French Feast

Two days ago our good friend and neighbour Gaby, dropped over unexpectedly with treasures in his pockets. He had taken advantage of the sunshine (very important when looking for truffles a la mouche) and had set about rummaging under his oak trees in search of truffles… and so we found ourselves the very lucky owners of two beautiful, fresh and pungent black truffles gifted to us – just because that is what amazing neighbours we have!

Sealed within a bowl with some fresh eggs for 24 hours ….the egg infused with truffle goodness. After 24 – 48 hours you can take the truffles out of the dish and use them for many other delicious recipes including truffle tapenade/pesto or drop one in a bottle of olive oil and let it infuse the oil which is then amazing for cooking.

The two truffles in the photo above have only been washed lightly…. but before preparing them for inclusion in the omelette I scrubbed them with a special toothbrush we have in the kitchen for truffle cleaning (oh the luxury of needing a toothbrush for the abundance of truffles in our life!!) and then I sliced the truffle very finely. When I first discovered cooking with truffles I was amazed at how soft the truffle is and it literally melts under a knife like butter.

Last night we decided a truffle omelette was in order, with a side of boiled potatoes….simple but oh so indulgent and delicious! The trick is not to add the truffle until very near the end of cooking your omelette as it loses its flavour as it is cooked.

A few years ago we were invited for dinner in a famous local truffle farmers house, it was very simple homely food, no fancy flourishes and definitely no seating plan :-). On the menu, Green salad with large slices of truffle, Wild Boar stew with truffle and the above truffle omelette. For someone who had never tasted truffle before it was a heady night and the pungent aroma of truffle penetrated every pore of the house … incredible!

Here in Lacoste the truffle is not reserved for haute cuisine, if you are lucky to have a truffle dog or indeed have the ‘nose’ and patience to use the ‘a la mouche’ method you will be rewarded from December – February with these little jewels and the locals prefer to use it in simple rustic cooking… our village may be very very quiet and not warm enough for the regular tourists yet but us locals know how to reward ourselves for sticking it out through the cold till Spring arrives!

You can read more about Truffling ‘a la mouche’ and a truffle supper in my earlier post here

I am giddily going through the pics I took yesterday of a really great lunch party we threw together at the very very last minute. We usually give ourselves a few days to prepare, to fit in a little endurance training (read wine-tolerance-levels), menu planning, friend-inviting etc. This time, we took a look at the weather forecast….

Sunshine = BBQ + pool + Favourite people

…..and decided at the 25th hour to hastily send out text messages inviting people…..of course there were concerns that no-one would be able to come at such late notice…then Louis decided to keep us up half the night….it seemed doomed for disaster.

Hell no….we had such a blast, all our favourite people came (and brought their friends)!

..I baked my ‘old reliable’ Irish wheaten bread and topped it off with Irish smoked salmon (found at a local supermarché), we cooked some delicious pecorino-romano-flavoured meatballs (using a recipe from Sunday Suppers – try it they are good!), barbecued merguez, carpaccio with rocket and parmesan (thanks Melissa!)…a bit haphazard but it worked, but then doesn’t everything work when the Luberon mountains are your backdrop and the sun is shining?!?

Love, love, love this photograph of a moment between a mother and son

…artist and cook extraordinaire, Melissa Turner (if she offers to cook indeed do not turn this woman down!)

…escaping to canoodle

Best friends…..and officially the coolest girls I know!

…some competitive diving

…And grape picking, Debs is obviously going to make wine from those later….

….and it wouldn’t be a real party without a little arm wrestling (Dan is a very good loser!)

The temperature here has dropped from 31 degrees to 13 degrees, and the last few days have ushered in our first thunderstorms and incessant, torrential rain….then miraculously this morning, the sun peeked out from behind the dark angry clouds, teasing us with promises of summer but just as I finished setting the table outside  for lunch, the heavens opened once again….ZUT alors!!! (which is a polite – french – way of saying for fecks sake!)

So  in a bid to quench our rising cabin fever, we escaped to a great local, traditional family restaurant called La Gare, in Bonnieux. It’s actually outside the town itself, nestled in the heart of a little hameau beside the Cave de Bonnieux…..if you are in the area and looking for an unpretentious, cheap, family friendly meal – I really recommend coming here!

