Kate Hill: My Kitchen at Camont

Come over to my house- Camont.com

2010-08-09T07:26:00.000+01:00

It's been a year since our new site and blog replaced my starter blog here. Now with the addition of yet another upgrade I invite you to jump over to www.kitchen-at-camont.com for the new improved version of Kate's Blog and a look at what we are doing now in my Gascon Kitchen.

Need a little incentive to take an extra minute? how's this? a Seed-to-Sausage video by darling video peeps Denise and Lenny of www.chezus.com . Welcome to my new Artisan Butchery & Charcuterie workshops with the Chapolard family. First program begins Sept 20 2010. For more information after watching the video- click on our programs HERE.

moving house...

2009-08-04T16:15:00.004+01:00

...from Blogger to a new all-in-one site at

www.Kitchen-at-Camont.com

Like the gitane that I am, I am now writing from my mobile summer office (see above) within earshot of Henri IV (that's the big black Gascon rooster) in the potager. For all my blog friends and French Kitchen alumni, please keep an eye on this new site for changes and additions as we set up the new Kitchen-at-Camont programs for l'Autome '09 and l'Hiver '10: Pigs-in-the-Kitchen and Ducks-under-Glass.

(merci tout le monde a Blogspot !)

Kate Hill & French friends

Julia, Julie, Michael and me. My un-review.

2009-07-31T12:40:00.007+01:00

Food Guru Michael Pollan throws out some thought provoking words, a lot of the them, in his NY Times article dedicated to Julia & Julie, food TV and... why Americans in love with food don't really cook.

Meryl Streep, Julia Child and fellow food bloggers aside, I couldn't help but get caught on a few words that struck me so personally and timely that I had to jump ahead of the movie review (which doesn't come out until September here anyway, dubbed in French, of course) and get straight to the Pollan-ization.

Like preaching to the choir whose mouths are full, I was mumbling "Amen" and singing "Hallelujah!" until I got to the end of the article. Pollan uses food marketing researcher Harry Balzer for a bushel full of figures. But when Balzer announces that Americans will never go back to real cooking I took up arms. Balzer says “Why? Because we’re basically cheap and lazy. And besides, the skills are already lost. Who is going to teach the next generation to cook? I don’t see it."

Sorry Harry. WRONG! While many of you are going to sit in a darkened theatre for 123 minutes and watch mouth-watering food porn while munching junk food, I am going to be cooking. I am going to be cooking everyday because I eat everyday. I'll be cooking from my garden, the markets of Gascony, and even from supermarkets and the corner grocery store. If you all spend 123 minutes cooking dinner for yourself, family or a few friends, we could prove Mr. Balzer wrong.

Cheap? The average movie ticket price in 1963, the year that Julia Child appeared on PBS, was 86 cents. This year it is $7.18. I know I can cook my dinner for this much money even translated into Euros.

Lazy? I don't know about you, but even here in back-of-beyond southwest France, to go see 'Julia & Julie' when it comes to France I'll have to: a) drive into Agen b) find parking for the car c) walk to the cinema d) stand in line ( about 1 hour) e) walk up three flights of stairs to the salle de cinema, watch the movie f) chew the French version of Popcorn (yes, with sugar on it) g) have a drink at the cafe afterwards, and then repeat steps a-e before returning home to Camont. That's somewhere between 4 and 5 hours. Balzer, in way less than 123 minutes I can easily cook a a decent dinner. In 4-5 hours, I definitely can cook a bang-up not-so-lazy 4-course dinner for friends.

Lost Skills? Ok, I am not a X-generation (or any other letter that follows) but I have played host (or Auntie Kate) for 20 years to many cooks much younger than me. They can cook. They can cut, chop, saute and grill with the best of the old school cooks that I know. There is just one common flaw, even in those in-debt graduates of Prestigious Culinary Institutes, a serious flaw. They know little, very little about food. If it's not shrink wrapped, labeled or in a refrigerated walk-in these otherwise talented cooks are lost. They buy out of season fruit, immature and industrially raised poultry, and otherwise flounder on the shores of real food islands so close at hand. Thankfully Pollan touches on it's cure here "Cooking’s fate may be to join some of our other weekend exercises in recreational atavism: camping and gardening and hunting and riding on horseback."

I was no better then my students and interns when I came to this France of mine in 1988. But I learned. Not overnight, but slowly and at the hands of caring people- neighbors, farmers, and market vendors. A wildly fertile, diverse agricultural landscape fringed with wild as well as cultivated food surrounds the Kitchen-at-Camont. Buckets of pea-sized blackberries are ripening along the canal towpath. The neighbors are tending a lace-net draped apple orchard that will yield several tarte tatins this fall. Too many tomatoes are turning red, yellow and green in our own organic potager. Fresh eggs in the hen boxes appear with much clucking and boasting every afternoon as I check the growth of two new chicks and the swimming skills of ducklings #1,2 & 3. I must wait for the green gage plums- the real Reine-Claudes, to ripen more before the birds peck my share.

Planting the gardens at Camont taught me as much about waste as it did cooking. I cook more economically now that I grow, harvest and weed these abundant summer harvests. I learned to can and preserve this seasonal bounty. The piggery pantry is lined with this years glass-encased jewels already. And fortunately, our weekly farmers' markets are year-round all over France. After shopping at producers' markets for 20 years, I know my butchers, bakers, etc... I invite them home, sit down with them at my table , and serve them the good food that they have dug from the French dirt. We talk about how it all works- from the past to the future.

Who is going to teach the next generation to cook?

I am. And friends like me who love good food and are willing to share. For twenty years I have cooked, served, taught and written about the food I found in southwest France. There are people like me teaching cooking all over the globe. You can read about some of them here. My colleagues and friends are as passionate about cooking in Italy, Mexico, New Zealand and Thailand as I am about Gascony. But for everyone of these teachers there must be students. That is your job.

The Kitchen-at-Camont.com

Camont is the gift that fate gave me. A place to learn about food... in France. I share this gift with you- a place to learn about food, both in person here in Gascony and now at my new blog site- www.kitchen-at-camont.com .* Come discover, reconnect and learn to work with food in a creative rural setting in France. there are some new economic programs including residencies and fellowships beginning Fall '09 and next summer we set up Camp Camont under the singing trees.

And for those of you seeking much more than a 123 minutes of food inspiration, do what Julia did.. get off the couch and come to France!

*While we are still tweeking, adjusting and getting the photographs in place, please be patient. This blog will eventually transfer automatically to the kitchen-at-camont soon.

Piment d'Espelette- Potager Pinup #1

2009-07-30T15:06:00.004+01:00

Piment d'Espelette

The first hot pepper from the
potager announces Summer
in the
Kitchen at Camont.

3 easy things to make with Piment d'Espelette

Tomato chili jam- sweet, hot and great with anything.
Pâté de Campagne- Basque style with a pinch of dried piment.
Kate's grown-up hot chocolate- just add a sliver of pepper & a slug of armagnac.

First Honey Love

2009-07-27T10:49:00.007+01:00

A pale blue beehive sits under the a William pear tree, a memorial to the May evening when a wild swarm arrived and asked to stay here at Camont, then surrounded by dozens of acacia trees in snowy bloom. "Bien sur!" I responded (that means "right on!" in French) and so Marc and I moved the virgin hive under the swarm on the branch, a small pear dangling like an earring. After a glass of rosé wine and watching a few Google-driven You Tubes, especially by my newbee hero, Kirkobeeo, at Backwards Beekeeping, I clipped the branch, grabbed a stick and scraped the swarm into the waiting hive. I left the hive sitting under the pear tree in the orchard amongst the chickens and ducks.

Last week I found a smoker, un enfumoir, at my favorite brocante. Today I got up the courage to lift the lid on the hive and take a long careful smoky peek. Eureka!!!

Gold.
Pure sweet gold.
Je vous aimez, mes amis les abeilles!

After a first finger licking taste, I was hooked. Captain Nick and I feasted on honey and bread for breakfast and the sweet knowledge that my bee longing had come to fruition. Sometimes, learning in the Kitchen at Camont takes place outside the building. Think outside that stone wall box and harvest your own food!

The next 'Charcuterie & Confit' sessions in the Kitchen at Camont begin in Mid-October. Write for further information.

2009-07-21T17:24:00.003+01:00

it's a long process. one step at a time.
shelling peas.
planting beans.
harvesting ideas.
making changes.

day to day life in the Kitchen at Camont is like shelling those French peas.
one day at a time.
one thought.
one action.

This day, this very hot windy summer day in Gascony, we are planting a new garden of ideas for you. Here at the French Kitchen, the Kitchen at Camont, we are drinking iced l'O Rosey- rose syrup over crushed ice while

writing new programs for fall, and celebrating those long days when the tomatoes ripen redder, the peppers get hotter and the ideas flow faster.

Coming soon. The Kitchen at Camont- a center for creative culinary learning.
In France, of course.

Detroit Rose

A large bunch of fresh deep red rose petals (organically grown, of course)
500 grams of sugar
1 liter of water
1 large lemon- squeezed
a generous shot of eau de vie de armagnac

Heat the rose petals, sugar and water in a pan until just simmering and the sugar melts into a light syrup. Let sit while you read a book. (The Poisonwood Bible be Barbara Kingsolver is on the bed where I nap.)
Strain the petals from the liquid, add the lemon juice and eau-de-vie.
Pour into a carafe and store in the refrigerator until needed on a very sultry French day.
Pour over crushed ice, add a shot of water.
Drink and be grateful you planted those roses 4 years ago... and remembered to water them.

charcuterie news

2009-07-14T16:59:00.003+01:00

Summer + pigs = too much fun.
Some people are wondering what I am doing. Too much.
Some people know that when it gets quiet here, I am busy making magic happen.
This summer the magic is happening with the help of a gang from Portland OR and Philly PA.
Call it summer school, call it Camp France. I am the Camp director, Bacon is the mascot.
The souvenirs will be stuffed into sausage casings, cured in salt and processed in a water bath. The larder is filling. The centuries old kitchen information is being passed butcher's hand to butcher's hand. Ask Jonathan, Camas and Bill.

The spring/summer '09 session of the Kitchen at Camont now winds down for a "too hot to cook break" after a last week of porkout extravaganza. I am working on the official charcuterie workbook for the new Kitchen at Camont fellowships. So for a look at what's been happening here I am sending you over to the Kitchen Camper blogs.

Camas Davis spent her 5 weeks studying at Camont working with the Chapolards in the butchery room on their farm and selling L'Art du Cochon products at the Nerac Saturday market. Her thoughts on living close to the blood & bone in Gascony are at http://ladebrouillard.com/.
There are more of her great photos at her facebook album...

Jonathan Kraska, resident chef and dog trainer, wielded knife and saw, pots, pans and garden tools for 12 weeks here at the Kitchen at Camont, at the Chapolard's pig farm and while wooing the French shoppers at the Lavardac market with his parlez-vous American...
Bill Reeves arrived last week for 4 weeks, a first week as we finished up the Charcuterie 101 weeks and the next three at the Ferme de Boue as their first American stagiere. Follow Bill's first look at Gascony through a bacon crusted lens...at http://cuttingboarder.blogspot.com/

As for me? The summer p'tanque parties keep popping up with delicious distraction and there will be more news to come while preparing the first fall/winter sessions of the Kitchen at Camont, a culinary retreat in Gascony.

Bonnes Vacances!

You are invited to a French Pig Roast Picnic- 4th of July.

2009-06-30T17:42:00.002+01:00

French Summer.
Sunny and hot.
Haricots verts and Swiss chard from the potager for dinner greens.
A dozen hens laying deep yellow-yolked eggs for deviled eggs.
The first red tomatoes on the vine.
Sounds like a picnic to me.

A French Pig from the Chapolard's, a cochon to spit roast over an open fire:

crispy cracklins and succulent ham meat,
falling off the shoulder bone for pull apart figgy bbq sandwiches.
mouth smacking ribs dipped in sweet fiery fish sauce

Bring the side dishes- American inspired, French execution:

Walnut and white wine potato salad
Summer cabbage coleslaw with red wine vinegar
white peach shortcake with creme fraiche

Y'all come over for an afternoon of good eats and cold rose wine, iced beer, Chinese lanterns and loud music. rsvp.

photo by carnivore TC at www.TimClinchphotography.net.

French Easter Baskets...au marche!

2009-04-07T18:49:00.005+01:00

Now that we ALL know that 'plastic or paper' is so passé, I took a look at my Saturday morning market with a fresh Spring eye. From the ubiquitous reed panier woven in Morocco to the classic canvas trolley that les grande dames wield with stunning accuracy across vulnerable toes, here are just a sample of a few of my favorites filled to the brim with fresh spring vegetables and the hint of a French Easter Brunch under the just blooming wisteria vine.

The first strawberries, asparagus, & artichauts arrive to join
a leg of lamb in a Spring celebration of all that's new and colorful.

Try to make your next shopping expedition just a little more green and...
colorful!

Breaking ground for NEW French Kitchen Adventures

2009-02-19T13:17:00.003+01:00

When My Friend David Aman from New Orleans, showed up for a visit in the summer, this is what we talked about... for more of David's wonderful video docs click here!

Confit de Canard. Duck Confit...part 3- 7 French Tips

2009-02-10T09:10:00.007+01:00

Time Warp Portal

Behind this door lies the secret of several generations of French cooking lore and savoir-faire. How fitting that my friend Greg Orr neither knocked nor rang the sonnette, but boldly walked in thorugh the heavy tapestry curtains and called out "Catou! France! We're here!" And so we were, here at the Chateau de Gayrac for a Fat Duck weekend with les Soeurs Mazet. But in which century?

Catou and France weave a magic spell over all who enter their treasure house domain, whether they arrive to scout the antiques and brocante at the barn and stable shops or come in friendship to share their convivial hospitality at the oversized kitchen table. Today, a small band of visitors and local residents descended to 'help' in their annual fat duck weekend and I came as part reproter, part culinary spy, eager student and grateful guest.

I reveled in being in company with gastro-friends and these timeless cooks. We were just seven of us, wearing wonderful homemade butchers' aprons to butcher, trim and cook the seven fatted ducks supplied by a neighbor. But I knew I was in the presence of generations of excellence in this kitchen: a butcher father, a frugal grand-mere, a great-grandfather who was a chef in a renowned Paris restaurant. The room was crowded with history and kitchen lore as if these smoky yellow walls who had witnessed centuries of recipes and trucs or tips were inspiring us.

Catou demonstrated her sure hand, warned us not to sacrifice the foie gras, and made the rounds of the table conjoling, correcting and scolding us in turn. We took our work seriously. After all, this would be their food for the year. Instructions were delivered brief, fast and with barely a heartbeat between breaking down the neck, breasts, legs, wings before 'birthing' the ivory firm liver each weighing in just under a pound. Hearts, gesiers or gizzards all got salted and added to the growing pile of meat. The carcasses themselves were quartered as we fought, caressed, and jointed the 15-pound birds with knives, secateurs and bare hands.

Leaving the meat to rest overnight in a cold pantry under a veil of delicate salt and wrapped in a pristine linen sheet, we retired to Greg's own medieval Manoir d'Orr in Lauzerte for a Saturday supper of sweet potato soup, Boeuf Caducienne cooked slowly in Cahor's delicious black wine, a pair of perfect cheeses and a perfect pear almond tart.

Saturday morning we returned to Chateau de Gayrac just as the fat and trimmings from yesterday were put over a very slow flame. From my notes:

11:00- fat trimmings and half glass of water go into a large aluminum caldron over a very low flame protected by a cast iron hob.
11;15- the duck legs are added 4 at a time to the barely melting fat so that they, too, can render their fat to the cauldron. They are placed upside down into the pan so that the fat forms an insulative cushion from the heat.
11;40- all the legs are now in the pan and slowly cooking over the lowest heat...it's not even simmering.
11:45- the manchons or wings are now added.

