eG Foodblog: bleudauvergne

[Jensen]

And a blette is bok choy?  (sorry for the silly questions but this is an education.  ) 

I think it's Swiss chard. Not 100% sure though...

[Pumpkin Lover]

Bleu, I just went through your first blog. I'm so excited you're doing this again.

Will we be going back to Chez Pierre?

[therese]

This is the thing.  I'm having a little trouble wrapping my mind around this cheval thing.  I'm all for respecting tradition and all.  The main thing in my mind is that if you see a chevaline boucherie, you're most likely going to see a butcher that's from the old school.  He's in it because it's his vocation.  He's going to be serious.  Me too, I'm just a little *gulp* when I see this picture of a pretty horse on the paper my meat is wrapped in, though.  I don't know.  Maybe I'm just being too sensitive.  Maybe I'm afraid I'm going to get horse by accident.  He calls his butcher shop "Boucherie Mixte". 

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Great blog, Lucy.

Horse meat didn't bother me when I lived in France (in high school), but the family with whom I lived initially thought it might. After school I'd go into the grandmother's (Marie) enormous kitchen to chat with her and her companion (Fifine), and of course the conversation would eventually turn to dinner. Marie and Fifine had run a deli together in Marseille at one point, so food was big part of our lives.

Anyway, occasionally my query re the upcoming dinner was met with nervous hemming and hawing, and finally the answer: "Uh, meat. We're having meat." Which I knew meant horse. I finally told them that eating horse didn't bother me, and they were pretty relieved.

Marie and Fifine were pretty cool. They taught me to do Calvados shots.

[johnnyd]

They taught me to do Calvados shots. smile.gif

Dude! Wotta waste! ...ah youth... I was in Suisse for high school and we abused Poire and Pfumli at a shameful rate!

[SuzySushi]

And a blette is bok choy?  (sorry for the silly questions but this is an education.  ) 

Soba

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Nope. It's Swiss chard. The two are related, though.

[Edited because I can't type.]

Edited March 24, 2005 by SuzySushi (log)

[snowangel]

Cooking...

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Ah, another magnetic knife "block" fan. Over the sink, keeps them out of prying little hands.

[Dejah]

And a blette is bok choy?  (sorry for the silly questions but this is an education.  ) 

Soba

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Nope. It's Swiss chard. The two are related, though.

[Edited because I can't type.]

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Hmmm, I could have sworn it was bok choy. The stalk looks too white, too firm and too smooth to be swiss chard. Usually chard has a slight curl to the leave as well. But then, there may be many varieties of swiss chard.

I want to add my words of admiration for your finess in all aspects of blogging!

I have so much to learn from you!

[Ben Hong]

And a blette is bok choy?  (sorry for the silly questions but this is an education.  ) 

I think it's Swiss chard. Not 100% sure though...

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If that is swiss chard and not bok choy, I'll eat it.

Beautiful blog.

[SuzySushi]

And a blette is bok choy?  (sorry for the silly questions but this is an education.  ) 

I think it's Swiss chard. Not 100% sure though...

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If that is swiss chard and not bok choy, I'll eat it.

Beautiful blog.

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"Blette" is defined as Swiss chard. "Bok choy" in French is bok choi, pak choi, or "blette de Chine" (Chinese chard).

I know, the stems in the photograph look an awful lot like bok choy... We'll just have to wait for Bleu d'Auvergne to sign on again to see if she was trying to sneak bok choy by us!

[bleudauvergne]

Good Morning!

It is blette, Swiss Chard. At least that's what it was sold as at the market. Ben, I'll cook up the rest tonight, just for you.

This morning's breakfast took place rather early. Sissy has been conditioned to associate the smell of coffee with affection and being and talked to, from the days when I was taking coffee in bed and she would come and sit with me. She now comes and sits next to the coffee and purrs.

We finally decided to stop using the Italian stovetop espresso pot because the coffee was not tasting good no matter what we did to it. We tried just about everything. I've started with a French press. The one I use every morning cost me 1 euro but it works really well. The results have gotten quite good since I began. The first time was a disaster. You must stir it up and let the coffee soak for a couple of minutes. Then you must press it down slowly, ever so slowly. But the result is very good.

Today breakfast was "pain des champs", it has various toasted seeds in the dough. Toast with a liberal smearing of the Villegois, chevre from the cheese plate. It's just about ready to eat and I must make sure to enjoy it now. This was put in the oven for a few minutes to warm it up.

I changed the butter in the dish to beurre echiré. I only scraped a very thin tartine on the toast. Here is a photo of the butter. The little bottle next to it is a little drink like a vitamin bottle to build up your natural defenses with cultures, put out by Danone. I like to drink one when I'm not having yougert for breakfast.

