Gimmick-Free - French Food at Home (Full Episode) | Cooking Show with Laura Calder

I'm entering a new era. I can just feel it in my bones. I want everything simpler. I want to get rid of all this junk. And have I ever found some good junk? And I think my cooking's getting simpler too. I'm making a buttery roast chicken with a tumble of crisp edged roasted vegetables, a light and airy cheese and herb souffle, an extraordinarily simple applesauce apple tart, unusual and delicious, and mixed greens with walnut vinaigrette. All simple recipes for a simpler life. No gimmicks. A banana slicer. A roast chicken. I make one once a week. And I don't understand why everybody doesn't. I'm going to roast it in a cast iron pan because I like how it looks. So you want your chicken to be like this. As if on a beach. Dreaming. You just run the string in behind at the elbows. Then flip it over. And just draw it under the legs and cross over. Usually I tie it around the tail at the end but they butcher cut it off. And then tie the legs together. Lots of salt and pepper. Set it on one side. And you put half a cup of butter on top. It's the truth. And then you baste it constantly. So I have it propped on one leg so that it gets browned really evenly on all sides. So it goes on one leg for 15 minutes and then on the other leg for 15 minutes and then on its back for 15 minutes and then on its front. Just like sunbathing. Back in the days when you could do that. I'll keep flipping him around. Now I'm doing roasted vegetables. My favorite thing. Leeks. I love roasted leeks. All different carrots from the farmer's market. Because these are so small I think I'll just leave them whole. Just leaving a little green for looks. These are nice slim leeks. If you have really really fat ones you can cut them in short lengths. But I think I'll just have these. And you don't eat this tough green part but I do like to leave just the light green at the top. Now I do like potatoes with a chicken. These actually have nice skins but I'm so sorry I'm peeling them they're so nice. Anyway. Just trying to keep them sort of the same size. And the other thing I always like are cherry tomatoes. Because they get really dense and so sweet. Just a couple of handfuls makes it so much nicer looking and tastier. And then on these I like a bit of not coarse salt but fleur de sel just because it gives a little extra crunch. Lots of pepper and a couple of bay leaves. A few sprigs. Now rosemary and olive oil. And because there's not enough on the chicken butter butter butter. I just like a little bit because it adds to the flavor to mix olive oil and butter together. I'm just putting little pinches all over and then toss. And that's it. I'm just going to flip this chicken for the first time onto its other leg. It's had 15 minutes on one leg then it gets 15 minutes on the other. And then in go the vegetables. And I'm flipping it on its front so it's back up. I'll baste it a bit too. Basting it makes the skin nice and crisp. And finally breast up because that's the part you see when it comes out. And that's when best meat is. Star of the show. And beautiful vegetables. Beautifully caramelized and all that color from different vegetables and from the brown and from those bright little candy bits of tomato. Oh I needed a bigger platter. Let all the vegetables tumble off. Bit of jus. Oh my god it's like two cups of fat. One dish dinner. Beautiful vegetables. I love when they get soft inside and a little crisp outside. And the chicken is so juicy. How could it be anything else? And buttery. Next I'm making a classic that I haven't made in ages. A souffle. Cheese and herb. So good and fluffy. Here's a gadget I actually like. So quiet. Great dance partner too in a pinch. I'm making a souffle because it's classic cheese and herb souffle. You don't have to infuse the milk but I like to. It just makes it even better tasting. Just one cup of milk. I'm just adding half an onion. And a bay leaf. I'm just bringing this gently to a simmer and then I'll cover it and let it infuse. Eggs. Butter. Cheese. Might as well get everything ready actually including my souffle dish. I'm just going to butter it very well because you want the souffle to rise in it. Okay now get a bowl for eggs. Four eggs. To souffle. Souffle is to blow. So the word is because when you bake a souffle it fills with air. And you get everything full of air because you beat the whites. And then the whites make everything you mix them with rise up into clouds. These are my fillings but you can use all kinds of fillings. I'm using just grated Gruyere which is a common French cooking cheese. And herbs. Just parsley and I have a lemon thyme plant so I thought I'd throw something in and see what happens. Just a simple roux here. A tablespoon and a half of butter. And when that melts I need a tablespoon and a half of flour. The butter's melted add the flour all at once. And then just strain