It's the strawberry season again.
At least it is in Tunisia, judging by the shelves in our local Super-U.
So we are torn between our ecological conscience which only approves of zero-km fruit (last years apples?) & socio-economical pressure to support budding democracy.
Throwing our lot in with democracy, we bought a few grammes of Tunisian strawberries.
Not sure how far that will push the cursor from the political end-stop, but at least the thought was there.
The strawberries were surprisingly good.
Whereas early strawberries are nearly always disappointingly tasteless.
To the point where, every year, we say "must remember not to do that again".
But always give in too soon.
Traditionally, one always links strawberries & cream, doesn't one?
Especially when one is at Wimbledon.
But I find cream just smothers, dilutes & hides the strawberry flavour.
And we rarely have thick cream handy at the right time anyway.
So we normally prefer ours with vanilla ice-cream instead.
That has been our "norm" for decades.
For some reason which I can't remember now, I recently tried my strawberries with, of all things, coconut yoghurt.
And the combination is (for me) brilliant.
I would certainly never go back to ice-cream or mere cream, now.
This is as near as you are likely to get to a recipe in this blog, so make the most of it.
Parting thot: "Save the earth. It's the only planet with chocolate." - Anon
I don't know how things are in Anglo-Saxon circles these days, but when I pulled out at age 33 I had never mopped up my gravy with a piece of bread.
At least not in polite company.
Here, happily, such behaviour is, to coin a phrase, de rigeur.
As much part of the great French cultural heritage as, say, peeing at the side of the road.
Anybody seen leaving good gravy on his plate when there is good bread in the basket, must be assumed to be ill.
Or foreign, which comes to the...
There is even a special verb for it - saucer.
I have not read the details of the recent Unesco World Cultural Heritage award to French Gastronomy.
But I am sure mopping up the last of the gravy with fresh French bread must figure prominently.
Parting thot: "You can travel fifty thousand miles in America without once tasting a piece of good bread." - Henry Miller
Back in August, I mentioned the impossibility of finding "proper" cooking apples in France & reported finding a couple of potential sites for supplying Bramley Apple Trees, to grow my own.
In the meantime, I had long & constructive exchanges with both sites, and eventually ordered a container-grown plant from Orange Pippin (http://www.orangepippin.com/) in UK.
After several postponements, they informed me in October that their courrier service to France was having serious problems & they could no longer garantee delivery, so we agreed to cancel the order.
That only seemed to leave one possibility - getting a bare-roots plant from Mike Curtis's "English Nursery in France". (http://www.anenglishnurseryinfrance.com/)
I had hesitated about that option previously, in spite of Mike's helpful advice, because I thought the bare-roots shipping & planting process was more critical (less foolproof...) than using a container.
Still, with a choice of that or nothing, the decision was easy & the "tree" arrived, weighing next to nothing, but looking healthy, at the end of November.
That should have been ideal timing, but not this year, as we were just heading into a week or more of -8°C/-10°C nights.
This really has been the coldest & snowiest December in our 30 years here, but finally I found a warmish slot for planting & the Bramley is now bravely standing in the garden - in the snow...
How many years before our first apple pie?
Parting thot: "There's nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate." - Linda Grayson
Picture from: http://www.bramleyapples.co.uk/index.html
Unlike many expats, we are not constantly yearning for stuff from 'home'.
I can easily manage without Marmite, Jelly, Horlicks or Dairy Milk.
And we can find un-French favorites like Worcester Sauce, Custard Powder or Salad Cream, in speciality shops & increasingly even in hypermarkets.
But one thing still eludes us.
Good cooking apples.
Of course, the French cook with apples.
Apple tarts are common & at least look delicious.
But the apples usually stay as firm slices & are only moderately tasty.
Nothing like a good mushy, tangy Bramley Apple Pie!
We never found a Bramley in a shop.
Nor anything remotely similar.
We have some in the freezer.
Personal imports from UK – DS has an international record for importing apples…
So we can still treat ourselves, but need to ration it.
I have occasionally wondered if I could grow my own, but vaguely assumed that if there are none, that probably means they are not well adapted.
But I found a couple of sites suggesting they can ship young trees to France & have asked their expert opinion.
http://www.orangepippinshop.com/product.aspx?productid=10014
http://infosheet.angloinfo.com/anenglishnurseryinfrance/
Now waiting for more info.
Parting thot: "Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." – Martin Luther
Our "friends" in Lorraine are very proud of their Mirabelles.
Small round yellow plums with not a lot of flavour.
Good enough for schnapps, certainly.
But, well – bof!
We have a couple of Mirabelle trees & make a few tarts & jars of jam every year, but with no great enthusiasm.
The main charm of the Mirabelle is that you can easily pick all the ripe fruit just by shaking the tree, when all the good ones rain down obligingly, leaving the not-yet-ripe ones for another day.
Should be compulsory for all fruit trees.
Here in Alsace, we have Quetsches.
These are proper-size plums with firm flesh & a sharp strong flavour.
