8 minute read
Food and Drink - Recipes from Gascony
Some heart-warming recipes for lovers of food and romance from the heart of Gascony.
Now in her 13th year, Marlène teaches the how’s and the why’s of traditional French cooking and baking at Le Gargantua cookery school.
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Inspired by her grandmother’s recipes, she covers techniques that give lifelong cooking and baking skills from traditional rustic French cuisine to refined pastry making.
Le Gargantua Cookery School
Delicious homemade Pâté de Campagne
Pâté de Campagne
(Serves 20)
1.2kg Lean pork meat
1kg Pork throat
500g Pork liver
2 Medium onions
5 Garlic cloves
50g Dry breadcrumbs
4tbs Herbes de Provence
4 Cloves, ground
4tsp Salt
1tsp Pepper
50ml Brandy, Armagnac, Port or Dry Sherry
Crêpine (fat webbing) Pork fat, cut in strips
Preheat the oven to 220°C.
Trim and dice the meat, pass through a meat grinder. Peel and mince the onion and garlic. Sweat in a frying pan until tender, leave to cool. Mix breadcrumbs, herbs, cloves, salt and pepper together in a food processor. Thoroughly mix the seasoning and the alcohol into the meat with your hands. Check the mix by frying a small portion, it should taste slightly over-seasoned.
Line a terrine dish with fat strips then the webbing, let it fall over the edges. Pack the pâté mix into the dish and cover with the excess fat and webbing. Cover your pâté with foil, then place in a bain-marie. Bake for 40 minutes covered, then remove the foil and reduce the temp to 120°C. It will take about another 2h. Check that the temperature in the centre has reached 84°C.
A heart-warming dish of Daube de Boeuf
Daube de Boeuf (Serves 6)
1.2kg Braising Beef
2 Carrots,
chopped 200g Lardons
1/2 Stick celery, chopped
2 Onions, finely chopped
3 Garlic cloves, chopped
1 Bouquet garni (bay leaf, thyme, parsley)
1 Bottle red wine/cooking wine
1 Beef stock cube
Brown the meat in batches in a heavy pan, reserve. Sweat the lardons, add the onions, celery and carrots and leave to sweat. Add the garlic. When sweated properly, deglaze with the wine. Return the meat to the pan, add the bouquet garni and stock cube. Add water to just cover if necessary. Cover the pan, and place in the oven for 2h30 at 140°C. Check the seasoning.
Pan fried Radishes
Pan fried Radishes
1 Bunch radishes
1 Knob of butter
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper
Carefully wash the radishes, removing any earth or grit, and trim all the roots and leaves, leaving just a small stem at the top. Add a knob of butter and a drizzle of olive oil to a preheated pan. Once melted and just starting to bubble, add the radishes. Cook for 6-8 minutes depending on their size, giving the pan a little shake from time to time. Once coloured, add a little salt and pepper to taste and serve.
Apple, prunes and Armagnac, a yummy dessert
Croustade (Serves 6-8)
1.5kg Apples
85g Butter
8-12 Large prunes, without stones
2tbs Armagnac
1tsp Vanilla extract
50g Caster sugar
8 to 10 Sheets of Filo pastry
Peel, core and slice the apples. Cook on a low heat with 25g of sugar and vanilla extract, covered until the heat builds up, then uncovered to let the steam out. Move them gently on the heat until cooked but still firm. Do not let them break down.
Melt 60g of butter and leave to cool. Melt 25 g of butter with the Armagnac and 25 g of sugar. Leave to cool.
Fold the Filo sheets in half lengthways. Arrange them in a tart tin, like a sun, overlapping each other at the centre of the tin. Brush every sheet of filo with plain butter. Place the drained apples on the pastry, scatter the prunes on top. Fold the pastry over, twisting once, and crunching up the end of each sheet.
Brush the top with the butter and Armagnac mix. Bake in preheated oven (200°C) for 10-12 min, then lower the temperature to 180°C and bake for a further 20 min, or until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature, sprinkled with icing sugar.
