UN REPAS BERRICHON

Un Repas Berrichon with Veronique and Marie-Claire

I have partaken many meals in France but it never ceases to amaze me how long they can take.  Most
memorable, perhaps, was my first date with Jane for Sunday lunch in Le Havre that took a delicious four and a half hours.  There have also been weddings that have gone past midnight before the main course is served and Sunday lunches that go on into the evening.  But somehow, it is always a surprise!

For our second weekend in Veaugues we decided to meet the locals and bought some tickets for “Un Repas Berrichon” arranged by the local soccer club in the Salle De Fêtes (Village Hall).  Aurelie at the local epicerie said we would be most welcome but the Berrichon or inhabitants of central France have a reputation, even amongst the French, of not being particularly friendly, so how would they take to a couple of étrangers?

April 2013 day in the centre of Veaugues

The evening was due to start at 7.30pm but we were running a little ate and arrived at 7.40pm to find ourselves amongst the first there.  All the other guests appeared much younger than ourselves and were obviously players or their mates.  It was one of those occasions when start taking a greater than normal interest in all the posters around the hall and begin planning an escape route!  Luckily a local journalist, who was planning to cover the event and take a few photos, was on hand and quite friendly.  However, she left after about an hour frustrated that nothing was happening.

Meanwhile Harley was at home enjoying a warm fire

A Veaugues Sancerre

The bar had now opened and so I went up to it and requested a couple of verres de Sancerre blanc which I received and which we downed quite quickly.  By this time more people were arriving and Jacky the football club coach introduced himself and his wife Veronique the local potter.  Gradually we met a few more people including Marie-Claire the mother of a vigneron from a neighbouring village, and suddenly the escape plans were abandoned.   A bottle of Sancerre later and the cries went up “à table” and at about 9.30pm were finally sat down with Marie-Claire insisting that we sat with her group who were still arriving.

The first course was an amazing buffet of French charcuterie served in according to your date of birth.  Luckily for me, April was first up.  Following on from my first blog and the French love for bread, it would appear that at least part of this obsession is due to the phallic shape of the baguette.  Every time a baguette arrived at or table, the cry went up “Oh my god!”, commenting on its size.

The next course was a real Berrichon speciality, a Pâté aux Patates or a potato pie as we would call it in
England.   I have had this a few times before and really love it – a great comfort food.  A recipe is appended below.

A few more bottles of Sancerre later at 1.00am the cheese course was served.  Finally, at 1.30pm the dessert!   In between had been some dancing which proved fun and still possible despite my knee operations.

The evening proved that the Berrichon are not as unfriendly as they are made out to be, at least as long as you don’t come from Paris!   Marie-Claire even invited us to her birthday party the following Thursday, which we felt very honoured as newcomers to attend.

Jane and the dogs admiring the Terra pate pottery of Veronique

The following day we visited Charité sur Loire, which is a beautiful town, to see Veronique exhibit some her Terra Pate pottery.  A great second weekend “En Veaugues”.

Jane with Pate aux Patates

RECIPE OF THE MONTH - Pâté aux Patates

To make a passable replica of what we ate in our Veaugues Repas Berrichon, try the following recipe:

Ingredients:
1.25 kg of potatoes (maybe more or less depending on the size of your dish)
1 medium onion (or 3 cloves of garlic if your prefer)
2 slices of cooked ham (or bacon)
Ready made puff pastry sufficient for making a top and bottom for you chosen pie dish (probably two sheets)
Fresh flat leaf parsley
Salt and pepper
50cl creme fraiche (plus more to serve if desired)
50g butter
1 egg yolk (or milk if you have no eggs)

Peel, wash and dry thoroughly and then very finely slice (best done using a mandolin) the potatoes.

Peel and very finely slice and chop the onion.

Cut the ham into small pieces.

Roll half the puff pastry into your greased non-stick pie tin.

Add a layer of potatoes and then some of the onions.

Season with salt and pepper and then add some ham and parsley.

Add a little of the crème fraiche and butter.

Repeat a few more times to create layers that eventually are higher than the tin.

Add the other half of the puff pastry.

Brush the top of the puff pastry with the egg yolk.

Cook in an oven preheated to 180c for 45 minutes to one hour until the pastry is a golden brown and the potaoes inside are cooked but still firm (you may need to turn the oven up or down if the pastry and potatoes are not cooking evenly)

Serve warm with a dressed green salad and perhaps a little more crème fraiche. Delicious!

WINE OF THE MONTH

As many in the Salle de Fêtes were drinking rosé wines, I have decided to pick one of my favourite Sancerre rosés by Andre Dezat.  We tried and bought it at the Domaine whilst there this month.  The 2012 is different to the 2011 that I had been drinking for some months in restaurants in Bourges.  Perhaps it has more of a cherry kick.  Drink quickly once chilled and opened – not normally an issue.  Very good value at about €8 from the producer and like all Sancerre rosés made with 100%  Pinot Noir.

Andre Dezat is a producer in Verdigny which is another of the fourteen communes that grow and produce Sancerre and comes alphabetically just after Veaugues.   They also make red pinot Noir wines and excellent Sauvignon Blanc whites. 

April 2013 Vineyards near Verdigny

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

French Village Life

The French are still slightly more religious than the heathen English and the part of the Lord’s Prayer they take the most seriously is “Give us this day our daily bread”.  The boulangerie is still an essential part of daily life that most families visit most days of the week.  It is even one of the few institutions other than the Church open on a Sunday.

