Food Sources – Page 20 – Nicole Peyrafitte

30 Candles, 30 Desserts!

Last week Stephanie turned 30 & her statement/wish was : 30 candles, 30 desserts! About 50 people gathered at a rented “Gîte Rural Municipal” —that is a self catering cottage— in Aventignan, a small village of 135 dwellers in the foothills of the Pyrenees. The birthday girl had handled announcements, decorations, games & music. Christine, the mother & also my brother’s companion, who was a restaurant owner and cook for many years, handled all the shopping & cooking with the skilled assistance of her older daughter, Magali. Before getting into the dessert list let me give you the menu of the prandium.

The gathering started around noon with a 2 hours “apéritif” (that is cocktail hour), where mini patés en croûte, slices of dry salami, Spanish ham, peanuts, dried corn kernels and olives accompanied a stiff fruit punch and an equally stiff sangria. The cocktails were the mischievous oeuvre of Magali.

I was really happy to go help in the kitchen in order to avoid getting plastered before sitting at the table! I helped slice the delicious “Terrine de Foie Gras” that Christine had made from scratch a few days before & I dressed the mixed green. At 2:30 pm a cute thank you speech by the birthday girl gave us permission to dive into our foie gras plate. This was paired with a Tariquet: première grives wine. I am not a big fan of sweet white wines in general, but I must say that I really enjoy this late grape from Gascony. This is what the producer has to say about it & I beleive it is available in the U.S:

Origin:
Gascony, Bas-Armagnac Grown, produced and bottled by Domaine du Tariquet.

Varieties:
Gros Manseng and other late-harvest regional grape varieties

Serving suggestion:
Serve chilled, as an aperitif or with a meal. Excellent with foie gras, white meat or soft cheese.

Tasting notes:
Les premières grives, sheer pleasure!
In Gascony, the onset of winter heralds the arrival of the first thrushes (‘premières grives’), eager for their share of the season’s pickings. Harvested in late autumn, mature grapes packed with sweetness and pleasure produce an elegant wine, with fine typicity. Great fullness on the palate, with delicious tropical flavours, sustained by freshness. Balanced sweetness leads to fresh grapes on the finish – an instant delight.

My parents: Jean Peyrafitte (87) Renée Peyrafitte (80)!

Now back to the kitchen to slice the rare roast beef while the rest of the crew was setting up gratins dauphinois & flan de courgettes (zucchini flan). All very tasty. A plate of generic cheese was passed on for the form but everyone was on their starting blocks to get to the dessert buffet. Even my dad who usually doesn’t eat dessert had 4 of them, 1 éclair au chocolat, 1 mousse au chocolat, a few spoons of crème Anglaise, a slice of Barroussaise. My mother refused to confess what she had. I had 4 small servings: 1/2 chocolate éclair, a few spoons of crème Anglaise with a thin sliver of Kouggloff, ½ slice of tarte Barroussaise.
Does that say that abundance might leads to excess? Oui!

Stephanie, the birthday girl & Pierre Peyrafitte, my brother

This is the list of desserts and thank you Stephanie for inviting me and providing the list:

1. Russe
2. Millefeuille
3.  Eclairs au chocolat
4. Banofee
5. Baroussaise —my mother’s: puff pastry dough with almond flavored custard & meringue on top
6.   Ile flottante
7.   Fromage blanc et ses coulis
8.   Salade de fruits frais
9.   Fondant au chocolat
10. Tiramisu fruits rouges
11. Cake banane chocolat
12. Croustade aux pommes
13. Gratin de litchis
14.  Tarte aux pommes
15. Mousse de framboises
16. Cookies
17.  Mousse au chocolat
18.  Riz au lait au fraises Tagada
19.  Flan
20.  Gateau aux framboises
21.  Kougelholf
22. Strussel
23.  Gâteau chocolat framboises
24. Profiteroles
25. Eclairs au café
26.  Panna cotta
27.  Millasette
28. Nems aux framboises et chocolat blanc
29. Tarte à la praline  rose
30. Gratin d’ananas

And to conclude voilà les pictures of the event.

Pyrenean Piedmond

I am now in my birthland to gather more info on Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) whose father, Bernard Saint-Gaudens, was born in the village of Aspet in 1816. I will not go into details about it now, but briefly want to share yesterday’s photographs, impressions & menu.

