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Welcome to French Food
Focus. The name describes the intent of this blog. I'll focus on food
and because I live in rural I hope you enjoy my ramblings about rural France!
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This is our village. Our house is the white one at the top right. |
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Cold Day Chili It was pretty cold here
yesterday, clear, but cold. I was on my way to the Sunday market in St
Antonin when I started things about something warming to eat. I was
going to buy vegetables so that Linda could make her wonderful soup, but
I wanted something even heartier. Inspiration struck in the form of
"What if I make some chili con carne?" Yes, it would a doddle. All I had
to do was buy a couple of extra things at the market. Thus in addition
to the vegetables I was going to buy anyway I bought a pound of high
quality ground beef, a large tube of tomato puree, a large can of whole
tomatoes and two large cans of red kidney beans. I was all set. I drove home, unpacked everything
and started chili making. It didn't take long. Here's the recipe: INGREDIENTS: METHOD: - a packet of 'Old El Paso'
chili mix if available. - a good dose of ground cumin - red chili flakes - dried cilantro (coriander) - salt & pepper Linda likes her chili served over
white rice, I don't. Strictly a matter of taste. Grating some strong
cheddar cheese to put over the chili is nice as is a good dollop of sour
cream. If I've made the chili fairly mild to please other I like to make
& serve it with a strong salsa for those who like more oomph.
Whatever suits you is best. One
thing for sure its a great dish for a cold day.
1st Dinner party in new
house We tried our first 'proper'
dinner party since we moved into our new house a couple of nights ago.
Because of the down sizing we only have room for 8 at most in our dining
area. (Well. I guess we could fit in 10 at a pinch.) For this dinner we
were only 7 as one of the guests is single & didn't bring a partner. This number worked well in terms
of seating. Everyone was comfortable and conversation was easy either
with the person next to you or as a group. I've always thought that 6 or
8 is the ideal number for a dinner. Since I'm not used to cooking in an
'open kitchen where the hob is just beyond one end of the dining table I
was a bit leery as to what to cook. I didn't want 4 pots on the hob that
near our guests so I choose a menu that didn't need too much last minute
cooking on the hob. Things seemed to work pretty well despite my
misgivings. The menu consisted of a started
salad of chevre with sun dried tomatoes plus rocket & lambs lettuce with
a creamy vinaigrette followed by a main course of chicken with ham & a
creamy mushroom tarragon sauce accompanied by roast roots & green beans
with toasted almonds. We finished up with a wonderful pear tart that
Linda made. Two of the recipes are new so I'll write them up below and
post them in Index of Recipes. The
Roasted Roots recipe is already there. Chevre & Sun Dried tomato
salad. Ingredients: Method: Stuffed chicken thighs with a
mushroom/ tarragon dressing Ingredients: Method:
French Guacamole French Guacamole, that may sound
like a contradiction in terms, but its not. What I'm talking about is
making guacamole here in France. You'd be hard pushed to find a Mexican
restaurant in France (in Paris, perhaps) and trying to make Mexican
cuisine here is a challenge. With, however, luck & persistence it can be
done. The saving grace is that for
reasons best known to the French Supermarkets many of them stock a range
of Mexican style products under the 'Old El Paso' brand name. They even
stock tortillas, pretty awful, but at least they try. The useful thing
that they stock is packets of spice mix for guacamole. These as it
turns out are good and are a great aid to making French Guacamole. One can from the Market spice &
herb stall buy all of the herbs & spices one needs for guacamole, but
the packets are far easier. To make your own mix you need to buy: Ground
cumin, Turmeric, chili powder, ground coriander (cilantro to you Yanks),
salt & black pepper. You need to mix these until you get a balance of
flavor that you like. Not difficult, but fiddly to do. The Old El Paso
mix is about right for my taste. The other thing you need are very
good avocados. Fortunately these are easy to find. Both the Markets and
the Supermarkets' have them. This time of year they're even very cheap.
One can buy little filets with four or five in them very cheaply, but
you're better off buying them separately so that you can feel each
avocado for ripeness. You want avocados that are slightly soft when you
squeeze them. Not mushy soft, but roughly as soft as a ripe orange. If
you can't find the right degree of ripeness then buy the best you can
and take them home & keep them in a paper bag somewhere reasonably warm,
but not hot. They should ripen up in a few days. Once you avocados are
ready you're good to go. Here's the recipe: Method: Serve the guacamole with tortilla
chips (corn chips). Again, these can be found in French Supermarkets. If
not you can use crinkle cut potato chips instead. We've found that our French
friends adore guacamole. Most have never had it before or have had some
awful version. A properly made version is a revelation to them. For that
matter many of our English friends have never had a proper guacamole
either. They to adore it. Of course you don't have to be in
France to use this recipe. I suspect you can get the ingredients in most
European countries if you look hard enough. Anybody in the states
shouldn't have any difficulty at all. Have a go.
First Olives We
inherited two tiny olive trees
with our new house. Well. they are more like olive bushes as you can see
below.
In any case as we were bringing them in I decided
to pick the tiny olives as there was a good crop & they looked edible.
As the trees are so small we only got about a pint of olives from them
both. Now I had to decide what to do with them now
that I had them. I've never cured olives in my life; in fact I never
thought much about it. I love to eat olives, but it just never occurred
to me to think of preparing them myself. In this case there certainly
weren't enough to even think about pressing them for oil. Internet to the rescue. Some Google searches
quickly resulted in more information than I would ever need. Turns out that you can brine olives or salt
them. I found a nice pictorial write up on how to salt olives so I
followed that (unfortunately I've lost the link to it.) All I had to do was to wash my olives
thoroughly then cover them in coarse sea salt. I then put them into a
colander and suspend the colander over a bowl. Then I covered the whole
thing with a tea towel and put the bowl in a cool place. After about a week I turned the olives to make
sure they were still all coated and I added a bit more salt. After two
weeks plus a few days I rinsed off an olive & tasted it. No bitterness.
