bleudauvergne

Thanks a million to all of you! How did the bread turn out?

Nan, chicken tikka, a sauce made with ginger with an evasive taste I cannot name, tandoori. Lassa the drink, I'm probably spelling it wrong. Pan's reverie was pretty nice.

Thank you for that informative initiation to curry leaves, I will pick some up tomorrow. I know just the place that should have them.

What's curry leaves?

Can you give me more of a descriptive on the spices please?

I was looking at this picture which shows it with big leaves to compare. Let me give a taste: does you garden marjoram start out tasting like thyme and then develop into a strong lavendar taste? I hung it to dry because it had such a strong flavor I doubt I'd use it this week. The taste comes from one of the buds which has already dried. Marjoram it is. (?) Thank you ever so much.

Thanks guys! Summer Savory it is. I don't think it's marjoram either... Link to a description of summer savory

Link to le Roves de Garrigues cheesed description at fromages.com

Hey that's ok Rachel, you already gave me the idea of what I should be doing, and I thank you for that. I think, since my gallatines are frozen, the next time I want to serve them, and I bring them out to thaw, I will experiment with painting the gelatine directly on the thawing gallatines, layering herb leaves into the gelatine on the surface. Thank you for giving me ideas for how to accomplish what I want, even though aspic is not your cup of tea. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the market yesterday, I didn't get much because I have many odd veggies to cook, and enough fish in the freezer to feed me until kingdom come. Besides, I was thinking of spices, which can be rather costly. I picked up (from top right) basil, tarragon, chives, cucmbers, 2 mystery herbs, 1 garriguette (?), which the vendor says he uses in pickle making, the other looks like rosemary but it tastes lemony,very pungent. Spices (detailed below), eggs, 1 kilo of cherries for compote, parsley 2 types, mushrooms, celery root, citrons confits, and bread for Loic and his sister who came over for lunch. Spices were an assortment of curries, mixes, and the ingredients for my creole spice mix. From left to right: dried oregano, pre mixed: garam masala, mix of black and white pepper, dried onions, dried garlic, pre-mixed: curry "madras", curry "colombo", and curry "masal" (I have no experience with any of these but I thought I'd start) , some hungarian paprika, dried pepper flakes with lots of heat, and a milder more subtle and complex spanish pepper powder. My creole mix which I always have on hand for quick marinades and giving flavor to soups and lentils, includes: 3 parts paprika 2 parts finely ground sea salt (or a mix of coarse and fine) 2 parts dried garlic 1 part dried onion 1 part mixed black and white pepper (or just black pepper is fine) 1 part cayenne (this time I tried pepper flakes - they are hot!) 1 part dried oregano 1 part spanish pepper Using tablespoons, this makes a nice big jar, which usually lasts me a month to 6 weeks. If you look at the ingredients for a lot of spice mixes on the shelves in a grocery store, they're most like to contain fillers, silica, starch, sugars like dextrose, glucose, etc. I prefer to know what goes into my spice mixes. Sometimes I make the above mix without any dried onions or garlic and just use fresh. Another spice mix that I like to use from time to time, especially with fish, is called spigol and comes in little sachets. I think it's Spanish. What are these herbs? I don't know the name for these herbs in French or English. They are both rather pungent. The one behind is not rosemary, it gives a burst of bitter lemon flavor. I plan first to make an infusion to understand them better, and then decide what to do with them. Lunch yesterday was platter of market crudites and herbs, served with lettuce and with oil, vinegar, and fleur de sel at the table, followed by the cheese plate. There are three new additions to the plate: Cantal, cave aged 15 months. A cheese called L'Ardechois, a chevre fermier, soft and runny, salty, tangy and delicious. It fulfills my innermost chevre desire. Le Roves des Garrigues- another artisanal fresh chevre that had the most amazing subtle herb aroma. The cheese is a simple hand formed chevre. I could not find it in any of my guides, nor could I find the name of the producer on the label. I think that the very slight herb taste that comes at the unique finish is because the goats are grazed on the herbs of the garrigues. But I'm not sure. I haven't checked the web yet. The little cheeses are such a pleasure to discover one by one. The question once crossed my mind: How to these people stay in business, producing such little precious cheeses? How can these farmers sell enough to stay afloat? Then I began trying them, and I understand. These cheeses are just incredible. They cost anywhere from 1 euro to 4 euros each, depending, most falling in the 2 euro range. Each one is produced on different individual farms spread out in all of the regions of France. Each one has a distinct personality. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We took the car to a neighboring town in the afternoon to visit a hat museum with Loic's sister. When we got home, I just decided to prepare something that was easy and we had some baby andouillettes to cook up, so I didn't make a carb meal. But the meal did not have too many fats, anyway. I mixed some dijon mustard in with the mushroom juice near the end of the cooking.

