Farmstead Cheese News

Bruce and I took a winter vacation last month to a favorite destination. Read along as we go Shopping for Cheese in France. It might have been an excuse to eat beaucoup amounts of Foie Gras, but we did the “research” to find out what’s happening in The Shifting Foie Gras Industry. Our search for artisan products also takes us to The Last Olive Oil Mill in Nice. To visit the place where a world famous wine was born read The Village of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Our recipe is a spring tribute to the South of France, Artichokes in the Style of Provence.

Closer to home, the Marin chapter of the international Slow Food movement tells us to get ready for May when we celebrate National Strawberry Month, Egg Month, National Barbeque Month, Salsa Month and on May 2nd  National Truffles Day. They also report May to be National Escargot Month and urge Slow Food members to boycott this holiday. Is that like eating the family pet?

I love traveling in France… for the beautiful villages, the sense of esthetics and especially for the food and wine. Artisanal products are one of the glories of France and the traveler has to learn where to find the good stuff. Last month we practiced shopping for cheese in villages and cities in France.

Agriculture is the principal industry of France. Regional products crisscross France in convoys of refrigerated trucks on the high speed autoroute. Breton lobsters are delivered to the French Riviera daily and fresh baby lamb from the Pyrenees is a regular item on menus in the North. We were concentrating on finding specialties within their own regions. (more…)

I had the inkling that the Foie Gras (fatted duck or goose liver) industry in France has been changing. To answer some questions I would need to search out a lot of Foie Gras. My husband, Bruce, said he would participate by consuming enough so that when we left the country three weeks later he would be able protest “no more Foie Gras!”

Chilled or Hot?

It was 1984 when I started my affair with Foie Gras in France. At the Michelin 3-star restaurant of Alain Chapel we ordered both preparations that you would normally see on a menu: cold terrine style and hot flash-sautéed. The cold, because it is prepared ahead like a pate, is easier to make and will serve multiple portions. The hot version, known as an escalope chaud, is prepared to order. It is difficult to time, melts away within seconds of hitting a hot pan and requires a trained cook to accent it well. In a busy restaurant you might need a cook just to produce that one dish all night. (more…)

On my shopping list of things to bring home from the South of France was olive oil from Nicholas Alziari. A friend had given me one of the distinctive blue and yellow cans two years ago. The oil was light textured, sweet and elegant. There was not a trace of the back-of-the-throat acid of lesser oils. It had been purchased in Nice and I was prepared to search hard for it there.

In reality, the Alziari shop was so easy to find we just happened to walk by it moments after arriving in Nice. The small store, just a glance from the central open market, has been in business since 1936. Imposing iron barrels line the back wall and once held the oil sold in bulk. We milled around vats of olives, baskets of herbs de Provence and studied the different sizes of cans of oil. We just wanted to soak up the authentic atmosphere of the place. (more…)

Visiting famous towns in France can sometimes disappoint me. St. Tropez has one row of colorful quayside houses dwarfed by mega yachts. Cannes is a tremendous traffic snarl with little to see other then a line of designer boutiques. But taking a country drive to discover villages renown for their wine is thrilling.

The village of Chateauneuf-du-Pape lies off main roads in a tangle of country lanes. Finding the village is a good advertisement for having a GPS in the car. We were directed up a hill, negotiating ever narrowing streets, to the tiny main square and parked. It was off season and there were parked cars but no people around. Where was everyone? (more…)

Springtime markets in Provence offer small purple artichokes called poivrades. Tender and sweeter than the globe artichokes we find readily available at home, poivrades are often eaten raw, thinly sliced and dressed with a light olive oil and a touch of lemon.

Our globe artichokes are well suited to the many cooked preparations of Provence. In this warm salad recipe artichoke quarters are fried slowly to develop a deep, sweet flavor. They are accented with tomato, garlic, olive oil, and Herbs de Provence, true symbols of the Provencal kitchen. (more…)