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

Here is a recipe that is a big hit in our Salon de thé.  Since 2006 we have been offering our customers and guests flavours from Angleterre that are often inspired by traditional French recipes and patisserie.   Being a chocoholic and a passionate baker, our dishes and recipes often feature chocolate, such as Mexican Chocolate Chili and Chocolat au Fondant. My version of the latter was actually inspired by reading The Elusive Truffle: Travels In Search Of The Legendary Food Of France by Mirabel Osler, a book I would highly recommend to lovers of France, provincial cookery and travel writing. Not that many chocolate recipes feature in this particular book, but even so the fondant cake that I make was inspired by reading it and my version is now a huge hit with our regulars and visitors from overseas who describe it as Gourmet….It is also incredibly quick and easy to make.  In addition you can dress it up as a celebration cake if you wish.  Another great thing about this cake is the fact that because it is so densely chocolatey it keeps well.

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!

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.

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!

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

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.