my own Raclette experience

Like Jessica explained in the previous entry, La Raclette is a dish with many parts, but easy to prepare. You just need a "Machine à Raclette"

I was lucky to have been invited into a French home for some. It is the perfect dish for a convivial soirée, and often it is precisely the dish to serve when inviting people over. This particular occasion was a birthday.

Lots of cutting/slicing. But after the lengthy preparation, it's self-serve! 

A wonderful spread

A special cheese for Raclette is used. Flavorful and perfect for melting at hot temperatures

getting ready... à table. 

A 8-10 person machine.

The cheese takes just a minute or two to melt. You take it out when it begins to bubble!

You must not forget the Cornichons (small pickles) for an added touch of flavor.

Yummy, delicious, melty, cheese, potato and MEAT goodness.

La Raclette

Thanks Jessica, for the following entry! 

Here is the recipe of what we French call La Raclette.

For 6 people, you need :

- 2 pounds of cheese from Savoie or Switzerland

- 2 pounds of potatoes (it is better to cook them in boiling water with

the skin)

- cooked pork meats (sausage, salami, bacon, ham, smoked ham...)

With a special appliance (like on the picture), you can melt the cheese

(but you can also make it melt in the oven). Cut 5mm thick pieces of

cheese and let them melt in the appliance for a few minutes (as much as

you like it melted).

After peeling the potatoes and cutting them into pieces in your plate, you

can pour the melted chesse onto it.

Add some pieces of cooked pork meats and savour it all!

Just for a change, you can do it with seafood and add more vegetables

(lettuce, tomatoes, pickles...).

Bon Appétit!

Banoffee Pie

Banoffee Pie

by Marie

When I was in Ireland, my favourite dessert was the banoffee pie… I’m not really sure where this dessert comes from but I honestly don’t really care because it is soooo delicious!

Last week end, it was Paddy’s day, we all gathered for an Irish day starting with a traditional breakfast accompanied with the right amount Guinness, Bailey's and other funny liquids and some of us brought desserts….

I decided to make my first banoffee pie (yes when I was in Ireland a simple stop at Tesco would give me one, but in France … impossible so I had to make my own!)

Here are the several steps of the pie making…. And if you wonder: Yes it was as delicious as it looks!!

Step 1: Melt fudge and cream

 

 Step 2: After having crushed biscuits and mixed them with butter, spread the mixture in a dish and bake it for 10/15 min.

 Step 3: look at the wonderful and delicious mixture!!

Step 4: Pour the caramel over the biscuit paste.

Step 5: Cover with banana slices.

Final step: Cover with homemade whipped cream and draw a shamrock stay in the Irish spirit!

The best salad in the world

So, it might not be the healthiest, but it sure beats every other salad I have had in the taste department. 

Behold the deliciousness....

Okay, well, I'm not delicious. But I liked this photo of me sitting on the patio at the restaurant. It's on one of the most lively streets in Nantes. Note: the food coma-induced, dreamy look in my eyes.

 

I think technically this is still a salad because there is a bed of lettuce there... underneath all of the other, more important ingredients: Herb-roasted home fries, melted "Raclette" cheese, cured ham, and garnished with turnip chips and a honey and poppy seed wafer. 

And where can you get such a salad you ask?

Café Cult'
2 Rue des Carmes 
44000 Nantes, France
+33 2 40 47 18 49

and on their menu:

Salade Alpage
(salade de pommes de terre ailées persillées avec jambon de pays et fromage à raclette fondue) 14,30 €

A Breton pork stew

So now for something completely different… ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to Kig ha farz.

It is a Breton stew made with pork. After eating one of these, all I felt like saying was “oink oink.”

This traditional hearty dish from the Brittany region in France is made by stewing some vegetables (leeks, potatoes, cabbage, and carrots) with different pork elements- like the belly, cheeks and shoulders and buckwheat stuffing (the "far" or "farz"). This is not exactly haute-cuisine. It's simple but hearty country cooking able to satisfy even the biggest appetite. It takes a long time to stew- the longer the better, so that the broth, vegetables and the buckwheat stuffing (which sometimes come in the form of little dumplings) are all moist and oh-so-tender. Traditionally, the stuffing- made from slightly sweetened and buttery buckwheat dough- is cooked along with the pork and the vegetables, but inserted in a special canvas pouch which prevents the stuffing from disintegrating. How ingenious of the Breton! 

