The interior of the church

The town I live in, Tarascon,borders the Rhône River and lies between two mountain ranges, Les Alpilles (mini Alps) to the south and Les Montagnettes (little mountains) to the north.  Les Alpilles is better known with its medieval village of Les Baux, perched on top of a rocky, Bauxite (named after the village) outcrop.   Along with Mont St.Michel in Normandy it is one of the most visited villages in France.  Les Alpilles have been peopled for thousands of years, with farmers grazing their livestock on the hills and the Romans quarrying the limestone rock to build their towns and monuments nearby.  Today there are many vineyards, olive groves, second homes and exclusive hotels.  The five starred Oustau de Baumanière and its sister Le Cabro d’Or and their Michelin starred restaurants (Oustau de Baumanière two stars, Cabro d’Or one) sit nestled under the shadow of Les Baux.  In the nearby villages and towns of Saint-Remy, Mausanne, Paradou and Fontvieille there are many more hotels with shops and restaurants where “English is spoken here”.

The Montagnettes, on the other hand, which Stretch 10 kms alongside the Rhône between Tarascon and Avignon, are hardly peopled at all.  There are towns and villages huddled around the foothills, Boulbon, Graveson and Barbentane, but they are hardly on the tourist map, and the only people living on the mountain range itself are the brothers, or rather Canons Regular, of Abbaye St.Michel de Frigolet.

Boulbon Castle, walk to the Abbaye

You can visit the abbey and it is easily accessible by car, but my favourite way of visiting it is on foot, setting off from the town of Boulbon and passing by its medieval fortified castle along the way.   The path takes you up a steep climb through the dry garrigue (scrubland), scented with wild thyme, sage and rosemary.   After a few twists and turns, taking you ever further into the hills, you finally reach the plateau where you can see the towers of the abbey emerging ahead of you and at certain times during the day you can hear the bells faintly ringing across the hilltops calling the brothers to prayer.

Towers of the Abbey as seen from the direction of Boulbon

This is the sight and sound that would have greeted the pilgrims as they came to pray to The Blessed Virgin Mary, Nostra Domina de Ferigoleto, in the Chapel of Our Lady at Frigolet and to St Michael at the Church of St Michel.   No doubt the pilgrim would have been offered a night’s bunk and something to eat before heading off to the next place of worship along the way.

The abbey, which is still in use today and home to Canons Regular (as they are called) of the Prémontré Order, dates back to AD 938.  Over the centuries buildings were added and enlarged as the importance of the monastery grew.  It survived the comings and goings of Kings and Queens and various Religious trends throughout the centuries.  However, it was sacked and plundered during the French Revolution, forcing the inhabitants to flee as the buildings were set on fire and only one of the chapels survived.

The Canons Prémontrés, returned to the abbey in 1858 restoring and rebuilding it to what it is now.   They still live there today, though there are only 10 of them left.   They welcome people from the outside World to join them in their Religious Services, Laudes, Mass, Vespers and Evening Mass, which are conducted in Gregorian chant.  They also offer Spiritual retreats for people looking to spend up to 8 days in silence and contemplation, eating and living along-side the brothers and attending one religious service a day.   If this is something you might be interested in, you can apply to the Père Hôtelier, Abbaye Saint-Michel de Frigolet, 13150 Tarascon, France.  They suggest that you should be able to speak some French and you’ll have to leave your modern life at the door, as there is no mobile signal and no wifi in the buildings and you will literally be living like a monk, rising at 6.30am, eating your meals in silence and going to bed at 9.15.

The abbey used to be self-sufficient and produced its own honey.  Sadly the last of the apiarists died some years ago and no one has taken his place.  In the 19^th century, one of the brothers, an herbalist, came up with a recipe for a liqueur using 30 herbs and plants that grow in the hills.  His claim was that it was a tonic and that it “does nothing but good”.  Le liqueur de Frigolet is still made today in a distillery in the nearby town of Graveson and its recipe kept a closely guarded secret.  If you walk around the grounds, you can see where the vegetable garden and the herb patch were, but sadly only the wooden markers remain.

Markers in the old herb garden

If you would like to stay at the abbey, but living like a monk is not your thing, there is a touristique hotel within the Abbey’s walls called the Hotellerie de L’Abbaye de St Michel de Frigolet.  It is run independently from the abbey, but the rooms are rather Spartan and barely furnished none-the-less.  It is utilitarian rather than luxe and befitting to its two star rating.  But if you are after a unique location, surrounded by wild and rugged countryside and looking for some peace and quiet, this could be the place for you.  There are lots of hikes that lead straight from the hotel door and the hotel will even give you a packed lunch for €9.   There are, of course, plenty of towns and villages nearby to explore by bike or car.

Attached to the hotel is a restaurant touristique, called Le fournil de la Montagnette and is housed in the old bakery, sous les micoculiers.   You sit on wooden benches along wooden tables under the shade of the big Hackberry tree. The food is locally sourced and mainly organic and the menu is provençal.

