eG Foodblog: bleudauvergne

[bleudauvergne]

[phaelon56]

Although some of the specific source items you're using for your daily meals may not be readily available here in the US (at least in many cities, such as where I live), high quality foodstuffs, specialty bakeries, fish vendors and butchers are in fact accessible even in smaller and more remote markets such as Syracuse.

This begs the question: have you ever cooked this way when living elsewhere and can you make a cost comparison? Economic and plotical pundits love top throw around the factoid that the average consumer in the US spends a lower percentage of their net income on food than people in other developed countries do. I have no faith in statistics of that sort as they are ridiculously skewed and rife with inaccuracies but do you have a reference point that might shed light on this topic? Did you ever cook like this when you were living in the US, Switzerland or elsewhere? In relative terms, do you find the food products in France to be comparable in cost to those you've seen or used elsewhere?

[Shannon_Elise]

bleudauvergne-

I know that I am fairly new to egullet, but I had a question. My grandmother is visiting family in Austria this summer, and I am quite sure that I can fit in one of her suitcases. Would you mind if I took a bus/train from Vienna to Paris? I am a petite blonde who will be waving enthusiastically with no luggage!

I think that I joined egullet (although I have lurked here for over 6 months) just in time for this blog. I wonder how long it is going to take me to save up to finally visit France. Your pictures and words are the motivation I need to get me to move my ass and get a third job. Thanks.

Shannon

[bleudauvergne]

bleudauvergne-

I know that I am fairly new to egullet, but I had a question.  My grandmother is visiting family in Austria this summer, and I am quite sure that I can fit in one of her suitcases.  Would you mind if I took a bus/train from Vienna to Paris?  I am a petite blonde who will be waving enthusiastically with no luggage!

I think that I joined egullet (although I have lurked here for over 6 months) just in time for this blog.  I wonder how long it is going to take me to save up to finally visit France.  Your pictures and words are the motivation I need to get me to move my ass and get a third job.  Thanks.

Shannon

Best flight fares to travel to France are March to May, and October to November. As low as 199 sometimes. Spring is the best season...

Edited April 19, 2004 by bleudauvergne (log)

[bleudauvergne]

I am sorry to be posting dinner so late tonight. We started talking at the table. (edit to say it's Mayhaw Man's fault.)

There's tartiflette.

Edited April 19, 2004 by bleudauvergne (log)

[Mayhaw Man]

That's a wonderful thing, that tartiflette. Simple and it looks wonderful.

I think that you should treat us all to a late night snack.

[ludja]

It think this blog has officially become x-rated....

C'est incroyable!

[bleudauvergne]

Although some of the specific source items you're using for your daily meals may not be readily available here in the US (at least in many cities, such as where I live), high quality foodstuffs, specialty bakeries, fish vendors and butchers are in fact accessible even in smaller and more remote markets such as Syracuse.

have you ever cooked this way when living elsewhere and can you make a cost comparison? Economic and plotical pundits love top throw around the factoid that the average consumer in the US spends a lower percentage of their net income on food than people in other developed countries do. I have no faith in statistics of that sort as they are ridiculously skewed and rife with inaccuracies but do you have a reference point that might shed light on this topic? Did you ever cook like this when you were living in the US, Switzerland or elsewhere? In relative terms, do you find the food products in France to be comparable in cost to those you've seen or used elsewhere?

It's hard, Owen, and I'm not sure if I have time during this blog to take your simple yet very complex question into consideration, although I would love to discuss it with you. Because you and I both know it's a question of economics, not Mc D index. We'll have to discuss this later.

[Mayhaw Man]

I am making this fine dish (or a reasonable facsimile) and have a question-did you par boil the sliced potatoes or heave em into the onions and pork raw?

[phaelon56]

Fair enough re/having a separate discussion. I believe I'll start a separate thread for this purpose as it's a bit OT and pertinent to a wider group apart from France and the Bleudauvergne household....

[bleudauvergne]

I am making this fine dish (or a reasonable facsimile) and have a question-did you par boil the sliced potatoes or heave em into the onions and pork raw?

There is not par-boiling involved.

BUT, you must follow the times and steps in the recipe.

You want to cook the potatoes with onions and lard (pork raw) for 5-6 minutes, no browning.

Then you want to add the wine, cover and simmer over low heat 10 minutes.

Don't forget to grease and rub your pan with crushed garlic.

After mixing in the creme fraiche, (you could also use heavy cream with no major adverse effects) put in the pan, put the cheese on top, and place in the oven (time this carefully):

10 minutes on 250C/500F

10 minutes on 200C/400F

10 minutes turning off the oven without opening it.

Then serve.

It's really exact. Believe me.