Fires burning in ancient chimneys, Provencal faience decorating the walls, beautiful old Provencal tiles on the floor and flaking 20s murals

Have you ever tasted a ‘Vacherin aux Framboises’…..mmmmmmmm delicious!

I had to resist licking the plate clean it was so good! Imagine layers of meringue, vanilla ice cream and fresh raspberry coulis! It doesn’t look too complicated but apparently it’s tricky enough to get right, for those who fancy getting’ their bake on’, here is a pretty good recipe!

A few weeks ago our neighbours Gaby and Isabella invited us over for a mouth-watering Truffle supper. Contrary to what the  truffle farmer, who you just caught rummaging around your oak trees, will protest – it has actually been an excellent year for truffles in our area thanks to the dry hot summer of 2010. Our neighbours prefer to use the Fly method or “Chasse a la Mouche’ as its called in french, it requires a lot of patience (glass of pastis in hand optional)…you basically need to head out into your garden (or indeed somewhere which has old oak trees) – between the hours of 11am and 4pm, on a sunny day (sunshine is critical)!! You take up your position and look out for a small red fly, the truffle fly, and take note of when it lands at the base of trees. If you swat it away and it returns (to lay its eggs) it will usually return to the exact spot and this is where your truffle is. You must be quite careful when digging as the black truffle does look very much like a big lump of dirt and you wouldn’t want to destroy this ‘diamond of the kitchen’.

So with several truffles in hand, you place the truffles in a container alongside fresh free range eggs, seal it shut and keep it in the fridge for 7-10 days. The truffle will actually permeate the eggs, even through the shells as they have such a pungent aroma. Result = Out of this world flavour!!

Truffle Omelette

Ingredients for 2 servings

4 Large Fresh Eggs
1 Tbsp Double Cream
1 Small Fresh Truffle – about 25g
A Large Knob of Butter
Salt and Pepper to Taste

• Clean your truffle thoroughly, slice it very thinly (preferably using a razor blade) and poach it in just a little hot water with the salt and pepper for 4/5 minutes. You then reduce the water to a dessertspoonful, allow it cool and add it to the cream.
• Meanwhile, heat your pan and whisk your eggs, add the poaching water and cream to them and whisk again.
• Add the butter to the pan, allow it become very hot, but not discoloured, then add the eggs. Move them around a little then add the sliced truffles. Allow the top to almost set ‘baveuse‘  fold and serve immediately.

Photo of Truffle pesto – sorry the omelette was gobbled up so fast that I completely forgot to take pics

Gaby and Isabel also served simple boiled potatoes with a sinful truffle pesto as dressing (the photo above doesn’t do the flavours any justice – I asked for thirds!!). The Truffle pesto is very simple, very finely chopped truffle mixed with olive oil. Some fresh salad and St. Felicien cheese topped it all off nicely.

The sheer abundance of truffles in this part of the world, for those who know where to look is incredible. For this supper I think we each had 2 large truffles each (both in the omelette and the pesto)…. just don’t get caught trespassing on other truffle farmers turf when you head out into the woods hunting!

You may recall my two posts on the two smorgasmeous chocolate mousses that I’ve had the pleasure of tasting in recent months….both times I asked for the recipe but forgot to follow-up so a few weekends ago when we went to visit my parents-in-law, I mentioned the elusive chocolate mousse recipe that all french women seem to know but choose-not-to or forget-to share. My mother-in-law, Fanny, looked at me and laughed….she went over to her cupboard and took out a ‘tablette’ of Nestle dessert chocolate, I looked at her puzzled… She turned the packet over and on the back is a recipe for ‘Mousse au Chocolat’….duh of course, very subtle…

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablette of Chocolate, Nestle Dessert 200g, Chocolate Noir (I checked out the ingredients and it has 52% cacao)
• 6 Eggs
• Pinch of salt
• Makes 6 portions, Prep time 20 mns, Refrigerate for 3 hours

1. Melt the broken pieces of chocolate in a big pot or over low heat. When it is completely melted, stir gently until smooth. Remove from heat and let cool.