Dining under the trees

The day I ate at the restaurant I had the menu at €18 which started with Carpaccio de tomates biologiques à la gelé de basilique, (organic tomato salad with basil jelly) followed by Boeuf aux Olives, courgettes, pommes de terre sautées (beef cooked with olives, courgettes and sautéed potatoes) and Faiselle de Chevre à la Gelée de Thym (Goats curd with a thyme jelly).

Le Fournil restaurant

Once a year the restaurant runs foraging classes on how to cook with the wild herbs picked in the surrounding hills.

Who knows what the future of the abbey will hold.  How long will the brothers be able to hold out with their dwindling numbers?  Will it become part of the modern World with its churches becoming hotels and its pilgrims, wealthy travellers in search of Michelin stars?

At least for now, the only stars you’ll see at Abbaye de St Michel de Frigolet are those in the skies above.

Prices at the hotel start at €60 per person with breakfast and go up to €126 for an apartment for six people.  It is closed between the 5^th November and 15^th March, during which time the restaurant is only open on Sundays.

For more information about the hotel or restaurant and to make reservations call 04 90 90 52 70 or email at hotellerie@hotmail.fr. Or go to www.hotellerie-frigolet.fr.

For more information on the abbey go to http://www.frigolet.com/en/

Address Saint-Michel de Frigolet. 13150 Tarascon, France, Telephone: +33 (0)4 90 95 70 07, Fax: +33 (0)04 90 90 79 23 E-Mail: abbaye@frigolet.com.

This article originally appeared in The Foodie Bugle Magazine, to get a copy go to http://thefoodiebugle.com/shop

A bowl of glacé fruit

Christmas in Provence is steeped in tradition, both religious and culinary.  It’s the culinary ones that mainly survive today and one of these is the eating of glacé, or candied fruit during the festivities.  Now candied fruit is not something that I think about with great relish, my experience of it being the odd glacé cherry here or there in a cake or atop a rather disgusting cocktail, but mention it to a French person and their eyes glaze over as they enthuse about its delectability.

Sugar, for most of us in the Western World, is one of the badies of a healthy diet and the idea of replacing a fruit’s natural water (good) with sugar (bad) is incomprehensible to most of us today.  But it wasn’t always so, in fact when the crusaders first brought sugar back from their adventures in the Holy Lands, it was considered to be a health tonic.  It was so rare and expensive that it became known as ‘White Gold’ and as with all things rare and expensive was greatly coveted.  So in the early 16^th century the clever Portuguese and Spaniards set about expanding their sugar interests and started planting plantations in their newly acquired colonies in the West Indies and South America.  France and England were quick to follow and sugar became an important trading commodity creating great wealth for both countries.  This meant that although still expensive and a luxury, sugar became more easily available in the 16^th century and people started to experiment with its culinary and medicinal uses.

One of these people was Nostradamus who lived in Saint Rémy de Provence and besides being an astronomer and predictor of the end of the World, had trained as an apothecary.  No doubt he looked around at all the wonderful fruit that still grows abundantly in the Rhône basin and wondered how it could be preserved beyond its own short season.  He travelled to Milan in 1549 and sought out an apothecary living there who specialised in vegetable alchemy using sugar.  When Nostradamus came back to France with his newly acquired knowledge, he wrote a treaty called Petit Traité de Fardements et Confitures or “Treatise on Beauty Secrets and Preserves” in 1552 which besides giving numerous beauty and health tips, laid out the basic recipe for preserving whole fruits, pears, oranges, lemons and cherries in sugar.

It is this same recipe that is used today at Lilamand, artisanal makers of fruit confit who are also located in the town of St Rémy de Provence.  As they are only a few kilometres from where I live, I decided to go and pay them a visit to find out more.

Lilamond boutique in Saint Rémy

Pierre Lilamand, who is the fifth generation working in the family business, the company was started in 1886, kindly showed me around and explained the process to me.

The first and most important part is the growing and the quality of the fruit.  Today a lot of the fruit is grown especially for Lilamand, using old varieties that are no longer commonly grown.  The fruit has to be perfect, with no blemishes or bruising and must not be too ripe.

Preparing the fruit

After harvesting, the fruit is peeled and boiled in large vats of sugar and glucose up to 7 or 8 times over a three-week period, each successive bath having higher sugar content until the water in the fruit is completely replaced by the sugar. The fruit is left in a sugar syrup for 2 months and then dried on a rack for another week before it is packaged and sent on its way.

Melons steeping in a glucose bath

All in all the whole process takes three to four months and all of the work is done by hand.  It is both skilled and exacting and the slightest error can cause the fruit to collapse and become mush.

The fruit is left to dry on a rack

Even though candied fruit may have lost its appeal for us today, it is still widely used by pâtissiers around the World and will no doubt be gracing many a Provençal table this Christmas.

CONFISERIE LILAMAND
5.Avenue Albert Schweitzer
13210 SAINT-REMY DE PROVENCE
Tél: 04.90.92.11.08
Fax: 04.90.92.53.83
Web: www.lilamand.com

This article originally originally appeared in The Foodie Bugle

Bon Noël and hope to see you in the New Year!  Don’t forget to leave a comment and let me know you’re there!

