Dave Hatfield

Can't think much of to do with anchovy past in this context even though I love anchovies. You could, however make pork rillettes. Here's how: 1) get some decent lean pork. Probably about half a pound for your 11/2 cup fat. Cut into roughtly 1 inch square cubes. 2) marinate overnight in a paste/rub made up of thyme, sage, juniper berries, garlic and olive oil. Salt & pepper sparingly.This should be made into the paste/ rub with a mortar & pestle or, if you must with a food processor. 3) Next day heat up your pork fat in an oven proof container large enough to contain it & the marinated pork & marinade on the stove top until the fat just starts to show bubbles. 4) Place in a pre-heated 230 degree F. oven and let it gently cook for 3-4 hours. Check & adjust Salt & pepper if necessary after a couple of hours. 5) Its done when you can easily shred the fork pieces with a fork. 6) Shred it all to a very rough paste & place in a sealable jar. Put this in the warmest part of your fridge (or if you're lucky enough to have one a larder that keeps below 50 degrees F) Keep for a week before opening. (I can rarely wait that long, but it is better if you can.) You will now have what the French call rillettes. Absolutely wonderful when spread on some good French bread & eaten with cornichons and a glass (or more) of decent red wine. Normally these are made with goose or duck, but I think the pork variety are every bit as good and its far easier to get the ingredients. Enjoy. Let me know what you think if you decide to try this.

Thanks, Marlena. It goes on our list for the next visit to Paris. Don't know when that will be, but the list is getting pretty long.

Well, jus'tellin'ya where to get cheddar, mate. ← Tip appreciated, Ptipois. Just couldn't resist the doggerel. While you're in the wonderful cheese emporiums try some Gaperon. A very nice cheese & worth a try if you haven't had it before.

Ah to be in Paris instead of out here in the sticks! When I choose my cheese there I have no end of picks! Out here in the hinterland I have to choose what's there but I'm fortunate; I get to breath the country air. So, much as I love cheddar I'll have to say tis true; Not living in the the city is something I don't rue! Lousy poetry, but I think you can get my meaning.

Thanks everyone. Yes, I have smuggled, that works, but we run out of the cheddar too soon. I'm going to try the mimolette & I'll buy some cheddar when next I' in the big city. Smuggling reminds me of a story. Years ago one of my British managers was poached by the parent company in California. The move went well & he & his wife were very happy. When I talked to him just before starting a trip to the Calif HQ the only thing he seemed to miss from the UK was stilton cheese. No problem! I bought a nice large chunk to take as a present. I was afraid to put it into my checked baggage for fear that it would get frozen & spoiled so I wrapped it very carefully, I thought, & put it in my briefcase. Somewhere over Canada thing started to get a little smelly. 'eau de stilton' by the time we got to SF everyone in my section of the plane was very glad to get off. US customs didn't catch me, the stilton was delicious and Don & Anne are still very good friends.

I'll try Mimolette again. Haven't tasted it for years. Thanks for the suggestion.

I'll get in trouble over this post as I have done with some others, but much as I love the cheeses of France (just ask the various fromagiers locally & at nearby markets; the all love to see me coming & my wife says that at times I'm getting mouldy.) I still have not found a really good substitute for a really nice sharp farmhouse cheddar. I've tried Cantal of various ages, Laguilole also of various ages and Salers yet again of various ages. They are all wonderful cheeses, but just don't taste the same as a good cheddar. Any suggestions?

I'm getting confused now, but willing to try anything. Thus I will se if I can persuade my butcher to buy in the right breeds of Franch beef & then age it properly. ( Looking for opinions on how long??? My take is 4 weeks minimum & up to 6 weeks, but I'm open to other opinion.) I must say, however, that in my experience British beef when bought from a good butcher stacks up pretty well. We're not talking Supermarket here. In fact the supplier in Scotland I was thinking of recently supplied the beef that my friend's son cooked in the TV competition for "The great British menu" which was cooking for a banquet for the Queen. He lost out to another Scottish chef who won the whole thing with his saddle of roe deer. In any case that's a pretty good recommendation as to the quality of the beef. I will explore all avenues. May take some time given summer menus, business, holidays & the like, but I will report back in. Thanks to all for their help. Don't stop now!

Ok. Ha Ha Ha and you are probably all right, but.... Has anyone actually tried this gizmo? Stranger things have happened.

We're in violent agreement about shopping local. We use all of our local markets on a regular basis & delight in finding new things and new ways to cook them. Our French friends & neighbors are a constant source of information & inspiration. The older ladies & gentlemen especially even though getting past the local accents is sometimes difficult. Many of that generation only learned French at school; they spoke Occitan at home. You're right in that all expats in my experience 'yearn' for food they grew up with. One of my silly yearnings is for Fritos corn chips. Go figure. In fact having hopped across the pond a few times I have yearnings for American things when I'm here and for French & English things when I'm there. Now, beef is another matter. I do eat French beef. And I do agree that the flavour is good. For a dyed in the wool carnivore, however, the French beef (so far -I hasten to add) just doesn't quite live up to my expectations. I will continue to look & maybe before resorting to the Scottish beef ploy the butcher & I can find a solution. I hope so. In the meantime I'll just have to content myself with the superb Lamb, pork, veal, fowl of all kinds, mutton, cheval and charcouterie that are so readily available. Somebody has to suffer them & it might as well be me.

