Chez Teresa's Apple and Cinnamon Cake

Another hit this week has been our Apple and Cinnamon Cake.  Basically I made a Victoria Sandwich mix with a hint of maple syrup, a splash of syrup of stem ginger, and a generous amount of powdered cinnamon.  Should you decide to make this cake, instead of using white sugar use a rich brown one.  Pour into a deep buttered cake tin with a circle of parchment paper at the bottom.  Next slice some fresh French Gala apples (keep the rosy skins on) and plunge them into the cake mix rather as if in the cake mixture you are creating a mini Stone Henge.  Top with some crumble mixture use semi-wholewheat flour and brown sugar with butter rubbed into the mix.  Sprinkle with some more brown sugar and bake in a pre-heated oven 180c for 45 - 50 minutes or until you can plunge a knife into the center and it comes out clean.  When cool empty onto a pretty plate.  Serve with Crème fraîche, Fresh Cream or Crème Anglaise. 

                             

I am not sure if I mentioned before that this has been the week of the Germans in terms of the overall number of customers of a particular nationality?  Last week was the week of the Italians and the week before was the week of the visitors from Chile.....they never seem to know each other, but such groups seem to visit Fontevraud l'abbaye in culturally diverse waves....Today we have also had in French, Spanish and English customers so all good.  Mostly our customers are great fun and interesting to talk to and very complimentary about our the food and atmosphere though we do get the odd horror through our doors...guess that is to be expected.  We have anyway been very very busy these past few weeks which is of course good and a revelation after the past two years when due to all the road works etc outside Chez Teresa we did not receive as many customers as in previous years.  I am very tired though, but I guess this is normal and in a way it is a nice kind of tired as overall we have had some lovely customers in this season so far to our tea room.  There is something really rather heartwarming to think that when visitors enjoy their stay with us or their lunch or afternoon tea, we are part of making their overall holiday experience a good one.  We were also thrilled earlier on in the week when a young French couple came over from Tours for a cream tea.   They had read about us in the Geo Guide and visited Fontevraud l'abbaye specifically for a taste d'Angleterre.  They combined this visit with a walk through the forest and its environs and collected a bowl of sweet tasting juicy blackberries which they gave to us as a gift.

Tofu is a great thing...from Chez Teresa

Tofu is a great thing....Today I made a veggie tofu dish in a vibrant Thai style source with lots of veggies thrown including Courgettes, Aubergines, Sugar Snap Peas, Tomatoes, Onions and grated garlic, a generous grating of fresh ginger, and some diced orange, yellow and red peppers.  Add a large splash of Tamarind sauce which is great to use plus a dash of Soya Sauce, Worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrins we love) plus a little brown sugar.  Saute your tofu in onions and garlic then add a tin of tomato pulp, add some chopped basil then all of the above.  Simmer until the flavours suit your palette.  It is simply delicious served with brown rice.  To be honest with a lot of my dishes today I also add a veggie Knorr stock pot  which I suppose you might see as a bit of a cheat, but what the hell.  A tsp of black bean sauce is also a wonderful addition to this dish and makes it rather sticky and gorgeous and that is just what I added today.

Yesterday was a bit of a sad day for us at Chez Teresa/A Taste d'Angleterre in Fontevraud l'abbaye as we hardly had anyone in and after a busy couple of  weeks what with all the Italians and visitors from Chile and also Kwait it was rather disappointing.  Today however we have been back on track and have had many customers in mainly from France and Holland as it happens, but also from the UK and Portsmouth in particular.  Our Lemon drizzle cake has been a huge hit along with the fondant au chocolat.  Quite a few people have wanted to drink Chocolate Chaud which we make with creme fraiche, full cream milk, sugar and melted chocolat.  This is a sure sign I think that Autumn is on the horizon and cannot we just feel it in the air first thing in the morning?  There is something about the quality of the air as late August and early September approaches whereby you can almost smell Autumn nights, the changing of the trees and the time when hot soup and a baked potato are going to be just what you want whilst you contemplate solstice and of course the impending lead up to Christmas.

Au revoir for now

T. xx

Running a vegetarian 'petit restaurant' in France can often be a challenge i.e. to entice customers through our doors.  Of course having been here in Fontevraud l'abbaye since 2006 we do have our wonderful regular customers plus we are mentioned in quite a few guides now such as Trip Adviser, The Lonely Planet, The Geo Guide and the Green Guide to the Loire Valley so many do come through our doors because of these reviews.