It really depends on the cut. I've had excellent beef boths sides of the pond, and would not be able to say that one is better than the other. But the cuts are different.

I was thinking of you, Mongo, when I blew half my weekly food budget on spices yesterday.

That just made me feel suddenly homesick. Thanks adoxograph, for that, and for taking me to the demolition derby. It was great.

No, it was fromage blanc with cream poured over it, and it was delicious. They normally bring out the sugar so that the person who ordered it can sprinkle it on top. I just order this and don't pour the sugar over it. It's really lovely just like that. Actually I'm pretty sure this meal fell rather low overall on the glycemic index. The tomatoes (the sauce was a tomato puree prepared by one of my producers at the market, containing tomatoes only), a clove of garlic, parsley, basil, and vegetable boullion containing vegetables and brewers yeast only wre all that went on it so all in all the dish as a whole was low on the glycemic index, around 28, I would bet. The carbs are not to be mixed with fat, and fats are to be generally minimized for the dinner meal, thes montignac suggests that I choose to have carbs for dinner as often as I can. In principal, I could have included a couple of spoons of olive oil in this. Montignac gives several pages of sample menus, and "spagettis intergraux a la tomate" are mentioned as a recommended meal - I'm not 100% clear on the rationale but I'll try and understand exactly the reasons in the next couple of days - thank you for giving me something good to think about. Thank you Rachel, for that detailed instruction! I will definitely do that next time. Do you use knox gelatine at all? If so, what's your gelatine / liquid ratio? I might put that to use, and also when I'm making some desserts. I have packets of 11 grams but have no idea how much liquid I should be using for them. About the OO, I think I will follow your advice and do that next time with the sauce. Lisa, since you are not on Montignac, you MUST go to MobyP's pasta making class. There is a link to it above. It's incredibly inspiring and opens many culinary doors. I suggest the egg pasta he makes and use as much semolina as you can, because it just gets better and better the more semolina you are able to work into it. It is so incredibly easy and so satisfying as an activity I'm sure once you start you will do it all the time. And now that I have performed the test, proving that whole grain pasta is definitely possible at home, you can just switch to whole grain if you end up putting on too much weight from your forays into the pasta making adventure! Thank you borh Rachel and Lisa for checking the Franciscan pattern. I have been meaning for years to expand on my plates and bowls into a full service. But shipping and the dang French customs which arbitrarily slaps massive fees on whatever falls within their radar has been keeping me from doing this. But I will check it out and consider it a very important item on my UK trip checklist. Thanks all for your interesting questions and advice.

It is very good the way Jerzymade describes it with an addition of tomatoes as well.

I cannot wait to see what people eat at the DEMOLITION DERBY! You are so wonderful, adoxograph, to take me there. I've never been. Hurry, I'm waiting with baited breath! I bet it's a little bit slower with dial-up... Thank you so much for doing this, you're blog is fantastic and I am loving every word and image that comes from you.