Sud de France is my kind of cookbook.  For a start, it is all about the food and culture of Provence.  OK, it is in fact about the food of the Languedoc, but as Languedoc borders Provence just five minutes away from our house, over the Rhône River at the town of Beaucaire, it shares many culinary and cultural influences with where we live.  Languedoc is considered the less ‘showy’ neighbour of Provence and covers a large area of the South of France from the Spanish border all the way to the Gard.

In the first chapter Caroline Conran covers a good sixty pages on The Taste of the Languedoc, exploring the traditions associated with the food of this region, with sub headings on truffles, garlic, Foie Gras, chestnuts, poultry, beef, snails, game, oysters, seafood, Charcuterie, Camargue rice, wine, cheese and more.

She explores the Catalan influences on the region; Paella is considered a national dish in Provence and is served throughout the summer, particularly in the Camargue with its gardians, or cowboys, where it is often cooked over an open wood fire for special occasions. Salt cod also features in many of the traditional recipes in le sud, and can be found in many local restaurants on a Friday in the dish called Aïoli, which includes salt cod, aïoli (garlic mayonnaise), snails, hardboiled egg, a carrot and a potato (it is an acquired taste for the uninitiated).

Aïoli as its served on Fridays at Le Bistro de Paradou

To the South Languedoc borders the ocean and there are many dishes prepared with seafood and fish; in particular fish soup, which varies from region to region but traditionally would have included what the fishermen had caught that day and is usually served with aïoli.  Ms Conran gives us three recipes with its local variations, a Catalan Fish Stew (Buillinade), a Bourride from Sète (La bourride à la sètoise) and aFish Soup with Aïoli and Sauce Ardente (Bisquebouille) from the Ermitage Restaurant in Les Angles (across the Rhône from Avignon.

My fish soup

The recipes basically describe rustic peasant dishes, or to use the french word  paysanne’s literal meaning, ‘of the earth’.  The food from this region is always seasonal, locally sourced and often foraged (many is the time I’ve come across people gathering snails, wild leaves, herbs, asparagus and mushrooms on my walks).

There are recipes in the book that  I have only ever seen in traditional French cookbooks or had described to me by the fishmonger or vegetable seller in the market.    The recipes are above all authentic to the region and unlike many of the English language cookbooks that have been written on the area in the past, they have not been adapted for the American or English palate.

 This is not, refreshingly, a glossy book; it reminded me of Elisabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking, with its simple black and white illustrations by Caroline Conran and a brief history and description before each recipe.

The book will be a revelation to anyone not yet familiar with this part of the World, as well as providing fascinating information for those that already are.  I would recommend it as much to those who have no intention of ever lifting a saucepan, but are interested in the origins of food, as those that want to try some authentic Languedoc – Provençal dishes.

I decided to try one of the recipes, Rancher’s Beef, (gardiane de taureau) which is often served on long tables, under the stars, at the summer fêtes (fairs) held in every town and village in Provence.

I used a 70cl bottle of wine, (rather than a litre as listed in the ingredients) and despite cooking it for four hours in a casserole with a tight fitting lid, there was still plenty of liquid left for the sauce.

The publisher has kindly let me reproduce the recipe for you here.

Rancher’s Beef – Gardiane de taureau

• 800g shin of beef
• 1 litre red wine
• 3 onions sliced
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 3 cloves
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 sprigs rosemary
• 2 strips orange peel
• 3 – 4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp flour
• 12 green and 12 black olives
• salt and coarsely ground black pepper

Cut the beef into large pieces (5cm cubes), place them in a dish and cover with red wine, onions, vinegar, spices, herbs and orange peel and a tablespoon of olive oil. Mix it round and marinate for 24 hours to tenderize and flavour the beef. Drain off the liquid, keeping the marinade for cooking the beef. Pat the meat dry with kitchen paper.
Heat the remaining olive oil in a casserole, coat the meat with flour and brown very thoroughly, in batches, a few pieces at a time, adding a tablespoon of oil after each batch. Pour the marinade over the meat, add the olives and season with a little salt and masses of pepper. Simmer gently for 2-3 hours. If there is too much sauce, remove the lid and simmer for a further 15-20 minutes.
Lake all daubes this one will taste better and better if kept for a day or two (Serves 4).

Sud de France, is published by Prospect Books.

All drawings by Caroline Conran

https://prospectbooks.co.uk/books/978-1-903018-90-3

A version of this article originally appeared in The Foodie Bugle

Rancher’s Beef with Camargue rice

I recently wrote about my visit to a nearby apiary outside Saint Remy for the Foodie Bugle, a beautiful on-line magazine founded by the talented Italian cook and all round foodie, Silvana de Soissons, and thought this would be a timely moment to also post it here.  So if you’ve already read it…..avert your eyes!

Walking past the different varieties of honey for sale at my weekly market, miel de Chateigniers, Miel aux toutes fleurs, miel de lavendes etc. I would often ask myself, how does the beekeeper know which flowers the bees have got their nectar from?   It was a question that had bothered me for a while and I decided to go and visit an apiary, or bee-keeping farm nearby to find out the answer.

