The Dordogne, Sarlat Wins at France, and Throwing Chronology to the Wind
Carly and I spent a few days in and around Nice over the weekend (more to come on that later), but yesterday we made a long jaunt to the Dordogne (nearly €50.00 in highway tolls later), and arrived in Beynac-et-Cazenac last night. The closest well-known town to Beynac is Sarlat, where we went this morning for the market that they hold twice-weekly. Carly and I both decided that Sarlat and Beynac win at France. Admittedly, we’ve not been to tons of places yet in France, but either way, come here.
For the record, this is my view as I’m sitting at our B&B (Le Petit Versailles – which has got to be one of the best kept secrets in France). Interestingly enough, after we arrived last night the owner was telling us they recently had cancellations from two American groups who decided to cancel their trip to France, thanks to CNN making it look like a terrorist war-zone from “all the striking and riots”.
This afternoon it’s a sunny and gorgeous 15-18 degrees. When we woke up this morning to head to the market in Sarlat, this entire valley felt absolutely mystical as it was completely filled with fog (not to mention it was -1 degree Celsius).
We arrived in Sarlat (about 9Km from here), parked the car and started meandering into the town where the market was set up in a long, pedestrian-only area in the centre of town.
The market was so amazing, in fact, that Carly squealed with glee and actually exclaimed “this is the best day of my entire life”. She then looked around frantically, not having any idea where to start.
The Dordogne region, and Sarlat in particular is known for having the best Foie Gras in the world. They’re also famous for walnuts and strawberries (which we could still by fresh, today, despite the fact that it’s nearly November).
Two hours of blissful market-strolling later, we were armed to the teeth with fresh strawberries, apples, raisins, walnuts, walnut cake, walnut apertif, cured sausages (pepper, wild boar, smoked pork), 5 tins of various foie gras, fresh bread, and some sort of mind-blowing cheese with fenugreek in it.
Ok, now it’s time to go explore, and take more pictures. More blogging to come.
A La Cuisine – Week Four
We are all relieved exam week has come and gone! After Wednesday’s written culinary test and practical test and Thursday’s written French language test and my afternoon as Sous Chef, I was left pretty brain dead and physically exhausted. I lay in bed, not sleeping but at least resting, for 2 hours Thursday afternoon. But, what a success everything was and how much fun!
If you are interested in my horn toot: 90% on combined kitchen exams and 88% on French language exam (this, by the way, was the highest mark in our class of 15!).
Okay, enough of that. What was really challenging this week was working in the brigade. We have practiced this all week and on Thursday and Friday we prepared a 6 course meal for 4 people. There was a Sous Chef under Chef and under the Sous Chef there were 2 Chef de Parties who oversaw the other cooks. What an experience! It kind of goes like this: what are we doing?, okay, I think I get it … wait, I have a few questions, okay, here we go … some more questions, oops, try that again, oh my goodness we are running out of time, GO, GO, GO, what are we doing? plate it, plate it …. ah…
I know we’ll get better and better at this!
Being Sous Chef Thursday was especially challenging but I’m so glad I got the opportunity. Not only was I in charge of my own dish (5 layered soup), but I had to check how every other dish was coming along and bring any questions forth to Chef on the other cooks’ behalf. Wow! Neat to see what is going on in all the stations of the kitchen though, because when you’re working in your own station you pretty much stay there and don’t see how every other dish came to be.
Monday’s Langoustine Salad, Gourmet Meatloaf and Pumpkin Soup
I helped make the amuse-bouche today. It was a pumpkin and carrot purée, lightly spiced with cinnamon and served on a fresh salted potato chip.
An amuse-bouche is a small bit before the start of a meal and is the greeting of the Chef. Literally the translation is a “mouth amuser”! It is different from an hors d’oeuvres in three ways: it is small, usually one or two bites, it is the same for everyone at the table and no one orders it (it is complimentary). Another common term is amuse-gueule, which is the less sophisticated version. If you are over at a friend’s place and they offer you some chips or peanuts with your drink, you are having an amuse-gueule. Did you know gueule is the name for a mouth of an animal? No wonder the gastronomic restaurants came up with another term!
Tuesday’s Carre d’agneau rosé
Today’s main dish was lamb, agneau, with a beautiful potato garnish called maxime de pomme de terre and a vegetable tian. A tian is a layered, baked vegetable dish that originated in Provence. We used zucchini and tomatoes in this one.
I got to fillet one of those salmons with the help of Chef. That is a lot of fish!
