As it's Good Friday, I thought  a lamb recipe would be fitting. And when it comes to French lamb recipes, it's hard to fault lamb navarin.

As is always the case with traditional recipes, lamb navarin varies from family to family. While the recipe below certainly does the trick, Raymond Blanc's version is well worth trying if you have a day set aside for cooking. The Good Friday of a bank holiday weekend, for example...

4kg lamb (shoulder, neck and breast)
2 tbsps flour
750ml lamb or beef stock
4 chopped tomatoes
5 carrots, chopped into inch-long sections
5 turnips, cut into 1-inch cubes
12 spring onions, chopped into inch-long sections
5oog green peas or snow peas
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 bay leaf
¼ tsp thyme
flour (for dusting)
1 tbsp cooking oil

1. Cut the lamb into 2-inch cubes then roll on a flour-dusted plate.
2. In a large saucepan, heat 1 tbsp of the oil on a medium heat and brown the lamb in batches before returning to the pan en masse. Turn the heat up to high, add the garlic cloves and cook the crushed garlic for one minute.
3. Drain half the fat from the pan and set it to one side.
4. Warm the stock in a small saucepan, then pour it over the lamb. Return the larger pan to the heat and bring the stock to the boil. Stir in the tomatoes and herbs and return to the boil. Once boiled, lower the heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes.
5. Add the chopped root vegetables and simmer for a further 30 minutes.
6. Cook the peas in salted water for five minutes. Five minutes before serving, add them to the lamb, remembering at the same time to remove the bay leaf.

As it's Easter at the end of this week, I thought I'd provide an Easter-related recipe with a decidedly French spin. Everybody seems to eat lamb for Easter, and while baby sheep are very much of the season, so are bunny rabbits. Rather than have another herbed rack of lamb, why not try some Flopsy in mustard sauce?

Rabbit is becoming more popular in the UK, but it is a brave parent who serves bunny (of the non-chocolate variety) at Easter. Nevertheless, this is a delicious recipe that works throughout the year. In the summer, swap the roast potatoes for a hunk of baguette and a salad of bitter greens to mop up the leftover mustard sauce.

1 rabbit, jointed (you can get the butcher to do this)
100g lardons
250 ml grain mustard
3 tbsps olive oil
1 white onion, thickly sliced
1½ tsps fresh thyme
1 tsps fresh rosemary
500ml white wine
125 ml cream
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. Put the mustard, olive oil, and the jointed rabbit in a large mixing bowl. Use your hands to cover the rabbit with the mustard and oil mix, ensuring that all of the pieces have been well coated.  Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave the rabbit to marinade in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
2. In a large-based saucepan over a medium heat, cook the lardons in their own fat for 5 minutes. Once browned, remove from the pan and set aside to drain. Keep the fat from the lardons in the frying pan.
3. Return the frying pan to a low heat, and colour the onions in the fat from the lardons. Keep stirring so they don't burn. Once the onions are lightly browned, add the rabbit pieces to the pan and cook for about 10 minutes, turning so that the rabbit is coloured on all sides.
4. Add the bacon, finely chopped herbs, and white wine to the frying pan. Turn up the heat, and bring the liquids to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat, cover, and cook for approximately 45 minutes. The rabbit should be tender, and ready to fall off the bone.
5. When the rabbit is thoroughly cooked, add the cream to the saucepan, stir well, and cook for another 5 minutes on the same low heat. You might want to add another tablespoon of mustard and a tablespoon of honey at this point, but it's entirely optional. Season to taste.

Serve with roasted potatoes.

Last week, a neighbour lent me her school cookery book from the 1950s.  It is a wonderful guide to the basics of French cooking, and contains dozens of recipes that should be preserved for posterity.

The book builds on previous recipes, assuming that students will work their way through from start to finish. Flipping through, the recipe for friands caught my eye - it requires a portion of puff pastry (covered earlier in the book), some ham, and a half portion of mornay sauce (also covered in a previous chapter). Later in the book, basic preparations for preserves, tarts, pâtés, and stews all build on the skills learned earlier.

To cook your way through the book, from start to finish, is to get an education in traditional French home cooking. Unfortunately, I won't have access to the book for long enough to copy it out - and translate it - in full. I do, however, have time to present some of the greatest hits in the form of forgotten classics.

1 young rabbit, skinned, boned, and cut into pieces
60g fat (type unspecified)
1 glass white wine
½ glass water or bouillon
1 tbsps flour
2 tbsps tomato puree
bouquet garni
salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. In a frying pan or saucepan over a medium heat, fry the pieces of rabbit in the fat.
2. Increase the heat to high, and stir for around 20 minutes.
3. Sprinkle with flour, then stir to coat.
4. Moisten the meat with the glass of wine and the half glass of water or bouillon. Add the tomato puree and stir well.
5. Add the bouquet garni and season to taste. Cook for a further 10 minutes.

