Camont: Kate Hill's Gascon Kitchen » French food

MAGYC Pies at Camont

Kate Hill — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:51:49 +0000

a MAGYC PIE...

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…

This MAGYC week of Gascon food is a 4-day winter exploration from Farm to Market to Kitchen. We swooped into Lavardac market on Wednesday and filled our baskets with: a guinea hen or pintade, a stewing hen, 2 demoiselles or duck carcasses some pork sausage, fresh foie gras, thinly sliced jambon de campagne and enough vegetables to make a rich stock- carrots, onion, celery, leeks, garlic, bay, thyme.

Less a recipe than a blueprint- we built the pie like this:

boned the pintade then reserved the breasts and thighs.
make a rich and short bouillon with the carcasses of the duck, pintade and the stewing hen.
seasoned the 500 gr of pork sausage meat and pintade & chicken liver with onion, salt and pepper.
deveined the foie gras

Then we made a stiff hot water crust using butter and duck fat- 175 grams of fat in 125 ml boiling water to 475 grams of flour + pinch of salt. We worked the pastry into a substantial ball, then divided the dough 2/3 to 1/3 and rolled the large piece for the bottom crust. Using my deep sided green terrine mold, we lined the bottom and then layered the meat like this:

egg wash the pastry inside
lined the pastry with the ham slices
1/2 of the sausage mixture
layer of pintade breast meat
foie gras
pintade thigh meat
last 1/2 of sausage meat

After making sure the meaty contents were well packed, I brushed the edges with egg wash and then placed the remaining 1/3 of pastry (rolled thinly) over the top. Trimming and sealing the edges, applying a few decorative pastry leaves and making the steam vents in the top, another wash of beaten egg to finish. Eh Voila! this MAGYC pie was ready for the hot oven and Bacon looks on.

200′C/ 425′F for 30 minutes then turned down to 175′C/375′F for 1-1/2 hours. Inner temperature with a meat thermometer should read 75′C/ 170′F plus+.

The pastry is a substantial shell to contain the meaty juices. While cooling slightly I took a couple of ladles of the now cooked golden stock, strained off the fat, and added gelatin. Once the gelatin is dissolved in the hot stock, I used a small funnel and poured the gelée into each of the three holes. Now, you must wait!

The suspense is killing me as I write. I must wait until we go to lunch to break open the thumping crust and taste the juicy meats within. If we’ve worked our MAGYC right, the sighs of good farm fresh poultry will waft across the table and please our hosts and friends… and you!

What goes around comes around, again and again… New trends for 2012

Kate Hill — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:43:27 +0000

It's just bacon.

A couple of years ago someone, some too-clever-for-their-own-good someone, declared bacon was out… and that in the coming year pork belly was in. That set me off. It’s been cupcakes in and in and in and then- pies at last. In.

Pickling came in and smoking went out. Butchery, charcuterie, and brewing are in, in, in.

Potlucks, Pop-ups & Popsicles… all get their share of spin IN.

Every January there is media glut of what was trendy then and what’s trendy now. This minute. In now; Out so ten minutes ago!

How do you ever keep up? And why?

I shook my head as I walk the weekly markets of Rural France. What’s ‘in’ now in Agen, Southwest France?

Basically the same things that have been ‘in’ since I first hit the Sunday market in April 1987- good real clean honest direct locally grown amazingly delicious food.

There are ducks from Gascon farms, beef from nearby Villeneuve, lamb from the Quercy, cheese from the Pyrenees, fresh oysters from Marennes less than 2 hours away, raw milk from the Chapolard dairy 30 minutes down the road, suckling pigs, rabbits and fruit- pears, apples, kiwis- all locally grown, foie gras and truffles, tarbais beans, lettuce, cabbage and pumpkins. And yes, there is bacon- every blessed year. Good food just doesn’t go out of fashion in this part of France.

