bleudauvergne

Hathor, your dinner party sounds like it went off without a hitch, even though you arrived home just before your guests arrived. Chicken, sausage, and lamb! Sounds like a feast! I totally concur with the lots of herbs - you just can't go wrong with a big bouquet of fresh herbs in your kitchen to clip from. Do you have a smoker? One of my favorite ways to enjoy a big bird is to smoke it. Unfortunately, since we are now in the city and in an apartment, we are not able to do that. Being a "there" cook in Italy, I thought you might have had exposure to the PC phenomenon. Click for the pocket coffee thread in the Italy Forum. Apparently these are to be had in New York as well. Great blog so far!

When I asked for it from the wine guy, he did not know what I was saying. I was going heavy on the L. He then figured it out and pronounced it like "Lily" with a little bit more "ay" at the end, and a kind of soft L. I just decided to test and see what my husband would say - I held up the near empty bottle which we have been chipping away at and asked him in a kind of demanding voice how it was pronounced. He got very nervous and recited the lily thing but when I repeated him exactly and asked if he was sure, he said maybe it was pronounced with the "L" silent, he could not be sure. On my second glass, I now wonder if this is served in Japan and how they pronounce it there.

Fennel! Did I hear baby fennel?? Hathor, I must have spaced that part of your post! I just had baby fennel last week - we steam it for about 5 minutes. That makes it nice and tender and great chilled for salads, or served warm.

Thank you Ms. Victoria, for a lovely blog !

Hathor's blogging ! Yay! Sounds like an excellent salad - it is on all of the bouchon menus over here, by the name of Salade Lyonnaise. Poached eggs and all. I like mine with a large glass of Cote du Rhone... Question, do you eat pocket coffee?

I basically peeled the whole head like an onion, since the skin that usually divides the individual cloves was moist and usable/edible, I just chopped up the whole thing and used it like onion or shallots I was thinking some garlic confit might be just the ticket...

Ok it's officially garlic season! It's not as pungent as reg garlic and I am using it in everything.

Yes! and garnish the white guacamole in cucumber cups with fresh new herb leaves or blossoms. I like to cut anchovy fillets lengthwise (leaving them whole's too salty) and lay the anchovies on rectangles, twist and bake. These don't have to be warm. Scoops of guacamole on thin sliced raw zuchinni slices with corainder leaves stuck in them.

I am going to try durain again. Thanks Kew, for that interesting post!

When I'm cooking I sometimes just rinse something and wipe it off to use it again for something else. However this method bit me yesterday from behind when I rinsed a measuring cup that had contained oil with hot water and wiped it out, and then filled it with cold milk for the cake. The measuring cup (which was supposed to be one of those special temp proof scientific measuring cup) cracked and milk flowed all over the place.

Well, the big French baking experiment is done. The results of this experiment will unfortunately not be able to be taken into account for this recipe comparison, because my results for both of the cakes that I made were so bad. I am pretty sure I am doing something wrong. I thought gram weight would solve the problem of my baking experiments all going awry, but I think it may be more complicated than that. I used Francine supreme farine de ble premiere extraction, which promises that my creations will be toujours reussies. Which means always successful. NOT! Don't get me wrong. They taste pretty good. But both cakes did not come out white inside, they were yellow, even though the only yellow ingredient I used was butter. 1. Samaki's cake: I bought unsalted butter and used it for this recipe. The cake sunk in the middle and remains rather puddingish in the center (edit: my husband says that it is not puddingish in the center, and that , it has a nice consistency) even though it had begun to shrink from the sides and took a rather roundish edge. The cupcakes did not rise much and fell back down soon after cooking thus are perfectly flat across the top. The cake developed a sort of crust, which had some tooth to it. The consistency of the cake was much like that of a chewy cornbread. 2. MKFradin's cake: I used buerre demi sel, which is the saltiest mainstream butter you can get here. Enchanted with the simplicity of the recipe, it went in, rose like a charm, cupcakes too. The batter looked a little like it was curdling, I think due to the fact that after using the softened butter, the room temp egg whites, etc. I added frigo cold milk - doh! The major problem with this cake was that it was really fragile coming out of the pan. Like it puffed up so far that it was like a sponge, but not strong enough to hold togetherreally well. I practically mangled it taking it out of the pan, and I know that it would fall apart if I tried to ice it. There is a problem I have to solve with the flour. We have to go now but I will put some thought into it and try and come up with some reasons why these two cakes came out so badly. Edit: after coming home from a night out, we hit the cupcakes. 5 hours rest gave these cakes a new lease on life. Still ugly, but MKFradin's cake has really nice texture and taste! If I had just waited until it was fully cool to take it out it might have survived the removal from the pan. The texture is moist, just the right crumb, I'm even saying this is some damn good cake! I would give this recipe a 4.5 (because it scared me at the beginning). Samakis recipe has taken on more of a resilient texture and now that it's cool, there is a predominant salty taste in the flavor. It's clear that this cake would hold up quite well to some serious decorating, and possibly be a very nice cake for a trifle, being so spongy and durable. I would rate this cake a 3.8 on the white cake scale, because it resembles more the French genoise we know and is missing some moistness and smoothness of crumb that the other cake has. Both of these recipes need some tweaking to get the french flour proportions right. I'll post a photo of the wedges tomorrow. Note both seemed whiter after cooling. (on the inside, the crusts are both still brown.)