Now I rinsed all of the olives very carefully
of remove all of the salt. I dried them carefully before proceeding to
the next stage. Seasoning! I decided to keep mine simple for this first
effort; olive oil, bay leaves, garlic and pepper flakes. Thus all of the
olives went into a sealable container & were covered with olive oil. I
then added the garlic, bay & pepper and gave the mixture a good stir.
Here's what they looked like after 10 days in the olive oil.
They were starting to taste pretty good. I gave
them a good shake & waited for Christmas. Yesterday I took them to our friends where we
were sharing Christmas lunch. We had them with our pre-luncheon drinks. In all due modesty I must say they were
delicious. Everyone enjoyed them. A had a hit on my hands. The moral of this story is that doing some
things is much easier then you anticipate and the results exceed your
expectations. I can't wait for next year's crop!!
Easy Holiday Dishes Cooking's a great
pleasure, but there are times when it can all get to be too much.
Holiday cooking can certainly be one of those times; a houseful of kids
plus a houseful of relations is enough to drive any cook to distraction.
What are these paragons of
virtue? Believe it or not coming from the ultimate carnivore they're
both vegetable didhes! For this post I'll do them both, but I'll
separate them in the
Index of Recipes. They are; "Roast
Ratatouille" and what I call "Roasted Roots" Roast Ratatouille
Ingredients: 2 nice big eggplants
(aborigine) about a pound (500g) of
cherry tomatoes. (if not available just chop regular tomatoes into
bite size pieces.) 2 good sized yellow
onions 2 each of both red &
green sweet peppers 2-3 good sized zucchini
(courgettes) Fresh basil (dry if you
can't easily find fresh) Salt & Pepper. A dab of olive oil Method: Cut the eggplant into
about 1/2 inch cubes then lightly salt it & let it sit in a colander
while you prepare all of the other ingredients. Cut up the onion, peppers
and zucchini into bite sized pieces. Rinse the salt off of the
eggplant then pat dry. Place ALL of the
ingredients into a large mixing bowl, add Salt & Pepper & the dab of
olive oil. Mix gently, but well. When ready to cook (this
can be an hour or many later or the next day) heat an oven to about
190 degrees C. Spread the Ratatouille mixture evenly over a baking
tray (or two) & place in the hot oven. Bake for roughly 45
minutes. Until. that is, all the veggies are nicely cooked.
As you can see the prep work
for this dish consists of cutting things up. The cutting up doesn't even
have to be particularly even. Thus the task can be sub contracted to
guests or even to older children. The results are great. The
Ratatouille looks good and tastes even better. It goes well with most
meats, but is particularly good with lamb, posk or chicken. Roasted Roots Ingredients: 2-3 large potatoes several turnips several carrots several parsnips a nice rutabaga a couple of red sweet
peppers a few cloves of garlic Salt, pepper & olive oil Method: Peel all of the
vegetables. Slice the turnips &
rutabagas cross ways into about 1/8th inch thick slices. Slice the carrots,
parsnips & peppers lengthways into thick matchstick size. Slice the potatoes
lengthwise into 1/4 inch thick slices, then slice these into 2 or 3
lengthways slices. Peel the garlic cloves.
(a not of caution! Don't use too many cloves of garlic as their
flavour can overwhelm the other ingredients.) Mix all together into a
large bowl with the Salt, pepper & olive oil. Just enough oil to
lightly coat. You can add rosemary, thyme, Herbs de Province or
whatever herb you like. When ready to bake (NOTE:
the veggies can rest for hours or even overnight. Put them in the
fridge if over a few hours.) heat the oven to 190 degrees C. Spread
the veggies over a baking tray or two. Bake for about 45 minutes
or until the potatoes are done as they're slowest to cook/ Like the ratatouille recipe
friends, family or older children can do all of the work on this one.
They go with most meat dishes, the red peppers give a festive air.
Its not too late for this Christmas
Present Only
the French would come up with this idea Christmas gift for all of you
wine lovers. Click & enjoy!
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3jwe0_usb-wine-telechargez-vos-vins-en-di_fun
Merry
Christmas
Yank
Here we go again!
Here I am back in the hospital. After
two years of being good I had another stroke last Friday. Fortunately,
it was a very mild one and I seem to have fully recovered quite quickly.
This post will be the story of what happened next and how I was treated
by the French medical system.
The stroke occurred Friday morning.
We’d been out for our morning walk with Rupert; it was cold, but
clearing up. I decided to move some garden pots & building debris from
the side of the house to get it out of the way of the electrician who is
coming to install an air conditioning unit. I got cold & a bit out of
breath doing this as I had to keep climbing a steep bank to put the pots
behind the garage. I went in to have a cup of tea & to warm up.
I started trying to tell Linda that we
didn’t have to move the furniture in from the garage to see where to put
the air conditioning unit. She looked at me like I was crazy; my words
were all garbled and she couldn’t understand what I was saying. I
thought that I was being perfectly clear. After several repeats &
attempts to say thing another way it became clear even to me that
something was wrong. Given my history Linda called the Doctor who
advised that I go to the hospital in Montauban and that she should call
the ambulance. She did.
By thus time whatever was wrong had
cleared up & I was almost back to normal. It was too late then the
‘Pompiers’ were on their way.
The Pompiers arrive; all four of them
plus the District Nurse. Two of the guys carry in CPR equipment just in
case; the nurse takes my temperature & blood pressure and I get asked a
bunch of questions to see if I’m compos mentis. I’m led into the
ambulance, strapped in & away we go to Montauban. Off we go with Linda &
a friend behind us in our car. Its sort of fun lying there, warm & cosy,
while we blast everything out of our way with the horn & siren.
We get to the Emergency entrance of the
hospital & I’m wheeled into a room. By now I’m feeling a bit foolish as
I feel fine. Shortly, a doctor comes in & I get my temperature & blood
pressure checked again plus they take some blood. The Doctor asks some
questions (in English. It seems that at this hospital all the Doctors
speaks at least some English.), again to see if I’m all there & he does
some of the standard reflex tests. We wait a while before I’m wheeled of
for a CAT scan. That seems OK, but I’m going to be put into the
intensive care unit so they can monitor me.
