Monday, 28 July 2014
Busy again today in our Salon de The in Fontevraud l'abbaye and everyone seemed to love the food and leave excellent tips so that is good.
Folks
keep coming in wanting to buy cotton peaked hats/caps.. My son Jay just kindly sold one of his Lee Cooper caps to a young South
American woman. I thought that it would be too matcho for her, but she
seemed made up with it! We sold it for 10 euros so obviously we would
not want to pay a lot for the caps in the first place but clearly we need to be looking out for them as I swear over the past month or so lots of tourists have come in looking to buy hats!! I thought about
ordering some plain ones on line and then richly embroidering the name
Fontevraud l'abbaye on the tip in royal colours such as gold or cobalt blue, but
not sure whether I am up to that on the sewing front...I used to do lots of embroidering when our son was young such as embroidering his little smocks etc, but haven't done it for years..
The song Whiskey Bar by the Doors just came on the radio (from the local radio station broadcast from Saumur) with its lines of needing to go to a great Whiskey Bar and then he goes on to say he needs to find a Little Girl or else he will die. I wondered if those lines would be permitted or considered appropriate at all in the UK now that all of this scandal has come out about the 70s and 80s and the inappropriate behaviour of certain celebs such as Rolf Harris towards young people.and how our very perceptions of those times - our times have changed....I went onto YTube and discovered that although the song is performed and presented on line, that particular verse about needing to find a little girl is now omitted. It is also known as The Alabama Song. Then I discovered that the song was actually based on a poem by Bertolt Brecht, written in 1925 and in 1928 was set to music by Kurt Weill. Interesting contexts for the presentation of the song anyway from post first world war Germany to the pop cultural times of the 60s and the door and also David Bowie who also performed the song...What I do find interesting is how context is all and how once we might have accepted something as it is stated in its pure state, but when it is coloured by certain events we no longer find it per se..or do we? Actually I often find that some of the American and British tunes come on to the radio here in France and I think whey hey could I hear this in the UK without some kind of censorship? Often the songs are full of expletives and controversial lyrics that probably would not be broadcast in the UK at the present time. I suppose this is France and not everyone who plays the lists or listens to the radio necessarily understand those lyrics or the context... I have heard some people say well hang on a minute things were different in the 70s and 80 or even the 20s and 30s..but were they really?
When I was young girl growing up in the 60/70s it was all quite strict really and not that I condone that but I sometimes wonder who really benefited from the so called 'swinging sixties'? Perhaps I was too young at the time for most of it I was at Primary school, but even in 70s when I was at college in Maidstone in Kent with an arts college connected to my own alma mata of technology I am not so sure that I felt that free...I was always conscious of friends who 'got pregnant' or those who actually were clearly being abused and taken advantage of under the guise of drink and drugs. I think that maybe I felt more sexually inhibited by the 70s then I would have done at any other time in history and I speak from a point of view of someone who has always enjoyed sex. Of course there was 'the pill', but in a way it was a double edged sword I think that made our boy friends think that we could be freer then perhaps we ever wanted to be. Of course in 1970 I had read the Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer, but I am not sure that I then understood it fully I just knew that I was myself and I did not want to be 'taken for a ride'. I had always had this image of the girl on the bike in the village and how it was said that either behind the bike shed or on her travels she was taken advantage of in a way I never wanted to be. My sympathies in fact were always with her, and not the boys who took advantage of her. I recall being on the swings at one point in the part outside my house in Dunton Green with a girl called Jasmine who told me that unlike myself she had had 'more boyfriends then hot dinners' and then she went on to get pregnant at 15 and had a child and I was grateful in fact that I was not the one with the myriad of boyfriends. In fact it was not for want of trying and I did have lots of offers, but in retrospect I am happy that I was as I was and not how Jasmine was. Maybe today she is happier then I have ever been, but I just did not want to go down that road.
Must dash now as I need to order a Fridge Freezer whilst the sales are still on as we urgently need one. We've gone without one for a year now and really it has been tricky. It's amazing what you can do without however when you have to. Of course we do have two fridges so that has helped, but have not been able to serve ice cream.
Bye or now T. xx
Haven't heard from the Maire about our roof, but am hopeful that we might get some assistance from the commune. Of course others in the past had said that the commune does give grants for this kind of work, but until Regine our Maire came round and said that the commune might be able to help I just had not thought of this. I think that it might 50%, but imagine how that would help us!
