Daily Photo

A tranquil spot on the Canal du Midi between Homps and Argens Minervois. Pin It

My Week

The week is almost over.
Had a nasty head cold so I slept my way through most of Tuesday and Wednesday.
Went into Béziers Thursday morning for a hair cut. The drive took much longer that usual due to la Police Municipale stopping nearly everyone at a major roundabout in the center of town which snarled up traffic forever.
Had 10 inches of hair cut off (see new photo on right) followed by a mild panic attack.
Feeling better now because, I know, someday, it will grow back.
Almost had another panic attack as I walked by a café we frequent in Béziers only to find a brand spankin' new Domino's pizza in it's place. Quelle horreur! I think Domino's is the true axis of evil and now they've invaded our little corner of France. Merde.
Today is my husband's birthday. His present didn't arrive yesterday (the expected date) nor today. After waiting for La Poste all morning, to not deliver his present, we drove over to the beach and had a nice lunch.
Happy Birthday honey! I'm sure your present will arrive someday. Maybe by the time my hair grows back. Pin It

Photo of the Day

Door in Aigne Pin It

Secret Gardens

I love these beautiful, weathered garden doors. I pass by them every day on the way to our garden. Pin It

La Fête du Fromage - Valençay and Cantal Entre-Deux

I need to make a list.

While standing at the fromagerie counter last week and surveying the vast array of cheeses on offer I spent an astonishing amount of time thinking to myself, "have I tasted that one? I don't remember...how about that one?
Damn, I need to make a list!"
The poor woman behind the counter.

After much consideration (and reflection on the fact that I must have short term memory loss) two very different looking and tasting cheeses were chosen for this week's Fête du Fromage.

Cantal entre-deux and Valençay

Cantal entre-deux is one of the five AOC granted cheeses that come from the mountainous Auvergne region of central France. The "entre-deux" means "between" as there are three ages of Cantal; young, entre-deux and vieux. Young, mild Cantal is aged for 1-2 months, entre-deux is aged for 3-6 months and the strongest tasting, vieux more than 6 months. Cantal is considered one of the oldest cheeses, having been mentioned by Pliny the Elder around 2000 years ago. It is made from unpasteurized cow's milk and has a sweet, fruity flavor and creamy, smooth texture. It is extremely enjoyable, not too strong, but not too mild either.
Fruity, red wines such as Gaillac are a good match.

Valençay is another fetching little pyramid shaped cheese with a salted, ash covered, bumpy rind. Made in the Loire Valley from raw goat's milk, it was granted AOC status quite recently, in 1998. Its flavor was tangy, mild and nutty with subtle hints of citrus and the texture was supple and smooth. All around delicious!
Drink a white Valençay or Sancerre or a light red wine with this one.


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le Weekend

Friends drove over for the weekend, one from Cassis and the other from a village near Florence, bringing with them their charm, cooking skills and Pecorino cheese, wine and succulent, thinly sliced, cured meats from Italy. I made an insalata caprese and we had a perfect Italian feast!

We drove around the region on Saturday, to Caunes-Minervois, to Rieux-Minervois where the unique, heptagonal church of Notre-Dame is located and to taste some wine at a wonderful shop called le Chai Port Minervois on the Canal du Midi at Homps. They cooked lunch (yes, they were the perfect guests) of tomatoes provençal and baron d'agneau followed by a salad, then fresh and aged goat's cheese that we picked up in the market in Rieux. Dessert was apricots from our garden and white peaches. C'était magnifique!
That evening there was a big birthday bash at our friend's house, complete with live music, great wine from the village, dancing and my husband joining the band for a couple of songs, singing in his Barry White-like, smooth, deep voice.

Sunday morning was spent at the kitchen table with coffee and baguette slathered with butter and confiture de fruits rouge, discussing our next trip to see them in Cassis. We haven't been in three years and since they've recently been issued a boat driving license, the plan is to rent one and cruise out to the island of Porquerolles which looks like absolute paradise!
A lazy lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, a trip to le Somail to the Librairie Ancienne and we reluctantly said our goodbyes.

Can't wait for our trip to Cassis in August!

