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        Life in rural France - Food - Friends - Wine - Cheese - Comments

   Welcome to French Food Focus. The name describes the intent of this blog. I'll focus on food and because I live in rural   
   France the stress will be upon French food.  There are numerous posts concerning life in France and, certainly, opinions
   about anything that strikes my fancy.
  
If you have some good recipes  or if you want to rave about any great French restaurants this  is the place to do it.

 I hope you enjoy my ramblings about rural France! 

Click Here to send me a comment
           
                   

This is our village. Our house is the white one at the top right.                      


 

 

 

 

 

January 2011

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:

  1. a large tube of tomato puree or a can
     
  2. A large can of whole tomatoes
     
  3. 2 large cans of red kidney beans
     
  4. 1 pound of good quality minced beef
     
  5. 1 large carrot
     
  6. 1 large yellow onion
     
  7. 2 stalks of celery
     
  8. Spices as below plus salt & pepper
     
  9. a couple of cups of cheap red wine
     

METHOD:

  • Chop the carrots, onion & celery into a dice.
     
  • Sweat them in a large saucepan with oil or butter until soft, but not browned.
     
  • Remove the vegetable mix from the pan & set aside.
     
  • Add the minced beef to the pan, turn up the heat and brown the beef.
     
  • Turn the heat down. Put the vegetables back in the pan & add the beans (drained), tomatoes (drained) & tomato puree.
     
  • Add the red wine & bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.
     
  • Here's the fun part. Start adding the spices. The mixture is up to you, but you want for sure to add the following:  

    - a packet of 'Old El Paso' chili mix if available.

    - a good dose of ground cumin

    - Paprika

    - red chili flakes

    - dried cilantro (coriander)

    - salt & pepper

     

  • Stir all of this in & keep tasting & adjusting until you get the flavor & degree of hotness you want. Now just let the chili simmer for as long as you like, up to 4-5 hours, stirring every so often.
     
  • The chili will actually be good to eat after an hour, but more time won't hurt. If it seems to be setting too dry just add more wine.
     

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:

  • 6-8 ounces of young fresh chevre cheese. It needs to be soft enough to mash up.
     
  • 10-12 sun dried tomatoes PLUS one half more for each serving. (I used my home made ones. Any will do so long as they're soft.)
     
  • Fresh or dried Thyme.
     
  • A mixture of salad greens. I used a combination of Rocquette & Masche since they're available & good, but whatever's good in your area will work.
     
  • A light creamy vinaigrette. By light I mean one that uses a mild vinegar & not too much of it.

Method:

  1. Chop up the 10-12 sun dried tomatoes into a fine dice.
     
  2. Add the tomatoes & the thyme to the chevre & mash together until well mixed.
     
  3. Mix the greens & dress with the vinaigrette. Salt & pepper.
     
  4. Place a scoop of the chevre mixture one each plate & surround with the dressed greens.
     
  5. Add a whole sun dried tomato half to each serving.
     
  6. Serve immediately. If kept cool this salad can be prepared about an hour before serving. The key is not to mix the greens & dressing too soon.

 

Stuffed chicken thighs with a mushroom/ tarragon dressing

Ingredients:

  • 3 small or 2 large chicken thighs per person
     
  • 6-8 ounces of mild ham
     
  • 6-8 ounces of mushrooms. (plain white ones or you can mix in some reconstituted dried wild ones as well.)
     
  • 6-8 ounces of full cream
     
  • A bunch of fresh tarragon.
     
  • 1 cup dry white wine
     
  • Salt, pepper & herbs de Province.

 

Method:

  1. Bone the chicken thighs. Fill each one with a small roll of the ham cut to size. I secured them with sprig of rosemary, but anything that works will do.
     
  2. Chop the mushrooms into a coarse dice. Chop the tarragon into a fine dice.
     
  3. Roast the chicken thighs, skin side up, in a  375 F oven until done & the skin is crispy.
     
  4. Remove the chicken from the oven  remove the skewers. Place them on warmed dinner plates.
     
  5. Quickly pour of most of any chicken fat then deglaze the roasting pan with white wine. Add the mushrooms & sauté until just soft.
     
