Category: Proust Project

Cognac and cake

Last week, we obsessed a little about Eleanor of Aquitaine (Alienor d’Aquitaine) and mostly ignored any other attraction of Poitou-Charentes. With Eleanor dead for some eight centuries now, some updating of the region’s charms may be in order.

Mais alors, non. Even the Wiki travel page for Poitiers notes “there isn’t a lot to do” in this pleasant, small city. It is the opposite of the tourist town lament, “a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” Poitiers and other towns in Poitou-Charentes, such as La Rochelle, may be great places to live, but they don’t attract many tourists.

If one lived there, what would one eat? What did Eleanor eat? Likely she dined on some of the same delicacies still served in the region today. With a long Atlantic coastline, the Poitevins have long relied on les fruits de mer for sustenance. Oysters, mussels cooked in wine or cream, fish, eels and cuisses de grenouilles (frogs’ legs). The region also is rich in agriculture, so animal meats, cheeses and produce are fresh and plentiful.

This week’s video

Poitou-Charentes’ most celebrated contributed to world gastronomy is cognac, the exquisite brandy made from white grapes. It is not an ancient spirit; Eleanor almost certainly did not know it. Although wine historians say cognac may have been produced and consumed locally in the early 15th century, it didn’t really get going until the 16th century when Dutch merchants sought a better method of preserving wine for their long journeys home. Enter distillation, then later a double distillation, and the discovery that the resulting product was quite delicious before being diluted with water as the Dutch had intended.

Cognac is aged in oak barrels from the Limousin province directly to the east of Poitou-Charentes. Both Poitou-Charentes and Limousin are now part of the administrative region called Nouvelle Aquitaine, and as I think we’re unlikely to revisit Limousin on this tour, we’ll make a brief mention now. Limousin is a forested region renowned for timber, beef cattle and chestnuts. It also gets promoted frequently to British people as a cheaper alternative to the neighboring Dordogne region, sometimes called Dordogneshire due to its popularity for cross-channel second homes. The English have been in this region for centuries, ever since Eleanor’s days!

Back to cognac. Victor Hugo called it “the liquor of the gods.” Napoleon liked it, too. We have a bottle of Courvoisier, which claims to have been the emperor’s favorite.

Today, cognac is enjoyed worldwide, mostly in China where it is a symbol of luxury, and also by American rappers. According to a recent e-magazine feature, cognac is currently experience a resurgence of popularity – perhaps thanks to Jay-Z and P. Diddy – although not in France. The French protect it with an appellation d’origine contrôlée but only keep about 3 percent for their own consumption, unlike armagnac, a brandy from the Gascogne which is hard to find outside of France. (We have a bottle of armagnac, but we’ll get to that in a few weeks.)

As I have always thought of cognac as an after dinner drink, I decided to pair it with a cheesecake specialty from Poitou-Charentes. It worked well together! The cake, called tourteau fromagé, is quite simple to make, although mine did not achieve the traditional burnt crust, perhaps because I have a gas oven which is notoriously hostile to browning.

One of my favorite food writers, Clotilde of the Paris-based Chocolate & Zucchini blog, describes the history and significance of this dessert, along with a photo of what it is supposed to look like. And here is mine:

tourteau fromagé, unburnt

Despite its unburnt crust, it was delicious, and as my husband said, the lack of burning gave us more to eat.

I used a fresh local chèvre, or goat cheese, that was already quite dry and did not need to be further drained. I followed this recipe. Also, I did not have the proper mold, so I improvised with a small springform pan (for the one pictured above) and my English pudding steamer for the second one. They were equally good.

I’m also too lazy to trim my pastry crust to look pretty.

With a small glass of cognac, this was an excellent treat!

Next week: Bordeaux.

Poitou-Charentes

After another delay caused by real-world work, we’re delighted to resume our pretend tour de France. We last visited the chateaux and vineyards of the Loire Valley, one of the most popular destinations in the most touristed country in the world, and now we’re dipping slightly south to a region that gets far less attention.

This week’s video

Poitou-Charentes officially no longer exists. It was a defined region of France from 1956 to 2015, when France reorganized administratively and made it part of Nouvelle Aquitaine.

This area in central France borders the Atlantic Ocean and is mostly rural. Its two largest cities are the university town of Poitiers and the port of La Rochelle. For tourists, the chief attractions will be along the coast, particularly the Isles de Ré and Oléron. Another hotspot is the Futuroscope theme park north of Poitiers.

