La Rochelle: Salon de la Gastronomie

It's that time of year again..No, not Christmas (not yet!) but La Rochelle's annual Salon de la Gastronomie. After discovering this greedy event last year with Cheri, I was eager to see what this year would have to offer. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see on arriving that the entry fee hadn't increased from last year: 3 euros is nothing for an afternoon of wine-tasting, cake-nibbling and general foodie merriment in a world where everything seems to be expensive. 

We started by doing the once round to try a bit of everything (well I wasn't going to say no to homemade butternut squash soup, pineau jelly or a glass of champagne!) I knew I'd have to make some hard decisions. What to buy out of the tens of delicious products? 

After a lot of deliberation, a bit more tasting and another glass of champagne, Cheri and I managed to whittle down the list to a manageable four items. 

Grape jam with safran 

This French-grown safran from the Gers region is used by Domi and Alex to make a selection of delicious jams, onion chutneys and honey. The delicate and raffined taste of the safran goes wonderfully with this grape jam and balances out nicely the acidity of the grapes. Thanks to Dominique for letting us try the whole range of products and for letting me take a photo of the stand! 

Bordeaux Caneles

Literally can't get enough of these delicious afternoon-tea treats since Cheri introduced me to them on one of visits to Bordeaux. Invitingly crunchy on the outside, soft and gummy on the inside, these beauties have a lovely vanilla taste, enhanced buy a generous dose of rum. Needless to say we ate all six in less than 5 minutes of getting back in the house!

Spiced Bread

All of the flavours of Christmas rolled into one sticky, wickedly rich cake. Perfect with a big steaming mug of Earl Grey while listening unashamedly to 'All I Want for Christmas is You'. Yes, it's Mariah time.

Various sun-dried tomato pastes: indian, wild mushroom and black trumpet mushroom

The last impulse buy of the day, I just couldn't leave without taking home a couple of these sun-dried tomato pastes. Delicious in pasta sauces, curries, or simply spread onto a bit of poppadom as a TV snack, I was already a fan of these Mediterranean delights before the Salon but had only tasted them in their natural state. Special mention for the black trumpet mushroom paste: actually died and went to fungi heaven upon trying this!  

Until next year... 

Apple puddings and hot chocolate / Flognarde aux pommes et chocolat chaud

Cold autumn afternoons off mean only one thing: it's baking time! While I am undoubtedly more salty than sugary, there is something calming about baking. The 'here a pinch, there a pinch' approach that I usually take when cooking savoury dishes doesn't work quite as well when it comes to making desserts. 


In my experience, to get cakes and puddings right, a minimum of concentration is required: an extra 10 grams can make all the difference. So when I need to leave behind money troubles, expensive MOTs or our noisy neighbours, baking is a leisure pursuit that I can dive into and just forget about everything else. Only the kitchen scales matter!

As apples are in season at the minute I decided to make the most of this greedy fact by trying out a new recipe. 

Recette: Apple pudding (serves 6)

Beat 4 eggs with a packet of vanilla sugar and 120g brown sugar, adding a pinch of salt. Add 80g of flour and 40g of cornflour and mix until smooth. Thin out the mixture by adding 500ml of milk. Add 40g of melted butter to the bowl and mix.

Heat the oven to 190C or gas mark 6/7. Grease a large ovenproof dish and brush over a thin layer of flour. Peel and chop 4/5 apples and spread them out in the dish. 
Pour over the pudding mixture, taking care to spread it evenly. Put in the oven for 40 mins, then leave to cool in the unlit oven.

As you may be able to tell from the first photo, this is another Sud Ouest beauty from my months of the year cookbook collection - I just can't get enough of these colourful, delicious and reasonably priced recipes!

Cheri and I were both pleased with the result. More pudding than cake, this autumnal dessert has a soft and creamy texture that much ressembles the traditional French clafoutis. The brown sugar balances out nicely the acidity of the apples and while undoubtedly quite a sweet dish, it isn't sickly at all. 

The only slight downside for me was the appearance. Once out of the oven, the apples and pudding mixture turned out a similar pale brown colour; I would have preferred the apples to caramelise a bit instead to provide a nice colour contrast! 

Either way, this dessert is to be consumed without moderation, and ideally accompanied by a big mug of hot chocolate with cinnamon.Even Fifi (my tabby cat) wanted a bit!

Fifi giving my slice of flognarde his "come-on eyes"

Wild mushroom hunt / Chasse aux cèpes

Though I still think of myself as a city gal, I am growing to love the countryside more and more, especially as living right in the town centre (all be it a relatively small town) seems to equal being woken up by idiots on motorbikes driving past at 4am and never being able to park outside the house when I've got all the food shopping in the boot. 

Besides the peace and quiet, there are many other things I am learning to appreciate about the French countryside. Wild mushrooms is one of them. 

