One of the great advantages of holidaying with such a well travelled bunch of people is the diverse cuisine that they bring to the vacation. Today was to be a day to enjoy the cooking skills of Diarra and Thai for breakfast and dinner respectively.
Diarra’s dish was Salt Fish and Bake. Salted cod which had been brought from home was soaked to remove most of the salt was stewed with onions, garlic, peppers and shallots to produce a very tasty mix.
To this was added hard boiled eggs to make the dish complete.
Alongside the stew was served a fried bread roll again made from first principles by Diarra. Firstly the dough was mixed and kneaded.
After allowing it to rise for about an hour, it was made into small balls.
These were then fried off in a pan of vegetable fat to make a doughnut type bread – absolutely delicious!
The final dish both looked and tasted terrific.
The breads were great both with the salt fish and with jam or marmalade – a real success.
After such a hearty breakfast, no lunch was necessary so Sylvia and I accompanied by Helena and Diarra decided on a visit to a cheese museum at Camembert.
After the customary photo stop at the village sign we had a walk around the exhibition which included the history of the cheese, a brief guide to the manufacturing process and a display of cheese labels. [By the way what do you call a collector of cheese labels? – answer below]
After a walk around a taste of the cheese was called for because as the famous French gastronome Brillat-Savarin once said “ A meal without cheese is like a beautiful woman with only one eye”. We sampled both the pasteurised and raw milk versions, the latter being very much stronger than the first.
We returned to the cottages to find preparation for Thai’s evening meal already in progress. Tonight's supper was to be Ginger & Shallot Crabs served with noodles.
The crabs above provided the sauce while the meat came from the crab legs being washed here by Thai.
These were stir fried with a combination of shallots, ginger and onion again a wonderful combination. Unfortunately noodles were not obtainable in any of the three supermarkets visited by Thai and Briony so were replaced by spaghetti, but this did not detract from the superb flavours.
And judging from the piles of shells at the end it was enjoyed by all.
These were just from Naomi!!!! A great day for food lovers in France.
A collector of cheese labels is a TYROSEMIOPHILE, did anyone get it.
No comments:
Post a Comment