The weekend was full of fabulous photo ops, and I forgot my camera every time we left the house. Merde. Pin It

Encore le Jardin

Yes, I took some more pictures of the garden. And of the dogs.
Voilà!



the herbs are doing really well



siesta spot




les figues



how he spends 85% of his day


handsome boy Pin It

le Jardin

tomatoes and nasturtiums



Never thought I would be one of those people who got excited about gardening. Well, maybe excited isn't exactly the right word. I should say I'm satisfied with gardening.
Surprisingly, the apricot tree produced some fruit. We thought it was sickly, so we're happy to report that it isn't. Apricot clafouti this weekend!
Everything else is coming along. S L O W L Y it seems, when I look at the size of the gigantic tomato plants in the other garden plots around ours. What are they using on their plants to get them to grow so freakin' huge?



little olives


baby grapes


the dog, passed out after running around the garden Pin It

I've Waited For This Cheese

Several years ago we went out with Jean-Pierre and Agnès to a lovely little place near Béziers for dinner. After our main course a gorgeous and very heavily laden cheese cart was rolled over to our table and since we didn't know many cheeses at the time and chose most of them based on looks, I asked for a piece of a very interesting looking, bright orange, conical shaped one but was promptly told "non, madame, il est trop fort, choisissez un autre."*
I insisted that I liked strong cheese, but to no avail. I looked and Jean-Pierre and Agnès for help but they too shook their heads and said, "no, choose another."
So I did.
Reluctantly.
We were just getting to know Jean-Pierre and Agnès so I didn't want to cause a scene by fighting with the server and grabbing my own piece off the cart or anything.

But let me tell you, that vividly colored cheese and being denied the right to taste it left an impression. I've looked for that cheese ever since, not knowing it's name didn't help me much, but I figured I would recognize it when I came across it.
We ate dinner at their house last night and Jean-Pierre presented me with "the denied cheese." Recently the four of us had laughed about that dinner and that cheese and he went out and found some for me!


It is called Boulette d'Avesnes. With it we tasted a nice little Brillat Savarin.

Boulette d'Avesnes is smelly, pungent, fiery and very unique. It is made from Maroilles curd which is flavored with tarragon, cloves, parsley and pepper, then it's rind is washed in beer.  I found it acrid and pretty awful, actually. The little cones are shaped by hand then sprinkled with annatto or paprika, giving it the bright orange appearance.  This cheese is not for the faint of heart!
If you dare to taste it, pair with a full-bodied red such as Côte de Nuits, Côtes du Rhône or a Chateauneuf du Pape.

Brillat Savarin was named for the famous 18th Century French gourmand, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, in 1930 by it's creator, Henri Androuët, a well known Parisian cheese seller. It is a triple cream, 75% fat, over the top, cow's milk cheese from Normandy. It was lush, super creamy and sweet and was a perfect contrast to the robust little Boulette. Pair with a Saint Emilion.

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste, 1825

*No, ma'am, it is too strong, choose another. Pin It

La Fête du Fromage-Week Ten

This week is the tenth Fête du Fromage. Are we sick of cheese yet? No way!

I've become very creative in the kitchen in my attempt to use up all these little pieces of cheese we have crowding up what has now become a very smelly fridge. Maybe I should have started La Fête in the winter when we could have stored the cheese outside...
Been making a lot of cheese and vegetable tarts, pizza al quattro formaggi, cheesy pasta dishes and plan on making some fromage fort this week. Thank you Donna for the idea.

pizza al quattro formaggi

The last week has been very decadent! We've been out every night eating and drinking with friends. Friday night was a delicious curry at one house, Saturday night was the Tapas night, Sunday was a barbeque that started with some delicious Pimms and last night was another invitation to dinner, complete with homemade Americanos, (yes, they were strong so we only had one each) We didn't get home until quite late.

Americanos



Basically, we haven't eaten a meal at home in five days. So, I have the cheese, just haven't had the time to taste it! I hope to remedy this today at lunch. Pin It

Tapas

There's a group of eight of us that get together every so often to cook and eat and enjoy each other's company. It started as a once a month curry night and has evolved into a whenever-we-can-get-our-schedules-coordinated ethnic night. Thus far, we've had the original Indian curry night, a fabulous Turkish evening, a Mexican night with killer Margaritas and a super, spicy Thai supper.
For our next get together, the first we've had since December (yes it is strangely difficult to get eight people together for dinner) we're making a big assortment of Spanish tapas. And I think (and hope) that someone is making a big pitcher of sangria to enjoy with them!

My contribution includes a chickpea salad, a vegetable coca (like a tart) and patatas bravas.