this over because you don't want the bay leaf and onion. I'm just gonna get a little pasty at first and the rest. And then just cook it for a minute or two until it's thick. Take it off the heat and then one egg yolk at a time. One. I only need three. I put three yolks and four whites because then it gets it even higher. And last one. So now right into here can go the cheese and the herbs. Now you have a nice flavorful base but you want to season it. And you want to season it really highly which is to say slightly over season it because once you've beaten the whites and fold them together that will dilute the taste. So be generous with your salt and pepper. A nice point of paprika too. Just a dash. A little bit of heat. Okay then whisk your whites. The wind in your souffle. Okay and fold them together. So when you're folding just be gentle because the whole point of putting the air in there is to make it rise so you don't want to make it fall and that's what will happen if you beat it. And then what my teacher Anne Whelan always taught me to do is to take your thumb and run it around the edge of the souffle like that so that it rises evenly. And this one is going to Next I'm making apple tart. Very simple but it's one of the best ones I know. I'm making all gimmick-free French food because I'm in the mood for just plain and simple things that don't complicate my life. I'm making an apple tart. It's just apples but two ways and it tastes just like apple pie. It looks way better. 375 for the oven. This is a delicious applesauce in its own right so you could just make applesauce if you want. These are Braeburn apples because they break down and I want an applesauce for the bottom. These apples will puree when they cook and not stay chunky and they're nice and sweet but they need a little sugar. Two tablespoons of brown sugar. I'm using brown because it's And then four tablespoons of water. And a little scrape of nutmeg. A whisper of nutmeg. And then for the top, a different kind of apple. It really makes a difference. You think oh why the two but it really really improves the taste. Royal gala. I think I'll peel them. I want perfect slices on the top. So two more tablespoons of sugar here and then I just have two tablespoons of melted butter here. Stir them to coat. Okay you want the apples to be super duper soft. My spoon. But look at this. Mush. And then all the seeds, the skin, pour them into a food mill. Some apples are drier than others but this is quite wet. Put it back in the pot and then just cook it a little longer. Once it's pureed and this will just evaporate any excess water off of it. So it only takes about five minutes and you'll have a nice thick applesauce. If I have a cooked tart shell you can use a cookie type crust or just a plain sweetened pastry shell. Spoon in the applesauce. So golden. Honey colored. And then you have sugar and butter coated apples and just lay them in an overlapping line all the way down. And that's it. It just needs about 20 minutes. You want the top apple slices nice and soft. Don't let them be crunchy. And a crisp crust. The great thing about this tart is that even without the ice cream you've got a crunchy crust and then this soft puree of applesauce and then firm soft slices of apple on the top. I have one last thing to make that's gimmick free and that's a really great salad with walnuts. The grande dame of french cooking Julia Child always used to say you could tell a good cook by their roast chicken but I've found I can tell by people's salads. I'm making a salad with walnuts which I'm going to toast in the oven. So I always like to toast quite a few because it's a bit of an effort. That's just at 375 not too hot. Now salad. Oh and I'm gonna put some dill in that because I have some dill for the greens. I have a nice mix. Oak leaf and radicchio and rocket. The vinaigrette is really so straightforward. I don't know why anyone buys it. Just putting a pinch of salt in the bottom. A little Dijon mustard. A few drops of red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar. Now I'm using walnut oil which I love love love. A little of that and just in case it's too strong just a bit of olive oil too. A little squeeze of lemon too. Now just a little dill. See how those nuts are doing. They don't take too long. Once you open the oven and you can really smell them which I can and I don't want them chopped too finely but just a little bit and my vinaigrette. Great. That little addition of dill and walnuts makes all the difference and it's not complicated. I made a whole menu of simple things that keep your life simple. I made a butter roasted chicken and roasted vegetables. A light and airy cheese and herb souffle. An extraordinary apple tart with an applesauce base and a lovely salad with walnuts and dill. Now I just have to go deal with that box of gadgets and I know how. It's free. Can I take the whole box? Be my guest. If you insist.