Finally, our latest order from Anticline has arrived and many of our most popular lines of french kitchen accessories are now back in stock and visible on the website. One such item is this attractive zinc tray shown below which was featured in Homes & Gardens and simply flew out the door the last time that we had it in stock. Priced at only £21.50, it will make a great addition to your kitchen. Click here to go straight to the product page. Or if you simply want to see our full range of country kitchen accessories, click here.

As well as many old favourites, we’ve also ordered a number of new items that have taken our fancy. Cutlery boxes, kitchen roll dispensers and various storage boxes that will look fabulous on the kitchen worktop. We’ve just got to have them photographed and then they’ll be up on the website. Keep an eye on the blog for more details.

We’re pleased to say that our latest order from Anticline – our supplier of French country kitchen accessories – should be arriving in the UK soon. We’ve been able to replenish the stocks of some of our most popular French kitchen accessories in zinc. Cutlery holders, utensil holders and trays -  that so many of you have emailed us about – will all be back up on the site soon. Unfortunately, the large wooden cutlery box that was featured on the Guardian website has been discontinued by the supplier, so we won’t be getting any more of these. It’s a shame, as we’ve had loads of enquiries from customers wanting to purchase one.

On the plus side,  we’ve selected a number of new kitchen accessories that we’re sure will appeal to our customers. A variety of styles of cutlery boxes and wall-mounted kitchen roll holders that will add a touch of French country style to your decor. We’ll have to photograph all the new stock first, but we expect all the new items to be up on the website in the next couple of weeks. So, watch this space!

Thanks to all of you who entered our competition to win Festin Coquin french pottery. Entries are now closed.

Congratulations to our 3 winners – Diane Wareing has scooped a £50 voucher and Kim Neville and Helen Parker-Drabble will each receive a £25 voucher – to spend on our gorgeous Festin Coquin french tableware.

It’s the last day of our competition to win fabulous Festin Coquin pottery – we’re accepting entries up until midnight tonight, 30th April. The lucky winner will receive a £50 voucher to spend on Festin Coquin French tableware on the website. And 2 runners up will win vouchers worth £25. It’s really easy to enter.

Here’s what you need to do…

1. Like our Facebook page. You’ll find our page by clicking here.

2. Answer a simple question. “What region of France is the focus for the website?”  Email your answer to us at info@boutiqueprovencale.co.uk

PLEASE NOTE – YOU NEED TO COMPLETE BOTH STAGES TO QUALIFY FOR THE FREE DRAW.

Winners who have liked our Facebook page and answered the question correctly will be drawn randomly. First out of the hat will win a voucher for £50 off anything from the Festin Coquin range of gorgeous, colourful pottery. And 2 runners up prizes of £25.
Click here to take a look at our wonderful collection of Festin Coquin pottery, and imagine what you’d buy if you had £50. A few of the gorgeous pottery dishes? A couple of fabulous dinner plates from the French dinnerware range? A beautiful hand painted pottery jug? Some colourful oven to tableware?  The choice could be yours.

So what are you waiting for?

We’re about to make an order with our main supplier of French country kitchen accessories – Anticline. We’ve run out of a number of items that have been featured in the media and have been very widely shared on Pinterest. So if you’ve come to the site looking for (amongst other items!) the wooden cutlery box, metal cutlery holder or zinc cutler holder shown below, we should have them back in stock soon – together with a number of French kitchen accessories that will be new to the site. If you’d like us to let you know as soon as they’re back on the site, just drop an email to info@boutiqueprovencale.co.uk

And if there are any items that you’d like to see us sell on the website, now’s your chance to let us know. We always like to hear from our customers, so please do get in touch.

I don’t want to put a jinx on it, but it’s starting to look like Spring has finally arrived – the sun is out, and it’s decidedly warmer. So, my thoughts turn to salad and rustling up variations on a crunchy bowl of leaves with a piquant French dressing. Here are recipes for 2 of my favourite salads: Salade Niçoise and Warm Goat’s Cheese with Spinach and Bacon.

Salade Niçoise – serves 4
This is a posh version using fresh tuna, but you can substitute tinned tuna if you like. It’s quicker as you don’t need to marinade the tuna.