Chickpea Salad
recipe taken from Euroresidentes.com

• 1/2 kg chickpeas
• hard boiled eggs
• 4 red peppers (pimientos del piquillo)
• small bunch of spring onions
• 1 small clove of garlic
• 1 large tomato
• fresh parsley
• extra virgin olive oil
• white wine vinegar
• salt and pepper
• 50g cured ham

1. Drain and rinse the chickpeas (if using dried chickpeas soak overnight and then boil the next day in a pressure cooker for 10 mins or boil for 1 hour 10 mins in a pan)
2. Prepare the tomato by blanching it and removing the skin and pips following this cut it into small cubes and place in a bowl
3. Add the red peppers to the tomato (if you can´t find the spanish pimientos del piquillo you will need to roast the red peppers for about 20 mins and then remove the skin and cut into strips)
4. Cut the cured ham into small squares and add to the bowl.
   
5. Dress with extra virgin olive oil and white wine vinegar over and season with salt and pepper
6. Add the chickpeas to the salad mixture
7. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve

Vegetable Coca
recipe taken from Tienda.com
serves 4

for the dough:

• ¾ cup water, hand hot
• a pinch of sugar
• 1½ teaspoon dried yeast
• 9 oz strong plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp lard

for the topping

• 9 oz chard or spinach, shredded
• 9 oz spinach, shredded
• ½ bunch spring onions, cut into 4 inch pieces
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp pimentón
• salt
• 1 tomato, skinned, seeded, and chopped

1. Mix 1/2 cup of the water, the sugar, and the yeast and leave for about 10 minutes until a frothy head forms.
2. Mix the flour, salt, yeast mixture, oil, and lard, and add just enough of the remaining water to mix to a soft, pliable dough.
3. Knead well for about 10 minutes, then place in an oiled plastic bag and leave in a warm place to rise for about 1 hour.
4. Meanwhile, put the chard and spinach in a saucepan with a small amount of salted water, bring to a boil and simmer for 4 minutes. Let sit for 3 minutes then drain, squeezing out the excess water.
5. Add the spring onions, parsley, garlic, and oil. Season with paprika and salt and blend well.
6. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
7. Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick and curl up the edges to make a border.
8. Place on a greased baking tray and spread the vegetables over the dough, sprinkle with tomato, season with salt, and bake for 30 to 50 minutes.

From Spain on a Plate by María José Sevilla

I'll be making a few changes to the above recipe. For one, I don't have chard so will use only spinach and I'm replacing the lard with the equivalent amount of olive oil.



I'm still hunting for the perfect patatas bravas recipe. Pin It

My (un)Favorite Time of Year

Early summer should be an enjoyable time of year. The days are lovely and warm but not too hot yet, and the evenings are deliciously cool. The rosé flows generously, apricots, cherries and peaches appear at the market and barbeques become de rigeur.


Yes, I should enjoy this time of year. But for me, the middle of June is marred by something so awful....
it's almost too painful to mention...

it's time to renew my Carte de Séjour

(cue: screaming) Pin It

Tuesday's Tastings

This week I finally tasted a cheese that I've wanted to try for years, Banon à la Feuille. I've read and heard so much about this little cheese that I had very high expectations. Suffice to say, it was out of this world!
We also tasted a wonderful Tomme de Chèvre and a lovely, rich Maroilles.


Banon has to be one of the most alluring, heady and luscious things I've ever tasted.
It is a raw goat's milk cheese that is wrapped in chestnut leaves, dipped in marc de Provence or eau de vie, tied up with raffia and left to mature for a few weeks. It can be eaten young, while the leaves are still green and the cheese is crumbly and tart or aged, like the one I bought, which was ultra ripe and runny and the leaves had turned brown, causing the crust to darken a bit. The flavor was winey, fruity, woodsy and amazing! Banon has been produced in Provence near the village of Banon since the Roman times and it was granted AOC status in 2003.
Good wine pairing would be a Chenin Blanc or a big red from Bordeaux.

before unwrapping


Banon oozing all over the place


The Tomme de Chèvre was made locally, about an hour away in the Pyrénées mountains. It is made from either pasteurized or unpasteurized goat's milk and the flavor was rich and nutty with a firm but creamy texture. Compared to the other two, the Tomme didn't really stand out, but it is a delicious cheese.
A good wine pairing would be a Minervois or a Saumur.