STIR CONTINUALLY lifting the meat off the bottom so it doesn't stick.

12:00- add gesiers or gizzards
12:15- seven hearts are added
12:30- the fat is only just now starting to simmer
12:45- begin to add the carcasses cut into quarters along with the wing tips
1:00- stir, stir, stir
1:15- begin to remove the legs if done and drain
1:30- continue to cook and stir all pieces until completely cooked.

The confit, once drained, is then placed into aluminum freezer boxes and stored in the freezer. Catou uses a pair fo garden shears or secateurs to snap the knob end of the bone off the leg. This makes it a tidier package not just for storing but for serving as well. The legs are then covered in fat, cooled and then set in the freezer. Freezing the confit in its fat makes a very quick and easy alternative to sterilizing and canning and one that adapts well from this medieval chateau kitchen to your modern apartment.

So what did I learn working with these experts in their own French kitchen?

Seven things I learned to share with you:

SLOW and even slower then I ever cook, the confit barely simmers for over 2 hours which results in a much more tender confit right away.
STIR continually not just so the meat or skin doesn't stick to the bottom but to also help regulate the heat so all pieces are cooked evenly.
CLIP the knob end of the leg bone off with a garden shears before storing.
SALT the carcasses, too, after cutting into quarters and then confit. Eat the meat off the bone with the help of a little paring knife to scarpe off all the good bits. these flavorful quarters can also be added to soups, bean and lentille vertes.
COOK the hearts and gesiers together, not forgetting to trim the gesiers of the scaly yellow tough skin on the inside surface.
SOAK the foie gras in salted cold water to which a couple of tablespoons of vinegar as been added.
SHARE this knowledge, these trucs, the traditions and table willingly. Preserve the information, make better cooks and educate a hungry audience for your own French Kitchen Table.

and from all of us...

Merci Sept Foie... Catou et France!

Confit de Canard. Duck Confit. Part 2- like meat loves salt.

2009-02-04T13:58:00.008+01:00

Confire- French verb to preserve, conserve.
je confis tu confis il confit

'Nous confisons un canard avec quatre tetes.'
We are preserving a duck with four heads.

eh voila! for information about why 4 heads... see previous post.

It took me longer to download and then upload these pictures then it did to make the confit. Way too long! So when my students complain (or comment) that real cooking takes so long, I protest. The virtual world might make some things easier but not necessarily faster. Making Confit de Canard ( or Porc, d'Oie or even Poule- that's pig, goose and old hen) is all about slow cooking, but it needn't be a three day affair. A quiet morning catching up with emails will do while the meat simmers away in a deep pan of golden fat.

The first step after butchering the whole duck into pieces is to lightly salt the meat and let it sit overnight. 'Overnight' here means no more than 12 hours. Salt before you go to bed and be ready to cook in the morning, or salt at the crack of dawn and cook that evening. Salting for 24 hours (or longer!) is overkill. Keep in mind the size of your ducks (mine will weigh in at 6-7 kilos, that's 13-15 pounds each!), the length of time you will be cooking and the preserving the meat (After cooking for 1 to 1-1/4 hours, I typically jar and sterilize my cooked confit in winter and leave it in the pantry until summer and fall using up most of it before the next batch is seasonal made) and to what end ( I will serve confit legs and magrets or breasts solo with salad and fried potatoes in the summer, add to autumn cassoulets, and make soups and garbures from the little peices of necks and wings.). More salt and longer salting time was necessary when confit was put up in earthenware jars and stored unrefrigerated in 'caves' or cellars. If you are not using traditional large fatted ducks (take a look at the size of the legs in my size 8 garden glove hand!), then scale down salt and cooking time.

These are the photographs on Flickr of the steps taken to get from fresh raw duck...

to succulent duck confit.

I'll get the descriptions on Flickr written up as soon as I get a minute between real life chores. This week, you'll notice that I put the confit in 2 jars, the necks into a crock, the extra fat in jam jars and then into the refrigerator rather than sealing and sterilizing them like I do usually. I'll be testing them in 2 weeks time for tenderness; we'll talk about aging the confit soon. In the meantime, enjoy the process!

Confit de Canard. Duck Confit. Part 1- How to buy a 4-headed duck

2009-01-30T09:30:00.008+01:00

To market to market to buy a Fat Duck...

That was the idea. Traditionally the Wednesday morning market in Agen has been the live poultry market. When I first arrived in the Lot-et-Garonne in 1987, there were rows of benches on which housecoat-wearing Frenchwomen and beret-sporting Gascons sat behind piles of feathered friends tied together at the ankles or next to cardboard boxes with beaks and tails sticking out. The Wednesday morning soundtrack was a low murmur of gossip and clucking.

Even in this Southwest France modern times have arrived and the buying of live poultry in an urban environment has slowly disappeared from Agen. There was but one truck of cages filled with bedraggled-looking chickens from a local 'semi-industrialized' farm. I had expected there to be a great show of fatted ducks at this time of year. What I found instead was a wonderful show of winter produce at bargain prices with a smattering of artisan poultry growers with their wares prepared for a more urban audience- fatted ducks already cut, cleaned and parceled out ready to confit.

Here are the January Market season specials:

ORANGE is good in the Winter!

SPANISH ORANGES & TARBAIS BEANS

CRUSTY BREAD & SWEET MUSCAT GRAPES

ROOTS AND SHOOTS

Rather than look this gift duck in the beak, I took home a deconstructed duck with which to start. Those ordering duck from D'Artagnan or one of the other internet sources can relate to this piece meal approach. Although I am missing a few of my favorite 'bits'- the gesier or gizzard, the tasty heart and succulent the wing tips, the bargain of getting 4 duck necks for 2 euros more then made up for the gap.

So here is the take from this smiling enterprising Artisan Duck vendor:

One carcass called a 'demoiselle'
One 'manteau' or cloak- that is the legs and breasts removed in one piece from the carcasse
a big bag of fat and trimmings including the pure white inner fat from near the foie gras
and four duck necks and heads- les cous

These ducks were the best; they were fresh, meaty, fatty. They had been carefully butchered and handled with care. The prices were reasonable and the total 'duck' came to 23 euros, about 6 kilos of meat and fat- less than 4 euros a kilo, or about 2.50 dollars a pound. there is very little waste or scrap so making confit here is a most economical way to preserve meat.

Returning home I abandoned the duck to the refrigerator until I had a moment later in the day to salt and cure for the coming confit . Stay tuned. Salting comes next. It's the very important part.

"Patience demands, work rewards."

Fat Ducks- everything you need to know from Confit to Foie Gras

2009-01-26T15:25:00.006+01:00

Tis the season.
Duck season. No, not hiding in a marshy blind, wet cold and waiting.

The fatted duck season, le marche au gras is more like:
hanging in a warm kitchen,
fire roaring,
cauldrons of duck fat burbling,
friendly faces pouring hot spiced wine,
sharp carbon knifes clacking against the steel,
and the smell... the scent of toasted hazelnuts as the duck fat melts and the crispy skins becomes cracklin's- Gascon popcorn.

For meat loving foodies, this is about as close as it gets to heaven. Gascon Heaven.

I read a lot about confit. A lot. And I have read pages and pages of misinformation, both well-meaning and intentional about confit, both duck and goose, and foie gras, both duck and goose, and all the bits and pieces of succulent meat like gésiers (gizzards) and cou farci (stuffed neck) and coeurs en brochette (skewered duck hearts).

I'm not THE authority here, not by a long shot. But I know a few and I thought I'd take you on a seasonal ride through my extended neighborhood of Butchers, Bakers, and Armgnac-makers to meet some of the pros, expert home cooks and above all the artisan food producers that rock my French Kitchen world. There is always room for more and new info and scientific proof, but tradition and authenticity are the foundations of what I teach here. Hang on to your duck lovin' hat because we'll be jaunting all over the Gascon countryside and then some to uncover the private kitchens, the artisan cooking studios and the traditional winter Marche au Gras or Fat Markets through out this fatted land.

Be a voyeur or cook along for the ride! We'll all come together in the Virtual French Kitchen on Feb 24- le Mardi Gras for the Fat Tuesday Camp Cassoulet Cook-off where my version of Cassoulet features silky morsels of duck confit- the wings and sleeves, bite sized portions to infuse the cassoulet with salty nutty goodness. (I save the large meaty legs and breast for main course summer meals.)

Recipes here are more like storytelling. Lean in, pay attention, and taste often. anyone wishing to join me for one of the Fat Duck Weekends this coming month (See Google Calendar on the sidebar) need only write me in a nice letter asking if there is still room.

These pictures were taken with my phone last year in Cathou and France's amazing chateau kitchen in Montcuq. I love the slightly otherworld colors and focus of what appears to be another time and place. I have been invited again this year so stay tuned for more pix and details from this remarkable French kitchen.

the weight of the five foie gras

In the meantime, hats off to Heidi B. who sent the first cassoulet picture of her first cassoulet in her brand new Not Poterie cassole.

I do believe that is a leg of duck confit I spy! When asked how it was, a one-word description was enough. "Amazing!" That's all it takes to enter the Fat Tuesday Camp Cassoulet Cook-off. Send a picture and comments, recipes and anecdotes to me soon.

French Weather- ouch!

2009-01-24T19:11:00.002+01:00

I was going to write a lyrical little post this week called 'French Rain'.
You know the sort of thing I like to write, weather reports interspersed with nature observations, a little wistful, a little nostalgic.
Not tonight.
No photos, it's too dark.

What began in the dark this morning around 5 a.m. has subsided in the dark. I'm going to have a shot of armagnac and go to bed, exhausted but I wanted to let you know that when your read that little headline, just know that the reality was way worse.

The worst winds in French history (northern Spain got slammed too!), equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane, slammed the Atlantic coast. The BBC says it here but the map says it all; I live right where that red arrow to the east of Bordeaux is.

Lucky. We are very lucky as we have only minor damage. Lots of trees down. The roof of the chicken coop took flight, but the chooks didn't seem to bothered. A bucket of bird seed blew over and they just continued to harvest the spill. Bacon got to sleep in my cabin and sit with me on the couch under a blanket for comfort (his? or mine?), and Boudin (the barn cat) yowled her displeasure at the noise which sounded like a train coming down the canal. The new wheelhouse leaked as 100 mph winds drove the rain into the still unvarnished joints and the roof tarp disappeared over the side. There are days when I don't like living on a boat.

By late afternoon, the barometer starting rising, the clouds blew over revealing a weirdly blue sky and it is now blissfully still. Thank you. I have a good stock of candles and flashlights, oil for the lantern, and now the electricity came on.
I will sleep tonight. Peacefully.
Tomorrow, damage control.

Wish you were here.
K

Cassoulet- Kate's Basix French Kitchen Recipe

2009-01-19T11:18:00.004+01:00

Cassoulet Recipe

Developed at "Camp Cassoulet"-- a Kate Hill French Kitchen Adventure.

This is the basic, bonafide, easy to prepare, authentic, traditional, real, regional version of cassoulet that I prepare, teach, cook and eat in my French Kitchen. The emphasize is on careful combining of very good ingredients, slow cooking and hearty enjoyment. I use duck confit and sausage de Toulouse, ventrèche ( salt cured pork belly), and pork rind for the meats. This is not gosple but pretty close. As much a state of mind as a recipe, this Cassoulet should feed your spirit as well as your belly. Invite a few friends- make it a party. That's what Camp Cassoulet is about.

This makes a large cassoulet that fills a 4-liter cassole and feeds 8 people easily.

Step 1: the beans

Ingredients:

beans -1 kg dried beans (tarbais, coco, lingots, or other plump thin skinned white bean (for dried beans- soak several hours, over night or cover with water, bring to boil and let sit one hour.)
1 onion- peeled
one whole carrot
2 cloves
2 garlic cloves
Thick slice of ventrèche (pancetta), salt pork, bacon or ham ends.
Ham bone or hock
Fresh pork rind-(couenne) about a 4-by-12 inch strip or about 100gr, rolled and tied with a string
Bouquet garni- bay, thyme and parsley stems.
black peppercorns- a dozen slighty crushed

Place all of the above ingredients in a large pot, cover with 2 litres of water; because of the addition of the ham bone there is no need to season with salt at this stage. The seasoning can be adjusted when the cassoulet is put together.
Bring the bouillon to a boil then turn down to simmer and let cook gently for 1 hour or until beans are just barely tender. How do you tell if the beans are done? The skins go papery and begin to collapse and the cooking liquid is milky.

Step 2: the meat- prepare while the beans are cooking.

Ingredients: This is where you can be flexible using fresh sausage, preserved duck or goose, ham or cured pork, lamb shanks, etc. We used:

Duck- confit de canard- one/half leg per person (note: after slipping off most of the softened congealed fat from the surface of the duck legs, we trimmed any excess skin so as to leave just a covering to protect the meat. We jointed the thigh from the drumstick and then teased the thigh bone out resulting in a neat little package of confit meat that is easier to cut in the plate.)
Saucisse de Toulouse- about 500 grams or about 15 cm/6 inches per person. This is a fresh pork sausage made from primarily the shoulder meat and seasoned with salt and pepper. Nothing else.
Saucisse de Couenne- I love how these succulent sausages made with lean pork meat and the soft rind taste. They sort of explode with flavour in the cassoulet.

Brown all of the above; the duck confit in a sauté pan and the sausages we cooked over the grill, however, they could have been pan browned as well. You want a nice hot fire to brown the skins and it’s preferable to not cook the sausages 100% at this stage as they will continue to cook in the cassoulet and give their juices to the broth. Note: Because we buy the sausage in one long link we made a pretty spiral that may be browned as a whole on one side then turned over in one piece to cook the other side. We did this on a grill over the hot ashes of the log fire.

Step 3: to assemble the cassoulet

The traditional cassole bottom is just half of the diameter as the top, making a deep slant-sided glazed terracotta pot (see pictures). Remove the bouquet garni, ham bones, onion, carrot and rind from the beans. I chop the onion, carrot and rind into small bean-size pieces and take the tender meat off the ham bone then return all to the beans and gently stir in. USing a slotted spoon, the cassole is then layered with the beans, the confit and pieces of toulouse and rind sausage then finished with a layer of beans. Adjust the seasoning of the broth from the beans; a little salt, some more black pepper and pinch of piment d’esplette. the tweaked bouillon/bean stock is wonderfully savoury. Now add this liquid to the cassoles until the beans are just covered. Any remaining bouillon should be saved for basting if needed or making bean soup with leftovers.

Step 4- To cook the cassoulet

Slip the cassole into a very hot oven (around 450’ F/ 275’C); turn down the oven after 30 minutes to medium heat- 350' F/175'C and then let the cassoulet bake slowly as long as you can. The cassoulet in the electric oven is nicely browned in about 1-1/2 to 2 hours; ‘break’ the crust by pushing into down into the juices two or three more times. A wonderful crust forms during cooking so there is no need for a sprinkle of breadcrumbs* as the beans and starchy sauce do this by themselves. Cassoulets are not fatty and are nicely done in about 2 hours. If you start preparing the cassoulet at around 3 pm and you'll be sitting at the table by eight pm. This could be done in advance- all or in part by cooking the beans, and or assembling before baking.

Step 5: to serve

Pour a glass of hearty red wine like a Madiran, Cahors or Zinfandel, break the crust on top at the table, ladle the steaming cassoulet into dishes and prepare to be very full and very warm as stories are told around the kitchen table well into the night!

