[Note: This recipe involves seven hours' chilling and preparation time for the dough. You can buy a pack of good butter-based puff pastry from the supermarket and skip the first three ingredients and four steps, turning this from a day's work to a quick snack. That's what I did...]

500g flour, chilled (or replace with pack of good puff pastry)
2 tsp salt (or replace with pack of good puff pastry)
500g unsalted butter, chilled (or replace with pack of good puff pastry)
250g Tomme cheese, cubed
160-200g cooked ham, thinly sliced
freshly ground black pepper
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
3 tbsp groundnut oil (I used olive oil, as it's what I had to hand)
50 ml soured cream
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
rocket and lettuce salad
crushed walnuts
sesame seeds

1. Combine the flour and salt in a mixing bowl and gradually add 290ml of water, stirring to form a dough. Wrap in cling film and chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours.
2. Roll the dough into a long thin rectangle about 45cm long and 18cm wide. Flatten the chilled butter into a small rectangle one-third the size of the dough rectangle and place it in the middle. Fold up the sides of the dough to cover the butter.
3. Turn the dough parcel 90 degrees and use the rolling pin to press around the edges to seal them. Roll out the dough into another long rectangle, then fold it up into a square parcel again. Wrap in cling film and place in the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour.
4. Repeat the rolling and folding process another two times, chilling the pastry for 1 hour between each rolling.
5. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6. Roll out the pastry to a depth of about 8mm and cut out 13cm circles. Fill each circle with 20-30g of the cheese and 10-20g of the ham. Season with black pepper. Fold over the pastry to seal in the filling and crimp the edges. Brush with a beaten egg and bake for 10 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette. Whisk the mustard with the oil then add the cream, vinegar and 2 tablespoons of water, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Make a salad with ripped rocket and crisp lettuce leaves. Drizzle with the mustard vinaigrette, top with crushed walnuts and sesame seeds and serve with the hot pastry parcels.

Recipe from Market Kitchen (unadapted).

Summer in the Perigord sees an abundance of fruits and vegetables in the markets, and St Denis is no different.

Tourists throng the morning markets, cooing over the variety of strawberries available. For strawberry is no catch-all term in France. Each variety, from Seascape to Marras des Bois has its own characteristics, its own uses in the kitchen.

But while the tourists pile their baskets high with berries, shining aubergines, and slim green courgettes, the locals crowd around the fromagerie, queueing for trays of cabecous.

Cabecous are the small round disk of pungent goats' cheese popular in the Perigord. You will see them in lunch baskets, on assiettes des fromages, and being nibbled slowly over glasses of Ricard.

When cooked, the strong flavours of a cabecou sec mellow. Served with an onion chutney and a glass of Bergerac red, tarte cabecou is the perfect end to a morning spent patrolling the market for EU inspectors.

375g puff pastry (good shop-bought is fine)
4 cabecou of your choice
onion chutney or jam
beaten egg and milk for glaze (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 180º C.
2. Roll out the pastry to the thickness of a 1 euro coin.
3. Cut the pastry into four circles. The circles should be big enough for each cabecou to sit inside, leaving a 1 centimetre border.
4. Using a sharp knife, score a border around the cabecou, making sure not to cut all the way through. Remove the cabecou and use a fork to prick the area inside the border.
5. Put the pastry disks on a baking tray and bake for 7 minutes. When you take them out of the oven, the centres will have puffed up. Wait for the steam inside to cool, and press the centres flat. Take care – any remaining steam will be hot.
6. Spread a layer of onion chutney inside the border, and place the cabecou on top. Season as desired. If you have chosen to glaze your tarts, brush the border before baking.
7. Return to the oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

Serve with a mixed leaf salad dressed in walnut vinaigrette. If you have chosen young cabecous for your tarts, a hazlenut vinaigrette would be a better match.