Outside St Remy, on the road to Cavaillan are the honey producers M et Mme et fils Brun.  It was fils Brun (son of Brun) who came out when I rang the bell and who agreed to show me around the large modern barn next to the family mas (farmhouse) where the honey processing takes place.

It didn’t take long for me to get the answer to my question. Fils Brun explained to me that rather than letting the bees buzz around the countryside randomly dipping their proboscis into any flower they fancy (as I imagined they did) he and his father transport the beehives to locations when specific flowers are in bloom.   So for instance in July they take the bees to the lavender fields below Mont Ventoux when the lavender is in bloom, or to the Camargue when the blackberrys are in flower, or to the Garrigue, the hills nearby which are covered in scrub when the wild thyme, rosemary and sage is blossoming.  The hives are moved between 3 and 4 times a year and are transported at night under the cover of darkness so as not to stress the bees.

Lavender in bloom

This wasn’t always the case, Fils Brun tells me, up until the 1960’s the transhumance, as it is called, (moving of livestock from one area to another) was not necessary, due to the many flowers growing in the Saint Remy area, but now the land is mainly used to cultivate vegetables, everywhere you look there are rows of poly-tunnels and farmers are cutting down their fruit orchards as fruit is grown more cheaply elsewhere.  Since the 1970’s they have also had the added problem of pesticides that are used on the crops around their farm. M. Brun tells me a story of how a neighbour of his decided one year to spray all his apple trees with insecticides as his daughter was getting married and they didn’t want any mosquitoes to ruin the wedding party; they got rid of the mosquitoes but also killed all M.Brun’s bees in the process. Now the Bruns take their hives to national parks or farms which they know are pesticide free.

The Alpilles, National park

The majority of French honey is produced from rape and sunflower crops, but the most sought after honey is the single blossom kind that M. Brun produces; the premier cru so to speak.  Honey production has been in the Brun family for many generations and in the visitors room in the barn there are beehives, or ruches as they are called in French, that date back to the 1880s when their forefather Étienne Brun was collecting honey.   At that time each region had its own style of beehive and the one on show was made with wood, straw, lime and earth.

Bee hives made from lime, straw and mud

In earlier times the beehives had to be destroyed to extract the honey and the bee colony was killed along with the queen and her larvae.  This meant that a new swarm had to be found in the spring and was not a very satisfactory system.  This all changed in the middle of the 19^th century when the moveable honeycomb was invented.

Frames with honey combs

This revolutionised beekeeping and was the basis of the beehives that are used today which are made of wood and contain ‘drawers’ of empty frames in which the bees build their honeycombs.  Once the frames are filled with honey they are taken from the hives and put into a centrifugal machine which extracts the honey from the wax.

Fils Brun putting the honey combs into the centrifugal extraction machine

The empty frames are then put back into the hive for the bees to replenish.  In late September, early October, only the bottom layer of the frames are put back into the hive and the honeycombs are left intact to sustain the bees during the winter months.

After the honey has been extracted from the comb, it is filtered twice and is decanted into large drums where it is left for 2 to 3 months to settle and is then siphoned into jars ready to sell.

Honey siphoned into jars

As I leave and thank Fils Brun for his time and for helping me to clarify the answer to my question, he gives me a jar of honey collected from the wild flowers in Les Alpilles and says ‘you can also tell which plant the bees have got their nectar from by the taste, colour and smell of the honey, just like wine’.

Contact

Grand Draille Nord, La Galine le rucher des Alpilles,
13210 St Remy de Provence
Tel (0033) 490922888

For further reading on the blue honey phenomenon

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19835847

And on French honey

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2013/01/french-honey/

Eat authentic Italian food and watch the gliders take off and land

Yesterday it was the Artist’s turn.  The suspense was slightly dented when, driving to his mother’s house in Bath, one of  my twitter friends sent a tweet welcoming Ottolenghi to Bath.  My suspicions were then later confirmed when, after arriving, I saw a copy of The Great Bath Feast 2012 brochure on my mother in law’s table, announcing a talk and cooking demonstration by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi as part of the Toppings Autumn Book Fair.  However, my excitement wasn’t in any way dampened, especially as on the way to the event in a taxi, The Artist presented me with their new book Jerusalem.

The fact that the talk took place in a church and the cooking demonstration on a trestle table in front of the alter will not be lost on anyone who has a copy of one of their books or eaten in their restaurants in London.

Church of Ottolenghi

Every now and then someone comes along with a very individual style and voice which changes the nature of food served at dinner tables around the World.  Yotam Ottolenghi’s last book Plenty did just that and made him into the high priest of cooking that he is and us into the hungry congregation, stocking our cupboards with bottles of pomegranate and date syrup, preserved lemons, sumac and za’tar.

During the duo’s presentation, they cooked one of the meals from Jerusalem whilst talking about their influences and answering questions from the audience.

Cooking Braised eggs with lamb, tahini & sumac

Here are some of the questions and answers that I have paraphrased.

Who has influenced your cooking?

Y and S: Claudia Roden, with her book A Book of Middle Eastern Food (Penguin 1970, revised edition A New Book of Middle Eastern Food, 1985) she brought middle eastern cooking to the west.

