eG Foodblog: bleudauvergne

[suzilightning]

Go, Lucy!! Go, Lucy!! Go, Lucy!!

suzi in full cheerleading mode for the first time in her life.

i love the way you articulated your use of the local markets. alas here in nw nj there aren't that many markets in the winter and my yard is very good at growing stones.

your photos and your food are as elegant as the city you live in .... thank you for your great blogs.

ma grandmere ete nee a lyon... what local foods would you suggest i learn about to honor her(never knew her alas)?

[therese]

Happy Thanksgiving, Lucy. I'm looking forward to your meal almost as much as I'm looking forward ours. And I won't have to clean up after yours.

[saskanuck]

What a wonderful blog, Lucy! I love your photography. You should publish a coffee table book of your food pictures because I'd buy it in a second.

[hwilson41]

And a Happy Thanksgiving to all from me and my family. We will sit down in about an hour to a turkey done a la Alton Brown, and I am really looking forward to that. I'm not a big fan of turkey, but I love the sandwiches the next day .

I am thankful for many things, not the least of which is egullet and the wonderful folks who post here, and especially to those like you, Lucy, who inspire me to do more than I think I can do (which, alas, sometimes proves to be true ). Thanks to all, and special thanks to you Lucy for this wonderful blog.

[bleudauvergne]

Hey thanks y'all!

Dinner tonight basically was on the phone with all of my relatives, so I had to make it last. I started with what was left of the celery root. I chopped that up nice and even like, and got that going in duck fat. Then I added some pine nuts.

At that point I called my niece, who is in France and pretty much had a bad day, her first Thanksgiving abroad. I reminisced a funny story about my first Thanksgiving away from home we commiserated a bit. She recounted her Mexican dinner with her British friends and when we hung up I was pretty sure whe was ok. She'll be coming by train for Saturday's feast and asked if she can bring an American friend. I agreed as long as he can stay at the the youth hostel, since we have more than a full house that evening.

I then called Bonnie, my best American friend here in France, and she recounted her day. She had a question about how she could express the English term 'gracious' in French. She wanted it to match specifically a situation she'd seen that day, and even though she's pretty good with words she still had a hard time pinning this one down. I poured myself a glass of whiskey and we talked about what 'grace' means to all kinds of folks. It was a nice conversation. She got things narrowed down to a bunch of terms but still wasn't quite settled on the exact way to express it when things in the pan started looking like they needed an addition of some sorts.

I thought of that nice bottle of rabbit stock I had in the fridge and added a good pint. Letting that simmer awhile, I called my sister Serena, an added some thyme to the mix. I just took a half dried bunch of thyme and squeezed it over the pan and let the dried leaves fall over the mix. I also added some of henny penny's good meat to the brew. We chatted for awhile.

I made a little roux on the side and mixed that in and called my Mother. We talked about everything and nothing at the same time as I got some pasta on. She was was with other relatives, and I got the chance to hear about their great feast and at the same time as I pinched some of those crisp fresh beans in, the very last of the season.

I was supposed to call my nephew who was going to be leaving for Thailand and share some thoughts about traveling and scholarships and things but somehow time escaped me and I missed him. We keep in touch by e-mail so I'm not too concerned. It was, at that point, time for dinner.

[Chris Amirault]

I poured myself a glass of whiskey and we talked about what 'grace' means to all kinds of folks. 

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I suspect that, if one looked it up in the dictionary, the entry for "grace" might look a lot like you, nursing a glass of whiskey and tending to your stove.

To you and yours, Lucy.

[Eden]

I'm impressed that you managed to create a wonderful family and friend filled day even from afar!

And yet another interesting treatment for celeriac, yum!

[kellycolorado]

Lucy, I am really enjoying your blog. You are quite a raconteur and your father was definitely not the only artist in the family. Reading this makes me want to travel back to France ASAP and shop the wonderful market stalls so badly. sigh...

Happy Thanksgiving!

[bleudauvergne]

Degreasing the stock to make room for the turkey in the fridge yielded a whole bowl of fat. I think I may put some shallots in it and leave it in the oven for a couple of hours while I run my errands. I have a nice braid of little shallots. This morning I will go to les Halles to pick up a few things.