I left Luchon —family hometown where I am based— around 9:30am, a lovely & very unusual cloud was ornamenting the mountain. It looked like a natural pre-Xmas decoration or rather like a true pagan one! I drove away from the high peaks towards the luscious Pyreneans piedmont. The cloudy skies cleared and revealed an intense deep blue that I have only seen here. I drove what I think is the exact same road Augustus Saint-Gaudens traveled in December 1897 to journey from his father’s birth village, Aspet, to Salies-du-Salat where the dad grew up from age 6 till around 16. The distance between the villages is about 20 kilometers. Except for the asphalted road, the landscape remains identical to the one Augustus admired over 100 years ago. There were no other cars than mine for several miles, no modern constructions, the few farm houses looked over 100 years old and the stunning panorama of the high peaks in the background was certainly unchanged!

I arrived in Salies-du-Salat around 10:30 am. A phone call to an elder resident pointed me to Bernard Saint–Gaudens’ family house. Despite some remodeling, the shape of the house/street remains pretty much the same as they do on the picture Augustus Saint-Gaudens took in December 1897. In the background, and from far, the 11th century tower and the 14^th century church ruins are also the same, except for the tree in front of the tower.

Seeing Bernard’s house in the sharp winter colors & the crisp, clear Pyrenean air left me exalted. I got back on the road to meet a long time friend for lunch at Auberge Beaurivage, an excellent Basque restaurant that I was very much looking forward to try —the chef is a true Basque man — as we are only 2 hours away from the Basque country. As time was limited we had the menu du jour, though chef Philippe Picabea offers a selection of original creations as well as traditional Basque dishes that people drive many miles for.

I had a very fresh, perfectly dressed & copious “salade composées” that included green beans, cucumbers, hard boiled eggs, greens, plenty of onions & tomatoes. As an entrée my friend and her son had filet mignon with a Roquefort sauce. I had a pan-fried lemon sole with a moist and tasty potato & artichoke gratin. For dessert came a large rectangular plate that contained an espresso coffee surrounded by 4 mini desserts: a small cup of light rice pudding, a mini chocolate crème brûlée, a slice of cherry gateau basque, and a tiny cannellé. Price of the menu is €18. Totally worth it and compared to what I had so far on this trip this is rather cheap and one of my best meal. We had no wine as we both had to work in the afternoon. Voilà! Off again to the town of Saint-Gaudens for more work.

Fruit of the Grape & Fruit of Chance

The story goes that in the 16th century a wine maker poured —by accident— grape juice into a barrel that already contained Cognac. Few years later he needed the barrel and was agreeably surprised by the concoction et voilà! Pineau was born. There is Pineau rouge and Pineau blanc, I prefer Pineau blanc. It is a wonderful aperitif, though I didn’t spent enough time in the Charentes region to find out how popular it still is today.

Neither we got enough time to taste the escargots à la Charentaise. What we got to taste were delicious local oysters: the oysters Papin-Poget. These oysters are exactly the way I like them meaty but not too “fatty” —pas trop grasse— rich in liquid and a balanced taste.
I am quickly transiting through Paris before I head South to my homeland. I had very good Egg Benedict & salmon for lunch at the Tourville and tonight it was molto fun to watch the Rugby game on T.V — even though the French team got crushed by the All Blacks (NZ). Below a few pictures of Angoulême, the French capitol of Comic Books and the epitome of “Douce France” or Sweet France!

Let’s go to Tottori!

It was great fun to be a guest at the Official Residence of the Consul General of Japan in NYC to celebrate the Capital of Japanese Food (self declared): the Tottori prefecture. Under a grey and crying sky ready to fall on my head I was more than happy to take refuge in the Carrère & Hasting early 20^th century building for a gastronomic & cultural escapade. While being searched to the beat of light salsa music, the gaudy French Louis the something or other décor and the delicate Japanese paintings indicated a delightful juxtaposition of cultures. I knew nothing about the Tottori region, but I’m ready to go visit! To quote Wikipedia:

“Tottori Prefecture (鳥取県, Tottori-ken^?) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Tottori. It is the least populous prefecture in Japan.

According to the brochures, the Tottori region offers an amazing variety of landscapes, natural resources & ancient cultures. From the legendary largest sand dunes of Japan, to the beauty of Mt Daisen, to the treasures of ancient Buddhist temples — and all this at the edge of Sea of Japan!