To my Cassole waiters... a French moment.

2009-01-16T11:46:00.004+01:00

Some days.
As I've written recently, French days in France are usually full. Varied. Rich. Full.
These are days when time moves to it's own clock, counting events and moments rather than minutes and hours. Time to stir the pot and cook slowly.

Tic, tic- 20 minutes to gather dried twigs for kindling.
Tic, toc- 30 minutes to drive across the frosty countryside to pick up more beans.
Tic, toc, tic- an hour goes by standing in line waiting for the phone shop to wait on me.
Ding, ding, dong, screammmmmmmmm. the village bells and siren announce lunchtime and EVERYONE must stop for 2 hours and close their doors- post office, banks, grocery stores. Oh, forgot? get back in your car and drive home to wait until after the 2 o'clock return rush hour to reopen!!!!
tic, tic, tic...clip, clip- the quiet time passing as 2 acres of fruit trees and roses get clipped one by one during a quiet 2 hour lunch of winter gardening.

See, that's how France works for me; harmonious units of time interrupted by screaming fits of being out of sync. Mostly it is the harmony and rhythm of these days that I so love. It takes an hour to prune an old crab apple tree. Another for the fig. Who cares? There is time enough in every season. right?

But what happens when culture clashes and the sound of a micro-digital chronometer meets the steel village church bells. It's like that old kids' game- rock, paper, scissors. The steel bells wins- every time. I call these the French Moments, the head shaking 'I don't get it' moments, when my American self gets taken off at the knees.

All this to try to explain why those wonderful Not Brother cassoulet pots that were mailed out before Christmas still haven't arrived? My local French La Poste Mistress assures me, "Madame, 12-15 days delivery time means 12-15 working days; no saturdays, no sundays and, mon Dieu, all those holidays, too. It was mailed economique, oui? (I can hear the Gallic shrug!) So this package you mailed to the Etats Unis December 19? Then it is only 4 days late. It's a long way. Don't worry!"

She smiled and I said, "Merci et au revoir, Madame". So please, in the ticking minutes of late deliveries and anxious mistrust of all involved, take a deep breath, think how many long weeks it took to throw, dry, glaze and fire the cassole pot, and think about who you will invite to help you make and eat that great cassoulet. When the cassole arrives. In a Long French Moment, thanks.

And to keep your cassoulet appetites whet and inspired, see what Riana is doing in her Slow Kitchen here at Garlic Breath!

A day in the life... ten things to do before making leftovers for dinner.

2009-01-13T17:11:00.007+01:00

1. fix a broody hen

During the great Gascon communication blackout of the New Year- no phones, no internet, no blogging, and no telepathy since Dec 19, I fell into a rhythm of work and rest that has taken hold as a pattern as distinct as the soft llama wool sweater that I am finally trying to knit, one row at a time. Knit, knit, and knit some more. Really, I did miss your daily emails, the sorting and sifting of unbidden mail, and the friendly chats just to make sure that you are really still there.

2 & 3. prune the cherry trees and sand & varnish 1/4 of the wheelhouse

But a funny thing happened when I wasn't writing it all down as I was trying to do it. Rather than seeming to drift from one task to the next, occasionally interrupted by 'urgent' messages, and justifying my right brain daily life with my left brain fictional life I found a sort of peaceful path of least resistance to the never ending chores and tasks that mark this French life.

4. rake the boulodrome in the park

It was only after I decided to write about and photograph 'my afternoon' that I 'stumbled on' (Google 'left brain/right brain') this simple test. Sure enough- right brain all the way- 60% except for that highly verbal left brain. Hmm, make's sense from this perspective. This is what my test results said:

Dominant Random Processing. Random processing is a method used by the right hemisphere for processing information. The information that is received is processed without priority. A right-brained person will usually jump from one task to another due to the random processing by their dominant right hemisphere. Random processing is, of course, the opposite of sequential processing therefore making it difficult for right-brained individuals to choose to learn in sequence.

5. & 6. trim the bay laurel and walk Bacon

No surprises there! Then:
You show a strong ability at random processing. You are good at completing tasks in an unspecified order, and don't waste time creating lists when they aren't needed. You are also able to make "leaps of logic" and make discoveries a sequential thinker could never dream of making.

7. feed the birds

When students and guests arrive here at Camont, we cook and shop and cook until that is all that seems to matter. But as you can see today, this random processing of a day in the life of a French Kitchen led to little to eat of note. In fact, leftovers are the goal tonight: some spicy beans, an open tin of sardines, a hardboiled egg and some salad greens. The sweet finish to my dinner and day is knowing just how wonderfully diverse my life and days really are. No office commute, no time card, no ...paycheck. But I do have the daily University of Camont to attend-- learning about broody hens, soil chemistry, lunar cycles and historical nautical design.

8. move the ash pile

You can take your own right brain/left brain test here, but looking at these pictures is proof enough for me that I like it mixed up and in no particular order. I am getting things done in my own Kate fashion.

9. & 10. chop some wood and give thanks.

Just another day in the life of...

Frosty Wishes for a New Year

2009-01-10T13:02:00.003+01:00

In 20 years I have never seen the canal outside my wheelhouse frozen.

Yesterday I awoke to a silent frosty flat surface, floating leaves frozen in place. The gentle hum of water flowing beneath the hull silent. A grabbed the closest thing at hand, an apple, and heaved it onto the ice to see what happened. It bounced, skidded and then pinged across the canal coming to rest 50 feet away. Frozen. Half-an inch thick.

The kingfishers are curious. The little grebes are hiding. The moorhens are walking on the banks. I, too, wonder how long this will last and when will 'global warming' please start?

So until my internet connection is repaired (10 days to two weeks) I remain quiet, cold and thoughtful- reading, knitting and ...playing cards.

1956 Canal du Midi- Toulouse

Here's to all good things in a brand New Year.

http://mameteo.wifeo.com/fevrier-1956.php

Sunday Thanks for a great year of friendship

2008-11-28T09:00:00.007+01:00

Tuscan Black Kale **

While you home-friends are thinking of leftovers and retail therapy on a big scale (aka day after Thanksgiving), here on the French Kitchen ranch in Southwest France, we are just getting ready for the big day. Just like extended and distant families have to rearrange Christmas and school holidays, this bi-cultural life means accommodating the American mindset within a French framework. Sunday is a better day to invite 12 bi-cultural people for a mid day meal.

So I did order a turkey from the village butcher, have yet to find cranberries (I've got an alternate idea...see later*) and I am scouring the last of the potager for some bebe romanesco- those goofy green pointed outer space cauliflowers.

Like a pin-striped muscle car, the potager is lined in frosty threads. After an unusally mild and long Indian summer, the famous Garonne River Valley fog has just arrived with the first frosty nights- resulting in that most ephemeral visual morning treat- a hoar frost. So as I sing 'chick, chick, chicka, che' to my ruffled feathered friends who are busy discovering the freshly arrived kitchen peelings, I ran around the garden in my nightdress, jeans and hoodie to gather a few ideas for Sunday Thanks and these first winter images.

Sunday Thanks Menu Ideas-

fennel fronds and boats with hot anchovy and black pepper dressing

Three Greens
(wilted collard greens, black kale and savoy cabbage
tossed with crispy lardons and garlic)

Armagnac-caramelized Sweet Potatoes wedges

Turkey Roti
(just salt, pepper and duck fat inside and out)

My mother's cornbread stuffing
(the only reason to eat all this!)

Just Pumpkin Pie
& other sweet fantasies

However, the most important ingredient, usually buried beneath the parades, the football games, the piles of colorful sweaters, the too many too early Christmas toys, is the friendship that has gathered around this French Kitchen table during the last year.

During 2008, dozens of new and old friends have stopped, cooked, learned, taught, inspired and been inspired in my simple French Kitchen. On this 2-acre 'American' island of good food and convival gatherings in the most French part of France, I count my blessing, small and grand.
I thank all of you who have made your way to my woad blue door, put up with Bacon's exhuberent greetings and contributed your own good energy and laughter to making the French Kitchen table so memorable.

this is just a sampling...

* French Vodka Cranberry Martinis

**And thanks to Judy for her own kale post!

Pork & Beans- a very faux cassoulet

2008-11-22T13:36:00.006+01:00

When the Diva, Judy Witts asked me 'what are you making for supper?' I was almost embarrassed to say not Cassoulet. And when she suggested that we post a 'come one, come all' let's cook together on our ongoing, occasional Whole Hog blog, I realized that a simple 'you too can do this tonight' version of French Pork & Beans was the answer.

When not cooking a full-blown Camp Cassoulet version (see the official recipe here!), I sometimes just wet the beans, add anything vegetable lying around and toss in some artisanal bacon at the end. Eh Voila! my version of pork and beans. Next, toss some leftover cheese in a pan with a slice of baguette on top and this is a simple supper that stands up to a bottle of new wine, Beaujolais or otherwise.

My non-recipe recipe goes like this:

Take 500 grams or about 1 lb of dried beans ( I used the fat pillowy Coco beans we grow here in Southwest France), put them in a pot of water to soak during the day.

Drain the now plump beans and put them in a pot. Cover with just enough water, about 3-5 cm or 1 1/2 - 2 inches. Put over a medium hot burner.

Add a couple of carrots, an onion, a few shallots, and two cloves of garlic chopped in small bean-sized pieces. Add a bay leaf, some fresh or dried thyme, a few black pepper corns and some lovage or celery leaf. Cover, let come to a boil, then turn down and simmer for about 45-50 minutes or until the beans are tender. Taste and salt as desired.

While the beans are getting done, fry up some good thick pieces of bacon, a hunk of ventreche, salt pork, ham or a couple of sausages. That's the Pork part. Then toss the meat and any fat into the Beans, stir and serve.

Too simple, too delicious. And it takes about 5 real minutes of chopping, and 45 minutes of cooking. That's less than an hour; less than the time it takes to run out to the store or order mediocre takeout. While the beans are cooking you can read a book, take a walk, or just watch the leaves drop from the trees. And you don't even need a can opener.

As I said, it's not cassoulet, but it is very tasty. And the next day there are leftovers for lunch with an egg dropped in the pan to poach in the bean liquor.

Buy good beans, use good water, kiss your butcher, pay attention. That's what makes the difference!This is Simple French Food.

beans at the Santiago de Compostela market

Season Changes- weekend cooking breaks from Cassoulet to Confit de Canard

2008-11-19T16:33:00.005+01:00

Gotta love the l'ete Indienne we've been having this year. If there could be a more perfect fall, it would have to be like this one in a favorite painting of Monet's little studio boat that he rowed along the Seine and her tributaries.

Here along the Canal de Garonne, my own canal has been aglow with turning leaves that rolled from acid green to yellow, from gold to deep ochre with a splash of plum and bright red thrown in for fun.

It's just as well the weather held, as this was the time to do a bit of boat repairs.
Taking advantage of the bluer skies and still warm nights, Mark Wiggs, master marine carpenter and boatwright from Angleterre, has been sorting out 50 years of failing plywood and rusty screws.

As you can see, what that really meant is that Mighty Mark took the entire wheelhouse down with his trusty hammer and saw! Now he is building, from the steel frame up, a brand spanking new traditional solid red cedar and glass room perfect for winter morning cafe-au-lait and late summer evening suppers.

Here are a few pix for posterity and just to prove how mad I truly am. Twenty-two years of the Julia Hoyt and we're both ready for a facelift!

Stay tuned for the final unveiling soon!

Along with these structural changes, the season has changed, too, from the gastronomic overload of Fall's abundant markets and menus to the quieter space between the plates, the mid-week pause and to the gracious unhurried weekends.

To celebrate Winter's tardy arrival, I am offering a handful of weekend retreats, culinary quiet time and just enough good food and market color to usher in the festive time ahead. Interested in a weekend break in the French Kitchen? Just click here at French Kitchen Adventures for more details! In the meantime, just keep drifting on the current...

Stirring the Pot at Departures Magazine- Cassoulet Cassoles

2008-11-06T14:02:00.007+01:00

November is a funny month.
Funny Strange.
Changes seems to begin at the end of the Fall season. New Presidents for some- Nov 4, Remembrances of past peace efforts for others- Nov 11, Turkey and Thanks- Nov 27, and yet another year under the belt- Nov 29. For better or for worse, November is my month. The last couple of years I have been celebrating its gloomy and drizzling arrival with the warmest of all French regional dishes...Cassoulet.

Camp Cassoulet continues to be a popular cooking weekend program here at the French Kitchen and abroad. Lisa and Tony Geer of the Mendocino Coast's Ledford House restaurant joined Tiffany and Michael from Seattle and Olivier and Carole from NYC and Paris at the end of a wonderfully warm Indian Summer October to market and cook yet another great Cassoulet. Here, even the experts can learn a new trick or two.

My Fall season started early over 18,000 kilometers away with teaching and cooking cassoulet for over 400 people in New Zealand in August. In September, I returned home to Southwest France for another round of convivial weekends in front of the French kitchen cheminée and enough beans to flat a raft of saucisse de Toulouse and duck confit.

But the fire really started to blaze when I got the news that Departures Magazine, that arbiter of all things luxe for American Express Platinum cardholders published an article 'Cassoulet Style' by Sylvie Bigar, New York journalist and delightful culinary snoop, about cassoles and mentioned a new little scoop of my own.

It's time to reveal what's been cooking on the French Kitchen back burner. The Hill Sisters (my little sister Stephanie and I) are opening our own, on-line French Kitchen Piggery Pantry & Boutique. And guess what's in stock now?

Cassoles, cassoles and more cassoles! Authentic, traditional, purpose-built clay pots, hand thrown by the Poterie NOT Freres along the canal du Midi near Castelnaudary. In her article, Sylvie gives a good argument for a rounded bean pot, but I must agree with Jacques Pepin that the shape is not as important as what goes in it. (click here for the official Camp Cassoulet recipe and cooking trucs here!) However, as far as cassoles are concerned, what is important is the actual quality of the pot- be it clay, enamel cast iron or stainless steel.

Fortunately you can now have your beans and eat them, too. Because these clay cassoles that the Not family have been throwing for since 1830 are hand-crafted from a special mix of local clay and silica, blended and fired at high temperatures to produce a rock-hard natural terre-cuit or French stoneware. Unlike softer terracotta pots, these are meant to be baked in hot ovens for long hours; they ring like glass when tapped.

The thick glaze is a rich earth color like the well-baked crust of a cassoulet. there are glaze drips and thumbprints that speak of the atelier and roughened hands that make these sturdy bowls. Cooking only deepens the colors and ages the bowl in a duck fat sort of glow. My own cassoles are over 20 years old now and a deep dark brown.

I love these pots; and the men who make them. Like the Artisan Food School teachers we work with, Ton-Ton Robert and the next generation of potters infuse their hand-built cassoles with the sort of love and attention we use when cooking here at the French Kitchen. At the Not Potterie, the cook with clay.

Interested in owning your own authentic Poterie NOT Freres Cassole?

The price is 75 euros (approx 100 US$) plus shipping and handling and is payable with Paypal or credit card (Amex included, of course!). Just click on the "buy now' button upper right. You will be contacted about shipping options available. I drove down in the rain last week to pick up a small order ready for shipping. These pots, made by hand, one-by-one are available in very limited quantities.

The standard size is big enough to prepare a generous cassoulet for 8-10 people using one kilo of dried beans (I use 100 gr, per person) and measures approximately 30cm/12 in. x 11 cm/5 in. and weighs 2.5 kilos or 5.5 pounds.