[bleudauvergne]

It snowed last night and the morning sun was melting it away. The air was damp but thankfully there was not a breath of wind. It seemed balmy and warm in comparison to the cold biting wind that's been sweeping down the Rhone Valley. I went to the market concentrating on keeping tucked in and alert, calm, still. Looking for pretty things for the table. The market is smaller and more intimate on Friday mornings.

Eggs for the various dishes that will require them from Madame Monterrat's farm. Some time ago, in a quest for good eggs, I got samples of the typical eggs sold regularly by several of my regular vendors at the market and broke them open and took a good look at them side by side. I found that on average her eggs' yolks are consistently about 15% larger when considering the ratio of egg to white, and the yolks have a much deeper color. Now I always get my eggs from her if I can.

I had lunch at the Ke de Pecherie, which has nice lunch specials for 8€50. Today the special was a Blanquette de Veau. I was quite pleased with it because it was seasoned in an interesting way with cloves and juniper berries, and I loved the rice mix it was served over. They gave me more than I could eat but I did my best! I felt that the glass of Macon went with it really nicely. I finished the meal with a cup of coffee.

I had a nice view of one of the many famous Fresques of Lyon. The theme of this one is famous writers that come from Lyon.

[bleudauvergne]

I did not get much from the market this morning. Fresh herbs, eggs, some pears, a quince, a butternut squash for the succotash, and a kind of radish that I like very much that the grower calls a radis raifort, I guess what you might call a 'horseradish radish', not being real horseradish. It just has the taste of it without being as strong. I desperately miss horseradish with my oysters and cannot find it fresh anywhere. Oh well.

The herbs are Rosemary, chives, thyme, chevril, parsley, and sage (2 bunches, it looked good and it dries well)

I'm off to Les Halles! Bye!

[bleudauvergne]

Having mastered the art of procrastination over the years, I have more and more stress free time before I begin to freak out. A leisurely lunch, falling behind schedule in my errands, miss the bus, etc. No worries. Be happy. The time to freak out has not yet arrived but it will any time now, I'm sure.

There is something really amazing in the air at Les Halles. I think I took it for granted when we lived just near there, in our first apartment. It was my place to shop for awhile, I mainly frequented certain vegetable vendors, and I was in tune with its ups and downs and the feelings of the people there for a couple of years. It was the place where the vendors warmed up to me really well, they are used to foreigners, they recognize and greet rather quickly, I loved the luxury of it all, the big place, just brimming with every luxurious food item you can imagine. I also liked the fact that a normal person like me, if she spends enough time and looks hard enough can find the bargains and kind of sense when something is going to go on special. I think I still look familiar to a few of the vendors, although they can't place where they know me from. They smile at me as if they think they should know me. Some of the vendors treat me like a chef, in a knowing kind of way when I ask questions and probe about this and that. Things are behind windows there. You can't touch, although if you ask politely some will lift the window so you can look more closely. I walked in there this afternoon it just bowled me over with the vibrant energy of the place. God I love it! So this afternoon I tried to get photos there and the results were not as good as I hoped. The light is terrible in there. I did think of bringing a small tripod which helped here and there but a good number of photos just didn't turn our the way I'd hoped. Oh well!

My first stop was a butcher named Maurice Torilliet where I wanted to get something I've always wanted to try. Loic and I talked about possibly going out to dinner tonight, but I decided to get this instead, because preparing this at home costs less than a meal out. A special chicken that has been prepared in a pig's bladder, a Poularde de Bresse en Vessie. It is cooking now. The butcher told me in detail how to prepare and serve it and it is going to be just wonderful. All I have to do is put on some rice tonight!

Some game from the same butcher.

I didn't shop at the vegetable vendors because I have better sources now. But Les Halles is the place for finding all kinds of very special local delicatecies and no where in town is there such a huge amassing of the highest quality stuff like you'll find here. As the fromageries die out about town, Les Halles has become the number one source for cheeses as well. I picked the cheese for the plate among several cheese purveyors at Les Halles.

[BCinBC]

Lucy, I don't think it can be overstated that your photos are just beautiful. I am almost crying looking at that charcuterie. May I ask, what makes that andouillette particularly Beajoulaise, or that pate en croute for that matter? Is it a specific recipe, or just an indicator of the regionality of the ingredients themselves?

So sad that I didn't get to experience Les Halles, but I suppose one of the nice things about a first trip is making notes of what you want to do on your second trip. Cheers!