I had my own portion of Kig ha farz at a Brasserie here in Nantes called Le Coq en Pate. It was by chance that this Breton name caught my eye while I was looking over the menu. I asked our server what it was, and her description sounded appetizing enough and I was feeling brave (a common occurrence, though I know perfectly well it's either hit or miss with me at restaurants...) so I said, "je prends le Kig ha farz!" 
Fifteen minutes later, the whole table let out a tiny collective "ahhh!" when they brought out a small cast iron pot, mustard, and bread just for me! It contained a very large individual portion, and I, well, finished the entire thing... and left feeling very satisfied. 

My other dinner companions got their duck dish with a delectable sweet sauce. Maybe next time I'll try the duck... 

Entrecôte

is premium cut of beef used for steaks. No grounding, no dicing. Just a nice filet.
The classic french combination of Steak Frites could not be done better than at restaurants specializing in the "contre-filet" cut of sirloin. Just a nice filet and fries (perfect for dipping in the sauce or the steak drippings.)

There is one particular restaurant that is known for producing a delicious version of the entrecote and only the entrecôte.
You guessed it, the restaurants using the name L'Entrecôte.

Here is the website for the particular group of these owned by the son of the creator/owner of original Le Relais de Venise- L'Entrecôte.
http://www.entrecote.fr/

Their concept is simple. Serve one recipe and perfect it so that every dish is served within that same high standard. Let me tell you, they have only one item on the menu, and all we had to choose was the "point de cuisson" (how you want your meat done) and drinks. They do the rest, and the secret is in the sauce. The server brought out a plate with half of our serving of the steak and fries. Then they place a silver platter on the table lit underneath by a candle to keep the rest of the meat warm for later. Genius.

Here are some photos we took of that nice meal. Oh yeah, they have sinfully good desserts too...

the fries. thin and tasty.

oh yeah baby. look at that buttery sauce. What is in it?!?

There were three of us, and you can see the three portions have a different cooking point. 

As if we needed complimentary bread... but they gave us some anyway!

gooey, melty, cheesy deliciousness

For a year now, I have been wanting to take the plunge. A seasonal cheese, the Vacherin Mont d'Or is only available from roughly September to May. It's a mild cow's milk cheese and I had heard from several people that it is a must-try during the chilly winter months. I often walked past the crémeries at different markets and saw this type of cheese, usually labelled "Mont d'Or" being sold to eager customers. It was finally my turn this year to see (well, taste) what all the fuss was about.

This cheese is often served as dessert or even as a main course when it is, like my friend Lucy would say- echoing the brilliance of one MTV show- "pimped out" with shallots or onion, garlic and other herbs and spices. But get this... this soft cheese only becomes even softer and more gooey when you bake it. Yes folks, you insert the fuzz-coated cheese in the oven until its interior is molten and ready for some dipping!

mmm... chocolate...

So, it is no secret chocolate is one of life's most extraordinary pleasures. It is for me anyway. So when my lovely friends gifted me this beautiful creation, I experienced chocolate on an incredibly different level. Not only did the milk, dark, and white chocolate I was eating taste so good, it looked almost too beautiful to touch.

Normally, the aesthetic I subscribe to when it comes to food follows a more rustic sensibility. Big bold, straight-forward flavors, down-home cooking, cozy and filling food. Don't get me wrong, I can deal with small, beautifully and delicately plated culinary masterpieces (as if it was that hard...) though I don't often experience such exquisite culinary beauty. So you can imagine my hesitation when I visit a nice restaurant, look at the plate before me and think that what the chef has so carefully sculpted on the plate could be found on the pages of a glossy coffee-table art book...

I digress...
I won't bore you with more of my thoughts on fine dining. On to the good stuff. Behold the beauty...