Intensive Care! First they shift me
into a new bed; then they start wiring me up. Pipes into a vein on my
right arm so they can hook up a saline drip. On the left I have a pulse
monitoring thing on my finger, a blood pressure cuff on my arm then 3
sensors stuck to my chest & wired up; All this with only my back to
front hospital gown for cover. It’s awkward to say the least. Then, just
to add insult to injury they come & hook up a second set of heart
monitoring sensors attached to a small recorder. This is so they can get
a 24 hour log of my heart functions. All this is good stuff, but pretty
uncomfortable.
Next morning breakfast arrives at about
6:30 AM. Coffee, tea or chocolate? Unwisely I choose coffee. UGH!
Powdered coffee with powdered non-fat milk. Undrinkable. The bread roll
& jam, however, are nice I eat that. I try to sleep some more, but the
interruptions continue. In addition my bladder is bursting. They bring
me a bed pan thing, but wired up as I am its not easy. I succeed to my
great relief.
Mid-morning they unhook me & a nice
Sudanese orderly wheels me down for the MRI scan. He too wants to
practice his English. If you’ve ever had an MRI you’ll know that It’s a
noisy process, but I know what expect from past experience. I’m allowed
to get out of bed and walk the few steps to the scanner. (I’m smarter
now & spot a bathroom so I tell the Nurse I need to go before the test
starts. What a relief!) They put ear plugs in my ears & padding on both
sides of my head to soften the sound. I get cranked into the bowels of
the scanned & it seems to hem & haw a bit before starting. Then begins
the anvil chorus or at least that’s what it sounds like. There are loud
banging & clattering sounds which seem to go on for a long time. The
temptation is to move ones head, but I don’t as that will spoil the
scan. Eventually, the scanner disgorges me & I’m wheeled back to my
room.
Time for lunch after that is I get all
wired up again. Lunch is about as bad as dinner. More pricks, more
tests, more inquiries “Savant?” “Oui, savant!”.
Mid afternoon I’m wheeled away for
another test. This one is an ultra sound test where they run a sensor up
& down both sides of my neck listening to & measuring the blood flow. It
seems OK, but I sense that the Doctor isn’t 100% happy. He says
everything’s Ok though so it’s back to my room.
The main Doc comes by later. They’ve
seen a very small clot with the MRI which caused the problem. Nothing to
worry about, but I have to stay in for observation and yet another test
on Monday. This time it’s an Echography he says. I had been hoping to
go home, but resign myself; they’re not going let me go just yet.
Sunday is very boring, nothing much
happening, food seems a bit better. Linda visits with a pile of books &
some fruit. The Doc visits, but no new news. I read & doze.
The test doesn’t happen on Monday. No
real explanation, just, “It can’t happen today.” Thus, another boring
day. Linda brings me her laptop, but no Internet. There is a WIFI
network, but I don’t have the key. I check, but it’s a private network
for the Doc’s. I ask the next Doc who comes by, but he just laughs when
I ask for the key. I’m not surprised, but it was worth a try. I’m really
bored now, but nothing I can do except bear it.
They decide to move me out of intensive
care. Great! I lose most of my plumbing. Only the saline drip is left. I
acquire a roommate who has lung cancer
Tuesday, there’s no breakfast because
I’m going to have the Echography. The Doc has prescribed a mild
tranquilizer & I’m thinking about the procedure they use on pregnant
women to look at the foetus. WRONG! I’m wheeled over to another area of
the hospital & parked outside a no entry door.
Eventually, a technician comes out &
wheels me into a room with a large display screen & various other
equipment. He gives me this pink gel to swallow. It’s awful stuff with a
vague raspberry taste. He gives me some & asks me to try & gargle with
it. It’s too thick for that, but I do my best. He tells me that it’s an
anaesthetic. Now I’m worried. A nice Doc comes in who tells me he’s from
Quebec and that the only reason Los Angeles has a good hockey team is
because all their players are from Quebec. By now I really don’t care.
I’m asked to lie on my side & open my mouth. He proceeds to gently shove
this one inch (or more) diameter probe down my throat. It looks almost
like a garden hose. It’s absolutely awful!! I manage not to choke or
throw up. The Doc is saying it’s OK it will only be two minutes. It
seems like longer, but probably isn’t. Anyway, out comes the tube & I’m
encouraged to spit up the pink gunk into paper towels. All this really
doesn’t hurt, but is extremely uncomfortable. (I don’t know how Linda
Lovelace in “Deep Throat” did it.
They wheel me back out & I wait. After
a short time the Doc comes & says all is well, but… Yes, he says there’s
always a ‘but’. I have some very small clots in my left heart chamber.
These are what have come loose & caused my stroke.
I’m wheeled back to my room. Different
Doc’s appear. They (&I) are pleased that a cause had been found &
identified. Apparently what happens is that the blood flow into heart
chamber is slowing up and because it does it tends to coagulate and form
clots. These in turn can go through the heart & into the blood system.
If they don’t break up or are large enough they can get to the brain and
cause a stroke. Where they gum things up in the brain determines what
gets affected. This time it was my speech. I was lucky in that the clot
must have broken up very rapidly and have been pretty small.
In any case the treatment is simple.
Anti-coagulant pills to thin out my blood & prevent clots. They give me
one of these just to get going. The Docs explain that they have to try
different dosages & then test my blood to get the level right. This may
take a few days. LET ME OUT OF HERE! But, no I have to stay while they
adjust the dosage. I get two of the anti-coagulation pills that
afternoon.
It appears that I’ll have to take these
pills for the rest of my life and have a blood test about every two
weeks to measure whether the level is still right. I have to aim for an
SRI (Standard Ratio International) reading of between 2 & 3.
Fortunately, this being France the District Nurse will come to our house
to do the blood tests. This is a pain, but better than the alternative.
