Thoughts?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/us/17meatless.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=globaleua210
Friday, June 17, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Baguette à la Provençale
After living in France for a combined period of time totaling about a year, it is rare for me to be so completely taken back by a baguette or other type of bread that I feel I must include it in a food blog. Pain or bread in France is like water and every single town- large, medium, or small WILL have their share of completely fantastic boulangeries with their own variations of the classics. At Boulangerie d’Antan (there are three in Nantes) I discovered one baguette, so delicious, so completely mesmerizing that I felt it needed its own entry. So here you go folks, behold…
Baguette à la Provençale!!
I must have a thing for anything labeled “à la Provençale” because my last post included a duck paupiette à la… you guessed it… Provençale.
I was in line to buy some wheat bread at this boulangerie when to the left of the counter I saw a small basket with just two of these baguettes. The bright orange color immediately caught my attention and my eyes wandered to the little paper label in front of the baguette. It had the name of the baguette and the price. 2.90 euros… Oh dear, a little pricy for a medium sized baguette.
After fifteen seconds of deep reflection I decided to get one. If there were only two baguettes of this kind left at 11:00AM it must mean that people have bought the rest presumably because they are tasty, or at least I hoped so.
I was hungry (I had a small breakfast that day) so as soon as I left the boulangerie I tore off the end and ate it. The salty flavor of tomatoes and red bell peppers filled my mouth, and I felt a piece of sun-dried tomato within the crust. It is the most flavorful baguette I have ever tasted without being too overpowering that it wouldn’t be good with cheese or with dinner. Quite the contrary, this baguette is delicious on its own, with just a bit of butter, or as a complement to a dish and imagine what it would be like as part of a sandwich. How I wish I could export La Boulangerie d’Antan to Boston.
Baguette à la Provençale!!
I must have a thing for anything labeled “à la Provençale” because my last post included a duck paupiette à la… you guessed it… Provençale.
I was in line to buy some wheat bread at this boulangerie when to the left of the counter I saw a small basket with just two of these baguettes. The bright orange color immediately caught my attention and my eyes wandered to the little paper label in front of the baguette. It had the name of the baguette and the price. 2.90 euros… Oh dear, a little pricy for a medium sized baguette.
After fifteen seconds of deep reflection I decided to get one. If there were only two baguettes of this kind left at 11:00AM it must mean that people have bought the rest presumably because they are tasty, or at least I hoped so.
I was hungry (I had a small breakfast that day) so as soon as I left the boulangerie I tore off the end and ate it. The salty flavor of tomatoes and red bell peppers filled my mouth, and I felt a piece of sun-dried tomato within the crust. It is the most flavorful baguette I have ever tasted without being too overpowering that it wouldn’t be good with cheese or with dinner. Quite the contrary, this baguette is delicious on its own, with just a bit of butter, or as a complement to a dish and imagine what it would be like as part of a sandwich. How I wish I could export La Boulangerie d’Antan to Boston.
A real treat from the market
Le Marché de Talensac, located 10 minutes by bus down the street on Rue Paul Bellamy, is a real hidden treasure in the middle of Nantes. A huge indoor and outdoor market, le Marché is open every day, except Mondays from about 7:30 to 1 :00pm (it stays open a bit later on Sundays.) Produce (fruits et légumes), poultry (volailles), pork, beef (Boucher), cheeses (fromages et crémeries), Flowers, pastries, seafood… you name it, the marché has it.
My roommate and other friends started going a bit at the beginning of the year, but it has now become very habitual to go to the market, especially on Sunday mornings to pick up our produce for the week. It is not an exaggeration when I say that produce bought at the market lasts ten times longer than produce bought from the supermarket or any other store. That statement might sound extremely intuitive, but it is not until I experienced supermarket-bought tomatoes spoiling after only one or two days that I realized how lucky I am to have a market so close to my home, but also how important it is to conserve small local and responsible farming and food production organisms.