We braise and stew, steam, sauté and grill. Oh, and we can. That’s CAN. As in preserved food- in glass jars, in water baths, in fat, under salt, hung from rafters, stored in cellars, in the air, un-refrigerated and on the kitchen counter. Everything from fruit to duck gets ‘confited‘. Preserving is part of the daily rhythm of cooking and living in this France.

We bake pastry; we make patés. Although food is celebrated, appreciated even raved about… it is still just part of everyday living. Restaurant Chefs play a part of the food hype some, there is even a French version of Masterchef I think. But the real deal food world is what happens every week at the markets, from our farms to our kitchens as directly as it can possibly get.

So, you want to know how to cook? Really Cook? Then do what I did 24 years ago when I stumbled in that market in Agen. Shop. Carry it home. Start cooking. Then eat with gusto. Now, repeat. Every day.

Shop. Cook. Eat.

Do it everyday until it becomes part of your real world, your life, like breathing and sleeping. And share. Please. Don’t be selfish. Spread it around. Invite friends, give to family. Don’t make it so HOLY you can’t have fun.

it's just beans...

Just cook.

It’s pretty simple. We complicate it all with lists and trends and what’s the newest new thing.

Here, in Gascony, it’s more about how some things never go ‘out’ of fashion.

Like duck confit. And bavette steaks, potato gratins and garlic soup

Cassoulet is a winter dish you share with friends; a rare cote de boeuf you share with a lover.

Make a tarte, an easy all-butter crust filled with ripe fruit sprinkled with sugar, and carry to a friend’s house for tea. Every week.

Make a terrine and spread some joy when guests come to visit.

Roast a chicken for Sunday lunch.

Drown some berries in a jar and have a taste of summer next winter.

Keep doing that and pretty soon you’ll realize that you have cooked and cooked and cooked yourself through the seasons. Old friends will hang on you; family will be grateful. And best of all, you’ll come to realize that good food never goes out of fashion.

Thanks for letting me rant. Just had to get that off my chest.

Need a little reminder? Or jump start your good habits. It’s what we do here at this Kitchen at Camont. We teach, share, devour and enjoy good food. EVERYDAY. Have fun!

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This New Year’s Rant is dedicated to my good friend and great Photographer Tim Clinch who has spent the last decade photographing the good food of Gascony. Along for the ride, a new generation has been listening at our elbows. Here to Felix and Bella pursuing their own version of what’s in NOW. Good luck you two!

Monet’s Eye on Pie

Kate Hill — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 20:39:25 +0000

When Sweet Kate McDermott and I decided to gather together a group of kindred spirits for a 4-day Pig Pie & Eye weekend beginning on the auspiciously dated 11/11/11, I had no idea we were adding momentum to a fast growing savoury pie movement. This is my contribution, inspired by a Monet painting, filled with the best Gascon pork, duck, veal and foie gras and decorated with an autumn leaf garland. Weighing in at a hefty 5 kilos, we have dubbed it the Ten-Pound Pie and will devour it tomorrow for Sunday lunch on the grounds of the lovely Chateau St. Loup under exceptionally warm and sunny skies. Tomorrow? Apple pie…

PIE

The historic meat pie takes center stage at a pique-nique.

Step back in time. Think of a work of art as a recipe.

Hot water crust: flour, lard, butter, salt, boiling water.

Meat & vegetable filling: pork, duck, foie gras, veal, potatoes, cabbage.

Seasoning: leeks, lovage, greens, salt & pepper.

Cook: until brown and bubbling.

Eat: with friends & strangers… on the grass.

This was the recipe for today’s pie-making class at Camont with our great group here for Pig Pie & Eye and the artful Kate McDermott and astute Tim Clinch .

Here’s the pie featuring one lovely leaf from each of the 10 lovely students!