While I was on the bus to work, a woman was on the phone somewhere behind me on the bus. I hadn't been following her conversation but I found myself involuntarily pulled when she said, "bleu.... bleu..... bleu..... bleu.... bleu." Loudly and persistently over the course of what seemed to be a significant amount of time, repeating only the word "bleu" 5 times. I had thought she was calling me for a moment, I turned my head slightly, thinking, no one would know, how could anyone know? But her conversation continued, perhaps she was choosing some theme for decoration or insisting on the color of a dress, descibing something, I don't know. Her voice melted back into the sounds on the bus. By that time I was alert. It was strange. I looked down at my book and turned the page. There in the page was one of those long paper sticks, wedged in between the pages close to the binding, like the ones they use to keep people from shoplifting. I edged my nail underneath it and pulled it out. In miniscule red copperplate type were the simple words: "complimentary bookmark".

This I accept. The first sentences I read on the page were:

"You have to begin slowly. Translation allows you to work on the nuts and bolts of your craft, to learn how to live intimately with words. To see more clearly what you are actually doing."

I accept these gifts as they are given.

There is another woman who rides the bus and this year we had a hat contest. We were the only ones on the bus to wear interesting hats. It began with berets and then we began getting more and more elaborate as the hard cold winter labored on. I ended up the season with a large squarish white sculpted hat from Italy with a brim that looked quite theatrical and the last week of freeze had her solomnly sporting a sculpted burgundy towering mitre that looked absolutely religious. It matched her dark voluptuous lipstick. We are not wearing hats but we both independently chose to wear red shoes today. I do not know this woman and we have never spoken to each other.

[bleudauvergne]

One regional specialty of Lyon is the quenelle. A recipe for this appears in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of Cooking Volume I. I prepared this recipe with salmon when we were in L.A. before we came to Lyon and we served them to dinner guests. They turned out great. I have not decided whether or not to prepare them myself though since there are hundreds of local artisans that do excellent things with quenelles all within a stone's throw of where I live. What is more artisanal than home made? I don't know. Hmmm.

[SethG]

Lucy, I'm intrigued by that pain des champs. The crumb looks so dark, but it has such a nice open hole structure. Do you know why the crumb has that dark coloring? It looks too even to be from the seeds, but the amount of whole grain flour you'd need to get that color would usually result in a much more regular, hole-less crumb. It almost looks like the color you'd get from walnuts, but again it's so even...

Just curious. Loving the blog.

[bleudauvergne]

Lucy, I'm intrigued by that pain des champs. The crumb looks so dark, but it has such a nice open hole structure. Do you know why the crumb has that dark coloring? It looks too even to be from the seeds, but the amount of whole grain flour you'd need to get that color would usually result in a much more regular, hole-less crumb. It almost looks like the color you'd get from walnuts, but again it's so even...

It might be the light... The bread does normally have a rather 'noisette' coloring, like a pain de campagne (country bread). My boulanger lists the type of flours with the breads on display. I think that this one was made with a type 65 flour and may incorporate a whole grain like 'lin' (flax) but the ratio of whole grain is quite low. Their specialty breads are also made with a house levain. The hole structure in the past week or so has been a bit larger, sometimes the hole structure is smaller although it never really has a very dense crumb.

The tripe in the style of "Caen" recipe in the ageless old cookbook I've got says to soak it 24 hours and the cook it 7 hours. I suspect that's overkill. Looking for recettes. I'm not sure if the tripes were soaked already, they were clean looking and white, is this how it should be before or after soaking?

[bleudauvergne]

Lunch

Rouget and spinach with a cream sauce.

[M. Lucia]

I also love the French press, that is after I discovered the trick of pressing really slowly. Like wringing out a delicate sweater, someone once told me.

I was wondering, I know there are large amounts of Arab/African immigrants. How have they affected the cuisine and the produce that is available?

As for the tripe, I would assume it wasn't soaked unless it was displayed in some soaking liquid at the store. You can just rinse it until the water runs clear. Can't say I know much about cooking tripe, but the seven hour cooking time seems excessive. I have seen several recipes that involve simmering it for an hour or two, for example with some garlic, tomatoes, carrots, onions, etc. (or if you had pigs feet you could make the Mexican stew menudo)

[FaustianBargain]

The tripe in the style of "Caen" recipe in the ageless old cookbook I've got says to soak it 24 hours and the cook it 7 hours.  I suspect that's overkill.  Looking for recettes.  I'm not sure if the tripes were soaked already, they were clean looking and white, is this how it should be before or after soaking?

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I have recipes that call for 10-12 hours of cooking. Tripe sold to you is probably pre-soaked. Ask when in doubt.