Since the Not Pottery does not ship, I asked Robert Not to stamp these special cassoles for me so that you would know they are the real deal, straight for France and full of French Kitchen inspiration. And if that is not enough to tempt you, I'll tuck a box of the very secretive Épice Rabelais as well as the official Camp Cassoulet recipe booklet!

(NOTE: FOR THOSE ORDERING A CASSOLE AFTER 19/12/08, the special offer including free Tarbais beans is now over. The 2008 harvest is now depleted.)

To order one or more cassoles, please click on the sidebar at right or email me directly at kate (at) thefrenchkitchen (dot) com. Cassoles weigh 4 kilos packed and are shipped by the French post service, La Poste, International economique and shipping costs are approx. 35 euros depending on destination.

French Kitchen News- Autumn Cooking Classes

2008-10-06T07:53:00.005+01:00

I have, at last, solved the age old question.

What comes first, the chicken or the egg?

Here at Camont, where once all sorts of farm animals roamed at large alongside the canal, there is no doubt. It's the chicken.

Well, actually it not THE chicken, it's SEVEN chickens. So first we got some chickens and THEN we got some eggs. It's that simple. First chickens and THEN eggs.

New to Camont, a simple movable chicken coop placed in one of the garden squares in the potager. Painted woad blue with natural pigment from my friends at Bleu de Lectoure, who also graciously offered the French Kitchen a beautiful pair of black Gascon chooks. They joined a Chilean couple of Araucanas, single White Sussex and two work horse Cou Nu (Naked Necks) laying hens who are doing all the work at present.

It is absoulutely silly how long one can stand and watch the friendly flock scratch and peck. When I can't stand at the stove any longer, just wheel me out to the garden and let me be a chicken voyeur!

So after pulling myself away from the new kids on the farm, I take a stroll around the lower French forty, just to see the changes happening as October takes control.

The canal side trees reflect a varied palette in the still water.
The mother fig tree is still bent over with hundreds of small but sweet fall fruit.
Poplar leaves are beginning to breakdown into compost next to the orchard bridge.
Wild watercress is beginning to dominate in the spring run off and promises winter greens.
A dozen new raspberry plants have taken hold and offer the promise of jars of next summer confiture.

and the beans... the Tarbais beans are heavy with pods drying in this warm fall and have produced just enough beans for this month's Camp Cassoulet cooking classes.

Camp Cassoulet begins October 24 and runs for 5 weekends. For more information click on www.frenchkitchenadventures.com and consult the calender at the bottom of this blog. Authentic original NOT Poterie cassoles will be available for sale beginning November 1.

Now, what does one do with two beautifully fresh eggs? Just ask my good friend Robert Reynolds at the Chef's Studio in Portland Oregon. mmm...oeufs en meurette.

Home Sweet Gascon Home

2008-10-02T07:52:00.003+01:00

Travel days suck the minutes out of the day and here I am, a month later having returned from la belle NZ still trying to catch up. We've been cooking, cooking, cooking at the French Kitchen nonstop since I returned and there is a several more weeks of Camp Cassoulet and private classes to come.

The fall days color this private corner of my French world with a luminous haze, a golden silver net of spiderwebs and dew, red rosehips and falling leaves. Five new hens are pecking in garden and a tentative crow from a young rooster trails in the morning mist. The Autumn equinox descends on Camont leaving Orion as its calling card hanging above the pigeonnier tower. Pumpkins and mushrooms fill our baskets while the last figs simmer into yet another jar of confiture des figues epices.

This might be my favorite time of year.

Fall.

In France.

Wish you were here...

45 degrees below... winter words in summer

2008-08-14T23:45:00.008+01:00

Live from the 45th parallel.
Christchurch, New Zealand.

This busman's holiday in the southern hemisphere is as much about R&D as it is teaching and cooking. So the very first thing on my first morning with the Metcalfes was an chilly excursion to the Lyttleton Farmer's Market followed by a HOT flat white at the Lyttleton Coffee Company in front of the seriously roaring fire.

While the South Island was hit with unexpected snow flurries and some blustry winds which severly reduced the buyers, the serious and passionate vendors gathered in the somewhat sheltered lee in the grade school playground to sell their wares.

Anna of Gruff Junction farms with her goat's cheeses, organic farmer Chris with an extensive of vegetables from his Tuahiwi Market Gardens ,

and an extraordinary bacon sandwiches from local pork producers. Stay tuned for more Bacon news as we meat the Butcher Babe of Murchison (gold medal bacon!), find the french connection at the boucherie (unfortunately still closed on Sunday after Saturday's Rugby match!)

And even though I haven't been way long enough to get home sick, just the sight of these Frenchy signs in Arokua made me think of home ...

and those I've left behind...

Most of all as the Long Village stretches to meet the long white cloud (NZ to you), thanks to my good friends and hosts, Alison and Ian Metcalfe who are sharing their beloved home with me and extending the Gascon/Kiwi network.

For more information on cooking classes in New Zealand and
traveling with Ian and Ali to France
click on www.greatvillageholidays.com

Old France in New Zealand-coming soon

2008-08-03T20:04:00.004+01:00

" The old moon cradled in the arms of the new..." a friend's mum used to say.

When the littlest crescent moon is born, you can still see the echo of the full moon behind it. So what happens when you take a girl out of the country -Old France- and put her on the new moon side of the world -New Zealand-? You will still see the echo of Gascony in the food I will be teaching on a month long jaunt across the north and south islands.

My life on the Gascon Ranch is full of the comings and goings of wonderful guests, friends and clients... sometimes all rolled into one. Last year Ian, Alison and Anthony Metcalfe spent the jaunty month of June at Camont and fell in love with the food, the land and the people of my corner of Gascony. It was no surprise to me that after returning to New Zealand from their 'gap year' in Europe, that they found an excellent way to extend their souvenirs of France, Spain and Italy. They have taken the helm of Great Village Holidays into their capable hands.

Ian skyped me one day last winter and asked if I would be interested in traveling to NZ to teach some cooking classes, host some dinners and sign a few copies of my long running, evergreen cookbook. How long did it take to say "yes"?

So after a winter, spring and summer of dipping down into Spain to sample the wares for a Stylish Spanish book, I am heading for that long white cloud of a country to share my love of Southwest France with hungry folk in Christchurch, Hamilton, Wellington, Tasman and Auckland (not necessarily in that order!).

I am looking forward to meeting fellow bloggers, food lovers, cooks and writers, and especially artisan food producers who will help me make Good Gascon food with Great New Zealand products!

I fly out from Paris on Tuesday... next stop Dubai! Oh, Who's minding the Bacon at home? Why Monday Matt, of course, who promises a potager inventory for his next post... tonight's supper courtesy of his home grown CSA box of coeur de boeuf tomatoes, piments, courgettes, eggplants and well, more peppers, of course!

*merci for the moon

Spanish Hooky- a not so still life

2008-07-25T07:34:00.005+01:00

Whew. So many things to tell you as I slip under the spell of summer here at Camont with a glass of cold and bone dry rose' wine.

Ok, that's just the usual teaser used by people who live in France. We are snotty and protective about our perceived lifestyle and I, for one, try not to disallusion you, dear reader, too much. Actually, I am fighting the underdeadline-procrastination-book writing blues as my Spanish Hooky excuse of a book deadline looms overhead. The photographs are in the bag, the notes are being transcribed and 500 captions are not being written as we speak. But before I travel on to other parts of the world this summer spreading the Camp Cassoulet gosple as I go...(Old France to New Zealand anyone?) I want to leave you with these images of Espana... and a promise of more to come.

Spanish Hooky Bar

Summer Shoes

Catalan Table

Montserrat Morning

Basque Hooky- pintxos & tapas

2008-07-05T20:40:00.006+01:00

Sometimes it's hard to convince some people that I am working.
Really I am.
R&D Basque style means research and devour along the gorgeous coast of Biskaia.

Tapas.
Pintxos.
Raciones.
Jamon de Jabuga.
Pelletas.
Bellota.
Bacalao.
Guindilla.
Pimient de Padron.
Kokotxas.

Txacoli.

Get the picture?
This was a week of Basque Hooky with an eye to the products and markets of my favorite parts of the coastfrom San Sebastian/Donostia to Bilbao. Yes, we also squeezed in a visit to the Guggenheim, that looks amazingly in scale now as Nuevo Bilbao grows up around it.

But my favorite night this week was the 4th of July in the old port area of Getxo.
Young, old, dogs and just 2 English-speaking voyeurs indulging in sangria, sidra and pulpo, chorizo in cider, anchovies and olives and the lights of the Port of Bilbao replacing the fireworks.

Perfect.

Milesker

French Summer Food- in small batches

2008-06-26T07:59:00.005+01:00

It's too hot to cook.

Even in the outside tiki hut of a kitchen we sweat...
and not just onions and shallots.
With Summer heat comes summer fruit and in a frenzy of small batch conserving Jenny, Matt and I made:

Carmelized Confit Cherry (perfect over ice cream)
Pink Peach Vinegar*
Vinegar of Pruneaux d'Agen* (for deglazing the pan when making sauteed foie gras)
Compote de Rhubarbe
Sirop de Mirabelle (for a Kir Verger- perrier and syrup)

and that was not even trying...

*** to details on making fruit vinegars see the recipe in my book. Basically I poach VERY RIPE fruit (approx 1-2 pounds) in 2-3 cups of vinegar- white for the peach, red wine for the prunes. Cook until the fruit has released itself into the liquid and the liquid has reduced by half. Strain, filter and decant.

Monday with Mushroom Matt

2008-06-23T06:27:00.001+01:00

I think one of my favorite things is finding wild, edible foods. Better yet and more specific is finding wild mushrooms. When I score some 'poplar' mushrooms like these, it's just one more reason why I really like living in this area. I didn't even have to look hard, they were right outside my front door!

I also like to think that after a month of rain, we deserve some sort of treat. These mushrooms will do for now. As soon as they hit the pan, my mouth starts watering... Mushroom Matt

Songs and Summer Solstice

2008-06-21T18:14:00.003+01:00

This long day is hot. As if celebrating, at last, a summer that has been slow in coming.

Everywhere in France tonight from 9 pm until the wee hours, in city, town and village there are bands, soloists, and odd groups of musicians playing their little French hearts out. The summer solstice arrives with the fete de la musique.

I dither about where to go, into Agen for the city streets of rock, blues and pop bands; up to St. Hilaire for a classical concert in an ancient church, medieval and renaissance music in Henri the fourth's chateau at Nerac or a rock and blues train ride to Mezin on le petit train touristique.

The sun beams down the long mirror of canal at 7:30 this evening; it's 93 degrees in the shade.
I stop my solstice chores to listen to the sounds of Camont.
A thrush is nesting over the terrace table.
A big black bumble bee hums in and out of the pink umbrella.
A tourterelle coos incessantly.

But it isn't until I hear this that I know I will stay close to home tonight.
Open a bottle of cool clear dry rose, hear the village fete from across the Garonne, and remember the first time I heard a nightingale sing at Camont at midnight in 1992.
There are dozens of the songsters in the canalside trees--my private fete de la musique.
Wish you were here.

Click here to hear.

Thanks

Will the real Saucier’s Apprentice please stand up?

2008-06-19T16:26:00.006+01:00

Bob Spitz in The French Kitchen at Camont

Lots of people come and go here in the French Kitchen; some are best friends for a weekend, other remain in our thoughts for years with the occasional email, phone call and visit to keep the relationships glued together. So it was a real surprise last weekend while at a leisurely post-market lunch with friends to read in their current issue of Saveur Magazine a review for Bob Spitz’ book, “The Saucier’s Apprentice.”

“… Spitz nevertheless labors admirably to find characters who will bring deeper meaning to his odyssey like… ‘the kerchief-wearing cook in Agen, France, who lives on a river barge and prepares Gascon specialties for friends and students "like it's her last day on earth".

Guess Who?

It was a long four years ago in the blur at the end of a busy September of filming with Rick Stein for his BBC series French Odyssey that a New York Journalist showed up on my doorstep. After pleading with me by email and phone calls to teach him to make duck confit—the real way, and after changing plans and dates and partners, Bob Spitz arrived, the self-proclaimed Saucier’s Apprentice.

He wheedled, he begged, he came, he cooked, and then was on his way after a busy three days; this was his too fast Cooking School Odyssey to score as many culinary conquests as possible. I was exhausted but had done my best. Why does a vision of a T-shirt with a list of restaurants and cooking schools with little checked boxes come to mind. “Been there, done that.” Even Russ Parsons takes him to task for shortskirting passion, craftsmanship, motive?

Hmmm, I've thought a lot about why people come to my French Kitchen. Romance (of France I mean), the inventory of great food in Gascony, an escape from their reality. Sometimes learning to cook is the lowest on the list. It is often my task to distract someone from their homeside worries and let them drift into another time zone- 200 years ago. It’s taken me 20 years to get in this Gascon groove and while I don’t expect everyone to get it first time around, or in three days; I swoon at the speed with which we expect good things to come. (Remember, I live on a slow moving vessel- 5 miles an hour is the preferred speed limit.) Sometimes I sound like a kindergarten teacher-- this color is called bleu; this taste is pepper; do you know how to really use a whisk? Sometimes the most simple of skills have been overlooked.

Mr Spitz passed through these doors 4 years ago with notebook in hand and a broken heart. Gee, maybe I’m going to have to start administering mid-life crisis exams and charge extra before accepting clients and reporters who flunk Life 101. (Ouch! That hurts!) But don’t worry, friends can still come for free and breathe the restorative damp Garonne Valley air, fall asleep to nightingales, take the current dog for a towpath walk. And while I remember a barrage of non-stop questions, a rapidly filling note book, a too exuberant love of gossip (read the book!), he somehow managed to turn his three day duck confit fest into a 36-page chapter called “La Maison avec La Peniche.” Thanks Bob.

Ok, he gets lots of stuff wrong—can’t tell his chives from a caper, makes up people’s names- jeez…even when they are already in MY book (fact checking anyone???), and seems to have a knack for building up the, well… drama? of everyone else’s supposedly heartbroken lives. By the time I got over that he used my recipes without permission, never sent me a copy of the book OR a thank you note, let alone uses a picture I took of him in MY kitchen without crediting me or the kitchen (see above), he still manages to redeem himself in an awkward way and gets the essential thing right. If not the why of how I cook, he did get the how down like spades-- fast, focused and calm.

He writes that I am “...an American who cooks like a French Farmer” and says on international radio and American television that I was (blush) the best cook he worked with. Go figure! I thought you didn’t even like me, Bob! You never wrote, sent flowers, or an invitation to your wedding! I’d like to say publicly that I am flattered, but secretly I just hope that this will help my book agent sell my new book to your publisher! Come on Bobby… Mama’s barn needs a new roof!

So I write this to apologize for badmouthing Bob and dispel any erroneous quotes that I had dropped out or retired. Au contraire mes chères, I am living and working as hard as ever here in my beloved Gasconia in the French Kitchen at Camont. For an updated schedule of classes and programs jump to www.frenchkitchenadventures.com . FYI, I book my own programs and you can talk to me directly, just like Bob did. Camont is neither isolated or lonely, but a quick 15 minutes into Agen, 4 hours from Gai Par-ee and a magnet for many passers by, both French and foreign.

Life in Gasconia moves on, kids. Four years is a long time in the roll of these seasons as yet another garden is planted with beans and peppers, tomatoes and leeks. One dog replaces another; clients come and mostly go. Friends return often and if not in the neighborhood, stay in the heart. We 'cook as if it’s the last day on earth' here at Camont because-- well, it might be.