A trip to Les Halles in Narbonne yielded a nice chunk of Maroilles, a cheese from the north of France that our friends Jean-Pierre and Agnès said we must try. It gained AOC status in 1976 and was first produced by monks in the Abbey of Maroilles over 1000 years ago.
I bought the unpasteurized cow's milk Maroilles, but it is also made from pasteurized milk. The rind is bright orange color, the taste is slightly salty and tangy and the odor really makes an impression. You should have smelled our fridge!
Châteauneuf du Pape is the recommended wine to drink with Maroilles.


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Cheese and Wine Pairing

I stumbled onto this site today and do believe it will come in handy.

WineFetch.com

The best part is, they have a page dedicated to wine and cheese pairings. You select your wine and it recommends which cheese to enjoy with it or you select your cheese and it recommends the wine.
Check it out! Pin It

Peach Crumble

The first pêches blanches of the season became available at the market on Tuesday so I happily filled a paper bag with a kilo and tucked it gently into my straw market bag between bulbs of spring garlic, une campaillette, tomatoes, eggs and a big chunk of Tomme de Chèvre. (more about that next Tuesday)
The peaches were super fragrant and juicy and were perfect after our customary, post-market lunch of roasted chicken and sautéed potatoes. The rest were put aside to make this crumble for our friends who were coming for dinner later in the week.


Peach Crumble

• ½ cup flour
• ½ cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
  
• pinch salt
• ¼ cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
  
• 4 large or 5 small peaches, peeled and sliced into thick pieces
  

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
   
2. Mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together in a bowl
3. Cut the butter into the mixture with your fingertips until crumbly
4. Arrange the sliced peaches on the bottom of a buttered baking dish
5. Cover peaches with crumble topping then sprinkle the nuts over, if using
6. Bake for 20 minutes
7. Enjoy warm with ice cream, whipped cream or on its own

Serves 4 Pin It

English Voices

As the weather gets warmer and the summer approaches, the Tuesday market in Olonzac takes on a new appearance. Gone are the days when I can move freely through the stalls, paying for my purchases without long lines and without having to wait for the visitors who are unfamiliar with the Euro while they painstakingly look at each coin, trying to figure out what they need to pay the amazingly patient vendors. It's pretty amusing when they just hand over a bunch of coins and let the poor vendor sort it out!

During the summer, the market becomes almost twice the size of it's pared down, winter version.
A woman with olive oil soap in about thirty different scents suddenly appears one Tuesday, as does the man who brings vivid blue, yellow and green pottery from Spain. Vendors selling clothing from Africa and India, all those long flowing things that are perfect to throw on over a swimsuit, show up along with the man who has crates and crates of CD's for sale and blasts his music into the crowd through a little boom box that relies far too much on bass. Then there are the street musicians, serenading their victims, I mean, coffee and rosé drinkers soaking up the sun on the café's terrace. The music is usually pretty awful and they're never pleased when I don't drop coins into the hats they pass around.

What strikes me the most is the lack of French voices I hear when I go through the market during the summer. Yesterday it was as if there wasn't one single French person doing their weekly shopping. I know that isn't the case as I saw several of our neighbors buying their usual eggs, saucisson and vegetables, but it's always noticeable and somewhat surreal to hear so many English voices concentrated in one place.

And it makes me wonder what the French think about it all. Pin It

La Fête du Fromage - Bleu de Gex, Pont-l'Evêque and Selles-sur-Cher

Three cow's milk cheeses from all around the north of France were selected for this week's Fête du Fromage.

Bleu de Gex, Pont-l'Evêque and Selles-sur-Cher

Bleu de Gex is one of the few remaining unpasteurized cow's milk blue cheeses left in the world.
Made near the Swiss border, in the mountains of the Haut-Jura, this blue is mildly salty and mushroomy with superb blue veining in a very pale yellow interior. It was granted AOC status in 1977.
This cheese would be delicious served with some dried figs or sliced pears and a good wine pairing would be reds from Burgundy or Côtes du Rhône.



The blue-grey, knobby, gnarly rind and snowy white interior gives Selles sur Cher a very striking appearance. It has a fine textured, velvety interior with a nutty and slightly salty flavor with a hint of sweetness. It is made with unpasteurized goat's milk and the edible, blue-grey rind is the result of the cheese being covered in ash to promote flavor and encourage ripening. Granted AOC in 1975 and named for the town of Selles sur Cher in the Berry region of northern France, this was one of my all time favorites!
Pair with a dry white wine or a light, fruity red.