At a stand called « Volailler Delanoë » I got the most delicious paupiettes de canard et de lapin (duck and rabbit paupiettes.) These are thinly sliced pieces of meat, which are stuffed, rolled, and then secured with string. My favorite was my duck paupiette, which was stuffed and seasoned a la Provençale featuring red and yellow bell peppers, and olives. These I believe are common flavors from Provence in the South of France. I bought the two paupiettes already prepared and ready to be baked. I asked the butcher how to prepare them, and he told me 20-25 minutes in the oven would suffice. I accompanied the meat with two quick side dishes of spinach and red onion and boiled parsnips. YUM !
It was the perfect meal for a chilly, rainy afternoon.
My roommate and other friends started going a bit at the beginning of the year, but it has now become very habitual to go to the market, especially on Sunday mornings to pick up our produce for the week. It is not an exaggeration when I say that produce bought at the market lasts ten times longer than produce bought from the supermarket or any other store. That statement might sound extremely intuitive, but it is not until I experienced supermarket-bought tomatoes spoiling after only one or two days that I realized how lucky I am to have a market so close to my home, but also how important it is to conserve small local and responsible farming and food production organisms.
At a stand called « Volailler Delanoë » I got the most delicious paupiettes de canard et de lapin (duck and rabbit paupiettes.) These are thinly sliced pieces of meat, which are stuffed, rolled, and then secured with string. My favorite was my duck paupiette, which was stuffed and seasoned a la Provençale featuring red and yellow bell peppers, and olives. These I believe are common flavors from Provence in the South of France. I bought the two paupiettes already prepared and ready to be baked. I asked the butcher how to prepare them, and he told me 20-25 minutes in the oven would suffice. I accompanied the meat with two quick side dishes of spinach and red onion and boiled parsnips. YUM !
It was the perfect meal for a chilly, rainy afternoon.
A nice local cheese
Le Curé Nantais is a local cheese made from cow’s milk. I had it for the first time at a Creperie where it was beautifully melted inside a galette along with sausages made with Muscadet white wine. Just wonderful.
I made a similarly exciting discovery one day at the market when I saw that they sold entire blocks of this very smooth, creamy, and “melty” cheese for a reasonable price. I don’t think the Curé Nantais is the most sophisticated of cheeses, but it is a cheese that locals are proud of because of its long history and extremely rustic and traditional roots that it maintains to this day.
According to the Cure Nantais website: http://www.curenantais.com/WEBSITE_2009/page_cure_01.html
The still small and family-owned (they limit production to 2000 cheeses a day and sell only in the Pays de la Loire cities) production site is located in Pornic – a small seaside town in the Pays de la Loire (the department that Nantes belongs to) eventhough the cheese was originally conceived and produced in 1880 à Saint-Julien-de-Concelles, East of Nantes.
The cheese is made with the same methods from its conception, using whole « raw milk » or what we know as non-pasteurized and non-homogenized milk which they collect twice a day… pendant l’aube et l’aurore- meaning sunset and sunrise. For at least one month, the cheeses are aged and routinely undergo salt water and Muscadet white wine washes which undoubtedly add to the flavor.
I made a similarly exciting discovery one day at the market when I saw that they sold entire blocks of this very smooth, creamy, and “melty” cheese for a reasonable price. I don’t think the Curé Nantais is the most sophisticated of cheeses, but it is a cheese that locals are proud of because of its long history and extremely rustic and traditional roots that it maintains to this day.
According to the Cure Nantais website: http://www.curenantais.com/WEBSITE_2009/page_cure_01.html
The still small and family-owned (they limit production to 2000 cheeses a day and sell only in the Pays de la Loire cities) production site is located in Pornic – a small seaside town in the Pays de la Loire (the department that Nantes belongs to) eventhough the cheese was originally conceived and produced in 1880 à Saint-Julien-de-Concelles, East of Nantes.
The cheese is made with the same methods from its conception, using whole « raw milk » or what we know as non-pasteurized and non-homogenized milk which they collect twice a day… pendant l’aube et l’aurore- meaning sunset and sunrise. For at least one month, the cheeses are aged and routinely undergo salt water and Muscadet white wine washes which undoubtedly add to the flavor.
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