is in the dressing. Spoon Dijon mustard into a pestle and mortar. Some people top the salad with anchovies and capers, but in mine, they're the base to the dressing. I'm going to grind that into a paste. And then get the garlic in there. Season well with black pepper. It doesn't need any salt in there because of the anchovies. Add a couple of tablespoons of red wine vinegar, olive oil, and lastly, flat-leaf parsley, to give the dressing freshness against those deep flavors. It's a thick, rich, substantial dressing. Dressing done. Now for the salad. Boiled potatoes, green beans, and eggs. From a rolling ball, seven and a half to eight minutes. You should keep that nice, yolky, creamy texture in the center. Once the eggs are ready, put them into cold water to stop them cooking. And this is a great trick to peel them. So much easier peeling eggs when you use the water that they've been cooling down in. And the water will seep underneath all the shell. So the whole shell just gets peeled off with one beautiful, big layer. Now, beans. Nice and crunchy. Season the beans and potatoes whilst they're still warm, so they absorb more flavor. A little drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and just let them sit there. Whilst the potatoes and beans cool down, I'm doing a simple French open sandwich, which is called a tartine. This is delicious. First, I'm toasting baguette on the griddle. Lightly oil the griddle pan. Get your bread and stick it on there. Take a pear. It goes brilliantly well with goat's cheese. Slice the pear into finger-width pieces. That's the color we're looking for. That dark, crispy texture. Now for the goat's cheese. Give it a season. It doesn't need salt, because a little fresh goat's cheese is already quite salty. Then a handful of crumbled walnuts. They go under the grill whilst I put the tuna and these ones together. My secret to assembling a great nicoise salad is to start in the middle of the plate and add ingredients layer by layer. There's one thing I'm always missing at the bottom of salads is dressing, so I like to put it on the plate first. Baby gym lettuce is great because it's robust and holds that heavy dressing. Then add firm, waxy salad potatoes and green beans. I like them to have a bit of a crunch. Canned tuna can be fantastic. I'm using a good quality one in olive oil, which has been drained. Next, baby plum tomatoes, which have a lovely, intense, sweet flavor. And then my eggs. That nice, dark, rich yolk. Beautiful. Yolk's still creamy inside. Here's a little olive nicoise. This will work just as well with other black olives. And then the dressing. Drizzle that around gently. Beautiful. That is a nicoise in heaven. Now, tartine. Wow. Just the smell of those grilled walnuts. That is beautiful. A simple but very elegant tuna nicoise with a delicious goat's cheese sandwich. Wonderful. My vibrant and gutsy nicoise salad with that incredible anchovy and caper dressing served with a pear and goat's cheese tartine. Too good to let the French keep it all to themselves. Tilly, would you mind helping Daddy with the chicken fricassee, please? We're going to start off with browning all the chicken off nicely. Pan on. Get that nice and hot. What I want you to do for me first is to season the chicken with salt and pepper, please. Thank you. So that's on one side. Then we turn the chicken over. So we season it on the other side. Salt. Good girl. And pepper. Nice. Now, this is almost like a chicken stew. OK. What's that there? Thyme. Good girl. What's that one there? That one's rosemary. That's right. Rosemary. And because this is quite a rustic French dish, we don't need to chop everything. So you get the garlic and you just bash it like that. Now smell. Right. So that's nice and hot. Put a tablespoon of olive oil in there. A couple of glugs. One, two. Good girl. Put the chicken in. And you lay away. You get that nice and brown. I'm getting good at this. You are. Skin side down. So we get the colour on the skin. Now, I just want you to cut the mushrooms in half for daddy, please. OK. These are chestnut mushrooms. There are lots of different types of mushrooms, aren't there? There are lots and lots of different types of mushrooms. Which one's your favourite? One of my favourites is the girolle mushroom. I like mushrooms that are a bit bigger than this. And on dinners with mum, we cut out the middle, put pesto and cheese in it, and then we bake