450g/1lb fresh tuna or 4 x 175g/6oz tuna steaks, 2.5cm/1in thick
8 new potatoes, cooked and quartered lengthways
4 plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
115g/4oz extra fine French beans, topped, cooked and drained
4 little gem lettuce hearts, quartered lengthways
1 red onion, finely sliced
4 hard boiled eggs, halved
6 anchovy fillets cut lengthways into thin strips
16 pitted black olives in brine
8 basil leaves, ripped

For the dressing or marinade
105ml/7tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp aged red wine vinegar
2 tbsp freshly chopped parsley
2 tbsp freshly snipped chives
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

To make the dressing or marinade whisk together the red wine vinegar, olive oil, parsley, chives, garlic, salt and pepper.

Place the tuna in a shallow dish and pour over half of the dressing. Cover and chill for 1-2 hours to allow the fish to marinate. Toss in the marinade from time to time.

Heat a ridged griddle pan on the hob or a hot barbecue for 5 minutes. Remove the tuna from the marinade. Cook the tuna steaks for 2-3 minutes on each side, depending on how rare you like your fish.

Lay the lettuce leaves onto a large plate and add the lettuce, onion, tomatoes, potato, tuna, beans and anchovies. Drizzle over the remaining dressing then finish by adding the eggs, olives and ripped basil leaves.

Warm Goat’s Cheese Salad – Serves 2

Bag of baby spinach leaves or mixed leaves
100g log goat’s cheese cut into 4 slices
Small baguette cut 8 rounds about 1cm deep ( or cut larger slices of sour dough into quarters)
4 bacon rashers – chopped

French dressing – ingredients as above but omit parsley and chives and substitute balsamic vinegar for the wine vinegar. Whisk in half a teaspoon of Dijon mustard.

Place baby spinach leaves in a salad bowl. Toast croutons and then divide the goat’s cheese between the croutons and grill briefly. Meanwhile, fry the bacon in 1 tbsp oil until brown and crisp. Spoon the bacon and dressing over the leaves and add croutons.

And take a look at our range of pretty hand painted pottery salad bowls from Festin Coquin. Priced at £24.50 they’re guaranteed to bring the colours of Provence onto the table. Click here to see our full range of French tableware.

Is this a recipe or a home decorating idea? We think its both! Bottles of aromatic oil are a great way of adding a touch of country style to the kitchen window sill or worktop. Particularly if you can find bottles in interesting shapes.

Here are 3 different suggestions for infused oils – but be creative, and experiment with an assortment herbs and spices to flavour different styles of dishes. And consider how the spices or herbs will look in the bottle too.

Equipment:
Some decorative bottles
New corks (don’t try to re-use old corks as it’s impossible to sterilise them properly)Decorative labels

To sterilise the bottles, wash them in hot soapy water, dry them and place them on a baking tray. Put them in the oven, and set it to a medium high setting. When the oven comes up to temperature, take the bottles out and allow to cool.

Chill Infused Oil
Several dried chillis – a selection of different types adds to the flavour and look
Good quality olive oil, or a 50:50 mix of olive and sunflower oil if you want to reduce the cost a little.
Prick the chillis with a needle, and drop them into the sterilised bottle. Pour the oil over, until it reaches about half way up the bottle neck. Add the cork, pushing it down firmly.

Garlic Infused Oil
Follow the method above, but instead of chillis use several garlic cloves. Peel them, but leave them whole. Place in the bottle, and top up with oil as above. If you want to spice it up a bit, drop in a couple of dried chillis.

Rosemary Infused Oil
This is a particularly pretty oil, and over time it will develop a very delicate green colour. Follow the method above, but instead of chillis use a teaspoonful of dried rosemary in the bottom of the bottle, then a sprig of fresh rosemary. When you add the oil, make sure that the rosemary is completely covered.

This method of creating flavoured oils works well with other robust herbs such as thyme. It doesn’t work as well with more delicate herbs like basil, which tend to fade and lose their structure, making the oil look unappetizing.

