Dave Hatfield

You got me; I haven't got a clue. Maybe somebody knows & can enlighten.

Think John's away, but try here for list of restaurants.

Ptipois, your cake making experience is no doubt superior to mine. I have this mental image of two layer carrot cake that's about 4 inches high. Mine came out at half that. Its more than possible that I'm tilting at windmills in this quest. I do score on the frosting though. I used fromage frais as I don't know where to get a Philly cream cheese locally. I drained it well before using & it made a dynamite frosting. Blue, the recipe is from our very own RecipeGullet. Here's the link: Recipe I'd love to find that I'm doing something so fundamentally stupid that a simple fix will make me soar. Thanks to both of you.

I made another carrot cake yesterday. This time I used type 65 flour,Levure chimique and fresh bicarbonate from Carrefour. It still didn't rise! Or to be more accurate it didn't rise as much as I thought it should. In fact it rose about the same amount as my first effort. Maybe the problem is that the recipe calls for 8" pie pans & I only have 9" ?? I increased the recipe to compensate, but no luck. Think I'll either double the recipe or buy some smaller cake pans next time. The good news is that it tasted delicious and was devoured by our French friends. So I guess if I'm true to my food philosophy I shouldn't worry about the appearance and just be happy that the aroma & taste were right. Still, I'd like to make a high rise cake soar off the plate!

Whilst i agree with your comments Dave could you not say the same thing about food? I always thought it was to nourish and provide sustinance, sometimes when i see people performing scientific experiments with ingredients i wonder where it will all end. Me, i love wine of all types, currently drinking ST Aubin 1er Cru Les Frionnes - Vincent Pruniers - 12 euros at Leclerc, 28 euros in the UK. You are right we are spoiled in France. Now if only i could find chocolate hob nobs on a regular basis ← David. Spot on! Yes you could & I do say the same thing about food. Cook, eat, enjoy. Its nice if it looks pretty, but taste & aroma are what count. I like to eat with my nose & my taste buds, not my eyes. Who would have ever eaten on oyster by sight? Must try the St Aubin. Off to LeClerc in the morning.

I have to weigh in on this M. Bricolage is great and have whole collection of my hard earned Euros. BUT... They are but a pale shadow of a proper quincaillerie. We are lucky enough to have one in Caylus, a village near to us, they are amazing. All the good old fashioned canning stuff, great pots, pans and containers for everything. Seemingly every bit & bod of hardware one could ever ask for. It goes on & on as does the shop. I swear that they must have at least 6 caves only 4 of which I've been privileged to visit. Equally, I love brocantes & vide greniers. You just never know what you'll find. Linda & friend recently held a vide grenier to raise money to buy prizes for a village art competition for the children. They raised over 800 Euros.

Ptipois What is the relationship, if any between crème crue de Normandie and the 'clotted cream' from Devon & Cornwall? They sound as if they are similar?? Just curious. Dave

Unless I missed it nobody has mentioned my favourite;Smoked French Garlic sausage as a cold cut. Yummy with cheese (cheddar by preference), Dijon mustard, ripe tomato between halves of a cut baguette. I buy it there for about $1.49 per pound in the supermarket.

Wandering around Normany in Google I've found a couple of links that look useful: Haute Basse There seem to be quite a few recipes. Haven't had a chance to try any as of yet. Edit: Think I jumped too soon on these links. Now that I delve further I find that although there are some nice recipes here they are not specific to Normandy. Still the site is interesting in general. I shall persevere.

Nice to see you back! Always remember that Montignac is two phases. Weight loss & maintenance. Be very strict during the loss phase, waver & substitute during maintenance. Says he after 18 years on it.

"John, I'd be happy to contribute to a wine thread IF we can keep it from getting too serious. Wine is to be drunk & enjoyed, not agonised over." Come on people. NOT serious!! Loire, smoire, does it taste good? I've met a few Muscadet's that I didn't like, but I've met more that I did. As to price; lets face it we're completely spoiled here in France. Let's save our passion for something serious; like like, like I don't know what.

I'm going to be drunk all summer trying all of these recommendations! Sante!

Great! I only started with white because what with the weather turning hot we're drinking more of it. Your red is noted & will be tried if I can find it. (Monoprix seem thin on the ground down here.) I think you & your friend hit it about right at a 5 Euro average price per bottle. I think you can find pretty palatable reds at that price. A couple we like are 'Reserve des Barons' a Bordeaux and Raymond IV a Gaillac. We can get both from HyperU & LeClerc.

For QPR the hypermarket brands are hard to beat. I don't see many French housewives buying the expensive cans at the markets. I'll happily share my comfit making recipe; here goes: -Choose really nice fat moulard cuisses from your butcher or better yet a 'bird" specialist or the supermarket. - Somehow buy, beg, borrow or steal a good quantity of duck fat that is pure and NOT burned nor has been overheated. (dare I say that failing other methods the fat from the cans is excellent?) - Marinate your cuisses in a combination of: fresh thyme, crushed & shredded bay leaves, well crushed juniper berries & Salt & pepper to taste. They should at least marinate overnight in the fridge, a bit longer won't hurt, but no more than 24 hours. - Place all of the cuisses in an ovenproof container. (doesn't matter much what it is so long as it will take the stove top & the oven & will allow you to cover the cuisses in duck fat). -Pre-heat your oven to about 140-160 degree C. On the stove top heat the pan until you just start to get bubbles in the fat. Transfer the pan to the oven & let everything cook until the meat is very soft & tender. Normally this will take a couple of hours plus or minus. - While the cooking is going on sterilize some glass jars that have good tight lids. The jars should be large enough that a cuisse will lay flat on the bottom. - Once you judge that your comfit is cooked take it out of the oven & let it cool to a point where you can handle it. Then pack it into your jars with the cuisses packing them tightly, but not pressing too hard. Cover them completely with duck fat from the cooking pan. let cool further then seal. - Store in the traditional cool, dry place for at least a few weeks before eating. That's it. Enjoy. Other methods & variations welcome. John, how's that for a 'cooking' thread?