Sweet Peas- Old & New

Kate Hill — Mon, 16 May 2011 07:16:34 +0000

NEWS! The main market in Agen has moved! Moved to make way for a new Cine-plex to be built at the Place du Pin. ? Now, the weekly Sunday market has shifted over the road to the edge of the little parc on Rue Jules Ferry. Like when the big supermarkets shift products around to keep customers from getting complacent about what and how they buy, shifting the market meant I had to hunt and peck a bit more to find Phillipe and his goat cheese, the best endive on the planet, and the cilantro nestled among the onions and garlic. After 20 years of shopping at the Agen producer’s market, I have a relationship with a dozen special growers. I’ve learned who I can depend on, to trust to have the best, the freshest, the tastiest vegetables and fruit, eggs, meat and cheese. When I first came to France, I was seduced by a beret, a blue house dress, a winning smile… Then I learned how to shop.

FEATURED CROP: This week’s market in Agen was overflowing with green- weedy wild green asparagus (altogether different from California’s main crop), the first plump silvery-green artichokes, fat fava pods and the first Spring green sweet peas.

I scan the stands, tables and cartons overflowing with this week’s harvest and spotted…PEAS. Kilos and kilos of sweet fresh tender peas. STOP! Think and taste. Buying sweet peas is like buying the proverbial pig-in-a-poke. Unless you shell a few pods and taste, you can end up with a pot of dull starchy not sweet peas. These peas were too large- too long on the plant, fat but starchy not sweet peas. Those were too wrinkled- old and dried out. So I scoured and inspected until I spotted a table full of bright, shiny, firm, plump, smooth pods. Ah… Just as I was thinking eh voila! the owner of these little pods of joy passed one to me to open and taste. “Harvested last night.” He need say no more.

I bought two kilos at 3.50 euros a kilo. Two kilos, 4 & a half pounds of sweet tender green peas. Last night we had some cooked in little water, with salt and mint then finished with a knob of butter and sea salt. Today, I’ll make a chilled Sweet Pea Soup with creme fraiche for lunch. And tomorrow, I’ll cook a Navarin d’Agneau, a spring lamb braise finished with a handful of peas.

Need a little help picking out the best Sweet peas. Look at the photograph below.

The top pea on the board is older, has a white rough finish to the pod. It’s older and the pea is larger but dull tasting; it’s sugar turned to starch already.

The bottom pod is glossy smooth and waxy. The pea is smaller, firmer and sweeter.

Learning to cook at Camont is learning to shop.

Sweet Peas to you!

Kitchen Inspiration- look around you.

Kate Hill — Sat, 07 May 2011 06:58:15 +0000

Morning. It’s Saturday. Here in Gascony that means Market morning.

From Camont, there are lots of choices of where to go for the Saturday morning producer’s markets:

Agen at the Graviere neighborhood
Agen at the Place de Laitiers for the organic market
Le Passage for best honey, cheese and fresh fish
Nerac for the best selections of friends…

Sometimes I choose my market by who I will see, sometimes by what I will find or hope to find. Today, I have a list. A shopping list for tomorrow’s belated Cinco de Mayo Mexican Fiesta. We’re cooking for 20 friends and neighbors and the menu has been set: duck & prune tamales, little taco truck bite-sized tacos to fill with Camont Carnitas, tender pintade BBQ in spicy fig sauce, and rabbit mole. This is good rematch of the battle of the Mexicans over the French at Puebla in 1862. This weekend we are ‘smashing the French’ with a Mexican-inspired fête with a Gascon accent!

Where do you get inspiration for your menus? Me? At Camont- I just open my eyes and look around the kitchen…

Guinea Fowl Guardian Angel

Home grown piment d’Esplettes & cayenne for the sauces.

Still Life with Bunny

Don’t forget the Veggies!

Chapolard Charcuterie, of course.

Boudin blanc & noir

and don’t forget the berries… for fruity margaritas!

If you’re in the neighborhood on Sunday, give us a call and drop by!

