Dave Hatfield

Very nice looking duck breasts Markk. My only minor quibble is the medium high heat to start on the fat side. I prefer to use low heat for the first 5+ minutes (no salt at this point) because this allows you to pour off the clear fat as it renders. This makes it better for later use. If you crank up the heat too early you get browned fat which is fine, but not as nice. We're in 100% agreement about sweet sauces. All I normally use is salt, pepper and some fresh thyme. I allude to a sauce in an earlier post, but here is the full recipe from my blog. This is a sauce made locally here in the Rouergue and which is a traditional addition to magret. I first learned of it from Jeanne Strang's book "Goose Fat & Garlic". I highly recommend this book by the way. If you like the Paula Wolfert book on South Western French cooking you'll also love this book. In addition to the recipies Jeanne describes a way of life that continues in this area, but is slowly fading away. NOTES:The recipe quantity will serve 4-5 people, but I have discovered that the Aillade freezes beautifully so I usually at least double up & keep a nice pot for next time. Ure walnut oil if at all possible. I've used olive oil & even truffle oil when I didn't have walnut & although they work well its just not quite the same. Ingredients: 75 grams fresh walnuts 50 grams raw garlic 150 milliliter walnut oil Salt & pepper A small handful of Parsley Method: 1. Mix the walnuts & garlic together and process in a food processor or blender until very smooth. You may need to add a bit of water to keep the mixture flowing, but not too much. ( the traditional method was to do this step in a mortar & pestle, but the food processor is much easier.) 2. With the processor running slowly pour in the walnut oil. Process until the Aillade is nicely smooth. 3. Add salt & pepper to taste. 4. Add the parsley. 5. Serve with magret or place into a ramekin, seal with film & freeze. I know this sounds very garlicky & strong, but believe me it offsets the duck beautifully. My wife always insists on Lyonaise potatoes with this so she can eat more Aillade. Try this once and you'll never go back to anything sweet.

Yes, we live about 20 minutes to the North East of St Antonin. Its a nice town with a good Sunday market, nice walks & scenery along the Averyron River and some spectacular limestone cliffs. The restaurant in question is about 20 - 25 minutes the other way, South. Its a pity, but to get there you have to traverse some spectacular wine country. If you take up your friend's invitation let me know & I can make a few suggestions on food, wine & other attractions in the local area.

Not a definition this time, but an example. Lunch yesterday after golf was at a restaurant/cafe/hotel on the Tarn. Entrée: Fish Terrine (delicious & home made) or the 'buffet' (a very good selection of charcuterie & salads) Plat: Coq au Vin (wonderful rich sauce: I can never quite duplicate it) Dessert: Basque tart or cheese or fruit 25Dl of wine. 11 Euros. Everything except some of the charcuterie, the cheese, bread and wine was pretty much produced by the family. I can think of at least ten such places within an easy drive. The bistro is still not dead down here in the country. In a 'city' bistro I would expect more choice naturally, but many if not most of the dishes would be the same or similar. Edited for typos

Abra's right. I would only add that on the skin side you should use low heat for quite a few minutes to slowly render the fat. Pour the rendered fat off several times before turning up the heat and continuing as she says. I don't like the sweet/ sticky sauces either so I mostly serve duck breast with alliade This is a paste made from garlic and walnut oil and is traditional in the area of France where I live. There's a recipe in Paula Wolfert's book as well as one on my blog. Enjoy.

Great coincidence. I've just talked about offal twice over on my blog. Link below. The lamb offal we had Saturday night was awesome. Its got to be fresh though. And cooked lightly & quickly.

Can't say that I've ever tried Vieux Lille. I'll have see if I can find any down here in the south. I did find this link which gives some history & background. I'm intrigued.

Well we ended up having crepes of a different color so to speak. There's a brief write up of this evening's activity on my blog below for those who are interested. A great evening is all I can say. I'll have to look into this 8:00PM business tomorrow & report. Its more than possible the I've got it backwards.

In my simplistic way the key word I use to describe bistro food is: honest. By that I mean food that is true to its origins, ingredients and preparation methods. As others have said it is 'home cooking' taken to a cafe/ restaurant environment. It is not tricked up or exotic, merely delicious. Long may it endure.

Ah Ha! Thanks John. I chickened out on crepes for 10 (we've added a guest since my last post), but a nice Brut champagne cider might go down very nicely with our pork & parsley terrine entrée. Didn't I read in one of the links that you are not supposed to start before 8:00PM?