Wednesday’s Exam! Tournedos de magret
For our practical test we made duck wrapped in bacon served with a fennel, onion and spinach tart. We were marked on having our duck cooked right (and by right I mean still pink), our plating, and our station’s tidiness.
Thursday – Me as Sous Chef!
Our courses today included an amuse-bouche (light and citrusy), my 5 layered soup (pumpkin, squashs, cream, seasonings and various natural colourations), a colourful cold vegetable terrine, sea bass wrapped in bacon and stuffed quail or crapaudine de caille farci.
Friday’s 6 course menu
I was a good Irish girl today and stuck to potatoes for the whole class! My partner and I did two kinds of potato chains, and another thinly layered and baked potato dish which I have no name for! It was used for cut outs, shapes etc. Not an overly interesting station to be on for the day, but as I mentioned, I was pretty exhausted by the time Friday rolled around so no complaints here!
The dishes in our 6 course menu included: 2 amuse-bouches (one with salmon lox), a foie gras and gingerbread sandwich served with apple chutney, duck rillettes layered between dried pumpkin slices, Langoustine served on celery root mash and a duo of mash dish (regular mash and a dark mash with olives) with hidden sea bass.
Rillettes is a preparation of meat similar to pâté. Originally made with pork, the meat is cubed or chopped, salted heavily and cooked slowly in fat until it is tender enough to be easily shredded, and then cooled with enough of the fat to form a paste. They are normally used as spread on bread or toast and served at room temperature.
Mind your accents and pronunciation!
Just because I’m a geek and think this is interesting:
les pâtes = pasta
la pâte = dough (ie. there is a pâte for crossaints, a pâté for cake etc.)
le pâté = pâté
Millau Viaduct, Roquefort-sur-Soulzon & Pezenas
When asked if you’d like to join on a Saturday road trip for the sole purpose of seeking out, tasting and purchasing cheese, we have learned it is best to accept. This is just what we did last Saturday! Four of us, Susanne from London, Danya from Sidney and Dan and I representing Canada, headed off to Roquefort-sur-Soulzon to explore the cheese caves and immerse ourselves in the world of blue cheese.
Millau Viaduct
Before arriving in the town of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, which is 90 minutes away from Cap d’Agde, we headed over the Millau Viaduct. The Millau Viaduct is a cable-stayed-road-bridge that opened in December 2004. It is the tallest bridge in the world at 245 meters above ground! The pylons are 343 meters tall. This is taller than the Eiffel Tower at 324 meters. It is about 2.5 km in length and cost around 400 million Euros to build.
For a fuller shot of the viaduct, check this awesome image out.
Roquefort-sur-Soulzon
With hungry tummies, it was time to get on to Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, famous for its sheep’s milk blue cheese.
Did you know that European law dictates that only those cheeses aged in the natural Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon may bear the name Roquefort? Roquefort, together with Gorgonzola, Stilton and Bleu d’Auvergne is one of the world’s best-known blue cheeses.
I’ll be honest, before this trip, blue cheese was something I could take or leave. However, just before leaving to France, our blue cheese interests were piqued as Dan and I had the pleasure of trying the Country Blue from Farmhouse Cheeses in Agassiz. Debra, owner of Farmhouse Cheeses, and I were both vendors at the Langley Community Farmer’s Market last summer and got to know each other. My longtime favourite cheese of their’s was the Castle Blue. Now this cheese isn’t really a blue at all, but rather a semi-soft, creamy cheese with a thin vein of blue running through it. Anyways, just before we left for France I went to pick up some Castle Blue but she was all out. It is a very popular cheese! Instead, Debra recommended her Country Blue. Dan and I were hesitant because we weren’t big blue cheese eaters. After a small sample of this Stilton, we were sold! It was both creamy and crumbly. We bought a big chunk and enjoyed it. With that experience in mind, we were all about exploring the blue cheese world, which we’d previously ignored. What better way to do that than Roquefort!
It was the disintegration of the Combalou Mountain, during the Quaternary Period (1 million years ago), that left the caves that are now used for aging the cheeses (cheese cellars). The caves are filled with natural tunnels, called fleurines, that have been fitted with windows and are key to controlling the climate and humidity of the caves.
How would you like the job title: Master Ripener?
