Ile de re potatoes

[Bageless]

A food shop near us is selling 2 kg of potatoes from the Ile de Ré in its own wooden box for 6 euros (similar new French potatoes are 1.60 euros a kilo). Can anyone tell me what's so singular about potatoes from this island off the Atlantic coast?

[bleudauvergne]

This kind of potato is labeled with an AOC, and apparently they have guidelines about how these can be raisted and sold - they are always sold as young potatoes. Apparently they have a fresh sweet taste and they aren't as starchy as others bred for long storage. Hope that helps.

[John Talbott]

For some reason, the potatoes from the Ile de Re and Noirmoutiers are highly prized and priced. We spent some some on the nearby Ile de Yeu and we had them daily. I loved them but can't tell you more than that they are limited in number, usually sold by the box, taste more firm and have I guess you could call it salty flavor. I like them but my eating pal tells me he cannot tell any difference.

[Louisa Chu]

I'm planning a visit there - and ran across this on their official website about their potatoes

Five different varieties grow here, two soft-bodied, the Almaria and the Starlette, while the Roseval, Charlotte and Amandine have a firmer texture.

I don't think I've tried them but can't wait - I LOVE potatoes. A meal of those potatoes, a sprinkle of their local salt, a plateau of local oysters - I cannot wait. And the pineau - got to start with some pineau.

[naguere]

I'm planning a visit there -

If you visit Ille de Noirmoutier, buy the salt they produce.Fantastic.

[Gifted Gourmet]

If you visit Ille de Noirmoutier, buy the salt they produce.Fantastic.

Which is this, I assume? Thanks, naguere, for the reminder!

Of course, we've saved the best for last, a sack of Fleur de Sel, white gold. The three most prominent areas of salt production on France's Southwestern Atlantic coast, Guérande, Ile de Ré and Ile Noirmoutier, produce some of the best sea salt in the world. Salt farmers, and cultivate the salt marshes by hand. They channel the seawater into a series of basins of increasing salinity, and then let the sun and wind do their work. Most evaporation takes place during the sunniest months, June, July, and August, when the paludiers continually rake their salt beds. When the evaporation process is complete, the grey salt, sel gris, is harvested.

There are special days, which occur intermittently all summer long, before the evaporation process is complete, when the wind and the sun are just right: a white bloom appears on the water - the "Fleur" - the lightest of the salts, rich with the flavors of Brittany. Aware that nature only offers this gift erratically, the paludiers quickly, gently, gather it. Most of the salt farmers belong to a cooperative, which mixes all the salt together, the above average and the below average. Didier Aube of Guérande is one of the individuals who choose to go it alone, and with good reason since his Fleur de Sel is divine.

from chefshop

[cigalechanta]

And should you go to Noirmoutier, there is A GOOD hOTEL/RESTAURANT called fleur de sel. At Ile de Ré, at those waterfront cafés they serve a great beer called La Blanche de Ré. I brought the empty flip top bottle home.

Oh gifted one, I did not read your post through . Now i see you mention Fleur de sel.

Edited July 10, 2004 by cigalechanta (log)

[cigalechanta]

remember, do not put fleur de sel in something cooking, you sprinkle it AFTER and it brings out the flavor of the dish.

[Bux]

Of course the reason not put fleur de sel in your stew pot is that it tastes just like salt and when it's dissolved, and a whole lot more expensive. It's really not much different from any other salt in terms of taste. In fact, I'd just as soon have that dirty grey stuff in my soup. I believe it is richer in other trace elements and flavors of the sea. What's unique about fleur de sel is it's uniform size somewhere short of coarse salt crystals and it's crystaline structure. Under a microscope you can see its rough surface which helps it hook onto food unlike most course salts which tend to slide right off the food. I don't know about the two island producers of sea salt and fleur de sel, but one can buy salt from peddlers at tables along the salt flats near Geurande for next to nothing. It's a little more expensive in town and a whole lot more so in the states after it gets into fancy packages.

[Bux]

A plate of new potatoes, some Breton butter and a bit of fleur de sel. I'm getting hungry.