bleudauvergne

Soul food. Cheer up Owen!

So, Rai, when are you sending out the invitations?

Wow!

Oh sorry for intruding, I thought this was going to be about braised veal tongue. I'll be off now.

Oh, there are ways around that. Tell him you want to be able to send photos of him to his mother, for instance.

I hear ya. My family thinks I'm a little off kilter when it comes to the food. Not long ago, in fact in the last week, I had my sils over for dinner and everyone was at the table and I said "Wait! Stop! Let me take a picture!" - I start taking a picture and then I realize that everyone is staring at me with this wierd look on their face - I was honing in on the food, of course. It was strange and difficult to explain.

One of my greatest roadtrips was with my now husband through the Louisiana Bayou. We had an amazing time discovering that area and the food ! He's French so there was an interest in it for him, in fact one town was celebrating their French roots and we gave a bunch of kids each a French coin (this was back in the day of the franc) People were so friendly. It was great.

Thank you so much for this incredibly cool link! I enjoyed reading the recipe for Cream of vanilla, roofing tiles and water ice of coffee with caramelizado banana by chef Jordi Break-in. Very interesting.

It's nice to hear what you are reading. In many ways, reading is like eating. We gain nourishment from it. Everyone's talking about The Whole Beast so I'm going to order it too, but I'll have to wait until this summer to pick it up. Meanwhile cooking up any demonstrations from the book would be helpful.

Thank you Chef Hill, for your advice on mixing in hard flour. It is exactly what I am going to try first.

Alberto, this could explain a lot. I will keep this in mind as I work on this project.

I have had a read through it, and your post. They are perfect for the questions I have. Thank you very much for that. Not only have I learned from them about the different flour types and what differentiates them, but how the flour is made so that no matter where I am I can do some basic inquiries and place things within that spectrum. Useful. There are also a few direct references for comparison which I can take one step further when I go back to the drawing board. I thank you for pointing me to more detailed information on what makes the flour types I have appropriate for different applications, which fills me with lots of inspiring questions about how they might be mixed to achieve the end product I am looking for. This is a good starting point. The food product design article goes into detail also about a about how salt and sweeteners can contribute to the resilience of a cake's texture. This is falling in line exactly with my comparisons of the two recipes that I have recently tested, in explaining what contributed the different end products. Thanks, you are very kind.

Hi Dan, You are right in so many respects about appreciating what is available. I think your viewpoint would explain the absence of cake recipes for the home baker here in France. The genoise normally found here is more similar to sponge cake and is generally much drier and more structural than delicious. Through the years I have come to love so many aspects of the ingredients I encounter here in France, it's not that I don't appreciate French flour, it's that I don't understand it. I have done rudimentary research into the types of flour available, and currently have type 45, 55, and 65 in my kitchen, and recently this new farine de ble premiere extraction, but the strong/soft comparison is a good new path of discovery for me and I will follow your suggestion of the Grau-vert flour. It's not that I'm trying to re-create exactly the cake I have made before, but that I would like to understand my result, to have as much control over this medium, in order to know it's limits and hopefully to continue to obtain the joy of serving layer cakes at home with the rich, beautiful, and good tasting results that I know are possible. I still believe, and I will continue to strive to get as close as I can. Many have written books of French recipes that have been adjusted to accomodate the differences in available ingredients of another country, Juila Child, for instance, despite the differences in flour. I appreciate so many wonderful dishes made in the French style. For me, it's important, as well, to be able to duplicate the wonderful things found in an American kitchen, in the style that I know, a rich element to my own identity. There few French cookbooks that treat American regional cooking or address the home baking tradition prevalent in American kitchens in any serious way here. The reasons for that are complex, and in many respects are due to this kind of activity being relegated to professionals in this country. I'm having lots of fun in the process, and I don't think I'll throw in the towel just yet. Thank you for your suggestions! Yes, John, such a table would be extremely helpful. If anyone knows of one, please post.

I loved this article.

Sounds like ti punch. Exactly that. Edited to add a link to a French Cocktail website. click

There's a place around the corner from my apartment which has a sign with big letters in English: "PRESERVATION HALL". Whenever someone comes to Lyon to meet me and has never been in my neighborhood, I tell them to meet me there for a beer - I also pronounce it like this: "PRESERVATION HALL" with a radio DJ's accent. For some reason it strikes me a hilariously funny.

The French tend to mix these syrupy liqueurs with Champagne, Clairette, or a Cremant de Bourgogne, a little bit in the bottom of a coupe, and topped off with the sparkling wine, and call it a kir royale. You could call it a kir royale apricot, kir royale pastèque for the watermelon. He can also do this with white wine, and call it a kir. I have also had "punch" made with Rum from the French Islands, sugar syrup, and fresh lemon or lime juice. I'm not sure if that's a special French thing or if it's just my French MIL who likes that.

bergerka, you look - just wonderful! I also love my siblings very much. They can all cook. My oldest sister who is a vegetarian is a real gourmande although each have their strong areas. Combined we are a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, by SIL on the other hand, (that would be my husband's oldest sister) makes all yellow food. And she believes that potatoes are enough to cover the vegetable food group. Serve Pringles chips which contain potato derivatives with the before dinner cocktail, and the vegetable's covered.

Andrew, I'm so sorry, I have no experience in cooking a fish in the engine of a car. Maybe someone else can help you out with that.

Ah, the taste of a fish fresh from the engine, the battery acid, lightly infused with carbon monoxide fumes. You haven't done this, have you?

Note 180 C would be around 350 F.

Hey callalla, welcome to eGullet! That's a really good suggestion!

I am in France and I have been attempting various baking experiements, which has inevitably gotten me wrapped up in the differences between European and American flour. This past weekend I made 2 white cake recipes, to compare them, which is a cake normally using flour, egg whites, butter, milk, flavorings, and a leavening agent(both recipes used baking powder). I baked from American recipes using equivalent gram weights for the flour, and not volume measures, thinking that this would compensate for the differences in French and American flour. However I find that the cakes made with the French flour were rather flimsy, spongy, did not rise the same way, and had the addition of a slightly rubbery outside crust in comparison with the results that my friends on the other side were getting with the same recipes. John Whiting mentioned that European flour less gluten than American flour - what does this mean and how would I adjust for that? My instinct tells me that adding flour will make this rubbery crust situation even worse. I need some guidance on how to adjust my recipes to achieve something more dense, but not hard on the outside. It seems to me that when I measured out the gram weight, the volume of the French flour measured was less than what the American recipes called for in cups. But then on the other hand, Julia Child gives a table in her Mastering the Art which lists French cake flour as having 20% more volume than American AP flour. I'm confused and don't know which direction to adjust, and how much. Can you give some insight on gluten content and flour in baking? Also any thoughts on the difference between English Flour and French Flour would be appreciated since I use English recipes as well. Thanks ever so much.

Mudbug, can you provide me with some more insight on the hard neck variety? I'm not sure what kind of garlic I bought, since it's fresh garlic and look at me blankly when I ask them what type it is. The ladies that sell it are rather wierd, that way. I looked at the links you posted but it looks like this one with the purple stripes would be defined as hard neck, because of the purple stripes (or purple blobs as in the picture below?) according to the links you have posted above. Please excuse my total ignorance on the subject. Am I to be on the look out for another kind as well?

It has a light and delicate flavor, which was why I could not see this as a mixer. It tastes like a cross between dry white vermouth and a fruity muscat. It's quite addictive and you can count on having a second glass if you have it as an aperetif.