bleudauvergne

This kind of potato is labeled with an AOC, and apparently they have guidelines about how these can be raisted and sold - they are always sold as young potatoes. Apparently they have a fresh sweet taste and they aren't as starchy as others bred for long storage. Hope that helps.

I have always been most impressed when people prepare simple meals and do it well, Boris. I agree with you 100%.

Yes, I put pictures in the Montigac thread, here (click), and here (click). Thank you once again for getting me started making pasta - it's something that I will always be able to do now, and it took your class to inspire me.

Hi Moby - I wanted to pop in to say that I have been making whole wheat pasta with whole grain duram semolina and whole wheat flour (T150). It's turning out wonderfully. Thank you so much for the classes and the inspiration. -Lucy

Foodie52, the semoulina can be made with whole wheat flour, apparently. It must say it on the package. It's darker in color than the regular refined semoulina. I wish I could tell you more. The consistency of the semoulina flour is not like the whole wheat flour at all. Keep looking and asking! Good luck. Foodie52, your semolina question has sparked some investigation on this side, since in all honesty I know very little about it. I do know that semolina (Spelling it correctly in English is a good idea, and if anything I have learned that!) is different from whole wheat flour, because it comes from a different type of wheat. I looked up some definitions of semolina and have found that it is made from durum, which is a hard high protein type of wheat. This is usually used when making pasta in Italy. When I was hooked on making pasta before going on the Montignac plan, I found several kinds of semolina, a more coarse textured one coming from Arab shops, which makes sense after my investigation, because couscous is also made from durum wheat. Other types of fine semolina flour are made from the same type of wheat and the finer the ground, the easier it is to make that nice al dente pasta with. On Montignac, in the bio shop, I happened across something they call whole grain semolina BIO (which is important if you are buying anything whole wheat, because insecticides are often not washed from the outer hull of the wheat, and whole grain, if not organically grown, can have insecticides), which is apparently made with the complete durum wheat grain. The texture as compared with the regular refined semolina is lighter (due to the light weight of the bran and hull) and coarser than refined semolina. I’ll try and take some photos tonight of the comparison. The whole grain semolina has visible pieces of the hull and the bran in it, although it still makes a very nice pasta. When you look at the picture of the first time I was making the pasta, when it is being rolled out, you can see the whole grain irregularity in the dough. It comes from both the semolina and the whole wheat flour type 150. Thank you Paul and bloviatrix for your kind words of encouragement!

I think it's what we call "Felche" in the German part. Very widespread and also known in Germany and Austrial. I had it three days ago. If you ever buy it, be careful with cooking time. They tend to become dry really quick. Overdoneness is the problem here. I prefer to make a very reduced (vitually back to pure fat) butter/wine or butter/lemon reduction and then to butterpoach its filets, maybe for 5 minutes only, toghether with some parsley or basilic leafs. Stay definitely on the "rare" side. It's a salmonide, but flavour is very subtle. I love a perfectly cooked fish or fish fillet. You're right, it never takes a very long time to cook a fish to perfection. I'll keep in mind the next time I cook a ferrat / felche. Thanks for stopping in, Boris!

Foodie52, the semoulina can be made with whole wheat flour, apparently. It must say it on the package. It's darker in color than the regular refined semoulina. I wish I could tell you more. The consistency of the semoulina flour is not like the whole wheat flour at all. Keep looking and asking! Good luck.

That looks pretty good. The beer too.