The song Whiskey Bar by the Doors just came on the radio (from the local radio station broadcast from Saumur) with its lines of needing to go to a great Whiskey Bar and then he goes on to say he needs to find a Little Girl or else he will die. I wondered if those lines would be permitted or considered appropriate at all in the UK now that all of this scandal has come out about the 70s and 80s and the inappropriate behaviour of certain celebs such as Rolf Harris towards young people.and how our very perceptions of those times - our times have changed....I went onto YTube and discovered that although the song is performed and presented on line, that particular verse about needing to find a little girl is now omitted. It is also known as The Alabama Song. Then I discovered that the song was actually based on a poem by Bertolt Brecht, written in 1925 and in 1928 was set to music by Kurt Weill. Interesting contexts for the presentation of the song anyway from post first world war Germany to the pop cultural times of the 60s and the door and also David Bowie who also performed the song...What I do find interesting is how context is all and how once we might have accepted something as it is stated in its pure state, but when it is coloured by certain events we no longer find it per se..or do we? Actually I often find that some of the American and British tunes come on to the radio here in France and I think whey hey could I hear this in the UK without some kind of censorship? Often the songs are full of expletives and controversial lyrics that probably would not be broadcast in the UK at the present time. I suppose this is France and not everyone who plays the lists or listens to the radio necessarily understand those lyrics or the context... I have heard some people say well hang on a minute things were different in the 70s and 80 or even the 20s and 30s..but were they really?
When I was young girl growing up in the 60/70s it was all quite strict really and not that I condone that but I sometimes wonder who really benefited from the so called 'swinging sixties'? Perhaps I was too young at the time for most of it I was at Primary school, but even in 70s when I was at college in Maidstone in Kent with an arts college connected to my own alma mata of technology I am not so sure that I felt that free...I was always conscious of friends who 'got pregnant' or those who actually were clearly being abused and taken advantage of under the guise of drink and drugs. I think that maybe I felt more sexually inhibited by the 70s then I would have done at any other time in history and I speak from a point of view of someone who has always enjoyed sex. Of course there was 'the pill', but in a way it was a double edged sword I think that made our boy friends think that we could be freer then perhaps we ever wanted to be. Of course in 1970 I had read the Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer, but I am not sure that I then understood it fully I just knew that I was myself and I did not want to be 'taken for a ride'. I had always had this image of the girl on the bike in the village and how it was said that either behind the bike shed or on her travels she was taken advantage of in a way I never wanted to be. My sympathies in fact were always with her, and not the boys who took advantage of her. I recall being on the swings at one point in the part outside my house in Dunton Green with a girl called Jasmine who told me that unlike myself she had had 'more boyfriends then hot dinners' and then she went on to get pregnant at 15 and had a child and I was grateful in fact that I was not the one with the myriad of boyfriends. In fact it was not for want of trying and I did have lots of offers, but in retrospect I am happy that I was as I was and not how Jasmine was. Maybe today she is happier then I have ever been, but I just did not want to go down that road.
Must dash now as I need to order a Fridge Freezer whilst the sales are still on as we urgently need one. We've gone without one for a year now and really it has been tricky. It's amazing what you can do without however when you have to. Of course we do have two fridges so that has helped, but have not been able to serve ice cream.
Where have all the tourists gone?
Where have all the tourists gone...?
After a busy weekend at Chez Teresa/A Taste d'Angleterre (well it is July) from enchanting Chinese children who especially loved our Knickerbocker Glories which we make with fresh fruit, whipped cream and home made vanilla ice cream - to a French couple who loved our fresh berry smoothies so much so that they had two each. to a large Spanish family - to a trio of elderly French ladies who enjoyed a late late lunch at 7:00 pm yesterday evening we were content. Today being a Monday (we are usually quite busy on a Monday) by contrast has left us twiddling our thumbs and wondering why we have only had one customer in for lunch. On Saturday we were full to capacity and yesterday we had a steady stream of customers, so why today should be any different we cannot fathom. It has rained a little this afternoon in the Loire so maybe that had something to do with it.....There do seem to be a few tourists about, though not that many...obviously the ones that are simply are not into what we have on offer today. Perhaps folks will come in for a late lunches and afternoon teas as the afternoon rolls on.
We did just have a lady in who asked to see our quiches which are so clearly created by us and yet she still asked if they were 'fait maison' she then proceeded not to want any anyway as we generally receive excellent feedback about our quiches we are not too perturbed. Why is it that on days when we are not busy we seem to get through our doors the oddest of people wanting to eat things we do not serve, or people asking for directions to the post office (three different people have asked today) or another restaurant?