Last night Matt (the butcher’s apprentice) prepared a fine Roti de Porc with a Sauce au Moutarde of crème fraîche, pan juices and mustard, a simple and very proper thing to do with a good farm-raised loin roast. I pitched in with some over-the-shoulder supervision for a lemon verveine cream and raspberry tarte fresh from our garden. And as the candles flickered on the first warm and dry summer evening at the big round table, we toasted all those who have showed up over the years. (That’s a round table Bob, not long one, see below.)

And for those still seeking culinary gossip and tales, pensive silences and long wistful looks- even an american anomaly has to keep some secrets. It’ll take more than one bottle of Floc to pry my secret pirate life out of me… arr-be-darrr matey’s.

Kerchief Kate in Andalucía

Watercress tears and bacon sandwiches

2008-06-16T07:22:00.007+01:00

I prefer to think that this rain, this incessant gloomy French June weather, is just a sly way to turn my head from the slow-growing, water-logged potager to the imaginary cressoniere at the west end of the spring-fed wood.

Along the wet cobbled path and down the green encrusted bridge, B. and I splash to la fontaine this morning. Here, from behind the patch of leather leaf ferns, the source flows in a wide shallow meander to join Camont's three other rivulets that ultimately run together into the stream that dips under the Canal and pops up to make its way to Mother Garonne... and thus to the sea.

Here, at this elderberry, elm-stumped, willow-shaded patch at the edge of Camont's two-acres, Père Dupuy would tend a long narrow rivulet and string an elaborate scarecrow of plastic bottles and rags to frighten off hungry birds. I was never sure that the birds came near the watercress, but it was the sort of folk art that made me smile.

When Gloomy Gascony floods our hearts and drowns our summer hopes, then the old 'lemons to lemonade' adage must rule. Here at Camont, awash in yet another summer shower, Saint Nick arrived on the good ship Teal just in time to help. Nick is a great nautical guest and always adds his touch to our patch of watery paradise. I turn to my garden planning book to sketch out the fallen tree bridge that will lead to the watercress patch and willow-umbrella'ed elm bench. Since both real and faux cress cohabit in the spring runoff, I am planning a rock edged bank to divert the spring enough and allow us to reseed with organic cress seeds until we crowd out the false intruders.

Bacon loves this water park; he often arrives green muzzled from a romp through the lavoir. Once clean and potable, this part of the spring has sprouted les lentilles, small green algae, and has been tainted by a neighborhood eyesore and ecological disaster of a gravel pit further upstream. Feeling rather like Manon in Pagnol's epic, my battles with the town hall to reign in my neighbor's unbridled digging remains unresolved. Where are the Police des Eaux when you need them?

I turn a wet eye toward the house where Peter M. has knitted in the patchwork of an herbier outside the kitchen terrace with tarragon, basil and roquette;
even the wet hen isn't mad sitting in a healthy bed of marjoram.

Elizabeth has had to content herself to painting furniture and flowers;
the calla and hydrangea's have loved this cooler June and show it.

Roses bloom against wet skies but mold within days;
dead heading is a full time occupation this year.

The best solution to this 13 moon weather is what that other old adage recommends..."let sleeping dogs lie."
So along with The Bacon, I wish you a gentle day sandwiched between nappage and snores.

Charcuterie- learning French by the Market method

2008-06-09T18:19:00.006+01:00

When I arrived here at Camont, there was something about this place, something here that I wanted.
I was here on a vacation doing a two-week cooking class with my Mom in the French Kitchen.
I knew right away that two weeks was not enough time, so I asked Kate if I could stay longer. Lucky for me, she needed an intern for the summer. When my glorious vacation ended in February, I departed back to the

United States

, not fully aware of the seed I planted.

I returned here to Camont in late April, and immediately began working. I have done many things in the short time since I've settled in here this Spring. One of the many things is learning how to make charcuterie with the Chapolard family. I have been interested in charcuterie for awhile now, and I knew that I wanted to learn how to make it the correct way. After trying some of their jambon, saucisson and paté, I realized that this family who raises their own pigs knew exactly what they were doing.

Working with the Chapolard's has been such a great experience thus far. I've been able to see the whole process from the abattoir, to the butcher workshop, and finally to the Saturday market. In the workshop, I'm finally able to understand how the pig comes together. However, the Saturday market is when I have the most fun.

When the Chapolard's first asked me if I wanted to help them at the market selling their product, I thought, “are you serious?” “I don't even speak French!” Now, I look forward to every Saturday. From learning French, to working alongside two of the nicest people I've ever met.

This is what you see.....

This is what I see....

I’ll be writing on Mondays from here, at the French Kitchen at Camont, so stay tuned.

Matt Chambas

Mondays with Matt in Hog Heaven

2008-06-04T08:30:00.006+01:00

Keeping the French Kitchen in full-on Adventure mode takes more than writing blogs, cookbooks and recipes. It takes hours of real work around 'the Gascon Ranch'-- to weed, seed and tend the 3600 sq.feet potager; plot, plant and primp the Kitchen Herbier and salad bar; sow, mow and manicure 2-plus acres of grassy park. Now, add helping with cooking classes, doing dishes and babysitting Bacon...and you are beginning to get the picture. This is not a one-woman show.

When Matt Chambas and his Pastry Chef Mom, Kris, came for 2 weeks last February, he got a winter taste of what's to come: cooking cassoulet in the fireplace, a pig slaughter at the neighbor's farm, armagnac making... All of a sudden, the restaurant kitchen in Madison seemed too small. So, when I started advertising for a Spring/Fall second-in-command to help run Camont and begin the new Artisan Food School program with Wil Edwards, Matt was first in line.

First duties were to get the Potager jump started after Portland newlyweds Nate and Christina did the dirty work of April weeding preparing the winter overgrown plot. Now, Tarbais beans for next fall's cassoulet climb the netting alongside a dream list of other roots, shoots and leaves for summer cooking classes and fall AFS sessions.

So here's Matt's story. Rather then put my words in his mouth, Matt will begin a new weekly feature here at the French Kitchen Adventures blog. He'll tell his own story along the Artisan Food School path from gardening to learning French charcuterie with the Chapolard family; from picking up buckets of blood from the abattoir to make 100 kilos of boudin noir; from learning to speak French to working alongside Dominique and Christiane at the Saturday Market at Nerac.

"Bon Jour Madame! Saucisse ou saucisson?"

When not working, gardening or cooking, Matt holds court in the Tiki Hut communication center, canalside and accessible by Skype. Gotta love that WiFi...

Matt Chambas, Welcome to a life long French Kitchen Adventure!

Spanish Roadkill- a baker's dozen

2008-05-29T18:04:00.008+01:00

When my French Kitchen gets side tracked, as it often does, it’s usually because I live too close to Spain—close to the Atlantic, close to the Mediterranean and close to… a completely different palate. From the latest Spanish Road Trip with Signor Clinch, a dozen pictures of markets and bars in Gallicia.

Gallicia of pulpo, Ribeiro, chorizo, morcillo, and corporal and spiritual pilgrims.

Bar kitchen 0'46

chorizo cooked in wine

little bowls of wine

granite market

pilgrim's dilemma

Gallego Greens

Special spunds ...and they are.

For Judy- salted pork fat- rancio

Market go cart

so Fsh this fsh

for Steve Sando at rancho gordo

Souvenirs to take home to Camont's potager- piment de Padron

the end@
Santiago de Compostello

Berry nice...

2008-05-12T07:51:00.000+01:00

I wasn't kidding about seeing red. The flavor of the moment is Strawberry, here in the flat fertile Garonne River Valley. And while our own potager at Camont is growing greener by the minute, (tarbais beans are 6 inches high, leeks, kale and courgettes sprouted, tomatoes, aubergine and peppers in...) it's the fruit of someone else's labor that takes my fancy.

These oversized (and admittedly too juicy) monsters caught my eye at the Nerac Saturday Market. This was a serious flat of big berries fit for a bowl of crème fraiche, to eat like a peach or offer as a 'tip' to the cafe server. Of course, it came home to the French Kitchen.

As large as an egg and at the very peak-and-then-some of ripeness, we couldn't eat them fast enough. This morning I breakfasted on fresh goat's cheese, HALF a berry and black pepper. Then I measured enough sugar over the rest of the berries, added a swish of blood orange juice and put them on the heat as the first cafe au lait brewed.

Bring to a quick rolling boil, and then cool in the syrup and refrigerate. I'll make a fraise sherbet with creme fraiche and fresh cream, pain perdu et sirop des fraises, and add lemon verbena tea and sparkling water for an afternoon cold drink- a T-Garden soda.

Happy Spring!!!

Spring makes me see RED!!!

2008-05-04T07:57:00.004+01:00

Home sweet Home to a French Spring that is as RED as it is green.

From the Lot-et-Garonne market gardens to our near daily markets, French artisan food producers keep us in the pink and healthy with several varietals of sweet, perfumed fraises.

Charlotte, gariguette, mara des bois, ciflorette... all in the height of the season. Last week's summer warm weather (75-80') made for some super sweet juice available from one enterprising producer.

After filling a basket full to make a strawberry shortcake, French style... I saw nothing but red,

red,

and more RED!

Welcome home!

At home wherever I live...

2008-04-05T00:43:00.003+01:00

Northern California freelance journalist came to visit me at Camont in October. This is what she wrote. I have read the comments to the article with great interest. After these 20 years living in France, traveling to many other European countries, a year roughing it in Africa, moving all up and down the west coast, a childhood in Hawaii--I just can't imagine people carrying so many misconceptions about one country, one people.

I've written it a thousand times as I traveled across Europe by barge; I call this my Long Village. Now, the Long Village extends across oceans and continents and includes people who speak many languages, eat many kinds of food, have ups and downs and laugh a lot. My Long Village neighbors come in all sizes, shapes and humors. God bless the differences!

For those who have never traveled this Long Village road, let me introduce you to some of my smiling French neighbors. To be continued...

Artisan Food School- Gascony at Camont

2008-03-30T16:47:00.002+01:00

Spring thoughts... how things are connected like peas on a necklace...

I was shopping in Cheese Plus on Polk & Pacific in San Francisco a little over a year ago while buying Christmas cheese for dinner with friends. I wanted only French cheese, artisan and farm cheeses, raw milk cheeses. What I found while selecting the creamy Carles Roquefort, a tangy Brebis de Pyrenees and some succulent chevre de Rocamadour was a real, honest, dyed in the goat's wool Cheese Guru- Wil Edwards.

When Wil introduced himself and learned that I lived in France, he disclosed that he was coming to Normandy to work on a camembert dairy farm then train on to Italy to make pecorino. I mentioned that the French Kitchen at Camont was along the way (by how the French crow flies!) and why not stop in, stay a few days and I'd introduce him to some local goat's cheese producers.

What began on the streets of San Francisco continues today on the farms of Southwest France as Wil Edwards brings his Artisan Food School program to Gascony in the Fall 2008. So, in addition to the week long and weekend cooking I offer year round as French Kitchen Adventures (including special Camp Cassoulet weekends) I am pleased to announce the first Artisan Food School programs in Gascony at the French Kitchen beginning in September 28 2008.

For further information, click for more details here! and check out
Vicki Haddock's sweet article about us at SF.Gate.com

Too Busy Cooking to Blog!

2008-02-29T08:02:00.004+01:00

When students come for a week or two of intensive Gascon cooking, it's intensive for me, too!

This week I went from having tapas in San Sebastian to the famous Truffle Market in Lalbenque to perfecting a delicious Gateaux Basque recipe.

This Morning My Neighbors are Killing a Pig.

I promise this weekend there will be blogs to post, pictures to file
and stories of the good food in Gascony...all year round!

This is what we have cooked so far:

Pintade a la crapaudine truffée
Gratin Dauphinoise aux truffes
Gateaux Basque supreme!
Saucisse d'Agen et Lentilles du Puy
Clafoutis aux Pruneaux d'Agen
Cœur de Canard flambe
Cote de Bœuf Bordelais
Crème brulée aux Diamant Noir

And that's just the first four days!

Duck hearts and Clafoutis

2008-02-25T22:34:00.000+01:00

I just returned with First Peas and Fava beans from
the Market at San Sebastian.

Spring Stall with Mimosa and Plum Blossoms

This is what Kris, Matt and I are cooking for dinner tonight in the French Kitchen...

aperitif

Saucisse de Canard
Floc de Gascogne
morcillo with hot peppers

fresh pea puree and sauteed gesiers
(the first peas of the season from Basque Country)

grilled duck hearts on a bed of
fondante de poireaux
(slow-cooked leeks)

Wild Roquette Salad
with walnuts and roquefort

Clafoutis aux Pruneaux d'Agen
(this recipe is for my buddy DL)

Clafoutis aux Pruneaux

1 tablespoon sweet butter
1/2 lb pruneaux
1/4 cup armagnac
5 tablespoons flour
5 tablespoons sugar
5 eggs
3 cups milk

Heat oven to 350'.
soak the prunes in armagnac for 30 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. This can be done well in advance.
Butter a shallow 1 1/2 qt baking dish then powder with sugar or flour.

Beat the eggs in large bowl with a balloon whisk.
Mix the flour and sugar, add to the beaten eggs and whisk.
Add the milk, little by little, until mixed well.

Drain the prunes reserving the liquid,
arrange in the buttered pan in an even layer,
pour any of the leftover armagnac into batter.

Pour the batter carefully around and over the prunes.
Bake for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Serve warm. Yum.

Madonna and child...

Stay tuned for more good food this week... with Matt and his mom.
Live from the truffle market tomorrow in Lalbenque...

Spanish Hooky*- rooms with a view

2008-02-22T07:49:00.006+01:00

I love hotels.
The bed is always Maid.
The bath has too many towels.
A genius put a Toblerone in the petit frigo for my midnight craving.
But best of all, I love the view...

from here,

and here,

and here.

Pais Vasco is more than gastronomy children, but if you are going to pilgrimage to San Sebastian for Arzak & Pintxos, then think of all the great places you can stay-all these 'rooms with a view.'

*Playing Spanish Hooky at the Hotel Londres, Iturregi- a Basque paradise, and the Sheraton Bilbao.

Spanish Hooky*- the making of...Caviar de La Rioja

2008-02-20T08:13:00.011+01:00

Peeking.

Seems like everyone is doing it... Even my friend David Lebovitz is writing eloquently about luxury in this time of... fiscal hijinks. So when I found myself in the arms of Frank O. Gehry's smiling Hotel Marques de Riscal in La Rioja Alavese, I succumbed to the temptation.

Caviar.

Perfect, dark bubbles of burst-in-your-mouth flavor. Don't worry sturgeon lovers. This caviar is perfectly sustainable and might even be called... vegetarian if it wasn't sitting on a cloud of foie gras mousse. This is the restaurant Gastronomico's Caviar de Vin. A creation of Chef Francis Paniego and his smiling crew headed by executive chef Jose Ramon Piniero.

Caviar pearls floating on a cloud of foie gras curd with red pepper.

Maria explaining the syringe technique to make the wine gelatin caviar pearls.

Spinning constellations of caviar in cold sunflower oil.

Wine Caviar drained and ready to serve.

Shooting the F.O.Gehry egg.

Francis Paniego explaining his 5 generation-long traditions.

Chefs
Francis Paniego & Jose Ramon Pineiro

Happy Tim Clinch eating the fruits of their labors.

The room with a view?
From the City of Wine- the Hotel Marques de Riscal in Elciego in La Rioja Alavese
in the Pais Vasco.

Muchas Gracias .

*Spanish Hooky- what I call working on a new book of Spanish design.

Spanish Hooky- room with a view...

2008-02-19T10:02:00.003+01:00

Winter sky
Vino tinto
f.o.g.
pink, gold, inox ribbon
P.V.

Where am I?