The little, square shaped Pont-l'Evêque is a well known and popular cheese from Normandy. It has a strong, pungent odor that is misleading as the flavor is quite mild and buttery with hints of hazelnut. Legend says this delightful cheese was first made in a Norman abbey in the 12th Century. Made from unpasteurized cow's milk, le Pont-l'Evêque was granted AOC status in 1972.
Pair with a Pinot Noir, Gigondas or hard apple cider.

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Au Revoir French Television

About two months ago our satellite TV started acting up. Some days we would have TV, some days not. Then about six weeks ago, nothing.

Not having TV is strange. I found myself gravitating toward the set, watching old DVD's, just to watch something on the television. The TV habit slowly abated and we stopped watching DVD's and started reading and conversing in the evenings (what a concept).
However, we are still paying for satellite service so we finally borrowed a satellite finder from a friend last week and another, brave friend went up through the skylight onto the roof to check out the satellite dish (no way I'm going up on the roof, three stories up!) Well, it appears that the receiver on the dish is kaput.
We had a discussion and since we've lived this long without TV and haven't missed it, then why are we paying Canal Satellite 35€ a month for a service that we don't miss and that we weren't that happy with anyway. We had talked about canceling the service back in November, but they added North American Sports Network and my husband asked that we keep it just until the end of January so he could watch the Super Bowl and then we could get rid of it. But, of course, after football season came hockey season and then basketball season followed by baseball season... Basically, we were never getting rid of the damn thing.
Well it appears that problem has been solved!
No more NASN, no more Rai Uno and no more great movies and TV shows that are dubbed into French instead leaving them alone and showing them in version originale and adding subtitles. Have you ever tried to watch Law & Order in French? Or The Godfather? Some things just shouldn't be messed with for god's sake!

So I called Canal Satellite to cancel our service, at 0.34 euro cents a minute of course, to be told that we couldn't cancel as our contract was renewed May 1st for another year. We should have sent a letter in April stating our intention to cancel and since we didn't, we are stuck with it until May 1, 2008.
What crap! When we signed up for the service three years ago, we did sign a one year contract but they've never sent a renewal contract for us to sign. So I told a little white lie and said we were moving back to America in July.
Do you have a job in America? she asked.
Yes I replied.
Well, then send us a letter stating this and we'll release you from your contract.
Phew!

Bon débarras Canal Satellite.
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Saturday Bread

Since the middle of April I've been following three blogger/bakers who started an admirable project they call A Year in Bread.
But I haven't been baking any of my own! Finally, this morning I felt the need to knead.

Looking back at what they've been up to, I see they've been busy with pizza dough, no-knead bread variations and fluffy, white sandwich bread. All great recipes but not what I was craving this morning. The weather is unseasonably cold and I felt like something with more texture and flavor and bite.

So, back to one of my favorite's, adapted from this recipe.
We always have extra bits cheese lying around and this is a great way to use it up. Today the bread dough was infused with fresh thyme and the rest of the Tomme Noir de Pyrénées from last Tuesday.



Herb, Honey and Cheese Bread

• 3 cups/500 grams flour
• packet of yeast
  
• 1 cup/250 mls warm water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• big pinch of sea salt
  
• 3 ounces/100g finely grated cheese
• 1 tablespoon flavorful honey
• 2 tablespoons of your favorite herb, chopped

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water
2. Mix the flour, yeast & water mixture, olive oil, sugar and sea salt together in a bowl until combined
3. Dump out onto a floured surface and knead about 10 minutes, sprinkling with flour as needed to make a nice, springy dough
   
4. Cover with a towel and put in a warm place and let rise for 1 hour. I usually leave the dough to rise on the board I've been kneading it on
   
5. Punch down and knead in the cheese, honey and chopped herbs
6. Shape dough into a loaf, slash the top several times with a knife, place dough on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and let rise again, covered, 30 minutes
7. Heat oven 400 degrees F/200 degrees C
8. Bake about 35 minutes

A few notes: Sometimes I drizzle olive oil over the dough just before it goes in the oven
Freshly ground black pepper is wonderful to add to the dough for a bit of a bite
Experiment with cheese and herb combinations Pin It