On the what we do not tend to serve front, the other day we had a couple of young ladies popping their heads round the door asking what cakes we had so I proceeded to tell them that we had Chocolat au fondant, Tarte au citron, Tarte au chocolat, Gâteau aux carottes a la américaine, apple crumble, Queen Victoria Sandwich (which we describe as Le Gateau de préférence de la reine Victoria), Scones (I showed them some that I had just freshly baked), and cup cakes. One of them then asked for croissants which although we occasionally serve these for breakfasts (in the main we serve freshly baked scones with cream and home made jam), we do not generally serve them as I do the baking and croissants are not one of my spécialités. Plus the boulangerie across the road make such good ones that why should I seek to relicate.. We are after all A Taste d'Angleterre and yes I know we do serve some French inspired patisserie, but in the main we are about offering the visitor something a little different so even our french inspired chocolate gateau have our own spin on them so to speak...I anyway and much to my chagrin sent them off to the aforementioned boulangerie...
I sometimes think that we ought to take out shares with our local office de tourisme for all the directions we give out....
I am feeling in a Greek mood at the moment....so much so that I found myself buying a large piece of organic feta cheese earlier today, plus some fresh spinach and even some vine leaves that I proceeded to fill with a savory rice. With the feta and the spinach today's quiche is Quiche aux épinards with feta et un soupçon de noix de muscade, otherwise known as nutmeg.
Usually I make my own pastry..and of late with my son recently having been diagnosed with diabetes 2 I've been making it with semi-complet or complet farine de blé (so half-wholemeal/wholemeal). Today however I used for the base for our Quiche du Jour a packet of puff pastry (Pâte feuilletée). It turned out if a little rustic looking, rather well.
Method and ingredients for today's Quiche du Jour:-
Line a deep quiche tin with the pastry and pre-bake until a light golden brown and puffy.
In a basin whisk a small pack of whole cream, a cup of whole milk, 8 free range eggs and throw in a couple of handfuls of some thoroughly washed baby spinach. Beat the mixture with a fork and season with black pepper then crumble in 3/4 block of 200g of organic/bio Feta Cheese and 1 tablespoon of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Add to the pastry case and grate some nutmeg on the top. I am not quite why it is that nutmeg works so well in a spinach quiche, but it just does.
Bake in a pre-heated over at 180c for around 40 - 45 minutes or until firm to the touch.
Serve with a crisp green salad with a lemony dressing made with 2 tbs of freshly squeezed lemon juice, a tsp of Dijon mustard, 4 tbs of olive oil and 1/2 tsp of sea salt. Here in France one of the best sea salts available is the traditional French fleur de sel viz le Guérande. The latter are often sold in little cloth bags which makes the salt even more special I think.
After a busy weekend at Chez Teresa/A Taste d'Angleterre (well it is July) from enchanting Chinese children who especially loved our Knickerbocker Glories which we make with fresh fruit, whipped cream and home made vanilla ice cream - to a French couple who loved our fresh berry smoothies so much so that they had two each. to a large Spanish family - to a trio of elderly French ladies who enjoyed a late late lunch at 7:00 pm yesterday evening we were content. Today being a Monday (we are usually quite busy on a Monday) by contrast has left us twiddling our thumbs and wondering why we have only had one customer in for lunch. On Saturday we were full to capacity and yesterday we had a steady stream of customers, so why today should be any different we cannot fathom. It has rained a little this afternoon in the Loire so maybe that had something to do with it.....There do seem to be a few tourists about, though not that many...obviously the ones that are simply are not into what we have on offer today. Perhaps folks will come in for a late lunches and afternoon teas as the afternoon rolls on.
We did just have a lady in who asked to see our quiches which are so clearly created by us and yet she still asked if they were 'fait maison' she then proceeded not to want any anyway as we generally receive excellent feedback about our quiches we are not too perturbed. Why is it that on days when we are not busy we seem to get through our doors the oddest of people wanting to eat things we do not serve, or people asking for directions to the post office (three different people have asked today) or another restaurant?