Bonjour mes copains et copines. My husband was pretty clear about his desire to get out and to the market early this morning, to do what we can to prepare for our houseguest who arrives tomorrow, and to also decide what to prepare for lunch today, since his sister was coming to eat at our house. He doesn't get why I tend to be so laid back when things get hectic. It's not that I'm really that calm, I'm trying to stay focused, and can't talk about stuff like I normally do. I didn't want to commit to any one menu before seeing what was at the market, and our walk down the quai to St. Antoine was rather quiet. There was a nice breeze blowing and it felt really good to be out early. Our fishmonger is one of the first places we go because he is at the end of the market that we enter. We have to get what we can right away, because they run a brisk business and if we do the whole market, and come back right before going home, we're likely not to get what we wanted. Wow ! I thought it was really wonderful to see fish from Boris' lake! He's done the blog this week so I guess my antenna was tuned to all things Swiss and especially from Lake Leman. I thought both of these fish looked pretty good, I thought they'd be delicious. My husband and I began to talk about the fish, and we realized that there were many clients waiting ahead of us. In the end I didn't care what we bought, as long as we had some fish for lunch. I left the task of choosing to my husband and continued down the line. I had fruit on my mind. This past week we made a rather significant dent in the cherry compote but I hestitated to get fruit last week and was stuck chewing some mealy powdery apples all week. I picked out 2 melons first. I grew up in apple country in upstate New York, and am used to having a variety of fresh apples in the fall. I'd say my apple vocabulary is rather developed, like eskimos and types of snow. For some reason I thought that cherries were kind of all generally the same, either black cherries or sour cherries. I am coming to the realization that there are dozens of varieties available. It just never dawned on me until today when a vendor was selling 5 different varieties. He encouraged us to taste them all, and I bought some of the Summit variety. Raspberries are coming in season, as are forest strawberries. I wanted to get some navets for some soup but my husband said they are high on the index. I think I'm going to have to double check that. We picked up lettuce, herbs, and tomato puree from my regular guy. It's really nice to get to know the vendors, and to have a nice conversation with each one when I come to buy. Next, a chicken and eggs from the chicken lady. We'll be roasting it for dinner on the roti. She had three birds for sale today - a duck and a pintade in addition to the chicken but we decided to get the chicken after all. OFF LIMITS but it sure looked good this morning. As always, the flowers were gorgeous. We got some salade de pieds de veau which is something I always get when I see it. It just tastes good for you. What can I say? I ran into my sister in law at the market, and since she was coming for lunch anyway, we decided to proceed together to the house. Loic has gone ahead to go to the bakery, since the lines are long Sundays. My sis in law and I browsed the book vendors on the quai and I picked up a nice cookbook for only 5 euros. I'll comment on it later. Once home, the herbs were trimmed and went straight into water. Basil, chevril, parsley, and chives, and roquette. In addition to the normal pain integrale from our own baker, we also picked up one at the market from an excellent boulanger. It's rather expensive but worth it. In the Montigac style, lunch began with a fruit salad. (she does not know we are following the plan.) He suggests that the fruit come 15 mintues before the meal, so I gave them their salads with the explanation that I would be awhile in the kitchen, an amuse bouche. Garlic and shallots for the salad dressing - I got a macedoine going with eggplant and zuchinni. Loic's choice of fish were some excellent fillets of Rascasse (this translates to "Scorpian Fish" in English, I think. I was a bit concerned because although a wonderfully flavored mederranean rock fish, rascasse is very bony. However the fishmonger did an excellent job filleting it, there were virtually no bones. I marinated them with lemon and shallots, seared the skin side, sprinkled them with creole spices, and finished them under the broiler. The whole cooking process took about 5 minutes, and lunch was served. The salad was a mix with roquette, different varieties of lettuce, herbs, tomatoes, and shallots. I realized at that time that the chevril stem tastes like cilantro, while the leaf tastes like a combination of cilantro, tarragon, and parsley. The cheese plate features the addition of French Comté. When the cheese is like this I regret following the Montignac plan. I really wanted bread with my cheese today. But it still tasted good. Hope everyone has a nice Sunday!

I was going to pipe up earlier, because I thought that the critique from the beginning of Jason's photos was rather harsh. I still don't feel altogether comfortable in the atmosphere here in this thread, because I'm not sure what people expect. Are we here to offer friendly advice? Technical advice? I'll be the first to admit I'm not qualified to do that. Encourage each other? It's what I've tried to do. This is "The Shutter Bug Club", yes? The context and grandstanding that it seems to be developing is offputting, in my opinion. About Jason's photos: I personally found Jason's shots on this thread to be quite well chosen, and a nice documentation of a special event, with real personality. I will also add, in general, that in watching what he documents, and how he does it over time, in many areas of eGullet, I witness an inspiring and positive creative process that involves his discovery of the equipment he is using and some real flashes of inspiration. I also see within this context someone who enjoys what they are doing, shares their time and effort often and consistently, and the exhuberance is contagious. That's really very important to me as a member of this forum. In fact, in many ways I find that what he shares with us as well as what many others share, translates to a transmission of energy to me that affects my own efforts, which I value more than any "technically perfect" impersonal, glossy, post processed singular studio image. Not once have I ever felt ill at ease while viewing the work of others on this board because of my expectation of a perfect standard from anyone, forum hosts included. I have no idea what all of the hullabuloo is about. I am certainly not going to worry about spinach in my teeth - because it kills inspiration, it's not a good thing. I'm going to continue posting a lot of amaturely done, dim, less than perfect photos, with glare, focus problems, and riddled with technical mistakes, everywhere, thanks. I cannot justify beating myself up and agonizing over whether a photo is done "correctly" or not, it's a hinderance to my own creative process. Please Jason, do not ever put a second thought to sharing your photos with us. I can honestly say get a lot from your photo contributions.

Boris - what a great observation, and so exquisitely expressed. Thank you.