And you can decant your favourite concoctions into attractive oil pourers for the table. We have a wide selection of different oil pourers that might fit the bill. Either in a variety of colourful, original designs from Festin Coquin at £17.50 like this version in Adele…

or you could opt for an oil pourer in a more traditional provencal style – like this one in the Sormiou pattern at £29.95….

Click here to go to the tableware section of the website where you’ll find our full range of oil pourers.

We’re about to pull together our orders for the coming few months and wanted to see if any of you out there in cyberspace have any suggestions for new items you’d like to see on the website. As our customers will know, we specialise in French gifts and home accessories. We have an extensive range of Festin Coquin French pottery and the more rustic style Souleo pottery. Are there any other pottery brands out there that you’d like to see available on the website? If you come across any provencal pottery on your travels (either actual or when you’re searching online) please let us know and we’ll investigate. We’re always looking for new quality suppliers.

Our range of French country kitchen accessories comes from one main supplier – Anticline, based in Perpignan. They have an extensive range of items in classicl French country style, but we only stock a selection of their many hundreds of country kitchen accessories. Do let us know if there are items that you’d really  like to see available on the website – please either post on this blog, or send an email to info@boutiqueprovencale.co.uk

Finally, if you think there are new product categories that you’d like to see on the website, we’d love to hear from you. Through trial (and error!) we tend to focus on items for the home. We’ve found that food products and toiletries don’t really sell through well on the website – possibly because there are so many specialist sites out there, which we’re unable to match on price or range. So, whilst there are fabulous food and fragrance products that we could sell on the website, we won’t go down that road again – we’ll leave that to the specialists. But if you think there are other types of products that we should sell, do get in touch with your ideas. There’s a gift voucher worth £50 for anyone whose suggestions we decide to implement on the website – so get those thinking caps on!

Here’s a delicious supper dish to try…

250g Puy lentils
1 bouquet garni
Olive oil
1 small shallot, chopped
1 small clove of garlic, crushed
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
6 large ripe tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and diced
2 tsp tomato purée
150ml good-quality tomato juice (with a thick consistency)
4 x 180g sea bass fillets, scored
1 lemon

For the sauce
250ml fish stock
125ml double cream
1 tsp finely chopped chives
1 small knob of butter

1. Put the lentils and bouquet garni in a pan, cover with cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes. Drain well.
2. In a clean pan, heat a little olive oil and sweat the shallot, garlic and herbs. Add tomatoes and tomato purée to the shallots and simmer gently for 3-4 minutes. Add tomato juice and continue to cook, stirring, until mixture is reduced to a smooth, paste-like consistency. Add the lentils, mix thoroughly and season well. (If there is still excess liquid in the pan, continue to reduce, stirring, until the mixture is almost dry.)
3. To make the sauce, put the fish stock in a clean pan and simmer until reduced by half. Add the cream and simmer to reduce by half again. Season well and keep warm.
4. Heat a little oil in a non-stick frying pan. Season the fish well with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Pan-fry skin side down for 3-4 minutes until golden and crispy. Turn over, and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the chives to the sauce and whisk in the butter until a foam appears. Divide the lentils between 4 warmed plates. Top with the fish and spoon the sauce around the edges. Garnish with fresh herbs and serve.

A couple of our products have made it into the press recently. One of our gorgeous Festin Coquin serving bowls was featured in the Daily Mail on Saturday in a piece on salad bowls. But unfortunately, it was in the Adele design that’s no longer in stock, and that Festin Coquin no longer produce. So apologies to Daily Mail readers who have been fruitlessly searching for that particular bowl on the website. If it has to be that design and no other, there are a couple of items in the same pattern still available on the website – a pretty curved country jug and an attractive gratin dish.

We do have 3 different designs of gorgeous salad bowls/serving bowls in stock left to right below – Lola, Babette and Lucie , and we will be re-stocking with new designs shortly. Click here to see our full range of Festin Coquin pottery bowls.

And our very popular heart cookery book holder has been featured in the Sainsbury’s magazine. Priced at only £21.50 it’s a great idea for a gift for a keen cook. Click here to find this, and other cookery book holders in the country & retro kitchen accessories section of the website.