The short and convivial opening remarks by the consul & the governor were followed by an Ikizukuri demonstration/performance by master chefs from the Tottori region: Souichi Chikuma (executive chef at Ryokan Ohashi) and Tetsuyoshi Hada (executive chef at Kouraku). Ikizukuri means “prepared live,” and is the preparation of sashimi from a living animal. In this case the fish was already dead. The master chef skillfully carved the flesh out without damaging the exterior appearance of the fish (that reminded me of the first time I had to debone a quail without breaking the skin, not easy!) The fish was then set on bamboo sticks and adorned with an Ikebana style flower arrangement. The flesh cut into bite size sashimi was laid on top of the fish. While chef Chikuma worked on the huge red sea bass, chef Hada turned a large daikon into lace. We were told that this type of arrangement is very costly and done only for special celebrations like weddings.

Japan On the second floor Tottori products were displayed for sampling. Tottori’s water is renown throughout Japan for its purity and richness, thus the quality of the local rice, sake, tofu and other products. I tasted delicious sakes from different grades of polished rice, though I need a few more tastings before I can really appreciate the sake subtleties. I was introduced to 20^th century pear liquor and vinegar. They didn’t come from the same company but they were both interesting and I will certainly buy them when readily available. The 20th century pear grown in Tottori is the Nijisseiki variety; in Japanese Nijisseiki means “20^th century”. I would assume that the link between the name and the date comes from the fact that the cultivar was created in Japan in1898.

Tottori Fish

One regret was not to get to try the star crab of Tottori, the Matsuba crab also called Queen crab or snow crab, it is a winter delicacy that was on display (frozen) but not for tasting. We got to try the delicious white squid served raw over a cup with a light broth; a most delicate colored trio of Aji —horse mackerel— wrapped in ribbons of radish, carrot and cucumber.
I cannot describe everything I ate as I am running out of time and I will conclude with Tofu Koubou Amedaki, a tofu doughnut! I was not going to try it, but being a fried dough fan I couldn’t resist and I am glad. It looks like a doughnut but tastes like a heavenly doughnut! Very soft inside, crunchy outside, not overly sweet & made with fresh soy milk.

Tottori came to me, now I need to go to Tottori! And thank you Shigeko & Miguel from La Fuente Services & of course Chiaki!

Ragoût Express

A râgout express is a contradiction in term. A stew should cook as long as possible. This being said let’s move on!
The term râgout covers a lot of territory. A good definition would be “a well-seasoned meat or fish stew usually with vegetables.” The word ragoût comes from old French ra-gouster “to revive the taste”. We already find several ragoût recipes in Apicius’ cookbook De Re Coquinaria (25 AD). The Latin name for ragoût is: offella – a diminutive for offa which means “piece of meat, morsel”. As the name indicates, all those recipes call for some meat cut up into small pieces, a lot of spices and marinating in liquid, often wine or garum. The English equivalent is stew —from middle English stewen, to bathe in a steam bath; from old French estuver, possibly from vulgar Latin extufare, and from the Greek tuphos, source also for typhus and typhoid which provokes very high fevers.
Every cultures have some sort of ragoût. To name but a few: the Italians have ragús, the Mexicans have moles, the Spanish guisados. They all emphasize the use of produce of their area, an illustration of the local food culture. For example let’s take daube, a typical french ragoût made with beef and red wine, in New Orleans it became: “daube de boeuf Créole” where the wine has been replaced by rum. Have you tried it? I have not, but below are Elizabeth Davis ‘ words on it:

“The meat is studded with olives and cooked with rum instead of wine, and the curious point is that although the result is a very rich-tasting dish I think very few people would be able to detect the presence of rum, or to say in what precise way the stew differs from the French original”.

A big advantage of stews is that you can use the less expensive cuts of meat. After marinating over night or for several hours, and after the long simmering on top of the stove or in the oven the meat will be tender. If you use poultry, like in my recipe today, the meat is much leaner and will cook faster. It had too in my case!

So back to the story behind today’s recipe. We had to be out of the house at 7:30pm; it was 6:10pm. Pierre wanted to order out and I really didn’t. Any decent take out in our area takes 45 minutes and it’s expensive. I had a 2 lb turkey breast in the fridge and I had planned to cook and eat it that night! Granted we ate a little fast and to be really honest the dish tasted better the next day, but that’s true of any stew. Please look at the short video below for the recipe. I am still trying to find better ways to cook/film at the same time. Thank you for your patience and suggestions are always welcome!

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Category: Food Sources