  6. Add the cream to the pan & boil rapidly to reduce. Then add the chopped tarragon. Stir well.
     
  7. Pour the mushroom/cream/ tarragon over the chicken thighs and serve immediately. Serve any extra sauce separately.
     
  8. I served this with the Roast roots & green beans with toasted almonds. Both were in serving bowls so guests could serve themselves.


    Linda's pear tart was superb. Its a very complicated recipe so I'll have to get her to write it out so I can post it.

    All in all a nice evening and the new house works well for that number of guests. For larger dinner parties we'll have to wait for summer so we can do them out on the patio.

    Do try the recipes. They work & they're good.

     

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:

  1. 3-4 ripe avocados
     
  2. 1 packet of Old El Paso guacamole mix; or your own mix of herbs & spices as above.
     
  3. 1 medium sized yellow onion
     
  4. 1 large tomato
     
  5. 5-8 canned red peppers (these are sold in glass jars at most ant French Supermarket, they're usually found near the cornichons.)
     
  6. 2-3 fresh limes or a container of lime juice (again sold at most Supermarkets) By the ways limes are citron vert in French.
     
  7. A bunch of fresh parsley. Better yet is fresh coriander (cilantro)
     
  8. Dried leaf coriander (can be found in French Supermarkets)
     
  9. Salt to taste

Method:

  • Cut the avocados in half, discard the large seed, then scoop out the contents using a spoon into a large bowl.
     
  • Chop up the onion finely and add it to the bowl
     
  • Deseed the tomato then chop it finely and add to the bowl.
     
  • Cut the little red peppers in half, then run a sharp knife along the halves to remove the seeds. Chop the deseed halves finely and add to the bowl. NOTE: The number of pepper you use will largely determine how hot your guacamole will be. Its better to start with a few & add more if necessary)
     
  • Add the packet of guacamole mix. Now mash everything together using a fork. You want a rough consistency, not too smooth.
     
  • Add the lime juice. Continue mashing. The final consistency should be one that is fine enough to allow for dipping corn chips into it.
     
  • Chop up a good amount of the parsley or coriander into a fine dice & add it to the mix. If using parsley add a good quantity of the dried coriander at this time.
     
  • Add some salt. Now taste the guacamole. It should have a bit of bite, if not add more red peppers. Adjust the salt and parsley.
     
  • That's it! You can cover & keep the guacamole for several hours, but its best eaten the same day its made.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

December

First Olives

 

We inherited two tiny olive trees with our new house. Well. they are more like olive bushes as you can see below.

  

We've brought them into the conservatory for the winter. A good thing too as it was -9 degrees C last night. That's very unusual for for; it rarely gets that cold here.

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.

Thus, I decided to give you two recipes to ease the burden. Both are delicious, both fit right in with a festive meal and both are so easy to do that you can get the kids or relations to do the work! They'll appreciate the meal (s) all the more for having participated. Best yet they're both healthy & inexpensive with easy to find ingredients that can bought & prepared in advance.

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:

  1. 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.
     

  2. Cut up the onion, peppers and zucchini into bite sized pieces.
     

  3. Rinse the salt off of the eggplant then pat dry.
     

  4. Place ALL of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl, add Salt & Pepper & the dab of olive oil. Mix gently, but well.
     

  5. 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.
     

  6. 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:

  1. Peel all of the vegetables.
     

  2. Slice the turnips & rutabagas cross ways into about 1/8th inch thick slices.
     

  3. Slice the carrots, parsnips & peppers lengthways into thick matchstick size.
     

  4. Slice the potatoes lengthwise into 1/4 inch thick slices, then slice these into 2 or 3 lengthways slices.
     

  5. Peel the garlic cloves. (a not of caution! Don't use too many cloves of garlic as their flavour can overwhelm the other ingredients.)
     

  6. 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.
     

  7. 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.
     