1 duck
75g fat (type unspecified, but goose or duck fat is likely given the region)
some lardons (amount unspecified)
2tbsps flour
500g baby turnips
bouquet garni
pinch of sugar
salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. In a casserole dish over a medium heat, brown the duck and the lardons in 10g of the fat. Remove the meat from the pan and set aside
2. Make a brown roux from the fat already in the pan, the flour, and half a litre of cold water.
3. Add the bouquet garni and let cook for 10 minutes.
4. Put the duck back into the pot and let cook for around 20 minutes before.
5. In a separate saucepan, brown the turnips in sufficient fat. When brown, add them to the duck.
6. Season the casserole dish with the sugar, plus salt and pepper to taste.
7. Finish the dish by allowing it to cook for around 45 more minutes.

Oh, what a feast! Over the weekend I had supper with the neighbours, and we ate like kings.

Sitting in a kitchen warmed by a wood-burning stove, we started our meal with foie gras on rounds of walnut bread, served with a choice of fig or onion relish. Then there was carrot salad and a platter of hams and salamis. Pudding was a traditional French yoghurt cake (recipe to come another day), and the cheese course was comprised of the neighbour's son's cheeses.

But the real highlight of that chilly evening - other than the company - was the blanquette de veau, a white veal stew designed to stick to the ribs and keep you warm for days.

800g  veal (preferably with bones), cut into  1 inch cubes
1 lemon slice
150 ml dry white wine
2 leeks, sliced lengthways
250g  shallots, peeled and thickly sliced
½ turnip, peeled and cubed
250g button mushrooms
150ml double cream
1 tbsp cornflour
1 egg yolk
salt and pepper to taste

1. Put the veal in a solid casserole dish with the lemon and a pinch of salt. Fill with enough cold water to cover the meat. Bring slowly to the boil and skim off any scum that rises to the top.  Lower the heat to a simmer and continue to skim until the liquid is clear.
2. Add the white wine and simmer for 40 minutes.
3. Add shallots and turnips and simmer for 10 minutes. Finally, add the mushrooms and leeks, then cook for 5 more minutes.
4. When the veal is tender, remove it and the vegetables. Set them all aside. Boil the liquid until it has reduced by half. This should take around 15 minutes. Turn the heat to its lowest setting, then add the cream.
5. In a small bowl, mix the egg yolk and cornflour together. Add 2 tbsps of the cooking liquid to the bowl, and mix until it has been incorporated with the egg yolk and cornflour.
6. Over a medium-low heat, add the contents of the bowl to the cooking liquid and stir until the sauce thickens, Do not let it boil, or the egg yolk will scramble.
7. Put the meat and vegetables back in the cooking pot and heat on a medium-low heat for a further 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste before serving.

Serves four.

With the canecule now a thing of memory, the days of endless sweltering heat are making way for more autumnal evenings. And even the picturesque commune of St Denis has days of dreary rain in what should be the summer months. When it unexpectedly feels like winter, there's only one thing to do - cook a hearty supper.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 good farm chicken (but if you must, 4 chicken legs will do)
2 large onions, peeled and finely sliced
1 garlic clove (optional)
8 small carrots, topped and tailed only
9 fluid ounces/250ml white wine
12 sprigs of fresh French (not Russian) tarragon
3 tablespoons crème fraîche
salt and pepper to taste, (preferably sea salt)

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. While doing this, if you want roast potatoes (see below) put them on to boil in slightly salted water.
2. Heat the oil and butter in a large heavy-bottomed frying pan and over a medium heat sauté the onions and carrots till soft and beginning to turn gold. Drain and transfer to a dish set aside. Then add the chicken, with a little more oil if need be, and fry until browned all over.
3. Put the onions, carrots and chicken in a lidded casserole or baking dish and cover.
4. Pour out the fat from the frying pan and add the wine, scraping up the brown goop from the bottom while bringing the liquid to the boil. Season to taste with salt and pepper then add it to the chicken with the tarragon sprigs.
5. Bake for 30 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven, stir in the crème fraîche, adjust the seasoning if necessary, and return to the oven for 5 minutes, making sure the dish doesn't come to the boil, then plate into a serving dish.

Serve with a green salad and boiled new potatoes or roasted potatoes.

For roasted potatoes:

Almost completely boil the peeled and quartered medium-sized potatoes, then drain them and roll them in a pan that has been heated with a layer of oil in the oven to coat them, and then put them in the oven for the 30 minutes that the chicken casserole is baking. They will roast in the oven till golden all over. If you can find duck fat, the key to Perigord cooking, then use it.