You don't say how long you are staying in the Luberon, but if its more than a week you can get pretty good prices on gites in September as the French & most other Europeans have finished their vacations by then. Try: www.homelidays.com as a source for gites. Look in the Vaclouse then narrow it down. The advantage of gites is that you always have cooking facilities so can mess with the wonderful market produce.

Nth. La Corniche, overlooking the Averyron gorge. Great if the chef is sober that day.

Thanks, I was begining to think I was the crazy one. Nice to see that somebody agrees with me. I will continue my search. My next ploy is too find a sympathetic young butcher ( think I know a canidate) with an enterprising nature. Now that British beef can again be exported within the EEC I'll try to convince him to establish a relationship with a Scottish wholesaler ( just so happens that a friend's son runs a top restaurant in Scotland so he has contacts & said friend was amongst other varied things in his career a butcher). If we can get the beef in we can persuade him (young butcher) to age it properly & cut to transatlantic tastes. There is enough of an expat colony in these parts to make it worth his while. Once available we & friends will expose as many of our French friends as possible to said beef & convert them, thus expanding the market. Did I mention that I used to do corporate strategy? Sound like a plan?

Yes; Harry's has had a resurection and is back on top of the Fish & Chips stakes. They're about 5 minutes from my sister-in-laws so we go every time we visit. Worth it for the 'local colour' !

Many thanks. I think that bethesdabakers had the place right, but you have the chef right. I appreciate the effort from both of you to help my failing memory.

Certainly looks a nice piece of beef. I'll just keep trying and, perhaps, go a bit further afield as so far the several local butchers I've tried don't quite get there. The best so far is to buy from the Spainish restaurant in Albias. He hangs & butchers his own beef & it is very good. He will sell uncooked with some advance notice. Agen & Moissac a bit of a drive, but for the real thing I'll try it. We love BBQ. Anytime.

Thank you! that was it. I've looked at my diaries now & it was January, 1991 when I went there. It was a dinner for our Managing Director from around Europe & the special menu had been arranged by our French head of HR who loved to dine well. We'd had a good year so... Memorable.

Liked the article in today's New York Times by Mark Bittman. Good one for all those visiting Nice this summer. Be interesting to see if the restaurants mentioned now become very difficult to get into. I remember, this was years ago, going to a restaurant in central Nice which was in a converted art deco movie theatre. We had a wonerful meal & at the end of it the curtains hiding the original movie screen parted to reveal a glass wall behind which was the kitchen with all of the staff lined up to take a bow. They got a standing ovation. Being old, however, I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the restaurant. Can anybody help? If so, does the place still exist?

Ok, can't give you pub pork pies, but.... Go just a bit West of Leeds to Otley. In this small town their are not one, but two of the best pork pie makers I have ever come across. Wegeman's is right on the corner of the high street. The other, whose name I can't remember, is just down the side street by the small market square. They make several sizes, but I prefer the small ones. You can buy them still warm especially on Saturday's as they sell so quickly that there are constant replentishments coming out. While in the area you should go to 'Betty's Tea Rooms' in either Ilkley or Harrogate. English high tea as it used to be. A real institution. Buy some of their Yorkshire Tea to take home, great stuff! Edit: My wife returned from visiting her sister yesterday. When I picked her up at the airport she presented me with a Wegeman pork pie, medium size, she had to drive as I couldn't wait. The pie didn't last much more than 5 km. Heaven!!

I do, but I find it somewhat diffucult to pair a serious white wine with a serious cheese. I and others I know have tried, repeatedly, with so so results at best. Still, I guess with a mild Pouligny something like a sauvigon blanc would be Ok. Chacun a son gout; as they say.

At least six months in a tightly sealed jar. Maybe longer, but mine always gets used before it ages too much.

Both dry & sweet exist, so: If dry, Then fish, pasta, rissoto or the like or with a salad starter so long as the dressing isn't to astringent. If sweet, then the fois gras or other strongly liver flavored pate would work well or serve it as an apperitif as the Fench might. Do not under any circumstances serve this wine with cheese. Please!

If you can't get cepes then you are well advised to leave out the mushrooms. Its just not the same with any other type. Dried cepes, reconstituted work though.

Lots of good stuff here and I agree with most of it, but.... I'm suprised that nobody has mentioned putting some crumbled dry bay leaves in with their steak. Adds a wonderfully subtle flavor. They're best added on the top side just before beginning the basting process. Another trick if you like garlic is to put a sprinkling of garlic granules on one or both sides. Helps the crust & is not overpowering. Plain raw garlic has a tendency to be either too strong or to burn.

Spot on I think. Gin or 'genever' in Dutch. My research seems to indicate that this recipe is originally Waloon from Belgium. So, although I can't find a rock hard reference, 'genievre' sounds like 'Waloonian' for that kind of gin to me. let us know how it turns out.