What a beautiful little potted flower from Maison Georges Larnicol. It's made of chocolate!
http://www.chocolaterielarnicol.fr/

It took me almost 2 weeks to take apart this dainty little creation. I found the chocolate to be very good!

But I ask myself: Does the chocolate seem to taste better because its appearance is so visually pleasing? Toward the end of what the French would call the "degustation" (the action of tasting food or drink according to wordreference.com) I was picking at the remnants of the pot, which no longer looked like a pot, when I realized the chocolate was actually not delicious. Don't get me wrong, it was extremely good, but it suddenly dawned on me that the chocolate was not as good as I had originally conceived.  So dear reader, here is my last question in this post:  Did the beautiful and almost perfect appearance fool me into thinking it tasted better (and that it almost HAD to taste better)?

Moules Frites

Mussels and Fries. What a lovely combination.

The first time I heard Moules Frites, I thought it meant Fried Mussels... A faulty translation of the word "frites" led me to that conclusion, and therefore I didn't care to have "moules FRITES" I've had fried mussels at home before, and while I love fried foods as much as the next person, they aren't something I'm anxious to eat. If only I had discovered my translation mistake sooner...

Moules Frites are steamed mussels, cooked with various sauces then served next to a bountiful portion of delicious (usually hand-cut) fries. Nothing could be simpler, but more delicious. The most basic of the preparations is called "moules marinères." This means that the mussels are steamed on a bed of shallots, butter, and white wine. Some people add fresh parsely, others a bit of tomato for a bit more flavor or other herbs. Other variations include Moules with a provençal sauce of tomatoe, or even a Roquefort cheese sauce. The variations are endless, and some restaurants can get quite creative with their preparations. The concept stays the same though. A heaping bowl or even pot of mussels is brought to your table, accompanied by a large played of piping hot fries.

According to people whom I asked, and the trusty internet as well, Moules Frites was originally conceived in Belgium, where it continues to be a very popular dish served year round. The North of France has also adopted this dish as a traditional seafood delight of the area, thanks to their close proximity to the ocean. The city of Lille in the Northeast of France is well-known for their take on this dish.

So now I present you my own debate. Restaurant, or homemade?
Judge for yourself:

At "Moules de Bouffay," a very yummy place to get this in the center of Nantes.

And again, but this time with a focus on the "all-you-can-eat'" fries. Don't they look good?

And now, for our homemade version. My friend Mel and I made these. With a little white wine and shallots. Takes 5 minutes to cook! Mel made the fries on the stove top. And of  course, you can't forget the chilled white "Muscadet" wine and the Heinz ketchup. Essential.

The full display. Just enough for two people! 

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.

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.

huitres. yes please!

My first experience with raw oysters came at the age of thirteen during a stay in Paris. I was participating in a French exchange through my High school and a one-month stay in Paris seemed like a dream come true. For a girl of 13 I would say I was extremely adventurous. I tried everything my host family offered and never said no to a new experience. I’m glad I did because little did I know that 4 years later I would be studying abroad in France, and two years later actually living in France. That short little exchange paved the way for some amazing opportunities in France.

This is where my story begins. It was a cloudy weekend in February and the Cocault family decided to take me to their beloved « campagne » (The country side- where every French person jets off to at the first opportunity – a chance for busy Parisians to escape the shuffle and pressures of daily life and where they are offered a chance to reconnect with the idyllic, traditional, simpler French way of life.) A three-hour drive saw us arrive at the house of Monsieur Cocault’s parents- a lovely couple that by all accounts was ready to welcome an unknown American import into their home. I remember papie (grandpa Cocault) looked exactly like my host dad but more wrinkly and bony. Mamie (grandma Cocault) was a lady who made Pâté de Lapin (rabbit) and stored it in little glass containers, and kept weird Bird feathers in her attic, which I came across while exploring the house with my host sister Agathe. This is also the first time I saw a bidet… but that is a whole other story that I would like to tell but unfortunately has nothing to do with food.