Eleanor of Aquitaine

We will linger in Poitiers because it is the birthplace of one of my favorite women of history, Eleanor of Aquitaine. This medieval queen of France and England continues to fascinate us centuries after her death. Her literary and artistic “Court of Love” in Poitiers during the mid-1100s is legendary for establishing the ideas of chivalry in the culture of Europe.

Eleanor was born around 1122 into an interesting family. Her grandfather, William IX, was the earliest troubadour whose work survived. He was a lyric poet in the Occitan language; he had a reputation for seducing women, and his verses tell of this prowess. One of his conquests was Dangereuse, Viscountess of Châttellerault, the wife of a vassal. His own wife, Philippa, was not pleased to have another woman installed in her home but could find no one to assist her in evicting her husband’s mistress. The church excommunicated William, but he continued to live with Dangereuse and Philippa finally retired to the Abbey of Fontevrault. The son of William and the daughter of Dangereuse, step-siblings, married and became Eleanor’s parents, so both Dangereuse and Philippa were her grandmothers.

On the death of her father, Eleanor became the duchess of Aquitaine, one of the largest and wealthiest realms in the kingdom of France. The teenager was wed almost immediately to King Louis VII of France, but the marriage was never happy. The beautiful, free-spirited granddaughter of William IX and Dangereuse was ill-suited for the plain, pious Louis. But she did have some grand adventures of Queen of France. She and her ladies-in-waiting, often dressed in full armor, shocked Europe when they joined the Second Crusade. Eleanor was furious with Louis’ refusal to heed her military advice, a strategy that many historians view as superior to Louis’ own disastrous path. The defeated Louis returned to France without his wife, who denounced him and appealed for an annulment to the marriage, which she received in 1152. Her vast estates in Aquitaine were returned to her.

Within a year of the annulment, Eleanor married the duke of Normandy, who soon became Henry II, King of England. She had eight children with Henry, including three sons who became kings. She was the mother of Richard the Lionheart and King John, the hapless villain of the Robin Hood tales. Eleanor supported her sons in revolt against their father, and for this he imprisoned her for 16 years. The 1968 film, The Lion in Winter, won Katherine Hepburn an Oscar for her portrayal of the formidable Eleanor.

Well, I could write all day about this incredible woman, but many others already have, in historical accounts and in fictionalized versions of her life., beginning with Shakespeare’s King John. Modern novels featuring Eleanor include Elizabeth Chadwick’s three-volume series.

Eleanor died in 1204 and was buried at Fontevrault Abbey near Chinon.

Fontevraud Abbey. By Pierre Mairé, PixAile.com – www.pixAile.com, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1356886

Eleanor’s home in Poitiers, le Palais de justice de Poitiers, can be visited today. One can also visit the cathedral where Eleanor attended services.

Not just Eleanor

A few other notes of interest from Poitou-Charentes:

  • Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne, defeated Muslim invaders from Spain at the Battle of Poitiers in 732.
  • Poitiers has been the home of many notables, including René Descartes, who studied law at the university, chef Joël Robuchon, and mystery novelist Georges Simenon.
  • The Acadian and Cajun populations of North America originated in Poitou.
  • The local dialect/language, Poitevin, has some interesting characteristics as a bridge between the langues d’oïl and the langues d’oc, and also to Acadian French.

Next week, we hope to resume our normal every-Monday schedule with a look at the gastronomy of Poitou-Charentes.

Wine and Food in the Loire Valley

First, apologies for the two-week delay in bringing you part two of the Centre-Val de Loire region. Real work forced this project to the sidelines. But now we can relax with a glass of very good wine.

This week’s video.

France is, by many assessments, the greatest wine producing country in the world, and the Loire Valley is one of its most lauded regions. It may not have quite the fame of Bordeaux or Burgundy, but that may have more to do with its diversity of viniculture. (No one says, “I’ll have a bottle of Loire.”)

This mind-boggling diversity makes me want to throw up my hands and acknowledge that the only possible way to get to know Loire wines is to go there for a very long time and tour the vineyards. Preferably on a bicycle. And there are many tour companies that will take you there.

I’m a wine drinker, not a wine expert. I’m still learning about wine, and I’ll undoubtedly say that 50 years from now, if I live that long. Is it possible to stop learning about wine? Just dipping one’s toe into this region of France makes the pleasurable task of wine exploration seem like a journey that will never end.

Wine is not a ladder to climb, as we’re so often taught. Not even close. Wine is a maze, a labyrinth, one we gladly enter, embracing the fact that we don’t know where it will take us and that we’ll never likely find our way out.