On the what we do not tend to serve front, the other day we had a couple of young ladies popping their heads round the door asking what cakes we had so I proceeded to tell them that we had Chocolat au fondant, Tarte au citron, Tarte au chocolat, Gâteau aux carottes a la américaine, apple crumble, Queen Victoria Sandwich (which we describe as Le Gateau de préférence de la reine Victoria), Scones (I showed them some that I had just freshly baked), and cup cakes. One of them then asked for croissants which although we occasionally serve these for breakfasts (in the main we serve freshly baked scones with cream and home made jam), we do not generally serve them as I do the baking and croissants are not one of my spécialités. Plus the boulangerie across the road make such good ones that why should I seek to relicate.. We are after all A Taste d'Angleterre and yes I know we do serve some French inspired patisserie, but in the main we are about offering the visitor something a little different so even our french inspired chocolate gateau have our own spin on them so to speak...I anyway and much to my chagrin sent them off to the aforementioned boulangerie...
I sometimes think that we ought to take out shares with our local office de tourisme for all the directions we give out....
I am feeling in a Greek mood at the moment....so much so that I found myself buying a large piece of organic feta cheese earlier today, plus some fresh spinach and even some vine leaves that I proceeded to fill with a savory rice. With the feta and the spinach today's quiche is Quiche aux épinards with feta et un soupçon de noix de muscade, otherwise known as nutmeg.
Usually I make my own pastry..and of late with my son recently having been diagnosed with diabetes 2 I've been making it with semi-complet or complet farine de blé (so half-wholemeal/wholemeal). Today however I used for the base for our Quiche du Jour a packet of puff pastry (Pâte feuilletée). It turned out if a little rustic looking, rather well.
Method and ingredients for today's Quiche du Jour:-
Line a deep quiche tin with the pastry and pre-bake until a light golden brown and puffy.
In a basin whisk a small pack of whole cream, a cup of whole milk, 8 free range eggs and throw in a couple of handfuls of some thoroughly washed baby spinach. Beat the mixture with a fork and season with black pepper then crumble in 3/4 block of 200g of organic/bio Feta Cheese and 1 tablespoon of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Add to the pastry case and grate some nutmeg on the top. I am not quite why it is that nutmeg works so well in a spinach quiche, but it just does.
Bake in a pre-heated over at 180c for around 40 - 45 minutes or until firm to the touch.
Serve with a crisp green salad with a lemony dressing made with 2 tbs of freshly squeezed lemon juice, a tsp of Dijon mustard, 4 tbs of olive oil and 1/2 tsp of sea salt. Here in France one of the best sea salts available is the traditional French fleur de sel viz le Guérande. The latter are often sold in little cloth bags which makes the salt even more special I think.
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
Thoughts and reports..
Busy again today and everyone seemed to love the food in a Salon de the and left excellent tips so that is good. Plat du jour was Onion Tarte and Lasagne a la vegetarian.
Folks
keep coming in wanting to buy cotton baseball caps so we are now on the look out for t these. My son Jay just kindly sold one of his Lee Cooper caps to a young South
American woman. I thought that it would be too matcho for her, but she
seemed made up with it! We sold it for 10 euros so obviously we would
not want to pay a lot for the baseball hats in the first place. I thought about
ordering some plain ones on line and then richly embroidering the name
Fontevraud on the tip in royal colours such as gold or cobalt blue, but
not sure whether I am up to that on the sewing front...
The song Whiskey Bar by the Doors just came on the radio (from the local radio station broadcast from Saumur, Loire Valley) with its lines of needing to go to a great Whiskey Bar or he will die, and then he goes on to say he needs to find a Little Girl or else he will die. Hello? I wondered if those lines would be permitted or considered appropriate at all in the UK now that all of this scandal has come out about the 70s and 80s and the inappropriate behaviour of certain celebs such as Rolf Harris towards young people.and how our very perceptions of those times - our times have changed....I went onto YTube and discovered that although the song is performed and presented on line, that particular verse about needing to find a little girl is now omitted. It is also known as The Alabama Song. Then I discovered that the song was actually based on a poem by Bertolt Brecht, written in 1925 and in 1928 was set to music by Kurt Weill. Interesting contexts for the presentation of the song anyway from post first world war Germany to the pop cultural times of the 60s and the wonderful Doors and also David Bowie who also performed the song...What I do find interesting is how context is all and how once we might have accepted something as it is stated in its pure state, but when it is coloured by certain events we no longer find it per se..or do we? Actually I often find that some of the American and British tunes that come on to the radio here in France I think whey hey could I hear this in the UK without some kind of censorship? The songs of Lilly Allen are a case in point. Often the songs are full of expletives and controversial lyrics that probably would not be broadcast in the UK at the present time. I suppose this is France and not everyone who plays the lists or listens to the radio necessarily understand those lyrics or the context... I have heard some people say well hang on a minute things were different in the 70s and 80 or even the 20s and 30s..but were they really?
