In the UK the supermarket shelves had been stripped for a week or so. So the first thing I did on arrival in France for lockdown was to check my larder. I was really quite surprised at the many bottles and tins it revealed as well as pulses of many different kinds. Large bottles of white beans and chick peas ( hummus and salads) , tins of tomatoes (for the winter months when fresh ones are not good) and tins of sardines, tuna and anchovies (can one ever have enough?). Then a few slightly strange things: tins of lichees and mangosteen (a tropical salad not served), tiny white asparagus and hearts of palm (special treats for veggies) and Chinese lactose free chilli mayonnaise.
To explain a little more, the young musicians who visit us on residencies in the summer have increasingly weird diet choices. So we have to be ready for anything - gluten free, dairy free etc etc. This particular lactose free mayonnaise will probably get thrown out although I am sure that it seemed like a good idea at the time. As well as jars and tins, various different types of lentils, beans of many colours, couscous in various sizes and good supplies of flour and pasta of all types - all in date - will ensure easy survival on the food front.
So what a surprise when Peter, having completed (and signed and dated) his Attestation de Deplacement Derogatoire form and headed to the supermarket, found the shelves bulging with goodies - not just stock items but lovely fresh stuff - even the sushi bar was open.
I have to say I was more than a tiny bit disappointed. I was ready to drum up my ‘coping in a disaster’ spirit for our menus. I had rediscovered my Betty Crocker and Fannie Farmer cookbooks from my years living in Canada. All those dishes where you use condensed mushroom soup or chicken soup and rustled up a delicious tuna bake or a chicken sauce in two minutes.
I found another wonderful 70s English book on using up leftovers which has a huge variety of methods of using bits of this and that and could ensure that we have no small bowls of ‘stuff’ in the fridge. What other recipe book has three pages of recipes for stale cheese!
But I was just musing. Food is available. We don’t have to make crisis efforts. And what’s more the local market is open by special dispensation from the department. And lots of great local produce is available. Yoghourts, butter, eggs and cheese from Madame Poux in the next village, Massive rustic loaves, vegetables and strawberries - plus some magnificent rhubarb.
Also I had to face facts. In the same way that I had been thinking how I could make things easy and delicious with minimal ingredients, my husband had surely been planning how he could do the most complicated things from scratch with multiple ingredients because time was available. And no doubt even more delicious results.
Clearly a new plan of action required. We decided to play to our cooking strengths. We will treat ourselves continuously with good local produce as it becomes available. We will make our favourite seasonal dishes but also try recipes we have never tried before.
As a starter to our cooking adventures Peter made a delicious cheese souffle - one of his top dishes. He served it with home-made sour dough,
It’s asparagus season and we have it in the garden. What could be more delicious.
Asparagus tart, asparagus frittata, asparagus soup, asparagus risotto, pasta with asparagus, prosciutto and parmesan and plain old asparagus with melted butter - we’ve been trying them all. It still tastes delicious and we have had a tasting with the local purple asparagus which is very good.
(above) River Cafe green cookbook recipe for pasta with asparagus, peas, prosciutto and cream - not only our own asparagus but our first peas too.
It’s worth mentioning tomatoes. As we all know tomatoes in season are magnificent things and when they have been blessed with the sunshine down here there are the best. However, they normally ripen in summer. Somehow local producers have prolonged the season here and beefsteak, Marmande and noir de crimee tomatoes are available this early (April).
They are not the size that you can buy later in the season nor is the taste so sun-kissed but they are amazingly good. How they do it, I do not know. It must be a fairly expensive process because they are often nearly 5 euros a kilo - but one large tomato can go a long way. Certainly in a different league from an early dutch tomato.
Ticolour filo tart
Having more time means taking more time over lunch and that’s good. The sunshine has meant that we have been able to eat outside a lot and it doesn’t take much effort to bring real joy to the day. It could be a tomato tart with a green salad or a homemade soup with cheese and crusty bread. This sort of simple fare brings back so many memories of travelling in France and finding a restaurant with a great terrace and linen tablecloths for a lunchtime plateful of deliciousness and a glass of local white wine. Hurrah for lazy lunches.
Broad beans and peas are just starting and the rain outside as I write (finally) will fatten up the pods. We made a navarin of lamb with the first pickings - such a wonderful spring dish.
My experimental dishes have included white bean soup served with cold tomato salad on top of it (much nicer than one would imagine) and a salad of raw mushrooms with parmesan dressing (an excellent Simon Hopkinson recipe). From Peter, sorrel and lentil soup (we have a lot of sorrel) and new ways with chicken. Peter gets chicken most weeks from his mate Thierry at the market. We had southern-style fried chicken with garlic cream, which was most delicious and poulet sauté au vinaigre which was the best of all (two more Hopkinson recipes).
We’ve been trying to avoid cheese courses and everything but the most simple of desserts. But it is the start of the local strawberry season - the local gariguette strawberries are very flavourful. This year I notice there are one or two new varieties which must be investigated.
We have been enjoying gariguettes - mostly just on their own but I did make a rhubarb and strawberry crumble which was amazing.
Bon appétit