A ficelle picarde is a savoury crepe, from, yep you’ve guessed it, the Picardie region. This a great way to use your crepe batter when everyone has had their fill of sweet crepes ! There are a lot of similar recipes in France that use a béchamel sauce but the real Ficelle Picarde doesn’t. I discovered this recipe when living in Picardie 🙂

Ingredients :

• 6 crepes (pancakes), you’ll find the recipe here
• 6 slices of ham
• 500g button mushrooms
• 400g shallots
• 25g crème fraîche
• 3 tablespoons wine (if you do not wish to use wine you can use some chicken stock instead)
• 50g grated emmenthal (or any hard cheese)
• Salt & pepper

Methods : 

1. Make a duxelles* – clean and chop the mushrooms and the shallots very finely
2. Melt the butter in the pan, add the shallots and sauté for 5 minutes until soft
3. Add the mushrooms and cook over allow to cook for at least 20 minutes until all the liquid has evaporated
4. Pour in the white wine and continue to reduce until the liquid evaporates again
5. Remove from heat and add 2 tablespoons of the crème fraîche
6. Season with salt & pepper
7. Put a slice of ham on each crepe and then place 2 tablespoons of the duxelles mixture down the middle of the crepe
8. Roll the crepe and place in an oven proof dish
9. Repeat with the over crepes and place them all side by side in the dish
10. Spoon the remaining crème fraîche over the crepes and top with the grated cheese
11. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 200°C 
12. Serve hot with a green salad

*Duxelles is a very finely chopped mixture of mushrooms and shallots that are sautéed in butter and reduced to a paste. Famous chef François Pierre La Varenne, chef for the Marquis d’Uxelles created this preparation in his honour in the seventeenth century.

Petit Salé aux lentilles is a classic french dish from the Auvergne region dish using pork that has been salted by placing the cuts of pork in brine for up to 48hrs.

The meat in this dish is cured in salt so there should be no need to add salt to the dish. Several cuts can be used so it is up to what you prefer or what your butcher has – pork shoulder, ham shank or ham hock, pork belly etc

Ingredients :

• 1kg salted pork
• 600g green lentils
• 5 carrots
• 1 large onion with 2 cloves
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 bouquet garni
• Pepper

Method :

1. Soak the pork in cold water for 2 hours if necessary to remove excess salt
2. Place the meat in a large saucepan and cover with cold water
3. Add the onion studded with cloves, the 3 garlic cloves unpeeled, one carrot sliced in thick slices, the bouquet garni and pepper
4. Cover the saucepan and cook the meat for 1hr30
5. Rinse the green lentils under cold water and add to the pan along with the 4 remaining carrots diced in small squares
6. Cook for another 30 minutes
7. Rectify seasoning if necessary
8. Serve in soup dishes – with some crusty bread.