I get my first blood test Thursday
morning. Another boring day, but it’s broken up by visits from friends
and little walks around the hospital. I’ve shed the saline drip now so
moving around, showering & shaving are much easier.
There are another lot of pills Thursday
afternoon. I’m up to 7mg from 5mg the Doc tells me. He also says they
always start low.
Friday morning another lot of blood is
taken. There’s a faint hope that the level might be right & they’ll let
me go. Watch this space!
No such luck! Friday afternoon the Doc
comes back and tells me that the level is only 1.05. I get stronger
pills. Hopefully these will do it. Another boring night, Linda visits &
I read. (I’ve now gone through 4 thick books, this week’s Economist from
cover to cover and 5 old copies of National Geographic friends brought.
All I’ve got left is a thick Tom Clancy pot boiler) I get a new room
mate; he too has had a stroke. It affected his hands, but they’re
recovering.
As I write this it’s Saturday morning,
I’ve had breakfast, showered & shaved and, most importantly, had my
blood sample take. Fingers crossed for a good result.
Nope. The reading today is about the
same as yesterday. To be honest I think they got the dosage wrong. Yet
another boring day. At least I’ve had the diversion of designing a
website for Linda’s photography group.
Sunday. Better results; 1.5. So we’re
getting there, but no prize as of yet. To top things off I’ve managed to
get a little head cold. Nothing serious. It just goes to prove the adage
that if you stay in hospital long enough you’re bound to get sick.
Monday morning as I write this & I have
high hopes. They’ve come & taken blood and I’m just waiting for the Doc
to show up with the, I hope, good news.
WHOPEE!!!!
Free at last! The Doc just came & gave
me the good news. My medication level is Ok so I can go. Linda should be
here in about an hour. There will be follow up tests and a visit back to
this Doc in about a monthg.
Once again I have nothing but praise
for the French medical system. I have been treated very well throughout
this experience. ALL of the staff have been courteous, helpful and
cheerful. As I think I said earlier it was definitely time to leave
because the food was beginning to taste good. Actually, it wasn’t bad as
institutional food goes.
The amazing thing is that all of this
hasn’t cost a penny. There’s been no push to speed thing up for cost
reasons; the whole empathise has been strictly on doing the best things
medically for me. It’s a great attitude.
I think the rest of the world and
certainly the USA could learn a lesson from France when it comes to
health care. Great quality with substantially lower cost; how can that
be bad?
Taking the bull by the ...TAIL!
I'm still on my comfort food kick. Especially
today as we've had 3-4 inches of snow. A fairly rare event for us &
since we live on a hill which is very unlikely to get plowed who knows
if we can get out. No big deal.
The reference above is to the fact that I've
finally had the courage to buy some Ox tail from the market. I've always
loved ox tail soup; the good old Campbell's kind. Do they still make it?
Hope so as it brings back childhood memories. In any case they sell nice
cross cut pieces of ox tail in the markets here; its not expensive &
comes with the bone & marrow. So, how to cook it? I didn't see any
recipes that really grabbed me on the internet although there were some
good ideas. I ended up creating my own recipe. Nothing fancy, just good
basic cooking technique, but it turned out very well I think.
He's what I did: That's it. Delicious & comforting. As
mentioned above next time I'll do mashed potatoes instead of
roasting them with the rest of the vegetables. Try this it really really good!
DUCK! -
Foie Gras by an Expert OK, this is the real deal. Saturday I attended
a free session at the Parisot village hall on how to prepare a duck
prior to cooking its Foie gras. We also had a
demonstration of two fish terrines. Lucky us we got samples of
everything. Foie gras is serious and important stuff in
France especially in our area where there are many duck farms. As you
can see below attendance was outstanding for a small village.
Unfortunately, I missed the very beginning and,
thus, some good photo opportunities, but I did manage to capture the
essence. As you may know the Moulard duck is used almost
exclusively for Foie gras production these days in France. Other breeds
of duck & geese (who don't cooperate very well) just aren't as good.
And, just like the pig, every bit of the duck is eaten except the quack.
Here's our expert instructor just having
finished cutting up the duck. And, yes, that's Foie gras in his hand.
That's both lobes of the whole liver. Here's a
single lobe.
Nothing, however is wasted. The carcass is
stripped down and one gets: - Two beautiful large breasts. (magret) - Two large leg/thigh pieces (cuisse's) - The neck (cou) which is great for stuffing - The wings + odd bits for either fritons or
rillets - The carcass for fritons where it is roasted
and you eat the meaty bits. Not bad for one duck.
A very lively discussion ensued about how to
prepare the Foie gras, how to cook it, how long it keeps and so on. There were many keen cooks in the audience not
to mention a few experts in their own right so the discussion was
lengthy and detailed. As with most things not everyone agreed with each
other. At times the French was too rapid or accented
or colloquial for me to follow all of it, but just getting the gist of
things was fun. Near the end of the discussion we all got a
sample that Monsieur had prepared in advance. You didn't need to be an
expert to know that it was delicious. Fortunately, one of the organizers had been
taking notes of some of the key points. Here they are. Her handwriting
is good and they're pretty readable if your French is up to it.
Next we moved on the fish terrines.
Madam kept the lecture short, but we all got
samples. Lots of help in cutting up the samples.
Not much left. Delicious! I particularly liked
the salmon terrine. A great afternoon put on by our local
committee. This was one of a series. Good for them & good for our
village. I'll leave you with a last picture of one of our local ladies
at the event.
Comfort
food when required There are those times when
having some nice comfort food is almost a necessity. Such a time
occurred for Linda last week. She'd had some dental surgery which was
scary in & of itself and was very sore afterwards. Obviously it was
difficult for her to eat, especially anything that had to be chewed
much. Bread Pudding to the rescue! Now, I haven't
made bread pudding for years in fact I can't remember the last time I
did make it. So I cruised the net for recipes. As you can image there
were hundreds to choose from, but not quite did it for me. I liked parts
of various ones, but none of them put everything together.