Jason Wilson, in Godforsaken Grapes: A Slightly Tipsy Journey Through the World of Strange, Obscure, and Underappreciated Wine

One area in which I do have expertise is research (former research director -not of anything wine-related, but skills are skills). And I can recommend an excellent, user-friendly and comprehensive guide in English to the wonders of Loire Valley grapes. If you want to learn more about wine, you will not regret bookmarking the Wine Folly site. The book is also nice to have on hand.

Now, shall we open a bottle and find something to eat with it?

Fortunately, my neighborhood wine shop – which specializes in French wines and is a mere two blocks walk from my house – has a nice selection from the Loire Valley. An entire shelving unit is devoted to the region, nearly the same amount of store real estate given to Burgundy.

The Loire Valley section at Bon Vin

This past weekend’s free tasting included this delicious sauvignon blanc, which came home with me.

Val de Loire Sauvignon Blanc

And one of my favorites at last week’s mega-testing was a red Loire Valley wine.

What might you eat with one of these excellent wines if you were in the Loire Valley. Recall that this region is known as “the garden of France.” Apple and pear orchards are plentiful, as well as market gardens. Hunting was the lure that drew the French aristocracy to the valley, and game is still on the menu.

I was intrigued by a recipe for eggs poached in an herbed red wine sauce, mostly because of its name. Oeufs à la couille d’âne translates to “eggs with donkey’s balls.” I can’t explain. It has something to do with the color of the finished dish. No donkey parts of any kind are present.

Another simple recipe featuring something cooked in an herb-infused liquid- this time milk – comes from Patricia Wells in her Bistro Cooking.

Enjoy!

Pommes de Terre Solognotes

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups milk
  • 1/2 cup minced fresh herbs (tarragon, thyme, parsley, chives)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 5 whole black peppercorns
  • 2 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 garlic clove, halved
  • 1/2 cup crème fraîche or heavy cream
  • 1 tsp fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dried
  • 1 cup freshly grated French or Swiss gruyère cheese

Directions:

1.Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. Combine the milk, the mixed herbs, bay leaves, and peppercorns in a saucepan. Cover and scald over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat and let steep, covered, for 10 minutes. Strain the milk into a large saucepan, discarding the herbs and peppercorns.
3. Add the potatoes to the strained milk. Cover and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste; set aside.
4. Rub the inside of an oval porcelain gratin dish with the garlic. Spoon the potato mixture into the dish. Dot with the crème fraîche and sprinkle with the thyme.
5. Bake until the gratin is golden, about 45 minutes. Remove the gratin dish from the oven, and sprinkle with the grated cheese. Return to the oven and bake until the top is very crisp and golden, about 15 more minutes. Serve immediately.

Pommes de terre solognotes

Centre-Val de Loire

Before you read our blog post, please take a moment to read this news about biodiversity. It’s far more important than anything we have to say.

This week and next, our pretend tour de France takes us to the Centre-Val de Loire region, otherwise known as the upper Loire Valley. This area southwest of Paris is the France of picture books and legends. And we are “visiting” at a significant anniversary.

This week’s video

Unlike many other regions, the Centre Val-de-Loire region is not a historic province;  it is, as its name perhaps implies, the heart of historic France, the area between the Paris region and the Loire valley that was for many centuries the centre of the kingdom of France – at times when the territory which is today known as France was divided among the kingdoms or duchies of Normandy, Burgundy, Aquitaine, Anjou and others less important. In this respect, the regions of the Centre and the Ile de France are France.

https://about-france.com/regions/region-centre.htm

This region nourished by the Loire River has been an important European center since at least the Roman era. Often called the “garden of France” for its lush agricultural lands that have yielded abundant crops as well as spectacular wines, the Loire Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Blois. By Wmeinhart (talk · contribs) – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=212108

Most of the region’s claim to fame was established during the Renaissance, when French kings brought their courts from Paris to get away from it all. Yeah, even back then that was a thing. The nobility and hangers-on who accompanied the court built elaborate chateaux, or castles, that make the Loire Valley one of France’s most popular destinations.

The Loire Valley has so many chateaux that you would probably need many years, if not a lifetime, to adequately visit them all. But if you want to try, right now is the perfect time to get started.

Just a few days ago, on May 2, Italian President Sergio Mattarella joined French President Emmanuel Macron in the Loire Valley to mark the 500th anniversary since the death of Leonardo da Vinci. The great Italian painter and inventor lived his last years in Amboise at the invitation of French king Francois I. He died and was buried there. Many events are planned in the region this year to celebrate 500 years since the Renaissance.

