bleudauvergne

I have distinct memories of mixing cinnamon sugar with butter into a paste and eating that by the spoonful. I also crave that from time to time.

This is what I call baptism by fire! I'm looking forward to this week. Not often we get a blogger who is involved in a major wine festival! Can you give more details about that? I'd love to see.

Moby - Thank you for that, I cooked a huge pot o' favas at the end of last week and when we got tired of eating them with corn bread I threw them in the freezer. Tortellini is what I'll do with the rest.

But I am sad that Orsi's site is so bizarre in English. It's unfit for charming a host not to have a a better introduction to his potential guests who speak English. I'm assuming the Mounts of Gold refer to the cheese. It is in the dessert menu...

Bitter Melon sauteed with pork and Stuffed small winter melon.

Hey! Who's house do we go to next? Hathor I'll catch you later with stories of Bitter Melon. It was a wonderful blog, sigh.

See you over at the Smackdown my dear - ("Housewife" - description of the person running the floor - ) B: Monts d'Or - what is it, exactly? I don't hink there's much logic to it, Bux, don't worry. When you come and visit we'll go to other places.

There's a Chinatown in Lyon? But of course. Those radishes look divine - those incredible mountains of roots look just amazingly fresh. Did you buy lots? I Looooooove radishes. PICTURES OF THE LIMONCELLO PLEASE!

I agree.

Hathor, I went and shopped in Chinatown today, inspired by your fruitful spree the other day. I made jiaozi for lunch, and tonight we're going to have bitter melon. Thanks for the jump start!

I think we would be better off channeling our creative energy into the smackdown, really. I've just looked at the French version of the restaurant's website. Don't bother, the translation is just bizarre, and Andrew is right, the site makes you dizzy. I'm not sure I'd want to eat there after being subjected to the website!

"Casserole - middle class way" is my favorite. Without looking at the French version, I can't tell what some of these started as. Marine of the wolf - definitely marinated sea bass. Madnesses of Injury.. What could that be?

Click for Chez Pierre. I completely agree, Bux, one must not try and rank in order. I was also thinking about that today, since I was a bit harsh on La Mere Jean. It really depends on what you're looking for, and it can be completely appropriate if you're seeking out that sort of thing. La Mere Jean is very easy to get to, and does an awfully good job at creating the impression that you've discovered a special little nook that no one else knows about. It's quite theatrical. The place is very small and very cramped, and smells rather dank, and the greeting at the door is surly in a friendly sort of way, which is very striking, and feeds our imagination and satisfies our curiosity and desire for an affirmation that Lyon is a smelly cramped dark surly place after all where we gorge ourselves on to a catatonic state of bliss on greasy ovecooked andouillette and roll back home to sleep it off. Bux, you are absolutely right that tripe and andouillette are specialties of the region and should not be missed here, and one dish done well can completely change your outlook on animal parts forever. I had never enjoyed tripe at all until I came here and found that it can taste good, and make you feel as if you are fortifying your soul while eating it. I would be happy to help you find that restaurant again, Bux. Do you remember anything about it? Color scheme, type of menu, etc?

Yea.

I have to agree with Brooks on this point. The super germs come from infractions in industrial operations after slaughter. Wild game is much healthier on average than box raised as well. Which is a reason to consider choosing very carefully the meat you use in a slow low temp braise situation. Your hunted bird would be a the leading candidate for the ride in the slow cooker in my opinion.

Thank you Lisa, I'm just taking a breather from work and noticed that in addition to fine dining Andrew mentions bouchons. I have eaten at La Mere Jean, and frankly, I walked out of there bloated and feeling rather like going to sleep. It's morphed out of all proportions into offal prepared to feed the expectations of the tourists, i.e. heavy heavy enormous proportions drowning in pools of fat. The atmosphere was the caricature of what a tourist expects complete with cigar smoking cook in the back with the goal of drawing more crowds of masochists in the door. Don't get me wrong, I love a double gras (which is a slow braised and then fried tripe dish) now and then, which I must note is not at all greasy if prepared in the correct way. Offal deep fried to oblivian = Lyon tourist trap. To answer Lisa's question : rien a faire avec Chez Pierre, which I recommend to dearest friends, but not to strangers because I just don't want them to be dissapointed for the lack of obvious hype. By the way, you can get a properly prepared double gras chez Pierre if you order off the set menus which are 19 and 23€ if I remember correctly. You have to be able to appreciate it for what it is and not expect theater when you go there. It's a lovely place for a casual meal. And I consider eGulleters my dearest friends. Chez Pierre 2, rue Mazenod, 3e 04.78.60.56.37 Another very low key casual and comfortable place to rest if you are strolling the streets of the Presqu'ile and need to stop is Arbre a The, which is a tea house near the Quai St. Antoine that serves quiches, salads, and desserts in addition to their tea menu. They are not open for dinner. Arbre a The 4, rue du petit David 2e 04.72.40.06.68