When I was a young girl growing up in the 60/70s it was all quite strict really and not that I condone that but I sometimes wonder who really benefited from the so called 'swinging sixties'? Perhaps I was too young at the time for most of it I was at Primary school, but even in 70s when I was at college in Maidstone in Kent with an arts college connected to my own alma mata of technology when things seemed quite liberated.. I am not so sure that I felt that free...I was always conscious of friends who 'got pregnant' or those who actually were clearly being abused and taken advantage of under the guise of drink and drugs. I think that maybe I felt more sexually inhibited by the 70s then I would have done at any other time in history and I speak from a point of view of someone who has always enjoyed sex. Of course there was 'the pill', but in a way it was a double edged sword and I think that it made 'our boy friends' think that we could be freer then perhaps we ever wanted to be. Of course in 1970 I had read the Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer, but I am not sure that I then understood it fully I just knew that I was myself and I did not want to be 'taken for a ride'. I had always had this image of the girl on the bike in the village and how it was said that either behind the bike shed or on her travels she was taken advantage of in a way I never wanted to be. My sympathies in fact were always with her, and not the boys who did whatever they did to her.... I recall being on the swings at one point in the beautiful park outside my house in Dunton Green with a girl called Jasmine who told me that unlike myself she had had 'more boyfriends then hot dinners' but when she went on to get pregnant at 15 and had a baby I was grateful in fact that I was not the one with the myriad of boyfriends. In fact it was not that I did not have lots of offers, but in retrospect I am happy that I was as I was and not how Jasmine was not in any smug way as I rather admired her...but I was concerned about her as I partly admired her sense of liberty but even from my 14 year old vantage point wondered how long her freedom might last.. Maybe today she is happier then I have ever been, but I just did not want to go down that particular road. In fact I married quite young (22) and although it seemed right at the time and I cannot regret the fact that I had my son Jay, maybe it would have been better to have taken more time before I committed to a long term relationship. On the other hand we were happy for many years and a lot that is good has come out of my marriage so sometimes I guess things must be as they must be..
Must dash now as I need to order a Fridge Freezer whilst the sales are still on as we urgently need one. We've gone without one for a year now without a freezer and although it has been tricky it's amazing what you can do without however when you have to. Of course we do have two fridges so that has helped, but we have not been able to serve ice cream and have had to serve everything ultra fresh. Maybe however this is not such a bad thing and I am sure that our customers have really enjoyed fresh home made chips and lots of fresh vegetables and fruit dishes as opposed to frozen ones which if we had had the obigatory freezer things might have been different..
Recipe of the day is:-
Teresa's lemony tart/Tarte au citron :-
Line a large round tin with fresh butter puff pastry and bake in a pre-heated over at 180c for 10 - 15 minutes until crisp and golden brown.
Fill with a lemon curd as follows:
Take 4 lemons and squeeze them into a bowl, add some grated zest then
add 4 tbs of sugar and
3 heaped spoons of butter plus
3 large whisked free range eggs
Ensure that the curd is all thoroughly mixed and place in the microwave for 2 minutes, remove and whisk again, then add for an additional 2 minutes and mix again. If your curd curdles do not worry just get our your electric whisk and whisk through the curdles...
When the curd is thickened place in the cooked tart and bake for an additional 12 minutes or until set. A little browning on top is okay, but not too much. When a little cooler swirl some melted dark 70% chocolate into a button shape at the centre of the tart or make make a diagonal ziz zag pattern across the tart.
Serve with creme fraîche or cream (creme fraîche is good as it cuts through the richness of the lemon tart). Place a couple of fresh raspberries on the top of the tart and serve with a little splash of raspberry coulis. Dust the whole affair with icing sugar. Delicious!
Bye for now T. xx
Haven't heard from the Maire about our roof, but am hopeful that we might get some assistance from the commune. Of course others in the past had said that the commune does give grants for this kind of work as although our roof was new in 2006 due to the torrents of rain it has deteriorated. Until however our Maire, Regine came round and said that the commune might be able to help I just had not thought of this. I think that it might only be 50% that they pay, but imagine how that would help us!
