What's Cooking?

Autumn

 Our family of  pumpkins (potimarrons) - make into soups with ginger and nutmeg

 Mushrooms from the market (cèpes and girolles)

Haricots cocos de Paimpol - this sounds lovely in French, like the coo-ing of turtle doves.  Unprepossessing from the outside, shelled to reveal pearls, boil vigorously for one hour and serve with strong tomato sauce, only available for three weeks in late September.

Figs and walnuts, fig and walnut bread.

August is two faced

At the beginning of August, the summer is in full swing, the sky is white with promise, we are bright and outside and the holidays will last forever, but by about the middle, already the dawn tarries and dusk hurries in, the sun's rays take on a slant, the odd crisp wind shivers the leaves, and I collect the sticks that our trees have kindly dropped, and prepare for the time when we will come inside again and light the fire...

The elderflowers have metamorphosed into ripe black berry clusters, and we had elderberry muffins for breakfast;

Recipe for Elderberry Muffins

Elderberry Muffins

8 elderberry bunches
300 g self-raising brown flour
150 g soft brown sugar
125 ml of oil
1 small pot of 'fromage blanc' (or yoghurt)
1 egg.

Mix dry ingredients, wash elderberries and tease them off the stem, add to dry mixture, beat egg, add to dry mixture along with oil and yoghurt, cook at 180C for about 20 mins until lightly golden and firm.


Also making...plum jam from garden plums...got the knack of setting now, does not slide around in the jar at all.  I wait until the 'glooping' of the bubbles becomes 'gloopier' and then watch it for 15 minutes until the jam forms a blob on a cold plate and can trace a line through it without it 'closing' and then wait until it forms a sort of stallegtite of drip off a wooden spoon...yes, the joy of employing human senses, without the crutch of a machine!

Unexpected Salad

JC midway through the Unexpected Salad

All my cooking is unexpected, because I never plan and always use what I can find;  leftover in the fridge, in season, in the garden...

Here I took leftover Quinoa with onion and grated carrot and a few courgette slices, I thought it tasted rather dull last night but perhaps I was in a bad mood.

I added a peach (in season), cucumber, snippets of jambon de Bayonne (like Parma ham, was in fridge) a selection of unexpected flavours from garden;  one or two leaves each from wild rocket, sage, mint, marjoram, lemon balm, oregano, hyssop, fennel, tarragon) squeezed over some lemon juice, a bit of salad dressing, and topped with a veggie burger and melted Comté cheese.  It was v. good.

L'experience de la fumeterre

La plante sauvage la fumeterre (fume+terre) est venue chez nous.   Toute legére et délicate, elle monte comme la fumée, et depasse, et semble etouffer les autres plantes!  Comme la fumée, elle est facile a 'souffler a l'ecart' - fragile, elle se casse à la moindre touche.  

Comme la fumee qui monte de la terre, la fumeterre depasse une courgette et monte le treillis

La fumeterre au pieds s'une fenouil et une fruit de passion

La fumeterre en fleur

Une nuage de fumeterre

Nous accueilons les plantes sauvages qui s'invitent chez nous, et evitons de les voir comme mauvaises herbes, elles nous apportent leurs propriétés médicinales  (par consequence notre jardin n'est pas nette et propre comme il faut en banlieu...).  Nous prennons une poignée de la plante que nous mettons dans une petite casserole de l'eau bouillante, et nous la  laissons mijoter cinq minutes, puis le liquide est pret a boire.   Cette tisane a un gout degeulasse!   La fumeterre est conseillée pour nettoyer le fois, les reins, pour aider la digestion, éviter la constipation, réduire l'inflammation:  il faut la boire avec chaque repas pendant 10 jours en juin, quand la plante est en fleur.

Decoction de fumeterre, la coleur or-jaune avec une touche de vert

Buvex ce liquid, et vous allez crier  WOAHHRRR!

Recette pour Syrop de Fleures de Sureau

Cette année le Sureau règne!  Il doit aimer les nuages, le froid, le manque de soleil, la pluie, lui au moins!   Le sureau qui se plantait dans mon jardin à une multitude de fleures, assez pour moi et pour laisser des baies pour les oiseaux en automne.

Voici une recette pour un syrop de fleurs de sureau, c'est tres simple!

