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Summer in the Loire Valley! How much sweeter can life be? The winter wheat is ready for harvest; but before that, the heads of wheat, golden in the sun, lazily waft back and forth in the light, summer-scented breeze. The sunflowers - acres and acres of sunflowers - have blossomed and the heads nod as if in greeting as you pass by on your bike or while out for a stroll. And take a look at these Mirabelle plums on the left! Aren't they something? Our Mirabelles are tiny heirloom plums that make a wonderful jam. The tree is loaded this year and they are almost ripe.
The duck chicks born in the Spring - eleven in all - have matured, fledged and flown away, hopefully to return one day. The other birds around Le Cormier take delight in vexing us by eating our small fruit - blueberries, raspberries, cherries and currants - before we can pick them. In fact, the night before Marie-Louise was going to pick a last batch of cherries, the birds swooped in and ate every last one of them! I find it unbelievable that every tree - and we have tens of them - were stripped clean overnight. So now I have the blueberry bushes wrapped in netting to foil the birds. I can't do much about the raspberries - the raspberry hedge is 50 feet long. And the currants are finished for the season, anyway. But, alas, this year, we have a new intruder.
We have seen squirrels in the area; but we have not had any on our property - until now. You see, our young hazelnut bush is in the middle of producing it first good crop. And this one, single bush has attracted one young squirrel. Every night the squirrel climbs up the bush and finds one, still immature, cluster of hazelnuts (hazelnuts grow in clusters of 5 nuts) and eats the whole cluster, leaving the residue on the ground nearby. The squirrel is not greedy for it seems to me that it eats but one cluster each night. However, if this keeps up, all the clusters will be eaten before they ripen enough to be picked. I hope the animal gets a stomach ache; but (sigh ...) I guess that's not likely.
Finally, the weather has been very mild. It hasn't rained much (though it is raining today as I write this) and the temperatures have generally stayed in the 70s during the day and in the 50s overnight.
The gardens at Chaumont castle are fabulous this year. The theme is "Color." Marie-Louise recently visited with her niece, Roxanne and took these pictures. The garden on the left is the 'Red' garden, I guess and on the right is a garden in shades of blue-green.
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One of the most rewarding aspects of living in France is learning about French cuisine. I have to admit, when I lived in the States, I had no concept of the history of French cuisine, much less why it is practiced the way it is. I'm still learning - and probably will for the rest of my life here.
I guess the most important thing I have learned to accept and appreciate is the seasonality of the foods in France and their corresponding recipes. Growing up in California and then living all around the United States (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio and Colorado), one could buy just about any fresh fruit or vegetable in the supermarkets all year round. Summer fruits and vegetables were flown in from Chili and South America during the winter. Tropical fruits were available most of the time from Central America, Australia, China - and so on. And while it is true that the French supermarkets import fresh food items (notably from Morroco and Spain, I've noticed), it just isn't quite the same. There is a definate emphasis on local fruits and vegetables currently in season.
Which leads me to my food topic for today - truly French recipes for the Summer season - Vegetable Terrine and Clafoutis. Both receipes are family recipes hand written for me (from memory) by people I've met and who have served me dinner. The vegetable terrine comes to me from Joëlle Forti, our neighbor a mile to the north, by way of her family in Chartres; the clafoutis recipe comes to me from Jean-MarcVanneau and his wife Claire, who run a Bed and Breakfast outside Sancheville, with whom we visited this early Spring. Their recipes are shown and my translation follows below.
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| Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Clean and prepare about two pounds of vegetables. In this case, we're using about 12 ounces each of carrots, broccoli and green beans; but you can use just two out of the three (or just one) or use cauliflower, peas or whatever grabs your fancy. Simply keep the weight about the same. By choosing colorfully contrasting vegetables, your sliced terrine will make a show-stopping presentation. Cut the vegetables into flowerettes (broccoli) or batons (carrots) or into two to three inch lengths (green beans). Precook each separately by boiling in salted water or steaming for ten minutes (broccoli, cauliflower and beans) to thirty minutes (for the carrots). If you are using peas, cook fresh peas for only about three to five minutes. The idea is to create vegetables that will preserve their form while preparing the terrine and their color while baking. Immerse the vegetables in cold water to stop the cooking process for the moment.