Thus I decided to make up my own recipe. Here it
is, nothing special but my variation. I was pleased with the way it
turned out and Linda was delighted that here was something she could eat
& enjoy. She had seconds, a good sign. Here it is: INGREDIENTS: METHOD:
The New
House By popular demand, well at least one person has
asked, I'm going to talk about our new house. We're very pleased with it
so far.
As you can see its modern, not at all like our
old French stone farmhouse. The main house to the left and the attached
garage to the right. The garage has now been converted into a room which
we'll us as an office/TV room.
Here's a view showing the house plus the
detached car port & garage, well, you can just see the edge of the
garage at the right. We have a sort of circular drive in that if you
drive in via the gates which are to the right of this picture you can
drive up to the garage then past it on up the drive and out of our
second gate at the other end of our property. We have about 11/2 acres. Above the house it is
oak (not big oaks, but the smaller ones that only grow to maybe 50 feet
high which are very common here.) forest which has been thinned out.
Don't know what we'll be able to grow under all these trees. To the back
& below the house our land is open a mainly laid to lawn. We have a nice
walnut tree there which had a great crop this year. Also below the house is the swimming pool.
As you can see we've already had the pool
covered for the winter. The walnut tree is in the background and you can
get some idea of our view.
Here's some of the view. We look South and can
see quite a lot of the countryside. There's a nice view of the old church in
Ginals. A nice feature of the house is the small
conservatory (sun room to you Yanks like me) at the back of the house
off the kitchen & overlooking the pool. Its a great place for morning
coffee or to eat lunch. We can seat about 6 in it quite comfortable.
A few more pictures:
Dining & living rooms
The kitchen. You can see the induction hob
which I'm learning to cope with.
My helper & constant companion. Rupert likes
the new house. He & I are having a good time discovering new
walks. So, that's our new place. As I say we love it.
Its not as big, whoopee!, as the old place. It doesn't quite have the
rustic charm of our old farm house, but then again it doesn't have the
time consuming & costly maintenance either. We're very happy so far with
our move & our choice of house. Verfeil seems to be a nice village. The
restaurant is good and is the bread from the village bakery/general
store. The natives seem friendly, and interesting. So life is good.
Isn't it
pathetic? Somebody must have given him a cookie even
though they have strict orders not to. You'd think he was starving. The picture was taken by one of Linda's
photography students during a lesson at our house.
Good
Grub Despite a cold I've managed to eat pretty well
over the last few days. Some eating out & some cooking. The cooking was pretty simple. A did what will
probably be the last lots of BBQ'd rib for the year. Yummy as always.
The recipe is in the Index. I also made a beef stew which turned out
pretty well. Served that with some nice fresh vegetables. And, last
night, I pulled out a frozen packet of good old spag Bol sauce. Just the
thing if you have a cold. Well. my cold's going, but Linda's in full
flow so to speak. Going out. Michael & I did our golf thing
again. That is we only played 14 holes so we could quit in time of
lunch. Back to the Lou Cantoun restaurant in Cestayrois. This is the
third time I've been and it was great yet again. WE both had the two
course €14 menu. Michael had a complicated looking salad starter which
looked good & he said was good. My starter was billed as 'quail with an
egg'. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a
scoop of very fresh goats cheese with crispy fried pieces of quail mixed
in it on a plate with a row if very finely chopped & shredded leaf
vegetables with more crispy quail sprinkled through them. Absolutely
delicious!! Very innovative. I'm going to try making a version using
crispy bacon instead of quail since quail can be hard to get a hold of. Then on Halloween in Parisot we went to the
pumpkin competition and children's costume contest. Good costumes and
some pretty big pumpkins, but the highlight was the casoulette that was
served for dinner. It had been cooked by Christian who is a retired
chef. Delicious! And he did it for about 70 people. His version had no
lamb in it, but it had everything else including a super comfit de
canard, great Toulouse sausage and wonderful local beans. I defy anyone
to beat it for €12 including a pumpkin soup starter, apple & quince pie
for dessert and all the wine you could drink. A really nice
evening. I'll quit now as I have to finish off dinner.
We'll be watching the final of Master Chef Professional later this
evening. Now; these peopl can really cook. Any of the three could win
and probably deserves to. How they'll choose I don't know.
OCTOBER
EXPLORING We're slowly getting the house sorted out.
Things are getting into place, pictures hang, shelves put up; most
importantly the kitchen is coming together and I'm getting to grips with
the dreaded induction hob. In any case Rupert & I have been exploring the
area on our morning walks. Although we didn't move far the countryside
is quite different. The hills are higher & steeper for one thing. We did
discover that we can drive straight up the road from the house & reach
our 'old' favorite walk in about 6 minutes. Not bad & quicker than I
thought. This morning Roop & I tried another direction.
We went along our valley following the Seye then turned & went past an
old church. Up a hill & when the paved road ran out we stopped an
started walking. It was pretty & easy at first, fairly flat. Then we
started up. 25 minutes later we made it to the top. As we climbed the
views just got better & better. We could see our house across the
valley. At the top we came to another paved road, but we turned back and
headed home. I looked at our detailed map when we got there, but I
couldn't quite figure out where we'd been exactly. We'll just have to
try again. We've also figured out an easy quick morning
walk. Down our hill, park by the village football pitch, walk along side
it then on wards for a few minutes, turn then walk back , but now on the
other side of the pitch; past the village water works, up a little hill,
turn again & we're back at the car. 40 minutes total, not long but it
does for when we're in a relative hurry. We'll continue exploring & let you know the
results. PS: You can have some fun following our
adventures on Google maps. Just start at Verfeil-sur-Seye. Find Mandat &
go from there.
Finally
Catching up I'm finally doing a bit of house keeping &
catching up. I've updated 'About me' and I've finally finished writing
'My' France. So have a look at those and I'll be looking to do any
other house keeping as well as some regular posts over the next few
days. If I have time that is. I'm thinking of joining
the 'manifestations' that are going on about the change in retirement
age. No, I won't since I'm not eligible for a French pension in any
case. The French do love protesting though. It lets off steam even when
they know the government's right & they've got to change.
