I am often behind the curve with cooking, but rarely as far behind as this. I have recently got an Elizabeth David cook book which is brilliant, “French Country Cooking” first published 1951. Elizabeth David is a legend for changing the way that British people looked at food. The book describes the French country cooking and has some superb recipes for many different types traditional French food. The only thing that could be better is that as the book lacks the pictures of more modern cook books.
Piperade is a traditional Basque dish, which tastes of the sweet peppers. This is my version of the piperade. Elizabeth David adds eggs that she scrambles into the vegetable mixture just before the end of cooking, I have tried this with varying success but this recipe does away with the eggs.
1/2 lb Red Onions sliced thinly
1/2 lb Tomatoes Chopped
2 Medium Red Peppers sliced lengthways
1 Medium Yellow Pepper sliced lengthways
2 Chicken Breasts
Olive Oil
Teaspoon Marjoram
Salt and Pepper
Seal the Chicken breasts in a hot heavy based frying pan and then set aside while you prepare the piperade.
Gently fry the onions in the same pan on a medium heat, until they are soft. Then add all the peppers and cook for a further 5 minutes then add the tomatoes, marjoram. Let this cook until the tomatoes start to breakdown then add the chicken back to the pan. Cook this out until the tomatoes have disappeared into the sauce and the chicken is done.
There are some other variations on the Piperade that I have found, the one from Dinner with Julie looks really good.