Danielle’s Holistic Blog

And now we come  to …the top of the pops… the supreme.. the almighty…the extraordinary…wonderful …onion. I mean it!  When I was a kid , if anyone offered me cake, any sweet things at all I’d always rather eat a piece of bread with raw onion. At this point most Brits start to cringe. Can this be possible? She’s mad!

 I’m unsure of the origins of this fad but it must have been my dad , who, like most self-respecting East Europeans, eat plenty of the stuff, mostly raw. Now ,if, there was a radish or two to accompany the onion that would be a  veritable feast. Even now it’s still my favourite food. So much so that if I go a couple of days without onion I begin to get withdrawal symptoms. True!

 Now to the serious bit. Throughout history onions  have been revered as a natural cure-all. In traditional medicine they  are used as a decongestant. Onions contains a substance called quercetin, an antioxidant compound that  may a help  reduce the risk of cancer, prevent blood clotting and lower  the risk of coronary heart disease. Onions also contain vitamin C as well as potassium, calcium and iron.

If this has no yet converted you. I have a lovely recipe, from…the South of France. Nice, to be precise, that might just do the trick!

Most of the food I talk about is quite different from Provencal food, it is the Cuisine Nicoise, which covers quite a small area around Nice and is , in many ways quite similar to Ligurian cuisine, along the coast in Italy.

La Pissaladiere, you might call it onion tart, as it consists mostly of onions ,can be eaten hot or cold. And , quite simply,  it’s cooked onions  with anchovies and black olives. In  my village it used to be made at home and, as no one had an  oven,  it  was carried to the bakers  who shoved it, unceremoniously into the oven and told you when to collect.

For the base you can either use bread dough or short crust pastry. For 5 people ( measurements are approximate) 250 gram pastry. Around one kilo onions.  A few black olives and filets of anchovy .

Cook the onions with the crushed garlic and a small bouquet garni and  olive oil. The onions need to be well cooked without turning in colour. Fill the pastry dish ( you may cook it for ten minutes in the oven first) with the onions. Place the anchovies like a bicycle wheel around the tart, with a few black olives. And a little olive oil. Place in a warm oven and cook for 20-30 minutes.

Peppers are a wonderful vegetable and the variety in chillies is amazing. I will pass over lightly however, as I am unable to grow them in the open here in Scotland and I can only look forwards to moving back to the South of France  and growing as many different varieties as possible.

I mentioned radish earlier. They are full of vitamin C.  The French still eat them as a starter with butter. I like to grow the winter varieties like China Rose which produce long red roots and the round ( or long)  black radish which no one seems to know about here.  You peel them and slice them very thin. Then eat them with…guess what…plenty of raw onion. Yum!

Last but not least comes the tomato. A hugely versatile fruit. They are very good for you too containing lycopene ( the red pigment)  which may help to prevent  some forms of cancer. They are also a great source of potassium, carotenoids, vitamin C and E.

By mistake one day I discovered or made up a soup which I now  make regularly , all the years round. It’s so easy .

Take  the  tomatoes ,whatever quantity you fancy, not too ripe. Cut them in half or quarters, depending on size. Put them on a baking tray with a little salt and pepper and plenty of chopped up garlic. Drizzle with olive oil and place in the oven.. I use a fairly hot oven but you need to keep an eye on them. The idea is to get them ever so slightly blackened on the edges. Take them  out and mix one half to one litre of bouillon, ( can be vegetable or chicken). When this has boiled, rip up a few basil leaves  and stick them in. Pour in the tomatoes. Leave to cool and blend. Either eat as is or you may add a few garlic croutons.

Bonne appetit.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!