Winter Wines from Gascony
John Gilchrist is a former UK Sommelier of the Year and winner of the Mondavi award for the best wine list in the world.
www.lescaulins.com
A rich selection of wines for Valentine’s and other occasions
A good place to start is the Gers, and a selection of wines that brings nothing but happiness at Domaine de Joÿ. All the wines here are seductive and always put a smile on your face. I really like the supersoft and silky red La Vie en Joÿ.
Juicy fruit aromas and as soft as a blanket on the palate, all finished with a tickle of acidity.
Whilst there, for Valentine’s Day, definitely pick up a bottle or two of Brut de Joÿ Rosé. A perfectly balanced floral and fresh pink fizz, with fine bubbles, sweet strawberry fruit, finished with pink grapefruit acidity. www.domaine-joy.com.
At Domaine de Pellehaut try the Harmonie de Gascony Red made from a blend of six grape varieties; Merlot, Tannat, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Pinot Noir.
Very fresh and zingy on the palate followed by sweet fruit with a hint of liquorice, it is a great red to start a meal with and perfect with meaty pâtés and terrines. www.pellehaut.com
Domaine d’Arton Croix d’Arton Reserve is the
The soft, fruity nose from Merlot, with plummy, intense notes from Cabernet and sweet, spicy pepperiness from the Syrah. www.arton.fr
John runs Les Caulins, a gîte and cookery school in SW France, with his wife (and chef) Emma.
Guest Chef
Tossens, Chef de Cuisine at Le Monastère de Saint-Mont in Gers, loves reinterpreting local products with a touch of modernity.
www. lemonasteredesaintmont.com
THE FRIED EGG
www. lemonasteredesaintmont.com
THE FRIED EGG (Serves 4)
4 Eggs
200g Wild mushrooms
4 Slices of Ventreche of the Pyrénées
50cl Red wine “Madiran Maestria”
50g Cold butter in cubes
10cl Veal broth
Salt, Pepper
1 Egg white
200g Breadcrumbs Herbs for decoration
Boil the eggs for 5.5 mins in salt water. Heat the frying pan to 170°C. Reduce the red wine to 1/3rd and add the veal broth with salt and pepper. Finish with the cold butter and leave to one side.
Bread the eggs and fry them for 1.5 mins in a frying pan. Fry the mushrooms with salt and pepper.
To serve, put the mushrooms in a hollow plate, then place the fried egg in the center. Add the Madiran sauce around, and finish by placing the slice of Ventreche and the herbs on top.
LOBSTER - MISO - GINGER, ROASTED ON AN ADOUR PEBBLE
www. lemonasteredesaintmont.com
LOBSTER - MISO - GINGER, ROASTED ON AN ADOUR PEBBLE (Serves 4)
2 Lobster (500g)
2 Courgettes, cut into fine tagliatelle
100g Brown miso
100g Yellow miso
20cl Pacherenc “Marie Maria Lutz”
10g Fresh ginger, cut very fine
5g Garlic, cut very fine
2 Pebbles from the River Adour, cleaned well
500g Salt
Pre-heat the oven to 250°C and place the two pebbles inside for at least an hour.
Boil the lobster for 3 mins in boiling salted water, and then place in ice cold water to cool.
Detach the claws and cook them for another 3 mins. Once cooled, shell the lobsters, tails and claws. Slice the tails in two lengthways.
To make the marinade, gently sweat the garlic and ginger, deglaze with the Pacherenc, and leave to cool until just warm. Add the two misos and mix well.
Refrigerate the lobsters in the marinade for an hour then drain the flesh on a small grill, retaining the liquid. Reduce the marinade to a syrupy consistency, reserve and adjust seasoning.
Cook the courgette tagliatelle in boiling water for about 1.5 mins.
To serve place the coarse salt in a gratin dish, place the hot pebble on top and, at the table, finish cooking the lobster meat on the pebble, then add the tagliatelle. Enjoy with the sauce.
The Monastère boutique hotel welcomes you in its 11 rooms, The Spa, the tapas bar, and the gastronomic restaurant. www. lemonasteredesaintmont.com
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