The song Whiskey Bar by the Doors just came on the radio (from the local radio station broadcast from Saumur, Loire Valley) with its lines of needing to go to a great Whiskey Bar or he will die, and then he goes on to say he needs to find a Little Girl or else he will die. Hello? I wondered if those lines would be permitted or considered appropriate at all in the UK now that all of this scandal has come out about the 70s and 80s and the inappropriate behaviour of certain celebs such as Rolf Harris towards young people.and how our very perceptions of those times - our times have changed....I went onto YTube and discovered that although the song is performed and presented on line, that particular verse about needing to find a little girl is now omitted. It is also known as The Alabama Song. Then I discovered that the song was actually based on a poem by Bertolt Brecht, written in 1925 and in 1928 was set to music by Kurt Weill. Interesting contexts for the presentation of the song anyway from post first world war Germany to the pop cultural times of the 60s and the wonderful Doors and also David Bowie who also performed the song...What I do find interesting is how context is all and how once we might have accepted something as it is stated in its pure state, but when it is coloured by certain events we no longer find it per se..or do we? Actually I often find that some of the American and British tunes that come on to the radio here in France I think whey hey could I hear this in the UK without some kind of censorship? The songs of Lilly Allen are a case in point. Often the songs are full of expletives and controversial lyrics that probably would not be broadcast in the UK at the present time. I suppose this is France and not everyone who plays the lists or listens to the radio necessarily understand those lyrics or the context... I have heard some people say well hang on a minute things were different in the 70s and 80 or even the 20s and 30s..but were they really?
When I was a young girl growing up in the 60/70s it was all quite strict really and not that I condone that but I sometimes wonder who really benefited from the so called 'swinging sixties'? Perhaps I was too young at the time for most of it I was at Primary school, but even in 70s when I was at college in Maidstone in Kent with an arts college connected to my own alma mata of technology when things seemed quite liberated.. I am not so sure that I felt that free...I was always conscious of friends who 'got pregnant' or those who actually were clearly being abused and taken advantage of under the guise of drink and drugs. I think that maybe I felt more sexually inhibited by the 70s then I would have done at any other time in history and I speak from a point of view of someone who has always enjoyed sex. Of course there was 'the pill', but in a way it was a double edged sword and I think that it made 'our boy friends' think that we could be freer then perhaps we ever wanted to be. Of course in 1970 I had read the Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer, but I am not sure that I then understood it fully I just knew that I was myself and I did not want to be 'taken for a ride'. I had always had this image of the girl on the bike in the village and how it was said that either behind the bike shed or on her travels she was taken advantage of in a way I never wanted to be. My sympathies in fact were always with her, and not the boys who did whatever they did to her.... I recall being on the swings at one point in the beautiful park outside my house in Dunton Green with a girl called Jasmine who told me that unlike myself she had had 'more boyfriends then hot dinners' but when she went on to get pregnant at 15 and had a baby I was grateful in fact that I was not the one with the myriad of boyfriends. In fact it was not that I did not have lots of offers, but in retrospect I am happy that I was as I was and not how Jasmine was not in any smug way as I rather admired her...but I was concerned about her as I partly admired her sense of liberty but even from my 14 year old vantage point wondered how long her freedom might last.. Maybe today she is happier then I have ever been, but I just did not want to go down that particular road. In fact I married quite young (22) and although it seemed right at the time and I cannot regret the fact that I had my son Jay, maybe it would have been better to have taken more time before I committed to a long term relationship. On the other hand we were happy for many years and a lot that is good has come out of my marriage so sometimes I guess things must be as they must be..
Must dash now as I need to order a Fridge Freezer whilst the sales are still on as we urgently need one. We've gone without one for a year now without a freezer and although it has been tricky it's amazing what you can do without however when you have to. Of course we do have two fridges so that has helped, but we have not been able to serve ice cream and have had to serve everything ultra fresh. Maybe however this is not such a bad thing and I am sure that our customers have really enjoyed fresh home made chips and lots of fresh vegetables and fruit dishes as opposed to frozen ones which if we had had the obigatory freezer things might have been different..
Recipe of the day is:-
Teresa's lemony tart/Tarte au citron :-
Line a large round tin with fresh butter puff pastry and bake in a pre-heated over at 180c for 10 - 15 minutes until crisp and golden brown.