That afternoon, Papie walked into the dining room with a silver bucket filled with ice and what I learned were live oysters, freshly gathered from the sea behind their house. Papie sat down, took out his shucker in silence as if beginning a sacred ritual, and began to shuck. This man of about eighty shucked faster and more swiftly than anyone else I have come to see shuck an Oyster. « Alors Andrea, tu veux gouter? » They asked me. Did I want to try…? They assumed I would say no or that I would hate them by the tone of their voice. Papie handed me an oyster, drizzled some vinegar with shallots on it and told me to suck it into my mouth, chew it once if I wanted to, and then swallow. Hi stone of voice was grave and frankly I was a bit scared.
I took the little Oyster, and poured it in my mouth.

The next three seconds were the worst gastronomic moments of my life. The taste of sea filed my mouth, the salt water hit me like a giant wave and the slimy Oyster felt like a blob of Jelly so potent that I swallowed immediately. I felt the oyster move down my throat, and I swear I felt it move! I was panicked, and Agathe started giggling as she handed me a pièce of baguette with butter to help it go down. I wondered why on earth people would subject themselves to this….

Fast-forward six years, and I could not love them more. A true delight of salty fishiness. Whether you have them with just lemon juice or with wine vinegar and shallots or plain on a piece of buttered bread, they are just wonderful. At the market at Talensac, I can buy 8 oysters for about 2,70 Euros. Not bad…

love affair with a Mont Blanc

It was love at first sight. It came as suddenly and unexpected as a spring rain. Romantic movies and stories do not prepare you for the real thing. I walked down the crowded entrance way of the famous dessert shop Angelina in Paris- the location nearest to the Louvre with Sarah and her friend Jess and felt a chill down my spine. The decor was lovely, and the sweet smell of their famous slow churned hot chocolate filled the air. Of course I was excited. Sarah as well as other friends had given this bakery and Salon de the, rave reviews. My eyes immediately began searching around the room for a glance at their world famous desserts. While these pastries don't come cheap, I threw caution to the wind and settled on a cup of their piping hot, but oh-so-thick and decadent hot chocolate, which they keep warm in copper kettles, and bought a single Mont-Blanc.

Mont Blanc.

Mont Blanc.

Mont Blanc.


The stuff dreams are made of.

A crispy and airy merengue base for a mound of delicate and smooth whipped cream topped by chestnut paste which is piped on top of the cream and merengue in delicate strips. A light dusting of powdered sugar gives it a snowy effect.

If you have never had chestnuts- or more specifically "marrons" which is what you find in France, do try them. Enjoying a dessert that does not have a chocolate component is a rare occurrence for me and should speak to the interesting and perfectly balanced group of flavors in the Mont Blanc. It's not too heavy, but full of sublte flavors... vanilla bean especially.

a classy meal on the go.

Who would have thought that I could buy escargot on the go...? Well yes folks, you can in France. For a measly price of 4 euros, I can consume 12 large escargot already prepared in a tasty bed of garlic, basil, and lots of butter. When I say lots of butter, I mean more butter than is probably okay to consume in one night.
I was a bit apprehensive about buying pre-packaged escargot because well, escargot are cooked snails and I'm no expert on snails. While my dinner on Thursday night might not have been reminiscent of classy soirees at 4 star restaurants where waiters dressed in a suit and tie offer you a hot ceramic pan carved with holes the perfect size to fit the little cooked gastropods and where the meal is accompanied by little silver tongs used to help you handle the shells with ease... I can confirm to you that I had a very enjoyable meal with the help of my oven.

My first escargot experience was with my mom at the "world famous"? La Cigale here in Nantes which boasts the title of One of the Oldest Brasseries in France. There we had the six Escargots, which were of course swimming in a sea of butter, accompanied by bread and more butter. Simply delicious.

You have GOT TO love France. A delicacy offered in a foil encasement and wrapped in plastic at the supermarket...
I might surprise you when say my supermarket escargot were actually quite tasty as compared to ones I have had in restaurants.
All I had to do is preheat the oven, pop in the little suckers until the butter was sufficiently melted and warm. YUM!!!

Even if you don't like escargot, the French are right about one thing in the very least. The combination of three flavors create a taste explosion unlike any other: GARLIC + BASIL + BUTTER. Try it right now. You will not be disappointed.