them. Oh. So I want you to sprinkle the pancetta over the chicken, please. Good girl. Nice. Can I get the mushrooms in? Not yet, because I'm going to get some colour on the chicken first. OK. And as that pancetta starts to cook down, it puts a really nice flavour on the chicken. Yeah. So we're sort of sautéing everything, OK? Right, garlic in, please. Good girl. Just throw them in. Now I want you to sprinkle the mushrooms on top of that. Good girl. And then there's the rosemary. OK, you get your fingers like that and you pull it down. You take it all off. Hold it. Put it down. Good girl. So now you've got the nice little rosemary sprigs. And we do the same with the thyme. Now the thyme flower is a little bit smaller. What different flavours do they give? So the thyme is a little bit sweeter, OK? And the rosemary, a little bit more savoury. Which one do you like? I like them both because they both give a nice flavour. Don't they? So, bay leaf in. I'd like you to put that rosemary and thyme in there, please. Lovely. Sprinkle it over. Right, I'd like you to stand back now because we're going to flambe this. I do not want to get those little slippers caught on fire. What are their names? Rumpel and Judith. Judith, nice. OK, great. Ready? Yeah. In with the brandy. And then just tilt the pan gently. Whoa. How cool is that? Is it magical? Beautiful. Bit like a cauldron. All the cognac has been flambéed. So there's no raw alcohol anywhere. So we've got a really nice, deep, rich flavour. I'm going to add my chicken stock. You know, Rumpel likes that, not my slipper Rumpel. Rumpel the dog. Ah, Rumpel the dog. Well, he likes chicken stock. Yes, when he's a good boy, he gets it with his biscuit. It's gone in, like, wow, really quickly. Simmer and reduce the stock for around 10 minutes. Now we're going to cook the most amazing potatoes. Sauteed potatoes are really simple to make and absolutely delicious. Start by slicing the potatoes into finger-width pieces. Then parboil them for five to six minutes. When you cook something like rosemary or thyme or basil, does it slowly let off the flavour into the hot oil? Very much so. In a hot pan, add a tablespoon of goose fat and saute the potatoes until they turn golden. And add in shallots, garlic, rosemary and thyme. That goes in over the top. That goose fat now is starting to fry the potatoes. Just leave that sat there. To complete my ultimate French dinner, my version of a classic, a glorious lavender creme caramel for dessert. The first job is the lavender sugar. You can buy this ready-made or simply add dried edible sprigs of lavender to caster sugar and store. You can also try this trick with vanilla pods and cinnamon to bring new subtle flavours to sweets and bacon. For the creme caramel, melt plain caster sugar until it turns dark golden. Pour into ramekins, sprinkle with lavender flowers and cool. Now to make a simple custard. Gently heat whole milk in a pan until steaming. Meanwhile, whisk together egg, vanilla seeds and lavender sugar until golden and fluffy. Then gradually pour the hot milk into the mix, whisking continuously until the custard is smooth and creamy. To set, cook in a water bath or bain-marie. A good tip is to line a roasting tin with a cloth to stop the ramekins jiggling around. Pour your custard, then boiling water around the ramekins until halfway up the sides. Then cook in a preheated oven for around 30 minutes until set. Cool in the fridge, then when you're ready to serve, dip the ramekins in hot water to loosen the creme caramel. Et voila, lavender creme caramel. Look at that chicken now. So I'm just gonna turn the gas right down and put the lid on. Just like that, but leave a little bit... So it can let out some steam. So it can let out some steam, that's right. Now what I'd like you to do is to chop some parsley. Crunch it up nicely, tuck your fingers in and take your time. Now my hands have got lots of different flavours. Now you've got all those wonderful flavours. You could almost be French. Sprinkle that on there. Good girl. Nice. I can tell Jack's gonna love this. Is he? Looks delicious. Doesn't it? Smells delicious. Look at that. I could smell that even before you took the lid off. That's good, my darling. Good job, by the way. Thank you. I can't wait for the others to try it. I hope they love it. This is my ultimate French dinner. Chicken fricassee with sensational herby sautéed potatoes and lavender creme caramel.