June in Provence

I love June  : summer's coming , cherry trees charged with  rich and juicy fruits  , the first shiny lavender flowers and the last poppies dance together in wind.....
That's what you will see if you're coming on holidays in this period of the  year .Sweet life in Provence .

A simple lunch under the pergola

Sweet life in Provence III & a Rhubarb & Cherries crumble

What I do really like here in Provence is that people take the time for living . So , you don't need to wait for the Weekend to be invited somewhere or to invite someone .It was just a thursday like any other and our neighbours invited us for lunch : a magnificent steak was cooking on the barbeque when we arrived ,about 4lb of meat for three .

It was a wonderful day and the view from their terrace looking towards the Luberon  and onto the village is great.

So we had tomatoes  and peppers with the steak , then came cheese. Time flewed sweetly ,eating & chatting .

I brought the dessert , a simple crumble with rhubarb and cherries . I made it very light , less butter and a small amount of sugar . Using rice and spelt flour instead of wheat ( I don't know why but wheat flour makes crumble rather heavy to digest for me ) and I used a special pepper to give a spicy touch .

Rhubarb & Cherries Crumble

For 6 servings

100 gr of rhubarb

350 gr of cherries

100 gr of spelt flour

50 gr of rice flour

a pinch of salt

75 gr of cane sugar

70 gr of butter diced

a pinch of black pepper freshly grounded ( I used a wild pepper from Madagascar called Voatsiperifery )

20 gr of flaked almonds

Preheat the oven at 180° or 375 F , butter a 20/22 cm baking dish ,or six single ones as I did and set aside. Wash the rhubarb and the cherries ,trim the top and the ends of the rhubarb and cut diagonally into 2 cm lenghts. Remove the stems and kernels from cherries . Sprinkle 1and 1/2  teaspoon of sugar on the dish ( or 1/4 on each if making individual portions) , spread the fruits evenly .

To make the crumble topping put the flours ,the salt and the butter in a bowl , rub the butter till the mixture seems like breadcrunch , stir in sugar , pepper and almonds . Sprinkle the crumble over the rhubarb and cherries , bake for about 25/30 minutes until the topping is golden brown .

You can eat it warm but I like it even cold . 

Cherries & Wine Spritzer

Cherries in Provence are simply wonderful ! Now we have the first ones , called " Burlat" : someone offered me a bag of them and as cherries don't last more then two or three days I thought to make some jam . So I rattled them off and put in a jar with sugar, a vanilla bean and left overnight : in this way the sugar makes a sort of "cold cooking" ,then I cook the syrup till almost caramelized and at the point I add the friuts and finish to cook . The jam in this way keeps all the flavour and taste of fresh fruits ,and the color also. Well.....while the cherries where waiting in the jar my partner began to taste them and he found that they were very very good .Then he put some cherries and syrup in a glass , added some rosé wine and ice cubes .....can you imagine the end? We finished half the cherries in one day . Simply addicting . It's the  drink  for June's parties !!

Camargue/Aigues-Mortes and the 'Bac de Sauvage'

Last Weekend my son came from Italy with a friend and we went back to Aigues-Mortes : I wanted to take him to Papy-Moise for a nice lunch . We arrived very late because of an heavy traffic on the roads but the owners where so happy to see us that they served us an amazing lunch . I felt so hungry that I totally forgot to take some photos , next time...

My son

  Rue de la Republique , Hotel "Le Templiers"

 

Then when you leave Aigues-Mortes towards St.Marie de la Mére  at a certain moment there's a small road on the right  with a signal '  Le bac du Sauvage' : a tiny country road that leads to a small restaurant . Then there's the river and a boat that transports you to the other side for free . Last year we arrived at noon so we stopped and had lunch : fresh fish and a wonderful "crème brulée'" , I can stil remember.

Now we just had a coffee or a glass of wine while waiting the boat .

