French PIG- the butcher & the cook
Crepinettes & Couenne If these photographs makes you hungry to learn how to make French charcuterie, then click here . My favorite Gascon butcher, Dominique Chapolard and I are winging our way to the IACP conference Portland Oregon a few days early so that we can offer a couple hands-on and demonstration workshops to interested cooks, professionals and food lovers. Although details on venues are still being finalized, we will be in the San Francisco Bay area April 15-17... Read More
French PIG- the butcher & the cook workshop + DATES
FRENCH PIG ~ The Butcher & the Cook French PIG- an intensive hands-on and demonstration workshop with Gascon farmer/butcher/charcutier Dominique Chapolard and American cook/writer/teacher Kate Hill of the Gascon Kitchen. Together they offer the intricate art of butchering traditional French pork cuts and the preparation of authentic charcuterie recipes for professionals, cooks and food lovers alike. French PIG is an exceptional opportunity to learn the basics of traditional... Read More
Why I cook, too.
It’s easy to tell when something strikes a nerve out there in blogville; the comments start flying fast and furious. No one does that better, striking that common chord than Mr. Michael Ruhlman. I’ve met MR once. Actually, a couple years ago, we spent a few days at the Greenbriar Symposium for Professional Food Writers together, with about 80 other people. I follow his blog and read his books. But considering that we’ll be sitting at the same table between two... Read More
Raising Chickens & the age old conundrum of how to use a dozen eggs: Omelette Catalane
When I bought my first chickens at the Agen Market 18 months ago, it was an experiment in reclaiming the rural roots of Camont, a historic 18th-century Gascon farmhouse on two-and-a-half acres of fertile Garonne River Valley land. I have called Camont home base for over 20 years. I’d come and go as the work and pleasure ed me, sometimes floating away on the big Barge for chartering for months then returning again for months of summer landlocked living. As my European... Read More
A Sweet Omelet as light as a golden cloud for you!
SPRING My Gascon neighbors call Spring- le saison d’amour the season of love. This morning, this too cold February morning and Valentine’s Day, I found my sweetheart present on the ground outside the chicken coop. Not one, but TWO fat white translucent-shelled duck eggs and the Spring promise of Easter ducklings and next Fall’s Duckfest here at Camont. When I was a girl, my mother had a funny way of nagging us to clean our rooms. She called mine- The Lazy... Read More
NATURAL LIGHT & NATURAL FOOD photography workshop- Summer 2010
As the world of photography grows increasingly technical, from high resolution megapixels to sophisticated processing software, I asked my friend Tim Clinch, professional food photographer, just how does he make the beautiful pictures he takes a Camont look so natural, so true? Look at this cutting board of charcuterie and radishes from the potager. shot on my terrace table, under the dappled light of the grape vines, Tim captures the texture and tastes of my Gascon Kitchen like... Read More
10 things I love about Gascon winter food.
time to cook cook cook a really roaring fire in the ancient 2-meter wide cheminée kicking out lots of BTUs long simmering braised cuts of good farm raised meat like shoulder, neck and shank bay, thyme and parsley perfuming a simmering wine sauce for civet local red wine like Elian DaRoz’s Chant Coucou guilt free bowls of steaming spicy hot chocolate tiny marble-sized brussel sprouts, as sweet as sugar drops steamed and rolled in salted butter a desire to share hot food... Read More
My Gascon Kitchen- Four Seasons of French Food
Days run together between frosty mornings and fattening buds. Winter becomes a memory; Spring a promise. 2010 began with a convivial DUCKFEST at Neal Foley’s Shaw Island farm where 15 curious and committed gastronomes admired, slaughtered, plucked, gutted, cooked, confited and ate their way through as many ducks over several meals- 15 ducks. The results? take a look here- on flickr. Next came a more intimate but no less intensive initiation to the art of the fatted duck-... Read More
