Planting Cabbages

oeufs ala st gilles and a tart of white cheese and sunflower honey

maps and the (lost) city of ladies

a plethora of breads and other savory dishes lead eleone across gascony, through languedoc and provence to the lost city of ladies. today we’ll explore two dishes, both feature the combining flavors of cheeses, orange, flowers and herbs.

in our area of north carolina, we love the cheeses of elodie farms.

www.elodiefarms.com/

i know it is only july 30^th, but if you listen you may feel the shift. days are getting shorter. september 1 approaches.

many students in our kid-chef and teen-chef classes are already heading back to school. 

leaves have begun their seasonal descent from the trees.

 

the patio has the occasional golden poplar leaf.

how to make a treasure map of your own:

there are many legends of lost cities. finding ubar, the lost city.

 

and of course another place to look.

 

ancient map blog

in arles the best place to learn about ancient maps and books is with gilles barbero. even from afar peruse his web site, www.livresanciens-barbero.com

 

but if your pleasure is to learn to cook fabulous seafood of the mediterranean and learn (and dine) about the roman influence on the cuisine in arles, you’ll find no better choice, then chef erick vedel.

 

this fall, i want to go, anyone want to join me?

 

chef vedel also is beginning to offer workshops on the preparation of essential oils, gathered from the garrigue (provencale term to define the land and home of fragrant woodsy herbs)

 

oeufs ala st gilles

this makes a marvelous breakfast, answering the eternal question of which came first, the chicken or the egg?

 

combining sweet and savory flavors is a trademark of the renaissance and earlier periods, which still works today. but I’d love to hear your opinion!

a smear of plain fresh goat cheese. and roses.

roses have long been associated with romance, what better way to your lovers heart than with a breakfast you consume together?

 

for two:

1 teaspoon unsalted butter

2 tablespoons sliced almonds

1 teaspoon sugar mixed with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, sprinkle of ground cardamom and 1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs beaten with 1 tablespoon half and half

1 tablespoon orange marmalade

1 tablespoon plain goat cheese

garnish: a squeeze of fresh orange juice and a handful of fresh peach-colored rose petals *

*please be beyond sure that your roses are pesticide free!!

 

mix the cinnamon, cardamom, sugar, and salt in a small bowl.

set aside.

 

(not to self:) eleone made these in the wood-fired oven but you can use a cast iron skillet or a 10 inch nonstick skillet.

heat the butter over medium heat. when melted, add the almonds.  watch carefully, saute until light brown, 1-2 minutes.  remove from heat and add to the bowl with the cinnamon sugar, mix well.

 

return the skillet to medium high heat and when hot add the beaten eggs

with the half and half.

 

i like to use a fork to push the cooked eggs to the center while the uncooked egg runs to the outside. this achieves a “rumpled carpet” appearance.

when light brown on one side, flip the frittata or turn with a spatula and lightly cook the other side. spread the orange marmalade over the top surface and sprinkle on the parmesan or spread on the goat cheese. slide onto a pretty serving plate, and sprinkle with the cinnamon almonds, squeeze on the orange juice and release the petals from the roses over the frittata. share, using your fingers. enjoy.

 

small tarts of white cheese and sunflower honey

 

makes 6 (4 inch) tarts

filling:

2 cups ricotta, brousse (provencale sheep’s ricotta) or chevre

confectioner’s sugar to taste

1 tablespoon vanilla

1-2 tablespoons orange liquer

2-4 tablespoons heavy cream, optional

 

mix a little sugar with the ricotta in a large bowl, using a wooden spoon, not in a machine. mix in the vanilla and the orange liquer. taste and decide whether it needs the cream. refrigerate if not using immediately.

 

crust (pasta frolla)

the semolina flour gives the crust a bit of lovely bite. so nice to nibble while you’re strolling market.

 

1 1/2 cups semolina flour

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

½ tsp. salt

14 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits and well chilled

3 egg yolks

1/3 cup cold water

 

place all dry ingredients; flour, sugar, and salt a wide bowl. mix with a fork. add the bits of butter and using your hands, rub between your thumbs and other fingers to distribute the butter. look for the mixture to resemble meal. dust off your hands and pick up the fork again. add the yolks, all at once and gently stir with the fork. Drizzle the icey water over and around, just enough, till the dough forms larger clumps. turn out on a floured surface and form a ball. refrigerate 30 minutes as is or roll into your tart pan and then refrigerate.

 

to finish the tart:

prebaked tart shells

flavored cheese from above

½ cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

1/2 cup of sunflower honey

 

fill the tart shells with the flavored cheese, sprinkle with chopped walnuts, and drizzle with honey. with one in hand, stroll the market.

the levains of planting cabbages

in the beginning of june I had the happy bon chance to work for a brief day with yannig tanguy of new york's crown point bakery at blackbeard’s pirate festival in hampton, virginia.