You're so right John, I ruined a whole bunch of recipes and continue to do so due to the differences in flour. I'm getting ready to test two of the white cakes with the recipes put on the thread. I'm learning towards the idea that going by weight instead of volume would get me around the major technical difficulties. We'll see how this all turns out! Yikes! Owen - I know the Wegmans you speak of and they are great. I don't want to give anyone the impression that I think that the U.S. is void of quality products, because I know perfectly well that there are amazing wonderful sources all over the place in the U.S. and that local specialties are also really incredible. Every town I've ever lived in in the U.S. has had a place where you could find fish, a place where you could go to get fruit in season, etc. But I have always had to plan ahead and to drive long distances in order to do so. In Los Angeles it was also extremely difficult not due to the lack of products, but the amount of time a person had to spend to get them, or their astronomical price. Just getting a parking spot in a lot was most times a challenge. When we did make it to the SM farmers Market, we were able to find nice things but our entire weekends were sometimes devoted to hunting/gathering activities which left us exhausted. I don't think it's possible or even desireable for a place to strive to be a one stop source for everything either. I love the hunt, and love the getting to know what a place can offer, too. Running errands here also involves many stops here in Lyon, but I'll stop at four different places in the span of 20 minutes, for instance. I think my habit of going to great lengths to find the best I could find in the U.S. has followed me here and now I find myself doing more than the average person does - I don't think any of my French friends go to one market on Saturday, another on Wednesday evenings, and Les Halles every other Friday. They also don't take pictures of their food or fill boooks with food notes, or test cakes on Saturdays...

GREAT idea to make the cupcakes in addition to the round cake - solves my pan problem. I bake tomorrow. I have taken on a translation job so I can be at home the day and make money at the same time... -Lucy

I'm going to try that this weekend.

Rai, I would like to note that Aliwaks is in synch with the universe (just take a look at the amazing posts and ponder on the mind that could create such poetry) and know that as such, she is the expert on all things fanciful. Following her advice is a good idea.

First tell us what liqueurs were left behind.

I know for a personal fact that the Tinkies on the island of Cambyration ate flowers and that the Bodoes were known for eating the buttons off the Whisper's typewriter. Since this was an island nation, but one that was not visited by outside creatures for a span of the 8 generations in which Cambyration's history was documented, I could not give you any tips on what visitng pirates may have eaten. Sorry.

