Stylishly Sated In...The Côte d’Azur

In my previous post I mentioned having visited the Côte d’Azur and thought I’d share some of my favourite places and meals that were found – some by research and others purely by following my nose (fairly reliable strangely). A friend and I had a lovely girly week, and stayed in a little apartment in the heart of Nice old town which was perfectly positioned between a boulangerie for morning croissants, a regular fish stall where we got a handful of crevettes for about £4, plenty of great restaurants and a small Monoprix supermarket (a bit like a French M&S - is it just me that gets excited about foreign supermarkets?) Safe to say most days revolved around food! Here are my best bits...

- Crispy, doughy soccas (chickpea flour pancakes) hot out of the pizza oven with plenty of salt, pepper and Rosé at Rene Socca, 2 Rue Miralhéti.

- An evening iced coffee at La Pinede in Cap D’ail after a hot day on the beach, followed by a walk around the sea wall and up through the glamorous private villas.

- A trip to the painter’s paradise St-Paul de Vence, with lunch on the terrace of La Colombe d’Or for perfect, simple French cooking and people watching. (We had snails out of their shell in a garlicky tomato sauce, grilled red mullet and chicken in a creamy morel mushroom sauce)

- Monaco. For spot the millionaire amongst the tourists and sheer wonderful vulgarity. Also we found a great way to escape the crowds and heat was to eat at Café Llorca in the quiet Grimaldi Forum, Avenue Princess Grace. For 25euro each we had two courses from the dish of the day – which was avocado mousse with smoked salmon followed by a generous veal shank - along with a bottle of water or wine and breads. All good and the view of the sea was gorgeous.

- Antibes. The perfect French seaside town. 

- The Cours Saleya market in Nice where every morning except Mondays stalls run all the way down the cafe lined street, bursting with seasonal produce, spices, jams, flowers and baked goods. 

Sussex Stewed Beef then Roasted Figs and Peaches with Yoghurt Ice Cream

Today I made this super easy slow cooked braising steak. It flakes with a fork after 3 hours cooking and was delicious with roasted cumin carrots and turnips and sweet potato mash. 

Sussex Stewed Beef by Elizabeth David (via Sarah Raven)

Serves 4

• Preheat the oven to 150˚C
• Rub 1kg Best Braising Steak (i.e. shoulder) with seasoned Flour and spread it out in an oval casserole. Scatter over 2 Onions, thickly sliced and then add 150ml Port, 150ml Stout and 2 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar.
• Cut a piece of foil to fit the inside of the pot and fold it in half three or four times. Open out and place on top of the meat so that it peaks slightly in the middle like a tent. Place the lid on and put in the oven for 3 hours.
  Season to taste and serve.
• To make the roasted Carrots and Turnips, peel enough of each to feed 4, place in a roasting tin and drizzle with oil. Roast for an hour at 160˚C. Toast 1-2 Tbsp Cumin Seeds in a heavy bottomed frying pan until you can smell their aroma. Add the veg, seasoning and a knob of Butter and toss to coat. 

After recently coming back from a sun drenched week in the Côte d’Azur (foodie heaven) I was more than excited to see six deep purple figs hanging from our tree…bear in mind that’s five more than last year so - exciting. English figs tend to be nothing compared to the sundrenched figs of the Mediterranean though (the Cours Saleya market stalls in Nice were dripping with them) as they lack their sweet juiciness, and my determined fruits were no exception, their promising outside giving way to a slightly shrivelled pink inside. So the only option was to roast them and some peaches with lots of honey and butter to emphasise their flavour (I also added some red wine in the bottom of the roasting dish). A yoghurt and marscapone ice cream from Sarah Raven’s Food for Family and Friends was delicious with it…

• In a food processor combine 250g Mascarpone, 800g Natural Yoghurt, 3 Tbsp Runny Honey (I’d up this to 5) and the juice and zest of 1 Lemon.
• Churn in an ice cream maker, turn into a container and freeze for about 2 hours.