In combination with the carefully controlled air flow through the fleurines (supervised by the master ripener), Penicilium Roqueforti (microscopic fungus) added at the dairy stage, many small piercings made by 3 mm needles and salt placed on the surface of the cheese loaf, a series of green-blue veins spread throughout the inside of the cheese, gradually making it soft. The cheese is wrapped in foil and left to ripen between 3 and 12 months.
Fact: 9 out of 10 times Roquefort is served too cold. For best results, take the portion of cheese you plan to use out of your fridge 2 hours before serving.
We ate a delicious Plat de Jour (plate of the day) at a restaurant next to the cheese caves. Fresh sausage covered in a creamy Roquefort sauce, country potatoes and a green salad. The couple at the table next to us recognized my Canadian accent and asked where I was from. They were from Cherry Street, New Westminster! This is only a 15 minute walk from where I was born and raised and the home where my parents still reside. Crazy!
Pézenas
On our way home, we stopped into this gorgeously adorable small French town. Well, of course it is French, but I mean it is the quintessential French town that we all have in our minds. We arrived there around 7:00pm and it was pouring! We didn’t care and took our time weaving through quiet, stony back streets. What a deep feeling of beauty and peace this experience exuded.
A La Cuisine – Week Three
As last week was to fish, this week was to chicken. Oh, how happy I was to take a break from scaling, filleting, and deboning les poissons!
Monday’s Wrap-up of Fish:
I’d like more practice deboning a chicken. I think to do it well, you really need to get intimate with said chicken. By this, I mean really get acquainted. Don’t be afraid to poke around, determine the structure, etc. However, Chef did give himself a nasty finger slice while demonstrating the deboning to us. It was one of several cuts to happen this week.
Tuesday was the day of stuffing. A stuffed leg and stuffed pasta. Sounds good already, right?
Jambonnette – a bone out chicken leg that has been stuffed with other meats.
Once it is all re-formed and tied back up, apparently it looks like a little ham or jambon. Maybe if you take your glasses off and stand several meters away? The ravioli was excellent. I liked this ravioli much better than our first week’s lobster ravioli, mainly because of the type of pasta used. This week’s ravioli was stuffed with a mixture of chicken, pork and foie gras. A little fatty for my taste, but it is French cooking after all! The Parmesan and Tarragon was a nice touch.
Tuesday’s Jambonnette with Ravioli:
My favourite dish this week was the Chicken Supreme with Tomato and Caramel Tatin. I like the unusual, or better yet, unlikely, flavour combinations. This tarte tatin was like an apple tart, except with tomatoes. What is a tatin you ask? Flip a tart upside down and you’ll have a tatin! This doesn’t mean if you drop a tart on the floor you’ve so how managed to create an exotic French masterpiece. Our tatin was baked with a round of puff pastry on the top (with the contents in a ramekin underneath). When the baking is complete, simply flip the tart out upside down and VOILA, a tatin!
Wednesday’s Chicken Supreme with Tomato and Caramel Tatin:
A simple (but gourmet) dish of chicken and egg. Who doesn’t like a nice poached egg? The veloute was smooth and velvety and jazzed up the plate.
Veloute – A sauce made with chicken or fish stock on a blond roux. It is used as a base for other sauces and also used to describe similarly thickened soups.
Thursday’s Chicken Drummettes with Poached Egg and Veloute Sauce:
Friday’s Foie Gras with Langoustine:
Langoustine – also known as the Norway Lobster or Scampi in Italian.
Dan sure appreciated it when I brought this home for tasting! I’m not big on the foie gras, but the apple chutney was divine! Today was the first day we set up our kitchen brigade style. This style of kitchen organization delegates responsibilities to individuals specialized in certain tasks. For example, today our Chef, as always, was the Chef de cuisine, and we had a Sous-chef de cuisine and then two Cuisinier de parties in charge or their own stations and teams. In large kitchens and hotels there would be a Saucier, Rotisseur, Patissier, Boucher, Glacier, Boulanger and many, many more. Hey, there is even a Plongeur! I was on the Sous-chef’s team, (picked first!) and was put to work on lots of small jobs. You just keep doing your one little part over and over very well. In the end it all comes together.
Brigade System – created by George Auguste Escoffier. Escoffier and Ritz were both dismissed from the Savoy Hotel after being implicated in the disappearance of over 3000 pounds worth of alcohol. They then went on together to establish the first Paris Ritz in 1898 and then the Carlton Hotel in London in 1899.
Stormy Night
It’s been crazy stormy all day here, and through to the evening no exception. Mad rain and loads of wind. Definitely feels like hot chocolate.