What should you do if you can’t find the specific ingredients?

Y and S: Don’t panic.  Cooking should be a joy and the recipes used as a guide, do not get fanatical about every detail.

What are the ingredients you can’t find in London.

Y and S: Most Middle Eastern ingredients are now available in supermarkets across the country.  If not they can be bought by mail order (http://webstore.ottolenghi.co.uk/) or else in small specialty stores (Turkish, Lebanese etc) around London.  The one ingredient that we haven’t been able to find is a good lemon geranium water.

So if anyone knows of a source, please get in touch with them.

What is your favourite national food?

Y: Malaysian cooking as it combines the best dishes from around the World.

S: Hungarian food is pretty good.

What is your dessert island spice?

S: Arabic 7 spice (bokharat – a mixture, as the name implies, of seven different spices).

Laughter

Y: At the moment I am enjoying Cardamom.  Cardamon is used a lot in Jerusalem and is often added to coffee beans to create a fragrant and aromatic cuppa.

What do you cook when you are at home?

Y: If I have time, a quick seafood pasta using tomatoes and seafood and some tinned fish.

How do your three books differ from one another?

Y and S: Ottolenghi has recipes from the restaurant.

Plenty has vegetarian recipes which originated from Yotam’s column for The Guardian

Jerusalem, has recipes inspired by the flavours and spirit of the city, along with the very best traditional dishes.

What is the dish that most characterises you?

Y and S: Hummus.  It is eaten everywhere in the Middle East and is a far cry from the tubs people in the West buy from the supermarket and eat cold as a dip or on a cracker.  Hummus is a dish in itself, central to a meal, to which other things are added.  You shouldn’t add olive oil, as the tahini paste is rich enough without it and adding ice cold water makes it light and fluffy.

Sami showing the congregation the finished dish

Yotam and Sami grew up in Jerusalem a few miles away from each other, Yotam in the Jewish West Side and Sami in the Arab East Side.  They met in London in 1999 working in the same restaurant, something that would not have been possible in their home town.  However symbolic their union is (they are business partners in the restaurants and wrote Ottolenghi and Jerusalem together) they are keen to point out that they are not trying to make a political statement with this book, but rather to impart their love and joy of the city they both come from.

This is a very beautiful book in every way.  The recipe for hummus alone makes it worth buying, not to mention the many photos taken on the streets of Jerusalem along with the vivid colours of the fresh ingredients used in the many mouthwatering dishes.

Yotam and Sami signing books, they’ve nearly got to the end

So last year I signed up for FBC 11 (Food blogger Connect) to try and  meet up with other food bloggers.  The weekend, which I faced with some trepidation (was it going to be like going back to school, was I going to be faced with a room full of foodie nerds, or WI bossy busy bodies?) turned out to be a great success, for my growth as a blogger and for the people I met who a year later I am still in contact with via twitter and Facebook and sharing blog-posts.

During the weekend there was a great variety of speakers from Tim Hayward telling us how he started his quarterly magazine Fire and Knives to Fiona Beckett talking about the difference between journalism and blogging.  There were cooking demonstrations by Anjum Anand (I am now a definite fan of her Indian cookery books) and Caroline Mi Li Artiss, there was a food photography workshop with Beatrice Peltre of La Tartine Gourmande and techie talks on how to make your blog more user and SEO friendly.  The weekend was presided over by Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen,  one of the most successful US food blogs and all the while we munched on home-made chocolates, from Leila Brandão, olives from Spain, goat cheeses from France and guzzled Chateau Ksara, Lebanon Wines!

So when I heard that Vitamix were giving two lucky winners the chance to win a free ticket to FBC12 (coming up the end of this month, September 28th, 29th 30th) with an opportunity to feature their recipe and participate in the Vitamix Total Nutrition Centre with Chef Bev Shaffer at the FBC12 Market.  I decided to put my shaking cap on to come up with a smoothie that would define the taste of late summer in Provence.   This is what I came up with.

At this time of year there is often a glut of ripened summer fruit in the markets in Provence, and you can often buy a tray of peaches for a few euros.

Large juicy peaches in the market

Also if you are lucky to have a fig tree in your garden, you will have more figs than you know what to do with at this time of year.

Figs in my friend Nadine’s garden

So I decided to combine both these ingredients along with almonds and honey from the lavender fields of Mont Ventoux.

Lavender honey

Here are the ingredients for my Late Summer Provence Smoothie

Ingredients for a late summer Provençal smoothie

For 2 thirsty people you will need

• 2 Glasses Almond milk (250 ml)
• 3 figs, you can use them whole, but the peel will make the shake a dull brown colour
• 1 large or 2 smaller juicy peaches, peeled (if you can be bothered)
• 1 tbs ground almonds
• 1 tbs lavender honey or according to taste
• a handful of toasted almond flakes (you can toast them in a dry pan)
• 3 ice cubes

Put everything except for the almond flakes into a blender. Whizz it all up, put into tall glasses, garnish with a peach slice and top with the almond slices and imagine you’re in Provence!