  8. 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

 

 

 

 

NOVEMBER

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.
So, this is the story of my most recent experience with the French medical system. Mind as you read this that this is so called socialized medicine and that France spends about 5% LESS of their GDP on medicine than the USA.

 

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.

Everybody is really nice to me. It seems that in this hospital virtually everyone speaks or at least tries to speak English. When I tell them I’m American, not English as they thought everyone wants to know where from (they’re all impressed that I’m from San Francisco) & to tell me about their visit to the states. It’s all very nice, but I still wish I was elsewhere.
Dinner comes. The less said about it the better. Typical hospital food, not good! The bread roll is good though so I eat that. And so to sleep; or at least I try to sleep, but keep getting interrupted with little blood tests (They prick my finger & then test the blood with a machine about the size of a cell phone??), stick a fancy thermometer in my ear and take down reading from the monitors. This seems to happen about every three hours. In between times, however, the blood pressure cuff inflates & then takes my readings about every half hour. This is not exactly contusive to getting a good night’s sleep.

 

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:

  1. Made a mirepoix. That is I chopped up a combination of one large onion, 3 medium sized carrots & 2 stalks of celery into a rough dice.
     
  2. I then started sweating this in a large pot with an ounce or so of butter. Low heat, lid on until the mirepoix is soft, but not browned.
     
  3. While the mirepoix was sweating I browned the ox tails in a frying pan with a little oil (vegetable or olive) until both sides were nicely browned.
     
  4. Once both were ready I added the ox tails to the mirepoix, laying them flat, and then added a roughly 50/50 mixture of red wine & beef stock. I used enough to cover the ox tails plus about an inch over their tops.
     
  5. To this I added salt & pepper, a couple of bay leaves, several crushed juniper berries and some thyme.
     
  6. Stirred everything well, put a lid on and let the whole thing simmer gently for about 4 hours.
     
  7. Later I prepped a medley of vegetables to go with the ox tails. In this case I used a combination of: (use whatever is fresh & strikes your fancy)

     - Parsnips peeled, cut lengthwise then quartered.
     - Carrots peeled, cut lengthwise then quartered.
     - Onion peeled and cut into quarters
     - Turnip peeled and cut into rounds
     - A red bell pepper seeded and cut into a rough julienne.
     - Several cloves of garlic, peeled, but not crushed. (go easy or they will dominate)
    - Potatoes peeled and cut lengthways into about 1/4 inch slabs. (NOTE: Although these worked well I think next time I'd do mashed potatoes to better soak up the gravy.)
     
  8. Coat all of the vegetable lightly with a coating of olive oil then add salt & pepper. Spread them out on a baking sheet.
     
  9. After the ox tails have cooked for about 3 hours heat up the oven to 190 C. & when hot put the vegetables in near the top.
     
  10. After roughly 3 1/2 hours gently remove the ox tails from the cooking liquid then pour the liquid through a sieve into a container. Mash down on the vegetables to extract as much juice as possible.
     
  11. Return the liquid to the cooking pot & boil until reduce by about half.  Return the ox tails to the pot & simmer gently.
     
  12. When the vegetables are cooked take them out of the oven. While they cool a bit remove the ox tail from their liquid.
     
  13. Thicken the ox tail juice either by further boiling or by adding a thickener.
     
  14. Plate up with a selection of vegetables and an ox tail for each person. Pour on some of the gravy.

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. Its hard to see, but they were beautifully presented.

 

 

 

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:

  • Day old bread. Just about any kind. I used a combination of white baguette & whole grain from our local baker.
     
  • Whole milk
     
  • Full cream
     
  • a splash of dark rum
     
  • Sugar. Or in this case I used splenda to save calories. I think dark brown sugar would also be great.
     
  • Ground nutmeg, cinnamon & ginger to taste
     
  • Raisins. As many as you like

 

METHOD:

  1. Tear the bread into chunks of roughly one inch square. Crusts & all. I did about 8 cups loosely packed. Heat your oven to 190 C.
     
  2. Mix the milk & full cream. The ratio of cream to milk depends upon just how rich you want the pudding to be. I used about 2/3 milk. Make about half as much of this mixture as you have of the bread, thus in my case I did 4 cups of milk.
     