One of our favorite movies fictionalizes Leonardo’s time in France. Ever After, a somewhat feminist retelling of the Cinderella story starring Drew Barrymore, has Leonardo in the role of the fairy godmother. It was filmed in the Dordogne, not the Loire, and there is no historical evidence that Leonardo performed any matchmaking services while in France, but it is still a delightful film.

If you want to read a biography of the greatest of Renaissance men, Walter Isaacson’s best-selling Leonardo da Vinci is now in paperback.

Leonardo is one representative of French-Italian relations during the Renaissance. The women from the de Medici family of Florence who became French queens may have been the most significant members of that dynamic.

But did you know that Scottish history is also deeply interwoven with the French? One historian claims the Auld Alliance between the two countries may never have formally ended. Among the fruits of this alliance was the sheltering of the young Mary, Queen of Scots in the French court. If you enjoy historical fiction, I highly recommend the second book in Scottish author Dorothy Dunnett’s series known as the Lymond Chronicles, Queen’s Play. Much of the action takes place in the villages and chateaux (and once on the rooftops!) of the Loire Valley, where our hero has engaged in an elaborate intrigue to protect his child queen.

Another fruit of this connection involves whisky and wine, but we’ll get into that next week.

For now, enjoy these photos of some of the châteaux in the Loire Valley, courtesy of wiki commons.

  • Château d’Amboise. Exif_JPEG_PICTURE
  • Château de Usse, the “Sleeping Beauty Castle.” Ввласенко [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]
  • Château Chambord. Taxiarchos228 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)]
  • Château de Chenonceau. Ra-smit [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or GFDL (https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)]
  • Château de Sully-sur-Loire. CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1413225

Pays de la Loire, du vin

We began this virtual tour de France nearly three months ago, and for the first time on our journey, we have arrived in wine country.

That seems hard to believe considering the importance of French wine in the world market and, bien sûr, to the French. However, wine has not been commercially produced in every part of France, and the regions bordering the English Channel – the focus of our first three months – are those traditionally without a wine industry.

This week’s video.

The wine map of France is expanding, thanks to the European Union’s liberalization of French rules that previously restricted where vines could be planted. Still, the regions with wines likely to be exported and available in your local wine shop are those from the prominent regions, with Champagne being the most northern of those.

French_vineyards.svg: *France_blank.svg: Eric Gaba (Sting – fr:Sting)derivative work: Sdaubert (talk)derivative work: Furfur [CC BY-SA 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)]

The Loire Valley is the area in neon green on the map above, and it happens to produce some of the best wine in France. With dozens of appellations (legally defined wine-growing areas), the Loire Valley is one of France’s largest and most varied wine-production regions. Diverse styles of white wine dominate, but excellent reds – particularly from the cabernet franc grape – are produced as well. Other grapes grown in the area include cabernet sauvignon, chenin blanc, chardonnay, and sauvignon blanc.

DalGobboM¿!i? [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Link to the map above, for zooming in.

This is a big region covering two stops on our tour de France. This week, we’re in the Pays de la Loire, the lower river valley closest to the Atlantic Ocean. I wanted to try a wine from Saumur, mostly because I’m a book nerd and I previously read Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet, which was set in Saumur. As it turned out, the wine I purchased was an excellent accompaniment for the fish I prepared to celebrate the Pays de Loire.

First up, the main course, or le plat principal. I wanted to highlight beurre blanc sauce, which is a butter sauce invented about a century ago by a chef near Nantes and is now a classic of French cuisine. I baked some whitefish in foil to serve as a base for the sauce. The wine’s acidity was the proper contrast with the richness of the butter. It was as if the wine and the sauce were made to go together, and perhaps they were! This is why we often choose a wine from the same region as the food.

Many, many variations of beurre blanc sauce exist, with recipes readily available on the internet. We are a household of three adults, so the following recipe – which I adapted from numerous sources – was just right, although it was so delicious we all could have stuffed ourselves senseless with it.

Poisson au beurre blanc

  • 4 to 8 oz filets of whitefish per person
  • olive oil
  • sprigs of fresh herbs, such as rosemary
  • salt and pepper
  • foil or parchment paper
  • 2 tsp minced shallots
  • 1/4 cup white wine (I used the Saumur)
  • 1 stick butter, chopped into about 1-inch cubes
  • 1-2 Tbsp heavy cream
Beure blanc with some slightly overcooked shallots

Prepare all of your ingredients – mise en place (everything in its place). Heat the oven to 425F. Place each filet on a piece of foil large enough to fold into a packet. Brush or rub each piece of fish with olive oil, salt and pepper and a tablespoon or more of fresh herbs. Fold the foil or parchment over the fish and crimp the edges to seal, then place on a cookie sheet or roasting pan and bake for about 15 minutes. If it finishes before the sauce, keep it warm in the foil until ready to serve.