Fig and Peach Provencal Smoothie

Hunting is tightly regulated in France and you have to have a license and pass an exam which is part theory and part practical.  It is evidently quite tough and tests the applicant on their knowledge of wildlife, biology, habitat, which animals are protected and which are not along with general rules and bylaws.  The practical part of the exam accesses the individual’s ability to shoot.

Despite the English maintaining that the French like to shoot anything that moves., out of 648 species of birds and mammals that exist in France, only 64 species of birds and 24 of mammals can be hunted and hunting days are limited to certain days of the week.

One of the species the French certainly do and can hunt is sangliers, or wild boar.  I’ve never come across one myself, but apparently if confronted by one, especially a female with young, you need to watch out as they can be quite ferocious and will attack if they feel provoked.

Young boars by the side of the road in Claviers, the Var, they look adorable ©Noelle Chichester

Friends who live in the Var, (further east above St Raphael) which is wooded and more hilly than around les Alpilles where we live, complain a lot about the wild boars, as they wreak havoc in their gardens, destroying their vines and vegetables and digging holes.  However boars are very intelligent and a friend put an electric fence around his vegetable field and after a few years the boars stopped bothering him, having learned that the fence would give them a shock.

Adult wild Boar,  not so cute looking ©Nicola Billows

Boars can also be a liability for people who own pools, because they cannot get out if they fall into the water.  Someone I know came back to their house having been away for a while to find a dead boar floating in their pool.  Not a very nice home coming sight, not to speak of the expense of having to drain the pool!  To avoid such a catastrophe, friends of mine built their pool with a sloping shallow end, so the boar can get out if it falls in.   It works for Scotty dogs too!

Luring a Scotty dog into the water……

I don’t know anybody who hunts, and killing animals is not my thing, but I was recently given a loin of boar by a friend whose partner goes hunting in the Ardèche.  I asked her how to cook it and she said, “oh you know in the normal way, wine, vinegar, herbs, garlic, shallots……and make sure you marinade it over night…..”

So I did a little bit of researching in my various cookbooks to see what they had to say about it.

Jacques Médecin (whose life was as colourful as his recipes) in his Cuisine Niçoise, Recipes from a Mediterranean Kitchen tells you to make a marinade with 2 carrots, 2 onions, 3 cloves of garlic, 200 – 300 ml olive oil, 6 pinches of thyme, 1 bay leaf 2 tsp black peppercons, 3 sprigs of parsley, 120ml grappa 500 ml red wine 120 ml vinegar for 1 haunch of wild boar.  He says to cook the garlic, onion and sliced carrots in the olive oil and then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 20 minutes.  Let it cool down and then place the haunch in the marinade and leave in a cool place for at least 10 days but no longer than 20 days!

J.B Reboul, La Cuisinière Provencale, the bible of Provencal cooking, says to bring to a simmer 1 lire of good vinegar, one bottle of white wine and 3 litres of water then add a pinch of salt, some pepper corns, thyme, bay leaf, parsley, chopped onions and carrots and cook for 15 minutes.  Then put it in a stoneware pot and when it has cooled down add the boar meat, but there’s no mention for how long it should marinade.

Stéphanie Deméry, step mother of my friend Regine Deméry gives a recipe for a red meat marinade in her book The Traditional Cuisine Provençal using 1 quart of white wine (quart?) 1 carrot,  1 onion, i bunch of celery, 2 cloves, 1 clove of garlic, 1 bay leaf and a handful of peppercorns and advises to marinate the meat for at least 12 hours.  This seems a bit more like it.

I decide to make up my own marinade following along the lines of the above and adding a few extra ingredients that I think will go well with a gamey piece of  meat.   Here it is.

Wild thyme, rosemary from the Garrigue, onions, shallots, garlic, juniper berries, pepper corns, cloves

Loin of Wild Boar marinated in herbs and wine
• 1 kg rolled loin of Boar
• 250 ml of red wine
• 250 ml of red wind vinegar
• 1/2 onion peeled and chopped
• 1 carrot peeled and sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 Bouquet garni of dried thyme, rosemary and bayleaf
• 7 peppercorns
• 5 juniper berries
• 3 shallots
• 3 cloves
• 2 strips of orange peel
• 150 gms mushrooms (wild ones if you have them)

Mix together all the marinade ingredients
Score the fat of the rolled loin with a sharp knife and cover with the marinade.

Marinating the boar meat for 24 hours

After 24 hours, take the meat out of the marinade and pat dry with paper towels.  Then heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a large casserole dish and brown the meat on all sides.   Then add the marinade with the onions and the carrots, herbs etc. and when it starts to simmer, put the lid on and transfer the casserole to the pre-heated oven at 170°c.

Cook for 1 1/2 hours, then add the chopped mushrooms and cook for another 20 mins.  Take out of the oven and serve.

Loin of Boar with carrots and mushrooms

The meat tasted very good, but the carrots took on the vinegary taste, so I would probably discard them after cooking.  If you like a thicker gravy you could strain the marinade and make a roux with some butter and some flour to thicken it before pouring over the browned meat and putting it in the oven.

Let me know if you have cooked wild boar and what you did.

Here are some links for stories of boars that got away!