A
Tapestry of Love
This is the title of a book by Rosy Thornton. It
will be out in paperback on the 15th of October. Click the
link that follows for the details.
Link!
Although the book concerns Catherine
who moves to France, to the wilds of the
Cévennes
in fact, and sets up a business making tapestries, cushions, curtains
and the like I think of it more as being about the taste of love. The
author captures the local love of food exceptionally well as she does
the sense & love of place.
Rosy has kindly allowed me to reproduce
her list of recipes for the dishes featured in the book. You will find
them
HERE.
As I was reading the book and the recipes I was pondering what other
food specialties and dishes are typical of this mountainous & rugged
little known region of France. What I’ve come up with are three potato
based recipes;
aligot,
estafinado
and truffade. All are
very
local if from
perhaps a bit
further
West than the Cévennes and two
of them, aligot & truffade
use local cheeses.
Here
goes:
ALIGOT
Serves four generously
1) 800 grams of potatoes (about a dozen
medium)
-Boil your potatoes in salted water
until tender. While they are cooking, cut the cheese in small sticks or
cubes.
-Drain the potatoes and either mash
them or - even better - put them through a potato ricer. Return the
potatoes to the pan you used to boil them and put them over a very low
flame. Stir in the butter, pressed garlic clove and cream.
- Gradually add the cheese a handful at
a time, stirring with a wooden spoon as you go. According to the more
traditional recipes, you are supposed to make figure eights in the pot,
but your pot might not be big enough for this to be effective. Stir,
then stir some more Draw the spoon up every once in a while to admire
the long strings you are making.
-Once you have incorporated all the
cheese, taste for salt and pepper; make sure that you have stirred for
at least 15 minutes in total.
- Serve immediately.
A few things to note: it is essential
to keep the flame under the potatoes as low as possible while adding the
cheese so that it will not separate. You need some heat to keep the
potatoes warm enough to melt the cheese, but you should not be "cooking"
anything at this point.
You can serve your aligot with any meat
you like, but Toulouse style sausage is very traditional. Or over in the
Cévennes
you
might
be more
likely
to get
it
with
grilled
lamb.
TRUFFADE
This
recipe is stolen from
Ptipois, my guru on all
things to do with French cooking.
ESTAFINADO
·
1 kg salted stockfish (
Smoked salted halibut or cod as a substitute)
·
1 kg potatoes peeled
·
8 eggs
·
3 cloves of garlic
·
1 bouquet of parsley
·
2 l of court-bouillon
·
1 lemon
·
A little milk (if needed)
·
12 croutons buttered
·
1 glass of walnut oil
(several ounces)
·
Salt & pepper -First desalt the fish by soaking in cold
water for between 24 & 72 hours changing the water at least two times
per day. Then gently simmer for 20 minutes in the court-bullion. Peel
off any skin, check carefully for any bones then mash into flakes using
a fork. -Boil the potatoes until soft then make them
into a smooth mash. -Boil 3 of the eggs until they are hard. Cool,
and then peel them. Cut into slices -Beat the other 5 eggs until they are smooth
(as for an omelet) -Mix the fish with the mashed potatoes & the
raw eggs and stir over a low heat -until the eggs are incorporated.
-Add the chopped garlic & parsley. Salt &
pepper. Mix until well distributed. -Add the walnut oil which has been heated to a
very high temperature and continue to mix for about 5 more minutes. If
the mixture seems too dry add some boiling milk. -Check the seasoning. Decorate with the sliced
hard boiled eggs. -Serve on hot plates with the croutons, slices
of lemon and a jug of walnut oil. The first
time I had estafinado was at a Troisieme Age lunch. At our table there
were three different walnut oils, each by one of the members. We had to
try them all. All were good & all tasted differently. There you go
a taste of love. I encourage you to read the book but slowly; cooking
Rosy’s or my dishes in between chapters. If doing this doesn’t whet your
appetite for visiting or moving to France nothing will. Rosy – Thank you for sharing!
Pasta Time
The nights are drawing in, its getting to be bit
nippy in the mornings and that fall crispness can be felt. Definitely
time for a good hearty pasta dinner. Hearty pasta sauces need not take
forever to make. This one takes about 30 minutes start to finish. I've
been making this classic sauce for years & years so have completely
forgotten where the original recipe may have come from. As I say Its a
classic, but no less delicious for that.
INGREDIENTS: One large yellow onion One red & one green
bell pepper. (mote if you like) One large can of whole
tomatoes 5-6 cloves of garlic About 2 oz tomato paste 1 glass red wine (or
more & or less or not at all. Something cheap & hearty. If not at
all add some water instead) 2 lb (1kg) fresh
sausage. (Here I use Toulouse sausage; in the states I used Mild
Italian sausage, in England? You're on your own.) Herbs de Provence to
taste Fennel seeds to taste Salt & pepper to taste
METHOD: Cook the sausages. This
time I created because I'd cooked a whole bunch of sausage on the
BBQ the night before. Normally I'd cook them by adding some water to
a frying pan, putting the sausages in & boiling the water off. When
the water was gone I'd continue cooking & turning the sausages until
I got a nicely colored skin. While the sausages cook
prepare the vegetables. Peel & chop the onion; deseed & chop up the
peppers; peel & chop the garlic..
Use a large frying pan.
Sautee the onions & garlic gently in some good olive oil. After a few minutes
(when the onions start to soften) add the chopped peppers. Sautee this mixture,
stirring from time to time, until the onions & peppers are soft. Add the can of tomatoes
juice & all & also add the tomato paste. Turn the heat up a bit &
stir well trying to crush the tomatoes as you stir. Let this mixture
cook for at least 5 minutes. Now add the sausage
which you have cut into bite sized pieces.
Stir well & let simmer
for a few minutes. Now add the fennel
seeds, H de P, S& P to taste. I like quite a lot of fennel, but its
up to you. Add the wine.
