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The Fig in the courtyard

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, tagged , , , , , on September 5, 2011| 4 Comments »

The heat wrapped figs are

Ripening fast; exchanging 

A dark green for light.

It was the first thing we noticed when we came through the gate into the courtyard here–twenty one years ago last May.

.”]

Fig in the courtyard--early nineties (sundial just visible)

The fig tree and the double rainbow put us in a receptive mood even before we entered the house.More of a shrub back then–reaching up beside the outhouse that doubled as a pigeonnier–there was no hint  of the sprawl it would become.

“]

Fig in the courtyard--today--(sundial hidden)

We didn’t know about fig trees and their prodigious ability to grow.

We would have had no problem telling the time from the sundial positioned, unusually, on the pigeonnier–if we’d known how.

Today the tree–shrub no longer–reaches eagerly towards the house, acting as an effective parasol at lunchtime.

We had it pruned this year but that has barely held it back.

The branches are groaning under the weight of the fast ripening fruit, making passageway to the house hazardous for a tall person.

The figs are the green or “blanche” variety and sweeter–to my mind–than the more romantic looking purple ones.

The heat wrapped figs are

Ripening fast; exchanging 

A dark green for light.

The green light for picking them is a particular light green–and a heaviness in the hand.

Watch out though when reaching up–you are not the only one attracted by the ripeness.

Wasps and hornets bury their heads in the sweetness leaving their tails free to sting the fingers of rivals!

Delicious they are but not worth the pain of a hornet’s sting.

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Grilled mackerel fillets with green–yes, green–tomatoes…

Posted in Food, Recipes, tagged , , , , , , on September 2, 2011| 10 Comments »

This is quickly done and delicious–but the mackerel really does need to be fresh.

The incomparable Nigel Slater does a thyme dressing for the tomato salad (see below) and it is the clincher for this combination.

Back in May I bought a couple of  “green” tomato plants at the market in Lautrec.

The young woman assured me they would produce beautiful sweet green tomatoes.

“Really?– seems a contradiction in terms.”

“You’ll see!”.

She was right. I’ve been eating my words and the green tomatoes for a couple of weeks now!

I thanked her today at the market after buying the mackerel from the fishmonger.

She said she was pleased I liked them.

“People are reluctant to buy them–obviously not ready–not ripe, they say”.

Worth a try I say–with the zeal of the newly converted!

for 2

2 very fresh mackerel–in fillets

salt and pepper

olive oil

tomatoes for the salad–cut up or sliced as you like (of course you can use RED!)

for the dressing:

1 garlic clove–peeled and pulped with a good pinch of salt

1 tablespoon thyme leaves–chopped

1 lemon–juiced

4 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

making the dressing:

Pound the thyme leaves with the garlic clove and salt.

Add some pepper.

Mix in the lemon juice,

then the olive oil.

Cooking the mackerel

  • Heat the grill to hot.
  • Brush the fillets with olive oil and season them well.
  • Lay some foil over the grill pan–brush with oil.
  • Place the fillets, skin side up, on the foil.
  • Place under the grill.
  • The skin will start to scorch and bubble–which adds to the flavour.

(Careful not to overdo it though.)

Dress the tomato salad, add the cooked fillets and drizzle the fish with a little more of the dressing.

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Chocolate in the air…

Posted in Diabetes, Food, other sides to this life, tagged , , , , , , on August 31, 2011| 10 Comments »

A postcard arrived from Kent today, (forwarded by my publisher, Constable & Robinson) wryly commenting on a promotion included in the package with the cookbook from Amazon:

“I was most amused to receive with your book a mailing for chocolates! They look great, too–but hardly suitable for diabetics like us. Oh well!“

My editor, Judith, pointed out, when I complained about this:

“I’m afraid the leaflet for chocolates is just one of a general mailing which probably goes out with every item despatched by Amazon, who couldn’t possibly be expected to check whether it’s relevant to the rest of the package (it may even be an automated process)”.

So a simple irony.

However two days ago I had spotted this article on a study, published online by the British Medical Journal, about the health benefits of chocolate!

Coincidence too!

It mentions that scientists at Cambridge University reviewed all the relevant evidence from seven studies involving 100,000 people.

“Five of the seven studies (carried out) found chocolate – eaten in a variety of forms, from sweet bars to chocolate biscuits and drinking cocoa – to be protective.”

Catherine Collins, a dietician at St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust, is quoted  in the piece saying:

“This paper doesn’t really say eat chocolate to improve heart health – nor do the authors conclude this either. What they seem to say is, those who don’t deny themselves a sweet treat of chocolate – white or brown – have better cardiovascular outcomes”.

Tom Sanders, Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics as well as Head of the Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Division of the School of Medicine at King’s College London, warns that:

“The main problem with chocolate is overindulgence and calories [my emphasis]. A little bit of chocolate is OK but the mega-slabs offered cheaply are fuelling obesity in the overweight.”