Having coffee

Pretty 70 ths

Waiting for the boat

We do love this place ,it's magical ....far from the madly crowd ,authenthic . A little corner of Paradise .

Quails & Wild Asparagus and a new contest

Wild Asparagus

Italian version below

This month I'll participate at some contests in Italy ( that's why sometimes I write in my original language ) : one of these is about "Quails and Asparagus" , two ingredients not so easy to mix ...I was looking for some inspiration . I  could have a risotto , not very original yet even if very very good . Better source to " find " recipes for me is "Mother Nature" so....we went for a walk in the countryside .

April is an amazing month if you love to eat wild  and here in Provence nature is generous ! After two hours of searching we came home with a basket full of  a variety of herbs and flower too. And we found a bunch of wild asparagus.

I thought that wild ones would match better than cultivated  ones with quails , their taste is subtile pretty bitter but not too much....I had my recipe ! And not to forget my venitian origins.....some rice but in a different way .

Quails & Wild Asparagus with Black Rice

For two servings:

2 quails

a bunch of wild asparagus

a bunch of Lupulus and Silene

1 little onion with leaves

100 gr of black rice

20 gr of claryfied butter

15 gr of cold butter

"fleur de sel de Guerande"

1 and 1/2 liter of water

Humulus Lupulus

The edible part of Lupulus

Silene

Roast gently the quails with 10 gr of claryfied butter and a pinch of salt for about one hour ( very slowly ). Cut the onion in four pieces and let it fry gently in the pan of quails till lightly golden. Keep aside.

In the meantime put to boil the water with 1 csp of salt , wash the asparagus and the other herbs separately , add the Humulus and Silene , let cook 3 minutes then drain it with a holed-laddle . Add now the asparagus and let cook till tender but firm still , drain the same way and keep the broth : reserve a cup ot it in a tiny saucepan.

Now put the rice and the leaves of the onion  into the broth ,it will take 1/2 an hour to cook "al dente" , cut the tails of asparagus and simmer into the reserved broth till half consumed as it will be the "sauce " for asparagus .

Once cooked the quails cut the legs and the breasts for a better presentations . Set aside .

Now you are ready to combine the dish ( not so simple really)

Drain the rice( keep some broth)  and finish to cook it in the pan of quails ( it 'll give a good taste) add also the herbs finely chopped , mix well .

Put the pieces of quails to warm with a bit of claryfied butter , filter the reducion of asparagus , bring to boil and add 15 gr of  cold butter  while whisking .

Make a circle of rice on the dish with a cutting-round ,press well to fix it. Put the pieces of quails and onion on the top ,the asparagus aside, pour the warm sauce onto the asparagus and serve.

Con questa ricetta partecipo al contest La sfida del 2  con lo chef  2 étoiles Claudio Sadler e Wonderbox 

Versione Italiana

Quaglie con asparagi selvatici 

Nella mia biblioteca culinaria ci son due libri di Claudio Sadler , dunque quando ho visto questo contest mi son detta : partecipo ! E subito dopo ....ma che fai ? Sei impazzita ? Si , evidentemente.

Per giorni mi son arrovellata a cercare una ricetta ...asparagi e quaglie non é facile , non saprei spiegare perché :questione d'istinto. Finalmente ieri son andata a passeggiare in un bosco di querce qui vicino ,in cerca d'ispirazione . Ed ecco spuntare qui e là .....asparagi !!! Selvatici . Una rivelazione . Quel gusto sottile ,quasi evanescente e leggermente amarognolo : immaginavo le quaglie sgambettare tra le erbe.....un mariage parfait !Nella mia ricerca ho trovato anche dei germogli di luppolo e un po di silene . What else?

Poi , per non smentire le mie origini veneziane , una base di riso . Il risotto era un'idea possibile ma scontata .

Mi ritrovo con una ricetta basata su pochi ingredienti ma complicata nell'esecuzione .Portate pazienza .

Sweet life in Provence part 2