Let the whole mess
simmer until the liquids are thick & its ready to serve. Any kind of pasta shape
will do. I like to use Fuseli because they're east to eat & hold the
sauce well, but it your choice. This dish with a glass of
hearty red wine will warm those chilly cockles on these first chilly
days of fall. Enjoy
Walnut Season Its that time of year.
We've had our first cold nights & the days are getting shorter which
means that the walnuts have started dropping. We're fortunate in the our
new house like the old one has a walnut tree. The new one is a younger
tree, but certainly has produced a nice crop. In fact it seems that this
has been a very good year for walnuts; everywhere I look the trees seem
to be loaded. In any case my trusty
helper, Rupert, and I decided to pick up our walnut today it being a
beautiful morning. We were on our own as Linda was out socializing with
a group of ladies. I'm happy to say that Rupert is maturing (he had his
6th birthday a couple of weeks ago) I say that because in past years
picking walnuts with him was a race as to who could find the nuts first.
He's eat them as fast as he could. Fortunately this wasn't very fast as
he was meticulous about cracking the shell and deftly picking out the
meat. This year he's much politer. He waits to be offered a walnut
before eating it. I was amazed until I realized that he'd finally gotten
the message about stealing walnuts. In the house he knows he's not
allowed to steal from the walnut basket even when its within his reach.
He seems to have carried that training over into the outside walnuts.
Here they are on the ground. Some completely out
of the outer shells and some not.
You need to be careful or
wear gloves as the out sheels will stain your hands a deep brown.
Here are some of them drying on a table. This is
less than half of the number I actually got.
A little time in the sun like this will help them
dry and help get the last bit of outer skin off.
Once they're dried well Linda has an interesting
storage container for them. The tights work a treat as the air can get
to the walnuts keeping them dry, but at the same time it makes them easy
to hang up or out.
They can be eaten immediately; in fact the French
claim that they're best very fresh. I'm not so sure about that, but in
any case walnuts keep well so long as they're kept in dry conditions. A
bit of toasting in the oven will freshen up their taste if necessary.
The walnuts are, of course, delicious as is or in
cakes or cookies or in/ as a pie and so forth. They make great
decoration as well. This being a 'French@ food blog, however, I wanted
to remind you of two uniquely French ways of using walnuts.
The first is the making of walnut oil. I captured
this some time ago and put it on the old blog at 'BlogSpot' before I
switched to my own website. I've now brought that post over so you can
view it here.
Its truly amazing to watch the process. Have a look!
The second walnut thing is a delicious sauce
called Aillade, Aillade de Toulouse to be more formal. I'm sure I must
have posted the recipe somewhere on this website, but I can't seem to
find it. Never fear; I've done it below just to be sure. This is one of
Linda's favorite things and is THE best accompaniment to Magret that I
know of. Fortunately it freezes well so you can make a big batch for
when you need it.
AILLADE 3 oz walnuts (as fresh
as possible) 2 oz peeled garlic 5 oz walnut oil 1 tablespoon chopped
parsley Salt & pepper to taste Pound together the
walnuts & the garlic in a mortar until they are very finely ground.
(You can use a food processor, but its best to finish off the
process by hand) Stir in a couple of
tablespoons of cold water. Add the salt & pepper Slowly beat in the
walnut oil. You should have a thick paste similar to a mayonnaise.
Stir in the parsley. That's it. Very simple to
make. Very delicious to eat. Pack it into pots & seal those you are
freezing with cling film. I'd love to hear of your
walnut experiences and recipes.
First Impressions Its interesting as to how one forms impressions
of a place or people. It's never ceased to amaze me that we do it so
quickly. And that we're not too often wrong in that first impression.
Scary in a way that we process so much information so quickly or is it
instinct, part of our ancient survival skills, and nothing to do with
processing what we see & hear. Whatever or whichever it is I've learned
over the years to trust these first impression. I can remember when as a young manager starting
to build my first organization, my first team, I so wanted to be
'scientific' about choosing & hiring the right people. I drew up
spreadsheets (except that we didn't call them 'spreadsheets' back then)
with columns for the various key staff selection criteria; education,
experience (general & specific), location, and so on. Each had a points
rating and the whole thing added up to 100 points. Fortunately, I was
lucky enough (or maybe it was instinct?) to add two other more nebulous
categories; fit & fudge factor. Fit is fairly obvious, do I (you) think
that this person will fit well into this organization? Fudge factor was
a place to express your gut instinct; it had the highest point
possibility. As we grew the organization I used this spreadsheet and had
my colleagues use it as well to evaluate potential hires. The amount of
agreement amongst us was remarkable. It was also remarkable how quickly
one formed an opinion about the fit & fudge factor. Even more remarkable
was the fact that on the few occasions when I or my colleagues went
against these first impressions we were wrong. We had made a bad
decision. All of this as I'm sure
you've guessed by now is leading up to my first impressions of our new
village. Luckily, I can say that they're very good. We were a bit
concerned before we moved that the village wouldn't be very nice. This
concern was based upon a couple of incidents in the past. One was
several years ago when friends of mine & I tried to get a drink at the
local bar after a walk. It was slightly out of their opening hours in
the afternoon, but we could see the English owner sitting inside with
several friends having a beer.
He refused to open up and sell us a drink. Bad
business and it left a bad impression. Another time Linda & I stopped in
for lunch. The lunch was average at best and sitting around outside were
a bunch of 'hippy' types with dirty children running around. Again, not
a good impression.
Fortunately, our first impression now are
totally different. We've had a warm welcome to the village. We went into
try the restaurant for lunch soon after we arrived. Not only did we get
a simple, but good meal the owner when he found out that we were new
residents introduced us to the table across from us where it turned out
that the occupants all lived just up the hill from us. A bit later
another small group came in & one of them came over and introduced
himself as the Mayor. He was most pleasant. The second time we went for
lunch the meal was equally good. we were remembered and warmly greeted
and met still more local people. The village shop makes good bread (very
important in France) and sells a variety of everyday items. The ladies
who run it are pleasant. The small post office is only open 4 afternoons
a week, but they've been doing a good job with our forwarded mail.