Boar goes on rampage in hair dressing salon

Boar goes for a dip in the sea

Obituary of Jacques Médecin

Camargue horses running through the water

Having recently returned from Provence, I thought I’d add some tips from my stay in the Camargue which is about an hour’s drive (or 50 kilometres) from Tarascon. It is a stretch of low-lying land in the Rhone delta, dotted with farms and shallow marshy lakes. This area is well known for its white horses that have lived here for thousands of years. Originally wild, they are now reared by guardiens or cowboys who use them for herding their black cattle, especially the bulls that are used for bullfights. An iconic image of the Camargue is that of a group of horses galloping through shallow water with manes and tails flying.

Gardiens riding the horses

The horses are quite small, but very tough, agile and resilient, and can carry the weight of a man. People come here for riding holidays or just to hire a horse for the day or a couple of hours. There are numerous websites offering a range of options to suit everyone’s wishes.

The horses all have white coats but their skins underneath are black, strictly speaking making them grey. The foals are all born dark brown or black, and gradually their coats become white as they reach adulthood. This is to protect them from predation when they are young as they are harder to see against the dark soil and vegetation of the are

I was here on a 5 day photographic trip in late March, organised by John Wright of Photographers on Safari. He is the wildlife photographer who led the trip. You can check out his trips and images on the website above. However, our local guide and fixer was a French photographer called Patrice Aguilar. He made all the arrangements with the local farmers to bring their horses to the designated places for us to photograph. Sessions always took place shortly after dawn and a few hours before sunset to guarantee the best light (the Golden Hour.)

He also leads his own photographic holidays to the region as well as to other areas around the world.

If you happen to be in the Camargue and intend to take photos of horses running through water, it can be a good idea to bring waders which will enable you to stand in the water if you wish. This can give greater impact to the images, particularly if you take a low down viewpoint (as in the second image above.) I brought chest waders (the shoe sizes on hip waders were too big for me) and they were invaluable. It meant I could crouch down in the water and walk through or sit on wet dewy grass without getting wet.

Mare and foal

We stayed in a small hotel outside Ste Marie de la Mer at the Hostellerie du Pont de Gau. Double rooms with breakfast are 70€, although we paid an all inclusive price for the holiday including evening meals. The food is excellent, and local people remarked on this when we told them where we were staying. There are several menus at different prices, as well as an à la carte menu, and an extensive wine list. Breakfasts are the usual French style – orange juice, croissant, baguette with butter, jams and honey, sometimes natural yogurt, and as much tea or coffee as you like.

The rooms are quite basic but adequate with ensuite bathrooms. There is only one electric wall socket per room, unless you climb onto a chair and remove the plug from the wall-mounted TV, in which case you will have two! This is a bit of an issue if you have camera, phone and laptop batteries to recharge, but can be worked around. And don’t forget your European plug adapters!

There are no hairdryers in the bedrooms, so bring your own, or learn to live without. I had to ask for some extra coat hangers as we only had three when we got there, but these were gladly provided.

Soft white towels are provided in the bathrooms and two little individual soaps, but no shampoo, shower gel or conditioner. So remember to bring your own.

Camargue Flamingoes

Next door to the hotel is the Parc Ornithologique de Pont de Gau. It costs 7€ to get in. It opens at 10am and last entry is at 4pm, but once you are in you can stay as long as you like. (You can also go in and out on the day ticket, but be back before 4pm.) The thing to do is to stay till around sunset when all the flamingos – for which the park is famous – suddenly take off in one enormous flock of honking and flapping of wings. They go off to another nearby lake, and then return the following morning.

Flamingoes at sunset

Other birds there are herons, storks, ibis and cattle egrets, greylag geese, red-headed ducks, black-winged stilts and sandpipers, as well as birds of prey such as buzzards and owls.

Stork with building material

There are also resident coypu that can be found swimming about in the water or feeding on the water’s edge. They are quite cute and are like beavers, only smaller, and they have long thin tails rather than flat rudder-like tails. They are not native to France but were introduced here from the Americas some hundred or so years ago for their fur.

Coypu

If you are planning a visit, it is important to note that this is a marshy area where mosquitoes thrive, so don’t forget to bring your mosquito repellent and to apply it liberally. I took 100% Deet (bought at Blacks in the UK) which worked pretty well for me. Early mornings can also be quite cold so bring something warm to wear if you are planning an early morning photo shoot. And above all, have fun!

Nicola Billows

(Photographs not to be reproduced or used without permission of the photographer. nicolabillows@hotmail.com)

Every year the route for Le Tour de France changes and as the riders drive through the towns and villages of France, the people come out to cheer them on with flags and hands made out of green foam.

The crowd cheers the cyclists on

I first saw them in the nearby town of Fontvieille.  We stood alongside the main street and waited with great anticipation for at least an hour.

The crowd cheering the publicity caravan

The first signs of the race is the publicity caravan, this consists of sponsors driving past in customised cars and motorbikes  advertising their products and throwing hats, key rings, sweets, etc. with their logo into the crowd.  The caravan began in 1930 to help pay for the Tour and has become as  much a part of the race as the cyclists themselves.  It takes about 40 minutes for the whole caravan to go by and covers 20 – 25 miles.