While the fish is baking, heat a little oil in a saucepan, low to medium heat, just enough to cook the shallots. Try not to let them brown too much, but if you get distracted like I did and nearly let them burn, don’t panic – the sauce will still be good. It has butter and wine in it, after all.

Add the wine to the shallots and let it cook down until almost completely evaporated. At this point, add the cream and cook a little more. Let it get thick but do not boil. Now turn off the heat and start whisking or stirring in the butter, little by little. You can put the pan back on the heat to help the butter, but you want to keep the sauce under 130F. Finally, add salt and pepper to taste, then enjoy over the fish.

Russian Salad coming together

Russian Salad

To accompany the fish, I made a salad that is definitely not traditional for France. But with all the references to Russia along the banks of the Loire from last week’s video, I felt inspired to make one of my favorite salads.

Again, many versions of this Russian salad are available. I used this one, with a bag of frozen peas (cooked in the microwave) instead of the canned.

And the finished meal is below. Trust me, it tastes much better than it looks. My food photography needs improvement.

Pays de la Loire

So, when we were planning this project of a year-long “visit” to all of the regions of France, we first had to define our regions. Would we use the administrative regions that have existed since 2016, or the regions from 1982 to 2016, or even the historic provinces? Ultimately, thinking of the project in culinary terms, we decided on a blend that made sense to us and worked for our schedule.

Some of our regions are old school, some are cultural and some – like Pays de la Loire -reflect the current administrative boundaries.

This region, along with the Centre-Val de Loire, is called the “Garden of France” and probably is most famous for its fabulous chateaux. During the Renaissance, the French royal court shifted to the Loire Valley, where kings and wealthy courtiers constructed these elaborate palaces that are now among the top tourist attractions in France.

Château de Saumur in Saumur, France. CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=375340

Last year, when we were planning a real visit to France, a cycling trip to the Loire Valley had been on our agenda. Then April in Michigan happened (more blizzards) and we decided to go as far south in France as possible, so most of our 2018 trip was spent along the Mediterranean. Cycling the Loire Valley remains an unrealized goal, and one we hope to accomplish on our next visit.

The most visited Loire chateaux are in the Centre-Val de Loire region, so we’ll take up this topic again when we “go” there in two weeks.

Meanwhile, the Pays de la Loire offers a transition from last week’s visit to Bretagne (Brittany) because part of it is historically and culturally Breton.

This week’s video

The capital of the region and the sixth-largest city in France, Nantes is culturally and historically part of Brittany. The Dukes of Brittany made it their primary residence, and their castle is one of the top attractions of the city.

By ChateauDesDucsDeBretagne20090906.jpeg: Plindenbaumderivative work: Paravane (talk) – ChateauDesDucsDeBretagne20090906.jpeg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15897849

Nantes was a major port for the slave trade in the 18th century. A meditative public park commemorates the victims of this disturbing time in French history and also highlights ongoing global struggles against slavery.

Nantes is now considered one of the best cities in France for quality of life, and a particularly appealing destination for a family vacation with kids, although it is in no danger of eclipsing Disneyland Paris (seriously, on our Paris-Dublin flights last year, every kid on board was either going to or coming from Disneyland).

Jules Verne was born in Nantes, and city pays homage to the pioneering novelist with an amusement park inspired by his adventure stories. Les Machines de L’Île looks like fun for kids of all ages. Who wouldn’t want to take a ride in a mechanical elephant or a giant bug on a carousel?

Duch [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Sailing upriver from Nantes (and a river barge trip is a popular way to see the Loire, with many operators offering excursions), you will find a unique, quirky and nearly unknown attraction on the isle of Chalonnes-sur-Loire. Le Lenin Cafe is a museum to the Soviet founder and a celebration of revolutionary ideals. The establishment offers food, music and accommodations in accordance with its principles of resistant tourism. There is no information in English on this place.

Continuing on upstream, we come to another area of historical importance. Angers was the original seat of the Plantagenet dynasty that ruled England and parts of France for three centuries. Again, I’ll recommend  historian Dan Jones’ fascinating book The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England.  We will continue to meet up with them in our tour.

Château d’Angers.