The biggest challenge in France is still to convince potential customers that you can have a perfectly wonderful and sustaining meal without it comprising of meat, meat and meat.  There does seem however to be some kind of zeitgeist in France at the moment in terms of healthy eating and more and more people of all nationalities who live here are making healthy decisions as to how they nourish themselves to the extent that it is now possible in most supermarkets to get hold of Soya products such as veggie mince, veggie burgers and the like.  Whilst we do like to use fresh, organic ingredients here at Chez Teresa I have recently started cooking and experimenting with Soya/Soja bean products.  I realise that there is a huge ethical debate about genetically modified soya and the pros and cons of this as a product, but we do try to use non-gm when we can obtain it.  Incidentally we had a vegetarian in the other day who said that she would never eat anything that even resembled meat so would not be partaking of a special Vegetarian sausage rolls.  I kind of get her point, but my husband Tony makes our Vegetarian sausage rolls and they are delicious!

In truth we are not fully vegetarian as in fact we do serve fish dishes such as smoked salmon at lunchtime with salads or in an omelette, and also fish pies/Parmentier and Saumon en Croute in the evenings for guests and/or for those who book in advance.  

So far this week has been the week of the Italians as we have had so many Italians in through our doors and also from Sicily.  They have all been an absolute joy and very appreciative of what we have to offer including dare I say it our pasta dishes!  They especially seemed to rank our cream teas.  Maybe there is nothing like them in Italy and Sicily.  The Sicilians that we had in for a cream tea today enjoyed it so much that they are returning at the weekend with some friends, so that is of course very encouraging.  They found us on The Lonely Planet so thanks again to that publication.  We also had a family in from Kuwait today who bought lots of pretty English and French china from our boutique. Actually one my major tips to anyone thinking of opening a small business in France is to diversify and not put all your eggs in one basket so to speak; as some weeks we sell a hell of a lot of china and then other weeks our tea room and restaurant is packed out....At other times our B & B is busy.

Sourcing vintage china is such a joy and I love to visit the Vide Greniers whereby the French empty their attics or I daresay other parts of their Maisons and sell all sorts of wonderful and less wonderful objets d'arts and an assortment of things.. selling everything and anything often including the kitchen sink!  I would also recommend visiting charity emporiums such as Emmaus as you never know what treasure you might find. 

Crêpes at Chez Teresa

We have had some great people in for lunch at Chez Teresa today including a Dutch/Israeli Family the girls of the family were delightful and the Mother who is Israeli said that she hoped for peace in her life time and a French chap who said that his slice of Tarte au Citron was the best that he had tasted in a long while....The children had crêpes with bananas and melted chocolate.   Next we had a lovely gay couple in from North London for full lunches who plan to stay with us in the future and also a Scottish couple who shared some Scottish and Irish recipes over a pot of tea and some scones with me.  I just love the cultural diversity of those who come through our doors and feel very lucky that we are able to meet with so many different people on a daily basis.  Of course the Abbaye Royale is the draw, but we are grateful for our visitors who come to see us either before or after their visit for a taste d'Angleterre....

Mid afternoon I had a Dutch couple in asking for Crêpes a la flambé in Grand Marnier to boot..Honestly am I being silly here in so far as we offer crêpes throughout the day but my recipe is simple but effective, but no Grand Marnier and flambé does not really figure and certainly not during the afternoon as one of our take aways.   We might offer it as an evening treat to be served in our dining room. Anyway the aforementioned left sans crêpe.  It was 16hrs and quite frankly where in France could you expect to be able to enjoy a crêpes a la flambé ?  At such an hour I would like to know.    Still they were on their velos and I guess they needed to be sustained.  "Au revoir" says I, "farewell and bonne route... "

When we first put crêpes on our menu I was a bit worried that our French customers would not like them, but this has proved far from the case and we have received many compliments and tips.   It is like serving pasta dishes to Italians you tremble a little bit as you serve it, but as the summer has progressed I am beginning to feel more and more confident serving crêpes.
 

Here is my recipe for crêpes with some suggested fillings and yes you could even flambé the crêpes with Grand Marnier

125 ml du lait/full cream or semi du lait/ milk

350 gms farine de blé or semi complet if possible, or white or semi wholemeal will do

plus a pinch of sea salt and

4 l'oeufs/4 free range eggs as fresh as you can...

Suggested fillings are as follows:

Melted chocolate (a few cubes of 70% chocolate, with a noisette of butter and a little sugar) and some chopped bananas to add within the crêpes in the middle before you serve with a drizzle of chocolate on the top and a couple of pieces of fruit for decoration is particularly yummy.  Alternatively use freshly squeezed lemon and sugar within the crêpe then dust with sugar or what about honey and lemon or Maple syrup and a flourish of Chantilly cream?  Interestingly we have had many French customers in of late who just want a plain crêpe with lots and lots of sucre.

This is a very versatile mix that you can add savoury ingredients to especially if you choose to make the crépe with semi complet/wholemeal flour as it gives the crêpe a delicious nutty texture...  If I am going down the savoury route I tend to fill the pancakes with buttery leeks in a cheese sauce, or smoked salmon and cream cheese, spinach and ricotta cheese, or a spicy vegetable filling..

Enjoy...

T. xx