 

as you might anticpate for someone who is thoroughly entrenched in baking bread as it was some 300 years ago, yannig can be a bit illusive. but you may be able to read more about his work here on this toronto blogger's site, miss yu. and while i can't promise it will still be available perhaps also here on this wine and food site. at the moment the web site for crown point bakery is down, but keep checking. located in upstate ny, the town of crown point is, as I understnad it, quite near to vermont.

when my interest in bread apprentices began i always wanted to uncover the way of baking before measuring and time planted us with demands. then, when I saw yannig and his accomplice, james, mixing dough in troughs, I thought, yes – this is it! how much has been lost in the name of progress! (only a cup or two? or much more, much more??)

 

 

 

mixing

in 2006 there was this 1^st levain recipe:

1 cup cooked millet (cooked in cherry and pomegranate juice) 

1 cup cooked barley

1 cup rye flour

½ cup honey

a handful of fresh figs

1 cup millet flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups all purpose flour

1 package active dry yeast

enough water to make an oatmeal-like consistency

on each day i added a cup of millet or all purpose flour and more water to keep it going.

 

on the day of baking i pulled out the crock and let it come to room temperature and then added about one cup each of all purpose, millet and whole wheat flour. and of course salt, 1 teaspoon of the camargue sea salt. (though you might want to add more, i will when i make it again.)

i set the dough aside and let it raise for two hours (or till doubled in bulk)

then again, it rose another one and a half hours, then to bake it in a half sheet pan, smeared all over liberally with duck fat. the dough was pushed in place and smeared on top with a bit more crackly and fragrant duck fat. then the seeds:

 

water trickled

2 tsp each of coriander, caraway, anise, fennel, black pepper, white pepper, and sea salt (seeds crushed in a mortar and pestle)

though these trenchers were delicious on their own, i made a chicken and spicy italian sausage stew with carrots, garlic, onions, saffron and cinnamon to dress the trenchers. the saffron and garlic sauce was a nice contrast to the crunch heartiness of the trenchers. both the sausages and the chicken came from the carrboro farmers market. 

 

winter 2009, the second levain became much more simple:

we use this in all of our classes and feed it as necessary according to use (but in any case, with 1 cup flour and 1 cup water twice a week at the minimum)

2 cups whole wheat flour

½ cup rye flour

3 cups bread flour

5 cups water

 

 

wood kindled

 

meanwhile, fiddling

 

 

 

 

 

and then, bread

cotton headed ninny muggins am i

 

as you descend to the crypt in st. sernin (toulouse) you will meet this comical creature, made of stone.  

pardon me dear readers, if you have been following me and i trailed off into the woods and left you withn nary more than a few crumbs for almost 8 weeks.

cotton headed ninny muggins is one of my favorite lines from the movie “elf” and at least got me started with this blog on skulls, their symbolism (eleone makes a significant discovery that involves a skull) and why i often feel, as a cotton headed ninny muggins must, when i get distracted. it's easy to understand the connection, isn't it?

you see, my head's been filled up with a variety of cottony "material." everything from a proposal with johnny grey, london kitchen designer, for the obama's, hampton virginia's blackbeard pirate festival and bread renactment with crown point bread's yannig tanguy, carolina on my plate teen-chefs, weeks of kid-chefs, feeding the starter, planting haricot michelet beans, harvesting butternut squash, realizing if it doesn't rain TONIGHT, i'll have to abandon my ill-conceived notion that the garden can survive on mother nature's water, cooking dinner, raising turkeys, saving little aroncona hens from racoons and possums, and i am not finished but i am out of breath.

now then, what have skulls to do with a bread apprentice? not much and everything all at once.

eleone’s murdered mother’s skull plays a role in her journey. initially you might cringe (might you?) and think (i hope!) the skull is but a simple symbol of death.

 

but yay i say unto you the skull serves as a reminder of mortality. it can also symbolize divine power. as a healer any remnant of maman was greedily sought by the father of the church, eleone’s father, and her eccentric youngest sister. just as much as any of them wanted her for their own purpose the skull has a mind of its own (sorry i couldn't resist) and harbors a secret which aids eleone on her journey.

here are links to skull symbolism and lore http://www.kolahstudio.com/Underground/?p=174

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Skull_(symbolism)

as it turns out there is an art connection, too. don't you just love it!

 

in Holbein's portrait of the Spanish Ambassadors, in the National Gallery,

London

the skull is the strange oblong shape on the floor. the distorted form is called an anamorphosis. seen from a certain angle, the shape is recognizable as a skull. the painting was made for a specific place, it was supposed to hang over a door. when you passed under it, you were forced to look at the painting from a sharp angle, and then the skull would appear as a Memento mori.

 

http://www.usm.maine.edu/eng/holbein%20ambassadors2.JPG