It helps if you have a norman style tripiere, a special tripe cooking apparatus.

Edited March 24, 2005 by FaustianBargain (log)

[Laksa]

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Am I the only one who's a little disturbed by this photo? I mean, the photo right before it shows a set of knives... that includes a very ominous looking cleaver.

[Rehovot]

The first sentences I read on the page were: 

"You have to begin slowly.  Translation allows you to work on the nuts and bolts of your craft, to learn how to live intimately with words.  To see more clearly what you are actually doing." 

I accept these gifts as they are given.

What an extraordinary blog this is. I love every bit of it. We're hoping to spend 2006-2008 in Paris, postdoc-ing, writing, cooking, eating, and soaking everything in. I miss France....was one of those junior-year-abroad girls.... I miss my host family.....they introduced me to homemade vintage Calvados and many other delicious bites and sips of France.

[SethG]

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This photo really got me. If you look at it a certain way, it creates the optical illusion that the glass is floating about an inch over the butcher block. I spent a few minutes staring at it, trying to figure out how Lucy got the glass to levitate, and then finally I saw it correctly and felt foolish.

[bleudauvergne]

Am I the only one who's a little disturbed by this photo?  I mean, the photo right before it shows a set of knives... that includes a very ominous looking cleaver.

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Actually Laksa, That cleaver is really one of my favorite knives. I got it (although it's a Japanese knife) when I was in Beijing and it's gone with me everywhere since. It's the one I take with me when I go visiting with friends because it's really an all purpose knife. You never know who's got sharp knives and who doesn't, so I got in the habit of wrapping up that baby and taking her wherever I go. I can't stand using poorly sharpened cutlery, it's dangerous. I got used to using that one cleaver over the years, everything from delicate deboning to chopping crabs in half. It doesn't need sharpening often and it maintains a really sharp edge all the way up around the edge where you can turn it and it does perform quite intricate work easily depending on how you hold it. I recently got the two Globals, choosing them simply because they felt best in my hand when I was shopping. I love them both too.

My kitchen is about the size of a half bath. The floor measures 1 meter by 1.5 meters. It was a closet with a water connection when we moved into the apartment and we had a kitchen installed. It is a lot like a boat kitchen, and we have all kinds of systems to store things in the most efficient way possible. I would never have those knives knocking around in the one drawer we do have, since the drawer is packed to the gills, and everything has it's place.

I don't have children (we will one day) but when I do I'll be glad the knives are out of the way. They are mounted above the vitroceramic cooktop, which I use as a prep area with the big wooden board and various small cutting boards before cooking on it.

Don't be afraid.

[bleudauvergne]

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This photo really got me. If you look at it a certain way, it creates the optical illusion that the glass is floating about an inch over the butcher block. I spent a few minutes staring at it, trying to figure out how Lucy got the glass to levitate, and then finally I saw it correctly and felt foolish.

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The first layer is a secret formula kept under lock and key in my safe. But let me tell you, it's magic. The second is actual sea foam from the shores of an island where the whisper walks from coast to coast. The third is a soup bourne of sadness (recipe above). You must say three seperate magic words as you eat each layer with a spoon of gold, and then - POUF - Well, I'm not sure what happens but I'll let you know when it does.

[Abra]

What do you mean? The glass isn't levitating???

[zeitoun]

I changed the butter in the dish to beurre echiré.  I only scraped a very thin tartine on the toast.  Here is a photo of the butter.  The little bottle next to it is a little drink like a vitamin bottle to build up your natural defenses with cultures, put out by Danone.  I like to drink one when I'm not having yougert for breakfast. 

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I don't think I ever had beurre echiré, what do you use it for mainly, cooking, spreading, everything? How would you compare it to other butters? What part of France is it from?

[johnnyd]

The first layer is a secret formula kept under lock and key in my safe. But let me tell you, it's magic. The second is actual sea foam from the shores of an island where the whisper walks from coast to coast. The third is a soup bourne of sadness (recipe above). You must say three seperate magic words as you eat each layer with a spoon of gold, and then - POUF - Well, I'm not sure what happens but I'll let you know when it does. biggrin.gif

Okay, that does it!

Those in favor of voting for a permanent bleudauvergne foodblog say AYE!

We'll need:

a) To pitch in and have Jason knock together a nice new computer for her,

b) Arrange sponsorships to pay for all that connect time, photography and food,

c) Send Varmint to Lyon to supervise the kitchen renovation...

what else?

oh...

d) Send our best negotiator (FatGuy?) to her office to arrange more time off and a raise!

[chefzadi]

Don't get me started on French butter!

The irony is that margarine was first developed by a French pharmacist and chemist.

Anyway, Beurre echire has very sublte, delicate flavor. It's from Deux-Sevres.