Let’s help out the French and celebrate their national holiday this week with some good food. Even after the French gastronomic meal was inscribed on the Unesco list of Intangible World Cultural Heritage five years ago, their Ministry of Culture must have been feeling particularly insecure and beleaguered to go to the lengths they did earlier in the year, inviting chefs throughout the world to put on a French gastronomic dinner on March 20.

The promotion was entitled Goût de France, with the abominable translation Good France. Yes, I know they sound the same but… Who would ever have imagined that the French would believe that their food had lost its lustre? And lost its ‘rightful’ place on the world’s table? And in its league tables.

So to restore a bit of joie de vivre to our dear neighbours across the Med, here are some suggestions for a fête gastronomique for their fête nationale.

For Bastille Day, there are a number of places, or, more particularly, a number of tables where I would like to celebrate with friends at a long leisurely meal in France, from the Basque seaside to rural Languedoc, but also some of the more elegant urban tables in Paris and beyond.

But, as I cannot be in any of those places, I shall think about recreating my own fête champêtre or rustic feast with satisfyingly tasty French food, the kind that would be welcome after a long day outdoors.

Today’s food can be eaten in the garden or taken on a picnic and can be prepared well in advance.

Ripe tomatoes, olives, lettuce hearts and a pot of rillettes are what I would start with, as well as some extra virgin olive oil for dipping fresh ħobża. A basket of fresh fruit, figs perhaps, and some more of the French goat’s cheese would follow the pie, and then some home-made madeleines.

These are so easy to make, and if you can find the proper fluted tins, you will be surprised at how professional they look. Cool red Loire wines, or Beaujolais, suggest themselves to accompany this food, crisp in temperature, temperament and flavour to complement the simple, substantial rusticity.

Country pie

(Serves 6)

For the pastry:
75g soft French goat’s cheese
100g unsalted butter at warm room temperature
300g plain flour

For the filling:
250g duck breasts
250g boneless shoulder of veal
25g boneless shoulder of lamb
25g butter or 2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 tbsps finely chopped parsley
6 eggs
Gozo salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg

Crumble the cheese and mix it with the butter. Chill it again before making a puff pastry with the flour and butter/cheese mixture, giving it six turns in all.

If you are using commercial puff pastry, roll it out and then dot with a mixture of butter and cheese. Fold the pastry in three, roll it, turn and repeat with more butter and cheese, using 25g butter, and 25g cheese. This will not only enrich what can sometimes be a rather dull pastry but it will also impart the cheese flavour.

Dice the meat small and fry it in butter or olive oil for 15 to 20 minutes. Mix in the onion, parsley and a lightly beaten egg yolk. Season lightly with the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Allow the mixture to cool. Hard-boil four of the eggs and shell them.

Heat the oven to 200˚C/400˚F, Gas 6. Roll out two circles of pastry, one for the base, slightly thicker than the other, and about 25cm in diameter. Put it on an oiled baking sheet. Pile the filling on to the base, leaving about 2.5cm around the edges. Cut the eggs in half lengthways, and arrange them, cut side down, petal fashion, on top of the meat, chopping any that won’t fit and sprinkling among the meat.

Beat the remaining egg with a little milk or water and brush it around the edge of the pie. Lay the second round of pastry on top and seal it with the tines of a fork.

Knock up the edges of the pastry with a knife. Brush the pie with the remaining beaten egg and make a slit or two in the middle for the steam to escape. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, and then for a further 25 minutes at 170˚C/325˚F, Gas 3.

Cool on a wire rack and then let the pie get completely cold before cutting. If you prefer, you can bake the pie in a traditional pie dish, useful if you plan to take it on a picnic.

Pork rillettes

(Serves 8 to 10)

1 kg belly pork, sliced – see recipe
Gozo salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 bay leaf
2 or 3 sage leaves
Grated nutmeg
100ml water

Preheat the oven to 150˚C/300˚F, Gas 3. Put the belly pork and duck in a casserole. Add the seasoning and water. Cook at the bottom of the oven for about three hours until all the fat has melted and the meat is cooked.

It is important to use meat with plenty of fat on it. If it is a lean piece of meat, add about 200g back fat to cook with it. And keep the skin on the pork as this adds to the flavour and texture of the finished dish.

Place a sieve over a basin. Discard the bones and skin from the casserole and ladle some of the remaining meat and fat into the sieve. Take a fork in each hand and literally put all the meat apart. It should all finish up in shreds.

Pack loosely into a jar, pot or pâté dish and add a little of the melted fat that dripped through the sieve. Continue until all the meat has been shredded and potted and all the fat poured around it.

Make sure that the top has a good layer of fat, which will form the seal once refrigerated.

Rillettes are a close cousin of potted meat, which is essentially cooked meat, pounded to a paste and mixed with a little butter to make it rich and spreadable. With a food processor, you can make all manner of potted meat and fish. All you need to do is cut the cooked meat into pieces and put it in the bowl of the food processor with about half the quantity of softened butter, perhaps a little wine, vermouth, Madeira wine or port, some seasoning and herbs and process until smooth. Smoked salmon pieces or smoked mackerel fillet are very good prepared this way.

Orange-scented madeleines

(Makes 24)

100g caster sugar
100g self-raising flour
Pinch of salt, about half a coffee spoon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
130g unsalted butter, melted
2 tbsp orange flower water
2 tsp grated orange zest

Preheat the oven to 220˚C/428˚F, Gas 8. Butter and flour madeleine moulds, or bun tins. Sift together the dry ingredients. Beat in the eggs, and then mix in the melted butter, orange flower water and zest.

Pour the batter and the mixture when it is quite runny into the prepared moulds, filling them to about two-thirds, and bake in the top half of the oven for five to seven minutes.

Remove from the oven once the madeleines are golden, well-risen and with the characteristic ‘bump’ in the middle.

The recipe multiplies well, certainly by up to 10.