At the eastern edge of the region, we come to the large and important village of Saumur. Its wine trade provided the setting for Honoré de Balzac’s novel Eugénie Grandet, an excellent novel (albeit hard to find in print) capturing provincial life in early 19th century France.

Saumur brings us (finally!) deep into a French wine-growing region, which we’ll explore next week in the culinary edition.

Crêpes and cake in Brittany

We’ve been traveling the past two weeks, although not in France. We’ve been enjoying le printemps (spring) in Caroline du Nord (North Carolina). We’re planning a special edition of this blog and our video channel later this week to highlight Francophone finds in the Triangle region of North Carolina.

Today, we discover what we might eat if we were in Bretagne (Brittany).

Almost certainly, we would eat something from the sea. With its extensive coastline, fishing has long been a mainstay of the regional economy. Seafood platters dominate restaurant menus. We once watched an episode of No Reservations in which Anthony Bourdain consumed a colossal tower of shellfish.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t replicate that experience.

Instead, we bring you another iconic contribution to world cuisine from Brittany: the crêpe. These thin pancakes are ubiquitous throughout France and, increasingly, the world. My own neighborhood in northern Michigan has an excellent crêperie operated by the genial Vanessa, une femme française who settled in Traverse City.

In Brittany, savory crêpes – called galettes – are made with buckwheat flour. We used this recipe for the traditional galette complete, which is a crêpe with ham, cheese and egg.

Galette complete.

We also made a Far Breton, which is a custard-like cake similar to flan. We made the pirates’ version using a recipe from Let’s Eat France, our new favorite food book.

The Privateer’s Far Breton

adapted from a recipe by Thierry Breton in Let’s Eat France

  • 2.25 cups (220 g) all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp (175 g) sugar
  • 1 tsp (6 g) sea salt
  • 5 eggs
  • 4.25 cups (1 L) whole milk
  • 1 cup plus 1 tbsp (250g) heavy cream
  • 1 tbsp rum or armagnac
  • seeds of 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • about 2 cups of soft prunes
  • 1 tbsp plus 2 tsp (25 g) butter, for greasing the pan

Chop the prunes coarsely and soak in the rum or armagnac for as long as you want. Preheat the oven to 475F (250C). Grease and flour two 8″ round cake pans or a 9×13 baking dish, or better yet, line the baking dish with parchment paper and grease the paper. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, eggs, milk, cream and vanilla. Distribute the soaked prunes in the bottom of the pan or pans. Pour the batter over the prunes. Bake for 20 minutes, turn the oven off, then let the cake rest in the oven for another 30 minutes. Cool before serving. Dust with powdered sugar.

To see more, check out this week’s video.

À la semaine prochaine !

Degemer mat à Bretagne

That was Brançais. (Breton + French, I’m coining the term.) It means welcome to Brittany!

Brittany (Bretagne in French, Breizh in Breton) may be the least French region of France. The Celtic history of this northwestern peninsula has left a unique and fascinating legacy of culture and language, albeit endangered in modern times.

Human ancestors have lived in Brittany since the Stone Age. Many prehistoric sites can be visited today, including the Carnac stones.

Carnac stones. Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Prior to the Roman conquest of Gaul, the area that is now Brittany was inhabited by five Celtic tribes. This population, largely rural, retained its culture during the Roman era. Later, near the end of the 4th century, Celtic peoples from Wales and the southwest of England migrated to the region. It is from this migration that the region derives its name.

For more on the history of Brittany, Encyclopedia Brittanica has a nice overview, and of course, Wikipedia.

Pointe du Raz. S.Möller [Public domain]

By French standards, Brittany is a rugged, out-of-the-way destination. It’s off the beaten path for tourists as well, and that’s the tourists’ loss. Brittany has natural and cultural attractions that make for a great vacation or permanent residence. With a third of France’s coastline, many marine animals and birds can be seen along the shore and the hundreds of islands off the mainland. Inland, the land is forested, hilly and characterized by small villages, often highly picturesque. The principal cities are Nantes and Rennes, the latter of which has been listed as the best city in France for foreigners to live.

Dol-de-Bretagne. Schorle [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)]

Language

As discussed in this week’s video, Brittany has a Celtic native language, although it is in rapid decline. Efforts are underway to revive Breton, but today’s speakers are almost all elderly. Still, if you travel to Brittany, you may see a few road signs in Breton.

Books

The ancient walled town of Saint Malo is Brittany’s most-visited attraction. It is also the setting for one of my favorite novels -indeed, a favorite novel of many readers – the Pulitzer-Prize winning All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Set during World War II, this moving story of two teenagers caught in war on opposite sides is one I highly recommend.