In other words “moderation” is the key.

It occurred to me to post about this earlier–but I got distracted when Alice arrived with the honey!

Then I remembered an earlier post  entitled “Just no Desserts”, back in February, when I was starting out–in which I “fess up” to an indulgence:

…A  good meal needs a grace note at the end, a contrast to the savory tastes of the main dish–something to complement the coffee or tea to come. Well, all is not lost…!

My solution, surprisingly, is CHOCOLATE–with a high proportion of cacao.

One square eaten with a small cup of coffee (and maybe a dried fig) is the perfect  finish to a meal for me.

I have got used to 90% cacao chocolate (but we worked our way up from 70%).

The idea is catching on. 

This site positively encourages the consumption of high cacao chocolate:

10 Reasons to Eat High Cocoa Content Chocolate —[always with the mantra “in moderation”]

21.30/9.30pm—Excuse me–as I reach for my second square of the day!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

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Cannellini bean, tomato and courgette salad

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on August 30, 2011| 4 Comments »

I’ve been neglectful of the tomato patch and it has got out of control.

I’m too ashamed to show a photo of it!

I didn’t do a proper job on the staking and when tomatoes get riper they get heavier and need strong support.

My efforts to put things right yesterday were comical, and I decided to let them go their ways and be grateful for what they offer.

I apologised and promised I’d do better by them next year!

Mother Nature’s been in a forgiving mood and the yield has been sweet and generous so far.

I collected enough ripe tomatoes to make this salad.

It’s based on the wonderful Riverford Farm Cook Book with some rocket added.

a handful of rocket

1 jar of cooked cannellini [white beans]–rinsed

3 courgettes–sliced into 1/2 centimetre–ie not too thick and not too thin!– strips

a generous handful of cherry tomatoes

a generous handful of basil leaves

1 clove of garlic–peeled and pulped with a pinch of salt

3 tablespoons olive oil

salt

more olive oil to brush the courgettes and to annoint the warmed beans

Heat a griddle  to hot.

Warm  the beans through in a little water.

Drain and moisten them with a tablespoon of olive oil.

Add them to a large bowl in which you are going to mix the salad.

Brush the courgettes with oil and grill them on both sides until tender and nicely charred.

Add them to the bowl.

Add the cherry tomatoes–halved if they are on the large side.

Combine the basil, garlic, a pinch of salt and the olive oil in a food mixer and whizz.

Add this to the salad and turn it over carefully.

Lay the rocket in a wide bowl and gently empty the mixed salad into it, and  turn the salad again.

You can serve this tepid or at room temperature.

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Honey trade: “neighbourliness” in action–or “la rentrée” (first day back!) gifts

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, tagged , , , , , , on August 29, 2011| 10 Comments »

"Rentrée" gifts

I’m sitting searching for a new recipe for the chicken we’ll eat tonight when I hear a car draw up.

Life in the country is never predictable–especially when you hope it might be for a few quiet minutes!

The bell outside the courtyard gently rings and footsteps slowly crunch across the gravel.

I put down the cookbook and reluctantly rise to greet the visitor.

There is the lightest knock on the front door.

There stands our neighbour Alice, holding a small rectangular box with 2 kilos of her honey in it.

Honey box

She says it’s only fair she shares some with her “second pair of hands”.

Meredith helped  with the recolte [harvest] of her honey on Monday.

“The honey’s runny–better keep it a plat [flat],”  she says of the harvest. “there was more last year–but not bad nevertheless….”

A spoonful of the honey with a tablespoon of the organic cider vinegar from Thursday’s market will help shore up our health as the seasons change.

Of more interest to me is the small basket of tomatoes, aubergines and courgettes that Alice holds in her other hand–could make a wonderful ratatouille.

Ratatouille basket

“These are probably the last”, Alice says, “in spite of constant watering things have dried up–so enjoy these while you can”.

Too right, Alice–superb! Merci beaucoup!

(And I did nothing to deserve it!)

Talk of the season change persuades me to try the chicken cooked with dried porcini mushrooms (bought last November in Tuscany) tonight.

Recipe to follow–if we like it!

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Simple is best when it’s HOT…

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged , , on August 21, 2011| 2 Comments »

It was 32C/90F at noon yesterday–HOT!

I made a salad for lunch, involving grilled courgettes, cannellini beans, rocket and cherry tomatoes.

A bit of a business and maybe on the heavy side considering the heat, but I’d been wanting to make it for some time and it would make a good post I thought.

I convinced myself.

We’d had it before--Meredith even wrote “GREAT!” on the recipe page–I thought I was on safe ground.

After she’d dutifully eaten half a plateful of the salad, she got up  made a piece of toast–with the organic rye I eat–sliced a large wedge of very ripe tomato, placed it on the toast with a pinch of salt and drizzled some of our tuscan olive oil on it.