I've prepared and eaten some freshly gathered Red Abalone in California, which are considerably larger than these. Extracting from the shell is fairly easy once you figure out the right angles. For your size, probably work a butter knife or metal spoon between the shell and meat until you can find the small point of attachment to the shell. Come at that from the correct direction (try and see) and it comes off easily. Then remove everything that doesn't seem like firm white meat, and trim off the dark colored skin. You don't need to trim too well -- the trimming is mostly cosmetic. I'd suggest slicing into pieces a little thicker than you might guess: maybe 1/4 to 3/8". Pound firmly but not violently with a blunt object like a rolling pin or wine bottle about 10 times. The flesh should end up much softer and relaxed than it started, but not particularly flattened. You aren't trying to tenderize them like a tough steak, just to cause them to relax. Fry in butter in a hot pan for a short time on each side --- maybe 30-45 seconds per side. Use egg and dip in panko if you must, but after the first time I decided that even that detracted too much from the delectable meat. I'd suggest cooking it bare, and eating it by itself as an appetizer with fresh squeezed lemon juice, salt. You can certainly use it in a dish, but if the quality is good I think you'd be better appreciating them directly. Here's a link that provides more information about cleaning, although realize that he's talking about abalone with dishplate sized shells: http://sonic.net/~rocky/abhandlingcleaning.htm And here's some suggestions for preparing them California style (although like I said, I'd eat the first batch with just butter, lemon juice, and salt): http://sonic.net/~rocky/abrecipesbreaded.htm Good luck, and tell us how it goes! ← Nathan is right on about the best way to prepare & eat abalone. I grew up near the Northern California coast and spent many a low tide wading amongst the rocks with my tire iron hoping to surprise an abalone. This, of course, was a long time ago. Later wet suits & snorkeling/ scuba decimated the abalone population as it became a bit too easy to find them & prise them off their rocks. Ah well. The only other way I've ever liked fresh abalone prepared was at a restaurant in Tokyo. This was on a teppan griddle; the chef put the abalone shell & all down on the griddle & covered it. After a minute or two he lifted the lid and cut & cleaned the abalone then put the lid back on with several chopped cloves of garlic. One minute later he started cutting the abalone into bite sized pieces and distributing them. Fantastically delicious. Enjoy your bounty.

Reading more about this got me thinking & it occurred to me that there might just be some connection to Pancake Day in England which is about this time of year. Wikipedia put that idea to bed, but some of the parallels are fascinating. Perhaps we should all run down the streets with a coin in one hand a crepe pan in the other as we flip away. Since the French think all Anglo-Saxons are crazy anyway what have we got to lose?

Very interesting. A little work on Google made it even more so. We live and learn. As these things go once somebody points something out you start seeing it all over. Sure enough having read Abra's post this morning I saw a full size billboard advertising a fancy electric crepe maker. (I didn't buy one) then in an Aldi shop they had up posters reminding everyone not to forget Chandeleur. I now will not forget this holiday. The information has, however, put me in a quandary. We're having a group of French friends over for dinner Saturday night. So, now do I serve them crepes thus showing off my new found knowledge? Or do I make a carrot cake as I'd originally planned? The friends always expect that at least one dish at dinner will be American & I know they will love carrot cake. Think I'll stick to the carrot cake as I seriously doubt that I'm capable of making good crepes for nine people given that I haven't made a crepe for even longer than John.

Being a lazy devil I just use Knorr Lamb stock cubes if I'm out of the real thing. Are these available in the states these days?

John, Didn't you say that these folks USED to be friends? Hope they don't haunt the forums. Still you are spot on; we've heard that same record ourselves.

How about rillettes? Goose especially, but duck will do. Also, there's got to be better olives here than there. Tapenade?

Think you're spot on, but I sure wouldn't want to eat one standing up with my fingers napkin or not. Sticky HD's drive me nuts.

Gee, like Sandy I'm confused now. I too thought that entrée in France was the 1st course. (a la entrée de jour for example) Around here they call the main course the plat. (a la plat de jour for example) Now admittedly I live out in the sticks so maybe the terminology used here isn't the same as in big city polite society. Think I'm clear on the other terms - I hope. For example: You get hores devours at a cocktail party usually, but sometimes at a dinner party before you sit down to table. They're kind of stand up snacks to be eaten with one's fingers hopefully. The English like to call them nibbles. One typically gets amused' at an up market restaurant or, sometimes even at not so upmarket restaurants where they're striving. Occasionally you get amused at a private dinner party, but you're more likely to get hore devoured. In any case these will be served before the appetizer/entree/ starter. PS: You sit down to be amused. Right?