While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the terrine batter. Blend together four large eggs, one cup of cream (the original recipe uses crème fraîche which, if you can find it, adds a delightful tang to the result. I don't recommend that you use sour cream for I believe it will separate during the baking process) and three ounces of grated gruyere cheese. Actually, I've been known to add four ounces of cheese ... To this add two tablespoons of chopped, fresh parsley and two tablespoons of chopped, fresh chives. If you don't have chives, use a tablespoon of chopped shallot, instead. Butter and line a bread pan with parchment paper. This will make for very easy unmolding of your terrine. Assemble the terrine after the vegetables all all ready. Start with a thin layer of your terrine batter followed by a layer of green beans. Keep adding a bit of the batter after each green bean layer until the green beans have all been used. Follow up with the carrots and end with the broccoli. Pour the last of the batter (if you have any) over the top. Press down with your hands to compress and push any remaining air out of the terrine. The batter should come to the top. Put the terrine in the oven and bake for one hour. Do not put it in a 'Bain Marie'. When I followed the original recipe and did this, the result simply did not hold together. While your terrine is baking, make a tomato coulis (a fresh, uncooked tomato sauce) to accompany it. Using fresh whole tomatoes, plunge into boiling water for ten seconds then into cold water to stop the cooking. The skins will easily peal off. Alternatively, I sometimes use canned tomatoes during the winter. Put the tomatoes into a food processor or blender along with your favorite herbs and spices (I simply like fresh basil, garlic, salt and pepper) and blend until pretty uniform. Run the result through a sieve to remove the seeds and larger pieces of herbs and garlic. Chill the coulis in anticipation of serving your terrine. When the terrine has finished cooking and while it is still in its pan cooling down, cover it with a piece of parchment paper and place an evenly-distributed weight on the top to compress it. (This step is not in the original recipe, but I find that this helps the terrine stay together after it has been removed from its mold.) I have actually cut a piece of wood to fit the top of my baking pan. I put a brick on top of the wood. When it has reached room temperature, put the terrine, weight still on top, into your refrigerator. Just before serving, remove the weight, unmold using the parchment paper and turn it over - upside down on the serving plate. Remove the paper and - Viola! Now you can place a thin ribbon of sour cream along the 'backbone' of the terrine and sprinkle chopped parsley and chives over that. At the table, slice the terrine into 3/4 inch slices (or so) using a sharp knife and, using a cake server or spatula, carefully rotate each slice away from the terrine and onto a plate, preserving its integrity - not easy to do! Serve the tomato coulis with the terrine. |
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This Clafoutis recipe is the best I've tried. Why? All the others I've tried, and I've had a lot - at restaurants, at friends' homes, at meetings where everyone trots out their favorite dish afterwards, and those I've made myself, have been characterized by a gummy and chewy dough which has held the fruit. Also, most Clafoutis are served with stone-fruit with the stones still inside - cherries and plums, mostly. So here is this chewy, doughy, moist, dense bread-like substance full of pits. This dish is almost a national heritage dish - it is made by virtually everyone who cooks, available in restaurants and in bakeries. But made this way, it is not my favorite. At least, it wasn't, until now. This year Marie-Louise wanted to do some long distance bicycling. So we picked a route that headed north toward Belgium, skirting west of Paris. We bicycled from B&B to B&B, choosing those that also served dinner or were very close to restaurants so we wouldn't have to go far to eat dinner. Our first night we stayed in Baigneaux, a small adjoining commune to Sancheville, at a 'Gites de France' B&B owned and operated by Claire & Jean-Marc Vanneau. We ate dinner with them - delicious, simple, farm-style food with the family. It was wonderful. Jean-Marc is the cook. For dessert he served us his 'Clafoutis aux Fruits,' or Fruit Clafoutis. He used plums he had preserved from the previous season. His Clafoutis was light, airy and delicious - quite unlike any other Clafoutis I had ever eaten. I told him how much I admired his dessert (and the rest of the dinner, too, of course). But, Oh! The Clafoutis! After breakfast the next morning, as I was paying the bill, he shyly slipped me the piece of paper you see on the right with his Clafoutis recipe written down on it. I was surprised and excited. What a wonderful gesture. What a wonderful couple. Stay with them if you are ever in their area. You won't be let down (inside France, you can call them at 02 37 44 02 26). OK, now to the recipe. Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Butter then sprinkle sugar into six, 8-ounce ramekins. Fill the ramekins with pitted cherries or pitted plums. Make the batter by mixing all together until homogeneous a cup and a quarter of whole milk, two tablespoons of crème fraîche (or heavy cream), one tablespoon of corn starch, four large eggs, half a cup of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Pour this batter over the fruit, filling the ramekins to within a quarter inch of the top. Bake for one hour. The fruit will rise and the ramekins will spill a bit, so place something to catch the drippings underneath to save on cleaning up. That's it. Delicious hot or warm out of the oven or the next day warmed up or at room temperature. His secret? No flour! Just a light and airy, souffle-like terrine. So while mixing the batter, make sure you whip some air into it. |
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