Farewell Provence : a cocktail in Goult

I live in Goult ,a small village in the South  of France where I work as a personal chef and I do cooking classes on demande . Last  year Erica & Irwin took a sabbatical period and came to Goult , to try how's life in the countryside and abroad at the same time ( they live in Sidney ) They stayed 9 month here and they're leaving next wednesday so they wanted to organize a cocktail to say goodbye to the friends they made here and asked me if I was available to do it : I was very pleased to accept ! Yesterday morning I went to the market in Apt for shopping : I wanted to prepare a very typical Provençal buffet for this special occasion . I found the first melons and they were simply delicious ,  abricots , lots of vegetables to serve with anchoiade and another sauce with mustard , I prepared a pissaladière , a focaccia with seeds and oregano, a cold tomatoes soup and a choice of  local goat's cheeses and some  amazing Brie . This morning I met them at the ' Café de la Poste' they were so happy for their Party yet a little bit sad for leaving...

Goult

 

Winter's vegetables jelly

Winter’s vegetables jelly as if it were summertime

Last week a friend asked me to prepare a side dish for a T-Bone steak , something very light &fresh, even if we are in the middle of winter here in the South of France …sunny days but cold ! I wanted something summerlike but with seasonal products ,this vegetables jelly surprised me ( it’s really a recipe of mine ) I cooked every vegetable apart but in the same water and at the end I had a gorgeous stock , with which  made the jelly .The result is a colored , savory  and healthy side dish .I think that even children would love it !

Ingredients for 10 servings:

300 gr of pumpkin

200 gr of mushrooms( champignons de Paris)

300 gr of leeks

400 gr of broccoli

200 gr of parsnips

400 gr of spinach

1 liter of stock

30 gr of gelatin leaves  ( or 8 gr of agar-agar )

10 gr of fresh ginger

A little bunch or coriander

Half a lemon

3 teaspoon of salt

Freshly grounded white pepper ( I used a Sarawak)

Wash very well all the vegetables then cut the pumpkin, the leeks, the mushrooms and parsnips into thin slices .In a large stock-pan pour 3 liters of water, the salt and the ginger and bring to boil  You can begin by cooking parsnips and mushrooms : put them in a basket as you see in the photo below and plunge them into the boiling water for 3 / 4 minutes , till they are soft but still crunchy. Then you can go with the pumpkin and leeks , the same way , after retiring the second basket you can pour in the spinach , wait for the stock comes up to the boil , let cook one minute and then draw out from the stock with a holey ladle; soak into cold water and drain ,to stop cooking and keep the color, make the same way  the broccoli :plunge the whole broccoli and let it cook  about 8 minutes , then soak it into cold water as the spinach and drain .

Now that you have all your vegetables ready take one liter of stock and put it in a smaller pan, taste the salt ( it must be savory ) Keep the stock warm and pour in some leaves of coriander ,the juice of half a lemon and the pepper. In the meantime dip the gelatin leaves in cold water till they’ll be smooth , then drain them , mix in the stock( if using agar-agar you’ll have to mix the powder in the stock, bring to boil for 1minute)

Now you are ready to make the last step: take a silicon mould ( a big one of about 2 liters or two smaller  , otherwise you can even do individual portion , pretty nice )

Pour a layer of stock on the bottom and let in the freezer till solid then begin to make layers of vegetables, pouring some stock on each. Play with colors!!When your mould filled pour the last layer of stock .Refrigerate at least 4 hours (agar-agar will thicken earlier about 2 hours)Before serving unmold on a serving plate. You can serve with some sauce that you like, but it must be a cold one .