Home Made Whole Wheat Pasta MobyP's stuffed pasta classes got me started making pasta at home and completely hooked, and it was one of the things I really felt bad about leaving behind when I started the Montignac plan. I decided to give a try of making whole wheat pasta, since they sell it in the shops I can try to make it at home. Of course I was not going to include oil or eggs in the pasta, since the pasta meals should include as little fat as possible. Actually you can include around 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a Montignac starch meal, but I preferred to leave it out for this first attempt to see if it would work. Apparently Genoa style pasta is made without eggs or oil, so why can’t I do this at home? My main fear was that it might fall apart. The recipe: 70 g. whole grain fine semoulina 55 g. whole wheat flour (type 150) 70 ml / 1/3 cup water 1 t. fine sea salt Whole flour Whole hard semoulina finely ground sea salt Pulse the dry ingredients in the mixer with the dough paddle to mix them well, and then add the liquid in one pour, and continue to mix until it looks like crumbs. Stop the machine and gather everything into a ball, and get all of the dry flour, and mix it into a ball. Return to machine. Mix with dough paddle on low speed for approximately 4 minutes. The dough will break apart again and then with time stick together again. The dough should be a smooth homogenous mass. Put the dough in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, and let rest in the frigo for at least an hour. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- During this time, I decided to make room on my shelves for the new products from the BIO shop, and removed lots and lots of illegal things from the cabinets. I will be giving these things to friends and neighbors. I think I might make a “tamale kit” for an American friend who loves tamales (masa harina is not available here). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When you are ready to roll out the pasta, divide the ball into 4 equal parts. Roll one portion, keeping the others still in the covered bowl, and run it through the pasta roller at the largest size. Fold the first roll into thirds and run through again to soften it up and get a regular size. Run though the roller at progressively smaller sizes until you get it the thinness you want. I ran it through a total of 6 times and stopped at setting 6 out of 8. Then run through the linguini cutter, while gently twisting into a pile. Cook in a pot of salted (1T. salt per pot) boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Drain and add to your prepared sauce, and serve immediately. I served it with a tomato puree from the market, revved up with a clove of garlic, herbs, a packet of spigol seasoning, and a cube of veggie boullion which had been dissolved in about 1/3 cup boiling water. Topped the dish with prepared “beluga lentils”, and served. A little bit too much sauce, but we could mop it up with bread! Bread is allowed with the pasta meals. Very satisfying. If I'd thought ahead, I would have perhaps toasted it. This is going to become a regular occurance for dinner. I think I may tweak the proportion of semolina to flour, using more of the semolina next time to give it more tooth, although personally I can say that this pasta stood up to the pasta maison made with regular refined flour. It was really good.

We went to the 6eme arrondissement to the BIO shop we know there to get more whole grain and legume products. It’s been two weeks since I started the plan, yet we haven’t really done much in the way of equipping the kitchen. We are going to this bio shop because it is the best equipped place we know of, they do a brisk business, and for that reason their products are always fresh, never bordering on expiration like some other shops we know. Cours Vitton is really not far from where we live, only one metro stop to the east, but it might as well be another world. Lined with picturesque and beautifully manicured trees and ending at a large garden/park on a square near the Rhone, Cours Vitton is the avenue where you’re most likely to see people wearing plaid as any other street in the city. The property prices are the highest in Lyon in this neighborhood. Sometimes the reason escapes me, because it seems rather boring to me, not enough activity. Many of the luxury brand shops found near Bellecour, (where you’re most likely to see leopard print rather than plaid) have smaller preppy sized branches here in this neighborhood. There are no gangs of youths, skateboards, no loud noises, no busses barreling down the street, not a speck of grunge or tortured youth in this neighborhood, rather cars parked along the park, every other one a jaguar, sidewalks teeming with tanned spiffy looking slim and angular madames, coiffed with smooth sable colored bobs, sporting Kelley bags, strings of pearls, perfectly tailored khakis and pressed cotton blouses. We walk from the metro station towards the BIO shop. The shop has an entire row of Montignac products, mostly jams and jellies, a hazelnut spread like nutella, chocolate 85% cocoa, and we look at it and the ingredients but don’t buy it, because we can make our own compote fresh. What we do buy: Type 150 Flour (integrale) Whole wheat hard semolina flour Hazelnuts (because I was inspired by the nutella like spread) Assorted integrale wheat pastas Round Italian brown rice Brown basmati rice No salt vegetable bullion cubes (something that I keep at all times in my kitchen) Brewers yeast Sea salt Infusions Beans, lentils, etc. Some of their bakers Pain Integrale to freeze, it tastes good and is sold fresh at a good price. We left the shop loaded down with all these basic ingredients, and decided to have lunch at a café. We strolled down tree lined Cours Vitton and my mind was on the hazelnuts as we passed Bernachon, where I once saw a sign advertising their own raw cocoa powder and cocoa butter. I dragged my protesting husband inside the boutique / showroom, just to inquire about the price. The cocoa was displayed on top of the candy counter, and the price was 5 € for a ½ pound, so we got a ½ pound (250 grams) bag. I plan to use this to create no sugar / no flour desserts, and to make a rendition of that halzelnut/chocolate spread. I once fought for a package like that, story here (click). The staff was friendly and helpful this time. We passed the window where they normally have a few cakes and goodies, because Bernachon is a fine pâtissière as well as a chocolatier. and continued down the avenue in search of a reasonably priced café. We ended up leaving Cours Vitton to find a place to eat, and just around the corner on Avenue de Saxe, the prices dropped from astronomic to reasonable. Talk that morning about steak had my husband in the mood, so he ordered a steak frites and I had a salade gourmande, which featured smoked magret de canard, pine nuts, and walnuts. For dessert I had a fromage blanc a la crème. We ordered wine, but I had one taste at the end of my meal, and left it, because in comparison to the Cote Roti we've been enjoying at home, this stuff tasted like it belonged on the salad rather than directly on the palate!

