Le déjeuner sur l’herbe

Posted on 27th January, 2009 by Sara Maternini

Traveling around France in low season, sometimes mean you won’t find a restaurant open, especially if you travel off the beaten track. But is there another way to travel?

Lost in the countryside, far from any “big” town, the only thing open is the local épicerie, what do you do?
Well, you simply enter the épicerie (the local supermarket) say “Bonjour!”, and look for all you can possibly use as a lunch: bread, saucisson de campagne (a rustic, countryside salami), terrine aux chataignes (a chestnut terrine).

Find a nice spot, near a river, or a prairy, or a meadow, lay on the grass, and eat!

Enjoy

Sourdough Bread

Posted on 22nd January, 2009 by Sara Maternini

I recently had the fortune to put my hands on a 22 years old pasta madre, levain, sourdough (kind courtesy of Semerssuaq*).
I was always afraid of sourdough: I mean, it’s alive! What if it dies? What if I kill it???
Well, apparently it’s not so simple to kill it! If you take good weekly care of it, well, it will survive, kicking lively in your fridge!
And the bread, oh the bread: unbelievable!

200 g of sourdough
500 g of strong flour
1 teaspoon of salt
300 ml of water

Mix the sourdough with the water.
Add flour and salt, and knead for 20-30 minutes (better with a stan mixer: you’ll need only 10 minutes).
Let it rise in a big glass bowl, covered with film, for at least 3 hours.
pre-heat the oven at 200° C.
Cover a baking tin with baking paper and lay the dough, making a rounded ball, no kneading. Cover it with the bowl and let it rise for at least 30 minutes, better 1 hour.

Cook for 30-40 minutes, until knocking on the bottom it sounds hollow.

Let it cool completely before slicing it.

La France que j’aime: Aveyron, Saint-Affrique Market

Posted on 20th January, 2009 by Sara Maternini

My husband was born in Paris, but when he was 2 his parents moved to Aveyron, one of the most agricultural, rustic and breathtaking region of France.
And even one of the least touristic.
As we have a legacy there, we have to fortune to go there at least once a year, in very different times of the year: summer, fall, winter, spring.
I realize I have plenty of pictures I’ve never shared and never told you about it. It’s time to mend this big fault

Last fall we were there on a saturday too, and on saturday it’s market day in Saint-Affrique, the nearest “big” town.
As it’s the countryside (la campagne), it’s a farmer market, without being a farmer market, as it’s the only type of market they know It’s a gather of local producers, from cheese, to vegetable and fruits, to flours, to local produce depending on the season.

France has many many wonderful produce and among the outstanding, stand flours, great, high gluten flour, perfect for bread: you’ll see

Pasta with leek, endive and bacon

Posted on 15th January, 2009 by Sara Maternini

A few months ago I opened another food blog, in Italian, and I published the recipe that it’s at the base of this pasta. While I was cooking it I though it could have done a perfect side dish, *and* a perfect pasta dish

For 2 people

200 g high quality pasta, short kind

200g diced bacon

1 Belgian endive

1 leek

1/4 glass white wine

Finely slice the leek and the Belgian endive.

In a large no-stick pan, heat the diced bacon and when the fat is begin to split out, add endive and leek. Stir fry for few minutes, then add the wine and let evaporate.

In the mean while, cook the pasta according to the package instructions.

Drain it al dente (the pasta must still have a slightly hard heart) and toss it in the endive and leek pan.

Give a good stir and serve immediately.

Ask the cook!

Posted on 13th January, 2009 by Sara Maternini

Have you made some kind of mess?

Your kitchen looks like a nuclear power explosion and you don’t know how to solve it?

Your fridge is dead empty and you have to create a dinner for 6?

Did I write something wrong in a recipe?

Don’t you understand a recipe?

Fill in this form and I’ll answer all your culinary questions!

DISCLAIMER I’m very sorry, but due to the little ammount of time I have to update my blog, I don’t translate in Italian (or other languanges) any of the content published and I don’t write recipes upon request… Don’t hate me please: I still love you very much!

If you crave for recipes in Italian, why don’t you visit my Italian Food Blog, Mele al forno?

Stuffed and roasted guinea fowl

Posted on 8th January, 2009 by Sara Maternini

A good stuffed and roasted guinea fowl is something merry and wintery, that will add to your post-holiday dinner a reminder of the late Christmas and New’s year celebrations.

1 guinea fowl (enough for 4 to 6 people)

For the stuffing:

300 g chestnuts, peeled and boiled (our chestnuts were a courtesy of a fellow Italian blogger and friend, LaPaoly)

200 g diced bacon

1 onion, finely chopped

50 g dried apricots

50 g dried plums

1/2 glass Marsala or sherry

Take the guinea fowl out of the fridge at least 1 hour before to cook it.

Preheat the oven at 160° C.

Heat a non-stick pan and stir in the bacon. Stir fry, in the bacon’s fat the onion. Add chestnuts, apricots, plums and stir well.

Add the wine and let it evaporate. Transfer the stuffing in a bowl and let it cool.

Salt and pepper the guinea fowl cavity. Add the stuffing and close it sewing it.

Lay the guinea fowl in a shallow baking tin sprinkled with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Cook in the hot oven for 2 hours, or until the skin is crispy.

Let it rest for a few minutes outside the oven before to carve it and serve it.

Serve it with roasted potatoes, or a celery root, carrots and potatoes mash.

La France que j’aime

Posted on 6th January, 2009 by Sara Maternini

Les Pays Basque

France is a big country, filled with wonders at any corners. My advice to everyone who wants to travel around France is to go off the beaten track and search for the real French experience.

What’s the Real French Experience?

It’s a life changing experience, full of wine, incredible food and fantastic people. Because French, believe it or not, are very nice and cool people (they are the rest you are thinking of too, but you can get over it, cammon!).

It’s something very simple to achieve.

St. Jean Pied de Port

You’ll need few things:

- a car

- a basic knowledge of French, the better you French is, the better your experience will be. And French is a very beautiful language

- an open mind

- a Michelin Atlas of France, 1:200.000 (not an electronic device, no, too simple and too boring! A real paper atlas!)

- the will to get lost

- Le Guide des mellieurs vins à petits prix, latest edition

- La Guide Rouge Michelin France, latest edition (not a must, but it can be very useful)

With this basic equipment, you can easily open up any page of the Atlas, visualize all the little yellow and white streets, and begin to wander. One of your motto will be: if it’s not a yellow or white street on the map, we won’t take it!

Baring all this in mind we had breathtaking experiences, that will stay in our hearts for the rest of our lives…

And I will bring you in all these once a month, exploring all the regions we visited

Allez hop, on y va!

The Kitchen Pantry

Sara Maternini's kitchen

Monthly Archives: January 2009