[balmagowry]

That tartiflette is positively the last straw. I have just chosen it for my last meal, knowing that with that inside me, and its aromas still delighting my senses, I can die happy. I may die now anyway.

OMG, no I can't, because tomorrow is l'Aillee!!!!

We'd better brace ourselves.

[hathor]

Too much work today, so I'm just checking in...and oh my God! The cheese! The soup! The wines! The lighting! Absolutely marvelous. Your photographs are just beautiful, and I agree the step by steps are wonderful. Merci beaucoup!

[herbacidal]

The aperatifs and food look so inviting.  May I ask what the drinks are?  ?Lillet?

It's chilled vin de noix! Very good with a cheese called bleu d'auvergne.

I take it that's your favorite cheese?

[herbacidal]

How long were you in China for?

Did you get to see anywhere else other than Beijing?

How long ago was it?

Oh, and thanx also for blogging.

[Squeat Mungry]

What an amazing blog! In fact, it's so amazing and so far beyond what I did, I think that pathetic thing I wrote needs a different term: like maybe 'BLAHg' or 'BLEAHg'. Dang! Even the paper cups in France look better than they do here!

Thanks so much Lucy, this is great! I love the step-by-step photos and, for the astounding tartiflette, the handwritten instruction. Lovely touch.

Keep up the wonderful work. I'm having a great time pretending to be you while trying to forget that I'm, well, me.

Cheers,

Squeat

PS I'll ask you something someone asked me when I was blogging: do you make a list before you go to the market? or just go with what looks best when you get there? Or somewhere in between? In other words, do you do a lot of advance planning (like menus for a week), a little (like 'maybe this would be good for tonight and I could do that with it for tomorrow'), or none at all?

[bleudauvergne]

... do you make a list before you go to the market? ...

My life is composed of lists. I value them highly. My husband comes to watch me (and to get his own to carry) when it is list-making time. In fact, I cut very small cards from fine cardstock just to write the lists upon, sometimes oblong, sometimes exactly the size of my palm, always of the finest stock. I use the best pen I can find. If you were to sneak into my front hall closet, and rifle through my old coat pockets, you would find lots and lots of remnants of lists past, intimate objects.

It's very late. I am off to bed but on the bus tomorrow I will give you the full rundown on lists.

Such a great question, btw.

Edit to answer your question: Yes, I always make lists. But the list is for that day. And as for menu planning, it's kind of like a trees and forest kind of thing. What's inspiring you and what you've been doing is the forest, and what you have to get to help you move tot he next dish is the trees. (and that's where lists come in).

Edited April 19, 2004 by bleudauvergne (log)

[mnebergall]

I think this tartiflette recipe needs to go in RecipeGullet. What kind of ham (looks like serrano) and how much? What kind of potatos, russets??, and how much? One glass of white wine,what kind (at my house it would be a glass of whatever is open at the moment). Looks like butter, salt and pepper as well. Anything else? I'm dying here, I need the details. And what the heck kind of cheese is that? I know we can see the lable, but there are three chances of finding that specific kind of cheese (other than the place you found it): (1) slim, (2) none, and (3) fat.

I wonder if it would be good with tasso ham?

I'm not going to look at these food blogs anymore if I'm going to be sent into some sort of carbohydrotic shock with pictures (people will think I have had a stroke, what with all the drool leaking down my chin) and no directions. If I had wanted that I could have bought something from Ikea.

bleudauvergne, your fans around the globe await.

PS: Can we assume the the piece of unidentified blue cheese upthread somewere is a hunk of bleu d'auvergne?

[Jensen]

I think this tartiflette recipe needs to go in RecipeGullet. What kind of ham (looks like serrano) and how much? What kind of potatos, russets??, and how much?

Scroll up to see the hand-written recipe.

[mnebergall]

See what I get for only looking at the pictures. I should read the articles as well.

[balmagowry]

And what the heck kind of cheese is that?  I know we can see the lable, but there are three chances of finding that specific kind of cheese (other than the place you found it): (1) slim, (2) none, and (3) fat.

No, we're in luck there - the cheese is a Reblochon, and there are wonderful ones available here. Not exactly the same one, perhaps, and also not the same because you're not in France while buying and preparing and eatiing it... but at least you can get it! It's one of my all-time favorite cheeses, actually, but I would never have dared to dream of cooking a whole one up into a souper a deux. The luxury! Now that is the kind of "conspicuous consumption" that appeals to me.

[Pan]

Lucy, you made Jinmyo speechless! I think that's gotta be a first.

Sleep well!

[bleudauvergne]

Thank you. I slept well.

Good morning.

[bleudauvergne]

Runnning late this morning. Breakfast was had at the bus stop.