Spanish Hooky- a coffee in the port

2008-02-17T08:08:00.006+01:00

Its in my nature.
Part gypsy, part hobo, part 19th-c traveler.
I live on a boat.
I travel for a living.
I dream in technicolor and surround-a-sound.
I have one foot planted on water, the other in the garden.
Sometimes I channel Mark Twain, wearing an apron.
I am at ease in this world.

Ok, so enough with the lifestyle haiku. This is my way of introducing a new feature here at French Kitchen Adventures. I call it Spanish Hooky.

The best part living in Europe is that in the time it takes to drive from Seattle to Portland, I drive from France to Spain. That means Goodbye baquettes et cafe au lait, Hola cerveza y pintxos! Today I drive off to Northern Spain- west coast-- the Pais Vasco (Basque Countries to you!) and la Rioja for a week of exploring the insides of some of the most interesting and beautiful houses, hotels and... restaurants in all of Spain. Like this- the new City of Wine building by Frank O Gehry for La Marques de Riscal in La Rioja.

photo credit

So when you see Spanish Hooky think: calamar, bacalao, jamon, antxoa, aceites... I'll meet you in the bar on the sea for a cortado...

a great way to start the day.

My True Valentine Boy.

2008-02-14T18:54:00.005+01:00

2007
Sorry all you hot, panting animals.

My heart barks out for another.
He is big, and sweet, and eats like a pig.
He talks back, growls good night and then snores.
But at the end of the day when I say "Good Boy" for the one hundredth time,
I know I really mean it.
Nobody's perfect, but he's pretty close.

2008

Happy V-day, Bacon!
(Celebrating one year and one month together!)

Faux Twitter

2008-02-13T20:29:00.003+01:00

I can't seem to find the time. Training Bacon to ride a bike. Hanging a curtain rod. Fixing a toilet. Two down and two to go. Eating bread and wine for dinner. Good French bread and great Madiran wine. Skype, Blog, phone, cell, email, website... Unplug. Quiet. A night bird calls out across the canal. Twitter.

New Orleans love letters...

2008-02-07T13:52:00.000+01:00

PJ & KH 'n NYC

You're going to be hearing a lot about Nouvelle Orleans from old France for the next couple of months as we get our lil' ole traveling shoes on (size 12 thankyouverymuch!) and head to La Louisiane in April for the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference-see banner above! (Ok, it's a great excuse for a food-long week of gabbing and grabbing goodies as well as some serious networking, pitching, teaching and sharing going on.)

The gossip is that The Pimster has just posted a love letter to Tony Bourdain-- in public no less! But I hear the love for NOLA behind it all. My own Love Affair began when a friend of a friend arrived to write a newspaper story about me and the French Kitchen. Ever after called Capt' by one Pableaux Johnson (see above and newly at the Louisville Courier-Journal and writing about it all here) , my courtship with NOLA began.

Since then, it's been a friend of a friend of a friend sort of world... Pableaux beget Sue, Sue beget Mario, and so on. Eventually a few other NOLA Natives arrived on their own to taste la Gascogne and voila! Camont and New Orleans are now twinned forever. At least in my heart!

This summer David Aman "showed up". David is the eye behind the camera of DOCNO and one very nice guy. You can find what he shot this summer with me playing in my tic-tac-toe potager here or just waltzing around 'the Gascon Ranch' here.

All in all, its a great time to be thinking of going to New Orleans and 'giving back' for all the great friends it has set me here!

Mardi Foie Gras tout le monde !!!

2008-02-05T08:26:00.000+01:00

en Gascogne- 20th century

Fat Tuesday.
Fat Liver.
Even the buds on the orchard trees are fat this Tuesday.

I might not be in New Orleans ...yet.
But that solitary, artisan-grown foie gras resting in my freezer may just have to be dinner tonight to celebrate the day along with the rest of the world...le carnaval. What better way to party than with a Mardi FOIE Gras!

Claude et Canards gras

Here are a few special photographs by my lens friend Tim Clinch taken in our neighborhood in our lifetime. For a fatter peek at how TC sees the world check out his official website- www.timclinchphotography.com (and notice all the great food pics taken in my French Kitchen!) and TC's new photographic travelblog from our recent trip to Spain- www.clinchpics.blogspot.com.

aux voisins

After the first pre-holiday rush for Christmas foie gras, now is the time to start making confit and putting ducks to bed. Spring is a natural time for the pre-migration fattening mode to kick in. Hardwired in the birds' brains, these spring ducks produce great foie gras and tender meat for preserving for later special dishes like cassoulet and garbure or best of all, a crispy leg of Confit de Canard and a Spring salad.

They may be lining up for beads along the parade routes this week, but here in the French Kitchen, I am celebrating in my own Gascon way- au paniers mes chères!

Laissez les bonnes temps roules!

All photographs above by Tim Clinch
www.timclinchphotography.com

Spanish Lemon Marmalade- the recipe

2008-02-03T13:32:00.000+01:00

It didn't take long to cut, juice and slice the dozen souvenir lemons I brought back from Spanish Hooky jaunt #1- Catalunya. I didn't want to do anything fancy, just save the juice for a sweet/tart curd and preserve the untreated, natural rinds.

The French Kitchen recipe:

12 organic lemons
cut in half and juice (reserving juice for lemon curd)
weigh and slice the rinds in thin strips
measure an equal weight of sugar (e.g.- 500 grams sugar to 500 grams lemon rind)
toss in a stainless steel pot, dump the sugar over them, let them sit together all night
next morning, cooked the rinds in their syrup-- very slowly, all morning until the syrup was thick and the rinds are still a little chewy.
pour into 3 jars; give one to a friend, put one in the cupboard, then make toast.

This Sunday morning breakfast- a still hot baguette from the boulanger at Brax, salted butter and lemon marmalade with a steaming cup of café-au-lait.

Wish you were here...

Spanish Hooky- no sticker fruit

2008-01-30T11:58:00.000+01:00

It's not all pork sausage and foie gras around here. Sometimes the Tramontana wind blows me away for a new book project that I'll just call here "Spanish Hooky". Beside the work at hand, TC- intrepid photographer and I managed to eat in a handful of wonderful joints from Bar Boia in Cadaques to Les Cols in Olot. But these natural lemons were scored at the Monday market in C-town before we headed to the volcanic landscapes of inner Catalunya. There we had a stellar meal prepared by Fina Puigdevall of very local, very thoughtful dishes ranging from a simple yet memorable Santa Pau beans and botifarro to a perfectly piggy rib with cabbage and quince. The dishes flowed at a more lively Spanish rhythm than here in France with a friendly and welcoming wait staff. Our tasting lunch 12 courses was anchored by the best bread I have eaten in ages- from Els Hostalets d'en Bas. More on that later. For now, lemon marmalade made with fruit with no stickers. I don't need a 5 digit code to tell me that these were grown naturally. Jordi at the Market told me. But if you're not sure about where and how your fruit is grown, check out this tip from the Ideal Bite - my daily green conscience.

Look for the labels stuck on your fruits and veggies:

A four-digit number means it's conventionally grown.
A five-digit number beginning with 9 means it's organic.
A five-digit number beginning with 8 means it's GM.

Charcuterie: Saucisse de Toulouse Part #3- babes in a blanket: the recipe

2008-01-26T12:06:00.000+01:00

cleaning sausage casings- chez Sabadini

The piggy nursery is housed in a brick and tile roof building.

There are five sows with their young, around 8-12 each in individual pens.

A red heat lamp keeps the temperature uncomfortable hot for us, wonderfully cozy if you are a hairless little thin-skinned pink piglet.

Bruno Chapolard acts as the nursery ‘dad’ and keeps an eye on the new moms and the little ones; feeding and watering them as needed. They stay here about 3 weeks before they are moved out into more temperate pens and are weaned from the mothers. Weaners, not wieners .

Bruno shushes us to be quiet and not upset the nursing sows. They like it quiet.

But the minute we tiptoe into the hot and very fragrant shelter, and Bruno reaches over to grab a little one for our petting pleasure-- all hell breaks loose. Such little things can make a huge noise!

It’s worth it. To hold the hot squiggling body close to your chest, smell the warmth and not unpleasant baby smell and feel the naked pink critter start to quiet and calm is to begin to understand just how much work all this food making is. As we passed her around, one of my students, a big strong guy from Manhattan, almost dropped the piglet with surprise. “It’s hot!” I think months of handling walk-in refrigerated meat had convinced him that all animals were born at a safe handling temperature!

We place the babe back with the litter and after a bit of scurrying around she dived into the space left for her at the four-legged milk bar. Backing out into the much fresher air, and after very deep breaths all around, we talk about how cool it is to hold the life force soon to be nourished to mature meat. Bruno et frères take their work seriously and the breeding of a good line of healthy pigs is the first stand in producing quality tasty meat. With a very small breeding stock of 30 sows, they maintain enough pigs throughout the year to sell directly to consumer. A healthier stock means less treatment and although not organic, they ascribed to reasonable agriculture practices.

So we want to begin these same careful practices when making sausage. Like the three most important lessons in cooking:

Buy good quality product.
Season carefully with high quality ingredients.
Pay attention to what you are doing.

It’s pretty easy after that. This is the most basic traditional recipe for Saucisse de Toulouse as made in these Gascon parts by butchers and farmers. I have translated the recipe that the Chapolards use to make just a small batch of fresh sausage. Be sure and taste a pinch of sausage to see if you have the salt and pepper to your liking. Some neighbor make their sausage and pates on the flat side, I like mine where the freshly ground pepper is a pungent foil for the salted sweet meat. If you don’t have casings,

Don’t worry, just make crepinettes- little patties the size of cookies, wrapped in caul fat, sometimes larded with a slice of truffle or a bay or sage leaf. After Tim Clinch took these pictures, we ate them with oysters.

#1- Saucisse de Toulouse: making a French country classic at home.

The essence of simplicity, Saucisse de Toulouse is nothing more than fresh pork sausage, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper and placed in natural casings. The succulent flavor relies on the choice of good pork cuts and careful seasoning. This is the summer favorite for Barbeques or when making regional dishes like Cassoulet.

Ingredients:

2 pounds pork shoulder meat (also called boston butt)

.5 lbs fresh pork belly

16 grams (approx 2-1/2 tsp) sea salt

4 grams (approx – a scant 2 tsp) freshly ground black pepper

1 cup (8 oz) cold water.

1 meter natural sausage casing (soaked in cold water with a little vinegar added)

Grinding:

Use a manual or electric meat grinder to grind the meat and pork belly with a 10mm (3/8 inch) hole plate. It helps to start with the meat refrigerator cold. Use a clean bowl or pan to receive the ground sausage meat. (Alternately, you can cut this small of amount of meat with a sharp 10-12 inch chef’s knife, using a rocking motion to help break the meat fibers as well as cut them into small pieces. Place in a large clean bowl and work the cut meat with your hands until it begins to stick to itself before seasoning.)

Seasoning:

Add salt and pepper to water and stir or shake until salt is partially dissolved. This facilitates the diffusion of salt and pepper throughout the meat. Add water to the meat and knead well until it is absorbed. Note the little flecks of black pepper in this sausage.

Stuffing:

Replace the cutting plate with the stuffing accessory on the grinder. Place the entire wet casing over the tube (and this is where photographs help!) , tie the end with a length of twine, then ‘grind’ the sausage into the casing squeezing air out as you go. Remove from stuffer and tie the other end making sure to squeeze out any air. Then using a sausage pricker, ( I use a homemade one made with a champagne cork and some dressmaker pins) gentle pierce the casing to let out any surface air. The sausage benefits from drying slightly and resting covered with a kitchen towel. It can now be cooked or frozen.

Cooking:

Grilling sausage over hot coals must be the all time best way to get that smoky crisp skin and juicy meat. Do not cook too long! Think about a perfect pork roast- just slightly pink meat, juices running clear. A good method for pan cooking sausage is to start the sausage in a cold pan, turn on the heat to and let them come up to medium high temperature with the pan. The meat will be cooked inside by the slower growing heat and then the skins will be caramelized a golden brown by the high heat at the end.

Special equipment:

Meat grinder, stuffing accessory, string, sausage pricker or pin prick cork

Charcuterie: Saucisse de Toulouse Part #2- about a Pig

2008-01-15T18:39:00.000+01:00

Warning... all lovers of cute pink cartoon pigs should leave the room. Now!

Years ago (early 1970's) I had one memorable close encounter of a pig kind. It was that first pig killing experience that changed the way I thought of pork forever. I'll never forget the flavor of the first fresh pork liver I cooked, grilled over an open fire, on Lopez Island... in the good old days. Amazingly delicious.

In these good old days (and I am sure they are in the making) I expect the best from my meat and get it by buying directly from the artisan producer at one of many weekly markets in my fertile corner of Southwest France. And that is where we are heading today, to meet and talk with Mark, Dominique and Christiane Chapolard at Ferme Baradieu.

ONE SEED-

It starts with a handful of sunflower seeds that I see scattered on the ground the first time I visit the family farm. Then I see more by the barn; more by the open tractor shed. I'm not paying too much attention because I am excited to see some of the 200-some pigs of all ages that the Chapolard brothers raise, slaughter and butcher before selling them at my local markets. Pink, hairy, big-eared Large White crossbreeds. That's what I've come to see. But instead, I find myself following a trail of sunflower seeds like Gretel and the breadcrumbs. Sunflower seeds here, corn kernels there, some barley scattered there by those small silos.

Marc stops me before we enter the open-sided barn where I can hear Pig Talk going on. And lots of it- it's close to feeding time. These are not pasture raised pigs. But the brothers grow all the grain that they feed their animals on their own land. Jack tends the fields with an army of shared giant machinery, combines and tractors, and Bruno oversees the nursery where sows and sucklings stay cozy under heat lamps. Marc holds out both of his hands and shares the sweet smelling meal with me. "This is the beginning of a very good sausage."

Next the nursery...

sunflower photographs courtesy of DK Clip Art

Charcuterie: Saucisse de Toulouse Part #1

2008-01-10T09:56:00.000+01:00

SAUCISSE DE TOULOUSE-

It was nearly a year ago that we danced around the Chinese pig, ate dumplings and spiced pork belly- then got distracted by black truffles and other good winter food. We all declared that night that the year of the pig (as Charcuterie) would go mainstream; we weren’t far wrong.
New books on charcuterie appeared like Ruhlman and Polcyn's Charcuterie or Stephane Reynaud's 'Pork & Sons'; old books resurfaced (I found an old edition copy of Jane Grigson’s ‘the Art of Charcuterie’); several blogs about going whole hog appeared; lots of drying, curing, and stuffing talk at farmer's markets across the lands.

To put in perspective exactly what I do--when I cook and teach is, quite simply, I simplify. Cooking French in France is easy; it should be at home too. I want you to want to cook, not think it's too difficult or not worth the bother. I cut my teeth cooking on a 42-foot yacht before graduating to my own 85 foot barge. Hey, that’s a big boat…but it still has a small galley. These small cooking surfaces informed my style- fast, and the techniques that I use- simple. There are very few appliances due to space and electricity issues when traveling. When I cook in the Relais de Camont- where I teach my classes and workshops, it doesn’t change much. The space is much larger but I still leave the big machines to the fancy schools; it began as an aesthetic decision to fit the 18^th century kitchen but I soon realized it fits the way I cook and keeps the focus on the product not the technique. And it is all about the product here in the French Kitchen!