Magrets de Canard, facon Andre Daguin for 4

• 4 duck breasts, boned and with skin on
  
• 4 pounds (1.8 kg) coarse sea salt or kosher salt
  
• freshly ground black pepper
  
• 4 ounces (100g) flour
  
• 5 egg whites
  
• 3 tablespoons fresh thyme, finely chopped
  
• kitchen string
  

Pre-heat oven to 450F/230C. Line an ovenproof dish large enough to take the breasts with aluminum foil and lightly oil it.

Trim any fat off the breasts and pat dry, but leave the layer of fat between the skin and the meat. Score the skin every inch (2.5 cm) with the point of a sharp knife without penetrating the flesh. Place skin side down in a dry heavy-bottomed frying pan and fry over medium heat till the skin is crisp. Pour off the fat, roll the breasts skin side out into a cylinder and tie with string.

In a large clean mixing bowl incorporate the salt, egg whites, flour, thyme and generous grinds of pepper. Spread half over the lined ovenproof dish. Place the breasts on top and cover with the remaining salt mixture. Press it well around each breast to create a casing.

Roast for 18 minutes then remove and allow to rest on a rack for 10 more then set on a warm serving dish with a heavy knife or kitchen hammer alongside. Crack the salt crust, remove each breast, cut the string and brush off any clinging salt.

Serve with a green salad and a sauce of blackcurrants.

Blackcurrant sauce to eat with duck

• 2 tablespoons butter
  
• 3 large shallots peeled and finely chopped
  
• 3 cloves garlic peeled and finely chopped
  
• 1/4 cup brandy
  
• 1/2 cup blackcurrant jam or jelly
  
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
  
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
  
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  

Melt the butter in a medium size heavy saucepan over medium heat.

Add the shallots and garlic and saute until transparent, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Stir in the brandy, stock, blackcurrant preserves and mustard. Simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve warm.

Another long-ignored part of the duck was the aiguillettes, the long tails of the duck fillets that you can buy separately. They used to be very cheap, and are still reasonably priced. This is one of Bruno’s favorite dishes

Aiguilettes de Canard au miel for 4

• 1 pound of duck breast fillets
  
• 2 tablespoons butter
  
• 2 tablespoons honey. (Bruno recommends chataigner (chestnut) honey from Perigord, available in most local markets.
  
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  

In a heavy bottomed frying pan melt the butter over medium heat.

Turn the heat to high and quickly toss the duck fillets to seal and brown. Remove to a hot serving dish with a slotted spoon and season to taste. Lower heat to medium, stir in the honey and the vinegar, scraping up any bits on the bottom of the pan. Pour sauce over the duck fillets and serve, with Pommes a la Sarladaise and a green salad.

To go with a duck dish, Bruno likes petits pois, which are so good in the tins and glass jars that French supermarkets sell that it is hardly worth making them yourself. But no Perigord dish, least of all duck, is complete without the local potatoes, made into something heavenly in the style of the town of Sarlat.

Pommes de terre a la Sarladaise for 4

• 5 large waxy potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
  
• 3 tablespoons duck fat
  
• 1 large bunch parsley, finely chopped
  
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
  

Wash the sliced potatoes in several changes of fresh water to remove the starch. Drain and dry on a clean kitchen cloth.

Heat the duck fat over medium heat in a large heavy-bottomed frying pan, add the potatoes and toss carefully to coat in the fat. Fry gently, tossing regularly till the potatoes begin to brown. Add the garlic and parsley, fold in well to incorporate. Once most of the potatoes have begun to crisp, turn out onto a warmed dish and serve.

Rabbit is delicious, and hare is a dish fit for a king. Bruno s still working on his civet de lievre, a stew of hare in its own blood thta is one of the more complex delights of French cuisine. but rabbit can be bland so it is usually given spice by being prepared with one of the many types of French mustard.

Lapin a la moutarde for 4
Ser
2-3 pounds (900g-.4kg) fresh rabbit
3 tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil
salt and freshy ground black pepper

2 shallots
4 ounces (100g) streaky bacon, chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 carrots, sliced
2 leeks, white part only, sliced
1 tablespoon flour
10 fluid ounces (300ml) dry white wine
2 bay leaves
3 teaspoons dried thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Cut the rabbit into 8 pieces and pat dry with paper towels. If there’s a liver, roughly chop it. Sprinkle the rabbit with salt and pepper.

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat and saute the rabbit till golden brown on all sides, then remove to a dish.

Saute the shallots, garlic, leeks, carrots and bacon in more oil if needed, stirring all the while.

Return the rabbit to the pan, sprinkle with flour and cook it in, stirring, for a minute. Pour in the wine, scraping up the bottom of the pan, and add the herbs. Cover and simmer for an hour with a couple of stirs during the cooking. Add the mustard and liver, season with salt and pepper and serve sprinkled with the parsley.