M’aidez! c’est May Day! Sirop des Roses…

Kate Hill — Mon, 02 May 2011 10:44:17 +0000

From paté de foie to canalés and farçoux to tarte au fromage, the kitchen at Camont was hoppin’ this weekend with good food, new friends like Olwyn & John Fleming and beautiful Spring weather. But what topped the Weekend of Tasting Gascony after a trip to Nerac’s fabulous Saturday market and three days of cooking cooking cooking, was a May Day inspired afternoon of ‘foraging’ Camont’s shaggy spring garden. Drooping off the garden shed, my old heavily-blossomed and heavenly-scented Chrysler Imperial roses made easy pickings to create a sirop des roses for summer garden kirs. A sweet souvenir of this most beautiful Spring of 2011.

Rose-scented Sirop mixes with sparkling water, cava, champagne,or pour over strawberries, raspberries and peaches. Mix it with Rosé!

This weekend we’ll use it to make a Rose/Rosé Sangria for a Cinco de Mayo Rose fete with friends… here at Camont! We’ll be wearing roses in our hair, on our hats, doux-rags and everywhere. If you’re in the Gascon neighborhood drop by!

la recette: Sirop des Roses de Camont

one large basket full of deeply scented red roses- organic, of course!
500 gr sugar
1 liter water
1 fresh lemon squeezed

Bring all ingredients to a boil, stirring until all sugar is dissolved.

Simmer gently about 10 minutes until rose petals are pale- they will have given their color and scent to the syrup.

Let cool, then strain and decant the sirop into lovely old armagnac bottles. Top with a slug of alcohol and cork or seal.

Next, make nice labels from old gardening magazines.

We made about 4 small bottles of rosy magic.

It’s a nice gift to offer when you come to the Gascon table…

Strawberries drunk on Rosé & Roses by TC.

Cook, Shoot & Eat Gascony…in London & Paris!

Kate Hill — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:28:19 +0000

Si tu ne viens pas à La Gascogne, La Gascogne ira à toi! / “If you don’t come to Gascony, Gascony will come to you!” Paraphrased from one of my all time favorite swashbuckling movies- Le Bossu, it does indeed serve as our cry to arms to bring a bit of Gascon country magic to two city venues- Paris and London for a weekend edition of our favorite Natural Light Natural Food photography workshop. Cook, Shoot & Eat Gascony!

Cook: Kate Hill brings a suitcase loaded with the best of Gascony: quatre epice and rose garlic de Lautrec as shot above, saucisson and othercharcuterie from the Chapolards, foie gras and duck confit from Mme. Jehanne, wheels of cheese from the Pyrenees, les Pruneaux d’Agen, Armagnac, and Tarbais beans. Kate helps you recreate some of France’s most famous regional food from cassoulet to clafoutis, foie gras to terrines.

Shoot: Tim Clinch, famed lifestyle and food professional photographer, teaches you to hone your digital skills using only natural light and reflectors. Tim’s work liek these shots here and sprinkled liberally all over this site also graces the covers of magazines from Country Living to Forbes to House & Garden. Featured on international, magazine, food & design blogs and websites, Tim’s knowledge of Gascony extends from the plate onto the page where he instructs workshops participants in the delicate art of Natural Light Shooting as well as working with Lightroom to process your new photographs into fabulous finished shots.

Eat: following the workshops we create the bistro vibe of a small French café as we gather around the tables to sample and share our Gascon dishes. The fete continues as we toast the fine products and cooking that create a new sampler of a Gascon portfolio for all to share. two wonderful lunches, one festive dinner!

Costs: Each 2 day workshop includes: 15 hours instruction w/ 2 teachers, 2 lunches & one dinner, all food costs, edible materials and props. Each participant must bring their own digital camera (optional computer). Two days in a top secret venue featuring fabulous food and creative energy costs in Paris: 300€ per day per person; in London: 300£ per day per person. For a closer look at our workshops: http://www.naturallightnaturalfood.com/index.htm

Dates: London: May 21 & 22, June 11 & 12. Paris: July 2 & 3. 2011

All photographs by Tim Clinch , food by Kate Hill at the Kitchen-at-Camont.