  3. Add the sugar & spices. Use about half as much sugar (or splenda) as you have milk. In my case 2 cups.
     
  4. Pour the milk mixture over the bread pieces. The milk should just barely cover the bread, if not add a bit more milk or push the bread down into the milk with the back of a spoon.
     
  5. Let the mixture sit for 20-30 minutes then add the raisins. Stir very gently to distribute the raisins.
     
  6. Pour the mixture into a shallow casserole and put the filled casserole onto a baking tray to prevent spills.
     
  7. Bake in the 190 C oven for about half an hour or until the top starts to brown. *You can test by sticking a knife into the pudding to see if it comes out clean.
     
  8. Remove from the oven when done.



    You can serve hot, warm or cold. Its equally good the next day & it freezes well. Ice cream, cream, crème fraiche all make nice topping sauces.

    It truly is delicious and it truly is comforting. I'll make it more often now that I've rediscovered it.

     

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.
Down stairs we have a large living room, a bedroom with en suite bath room, a half bath and a kitchen/ dining room. (what the French call an 'American kitchen'. Don't ask me why.) Also, of course, there is the new office/TV room & behind that is a room we'll use as a laundry room & 2ond kitchen. (There's a door to the back which leads to the patio where we'll eat & entertain a lot in the summer.)


Upstairs we have two large bedrooms and a bath 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.
Or, you can do it in reverse which Linda prefers.

 

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.


Linda is, of course, delighted that we still have a pool. I'm not thrilled, but at least this is a new pool and should be easy to maintain.

 

 

 

 

 

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.
Granit work tops which are very nice and at the left the drawer type of refrigerator which works very well.


We could use more storage space which is one reason we're putting in a second kitchen. Freezer space in particular is in short supply.

 

 

 

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.
The plats offered were both classic French bistro dishes, Beef Burgongon or Poule au pot. Michael choose the beef & I had the chicken. The beef was superb and a good reminder as to the difference between a really good Chef and an amateur like me. Although my beef stew was good it wasn't a patch on this dish. My chicken was equally delicious. This Chef is seriously good. The table next to us was a party of 6 local people celebrating a birthday. They were ordering a la carte & the variety & succession of dishes they had looked terrific. We're going back for dinner with wives - soon! There's a nice looking B&B nearby.

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.
The hob works well, but has it foibles. You can't just turn it to a low setting to get it to simmer things; you have to turn it way up high then back down. I don't understand why, but that's the way it is. Otherwise its very quick, quick to respond, quick to boil things, quick to burn things. No that last is my fault not the hob's.

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.
If you don't mind walking up hills there are some great walks. We've done one in particular twice, once just Roop & I and then a second time with Linda. You drive a few minutes to a hamlet called Condou. There's a big 'maison de maitre' there that we looked at buying a few tears back. We didn't, but somebody did & has done a great job on it. In any case walk past that & turn right and you walk along a lane passing a very large 19th century chateau. There are superb views all round. Past the chateau you head up hill & this is the part I don't like (My 73 year old lungs are paying the price for all of those years of smoking!) You go through some nice oak woods until you reach an abandoned farm complex at the top. Ripe for renovation as they say; large farmhouse, big barn & a hanger around a court yard. Could be great. On past the farmhouse and you pass a renovated house which you can't see much of, but which has super views. Linda knows because this is the location of 'Les Jardins de Quercy'. Here in the middle of nowhere the owned had created a set of wonderful gardens. They're open in the summer & she visited with a group of friends. Amazing! We walked on a bit further & ran into an elderly hunter. He was sitting on a rock watching the other hunters & their dogs work  the other side of the valley. When we asked what they were hunting he said; "Anything that comes." We turned back because at this point the track starts downhill again.