And, if you are at all tempted to visit or relocate to Brittany, pick up the charming memoir I’ll Never Be French by Mark Greenside, a New Yorker who moved to Brittany with his girlfriend. She left, he stayed, and he recounts his experiences integrating into a Breton village. He is grateful for the warmth and generosity of his neighbors, who welcome him and rescue him from numerous mishaps.

Finally, Honoré de Balzac set one of his novels in Brittany. Les Chouans is out of print in English, but you can find it for online to download for free.

Our video this week, with a special guest.

Next week, we’ll take a look at some of the food of Brittany. There will be crêpes!

La cuisine de Basse-Normandie

I thought about titling this post, “Just add Calvados.” That delicious apple brandy from Normandy is included in nearly every dish I have to share with you today – main course, dessert, even the coffee.

If you are unfamiliar with this beverage, you’re not alone. It’s not popular in the United States and it can be hard to find except at well-stocked liquor stores. A note for those in northern Michigan: an excellent locally-produced apple brandy can be purchased at Black Star Farms’ tasting room.

Despite the elusiveness, I’ve rarely been without a bottle of Calvados in my pantry since college days, and I can credit that to the chunky apple walnut cake recipe in The Silver Palate Cookbook, which was my first acquisition in a cookery book collection that now numbers in three figures. My husband requests that cake every fall, and having once made it without the shot of Calvados, I can verify that this magical ingredient is worth tracking down.

Cows grazing among the apple trees of Normandy. Philippe Alès [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

Calvados is an area of lower Normandy that takes its name from a cluster of rocks off the shore in the English Channel. The famous Camembert cheese also originates from lower Normandy. However, I did not pair these two classics for my dinner à la normande, mostly because I just missed closing time at my local cheese shop and was unable to get any Camembert.

Still, I have a great collection of recipes to share with you, starting with a rye bread that does not include Calvados (although I suppose it could be substituted for the hard cider.)

This week’s video.

For the Normandy Cider Rye, I used this recipe from The Rye Baker. I found a similar recipe from La Brea Bakery. If you have a digital kitchen scale – and if you bake, you really should – use the metric measurements, which for Greenberg’s recipe has 650 g rye flour, 260 g all-purpose flour, and 650 g hard apple cider.

Our main course came from another favorite cookbook, Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table. Her Chicken Normandy has been a weeknight standby in my house for years. I even included it for a class I taught at Oryana several years ago on cooking with apples.

Chicken à la Normande (adapted)

  • all-purpose flour (for dredging)
  • 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves or equivalent chicken thighs
  • 1-2 Tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1-inch chunks
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 8 oz sliced mushrooms
  • 1/3 c. chicken broth or green tea
  • 2 Tbsp Calvados
  • 2/3 c. heavy cream

Note: When a recipe has a small amount of broth, I often use leftover or second-brew tea instead, just because I have it handy.

Chicken à la normande, with a kale salad.
  1. Put some flour on a plate and season it with salt and pepper.
  2. Pat the chicken pieces dry and dredge them in the flour on both sides, shaking off excess.
  3. Put a large deep skillet over medium heat and add 1 Tbsp each of butter and oil. When the butter is melted, add the chicken. Cook for 3 minutes, turn and cook on other side for 3 minutes more.
  4. Add more butter or oil if the pan is getting dry, then toss in the apple, onion and mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and stir to coat with the oil and butter. Cook for 1 minute then add the broth. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the chicken is almost cooked through.
  5. Turn the heat up again, pour in the apple brandy, and boil until it’s evaporated, about 1 minute. Add the cream and cook until the cream reduces by about one quarter. Taste for salt and pepper. 

I served the chicken with a kale salad, which I’m certain is not typical of Norman cuisine, but it worked well.

Wine note: an oaky chardonnay paired nicely with this dish. I opened a bottle, poured a glass, immediately regretted it because I wasn’t yearning for that taste, but then felt like a genius when I sipped it with the chicken.

And now, the Norman hole, or le trou normand. I had never heard of this delightful concoction until I researched the cuisine of the region, yet I suspect it will become a mainstay in my kitchen. It is a shot of Calvados on top of green apple sorbet, and in Normandy it it typically served between courses to aid digestion. I can’t say for certain that it helps for that, although it certainly didn’t hurt. It’s light, refreshing and also a nice ending for a meal. Unfortunately, commercial green apple sorbet is not readily available in most U.S. grocery markets, so I made my own, blending directions from numerous recipes in English and French.