She found the ball of mozzarella I’d bought earlier, sliced a piece similar in size to the slice of tomato and placed it on top.

She bit into it and at that moment I knew I’d made the wrong choice for lunch.

"The right choice"

[ps: recipe for the salad to follow in a later post!]

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Eating a painting…

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Poldark, tagged , , on August 19, 2011| 8 Comments »

Still life--salad bowl

We were invited for lunch at our friends Donald and Emma’s yesterday.

Donald Douglas of that ilk!

He who gave up chasing me over the Cornish cliffs dressed as Captain McNeil years ago (sensible fellow) and settled down a few miles from us here in France.

I’m always slightly wary of visits to Donald–never sure he hasn’t a troop of redcoats hidden in the stable–just kidding!

Donald, apart from being a fine actor, is a talented gardener and an artist–happy experimenting in any medium.

Even food.

This is chilled Red and Yellow Pepper Soup with chives.

Or is it a painting?

Three (Robin, Donald, and friend Miranda) about to eat the painting...

No–it’s lunch.

In fact–it’s an edible action painting.

He makes the two soups–being careful they are of the same consistency–and fills two jugs.

He chills them and when the guests are seated he starts to “paint”–pouring from both jugs at the same time.

He adds a swirl of cream and a large pinch of chives to each bowl and hey presto–

ART you could EAT!!

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Further meaty thoughts–from YOU this time…

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, tagged , , on August 16, 2011| 1 Comment »

Submitted on 2011/08/12 

We used buy a good meat at Mercato di S. Lorenzo (as you best known) were we can found the best steak of Florence. Cooked “al sangue” (at blood); salt and pepper after cooked, in the plate… enjoy!!!
beatrice
Submitted on 2011/08/12 
I forget one most important thing: its good eat the steak one a month. Its really true that in Tuscany around 1950 more people has colestherol and diabetic causes by “steak cooked on the fire”. Fat around the meat causes this problems and the medical study of Careggi’s Hospital in Florence discovered this new and confirmed!!!
beatrice
Submitted on 2011/08/13 

Robin, I have to admit that I do enjoy a good piece of beef, and a nice piece of steak. I do buy my meat from a butcher who knows where his meat has come from. I do pay that bit extra, but I would rather do that & know that the meat is edible and tasty. I have in the past bought meat from supermarkets, but find there is no taste at all in it. I try to keep our intake of red meat (which includes lamb chops) to twice in a week, three times if a make a casserole.  I have to think about Jimmy’s insulin. Now this is where your invaluable book comes into it own – it has been used already.
Best wishes, Elaine

Sometimes I am surprised how cheap meat from the supermarket is compared to other food. At least in Germany it is so because here the competition between the supermarket chains is very hard. Meat has become a mass product and the quality suffers. Cheap prices support factory farming. Meat has no time to ripen. I think many farmers feed too much silage and concentrate. This all has effects on the quality of meat and milk.

I have seen meat packs with origin data only in Austrian supermarkets or in German organic markets. In Tyrol there are still many small mountain farmers who produce good quality.

We should make it like the Southerners and eat meat as a side dish and not as a main course.

Martina

Submitted on 2011/08/12 

I do think it is folly (from both an economic and resource standpoint) to cycle our protein through an animal before we consume it. I do enjoy bacon and sausage now and then, but otherwise my diet is (as Pollan recommends) mainly plant-based. I initially turned to plants out of concern over e.coli (I now know that plants are not safe from e.coli contamination) but I have stayed away from meat because of concerns over the quality of commercially raised meats (added hormones, antibiotics, unnatural diets). I do live in a rural area where many “know” their meat, and that is an exception – whether free range chicken/eggs, grass fed beef, or wild deer.

Debra Wade

Submitted on 2011/08/15 

Since the mad cow disease scare meat in our local butcher’s and supermarkets has to show the provenance, even down to the individual animal. At least it used to; I haven’t checked recently. Certainly the origin of fruit and veggies are regularly shown, i.e., Italy, Chile, Israel whatever.

Argentinian beef is a good bet too, because the animals are ‘free range’ in that they walk to their water, eat grass and don’t get pumped up with undesirable chemicals and additives. It is natural meat (which I have eaten with a spoon, it was that tender!), which is mainy why Argentinians don’t have a cholesterol problem.Since the mad cow disease scare, meat in our local butcher’s and supermarkets has to show the provenance, even down to the individual animal. At least it used to; I haven’t checked recently. Certainly the origin of fruit and veggies are regularly shown, i.e., Italy, Chile, Israel whatever.

a presto, Keith

Submitted on 2011/08/12
Hello Robin,
We used to visit our local farmer and choose the animal we wanted whilst it was still grazing!! Then a couple of weeks later collect the cuts we had ordered. Not so today – so few local abatoirs left. However, there is an excellent farm nearby which sells all its own meat, poultry and even venison. I know how lucky we are, but several supermarkets in UK now print the name of the farm and farmer on meat packs which is very useful.