Promoters advertising their product

When the cyclists come by they are so quick, that if you blink you’ll miss them.  The first year the only photo I  got of the cyclists was the back of a motorbike holding up the rear.

I'd missed the whole thing

You can imagine how disappointed I was when I got back and saw I had missed the whole thing……

The next year the Tour de France came through our town and The Artist, being more astute than me,  had set his camera to sport mode and did much better than me.

The Tour de France going through my town

I am told that the best place to see them is to stand half-way up a hill, so you can watch them coming up towards you and one of the most popular places around here to see them is when they climb Mont Ventoux which is just 64 kms north of us.

The cyclists Mecca

Mont Ventoux is the cyclist’s mecca and is where British cyclist Tom Simpson collapsed and died close to the summit from dehydration and exhaustion, having consumed a cocktail of amphetamines and Brandy before setting off on the morning of the 13th July 1967 for the Tour de France.  There is a memorial to him where he died where people today still leave offerings to him.

In Memory of Tom Simpson, died 13th July 1967

Many cyclists come from all over the World to climb Mont Ventoux…….

Nearly there......

to reach the summit at 1,912 meters

Summit of 1,912 meters

There are three ascents to the top of Mont Ventoux, via the towns of Bedoin, Malaucène and Sault.   If you climb all three in one day you get inaugurated into the Club des Cinglés (nutters club) and you get a certificate and medal.   If you fancy doing it yourself, here is the website for the club

http://www.clubcinglesventoux.org/

And here are a couple of personal accounts of people having completed the challenge

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=6197

http://www.cyclingclassics.com/mont_ventoux_cingles.php

And why Mont Ventoux is such a symbolic ride for cyclists

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/345826/9-reasons-why-mont-ventoux-is-a-symbolic-climb.html

So, what are you waiting for? Get on yer bike and climb up Mont Ventoux!

The Tour de France begins this Saturday, 30th June and finishes on Sunday July 22nd.  This year it is not going up Mont Ventoux, no doubt to the relief of many of the cyclists.

If you want to follow it interactively, You will find everything you need to know here

http://www.letour.fr/2012/TDF/COURSE/us/le_parcours.html

and here

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/interactive/2012/jun/27/tour-de-france-2012-interactive-guide?newsfeed=true

Meanwhile, please leave a comment on why you would or would not like to cycle up Mont Ventoux!

Seattle is surrounded by water, the Puget Sound to the West and Lake Washington to the east and there is a lot of excellent fish and seafood to be had, much of which is on display at the famous Pike Place Market.

Pike street market overlooking the bay

This is the famous market near the waters edge overlooking the Elliot Bay where local farmers and fishermen have been selling their wares since 1907.  It is also home to the first ever Starbucks.

Flower stands

There are around 500 stalls selling all types of local produce, vegetables, fruit, flowers, spices, teas and crafts, but it’s the stalls selling fish and shellfish that are the main attraction,

Fish and shellfish

especially the stall where the fish mongers throw the fish to each other to the delight of every photo snapping tourist.

However as I was staying in an hotel, I wasn’t able to cook anything and had to rely on restaurants to prepare my food and my favourite place to eat seafood soon became Taylors Shellfish Farm at Melrose Market, 1521 Melrose Ave (cross road Pike), Seattle, WA 98122.  Taylors farm all the seafood themselves and supply most of the restaurants in the area as well as exporting beyond.   They used to only be a wholesale supplier but you can now buy their seafood to take home or eat in at their store which is within the foodie mecca that is Melrose Market.  The live seafood is kept in tanks and there is plenty to choose from:

Mussels

There are mussels

Manila Clams

and Manila clams, of which Taylors are the biggest producers on the West Coast.

Lobster

Lobsters

Crabs

And crabs.  Who knew that crabs like to cuddle…..

Oysters

There is a large selection of oysters including Olympia, Kumamoto, Shigoku, Fanny Bay Small and Kusshi and you can order a mixed plate; I had two of each.

Geoduck pronouced gooey duck

And the pièce de résistence the geoduck, pronounced gooey duck.  These are clams that live in the depths of the ocean off the Washington coast.  They have long necks, or siphons which can grow up to a metre in length.  They are popular in Asian countries where they command a high price.  Whilst I was there I was given a demonstration of how to prepare one.

Geoduck

It is first dropped into boiling water and left for a minute or two and then plunged into ice water.

Plunged into ice-water

Then its outer skin, or siphon has to be removed.

its outer skin is removed

Then it is cut into various sections, some of which gets discarded.

Cut into sections

And then expertly sliced

Sliced

To create this beautiful and tasty dish of Geoduck sashimi

Geoduck Sashimi

Who would have known that something so un-appetising could end up so delicious.  If you are in Seattle I urge you to go and try some for yourself, just don’t be tempted to take one home and prepare it yourself, it needs expert handling.

And from the city known for its coffee, this is where I bought mine in the mornings on my way to work, Tully’s the ‘other’ coffee chain from Seattle.

Tully's Seattle's other coffee brand