So with that in mind, I’ve invite you to play along and take this virtual charcuterie class with me. Comment to your heart's content, cook along highly encouraged, and questions willingly answered. We begin with the pig, the noble Prince of January, and will tackle a handful of recipes from the classic French repertoire. I am not inventing any of these recipes, and you can search through the 2,000,000+ recipes on line for differences, variations on a theme, and history- some true and some lost in cyberspace fiction. (Remember that game of Telephone? Just imagine what happens with a 100,000 food bloggers pick up and post an ‘authentic’ recipe; by the time it reaches the audience it is sometimes unrecognizable!)

Step#1- a most basic and authentic recipe.

First things First: consider the source. See this man? Mustaches and Beret aside, this is the one of the most trustworthy souls on this earth- Dominique Chapolard, his wife Christiane and brother Mark are the source for these basic French charcuterie recipes- the charcutiers themselves. Before I begin to cook I want to know more about what I am cooking and that lead me to the people who grow the pork, in this case a family of butcher brothers and their wives who run the excellent Ferme Baradieu near Mezin, here in Southwest France. They aren’t the only producer/butchers in this area of the planet, and they might not be the most new wave as far as technique or the most old-fashioned in terms of heritage breeds, but they are caring and careful workers in all they do, from raising the grain they feed their animals to butchering and curing their pork products in the farm laboratoire. I have a special relationship with the family Chapolard because they offered me an inside scoop on their life and work that helped me understand what real porc was all about. I have been barging in to the family farm for several years now and, of course, my own sweet 100 pounds of Bacon de Barici is a true ‘Chapolard de Gascogne’.

On Saturday morning when the lines at the Chapolard “L’Art du Cochon” stand is snaking past the foie gras merchant and over to the poulet rôtissoire, I wait my turn and pray that they don’t run out of Saucisse de Toulouse before I get my turn. It seems that no matter how many kilos they make that week and bring to the market, it all goes home to French households for a Saturday night supper or to use for a Sunday barbeque or in a Classic Cassoulet. So although I have already posted another Saucisse de Toulouse recipe here, I asked Dominique to share their official butcher’s version with us.

Pork
Salt
Pepper

Simple. Very Simple. Not elaborate. A bare minimum of a recipe. And so it makes sense that the very few ingredients used are the best. This is the most important part. I assume that if you are going to the effort to make your own Saucisse de Toulouse you will also go to the effort to buy good quality pork. That’s your first job. FIND THE PORK! So plan to spend a little time to go shopping for good pork. Pasture-raised, organic, natural, massaged or beribboned—it doesn’t matter as long as the quality you buy is the best you can find. I’m preaching to the choir here, so let’s leave it that you will seek out the best quality pork in your shopping circle and commit to learning just what makes Saucisse de Toulouse tick. Our first task in this Saucisse de Toulouse workbook is to get thee to a butcher.

It’s Thursday today, I’ll be going to the market on Saturday. See if you can find some good quality pork shoulder before then. It doesn’t have to be a precise weight. It’s ok to let it sit and rest in your refrigerator until then. What part of the whole hog do you buy? Ask for a whole shoulder roast and a piece of unsalted pork belly (that’s fresh bacon); the natural fat to lean ratio of a good farm-raised pig is about 20-80 and that is what we are looking for. The Label Rouge certificate, much valued here in France, limits fat to 20% in fresh sausages and to meats from noble cuts. So get over the idea that sausage is a catch-all for undisclosed body parts. That is why we are doing this together.

Notes on Seasoning: Traditionally Saucisse de Toulouse is quite simply- just fresh sausage and is deceptively simple for that reason. Salt seasons and helps cure the meat but there are no masking herbs and spices (except pepper) to hide the quality of the meat. Recipes for Saucisse de Toulouse often add different flavorings like garlic, nutmeg, and sugar; It has been said that in Toulouse white wine is used and my farm neighbors here in the Southwest routinely add a pinch of épice Rabelais, a commercial secret blend of charcuterie spices that can be dangerously heavy on cloves; I do love the package but use it with a very restrained hand.

While you are checking your cupboard, make sure you have sea salt (coarse or fine) and fresh black peppercorns. That's it. By no accounts do you want to see this on the label of any sausage you make:

Viande de porc 88%, sel, acidifiant E325,E262, sucres: saccharose, lactose, dextrose de blé, épices et aromates (moutarde), exhausteur de goût E621, colorants : E100 et E120, antioxydants E316 et E300

rather the Label Rouge for Saucisse de Toulouse designates "sans colorant ni conservateur"- no coloring and no preservatives.

Sausage casings: this might be trickier depending on your neck of the woods. In these here French woods, even the supermarket, in the small country towns, will carry natural sausage casings. we are looking for about 25mm or 1 inch casing; Saucisse de Toulouse is a generous size sausage. Ask the butcher or maybe comment on where you found sausage casings chez vous! in a worse case scenario you can make crepinettes, little fla patties wrapped in caul fat. where do you get caul fat? Same place you get sausage casings.:)

Notes On Machinery. If you are talking to a real butcher, I mean a live human being like the charming Butcher of Moissac above, then ask him to grind the pork shoulder for you. Now that’s easy! If you live in plastic-wrap land, when you get that hunk of meat home, take it out of the plastic, rinse it, dry it and wrap it in a tea towel or cover with parchment paper and refrigerate. We’ll grind it later. Oops! don’t own a grinder. Well, hang tight and let’s see how easy we can make this. Get your knives sharpened. Anyone wishing have some more kitchen toys, oops, I mean tools, can find all the grinders you want here.

But first we’re going to take a little trip to the farm and learn a bit about pig raising in Gascony...

Ten French Recipes from Gascony you should know how to cook

2008-01-05T19:25:00.001+01:00

Cupcakes running amuck; Mister Greenjeans back on the tube; next, we'll be eating small hamburger without buns and calling them meatballs!

As most of my friends know, I am generally unplugged here at Camont. It’s deliberate. Except for the high-speed wireless connection and my 10 million Skype-mates, I can spend all day seeing nobody at all: maybe a cyclist on the towpath; a hunter trespassing the neighbors field; the postman delivering the latest supermarket ads.

I’m not hiding out completely in a black hole and while I do read blogs and websites on a rather haphazard basis, I’d rather prune the fruit trees, re-arrange the herb garden, walk the dog. But I do read the news online, listen to NPR while making coffee and without having eaten one, I do know that cupcakes were big this year, very big. So I was delighted to see on Epicurious’ new trends for 2008 post that cupcakes will now take a back seat to frozen yogurt and that greens, mostly plants, will join the standard romaine lettuce on chain food restaurant menus. Maybe that will make Michael Pollan happy. I am all about making Michael Pollan happy because even though I don’t know the guy, I like him. I like it when he tells us to eat good, whole food that your grandmother would recognize. You see, I have been saying that to my cooking students for years...17 years exactly. And yes, that’s why I have a cooking school here, in Gascony. That’s what this food is all about here—recognizable and whole. And yes, the farmers are the new star; just ask any celebrity chef who rocks. Or see how often I write about the Butchers, Bakers, & Armagnac-makers-- or my neighbor, Denis Sabadini.

photo by tim clinch

So as I welcome you to a new year of cooking, living and writing my French Kitchen Adventures in Gascony, I wondered what I might share with you- from my kitchen to yours? What can I tell you from here that sheds a little more light on this good food, eat local, slow food movement? It amazed me how successful 'Camp Cassoulet' was (in reality as well as virtual) so I decided to come up with a New Year's list of “Ten Good Recipes from Southwest France that You Should Know How to Cook.”

Over the next few weeks, I’ll introduce you to my ‘rock star’ neighbors and explain how I came to learn these so very 'French Kitchen Basix' … and how you can cook them, too, even if you are snowed in – in Vermont at Sugar Mountain Farms. So, here's to all you new celebrity farmers and don't forget the pigs gotta still eat even if you are now going to be famous as say... Mario, or Emeril or... Yvette and Brigtte.

photo by tim clinch

My Top Ten

'French Kitchen Basix' recipes

that you should learn to cook in 2008.

Cassoulet
Charcuterie- learn to make something from scratch like Saucisse de Toulouse
Confit de Canard
Poule au Pot
Garlic soup
Lapin aux pruneaux
a very good wine and shallot sauce
perfect roast chicken in a pan- a la poêle !
Navarin d’Agneau- lamb please.
Pintade/ guinea hen or other game and fowl with armagnac

Since #1- le Cassoulet is here, and here and here… why don’t we start with #2- Charcuterie and clear up a few ill conceived notions about sausage. Next stop: Saucisse de Toulouse- from field to table. Here's one of your teachers- Mme. Yvette Sabadini of the Ferme Bellevue...just up the road from Camont.

P.S. Epicurious.. # 7-ever notice that pork belly and bacon are suspiciously from the same part of the animal…

A bargeman's holiday in Paris...

2008-01-05T18:14:00.000+01:00

This is what barge captains do in Paris on their holidays.
walk along the Seine and look at ...barges, of course.
And walk along the Canal St Martin and watch les pompiers de Paris
try their hands at starting a barge wash.

And when the city sights fail to amuse, there is always
la Tour dressed up in her sequined gown.

My room with a view. XX2DL

First day and the year to come.

2008-01-01T09:56:00.000+01:00

I love the little celebrations of a New Year's Day best of all. I wake these foggy mornings on the Julia Hoyt to a pair of poule d'eau (moor hens) splash landing outside the galley window; the smoke from the salon stove mingling with a drift of fog; the cushioned quiet of French holiday in the country. Even the distant TGV from Paris is muffled as la Mere Garonne reminds us of her atmospheric influence as she weaves a magic spell of fog and mist far from Paris city lights.

This is 'Gloomy Gascony' at its winter best. Winter doesn't last long here. There'll be time enough in February for early spring breakthroughs, March plum blossoms and April wisteria. Summer begins with May roses heralding the growing season before June and July paper the countryside with sunflowers; The potager-garden loves August and spills a carpet of tomatoes from garden to market before September and October fatten the pantry with wine, mushrooms and other wild things. By the time that November rolls around we are all ready for a rest; chocolate earth is turned in fat lumpy furrows of clay and river silt. We tie the year with a December ribbon of good food and fêtes before we look behind and ahead at yet another New Year to come.

Best wishes for a 2008 of great pleasure and little celebrations in your kitchens, at your tables and in your hearts. Bacon and I return to the farm today for a celebration with his Chapolard family and the beginning of a year of 'Butcher, Baker and Armagnac-maker'- and all the good food from the French Kitchen table.

Is Cassoulet Time's 'Man' of the year?

2007-12-27T16:13:00.000+01:00

With Russia's Vladimir Putin on the cover and the year's roundup of top news photographs inside, I had to smile when I picked up the current issue of TIME magazine and found our own star French dish reaching out from The Global Advisor section. Cassoulet is indeed still in the global consciousness as a journalist from Departures magazine also called this month to ask my opinions about THE best cassoles in the world. Of course, this prompted a last minute drive down the windy road to Cassoulet country as the bidding for the Menu for Hope raffle was drawing to a close and my lovely 20-year old cassole up on the blocks.

So for those keeping track of these things, food trends and such, let it be noted that Camp Cassoulet continues in 2008 and hits the road in early spring toward the West Coast of America and then makes a special all-star French connection in New Orleans before the IACP international conference in Mid April. As IACP's country coordinator for France, I look forward to meeting other international members and sharing one of France's iconic culinary treasures in an informal and fun day at Camp Cassoulet-NOLA. More to come...

And for those wondering just what 2008 offers from my French Kitchen Adventures... stay tuned for a new look, classic recipes and way to own your own authentic cassole from French Kitchen Pantry.

French Full Moon

2007-12-23T09:23:00.001+01:00

Winter.Solstice.French.Full.Moon

This darkest night,
too bright with hope,
leads lightly toward
a New Year
of good Food, Friends
& Family.

For 2008,
a Pantry full of New Ideas,
a Book of French Fairy Tales,
and a Welcoming French Kitchen
at the Relais de Camont.

Menu for Hope- winter solstice celebrations!

2007-12-22T16:10:00.001+01:00

Winter Solstice Still Life with Clay- 21/12/07

Yesterday I drove to the Lauragais, that wide open valley famous for le bleu de Pastel, Minervois wines, and ...cassoulet, of course. For those not lucky enough to have traveled in this part of Southwest France, let me just warn you of one alarming thing- the wind! And it's not from the beans. Bacon and I could hardly walk the towpath along the Canal du Midi; there was enough choppy wave action on the narrow canal that would have made me seasick. But once inside the kiln warmed atelier I relaxed and remembered why I came.

As a barge captain I would say it was blowing stink. As a driver of a very small and lightweight French car, it was rockin'! But as the courier to fetch a trunk full of heavy hand-thrown cassoles... it was just right! And that is exactly what I did- loaded the 2CV with a couple dozen cassoles of all sizes and headed back to the Agenais with a belly full of beans and warm heart.

Thank you all who bought tickets for this 4th Annual Menu For Hope with the hope to win one of my prized Not Poterie cassoles from the French Kitchen Cooking school. At last glance we were at $82K and counting. there are still a few hours left to buy raffle tickets and Pim's last post offers a few hot tips! Since I decided to buy a few extras cassoles to keep the deux-chevaux on the road, I can now offer the lucky winner a well-used and loved cassole or a brand spanking new one. When the winner is selected, I'll send you a photo and let you choose!

Just to tide you over here, here is a still life of the poterie on a windy but sunny winter solstice day in Southwest France. And the man who made your pot for you...

Jean-Pierre NOT

A BIG MERCI TO ALL!!!

LAST DAY World Wide Menu for Hope Bargains!

2007-12-21T08:34:00.000+01:00

Got Ten Bucks burning a hole in your pocket?Then get thee to That Pim! for a list of fab prizes that are going begging.

Pim gives the goods away as to which prizes are the best bets and I'm going back for a few more tickets. Oh, and if you still want that hand thrown Cassoulet Cassole from the Not Poterie near Castelnaudary, a kilo of Haricots Tarbais , some pruneaux d'Agen and my original African Market drawing, there is still a lucky chance.

Aime Not

Waiting Pots

I've got my fingers crossed for you...

Photo credit: http://www.couleur-lauragais.fr/pages/journaux/2004/cl66/reportage.html

Tuscany Cooking Classes for $10...

2007-12-19T16:30:00.000+01:00

With just a few days left to make this 4th Annual Menu for Hope match last year's goal, I am only going to say a few more words...

Tuscan Market Colors

Cooking with Fire

Meet the Meat Maestro- Dario

Vino by the glass

Butcher Friends

Chianti Beef

Italian Dreams rent by the day...

Laundry Day Flag

Madonna and Child making pizza

Your friendly Hostesses welcome you to buy a raffle ticket for Menu for Hope.
JUST $10 dollars for a week of Tuscan Wood Cooking Adventures!
Click on Judy's blog for more details.

Learning to Cook in Africa... Menu 4 Hope

2007-12-17T19:47:00.000+01:00

My own love affair with Africa began on a 10-month adventure as I crawled across the country with one of those 1980's overland adventure companies. London to Jo'burg in 6 months. How about Sicily to Lamu in 10 months? It was slow going and yet it was too fast; too fast to imprint the images, the faces, the sights and scents of a whole continent. I wrote and I photographed and I drew. It was never enough. I wanted back. as soon as I could. I wanted to recapture the whole year again. I decided to buy a barge in Europe so I would be closer... 25 years later I am still here. Yes, My French Kitchen Adventures began in Africa.

This is a drawing I made on a market day in Niger. 1982. I remember what I bought- a big pumpkin/squash, some peanut spice balls, onions. I made a spicy pumpkin soup to serve my fellow travelers. There were 25 of us crammed into the back of an old Bedford Army truck. The big blue Wolley Trolley. The sub-Saharan markets were magical for me. Colors and scents of spices; bright fabrics and clanking jewelry. I was dazzled by the exotic, humbled by the meagerness. I soaked up the noise and bartering like a drunk.