Bux please do come and see us the next time you come through. I recently had a meal at Gourmet de Seze and wrote my description of the meal. I would not classify it as the top of the top of fine dining but if it's value for price and honest good food you're looking for, that's it. They have one star. If we'd been seated in a fabulous dining room it would have been perfect. But part of the charm was that it was rather low key and tucked away on a residential street.

Hi Project, I was just reading through this thread and came across your post of a couple of weeks ago. I indeed do exactly the same thing. I hang one or two near the stove when I'm in the kitchen, for wiping my hands on here and there, and always have a few floating around for spills and wipe ups. I find them much less expensive than paper towels, in fact we haven't spent a cent on paper towels in more than a year.

That looks like a great dinner.

What a revelation. It's true, no where do we find really good nice tasting, white cake with heft and crumb, and beauty, which is not just a sponge to sop up liquers or a brick to support a filling, but a real honest to goodness cake. I am going to take this for the opportunity that it is. I am going to introduce the white cake to FRANCE! My kitchen will be the recipe test lab. I don't remember where I read it, I think in Julia Child's MA where she recounts that for a certain cake containing fruit, it was necessary to advise the reader NOT to use cake flour because if you do, everything will sink to the bottom, due to the batter not being able to hold it. I am considering that as part of the reason why my tests did not turn out so well, considering the properties of the local flour here, and also doing some research. Thank you.

Mandy - I LOVE what you've done here. What a wonderful way to share a recipe. Thank you so much for that. You have a way with words, I love the "The Ericksons are cooking, and all is well with the world" quote. Something about it made my world a better place, too. I am going to do this canard a l'orange right away. I remember the last time I cooked duck legs, (it was just the legs, mind you, not the whole duck like in your recipe on TDG) I wasn't able to find many recipes - most probably due to the toughness you refer to in your piece. I did find one really great one in Paula Wolfert's Cooking of Southwest France, which calls for simmering them in red wine over a period of three days. It was a success. -Lucy

basically, because you measure your weights in a bowl, and a bowl is not very useful for pouring liquids. also, if you want to use your bowl to measure the liquid first (say, for a bread dough), you'd end up with having to dry it very thoroughly before adding the flour to it (if you don't, you'll have flour sticking to the bowl). as you will notice, i've very ingeniously NOT used the word for that thingy you use for measuring liquids. you know, this transparent plastic thingy with a scale on its side that is most useful: you hold it under the tap and just pour water into it what's it called, anyway? (bear with me, please, i'm danish.) oh boy, i hope this made sense. Thanks for trying to answer my question, oraklet. I measure my weights in whatever's handy, actually. I place my ingredients in all kinds of vessels - Cup, measuring cup, bowl, plate, etc and then add them at the appropriate time to my recipe, after I've weighed them. Every container in my kithen under 3kilos in weight has been used to hold things on my scale at one time or another. It's easy to weigh a liquid in any vessel, really. Oh well. It will remain one of the great big mysteries of the world to me.

My fishmonger shared the story that they used to beat it on the docks in Marseille - he says that I should freeze it to break down the toughness. I did that, and then prepared it the french version a la greque. (Unfortunately this is not grilled.) (you can google translate if you don't read french) It was a wonderfully flavorful melt in your mouth aperetif the next day. I want to try the same recipe but replace sechuan pepper corns for the coriander seeds next time. edit: Mustard seeds might be interesting too.

Hi I'd like to post a question to the professionals who have worked in France about white cake. What is the French equivalent to this kind of cake? I want to try some French recipes and test them, but I can't find anything in my recipe searches that resembles white cake. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks - Lucy

MMMmm! Thank you for the inspiration! I just love what you had for dinner last night! What's the story behind the name "lambs quarters"? Interesting. What herbs go into your sofrito? -Lucy