Weekend Breakfast-at-Camont. Asparagus & HAM

It begins here, with two good ingredients.

Ham- Eric Ospital’s Ibaiona brand from the Basque Country.

Asparagus- local, just picked and carried to the market so fresh it snaps.

This week, my Kitchen Godmother, Vétou Pompele,  came by for weekend breakfast (a decidedly not French event) and asked me what I would make for her.

I grabbed a copy of my first cookbook that chronicled my early days sailing on the Julia Hoyt and said,

“Your Asparagus and Ham dish, of course”.

She had forgotten about what was long one of my favorite dishes.  It’s easy. When you cook everyday, EVERY DAY, that’s a lot of recipes under the bridge. We have both forgotten half of the wonderful dishes we cooked together over years of sailing the canals and rivers of France on the Julia Hoyt. This was always one of my Spring favorites, because unlike my life BF (Before France), asparagus is a once a year event, a few scant weeks of spear-ful delight.  Read More

les petits gateaux de Marie de Chèvre- little goat’s cheese cakes

There is something about these little cheese cakes, tangy with fresh goats cheese- les faiselles- softer than cream cheese, rich but not too. I make them with eggs from the little black hens here at Camont so they are stained deep saffron yellow and taste beyond delicious. I spooned the thick batter into brown paper baking cups I bought so long ago I can’t remember where. They puffed and huffed and rose above the edges so beautifully…then sank into themselves in a rather self-indulgent way. ‘Eat me now!” they seemed to taunt. So we did. Next time I buy the fresh clean goats cheese from Marie de Chèvre,  I’ll decide if I want a more stable batter or just given in to my whisk driven idea of a Gascon Goat Cheesecake. Soft, dense, not too sweet…more like a tender canelé inside or a miniature torteau

The recipe for les petits gateaux de Marie de Chèvre:

This made about a dozen muffin tin size cakes.

• 400 gr fresh goats cheese called faiselle here in France
• 200 gr white sugar (150gr for yolks- 50gr for whites)
• 50 ml milk (about 4 tablespoon)
• 4 eggs, separated
• 50 gr flour
• Splash of vanilla/rum/Armagnac

1. Pass goat cheese through a food mill or ricer.
2. Beat in egg yolks, 150 gr sugar, milk and flour. (I use a hand whisk.)
3. Whisk egg whites with 50 gr sugar until stiff peaks. (I use a copper bowl and hand whisk)
4. Fold in a large spoonful of whites into the cheese/yolk mixture. Stir well.
5. Fold remaining whites into cheese/yolk batter.
6. Splash in the flavoring (we use  the Secret formula!).
7. Spoon into individual serving size muffin tins, ramekins or paper molds brushed with butter.
8. Place into hot oven (220’C/425’F) for 10 minutes. Turn down to 200’ C/ 390’F.  The tops will soufflé puff up round and start to brown immediately. Don’t panic! Let it cook.
9. Then let the little soufflés cook for another 10 minutes. remove from oven and serve while warm with some spring ripe strawberries from the market.

 

MAGYC Pies at Camont

There are pies and there are PIES.

There is magic and there is MAGYC.

And yes, this is a bonafide, real, authentic MAGYC PIE.

Over the years, I have dabbled in savoury pies as the visual and gustatory homage to Monsieur Monet’s painted pies here, here and here, of course!

But this week as Fran and Ian from Melbourne, and Hilary from Sonoma, and Matt from Welbeck descend on the Chapolard home for lunch, we’ll be bringing this fat MAGYC PIE with us.  MAGYC stands for Mastering the Art of Gascon Cooking (with a nod to Julie Child’s masterful book). What’s in this golden-crusted succulent pie? Read on…

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wednesdays at welbeck: autumn has sprouted

Back to school clothes. Blustery bright weather. A turn in the garden.

Arriving this week  with a suitcase of sweater/jumpers for the beginning of a year of practical butchery & charcuterie classes at the School of Artisan Food was like taking a peek into the past. Nervous/excited students joined nervous/excited teachers, all eager to get their hands into the daily work that will occupy them for the next 10 months. Back to school. Autumn. A new year begins.

As a cook, I look to the garden to help reset my calendar, to reboot my year so that when October & November arrive, I am ready for the longer nights, the colder days, and the work at hand. when I asked a student who was heading over to the farm shop to pick up some vegetables for me for dinner (we already had the makings of a pork tenderloin from today’s class), they arrived fresh on the stalk… by special delivery.

It didn’t take long for a bike load of Brussel sprouts to become a tasty companion to our freshly butchered pork. Recipe? Just half a sliced onion and the sprouts sauteed in some Devon butter and olive oil with fresh thyme, salt and pepper finished with a squeeze of lime.

With the school year starting like this, I look forward to more velo-driven rewards from Welbeck’s Farmshop to accompany the talented Mr. Viv Harvey’s teaching results…

harvest tarte in few words…

Two tartes.

One with goat’s cheese; one without.

A gathering of fruit from Camont- half a dozen last figs, handful of grapes from the arbor, several walnuts fresh from the trees.

A buttery crust bound with an egg cradles a base of fresh goat’s cheese, egg and sugar; or just half a jar of quince/orange preserves.

Popped in a hot oven 200′C/425′F for 25 minutes. Don’t forget a sprinkle of sugar across the top. Perfect for a sunny fall lunch.

This is another version of the tarte that Mrs. Wheelbarrow wrote about here. It’s that time of season here.

Result: One happy Camp Cassoulet Camper at Camont!