 Sophie-Jane
Submitted on 2011/08/12 
Hello Robin, Leaving aside the question of excessive animal fat intake and disease, I think you could mention too that many of the guidelines on eating meat are written with U.S. beef in mind. It is forbidden to add hormones in France whereas U.S. beef is full of these, as well as a lot more antibiotics than are permitted in France. Consequently, guides on healthy eating from America (including such good reads as Michael Pollen) will advise greatly restricting intake. And for the same reason… we have a lot fewer advice-givers on the topic in France! Although the best beef in France may be from local independent butchers, even the “ordinary” cuts from the regular supermarkets are of decent quality. And a typical serving is much smaller, at home or in a restaurant, than what you’d get elsewhere.
x Susan
Thanks everyone--Robin.

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A handful of sauce and a small bag of flour

Posted in Diabetes, Food, other sides to this life, tagged , , , on August 15, 2011| 6 Comments »

This guy weighed in at 750gms/1lb 10oz!

I’m making a simple fresh tomato sauce with garlic and basil…

First we go to La Fête du Pain, [the Bread Festival] in Lautrec. I find a convenient parking place–not easy.

Kids welcome you with an entrance sticker and a little sack of Lautrec flour (the village has one of the oldest working windmills in the South West!)…

and wish you “Bonne Journée ” with eager faces.

Charming.

A percussion group climb up to the village in front of us.

Baritone and crisp side drums keep a good rhythm, making it sound like Sienna on Palio day.

We reach the square and “BANG”–du monde–too many people–too much noise!

I’m not grumpy–just not geared up for the crowd.

I leave Meredith there with her camera and drive home (losing the parking place).

Starting the sauce

I start the sauce* and feel better.

Meredith rings and says there’s a stall grilling lamb and sausages.

I rally and make my way back to Lautrec (retrieving the parking place).

After waiting in line for an age, we sit down with two plates of meat in the upper village square.

I buy two small glasses of red–1 euro each–and break the pledge a day early. We feel no guilt.

It’s definitely a “Jour de Fête“–happy crowds “milling” [jour du pain!] and “teeming” .

Plenty for the kids to do too–like learning to make pizza….

Eager students...

and “Guessing the Grain”…

"Older children"--guessing which grain is which!

and I’ve cheered up too!

Felicitations, LAUTREC!!

Simple fresh Tomato sauce

1 1/2lb/700gms–ripe tomatoes

4 tablespoons olive oil

3/4 fat cloves of garlic–sliced finely

a few basil leaves–chopped

s&p

Heat the oil in a pan.

Sauté the garlic gently in the oil until it starts to colour.

Chop the tomatoes–scooping out and leaving aside much of the seedy liquid.

Add them to the pan.

Cook them over a medium heat, stirring from time to time, for about 20 minutes.

When you can divide the red sea with a spoon and little pock marks appear in the sauce is done.

Season and serve as you like.

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Jours de fête

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, tagged , , , , , on August 14, 2011| 6 Comments »

Last week it was La Fête d’Ail (the Garlic festival) in Lautrec; Tomorrow–La Fête du Pain (the Bread festival).

The French fill their summers with fêtes.

In 1954 Dad took me to the Everyman Cinema in Hampstead to see Jacques Tati’s Jour de Fete (viewable here free).

In pre-Monsieur Hulot mode, Tati plays the good-hearted but accident-prone village postman.

Two bits stayed with me: the flag pole sequence (which starts about 12 mins in) and the bicycle race–when he gets tangled up in a mini Tour de France and ends up in a river (about 1hr 10min in).

Now maybe not quite so hilarious but at the time I nearly choked, I laughed so much–(and bonded with Dad)!

Still seeing the funny side–years later!

Last week (it’s always held on the first Friday in August) ten thousand people teemed–albeit slowly–through the narrow streets of Lautrec, buying local produce and aiming for the central square where la soupe à l’ail (garlic soup) is dispensed free at noon–with a glass of warm rosé.

This is after the much anticipated announcement of the winners of the best tress

Tress Parade!

and the most imaginative object made of garlic.

“Snail” on its journey to…

…the Viaduct of Millau

The pink garlic–l’ail rose de Lautrec–is specially good and long lasting.

It has protected status and a lovely pinkish hue on the outside skin.

Not long after buying our house here, we took some to California where Meredith’s brother–in-law planted some cloves and ended up winning first prize in the Marin County Fair!

We told the story to the farmer in the next hamlet, thinking he might be amused.

After a long pause and looking like thunder, he growled—“c’est interdit!” (that’s forbidden!).

He needn’t have worried–the different soil composition in California–turned the garlic white!

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