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)
2) 600 grams of tomme cheese (tomme d'Auvergne is traditional, but can be difficult to find outside of France. A very young Cantal can be substituted. In the USA try using Monterey Jack.) )
3) 1 clove of garlic (I like to add more.)
4) 50 grams butter
5) A heaping tablespoon of crème fraiche or 2 Tbs cream
6) Salt to taste

 

-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

 


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Truffade is a cousin of aligot; it is based on similar ingredients: potatoes and tomme Blanche. A precision on tomme Blanche: it is the earliest stage of Cantal cheese; precisely it is "day-old curds". The tomme that was used for today's dish was fresh and springy, with the delicate creaminess that comes with freshness and the typical sour taste that comes with that kind of cheese. 

For truffade, potatoes are thinly sliced (in the burons — the old cheese farms of long ago, up in the mountains), cowherds used to have potato slicing competitions (the champion was the one who could make the thinnest slices). They are then pan-seared with aged, slightly rancid fat bacon, covered and stewed until a golden crust forms at the bottom of the pan. Then the potatoes are stirred with half their weight in tomme cut into small squares. When everything is well mixed, the contents of the pan are left on low heat until a golden and crispy cheese crust forms under the potatoes. The truffade is then ready to eat with a salad and perhaps a bit of ham.
There is another version of truffade which is made in the oven, and another one that is similar to the one I just described, but the potatoes are boiled before being pan-fried.

 

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

 

 

Method

-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

  1. 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)

  2. Stir in a couple of tablespoons of cold water.

  3. Add the salt & pepper

  4. Slowly beat in the walnut oil. You should have a thick paste similar to a mayonnaise.

  5. 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.
The third episode was in retrospect hilarious. Our local Parisot transvestite, Coleen, had taken over the restaurant. A group of us went down for the opening night to see how it was. Total & utter disaster! We waited 45 minutes for our simple salad starter. Coleen did, however, serve it him/her self immaculately turned out. The ladies all admire his legs! We then waited another 45 minutes for our main course which was pepper steak. It had so much pepper on it that nobody could eat it; even after scraping off the peppercorns it was still too hot to eat. Linda took hers home & washed it off, but even then the dog wouldn't eat it. Needless to say poor Coleen didn't last long as a restaurateur.

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.

In Between (I sort of lost track during the hunt & move)

 Festi'Lac

Last night the annual Festi'Lac celebration & fireworks were held at our local lake. The main purpose other than having a good time is to raise money for local good works. It costs 8€ to get in. There are several bands, lots of food for sale and a great fireworks display.

After last year's disaster we were all hoping for better things this year. Last year there was a terrible thunderstorm and everyone's money had to be returned. In addition some poor young man got very drunk and drowned in the lake. The Festi'Lac committee ended up several thousand Euros in debt. This was a big tragedy for our small village.

Fortunately, this year the weather was perfect. Security had been beefed up and everything was in good shape. A friend of our had arranged that we would set up & man a stand selling sausages (both Toulouse & merguse) and hamburgers. In a moment of civic pride I volunteered to help. Yesterday afternoon my friend Ruvé & I went down  to get our t-shirts as these were one's pass into the area and identified you as an 'official' worker. They're bright orange with black lettering. We also got a packet of 10 tickets which could be used for drinks or food.
While we were there the gendarmes were out in force, at least a dozen of them, checking cars. Not a good time to speed, have a broken light, your insurance out of date or bald tires. Still it put people on notice that they were watching.

Anyway we showed up at 8 PM to start selling. We finished at 4 AM when we finally ran out of both food & charcoal for the BBQ. We made over $2,500 so we didn't do badly. The customers came in waves & we would have a run on merguse, then on burgers, then on Toulouse sausage. It was great fun, but I was exhausted by the time we cleaned up & quit. The fact that we were only 50 feet from a very loud rock band didn't help. It wasn't that they were bad or anything; in fact they were pretty good; it was 8 hours of constant noise. Fortunately, I could turn my hearing aids down. It was also good for my French and it was a chance to say hello to virtually everyone we know in the area. I slept until 11 AM this morning.