[jamiemaw]

Lucy,

Thankyou for the opportunity to travel on your shoulder the past week. The natural light that suffuses your photography also courses through your writing and, I suspect, through you: natural, light.

Jamie

[Abra]

What are those gorgeous little cheeses right under the pheasant pate? They look like they are stuffed with pine needles, although I'm pretty sure they can't be.

Why a pig's bladder, as opposed to aluminum foil? Not a smartass question, really, but I'm wondering whether the bladder imparts flavor or whether it's just to promote steaming. And if it is for flavor, does it have sort of a pissy flavor, like kidneys, or something nicer?

[bleudauvergne]

Abra, that cheese has rosemary running through it. Of course I chose one for the plate. The bladder, It's to promote steaming.

edit: I was wrong, it's thyme. The Cheese is called Thyme Tamar. Sorry!

Edited November 28, 2005 by bleudauvergne (log)

[Pan]

Lucy, I could ask a lot of questions about the volaille, but I'll start by asking what's to the left of the doves (palombes) in the picture just under the sardines du Midi photo.

Edited November 25, 2005 by Pan (log)

[BarbaraY]

What I would give to be able to browse through the market. The cheeses have me drooling. Even the best cheeses found here are wrapped in plastic, as are the worst.

[bleudauvergne]

Lolo has chosen a wine from the cave and we'll have dinner now.

Actually I think that a real nice chicken in one of those sacks may be the same thing as the poulet de bresse in a pigs bladder. No, the bladder does not impart any kind of extra flavor, although when it is cooking it smells nice from the outside. This is the traditional way to steam the bird, before they had things like those oven bags to steam them. My brother Ford disovered the idea of putting a Thanksgiving turkey into one of those sacks that steams the bird one year and he was so happy with it he recommended it to all of us- I think the pigs bladder, though pretty (sorry I didn't get good pics of it when it as all puffed up) is about the same.

Dinner tonight:

I think I could have bought a superior bird for less € and cooked it in my own way and it would have been really nice all the same - but his did taste really delicious.

[bleudauvergne]

May I ask, what makes that andouillette particularly Beajoulaise, or that pate en croute for that matter? Is it a specific recipe, or just an indicator of the regionality of the ingredients themselves?

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The Beaujolais area is really close, about 45 minutes to an hour outside of town to the west by car. Every rural area has their local recipes. The question about what makes the andouillete special is a very good one, worth a trip out to the countryside. I can say that the two women who run this shop do manage to produce some of the best charcuterie in Les Halles, and the most beautiful terrines I have seen for sale at the market, they've been doing it for many years.

[tejon]

Do you usually plan out meals journal style? Do you keep these entries for posterity, or move on to the next event? And was that a plan for Thanksgiving attire that I saw on the right corner? That looks like some of my sewing sketches, so I'm even more curious.

[Lori in PA]

Lucy, I've been reading your previous blogs including the one with your healthy eating plan. I had a dozen questions occur to me as I was reading, but fatigue has washed them right out of my head for the moment. Tonight, we entertained my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and their two little ones. I satisfied my craving for things French by including a cheese course, which delighted everyone. I decided I wouldn't even spend one moment thinking of all the types of cheese I could NOT get in my locale, but would enjoy what is possible. That turned out to be some Sam's Club goat cheese, which isn't half bad if you haven't been to France for three years, a nice Cabot cheddar, and a Danish bleu. The local Nittany apples we sliced up to eat with them were fabulous. :-)

[bleudauvergne]

Good Morning! I am just now beginning to freak out.

Do you usually plan out meals journal style? Do you keep these entries for posterity, or move on to the next event? And was that a plan for Thanksgiving attire that I saw on the right corner? That looks like some of my sewing sketches, so I'm even more curious.

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Hey Kathy, I fill out the notes in my journal sometimes before, always after a meal, noting recipes for dishes that worked well and using them again. For a meal like thanksgiving, I'll make notes about timing, dishes for serving, sometimes how to get through certain stressful moments, how to solve certain logistical problems, etc. Normally in the journal when I fill it in I put notes about what recipes worked in retrospect. For example, I put the celery root and pine nut sauce into the book after I made it. Oh that wasn't a planned outfit - I wish! I was thinking I wanted an outfit like that one and was lamenting that I couldn't find something like that anywhere...

[bleudauvergne]

Do you want to make this for me?

[bleudauvergne]

B-fast: Note no coffee.