One of the main things that struck me when I arrived here in France from there in the U.S. was the way we evolve through the seasons to a much more pronounced degree here. The vegetables here at all open air French markets that are in just about every neighborhood here look good not because they are cleaned of all traces of dirt, shined to a waxy sheen, and placed under automatic sprayers to be misted every 90 seconds to add a dewy fresh appearance, but because they have been picked at the farm often within days of reaching my kitchen, sometimes even that morning. The same goes for the meats. Certain meat is better at certain times of the year, the spring lamb comes to mind, for example. Cheeses taste different depending on what the cows have grazed on at what times of the year, for example Abondance d’ete vs. Abondance d’hiver. These were all fascinating to discover as time has gone by. I’m learning as fast as I can, but it’s endless and it’ll be years before I’ve really got a grasp on enough. My impressions during the first year were – wow see and taste the produce, meat, and bakery products! Disappointment when products disappeared without warning, or being looked at like I was crazy for asking for things that were out of season. Thanksgiving I spent a great deal of energy and even shed tears attempting to obtain a turkey for Thanksgiving and we finally settled on a Pintade. Second year – Hey, I’ve seen that mushroom/root/whatever at the same time last year. Things began to click. Thanksgiving I proudly made that special order at the butcher for a free range Turkey and was shocked by the tough scrawny sack of bones ½ the size we had ordered that was delivered. Third year I looked at my notes from the two previous years and had fun anticipating the arrival of some really wonderful things, and benefited from knowing how long they’d be available. – “ah the baby fennel will be coming very soon, better fight like the rest to get it just as soon as it arrives because it won’t be there the next week” “chanterelles - buy immediately, the price goes up”. Thanksgiving we ingeniously sourced a big fat industrially raised turkey and were shocked with the poor quality and taste. (The french simply don't breed roasters for November). This year, I am doing a lot more planning in advance for involved projects like dessert wines and special terrines that include things that are available fresh within a very small window of opportunity, and I have begun to put much more effort into sourcing and exploring various local offerings in surrounding regions, locally processed meats and cheeses. We have also decided to scrap this Turkey idea for Thanksgiving and give thanks like the pilgrims did for the abundance they had around them. This coming November it’ll be either a wild young boar complete with apple in mouth or other fresh hunted wild game – what’s available. What Jonathan says is true, French hypermarkets do stock all kinds of vegetables that suffer the same consequences as any produce cross bred to achieve tough skin for long shelf life. The hypermarkets have imported the logistical know-how that developed long ago in the U.S. to feed massive numbers or provide competetive selection of out of season vegetables at the lowest possible price. Here in France, many of these vegetables have been shipped long distances and were grown in hothouses, their roots never having touched soil – rather vats of gel in tent cities constructed on desert land inhospitable to natural plant growth. They look beautiful, not one bruise, and the price is right. But the taste is just not there. I think another main difference about here and there (France / U.S.) is that here, local economies much more easily support their artisans. Butchers who specialize in making the most of an animal are supported by the communities, people wait in line for their meat. Normal everyday people make their rounds at the butcher, the baker, etc. And it’s not a certain privilidged class or food obscessed individual who patronize these establishments. You don't have to go out of your way for these things. I know it’s very hard for small business who deal in perishable goods to survive in the U.S. due to the economic (read: Walmart) climate, and that saddens me. I often dream of taking a bakery, a bouchon, a French butcher and plunking it down in the middle of the small American town where my mother lives. But the more I think about it, the more I realize, I would never accomplish what I wanted to, because it would be out of context, foreign, exotic, whatever. I dream of the day when I can go home to a place where good fresh food can be the norm and not the exception, and moderation and human care for maintaining the quality of the bounty of the land is common practice. A note about Asian produce and animal products, John. Having lived in Beijing almost as long as I have now been in France, I can positively say that quality and freshness was wonderful for the meat as well as the vegetables. In fact it was in China that I really began to have freshness catharsis experiences - it is huge industrial production operations and long term shipping that cause damage. I can also say that it was very difficult to find real chinese food in the U.S. unless it was prepared at home. The real thing isn't half as elaborately flavored and highly spiced as you imagine. edit: maybe you mean other parts of Asia than China, so I am speaking from a biased standpoint. Beijing is not the center of the universe, I think.

I would like to pipe in with thanks for that wonderful article!

What are the fruits your grandmother normally includes in the Christmas Rum cake? It sounds very interesting. Better to start the macerating at once!

Enjoying this blog, Ms. Victoria and Keifel! Mishap: The temperature knob came off my slow cooker during my blog. But honestly I truly believe that the accidental spilling of sugar is not a mishap at all, it portends money arriving in large quantities. Since you're on the topic of Rum, I like to make aperetif drinks made by macerating fruits and herbs of various kinds with sugar in an liquor / wine base over long periods of time. Some of the best I've had have been the slow made Punch made at home from places that have a lot of rum. It's done by caramelizing the sugar and then adding it and fruit to rum and letting it sit for a few months. It's really wonderful stuff.

Don't forget the odor of rancid dirty socks left damp at the bottom of the laundry basket.

I was in a really odd position sometimes when I was working on the physical trades side of things in China. I was working on some high level deals. So sometimes, to entertain themselves, the customers (mainly smelter chiefs) would order things to attempt to get a reaction out of me. I once ate a scorpion with a poker face, claimed it was delicious, and asked for more. Try it. It's harder than it looks. Eventually I came to enjoy the game. But that first scorpion was honestly pretty dang scary. Now I can devein one with the flick of the wrist and gobble it down like a slinky pretzel.

It was so saucy I began mumbling clichés. Then my husband slapped the sommelier with a juicy tip.

I picked up a bottle of lillet (blond) tonight, because of this thread. I think it's good cold and plain! Why mix it at all? Oh well, I guess I'll have to try some of these fascinating mixes to find out why...