Thursday 9 August 2012

Savoury Clafouti


I first came across these in Allan Bay's 'Cuochi si Diventa 2'. Daft, not to have realised that the clafouti theme can be applied to rather more than just apples, pears and cherries - which I've been doing for years, on the back of Anne Willan and Bruno Loubet. I suppose the concept is a cross between a pastryless quiche, a kind of frittata, and a sponge pudding. Anyway, they are light, quick, extremely versatile, and highly recommended. In his book, Bay gives recipes for both a savoury and a sweet clafouti 'base' and then lists combinations of ingredients that can be used in combination with either one or the other. Made in individual egg dishes, these are dinner-party presentable, and if you can get them from oven to table before they deflate, then they give good theatre, too.

The following is the recipe for the savoury clafouti base. Recently, I've then been pouring this into a couple of individual egg dishes, which have first had a layer put into them of diced cooked ham and diced gorgonzola; others of his combinations are herring and onion, bacon and leek, tomato and mushroom, artichoke heart and capers....in fact, pretty much anything you like.

Savoury base for two individual clafoutis.

Ingredients: 1 Egg; 100 ml Milk; 50 ml Cream; 20g Flour; 20g Parmesan; a generous pinch of Salt; Peppr, to taste.

1. Roughy chop the Parmesan, and pulverize it in the liquidizer.

2. Add to the liquidizer jar all the rest of the ingredients and liquidize to a smooth, thick batter.

3. Pour this carefully over a layer of your chosen flavouring ingredients in the base of two greased individual egg-dishes, and bake for twenty minutes or so in an oven pre-heated to 220 degrees C. Take them out when they are risen, browned, and clearly done. Rush to table before they deflate.