Green Apple Sorbet

  • 4 Granny Smith apples
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 200 g sugar
  • 200 g water
  1. Thinly slice the apples, discarding the cores. Toss with the lemon juice and freeze overnight.
  2. The next day, make a simple syrup by boiling the water and sugar together until it dissolves. Pour this over the apples and whiz in the blender until smooth.
  3. Chill for a couple of hours and then add to your ice cream maker. Alternatively, you could use the freeze-stir method.

Finally, what would a Normandy meal be without an apple tart? I used a recipe from my new favorite food book, Let’s Eat France!

Tarte normande

  • 8 oz sheet all-butter puff pastry
  • 2.25 lbs apples
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 8 oz (or 1.25 cups) crème fraîche
  • 3 generous Tbsp Calvados
  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Line a pan with puff pastry; do not grease the pan.
  3. Slice the apples into medium-thick wedges, then sprinkle them with the lemon juice.
  4. Arrange the apple slices on top of the dough, placing them snugly against each other so they almost overlap. (Or just throw them in randomly; it will still be good).
  5. In a bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together until lightened. Whisk in the crème fraîche, then stir in the Calvados. Pour this mixture over the apples.
  6. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the top is golden.

I made a rectangular version because I used store-bought puff pastry and I didn’t want to cut it.

In true Norman fashion, you could serve the tart with a café-calva, which (do I even need to say it?) is coffee with a shot of Calvados. The café-calva is not a taste I loved on its own, but it was surprisingly delicious with the tart. The French really do know something about food and drink, n’est ce pas vrai?

Next week, our tour takes us to Brittany, the Celtic region of France.

À la prochaine semaine !

Basse-Normandie, Invasions

Aside from Paris, one of the most popular destinations for American visitors to France is the coast of Normandy. The sites of the D-Day landings in World War II call to those who want to honor the soldiers whose sacrifices marked the beginning of the end of the war in Europe, and those beaches and related monuments also are a draw for general students of history.

The Allied invasion of 1944 was one of the most significant military campaigns in history, but it was not the first Norman invasion that changed the world. That distinction belongs to the invasion of 1066 that was launched from Normandy across the channel to England.

The Norman conquest of England, nearly a millennium ago, isn’t just ancient history. Its legacy can be found through every subsequent century and even in our language.

For three centuries after the conquest, England was basically ruled by the French. The Anglo-Norman dynasties that followed William’s conquest conducted government business in Norman French and maintained their continental holdings and interests. Some of these rulers spent very little time in England. If you want to learn more about this time period, I can highly recommend historian Dan Jones’ fascinating book The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England. Incidentally, my favorite Plantagenet is Eleanor of Aquitaine, and we’ll visit with her when we get to southwestern France.

After the Plantagenet dynasty passed on English rule to the Tudors, France and England remained almost perpetually locked in conflict. Even today, British-French relations can be strained as the United Kingdom prepares to leave the European Union. (That link is such a fascinating read on the current state of affairs that I must link it again!)

And there may be no better region to contemplate the past 1,000 years of Anglo-French history, or its future, than in Basse-Normandie. When we eventually visit, we might start in Bayeux to view the famous tapestry depicting the Norman conquest.

Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux [Public domain]

The D-Day beaches, where Allied forces landed to liberate France from the Germans, are nearby, as well as graveyards, museums and memorials for the fallen soldiers.

Unrelated to any of these wars is another of Normandy’s top attractions: the island monastery of Mont-Saint-Michel, where visitors can learn about learning in medieval times while enjoying stunning views.

Antoine Lamielle [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

One of the best locations to experience the remnants of traditional Norman culture and various dialects of the Norman language, as well as explore the peculiarities of Anglo-French relations, may be the Channel Islands.

These islands, technically the last survivors of the ancient Duchy of Normandy, are basically independent entities, although they receive protection from the United Kingdom. They were the only British territories to be occupied by the Germans during World War II. A terrific novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, explores this time period and its aftermath. A film version is available for streaming on Netflix.

John Rostron [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

Back on the mainland, another destination for nature lovers is the area south of Caen known as La Suisse Normande for hiking, canoeing and scenic villages.

Osbern [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

And speaking of villages, I’m so enchanted by the photos of the quintessential Norman village of Beauvron-en-Auge that I want to go directly to the real estate listings!

Tango7174 [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

It’s right in the heart of Calvados and camembert country, which is a perfect teaser for next week’s armchair travel segment, the food and drink of Basse-Normandie.

À bientôt !