ORGANIC VEGETABLES

For the past two years, and up to last October, I had been fetching an organic vegatable basket in Loctudy, some 20km or more from Quimper. The vegetables were good quality, my basket cost me 8€ a week, but I had no choice, it was all prepared in advance, and although if you told them you really hated a certain type of vegetable (chard in my case) they'd change it, you always got a lot of root vegetables for instance in winter, that are not as pleasant to use as salad and tomatoes in summer. When the price of fuel went up, it was costing me a ridiculous sum of money just to go and fetch my basket, all the more so as I stopped off at the organic supermarket near the farm and did my weekly shop there - superb quality, but pricey. So I opted out in October.

I was a bit lost at first, I had to make "decisions" about what to buy, instead of just taking what was given to me, and I'd lost the habit. I will not buy vegetables in supermarkets, I try not to buy vegetables that come from outside France. Which meant I had to go to a small vegetable store, with fairly limited choice and which was again, a bit expensive. I still go there sometimes.

Then I heard about a farmer's wife three kms down the road who sells vegetables, not organic vegetables, but fresh. Three times a week, she has a little shop in her barn. You can choose just what you want, she has a good choice, and is sooo cheap!

A couple of days ago, I bought 4 leeks to do in vinaigrette, a huge cooked beetroot, three red onions, a bagful of spinach, nice small leaves, a large bunch of parsley, a green pepper, four or five carrots, all for 3€.

I did cooked oysters with spinach, cream and gruyère that night. Have a look at my new blog project http://onefrenchword.wordpress.com for pictures and the recipe.

HORSES AND FOOD (no connection whatsoever here!)

Source: horse-photographer.co.uk via Alex on Pinterest

The headquarters of the horse welfare organization that has been taking care of Shahdlou for the last few years since I left le Mée is now in Daoulas, which is only 30km away from me. Before it was near Lille! So I went up there at the beginning of the week with my cheques to take care of his keep until the end of the year, rather than sending them by post. I was able to meet the person in charge, and had a good chat about how often his feet are done, and how often he sees the dentist. I came away satisfied with the care he is getting. It's just a shame that he's so far away, in Nozay, just above Nantes. An all day journey there and back, for a quarter of an hour of cuddles (he gets tired of cuddling very quickly!).

The first two pictures above I took when I last visited, he is with the very nice farmer who takes care of him. And the last photo was taken by the organization this winter, he's all fuzzy in his winter coat. He is considerably thinner than when he was with me, which is not necessarily a bad thing, and has lost muscle, which is not surprising as he is now 25. Looks good doesn't he?!

So lets catch up on food! I have lots of food pictures to show you, things I have cooked, recipes I have picked up on the web.

Seared beef bento! I marinated a chunky piece of beef (quite a small piece) in grated garlic, grated ginger and Kikkoman soy, and seared it in a very hot heavy frying pan for about a minute on either side. Served topped with fresh red chili, fresh spring onions and toasted sesame, over pink sushi ginger and some raw peas, with on the side cucumber salad with sesame and a chunk of lime. A nice ripe apricot for dessert.

The makings of broad bean and nasturtium salad. Just add vinaigrette and chopped chives!

Live spider crabs

Cooked spider crabs

 In June my neighbour gave me a couple of small spider crabs he had just fished. I cooked them, made a mayonnaise, and had them for my supper!

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of this pastis gascon when it came out of the oven. The recipe? You put two sheets of filo pastry, at right angles to each other in a tart dish. Brush all over with melted butter. Peel core and slice 6 to 8 apples. Slice a couple of apples over the filo. Sprinkle with a tablespoon of demerara sugar (or any sugar actually), and a tablespoon of armagnac (I used Fine de Bretagne, an apple alcohol similar to Calvados, but it should be armagnac). Put another couple of pieces of filo, paint with butter. And so on to three layers of apple. Gather up the filo that is hanging over the edge of the dish, crumple it delicately like tissue paper, add another couple of pieces of filo in the centre to form a rose (no apple should be showing). Brush all this liberally (very liberally) with melted butter. And put it in the oven for half an hour or so. Just be careful the filo only goes golden and does not burn. Serve with a little cream. It's very spectacular and quite easy. And always produces oohs and aahs!

When I pruned my vine in May, I used the leaves to make dolmades, something I have been meaning to do for years, but never had time in Le Mée. My vine, in fact my whole garden, never sees any weedkiller, bug killers, or anything that is not totally natural. So I'm not afraid to use any leaves for food. I first blanched the leaves quickly in boiling water and spread them on a tea towel to dry. I then made a stuffing, with onion, garlic, raw rice, raisins, olive oil, lots of herbs like parsley, thyme, spring onion tops, salt, pepper, and a skinned tomato all pulped up.

I placed a teaspoonful of the mixture in the centre of each leaf and made envelopes (far easier than making spring rolls, the vine leaves are not at all fragile).

And packed them into the bottom of a saucepan with more olive oil and a little chicken stock, about half way up the little packets. Simmered for half an hour.

Quite a lot of trouble, and actually if truth be told, I don't like dolmades all that much, but you get a sense of having something for nothing which is pretty cool!