Delicious!
We use them on all possible occasions – tarts, jam, crumbles, chutney, or just straight off the tree.
The basement is full of jars of jam & chutney, while the freezer has many bags ready for tarts & crumbles.
We have a couple of old quetsche trees, but it is often easier to just wander along the (disused) road & pick them at a more convenient height from the hedges. (Not orchards, just apparently self-set hedges).
I can't imagine how many tons of perfectly good quetsches go completely ungathered in Alsace, but it is a big number.
What a waste!
Parting thot: "I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice." - Abraham Lincoln
Stop buying peanuts!
Stop buying crisps (potato chips)!
Stop buying bretzels!
Stop throwing away old bread!
Make Croutons!
Croutons 1.0.1
- Cut old bread into 1cm cubes (about 25/64" ).
- Toss in olive oil & whatever else you like.
- Put in oven at 200°C.
- Take out after 15 minutes.
- Don't burn your fingers trying to eat too soon.
- Try to leave some for later.
Gourmet Guide to Croutons.
You all know the rancid bread syndrome.
You buy nice warm fresh bread every 3 or 4 days.
When you get it home all warm & odorous, you still have half a loaf from last time.
If you are "economical" (I daren't say "Scottish"…) then you put the new bread away & force yourself to eat the old stuff until it is hard or green.
Then you eat the new bread, except it is anything but new bread any more.
And so on – you keep buying new bread but you never get to eat new bread.
The other approach is to rush home with the new bread, make six black cherry jam sandwiches with the butter just melting through, skip dinner, throw the old bread away & buy another new loaf the next day.
(As an aside, I once threw a loaf of bread out of a moving car at a horse in a field, but it bounced off the fence & hit a passing motorcyclist, so I am more careful how I throw bread away these days).
If you are "economical" again, you can try giving the old bread to birds, or making bread pudding &/or bread sauce, or going fishing, but it will beat you in the end.
Then somebody invented croutons & all our problems were over!
Now when you get home with the new bread, you put the old bread in a bag in the freezer marked "croutons".
When you have enough (about half a loaf is enough) or when you can't wait any longer, you get it out of the freezer & wait hours till it is soft enough to cut. That is the worst bit. (You can cheat & use the microwave.)
Then cut it carefully into cubes, and 1cm is about right.
You will get a better, cleaner, result, with less crumbs, using a really sharp carving knife than using the normal serrated bread knife.
You don't need to cut the crust off, or to discard the triangular bits at the end – that just adds variety to your croutons.
If you have time, leave it several hours like that to harden a bit – it will be easier to handle & be less mushy when you add the oil, but don't worry if not.
Now you need to coat the cubes in olive oil.
There are spray tools for this, which probably work well, but I have not tried.
Say 10cc of oil for 250gm bread, but you will need to experiment, depending on your bread & your idea of a good crouton.
Put the cubes in a big bowl so you can toss & stir without getting them all over the floor.
If you just pour the oil onto the bread, it will all be absorbed by the first croutons, leaving none to spread around on the others.
There may be better solutions, but I try to turn my oil into a thick creamy emulsion first, by adding some water & beating with a little electric blender, introducing air too.
Then it does not soak in too quickly & you can toss, then stir, the bread cubes to get them lightly oiled all over.
While you are blending, is the time to add all the exciting stuff to get your own unique custom-flavoured croutons.
No limits here. Send me your suggestions.
Good starters would be lots & lots of crushed garlic & some pepper.
Other interesting ideas include: soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, tomato ketchup, curry paste/powder, chopped onions, etc.
Don't add herbs at this point, they just get carbonized, but you can add them afterwards.
In fact, this is one aspect I am still experimenting on – at what point to inject interesting flavours so they don't get burnt off.
Preheat the oven to 180/200°C, spread the oiled cubes on a Teflon-coated tray, put the tray in the oven & don't go away.
They should be ready in about 15 minutes, but that will depend on the exact temperature, type of bread, size of cubes & on how you like them.
Leave them to cool on the tray and add any extra savoury items you fancy & which would not have survived the oven.
Herbs, Piment Doux, maybe a very tiny sprinkle of salt?
Then put in a sealed bowl.
Theoretically they should keep for 6 weeks, but they never get a chance…
With soup, traditionally they are floated on top, but I find that a soggy waste & prefer to nibble them crisp from a side-plate.
They are also delicious in salads & replacing, say, potatoes in all kinds of meals, not to mention as appetizers & snacks.
Trouble-shooting your croutons: - Too crunchy all through – cubes too small.
- White bread in the middle – cubes too big.
- Black – forgot to take out of oven.
- White – forgot to put into oven.
- Nice colour, but too much like toast – not enough oil.
- Rather greasy – yes, you're getting the hang of it already…
- None of the above – just keep quiet & eat them before somebody else does!
Parting thot: "Wise men talk about ideas, intellectuals about facts, and the ordinary man talks about what he eats." - Mongolian Proverb