Fill with a lemon curd as follows:
Take 4 lemons and squeeze them into a bowl, add some grated zest then
add 4 tbs of sugar and
3 heaped spoons of butter plus
3 large whisked free range eggs
Ensure that the curd is all thoroughly mixed and place in the microwave for 2 minutes, remove and whisk again, then add for an additional 2 minutes and mix again. If your curd curdles do not worry just get our your electric whisk and whisk through the curdles...
When the curd is thickened place in the cooked tart and bake for an additional 12 minutes or until set. A little browning on top is okay, but not too much. When a little cooler swirl some melted dark 70% chocolate into a button shape at the centre of the tart or make make a diagonal ziz zag pattern across the tart.
Serve with creme fraîche or cream (creme fraîche is good as it cuts through the richness of the lemon tart). Place a couple of fresh raspberries on the top of the tart and serve with a little splash of raspberry coulis. Dust the whole affair with icing sugar. Delicious!
Monday, 7 July 2014
Day in the life of a Bed and Breakfast and Tea room in Fontevraud l'abbaye,
Day in the life of Chez Teresa/A Taste d'Angleterre a Bed and Breakfast and Tea room in Fontevraud l'abbaye, Pays de loire..
After a quiet day yesterday, well we were competing with the Grand Prix, Wimbledon and the World Cup, we have just had a lovely family in from Reading who seemed to enjoy their lunches very much and gave us a very generous tip. How very kind.
Our Maire came round the other day to inform us that we should not have hanging baskets on our walls as they could pose a health and safety threat to the public. I can see the headlines now, "Loire Valley death threat posed by hanging basket on the avenue Rochechouart, in Fontevraud...beware passing tourists...." Thing is I cannot for the life of me see the logic of this and when I cannot see the logic of something I find it difficult to comply. In the end we left it that we can continue to have our hanging baskets, but we must sign an official document stating that if any accident occurs as a result of them then we must pay for any damages. Sods law and knowing our luck, despite the fact that we've had hanging baskets on a walls for a number of years now and to no-one's detriment that I am aware, one of our baskets may well fall on some innocent bystander and then we will be for ever in torment about it. We also have to remove our pot plants from along the wall...but there again our Maire has said that a 20cm trench will be dug along our wall by a member of the commune so we will be able to plant a few shrubs including a couple of our roses, so let's hope that they flourish. What with the road works of the past two years, fortunately now ended, our poor plants have been through quite a lot of upheaval and not all of them have survived, but we will have to see.
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To make your Fondant au Chocolat you will need:
5 large free-range eggs (separated)
2 x 200g of best quality dark chocolate of at least 70%*.
200g butter
200g sugar
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon plain flour or for gluten free add two tablespoons of ground almonds
Method:-
Melt the chocolate, butter and sugar in the microwave until melted and glossy
Separate the eggs and whisk the whites until stiff then add them to the cooled chocolate mixture along with the beaten yolks
Fold in the flour or the almonds and add the salt
Pour into a deep round 20cm non stick tin
Bake for around 40 minutes at 180c. Bake for around 40 minutes.
Remove from the oven. It will still look like chocolate liquid, but once it cools it will sufficiently harden. What you are aiming for, at least what I aim for is a hard top and a gooey center.
Serve with fresh raspberries and Crème fraîche.
Alternatively you can pour the mixture into buttered ramekins that you then coat with a dusting of cocoa and bake in the oven for around 12 minutes. These are great served piping hot from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.
For a variations on this theme you can add
a hint of chili or
a splash of dark, smokey coffee or a
hint of your favourite liqueur such as Amaretto, or a rich chocolate or berry liqueur
The Queen Victoria Sandwich is also popular with our customers including a chocolate version that I sandwich with chocolate butter cream or crème fraîche laced with chocolate liqueur and filled with blueberries. Simply scrummy…
A note on the chocolate debate engendered by Michael Roux Jr on his recent BBC programme Chocolate Perfection:-
* Depending on what we have in our store cupboard, for our chocolate cakes and dishes I might use Lindt Excellence dark chocolate or Chocolat Menier Pâtissier – personally though and relating to the current chocolate debate as triggered by Michael Roux’s recent programme on the BBC, I think that proper French chocolate from a reputable chocolatier is fabulous if a little expensive for cooking, but I am also partial to Swiss, Belgium and Dutch chocolate. Droste chocolate pastilles are a firm favourite in our family. A bar of Cadbury’s Bournville would also work well in a chocolat au fondant.
This ones a bit wonky, but personally I think that this adds to its luscious chocolate charm!