I followed women home, I asked how they cooked. They made small fires and cooked in one pot whatever was at hand. Sometimes it was a silvery fish from the coast of Togo, another time a pot of manioc greens in the Central African Republic; plantains and coconuts, pounded millet for porridge and beer. After nearly a year I landed off the coast of Kenya and learned about coconut milk and rice, limes and mangoes. I sat in the kitchens while women cooked and talked, I sat on the woven mats with the men and listened. I was a woman but I wore pants. A pair of khaki cargo pants from the Banana Republic when it was one little shop in San Francisco. They had given me a gift certificate to the shop if I wrote something for their catalogue. I guess 25 years is not too late to say 'Thank you". I wore those pants 10 months in a row.

When I left Nairobi, crying, I also vowed to say thank you to all those warm and welcoming people who opened doors to their Africa. How would I ever pay them back for the sort of hospitality that you can only imagine- a bar of soap after not having a bath for weeks, a shared meal next to a fire in the jungle, a stowaway berth on a Congo River ferry, a glass of beer in a campground, a lift on an old Peugeot truck across the Sahara, a bed that their children shared. Payment was never demanded, kindness was offered freely. Most times my hosts had less than me but gave willingly and generously.

I see the faces of Lesotho at Pim's Place, the school children and farmers, the mothers and teachers and I want to say thank you sharing. Thank you for helping me share my plenty with them now. Thank you for helping make Menu for Hope the important grassroots success story it is. Thank you for sharing our food blogging words in the spirit of giving and generosity that came from Africa. If you are one of my friends, you've heard me talk about how important that African trip was to me. If you need an extra incentive to buy more raffle tickets, I'll add my original oil crayon drawing of "Market Day- Niger" to prize code EU25- one of my favorite Cassoulet pots.

Go to FirstGiving to buy your 10$ (or more!) chance for a souvenir of African love and the sharing pot.

One of the Not Potter's Cassoulet bowls.

The World Food Program has more information on their site about the specific program that Menu for Hope is benefiting. Read on!

Red Hot Cassoulet Bowl for $10- Menu 4 Hope

2007-12-12T08:25:00.000+01:00

CASSOLES

A few years ago while traveling down the Canal du Midi, The Julia Hoyt and all her crew aboard were moored at a small port near Villefranche de Lauragais. This was July- Tour de France season; we popped some champagne and had foie gras baquette sandwiches as Lance Armstrong and his band of merry men whizzed by in such a fast blur they were gone before we could even register their presence. That evening we meandered over to the Hostelllerie de Etienne for the house specialty- Cassoulet Imperial and who did we see eating vast quantities of beans duck confit and sausage? Well, not Lance, but all the rest of the support members of all the racing teams stoking up on good hearty Chaurien fuel. We wandered back to the boat sated and happy to have shared in yet another victory for 'our' team- Team Cassoulet in the yellow aprons!

I share this anecdote with you, in case you haven't noticed that this is the MENU FOR HOPE week. For just one $10 (US) donation you can buy a raffle ticket to win your own hand thrown by the real deal NOT Poterie brothers Cassole. This is one of my well loved French Kitchen stables that have held dozens of cassoulets over dozens of years. I can't guarantee that you will make a better cassoulet in it, after all as Lance wrote "It's not about the Bike". However, wouldn't you ride a little harder, a little prouder if you won Lance Armstrong's winning bike for a $10 raffle ticket? Maybe your next cassoulet will look like this!

For all the information and other great prizes available worldwide, check out Pim's list at Chez Pim.com then follow these simple guidelines to win your heart's delight.

To Donate and Enter the Menu for Hope Raffle

Here's what you need to do:

1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from our Menu for Hope above

2. Go to the donation site at Firstgiving and make a donation.

3. Please specify which prize you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code. The code for my Cassoulet bowl is EU25. the Tuscan wood oven adventure is EU30.

Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02 - 2xEU01, 3xEU02.

4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

5. Please check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we can contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Any questions, just ask! and get those beans soaking! The prices will be announced on Pim's site on January 9 and the Cassoulet bowl will packed and ready to fly on Jan 10th.

Kate and her one cassoulet bowl magic oven at The French Kitchen.
See More Photos of Camp Cassoulet by Greg Orr.

For another fab prize that you can win (and Cooking with Fire photo) check out what Judy Witt and I are offering over at JUDY WITTS' Tuscan Blog.

Menu for Hope- Cassoulet Dreams

2007-12-10T09:12:00.000+01:00

Behind the scenes of Camp Cassoulet
with Lucy Vanel, Kate Hill & David Lebovitz

When Food Bloggers get together what do they do besides the oh-so-obvious 'eat, cook & be merry' ? Let me take you behind the scenes and share this dirty little secret...

If you imagine all the hundreds & thousands of words spewing off of every food bloggers key board everyday then you can easily guess the answer.

What do Food bloggers do when they get together?
TALK.
NON-STOP TALK.
Overlapping, excitable, TALKING...with your mouth full!

Back in February when Pim and Lucy came for a long weekend of Pig Celebrations, we talked and talked and talked. Pim shared her hopes for the 2007 Menu for Hope with us. We talked over chinese dumplings; we talked over wine, we talked over truffles. Pim speaks quietly but one listens. She told me about her meetings with the World Food Program; of her desire to make the Menu for Hope donations substantial enough and focused enough. She spoke of the School Lunch programs in Africa. And as she spoke, of power coming from many, I became hopefully addicted to the idea that our food blogging words could make a difference within this virtual community.

Pim talking truffles & hope

So when I thought about what I could give to Menu for Hope to inspire YOU to give, I immediately thought of Camp Cassoulet and the great fun and good R&D (Research & Devour as fellow camper Tricia Robinson says) that we had and what makes food bloggers tick. The most photographed subject of the wonderful bean cooking weekend were the cassoles themselves. Not only did they become the star of the show, they inspired spin off posts on Epicurious.com and Saveur.com. Then Departures magazine interviewed me about a story on Cassoles. Then I decided to start exporting the heavy authentic soulful terracotta cassoulet pots to fill the demand that was writing me. Eh voila!

My Menu for Hope Raffle prize: one real authentic, well-loved cassoulet bowl from my French Kitchen and created by the Not Freres of Poterie Not.

photo of this beautiful cassole by David Lebovitz

This cassole symbolizes the power of our food blogging community coming together. This well-loved and experienced 'cacola' will be your French guardian angel perched on a kitchen shelf; a link to the French Kitchens of the past; a cradle for your culinary hopes of the future.
And just to make sure you have the spirit of Camp Cassoulet (see multiple posts in the archive here and at David L' site and Lucy Vanel's), I will include a copy of the new Camp Cassoulet Authentic Workbook & Recipe Primer.

I'll even throw in the beans! A kilo of Haricots Tarbais and the shipping by international post chez vous!

How much does this authenticity cost? This hand-thrown traditional clay cassoulet pot with which to make your Cassoulet Dreams come true? The same as it costs to help out Menu for Hope.

Just 10 bucks
6.81 euros
4.90 pounds

Not much for a chance to win this Cassoulet pot that had made hundreds of delicious cassoulets as well as help feed the dreams of dozens of school kids in Lesotho. How much does it cost to help feed some school kids? Keep them in school? Help support the local food producers that supply the school lunch food? Just a 10 dollar raffle ticket. Really want to win this bébé? Buy lots of tickets! I'll even hold your hand making your first cassoulet; you can call me on Skype and I'll walk you through the crusty bits.

So go to http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhope4 and buy your tickets now for Code EU25.

And while you're at it, check in to see what other Euro-bloggers are offering at Fanny's site- http://www.foodbeam.com or Chez Pim of course. And look at these great pix on pim's site-

Look at these kids... Hey, I wore a school uniform just like that when I was their age! Imagine, if hundreds of food bloggers could raise $100,000 ten dollars at a time perhaps someone out there would match these donations with a nice big fat check... it's up to YOU. I know you are reading.

Green Purple glowing Orange- The Captain is Happy!

2007-12-09T17:44:00.000+01:00

Success.... and if this isn't a sight to warm your heart. Darth doesn't have cooking capability due to her highly Deco design- (btw, this Darth is a she!); However she more than makes up for it by her willing adaptablity to use those darling little wood pellets. Wow! So easy and way cleaner than dragging bark and sawdust into the salon. Now, to put all the pieces back together: couch, desk, baskets and baskets of magazines and art projects.

Oh, and I did I tell you that the cost of the pellets are just 1/8th the price of the heating fuel? Add to the mix that I recycled something I already had (minus carbon impact I think) and I learned that bedspread trick and I feel pretty damn smug just now as I sit in a blustery Atlantic squall storm banging the barge into the banks with the irregular thump of 8 inch waves on the canal. First storm of the season- this calls for popcorn and a movie.

When purple is green... wood stove love

2007-12-06T10:05:00.001+01:00

Sometimes, a woman just comes undone. And when that happens, it's not a pretty sight.

This isn't about food, this isn't about France. This is about being as smart and stubborn as one Barge Captain can be because life on a 65-ton inanimate object can sometimes be a bit... crazy making. But when pushed to the wall, I come out fighting and no amount of cooking therapy can tame me. There are a thousand stories in my Long Village; this is just one of them.

When the Englishman and I bought the Julia Hoyt, a lifetime ago, in the Freeze-land of northeast Holland, the first thing we did was find a sweet little woodstove that fit the look of the turn of the century barge. In a second hand shop in Enkhuizen, I found this highly polished, faceted aubergine-colored bijou of a Deville stove. And although the name of the stove says "Osaka" (remember- it was the time of Japanaiserie deco) we called her Darth Vader- the dark glowing helmet-like cast iron stove masking the sizzling heat within. She has an elegant fan that rattles the damper between "lent, moyen, vie" and the enameled surface is a gleaming deep purple. Folkloric and functional, she stood in the place of honor for many winters.

Later when the Julia Hoyt had nested in the Southwestern South of France and the super efficient fuel-oil furnace found a thermostat and delivery service, Darth was retired (at the instance of an ex) to decorative status in the sitting room of the Relais de Camont.

However, nothing will make a girl go green faster than watching her hard earned euros/dollars/pounds pour into the fuel tank. Think of what I could do in Paris over Christmas with that loot? I began looking at solutions as the green wave hits France but it took a garlic breath of fresh air called Riana writing a post about her Hobo cooking challenge on her wood stove to kick me into action.

a favorite color

Transporting Darth from the house to the boat was relatively easy thanks to my new all rubber two-wheeled wheelbarrow. I can't even imagine how much the cast iron babe weighs... at least or as much as my 100-pound Bacon. Conjuring up an Egyptian engineer spirit, I tipped the wheelbarrow over the stove and the righted it with stove intact... and inside. Next hurdle, the gangplank.

At just over 18 inches wide, it is often the best test of sobriety in Gascony; only tee-totalers and experienced captains can maneuver the plank after a serious evening fête. But a dirty bath mat and a large paper bag served as the lubrication needed to drag the stove across the aluminum rails and tip'er into the wheelhouse and up the steps. 'Pink' thinking.

Hmmm. Now how to get Darth back into her place of honor, the salon, where the old cast iron pipe that passes through the steel deck still stands waiting for the new stove piping. I tried hefting her. Besides getting my hands tattooed with soot, I couldn't really get a purchase and descend 4 steep steps. I couldn't lift it- period. Ok, I really didn't want to lift it either. Seemed like the smartest thing I decided in ages. So I did what I always do, walk away and let it think itself into a solution. and then I called a friend.

As Shauna discovered recently Sweet Judy in Tuscany is more than a gracious hostess when visiting her Florence stomping grounds. She's a dynamic problem solver and a great cheerleader. And when she said, "Andrea uses an old bedspread to drag stuff around", long life lightbulbs lit up all over my brain. First I tried rigging a cardboard ramp- NOT. Next I took the bedspread throw from the couch and padded all the steps down to the salon floor. I tipped the stove on it's back and just like "Winnie the Poo", she went thump, thump, thump and rested gently on the bottom step. After that it was an easy slide across the varnished floors to her resting space.

And there she sits...5 days and 7 hardware store trips later. I have the pipes, I have some of the connections; the trouble is nothing fits exactly from one system to the other. My favorite hardware boys said wait until Thursday (that would be today) and they would have the rest of the pieces. This impatient DIYer has finally given in...

As soon as she is hooked up and with her mica windows glowing, I know I'll forget the frustration and trauma and sink into the couch covered with the bedspread and read about those floating 'gyptians in Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass- a great winter read when playing hooky from the real world.

Mon amour- Osaka
waiting to go green.

2CV Dreams...

2007-12-02T20:12:00.000+01:00

This morning two pompiers (firemen) knocked on the door selling the annual Fireman's Calender asking money for ...widows and children? a new firetruck?
I didn't ask. I like that they call on me on the barge and know just where they would have to drive to in case of an emergency. I never use the calenders, but I buy one for the Relais.

If I'm lucky the village school will have their calender ready when I go to the Marie to ask about the status of my neighbor's environmental disaster of a gravel pit. I'll contribute to the school fund and have a second calender to add to the collection.

Next le facture or postman will pull up in the little yellow La Poste van with his calenders and today's mail. A postcard from a friend, a couple birthday cards, an internet wireless bill to keep me plugged in and in tune with the outside world. I am grateful for all the comings and goings of my 'Village People'.

Sometimes here, in the too quiet countryside around the hamlet of Camont in the Goulard village of our commune of Ste.Colombe-en-Bruilhois in the Canton of Laplume in the Agenais of the Lot-et-Garonne department of the Aquitaine region that I call Northern Gascony it feels a little like living in a postage stamp of small country scenes from 50 years ago.

Birthday 11/29/07- My Year of the Pig... still!

2007-11-28T20:39:00.000+01:00

My dear friend Julie Benbow sent me this birthday greeting; it was for the love of the words, the blessing of our own beauty and a wonderful reminder that we share poetry and pigs with each other. And so I pass the gift to you... my b-day gift to all my word loving friends.

SAINT FRANCIS AND THE SOW

By Galway Kinnell *

The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on the brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as Saint Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of the earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking
and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.

*for an interview: http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/11/14_edgerlym_galwaykinnell/

and more: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/04/10/miller/

Apple & Saints Part 2- Pomologie

2007-11-26T17:49:00.000+01:00

A Recipe for growing an Orchard in Gascony

12 trees

12 holes to dig

1 sunny afternoon rimmed with rain clouds

I have learned to dig holes for trees here in France; large wide holes and deep enough for roots to reach for good soil. The Garonne Valley soil is strong with clay and likes the compost I have been ignoring for a year behind the garden shed. When I found Camont in 1989 the large parc was an apple orchard overgrown with brambles 20-feet high into the trees, ankle-attacking nettles and razor wire blackberry. The long-neglected apples were removed leaving a park of oaks, walnuts and fragrant acacias. Little by little I started giving back the trees I took away in a pretty game of enclos and joalle to keep a picnic place under a shady oak within smell of the spring blossoms. There is lots of wild mint and an a nicely unruly hazelnut hedgerow. I have a dream of a gypsy caravan parked in that wild mint.

2007- Twelve more trees make over 3-dozen fruit trees all bought from the Conservatoire des fruits d'antan; twelve more arm-waving sentinels to preserving the older tastes of Southwest France.

Oh, and those twelve holes... It took all afternoon to dig, plant, water and stake the 8 bigger trees- with a little help from Bacon. It isn't just that the birthday week makes me feel older, the digging confirmed it! Tomorrow I'll decide where to plant the pomegranates. Now what to do with all those sweet apples? And then a recipe...