In fact it was on a Sunday that I made my first visit to La Mie Dorée (roughly translated as the golden

Religieuse au cafe from La Mie Doree

crumb), 5 Route Sancerre in Veaugues.  An artisan boulangerie it is a delightful little place that makes and serves beautiful bread, croissants and a small selection of cakes.  As I am convinced that a good boulangerie in walking distance must put the price of your house up in France I intend to frequent it whenever I am I am there. There is a duty, I think, for owners of résidences secondaires to support local businesses as much as possible otherwise they kill off the village life that attracted them there in the first place.

What I like most about France is its difference to England.  Vive la difference as the English say much more often than the French!   Perhaps one of the most striking differences is the French love of good crusty bread whilst us English eat those horrible soggy triangles called sandwiches.  Every meal in France is accompanied by bread, most commonly by the ubiquitous baguette.  About three quarters of all bread sold in France is the baguette.

Although I travel in France a lot, I rarely get to eat a good baguette – too many hotels and restaurants have gone over to serving sub-standard petit pains or poor imitations of baguettes.  Thus it was essential when finding a residence secondaire in France that it was near a good boulangerie.  Don’t expect to get a good baguette in a supermarket either.  One has to go through the formality of talking to the boulanger before getting a good baguette; it cannot be obtained through just impersonally grabbing one off the shelves.  Everything in France requires time, patience and politeness!

  An Excellent Boulangerie in Veaugues

Talking about patience, I was rather hoping to find a queue in the boulangerie to remind myself of the etiquette of visiting a small shop.  Although us English seem for some reason to believe that the French hate queuing in fact they prove themselves more than capable of it in a boulangerie.  My hope of a queue this March Sunday was not disappointed and as I entered I rather timidly announced "Bonjour messieurs, mesdames!"  I then had time to look around and decide what I wanted and listen to other shoppers.  Not that I understood much except that it was the usual village tittle-tattle.  Soon I was able in my best French accent to try out “Bonjour Madame, je voudrais un baguette s’il vous plait”, which I had been practising in my head the last five minutes.

Having amazingly been understood, I then returned home practising my well-practised trick of looking

Jane and I "En Veaugues"

French by chewing the end of my baguette.   Surprisingly, the baguette isn’t really a French invention at all but was imported from Vienna along with the Croissant and many items of viennoiserie.  However like the curry in England it has been absorbed into the popular culture. The baguette apparently became popular in France as it doesn’t take too long to make and bake and thus the Boulanger can stay in bed longer in the morning!

Never has anything required the label “Don’t try this at home” more than the baguette.  It just doesn’t work unless you have some amazing steam oven.  Otherwise you end up with a less than crunchy crust and a soggy middle without the required honeycombing.  Although you can’t bake a good baguette at home there are many other breads worth trying such as the one below for Beetroot Bread or Pain aux Betteraves.

Recipe of the month

I am a lover of beetroot and it is a great accompaniment to goats cheese and thus the wines of Sancerre.  Recently, I tried to make a bread made with raw beetroot and used our Thermomix to make it.  It turned out really great and I really suggest you try it if you like great artisan type bread with a real earthy taste.

My Beetroot Bread

The original recipe for Beetroot Bread that I roughly followed can be found at http://taste-for-adventure.tablespoon.com/2011/03/01/beet-bread/ .Well done to girlversusdough for this recipe.   Jane who helped me convert the recipe to the Thermomix has also blogged this bread.  Her blog can be found at http://www.whyisthereair.com/2013/03/03/pink-and-earthy-beetroot-bread/

Slices of Beetroot Bread

No need for me to repeat the recipe here – really easy even for an amateur bread-maker like myself and very different.  Do try either of these recipes.

Wine of the month

We were fortunate during the handover of our new second home in Veaugues to be introduced to a new vigneron that we had not encountered before.  The previous owner of our home had taken part in the harvest of their grapes for the past few years and they were very kindly driving him down to his new home near Valence in the Rhone Valley.  However, we all got together the previous day at the Domaine Des Caves Du Prieuré where we met Gilles Guillerault and Sébastien Fargette and tasted their wines for the first but certainly not the last time.

I was particularly taken by two of their wines:

Les Panseillots Blanc 2011 – A Sancerre AOC white wine made with 100% Sauvignon Blanc, its character comes from the fact that it is made 50% from grapes grown on 50% caillottes and 50% terre blanche and is left to ferment on its lees.  Although, you still get the fruit it has a great minerality coming from these argilo-calcaire soils.  A lovely wine for fish, shell fish and cheese including the local chèvre.  It  costs around €8 from the domaine.

Les Marnes 2006 – A Sancerre AOC red wine made from 100% Pinot Noir, this wine has been matured in oak for 12 months.  Les Marnes has a lovely fruity acidity balanced with the oak and makes a good food wine.  We enjoyed it later with some paté and some roast chicken but it would also accompany game and steak with a sauce.   It costs a little under €11 from the domaine.

As well as the tasting we had a nice tour of their winery and caves.

Very nice people and very nice wine.  Do visit them at:

Domaine Des Caves Du Prieuré
2, rue du Lavoir
Reigny
Crezancy en Sancerre
18300

They have some Chambre D’Hôtes to stay in should you wish to stay nearby.  There website is http://cavesduprieure.canalblog.com

Sébastien told me that one of their white wines is available at Costco, so look out for it there if you can’t make it to Reigny.

Until the next time in Veaugues.  Á bientôt!