You could try to get a copy of: Les Bonnes Recettes de la Truffe by Guy Monier. Published in 2002 by Aubanel. This little 100 page book has nothing but truffle recipes and truffle lore. Amazon France probably has it. Its in French, but that shouldn't be a problem for you.

Thank you!! That definitely sounds like a worthwhile stop. So even for a truffle deprived American, you think that canned or other truffle products are not worth buying? I'm not sure I've ever had canned truffles. ← Purely a matter of personal taste. And, perhaps, if you can't get fresh then canned are better than no truffles at all. My prejudice is possibly because living where I do I can easily get fresh truffles in season. We have three truffle markets within half an hour's drive. The best for the individual buyer is at Limogne. Both Caussade & Lalbenque are dominated by the wholesalers & the restaurant buyers. Its so quick that the individual doesn't stand much chance to buy direct from the 'hunter'. At Limogne, however, there is normally only one wholesale merchant who buys and the big restaurants don't show up. The wholesaler weighs each hunter's truffles & gives them a slip with the weight on it. Then when all the truffles on offer that morning have been weighed the wholesaler announces a price. At this point if you've been watching carefully you can approach a hunter who only has one truffle or has only a few small ones and offer to buy all that they have at the wholesaler's price. Normally they'll say yes. Occasionally you may have to offer a small premium. Brings your cost down, but they're still expensive.

St Agur is incredibly delicious in a pasta sauce but, I agree with you its so good that eating it plain is the way to go. I normally have it spread on a Swedish crisp bread.

Julot. Its turned good because we've finally had enough rain to get the little devils going. That at least is what's happened around here. The Lalbenque market has been very good the last couple of weeks.

Abra & Julot are right that truffle season is now, but since you're going to be there in May the season will definitely be over. Personally not a big fan of preserved truffles or the by products. There are so many wonderful things you COULD buy that its hard to make a recommendation; especially without knowing your tastes. I will, however, make a recommendation as to a place to go to find just about everything wonderful in the food line that the Dordogne has to offer. Take a day trip to: St. Yrieix de Perche. This is in the heart of the Dordogne South of Limoges by an hour or so. There you will find a food shop that is simply marvelous. You can get an idea of just some of what they sell at their website: www.epicurieux.com. But to get the real flavor you have to go. Believe me, you can easily fill a suitcase full of goodies from this shop. (for a fuller write up go to my blog, address below, and look at July 20,2006.) In addition to the shop there is a good restaurant (Le Cheval Blanc) and two terrific Limoges china outlet shops. St Yrieix is definitely worth a visit and far less touristy than places like Sarlat.

Yes; of course you can. Have a go.

Here's a suggestion. Try a blue cheese pasta sauce. These tend to be fairly mild even though the blue cheese starts off being very sharp. A favorite recipe is: 4-6 oz of Gorgonzola 3-4 oz of Parmesan, finely grated 4-5 cloves of garlic. Peeled, crushed & finely chopped 1 oz butter 4-6 oz heavy cream Oregano to taste 12-16 oz pasta. Choose your own shape, my personal favorite for this dish is fussili.) 1) melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. (be cooking the pasta while you do this. In fact have your water boiling before you start the sauce. The sauce only takes about 5-7 minutes.)) 2) fry the garlic in the butter until just beginning to brown. 3) Add the cream & bring to a slow boil. 4) Add the Gorgonzola in small chunks. Stir until it melts. Add the oregano & pepper (if you like) 5) Slowly add half of the Parmesan. Reduce sauce if necessary to thicken or add more cream to thin out. 5) Drain the pasta & combine with the sauce. Add extra Parmesan to taste. (All measures are rough as usual with my recipes.Go heavier or lighter according to your own preferences.) Try this & see if it works for you. You can use any blue cheese. I chose Gorgonzola because I like it & its easily obtainable in the states. Blue de Bresse will make a milder sauce, Roquefort a sharper one. Good luck!

OK. Maybe we can have our very own local cheese festival here in Parisot. I'll buy the cheese if everyone else will bring the wine.