For one of my summer vegetarian lunch parties, I did a tatin d'aubergine. You cut about three or four aubergines into 0.5cm slices, sprinkle them with salt, and leave for an hour. Rinse very well under running water and squeeze out like a dish rag. Fry in a little olive oil. Brown some pine nuts and sprinkle them in the bottom of a tart dish. Put one sundried tomato in the very middle of the dish, and a layer of aubergine slices overlapping to cover the bottom. Then sundried tomatoes to fill up all the gaps and quite a lot more over the aubergine, then another layer of aubergine slices. You can add squeezed garlic over the aubergine, or dried oregano. DON'T salt. Then top the lot with some ready rolled out puff pastry, tucking in the edges. Oven for half an hour or so, until the pastry is nice and golden. Put a large plate on top of the tart dish and turn the whole thing over so that the pastry is on the bottom and the aubergine on the top. It should be served warm or hot, and should not be turned out until you are ready to eat or the pastry goes soggy. I serve it with green salad. Everyone is always very impressed by this dish, even people who are not fond of aubergine.

I think that's it foodwise.

Some nice fresh salad from the garden

and some raspberries and fraises des bois

UPDATE ON THE GARDEN, etc...

Apparently not everyone remembers the photos of my palm tree last year, so here is a reminder.

I've been working so hard. I've transferred things from my terraces down into the garden. I've cut a flowerbed into the lawn on the opposite side of the path to the vegetable patch, and brought up a maple from the bottom of the garden and two azaleas. I planted two holly seedlings that were on my front terrace, a virburnum, a large camelia from the back terrace which has been in the same pot for 6 years, a small camelia from the front terrace, I planted out all the bulbs which flowered in pots this spring, all the dahlias I brought back from England.  There are very tall ferns growing already in that flowerbed, and it looks as if it's been there for ages.

Last week I planted three lupin plants I bought, and brought up another maple from the bottom of the garden, a big one this time, I had a hell of a job getting it out of the ground. I've planted it behind my new apple trees, to the north of them, but it's looking very sad, I hope it will survive.

I've sown my runner beans (which don't seem to be coming up...), sweet peas and nasturtiums. I planted out a potimarron (a small sweet pumpkin) and a chili pepper which I have protected with glass cloches. Two aubergines, two bell peppers, lots of flower seeds. Eleven tomato plants. A dozen batavia salads.

The garlic I planted three weeks ago is up, and the radishes I sowed on top of the potatoes. The earlier radishes have been eaten.

I went  to a session of thai massage a couple of weeks ago, I needed it after all this gardening, my back was hurting, which is rare for me. The massage was free, with ovs. And the same evening, I went to the art meeting (remember 6 weeks ago I did a painting for the theme "Air, Terre, Eau, Feu".). This time the theme was "Anatomie". I knitted a frog and felted its innards (following a model by  found on internet, thank you craftyhedgehog@etsy.com ) and pinned to a corkboard, like we did in biology. It was far more original than drawings of naked ladies that other people did, and everybody found it  funny! The next theme is "L'histoire", very uninspiring, too broad.

It continues to be very hot, but cold at night. I did a lamb and mint sauce, roast potatoes and peas lunch for Eastern Sunday for 4 other people from ovs and they loved it. I did loads of lamb and even more loads of gravy so I'd have lots for shepherd's pie afterwards, but they ate three quarters of the lamb and nine tenths of the gravy! We ate out on the terrace.

I'm afraid the RSPCA may come and check on the welfare of my animals, they are so terribly stressed...

I have just won the first match of the new chess tournament. Maybe I'll go a stage further this time!

FROM SUMMER TO WINTER

It's SO COLD! Back to heating and lighting a fire in the evening. It's been raining constantly the last two days, impossible to walk the dog, she definitely doesn't like getting her feet wet. I can understand that, actually, if you are a dachshund, it's not only your feet that get wet, everything is so near the ground! Ellie has decided to become vegetarian... she pinched an apple out of my shopping basket a couple of days ago, and spent 36 hours nibbling it. Kept her quiet.

I have started collecting my baskets of organic vegetables from the farm. Good value: last week an enormous cauliflower, a bunch of radishes, a bunch of chives, a kilo of new potatoes and a large bunch of blettes (not sure what that is in English... chard? stuff with fairly stringy white stalks and enormous dark green leaves). For 8€. And in the time it took me to say hello to the lady in the office, Ellie had jumped into the back of the car and chewed half of the blette leaves. Needed the iron I suppose. Shame because actually I think the green bit is the only bit worth eating.

I usually pick up my basket on Fridays, but this week  Friday is part of the "pont de l'Ascension", a day the French take off between a religious holiday and the weekend following it). So I went Wednesday instead. This week's basket, a double dose for 15€, contained a kilo of new potates, a kilo of courgettes, a lettuce, a large bunch of spring onions, a bunch of radishes, a bunch of parsley, two bunches of new carrots, and a large bunch of new turnips. I've decided to make Friday a cooking day. I also go to the fishermen's cooperative shop at Loctudy which is very near the farm, and get a few pieces of fish for the week.

I bought some adorable little silicone cupcake molds a week ago. I use either savoury or sweet cake mixture to make little portion-sized cupcakes. This ensures that I don't cheat on the dimensions of a slice. I freeze them in small batches. This morning I made little sponge cakes with vanilla and kumquats. I just had one for dessert, delicious. It's difficult when one lives alone not to eat the same thing for days on end or to end up chucking half of it away. 

 

The sun has come out. I just took Ellie down the garden, and I noticed that my palm tree, which has grown a good foot in the three years I've been here (the trunk is now about 1m50) has got three enormous flower buds on it. I'm amazed. They look like pale green carpet slippers. Or large flat ears of corn. I'll take a photo tomorrow and another when they flower to show you. The apple tree is in flower, but the wind is getting the better of the blossom. And I had lily of the valley on the first of May (it's traditional to give lily of the valley in France on that day). I picked some more today together with a little red rosebud that had the courage to appear in this awful weather.