I was afraid someone would ask. Pretty sure that it was "Le Chalet Bleu'. It was just off the main square, near the bottom. Nice as I said not outstanding. We also went to a niceish (is that a word) place up near the cathedral. They seemed to be the only place open on a Sunday night.

John, I'd be happy to contribute to a wine thread IF we can keep it from getting too serious. I used to follow & occasionally contribute to the THE wine forum, but those guys are too heavy for me. Wine is to be drunk & enjoyed, not agonised over. So, as a starter I'll ask what kind of everyday white wine do French forum eGulleteers buy? We tend to buy Bourgogne Aligot a lot of the time, but I also have to admit a fondness for some of the cheap pays d'Oc Chardonnays. What else do YOU buy?

I must confess that I buy the cheapest cans of comfit that I can in the supermarket. Aldi's is pretty good & you can't beat the price. Every so often though the other guys have it on sale, somewhere around 6 Euros for a 4-5 cuisse can. Pas mal as they say. Although when we lived in the states I made our own goose comfit it was never quite as good as the canned variety. Like sharonb I always do mine in a frying pan unless its going in a cassoulete. Her method is ideal IMHO. Brands? Who knows. I personally think that there's a huge pot of duck fat located somewhere between Toulouse & Cahors where they all take their duck legs for cooking. They can it & stick different labels on just to confuse we non-natives.

I agree with Chufi. Autun is a nice place. Great Roman amphitheatre. At least one nice restaurant that we sampled.

Here's another bit of culture for you. Fruit concentrates loaded with sugar are very popular in France. You can buy them very inexpensively in any supermarket. Go to any cafe and ask for a Diabla. This is fruit concentrate, usually peach for some reason, mixed with fizzy lemonade & ice. Delicious and very refreshing. During the summer I keep the ingredients in our fridge and show all visiting children how to make a Diabla. They especially like using the ice maker in the fridge door since American style fridges are still not too common here. Voila! The French equivalent to British Squash.

Levure chimique is never in the flour section but always in the baking ingredients section, together with the slivered almonds, vanilla extract, birthday candles, marzipan, dried bakers' yeast, etc. It is conditioned in paper sachets the exact same size as the ones that contain vanilla sugar, the only way you can tell them apart is what's printed on the package. (Edit: while you're looking for baking soda in the salts section, do grab a box of fleur de sel from Algarve, it is excellent stuff. Only Carrefour carries it.) ← Thanks, I'll try there & let everyone know when (if) I succeed. Agree about the fleur de sel.

Here's an update. I was in Cahors today and went to the monster Carrefour there. No problem in finding bio type 65 flour. No problem finding Bicarbonate. It was in the herbs & spices section right in the middle of all of the fancy salts. levure chimique or levure alsacienne were nowhere to be found. I asked a couple of French housewives who were in the flour section with no luck & I asked somebody who worked in the store (that ended up with a small convocation of staff), but still no results. So, where do they hide it?

Ptipois, you have yet to discover the depths of my ignorance. Thanks for the help. Will search out & try type 65 flour. Dave

At the risk of being labelled heretic on this forum I'd like to raise a cooking question and solicit advice from it's knowledgeable members. Yesterday I attempted to make a carrot cake. This was to be sold at a charitable vide grenier in our village. Naturally, as it was an American dish made by am American I wanted it to be as good as possible so as to not look bad to our French neighbours. Although by no means a disaster the cake did not rise nearly as high as I would have expected it to. It did rise, but each of the layers was somewhere between 1/2 & 1 inch flatter than I thought it should have been. (taste was fine, but it was denser than it should have been.) I don't make a lot of cakes, but I have noticed that whenever I do they don't rise to their full 'potential' I also note that French cakes in general don't seem to be as high or light as American ones. I used French cake flour & added both baking powered & baking soda (this was the passover carrot cake recipe on recipe Gullet) and followed the recipe faithfully. Any ideas? Does anybody else have the same problem? Secondary question: I'm running out of both baking powder & baking soda and I don't see either of them in the local hypermarket. Where can I find them?

Ok, cheesaholics check this out absolutely crazy Only in England, I guess.

As you know we live about 1/2 hour from Cordes. It is truly an enchanting place. The views are stupendous, there are interesting shops, several decent restaurants as well as one one star. The good! Beautiful & very lively and full of tourists in the summer. Lots going on, a very good theatre season, a classic music festival and more. The weather is good and you are in reach of interesting places, Albi, Toulouse, Montauban, plus pretty villages. The bad! Winter is pretty dead. Most of the shops close for the winter & there just aren't a lot of people around. These medieval villages can be very cold & dank in winter. The fact that Cordes is full of tourists in summer can be a pain, nowhere to park, everything crowded. All in all though I can think of many worse places to spend a year. Use winter to do lots of short breaks all over France. If the rental is good (I'm thinking mod cons as well as charm) it could well be worth a try. Your cat would be no problem. We brought our 13 year old poodle over when we moved here 5 years ago. We flew him from Boston to Paris (this was after in incredible amount of training by my wife, but that's another story) and Air France couldn't have been nicer. He loved it here, especially being able to go to the restaurants with us. I'm sure it prolonged his life.