12 belles fleures bien ouvertes
3 citrons, jus et zeste (bio)
1.5 kg sucre
5 litre d'eau

Faire chauffer l'eau très doucement dans une grande casserole, juste assez pour faire fondre le sucre.  Une fois tiède, ajouter le jus et zeste de trois citrons.  Verifier que les fleures sont propres, et les tromper dans le liquide.  Couvrir et laisser au frais pendant 24 heures, et voila!  Une fois mis en bouteille le syrop se conserve dans le frigo, si dilue avec de l'eau pour un boisson refraichissante.  

Les fleures de Sureaus ont connues pour leurs proprietes medicinales, par exemple:  diuretique,  contres les rhumes, les grippes, l'arthrose, the rheumatisme...comme les fleures ne sont pas chauffées je dirais qu'elles gardent leur bienfaits.

Elderflower Cordial

There is a bumper crop of elder flower this year, obviously elder trees love rain, cold and absence of the Yellow Stuff (I believe it is called sun).

I cropped 12 ripe wide open flowers from the elder which planted itself  in our garden and which is now 20 feet high and has ended the career of my rotary washing line.  The tree had of plenty of flowers to spare, and will have plenty of berries for the birds in the late summer.

I dissolved 1.5 kg of sugar in 5 litres of water, put in zest and juice of 3 lemons  dunked in the flowers, and covered it and left it to infuse in a cool dark place.   Magic, 24 hours later, aromatic elderflower syrup!  If you dare leave it 2 or 3 days, it tastes even stronger.  R insisted that I filter it (ie sieve out the odd stray floret and the lemon zest), I bottled it and kept it in the fridge (it only lasted a week - because we drank it).  I've just made some more with double the sugar and lemons, and bottled in sterilised bottles, to see if it will keep out of the fridge...watch this space for news.***

Elerflower is perported to be helpful in the following conditions  rheumatism, arthritis, and gout; upper respiratory stuff (colds; the flu; sinusitis; tonsillitis, sore throat; chills; fevers) and if taken at the onset of chicken pox or measles it helps by increasing sweating and speeding up the healing process.  They also act as a diuretic which helps to rid the kidneys of toxins.  

Not sure what happens when mixed with sugar,  but as it hasn't been heated it may well retain some interesting properties.

Update:  the cordial ferments after a week or so, and tastes even better, but if left longer turns to vinegar.  So stored remaining bottles in fridge, but none left now, as very popular with family.  A friend of mine who also made elderflower cordial this year, suggests freezing ice cubes of it to add to drinks and desserts.  Otherwise you could heat it to boiling point and seal like jam, but would no longer retain same properties I guess.

*** Update  It certainly kept a few weeks out of the fridge with 3 kg sugar, but could not test any longer as we drank it all up and wished we had made more.  It is now May 2014 and the elder is flowering again, will make more batches and do more experiments.

Ariege Mountain Holiday; St Girons Market

Saturday is market day, we arrive and stock up with food for the holiday, and to buy presents souvenirs and a bit of food to take home (no room in car for more, sadly).  Then on the Saturday we go home, we call in again.  A multinational gathering of ecologists, hippies, artists, musicians and generally all the people I like being with selling the food I like to eat in a town I like the look of...and so drones on about how wonderful it is...in the face of disapproving teenage son who buys pizza, sits on bench, eats pizza, declares the market, the entire region Boring and "full of Old People" and every time I approach the bench asks "When can we go?"

I usually buy one pot, this one from a profound potter with blue eyes, she is part of the souvenir

Organising the mountain flower honey

Garden produce on a plain table

East-West;  Young Lebanese musician selling his organic vegetarian Lebanese sandwiches;   sauce with special thyme from the Lebanese mountains, humous, smoked aubergine pate, salad, yoghurt sauce, goats cheese...au choix

Dutch wildman goatherder, wonderful life, wonderful cheese!

Here we bought particularly aromatic lemon verbena (verveine) for tisane...

JC even found a lovely 2nd hand bookshop run by a Northerner who stocks up in Paris, opens every day it is possible to sell, works hard but loves the work - JC bought Tin-Tin cartoons and book about Eco Houses...

Beatles music...