My only experience is in making reservations there, for someone else. The restaurant is a favorite for executive business lunches (perhaps that might say something about it, I don't know) being one metro stop from the train station. Their staff making the reservation was cordial and efficient, and the person who ate there seemed quite happy with the meal although he didn't go into detail. I also know that they do have a nice outdoor area with a view of the old Brotteaux station, very pretty.

No, that was Abita Springs, Louisiana. Yes it was in Abita Springs, LA. By the same guy who was one of the developers of that fine beverage that appears in the above post. It's a very small world.

Hi Rachel, Here's one recipe (click) for a pot roast cooked the way I made it, i.e. pink in the middle. The recipe I used was similar to this one. Edited to say I still cooked it too much for my now husband's liking!

No, that was Abita Springs, Louisiana.

It is true that the French steak scale leans rather to the rare. I will never forget the first time I prepared a pot roast for my husband, we weren't married yet, and we had just begun our big adventure together in America. We had been correpsonding and visiting for over a year, but it was the first time that we were living together, we were very new to each other. One evening, I lovingly prepared a nice pot roast, and it was a really big deal for me that he like it. So at the table, he was silent. I asked him how it was, and he said it tasted alright, but it was sort of "a shame" that I'd cooked it so thoroughly. It was nice and pink in the middle, and flowing all kinds of beautiful juices, what the heck was he talking about?!?!? I was shocked, and I was embarrased! No one had ever right out told me that I had ruined a meal especially cooked for them. It was a first in my whole life to be confronted with someone with tastes so exact, and no hesitation to criticise if it wasn't exactly what they were expecting. And in my little new fiancee crisis, my old world Irish temper got the best of me, and I picked up the roast with the carving fork, and suddenly I found myself at the window, and the next thing I knew I had tossed the roast out the window, without saying a word. Of course I immediately regretted it. I stayed calm and acted like people throw pot roasts out windows all the time in the States. I smiled sweetly and asked if we might go out to dinner. Needless to say I had never done that before nor did I ever do it again. But it was one of the many many times I have been confronted with and manouvered through the differences between the American and French view of food, this time beef specifically.

Britain, South Africa, Malaysia. Don't forget New York, Dallas, Nashville, Long Island, New Jersey, Central New York...

Where does Mongo live?

Today is the big trip to the bio shop to get equipped to prepare real evening meals with ingredients allowed in Montignac. I am having pasta making pangs. I am wondering how I can accomplish this and still be able to eat the finished product, since Montignac says that the pasta maison found in Italian delis is normally unacceptable. I am going to have to get creative here.