Finally, the local garage is good and honest. I'd already been taking
our cars there so will continue.
So, our first impressions are good. I
think they will continue. The natives seem friendly & Roop and I are
discovering new walks every day.
Nest Building!
Well, we've
moved in and the nest building proceeds at a furious pace. If only the
twigs weren't so heavy!
I'm so
befuddled what with moving, no computer access for a while & no internet
access either that I'm not quite sure where I left off with the blog. In
any case we've signed and paid for the new house and have moved in. The
move went smoothly; Jacques rented a truck and he , Theo (his son) and
his son's friend Albert (Al , all 20 stone of him, was great. He could
lift anything!) did the physical part of the move. No problem, no
hassles & the weather was kind. Our wonderful friends Ruve & Michael did
yeoman ( & woman) duty helping unpack. It really was a great move &
we're happy as two clams. Rupert's not quite so sure yet, but he's
beginning to enjoy discovering new local walks and defending 'his'
territory against imaginary intruders.
Of
course because we succeeded in doing what we set out to do; namely to
downsize we have more stuff than will fit into this house. You can
imagine! We had more art for the walls than we could fit into the old
house; now? Forget it.
Hanging pictures is easy; deciding which & where is tough. An endless
source of time wasting. Still, we're getting there. The vast majority of
the artwork will find a home or wall - eventually. The rest of the
furniture fit pretty well since we'd done some judicious selling &
giving away in advance.
We have a large room
in which we have to tile the floor to finish it off. Finding the same
tiles used in the rest of the house and which we like is impossible.
Three trips to the big tile store in Montauban so far, but we think
we've cracked it. They're really nice tiles and on sale at half price.
What could be better?
I'm slowly coming
around to actually liking the induction hob (stovetop to you Yanks). Its
certainly very quick, quicker than gas in fact. I still struggle a bit
with the settings to get the heat right, but I think that's a matter of
practice & familiarity. My real issue is having to give up my Dansk pots
& pans. They're copper clad with an aluminum sandwiched bottom &
stainless steel interiors. Beautiful & practical. 20 years old and still
going strong. Unfortunately you have to have ferrous metal for the
induction hob to work and given the kitchen layout it would have been
very difficult to replace the hob with a gas hob. A conventional
electric hob wasn't even worth consideration. So, my beloved pots
& pans are consigned to storage - for now anyway. A summer kitchen is a
distant dream at the moment, but who knows what may happen next Spring.
No serious cooking as
of yet, but the kitchen is getting sorted out with the help of a new
tall cupboard with all the shelves on runners. The extra space is great
and its handy being just outside the kitchen in the conservatory.
Slowly, slowly is the best way to sort out a kitchen and get everything
it the right place.
There will be more on
the move later, but watch this space for a serious post about cooking in
the next few days.
Festi'Lac
July 2010
Walnut wine from an
old Friend
Here is a recipe from a friend who is a formidable lover of France &
things French. This 'Vin de Noix' is very popular in our part of France
where many many walnuts are grown. Deborah has been kind enough to share
her recipe. Try it!
Hi David,
Progress?
Great Lunch !!!
Yesterday some friends & I made our annual Tour De France pilgrimage. We
try to do this every year. Since the route the TDF takes changes every
year we never quite know from year to year where it will be closest to
where we live. This is nice because most years we get to spend some time
in a place we don't know very well.
Our goal each year is to accomplish three things; see the start of a stage
of The Tour de France, Buy a TDF base ball cap (the design changes every
year) and to have a good lunch. A sort of informal goal is to explore the
town we're in.
Past years have taken us to Albi, Cahors, Cap Decouvert, Figeac, Lisle sur
Tarn and other places. Always interesting, always large crowds (did you
know that more people watch the Tour De France live than any other
sporting event?). Parking is always a challenge, but we usually luck out,
get close & don't get towed. The organization that goes into staging the
tour is awesome! Who ever said the French aren't organized?
This year our closest place was in Rodez which is about an hour away from
Parisot. Its a classic hilltop town dating way way back. The outskirts are
pretty ugly, lots of modern shopping places, but the center of town ,
especially the medieval part is very beautiful. As always the Tour
organizers find a large area for staging,, in this case a large park. All
around that there are sponsors stands. This is where I buy my hat each
year, I make sure its an 'official. hat. This year's is a nice dark blue
with Tour De France in white embroidery and a smll French flag. I'm
pleased with it.
Well before the race itself the 'caravan' drives along the route
dispensing goodies, mainly product samples from the sponsors; lots of
pretty girls on the floats of course. Its great fun with lots of noise,
the children go ape. After this we pick a good vantage point and wait for
the start. It is always spot on time. Before & after the riders you get
all the support teams with roof racks full of expensive bikes, Lots of
motorcycle riders with cameramen riding pillion. Finally, you get the
actual contestants, about 160 of them. This part around the town isn't
really a race, its more ceremonial, they actually start racing as they
leave the town. We like watching this way because you get all the buzz,
ceremony, excitement AND lunch!
Its my job each year to choose the restaurant. This year I found a place
caller "Gout et Couleurs". It got good write ups, modern French
cuisine. Like so many good French restaurants it was tucked away on a back
street near the center of town. Not much to look at or see from the
outside, my friends were somewhat skeptical, but we went in & made a lunch
reservation anyway. Once inside the decor was very nice, well spaced and
set up tables plus there was a very nice patio in the back. So, once the
race had started we made our way back to the restaurant.
The main menu was 35€ for four courses. We started with a little soup
'amuse' which was a cold vegetable soup with a tomato jus topping.
Delicious & refreshing. For my starter I had a smoked mackerel dish. The
mackerel had a light foam over it and a Courgette 'jelly' under. There was
also an inverted 'ice cream cone' filled with a delicate horseradish
sauce. Yummy. The other starter on offer was a fois gras dish which looked
great and according to my two friends who had it tasted great.
A nice day out, we'll try to keep up the tradition next year. |
|
Its
hard to see, but they were beautifully presented.