Bought apple juice here, gathered from hedgerows, (never shake the trees it upsets them and they won't produce next year), dry the apples a little before juicing, makes them sweet... he works as a volunteer for a charity and so has use of their juice-pressing facilities, also turns wood from his garden

R cruises with headphones, to exasperation of parents,but at least he took them off

market by the river

Bought some very good caramel sauce for pancakes, made by Ariege woman who went to Brittany to learn how to cook Brittany food, and sells it to Brittany people in Ariege who complain they can't get their food...that's business!

Orange is my kind of colour

My kind of people...

 

An American grandmother hippy chick, running a portable organic cafe with camping chairs unloaded from her van:  we had perfectly blended chick pea curry and rice and a spicy chai tea with milk, very very excellent

AM I THINKING OF MOVING HERE?   YES I AM.  AM I THINKING OF BUSKING IN RESTAURANTS FOR MY SUPPER GROWING HERBS PLUCKING FRUIT AND HANGING ROUND MARKETS SELLING THINGS FROM MY GARDEN?  YES.  AM I THINKING OF WEARING FLOWERS IN WHAT'S LEFT OF MY HAIR?   YES YES YES

Raclette!

It's winter, in France it is the season of La Raclette, and serious French families equip themselves with one of these:

Non-stick raclette set with top grilling option

La raclette is Cook's Delight because not only is it easy to prepare, but like barbecues, it seems to be a male domain.

Males involved in food preparation

To buy:   Raclette cheese ready sliced (take care to get unpasteurised if possible and check for ferocious list of  E numbers, not necessary, not healthy and not a good sign), selection of charcuterie (such as cooked ham from Paris,  raw ham from Bayonne, saucisson, or salami, mortadella ham (Italian Spam) whatever takes your fancy (vegetarians, those with high cholesterol, weep).   Some good organic potatoes which can be cooked in skin.

Note bubbling cheese in triangular receptacle, to the left, wooden scrapers, spuds in saucepan bottom right and cheese and charcuterie on its way towards being prettily arranged...(and small glass of organic Chardonnay)

Method:
Get someone to cut rind off the cheese slices and arrange prettily on a plate, and someone else to open  the charcuterie and arrange prettily on a plate.  Boil potatoes in skin and serve in cooking pan (yes!).  Persuade someone to get non-stick raclette set out of the cupboard and clean off dust.  Turn on.  Invite members of family to put their own cheese slice in the triangular receptacle provided, insert it under grill, and when bubbling remove, scrape out with wooden scraper on top of boiled potatoes and charcuterie of choice.  Voila, as the French say.

Advice for Feeding Birds

I have never seen the birds so hungry, a mountain of sunflower seeds was moved in a day.  It's been a bad season for berries and seeds.  My mother said that in the cold winter of '63 half of all British birds died.

I am moved to act, I love to watch the birds feed.   In the snow they are all puffed up and round.

I asked some advice on how best to feed the birds in the cold weather, from my mum, lifelong member of the RSPB and sensible cove:

Blackbirds and soft bills like fruit – manky apples cut in half as some don’t seem to know how to get through the skin or you can spike them onto branches

Shelled sunflower seed for those who cannot cling like tits,  whole sunflower for the tits (I suppose they will go for the shelled ones if they have the choice)

Good quality seeds for birds (cheap ones mainly wheat which almost nobody eats)

Leftover bread (wholegrain if poss) dipped in sunflower oil (fat helps to keep warm)

Leftover culinary seeds and dried fruits

Thawed water

Dining at our table so far this winter:  crowds of chaffinches, flying visits from gangs of starlings and greenfinches (all of which we don't usually see), dear old sparrows, great and blue tits, robin, jenny wren, collared doves...

Wild Snowmancat

Wild Snowmancat at dawn
With solid ice bowl brimming with snow
Created by artists
Aged 15, 17 and 18

Real cat, lightly traumatised
Appears on the scene
Wild!

Christmas List Results

R did not get a spiv hat, a faux leather jacket and a bank account

B did not get a serious upgrade for this computer

JC did not get nothing

I did not get a red medieval dress with a green girdle

Walk this Wayl

JC wears his Quickfit Fitter ski outfit from a jumble sale...

View from Cafe in Winter Sun

I got up early and set up the room, and while I was out collected pine branches to decorate the fireplace, JC attempted to transmit the true meaning of Christmas illustrated by a bible reading;  his mistake was to attempt this ambitious project BEFORE opening the presents...and upon teenagers.  Back to the drawing board on that one.    But everything else went spiffingly.