Mushrooms seem to be one of those foods that people either love or hate. No-one just 'doesn't mind' mushrooms. Cheri hates them. I love them. However, Cheri does love going hunting for them in the woods. I think it's his hunter-gatherer instincts coming through. However, I also like to think of myself as a curious Lara Croft style adventurer(minus Angelina Jolie's body the crop top of course), so when our countryside-residing friend invited us to accompany him on a chasse aux cèpes, I put on my wellies and grabbed my plastic bag.

However, we were not the only ones on the prowl for wild mushrooms. My friend explained that these delicious and ridiculously expensive fungi can be found more or less abundently depending on weather conditions, and also the position of the moon. Apparently today was an excellent wild mushroom gathering day, will all conditions reunited. Apparently we weren't the only ones to know this.  

Thus, the hunt required a keen eye, a certain discretion and a good amount of bluffing. After spotting several of the little beauties just next to another elderly couple of mushroom hunters, Cheri craftily incited them to move on: Il n'y a rien ici, quelle dommage! At 15 euros the kilo, one can't afford to play Mr Fun Guy. 

One hour and two plastic bags full later, the mission was a success. I'm planning on freezing half of the mushrooms to make chicken and mushroom pie or a wild mushroom risotto. The other half are going in tonight's dinner, lovingly cooked with garlic, fresh parsley and olive oil to make a perfect winter omelette filling.  

Autumn salads / Salades d'automne

Don't get me wrong, I love winter food; it sticks to your bones, fills you up and keeps you warm! I'm not ready to give out on summer just yet though. One of the advantages of living in the South of France is that the thermometer is stuck at 24 degrees even though it's October! This doesn't, however, mean that we can cheat the seasons. One look at the market stalls where the tomatoes and aubergines have been replaced by turnips, apples and grapes testifies to an undeniable fact: autumn is here. 

Autumn is my favourite season. I love the colours of the trees, the cooler temperatures mean no more sunburn and I have an excuse to make tasty autumnal dishes like this brie, hazelnut and grape salad.

This idea came to me from a similar salad in the 'October' volume of my Sud Ouest Gourmand collection. I really love this set of cookery books. Not only do they feature seasonal recipies (being based on the months of the year) but they also use ingredients that are normally easy to come by in the area.

Chop up half a block of brie, wash a big bunch of black grapes and cut them in half. Wash your salad leaves (I chose rocket as I like the peppery taste but you can use any seasonal leaves) and mix together in a big serving bowl. Sprinkle over some roasted hazelnuts for a bit of extra protein and a nice crunchy texture. 

The little secret to this recipe is the dressing. As this is quite a sweet salad due to the grapes and the brie can be a bit rich, you need something acidic to cut through the flavours. 

  Squeeze the juice of half a lemon into a little bowl. Add salt and pepper, two teaspoons of balsamic vinegar and 4 teaspoons of olive oil. Whisk together with a fork. Finely dice a shallot and add to the mixture. Drizzle over the salad. 

This dish is enough on its own for two people as a lunchtime meal but if you want to make it a bit more filling serve with a slice or two of country ham. 
  

This dish is easy to make, really tasty and perfectly in harmony with the seasons. What more could you ask for? Maybe seconds!

Recette: Scallops in Champagne Sauce

Finally found the photos I took of the New Year’s meal I made for Chéri! And as not a meal can be blogged without images, of course, I can also finally share this delicious and festive recipe taken from a range of seasonal cookbooks brought out by Sud Ouest newspaper. Each month takes into account the ingredients which are in season in the South West of France and gives you plenty of greedy ideas on how best to use them. This one comes from December!

Scallops in Champagne Sauce (serves 2 as a main course or 4 as a starter)

You will need:

12 large scallops in their shells 
1 tsp olive oil
150ml champagne
60ml double cream
2 tsp fish roe e.g. salmon or cod
sprigs of dill
salt, white pepper, ground black pepper


Open the scallop shells and remove the scallops. Separate the scallop from the coral and discard the corals. Season the scallops. Keep the 4 best shells and carefully wash them. Put to one side.


Heat the oven to 180C/gas 6. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a high heat and fry the scallops for 1min on each side. Share between the 4 shells and bake in the oven for 4min on a baking tray.


During this time, bring the champagne to a simmer and add the double cream. Season with salt and the white pepper. Simmer for 2min, remove from the heat.


Sprinkle sea salt on to 2 plates, remove the scallops from the oven and lay them on the sea salt. 


Blend the champagne sauce with a hand mixer to make a nice mousse and share this sauce between the shells. Add the salmon roe and decorate with the sprigs of dill. Sprinkle with black pepper before serving with a crisp rocket salad.

Greedy Notes: Buy the biggest and freshest scallops you can afford from the fishmonger. They are the key to the recipe and are really worth the money. However, if you are on a tight budget, try swapping the champagne (which can be very overpriced in the UK) for Spanish cava or Italian prosecco, both of which will create the same effect while being kinder on the purse-strings.