Natural Light Natural Food Photography- served 7 new ways.

Kate Hill — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:41:22 +0000

Horsing around with my i-fun after a particularly good haul from a local vide grenier- or village flea market. These four new little cutting boards join the big boys in service- for charcuterie, cheese, desserts… anything we can paddle and pass.

This Spring, I am focusing on the little things that makes the Kitchen-at-Camont special. These well-used souvenirs of the past are part of our everyday work. I know that when Camont’s sometimes resident bonvivant- Mr Tim Clinch arrives next month for another round of Natural Light Natural Food workshops, he’ll confiscate them and make them his own. I cook. He shoots. What results is food photography magic. Interested? Click here for more information or hop over to the www.NaturalLightNaturalFood.com site and see more great food photographs both here at Camont in Gascony and at the lovely Finca Buenvino in Andalucia.

Next workshops: May 23-27 2011. Interested in a Paris or London workshop. Contact us!

Sweet Pie and other ideas from Camont

Kate Hill — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 09:00:09 +0000

Tell me about pie and one person springs to mind. Kate McDermott. The Art of the Pie. From a flour dusted apron to her sunny blue chapeau, Kate is my inspiration for all things round and sweet. When we met last year in Seattle for the first time, to bake side by side our American/Franco versions of apple pie, the Sisters of the Pie was born. Our wonderful pie- lovin’ filmmaker Luuvu captured the movement here.

Sisters of the Pie from by.luuvu on Vimeo.

Recently Kate and I had a chance to talk again in Seattle while I was doing the Cochon & Charcuterie workshops with Dominique Chapolard. We ate pie chez @bonnevivante, found the leaf lard in a Pig at the Herbfarm, and talked about how we celebrate life- with friendship and pie. So we hatched a plan for a Sweet Meating- a chance to share our Pig & Pie centric lives with old and new friends. Here in Gascony. To celebrate life and friendship- on a portentous weekend- 11/11/11.

Join two sweet Kates for a weekend or longer of ‘Pig & Pie’ beginning November 11, 2011, here, in Gascony at Camont. click here for more info: PIG & PIE.

From rhubarb to pie.KatedeCamont’s rhubarb tarte with ground almond & butter crust

5 NEW things to discover at Camont this summer!

Kate Hill — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:50:14 +0000

Natural Light Natural Food photography workshops w/ Tim Clinch

ONE: Natural Light and Natural Food- learn the inside story of working with our resident professional photographer Tim Clinch (http://timclinchphotography.net/) in a special Paris weekend workshop in early July as well as our 5-day workshops here at the Kitchen-at-Camont. Recently featured on The Foodie Bugle- http://thefoodiebugle.com/article/food-photography/natural-light-natural-food, we’ll be looking to bring a Taste of Gascony to London, too!

Summer School BASIX

TWO: Summer School BASIX – fun morning sessions for those interested in a ‘light’ version of some Camont classics- just 600 Euros for five mornings.

Sweet Gascony: making a torteau de chevre

Three: Sweet Gascony. Dig-in to Kate’s sweet repertoire of French favorites: Gateau Basque, Torteau de Chevre, Clafoutis, Pain d’Epice, Tarte au Fromage Blanc, Gascon Pastis…

: Artisan Butchery & Charcuterie

Four: New dates and rates for long term study with the Chapolard family and a special 3-week accelerated program for professionals Coming Soon!

Mastering the Art of Gascon Cooking

Five: Mastering the Art of Gascon Cooking. Inspired by Julia Child’s seminal work, we approach five classic cooking techniques in five days of Seasonal menus creating classic Gascon recipes from regional cookbooks and famous chefs. Want to know how to braise a lamb belly, sauté foie gras, roti a pork echine, confit duck legs, reduce a wine sauce? This revisit of classic French techniques in a Gascon setting is a perfect way to jump start a career or a passion.