The Challenge: Cooking On Holiday

When you have to cook at your holiday destination, and even if you have chosen the “rental” option, you have to get to the basics without cutting too much into the pleasure of eating well.

Get to the point? That is to say, cooking without an oven, with just a stove (since we are no longer Cro-Magnon men, we will certainly not eat everything raw!). But with a simple baking tray, you can make good dishes that will allow you to change pasta salad and/or simply reheat canned sausages.

Your best allies for a good balanced cuisine? Summer fruits and vegetables of course, but also eggs and pasta of course, as well as basic preserves (green beans, tuna…). Not to mention, very important: a quality oil-vinegar duo, as well as a small jar of mustard (even if you don’t finish it, it won’t ruin you).

Looking for freshness?

The salad seems appropriate. But to make it a real main course, it is better to follow a good recipe: the irresistible complete salad of SuperMadame for example, which happily combines the proteins of tuna with the crunchiness of the corn-carrot-radish mixture (concerning the latter, you can use the rest of the bunch in the making of delicious sandwiches… or in the very simple but comforting veggie salad with carrot-radish lentils !)
Less complete, but more gourmet, the tangy scallop salad will do wonders for guests who have come to the débotté.
Otherwise, you can always deal with courgettes, carrots (tagliatelle salad of raw courgettes or carrots, octopus salad) and other cucumbers (haaah, the REAL Greek salad !…..)

Need a real meal?

Holidays are a time of digging and just because it’s summer doesn’t mean you don’t need to comfort yourself a little…

Cooking on holiday (without oven) with just one hob: simple and easy recipe

… Long live the good, simple but simple dishes that can satisfy all appetites: scrambled eggs with ham, hard-boiled eggs-green beans in cream, potato omelette (yes, we told you, eggs are precious allies!).

Otherwise, sautéed potatoes or various pesto vegetables remain an excellent option, accompanied by deli meats or ground steaks (meaty? Think also of green beans in the Bolognese style for example, unless you prefer the recipe with pasta…).

And in a “barbeuc'” spirit, you can also bet on the chipos-salade-chips trio, or on the most dietetic duo of grilled sardines and tomatoes à la provençale.

Exactly, here you are: you want to settle down without going out of your bikini? Wheat with leek, parmesan cream is for you.

And for dessert?

Cooking on holiday with just one hotplate: an easy and quick dessert recipe

To change local sheep’s milk fruits and yoghurts (excellent, but sometimes you want something else), you can occasionally brighten up your menus with a few sweet, more gourmet touches: the “choco-addicts” will cherish you for simple chocolate jars, or chocolate bananas; as for the fine mouthpieces fans of milk desserts, the pana cotta with red fruits, or the Carambar chantilly should satisfy them. You can also offer them a well-smoked eggnog, why not?

Easy cooking recipes

Pasta salad à la “Laurent” (the beach man from the beach where I spend my holidays in Corsica)

Cook 500g of al dente penne. Let cool with a little olive oil and basil. In a frying pan, crumble thin slices of raw ham (Corsica, if possible) and fry for 5 minutes with a drop of olive oil and 2 or 3 cloves of garlic cut into strips. Mix with the pasta and add either diced tomatoes or diced green apples (it’s amazing but it’s good). Mix well. Before serving at room temperature, sprinkle with a few shavings of parmesan cheese (or Corsican cheese, if possible).

Red mullet fillets with peppers and mashed potatoes (recipe from Marilou, the Marseille student who takes care of my children while I talk to Laurent)

In a large ovenproof dish, place 4 whole mullets and 2 red peppers seeded and cut into strips with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. Put in the oven 10mn-15mn at 180°. Allow to cool.

Cook 1 kg of Roseval potatoes in salted water. When they are cooked, crush them with a fork, keeping the skin on, with olive oil and chives cut with a chisel (Marielou is a girl with a grip). When the red mullets are cold, remove the fillets and serve with the warm purée and peppers.