Eating on the street makes me feel uncomfortable. But what can a person do. One must eat.

Although the pear looks bruised from the outside, the flesh was resilient, fresh, clean, ivory. I sometimes remove the skin from fruit. There is a certain pleasure to be had from peeling fruit with a knife, pulling the blade toward me, in a dangerous direction. This morning I had no choice but to eat it. Raindrops had just begun to pelt down, and I was given a quizzical look by a woman who was walking by as I tried to discreetly photograph my breakfast. The batteries of my camera are running low and the display screen is not operating.

Edited April 20, 2004 by bleudauvergne (log)

[bleudauvergne]

I think this tartiflette recipe needs to go in RecipeGullet.  What kind of ham (looks like serrano) and how much?  What kind of potatos, russets??, and how much?  One glass of white wine,what kind (at my house it would be a glass of whatever is open at the moment).  Looks like butter, salt and pepper as well.  Anything else?  I'm dying here, I need the details. And what the heck kind of cheese is that?  I know we can see the lable, but there are three chances of finding that specific kind of cheese (other than the place you found it): (1) slim, (2) none, and (3) fat.

I wonder if it would be good with tasso ham?

I'm not going to look at these food blogs anymore if I'm going to be sent into some sort of carbohydrotic shock with pictures (people will think I have had a stroke, what with all the drool leaking down my chin) and no directions.  If I had wanted that I could have bought something from Ikea.

bleudauvergne, your fans around the globe await.

PS:  Can we assume the the piece of unidentified blue cheese upthread somewere is a hunk of bleu d'auvergne?

This is a good bunch of questions. Tartiflette is a dish from the Savoie. That should be the first guidance. The Savoie is a mountainous region, including the area around Mont Blanc, in the Alps. Local products there include Reblochon cheese, and Ham, cured and smoked. We went to ski there and to pick up the local products last weekend. Just because I went to the Savoie to get my reblochon and my ham does not mean that you have to. You might try Fromages.com.

Just knowing the qualities of the ingredients, substitutions can give an equally satisfying result. Country cured ham from Virginia, for instance. Tasso - it would depend on the heat. This is not a spicy dish, there is only one clove of garlic which comes though prominently. Tasso might possibly overshadow the garlic. Then again, it really depends on the product that you have.

First about the cheese. You must not allow absence of this cheese in your local market to stop you from preparing something similar. You can choose other cheeses and make the same dish, and then call it something else. Reblochon fermier is an uncooked cheese made with lait cru, a semi soft cheese. When you want to cook something like this, think of soft cheeses. In France, people use other cheeses too, and give the same dish other names. My husband has had it prepared with Munster, while he was hiking in the mountain range where it is local there. You could also use a Camembert. Hmm. Epoissiflette.

About the rind: You leave the rind of the cheese on. When the dish cooks, the rind becomes a crispy treat to be eaten with the dish. Everyone should get a piece of the rind. Depending on the age and type of the cheese, some people feel more comfortable scraping the rind of the cheese before using it, with the blade of a knife to remove the excess fungus. I did not do that last night, but sometimes I do. It's a judgement call.

The ham: Jambon de Savoie, cured or smoked, is on sale in Alpine towns. We picked up this hunk of meat last weekend, and we have given it it’s own drawer of the fridge, where it is kept loosely wrapped in a dish towel to let it breathe. Many perfectly good recipes for tartiflette call simply for “lardons”, which is bacon cut into cubes. But early on in my tartiflette making, I began to think about the products local to that region, and what would have naturally be included in the dish at it’s origin. In my mind, this is a more true representation of what the tartiflette evolved from. Therefore I combine smoke cured ham and bacon (poitrine fume) when I make it. That’s not to say that you have to. Tartiflette is perfectly good with thick sliced bacon.

In fact, when we went to the co-op to get this cheese, they had a recipe for tartiflette. Their recipe did not contain ham at all.

The potatoes I used were the kind that make good potato salad. They do not disintegrate when handled. I like to use an old potato. There is stirring involved, and they should hold up to that. That’s the only real requirement.

There are hundreds of different recipes out there. So instead of a recipe, you can make this dish with guidelines. I will weigh and measure and put a recipe in the gullet when the blog is done. Salt and pepper should be judged according to 1) the saltiness of your bacon, 2) what your creme fraiche tastes like and 3) how salty you like it.

Edited to say that you're right, this dish is enough to throw anyone into carb shock, so you include, in your meal planning, a nice brisk walk the next day. I work near the institute Paul Bocuse and have made a plan to walk there and take a stroll around the campus after lunch. (I can't afford to eat in the student restaurant right now...)

Edited April 20, 2004 by bleudauvergne (log)