Wow thanks Yetty and Cheryl, It's just wonderful that you've been inspired by this thread, and that perhaps this has helped you to make the decision to get healthy again. Congratulations. Thank you so much for the encouragement, too. Remember that I am certainly no expert in this method, and even though the book can get rather technical, it's really important to read it if you want to follow the method. This thread certainly can't replace the years of work that Dr. Montignac has put into scientific research. That said, I hope that my recipes and ideas for meals are helpful in getting you started and keep the creative juices flowing! Reesek, to answer your question about how I've been eating the cheese, I have found that I simply prefer to eat it plain with a fork. The lettuce idea is alright with hard cheeses, I guess, but it detracts from the flavor of the cheese, in my opinion. On to wheat thins (unfortunately I can't have cheese on these until Stage II - after I've lost the weight I want to lose)! Crunchy Wheat Thins 85g. whole wheat hard semoulina 40 g. whole wheat flour (T150) 1 t. finely ground sea salt (optional) 2T. chopped herbs, or other flavoring* *This time I used something called “salad du pecheur”, which is a mixture of seaweeds gathered from Brittany, meant to sprinkle on salads. Ingredients are nori, sea lettuce, and dulse. My thought was to dust the crackers with wasabi after baking. A nice idea might be to add toasted sesame seeds, etc. to flavor them, although using just plain wheat makes an excellent cracker. Make dough as you would pasta dough, working thoroughly into a homogenous mass. This may take some time. Cover and rest dough for a minimum of ½ hour. Cut the dough into 6 parts. Roll each part thought the pasta press, first rolling through widest setting, folding into thirds, and then rolling progressively into a smooth sheet as thin as possible. (I went to the no. 6 setting, as for linguini). Cut the sheets into rectangles, lay on baking paper, and bake in a preheated 400f/200c oven for 4-6 minutes, depending on the oven. It’s important that the crackers bake until they begin to brown around the edges to give them a good crunch. Use for non-fat dips, or top crackers with vegetables and aromatics to serve as an amuse bouche before a carb meal.

For a long time now I have been delving deeply into the subject of the cuisine of this country. Reviving old dishes from ancient cookbooks has been my recent, all consuming passion. Every day I awaken with the inspiration to learn how to bring out the very best from the farmer's majestic offering. Never have I been faced with such a diverse range of regional specialties to explore within these small frontiers. Carefully preparing dishes in this style has heightened my sensitivity to its influence in my own past, a self enriching journey. Ham has taken on a whole new meaning after visiting Savoie, where they hang in windswept mountain paths, and a quiet man wields a sharp knife to plane a delicious flavorful shard of wholesome smoked goodness that melts on our tongues. Crepes have come to mean much more than stuffed pancakes, now that we have danced to the fiddle in Morhiban. Onion soup has been returned to its rightful sublime and humbling stature, we honor its perfect simplicity. Oh how inspiring, the bounty that graces our market basket from day to day. Kiss the cook, for she comes bearing the fruits of her labor! Invention comes easy after a laborious investigation. Nuggets of wisdom are hidden the most unexpected places. Give me a basket of fresh fare and an hour, and I will give you something to write home about.

Fifi - That is some beautiful lard. It fills me with "what if's". 1) I love the little pots and I wish you had chosen a way to give them more weight while at the same time addressing the lard comparison. My instinct would have been to try arranging them within the frame of the photo itself rather than introducing the plate as a background field - because the plate itself as a background distracts from what should be the focal point of the picture and does not add any useful information. It complicates what could be a very stong graphic image. Try putting them on newspaper, plain white linen, or even something dark to serve as a rather neutral background. 2) The way the lard captures light is a very good indicator and a great way to illustrate the contrast and comparison between them. I would experiment and shine light different angles to try and illuminate the lard from behind and make it glow. Also, what does the lard look like through the side of the pot? Worth an investigation. Love the lard.

I would like to participate in this too.

Sopping wet lettuce.

We have gooseberries in New York.

This is very enticing. I think I may have to take an exploratory cheese tour up into the mountains. I went to the fromagerie on the square next to my house yesterday and asked about Swiss cheeses. Madame. Do you have any Swiss cheeses? huh? You know, made in the mountains of Switzerland. Oh. (shrugs). No? Nothing from Switzerland? Well, -ahem- madame, judging from the summer which is about to be very hot, I made the decision not to stock them this year. Yah, ok. (note: Must plan Swiss cheese excursion soon.)

That's great foodie52. Congratulations. I also felt really bad after that evening we did the martini party. At the barbeque I hid the potatoes under the bones from the pork chop. No one noticed. Keep up the great work, and congrats! Tonight I accidentally made whole wheat fat free wheat thins! They taste just wonderful. I will post about it tomorrow because I have to get to bed right away. Lucy

Ok now I feel muuuuch better. Thanks.

Yes, walnut. So it's related with food. It was a fairly big tree standing in private garden a bit uphill. It died and we got the trunk. We sliced it and waited 4 long years to get it dry. After planing, the structure came out with a lot of branches and cracks and holes. We decided to take the board leafs "as found". We finished the table after sanding and polishing some weeks ago. Well worth the wait.

You have not had any luck in finding a recipe that works well with French flour? The second time I mixed flours and it turned out rather well. But then my cake testing days were put to an end, due to necessity to go on a diet. It's true, and they think I'm a goddess every time I toss a batch of toll house cookies together, (I have to chop up baking chocolate due to a void of chips in this country) it's bizarre, another mystery of the French. mktye's photos sure are making me hungry for some cake, though.

Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

Hmmm, those chocolates look pretty good.

Another Eureka moment - the first time I tried home made pasta. Compared to store bought, or even the "fresh" egg pasta you find in the grocery store, it's a completely different animal. Pretty easy too.