With truthful climate settling in and summer time on the horizon, what I need to serve buddies is a brilliant, sort-of-French pique-nique unfold. In France, with cheese retailers, bakeries and advantageous ready meals obtainable in each neighborhood, it’s straightforward to have an impromptu picnic — at a park, within the woods or on a river financial institution — on the drop of a (straw) hat.
The entire dishes listed here are strikingly Francophile. However as a colleague talked about to me, it’s not fancy or fussy, it’s simply good, easy French meals. I see it as a buffet, served within the yard with all the pieces at room temperature, although it might additionally simply journey to the seashore. And should you get rained out, it’s nonetheless scrumptious indoors.
I would like greens at my picnic, so there are two salads on this menu.
First is an easy, old school French potato salad with chives and tarragon. Medium waxy potatoes are boiled and peeled, then thickly sliced, then coated in a straightforward dressing. A beneficiant dribble of fruity extra-virgin olive oil is customary.
Then, there’s a colourful inexperienced bean and cherry tomato salad, completed with a black olive dressing. For the very best consequence, select the smallest inexperienced beans and the sweetest cherry tomatoes. The dressing, made with Niçoise olives, capers, anchovy and garlic, is much like a Provençal tapenade. The beans and tomatoes profit from a brief bathtub within the combination. Add arugula or different salad greens simply earlier than serving, if you want.
For one thing grilled, contemplate this pepper-crusted flank steak. Flank tends to be cheaper and has a repute for being harder, however it may be simply as tender if cooked to medium-rare and sliced thinly on a diagonal.
A slightly great amount of coarse crushed black peppercorns coats this flank steak for a particular burst of taste. It’s finest to crush your individual pepper, with a mortar and pestle or an electrical spice mill. Patting the pepper on each side of the steak effectively prematurely of the cooking ensures the seasoning will penetrate. Prepare dinner your steak over coals, in a lined fuel grill, in a cast-iron pan on the range or beneath the broiler. It might be served heat or at room temperature.
Raspberry-almond clafoutis is among the easiest desserts on the market. You combine up a bit batter and pour it over fruit in a baking dish — nothing extra. A standard clafoutis is made with cherries, however right here they’re changed with raspberries, which have a slight tartness. I devised a gluten-free model with almond flour and a bit almond extract. It’s a reasonably dessert, dusted with powdered sugar.
Staying true to the French theme, be certain your picnic consists of chilled rosé, a evenly glowing water and a freshly baked baguette or two.