On another front, we've bought a new house. Its only about 5 miles away from where we live now. That was one of our criteria as we didn't want to be far from our friends. Its complete contrast being a modern house instead of our old stone farmhouse. It will, however, be very comfortable and much easier to maintain the Camp Del Mas. It too has nice views and much to Linda's delight a swimming pool. We'll move in near then of September.
Meanwhile, packing continues apace since we have a move out in 14 days. Fortunately, we have two places to stay while we're 'homeless'.

We are both delighted with the way things have worked out.



                                           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,

I have just made this years supply of this and thought you might like to post the recipe on your web site. It makes a lovely after dinner drink, served over crushed ice.

GREEN WALNUT LIQUEUR

Makes about 1.5 litres

fresh undamaged green walnuts to half fill a 2-litre jar

about 1.5 litres alcohol for bottling fruits, or vodka

about 1 kg sugar

You will need a wide-necked 2-litre jar, which will get stained by the walnut juice


Wash and pick over the walnuts, which should be green but firm. Bash each one once with a hammer so it releases its juices and put in the jar ( this makes a lot of mess and the juice staina terribly, I put them in a plastic bag before bashing them, so I don't get the mess). Half fill the jar with walnuts, then fill the jar to the top with the alcohol. Shake well and leave for three months.

Strain the green-brown liquid into a bowl or jug and discard the walnuts. Filter again through wet muslin (or a fresh j cloth). Stir in 6oogm sugar per litre of liquid, dissolve. bottle and label. Store in a cool dark place for at least six months, but it continues to improve indefinitely.

The French tradition is to pick the walnuts on the feast of St Jean, which we have missed. You can get raw alcohol in French supermarkets and wine shops, we can't get it here so I use Vodka.
I have made 3 liters as it makes a lovely gift for friends. I always give some to the farmer next door as the walnut trees are on his land.


Take care,

Deborah Laing    

 

 

  Progress?  

 Well sort of. We've certainly looked at a lot of houses over the last few days. Its a slow process in France.

There's no such thing as a multiple listing service as there is in the states so you have to go agent by agent. Then once you've decided which properties you would like to look at the agent has to accompany you, no such thing as a drive by, All this takes time & effort, but that's the way they do thing here for better or worse.

So far, limiting ourselves to within 30 minutes or less from where we live now we have short list of two that we kind of agree on. There's another that Lind like & I don't that doesn't quite make the list. It has gorgeous views & a swimming pool, but I think it a mess inside. It does have a separate 'gite' right next door, but that's exactly what we're trying to get rid of. Anyway, it didn't make the cut.

One of the two on the short list is small, but in absolutely tip top condition, large lot, nice views, good sized rooms, just not quite enough of them. We'd have to add on but could afford to as the price is good. The other problem is that its up high so the drive down to Villefranche is short, but twisty & its probably just over 30 minutes from our friends in Parisot. We need to take a second look.

The other short list is closer, about 12-15 minutes from Parisot & is in a small 'hanau'. Its really out in the country. Rooms are pretty good as is the garden, its heavily treed. Needs quite a bit of updating, but no new rooms. I'm not so sure, but Linda loves it.

We'll go back to both with our builder friend Jacques & see.

No decisions as of yet.

It was nice to be home & have a simple dinner tonight. Salmon on the BBQ, baby potatoes with butter & chives, Corn on the cob & broccoli.   Nice & simple. Last night we had a really nice oriental type meal in St Antonin. Spring rolls & spare ribs to start. Then fried squid in garlic & ginger for me & a chicken curry for Linda. Very nicely done & very enjoyable. We'll go back there.

 

 

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.
The main course which we all had was pork done three ways. There were little medallions, very tender & nice, a pork 'rillette' and a pork couene (pork skin) all this with a great sauce, grilled baby carrots with cinnamon. There was great chocolate dessert, 4 ways with different sauces. I had a strawberry 'soup' with ginger ice cream; fantastic!! They served a little cup of chocolate mousse with the coffee. All in all a great meal.
We had a petit Chablis for our white wine and a very nice Madiran  for our red. Neither was expensive, but both were good. The wine list was very extensive and fairly priced.

A nice day out, we'll try to keep up the tradition next year.