2. Break the eggs, separating the yolks from the whites. Add salt to the whites and beat them until stiff.

3. Slowly pour melted chocolate over the egg yolks, stirring vigorously.

4. Stir gently 1 / 3 of beaten egg whites with a spatula and then add the rest gradually lifting the preparation from the bottom up to evenly distribute the chocolate without hitting the white.

5.  Let the mousse sit for at least 3 hours in refrigerator.  Serve chilled (Servez bien frais).

Recipe courtesy of Nestle Desserts – for more great recipes visit the Nestle Dessert site

What an amazing start to what I really feel is going to be a magnificent year!

Today we threw a lunch for new and old friends and family, what started as an intimate lunch for eight turned into lunch for eighteen as every one of our invitees responded to say they’d love to join us.   Ages ranged from five weeks (Le Petit Luc Adel) to seventy and everything in between. Twenty five potatoes, eight turnips  and three parsnips peeled… twelve onions and a minimum of 15 cloves of garlic roughly chopped, 1kg of smoked salmon sliced finely, two kg of fillet of pork and two kg of boeuf bourgignon sealed in a wallop of olive oil, 18 dried apricots, a scattering of wild thyme and some mustard, coriander and fennel seeds later and dinner was served!

To start I cooked some great Irish soda bread using a brilliant recipe from Domini Kemps book and we topped this with Irish smoked salmon and a lemon and chive creme fraiche.  For mains we had decided to offer a few different pots of good warm grub including a hearty Irish stew (courtesy of our friend Ciaran) and Daube of Pork (Recipe again from Domini Kemps fab recipe book) and a Roast Veg gratin with green beans on the side.

Our guests came bearing delicious gifts. Our new neighbours Gaby and Isabella brought a truffle they had found under a tree in their garden (it’s all about patiently following the flies apparently), they grated this and mixed with a little olive oil and spread it on toast…..delicious!  My friend and blogging hero Corey and her FH brought not one but two scrumptious deserts including a mouth-watering apple tart and a gateaux de Roi. Vero Adel somehow found the time between nursing her little five-week old Luc to make the most amazing dark chocolate (95%) mousse….mmmmmmm (I can safely say it was not in the slightest bit painful to lick the pot clean when washing up later).

It marked many firsts, our first party in our new house and life in Lacoste, our first guests, our first time cooking a proper meal on our new oven (the first oven we’ve ever owned)…. I was surrounded by friends I’ve known forever and friends I’ve only just met but can’t wait to grow old with (…and watch our kids grow up together).

As I type here I admit I’m weary but very very happy and sport a silly grin of excitement as I plot and plan all the fun things I’m going to do over the upcoming months

Happy New Year

xx

Just realised Corey posted her beautiful photos from our lunch on her blog – THANK YOU – I completely forgot to take photographs in between juggling simmering gratins and bubbling pot au feus!

Great graphic by Frank Chimero

Here is a pic of the yummy Gratin of Endive & Ham that I baked for lunch today….thank you to my parents in law for sharing their recipe with me!! Think this will replace my trusty macaroni cheese as comfort food for 2010.

For 4 people

Broth:

• Butter 30 g
• 1 glass of water
• Salt & Pepper

4 endives – small/medium uniform size (looks better in casserole.. only if you’re concerned about aesthetics)

150g Gruyere – grated

4 slices of Ham (white ham)

White Sauce:

• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk

Create a broth of water, butter and salt & pepper, Bring broth to simmer in heavy medium skillet over medium-high heat. Braise the endives in broth and simmer uncovered until tender, about 12 minutes. Drain thoroughly. Place on paper towels and cool. Once endives are dry, you take one endive and roll it in the slice of ham. Place the rolls into a casserole dish.

To make the white sauce, Melt 2 tablespoons of butter over low heat in a small, heavy saucepan medium. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of flour; cook 1 minute. Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Cook over low heat, stirring, for 4 to 5 minutes. Slowly add 1 cup of milk anda sprinkle of fresh nutmeg and bring to boil, whisking constantly. Boil sauce 1 minute; season with salt and pepper. Spoon sauce over rolls.

Place Gruyere cheese evenly over the rolls and bake until the sauce is bubbling and cheese begins to brown, about 30 minutes. Serve immediately.