Roasted lamb shanks with roasted summer vegetables and saffron rice, followed by small strawberry cheesecakes.

Tarte Flambe, Choucroute Du Mer. Finished with a fresh and nice Tarte Tatin.

Creme of Avocado Soup, BBQed lamb chops, served with grilled peppers, tzatziki and saffron rice.

Beef salad with minted new potatoes (own produce).

Pork and sage sausages au lentiles.

Ahh. Life ain’t bad.

In short, a Pissaladiere is nothing but a savoury yeast dough base (also known as Pizza dough), with a thin layer topping of onion marmalade, olives and anchovy.

The Base:

For a round baking tray, you’ll need 200..250g of dough. A full-size square one takes about 350g. Per 100g of strong white wheat flour, use 5g of yeast, a pinch of salt, a tablespoon of olive oil, and 65ml of lukewarm water. Knead well, then cover and let rise in a warm place. Allow for a little over one hour.

The Marmalade:

I normally use very large vegetable onions (which have a bit less bite), and a few red onions (because it looks interesting), but any onion will do. The onions will lose a lot of volume, so prepare a very generous amount. Three very large vegetable onions for a round tray might be just enough. Peel, then slice thinly. You could use an electric chopper for this, provided it slices rather than grinding the onions to a pulp. I slice manually – and tearfully!

Add finely chopped garlic to taste. Red hot chilly peppers also work well, if you like it hot.

Heat a good swig of olive oil or clarified butter. Toss the onions and garlic in the oil, then cover and let steam gently for 15 to 20 minutes. Uncover, season with salt and thyme, and allow to cook uncovered at low heat for 30 minutes at least, stirring occasionally. Be patient. Very patient. When done, season to taste with salt, thyme, pepper, a pinch of nutmeg. A spoon of soured cream is optional.

The Finish:

Oil your baking tray. Roll out the dough, transfer to tray. Let the dough recover and rise again (allow for 20 minutes). Then, thinly spread out the onion marmalade. Top with olives and anchovy, and bake at 200C until golden.

Now this site holds a recipe for Pissaladiere, or Tarte Provencale.

(Now I need to make one myself, because I just realize that I don’t have a photo. The picture here shows a Quiche Lorraine. Also French, also lovely.)

We’ve have eaten worse:

Tarte Flambee, followed by Lapin Mutarde, served with Sage Tagliatelle, and Crème Brullee.

A nice Greek Spinach Tarte – delicious to eat both warm and cold. Another great meal to support everyone on a Saturday of ins and outs.

A lovely Scottish Angus rosemary sirloin steak, served with roasted potatoes, garlic butter, and home-grown endive salad. The time was ripe for a steak.

Boeuf Bourguignon, served with green beans and roasted potatoes.

One-egg omelette, filled with smoked salmon, grilled artichoke and avocado filling, and a side order of roasted green asparagus.

I couldn’t remember how I did it all those years ago, but happened to have a ripe avocado in the house, so here is how I’d make one today, per 2 people for a starter-sized portion:

Sweat half a finely diced shallot in a tablespoon of butter, then bind with a teaspoon of flour and 250ml of chicken stock. Let simmer for 90s. Meanwhile, spoon the flesh out of a ripe avocado, and chuck it into the blender. Add the stock and juice from half a lime, then blitz vigorously.

To serve, add a generous blob of sour cream. Sprinkle with red, fresh, mild chillies. Drizzle with olive oil, lime juice, and Crema Di Balsamic Blanco.

It’s actually quite nice. Preparation time 30s, cooking time 4 minutes.

In the olden days, we had to travel into the Alsace to get it. Nowadays, it is being served almost anywhere back around our home town, so I assume there must now be deep-frozen kits available. Not only are those kits unavailable where I am, it also spoils the fun. So, off we go to making our own!

First step is to open my trusted and much loved Larousse Gastronomique. I checked two different editions under any keyword that came to mind without success. Can you believe that? Something as typical as Tarte Flambee? If you find under which name they file it, let me know.

So, with the Larousse Gastronomique failing, I am on my own. Google also failed, by providing a list of recipes and suggestion that simply weren’t acceptable.

Let’s see. The base is a very poor bread dough from flour and water, maybe with a splash of milk. Very little yeast, if any. Pinch of salt. No fat. But, I hear you ask, how will you roll this out, 2mm thin, and handle it without tearing?

Ah, I am really glad you asked. That’s the real challenge. Bread dough is gluey, so the shortbread crust trick (roll out between sheets of cling film) won’t work. I am working on the bases that I shall not to roll it out. To do that, I make a dough as dry as possible while still being runny, then spread it on a flat baking tray rather than rolling it out.

The exact mix depends on your flour, the ambient temperature and the phase of the moon. You could start with 65ml water and 25ml milk on 100g of strong white wheat flour (bread making flour, or ‘long flour’ as my Grandmother called it). This makes one regular sized tarte, which will feed one person. Mix water, milk and flour with a pinch of salt. Mix it well, then let sit for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to enormous heat. 270 Celsius sounds about right, preferably in top-and-bottom heat.

Prepare 100g soured cream with one egg yolk, a pinch of nutmeg and some black pepper. No salt (this will come from the bacon).

Once the dough is spread out and the oven is ready, very gently top it with the sour cream mix. Spoon it on gently, don’t pour it – pouring will let the cream penetrate the soft dough, and you end with one big soggy mess.  Sprinkle very thin onion rings and bacon lardons on top, and into the oven with it!

Bake until the edges of the dough turn very dark, then continue baking until the edges actually turn black, then continue baking for as long as you dare. The problem is that you still have to get a lot of moisture out of the base, which is now covered with a layer of sour cream.

Once you can’t stand it any longer, get it out, transfer it onto a board, cut into six or eight large pieces, and enjoy immediately.