Le truc de truffes

One of the best things about living in France is the wonderful produce you can buy at a French market.  Being Christmas and the time for being a bit of a piggy what could be more appropriate than seeking out the most luxurious of ingredients, the truffle.

A basket heaving with one of the most precious harvests in France

The truffle business is so serious in France that a man was recently killed by a Trufficulteur who suspected him of raiding his truffle harvest so it was not without trepidation that I agreed set off with a friend early on Christmas Eve to buy one at a market in the pretty town of St. Jean d'Angely.  

Last year I visited an annual truffle fair in the nearby town of Jarnac with my husband, Spike, and it is fair to say that we were a little out of our depth as it felt like we had stumbled into a den of drug dealers. We stood and watched for a while as slightly shady characters carefully weighed out the black diamonds and whispered secret deals to obviously experienced buyers.  I am glad to say that we did eventually pluck up the courage to approach one of the stands and procure the goods before hurriedly scuttling away.
  

Thankfully this year, as we found the small oilcloth clad table laden with les truffes I had been tipped off about by a fellow market trader, the man selling these petits morceaux of heaven was very warm and helpful and I went away with one of his smaller offerings for the princely sum of 28€ without any obvious discomfort at all!

That evening when Spike came home from work we enjoyed a simple truffle omelette in order to gauge it's strength in preparation for the all important Christmas lunch (well that's our excuse anyway for snuffling some of it up early!)

Our Christmas lunch of roasted monkfish and truffles

On Christmas Day we prepared together (with me as sous chef) a mushroom duxelle that Spike used as stuffing for the monkfish we had decided to try this year.  The fish was then rolled into a joint (no not that kind!!!) and roasted along with some traditional roast potatoes. 

This was accompanied by a fennel bake with cream and parmesan, a carrot and courgette tartlet and a rich red wine jus (get me!).

We also had a few brussel sprouts on the side which I thought that was a bit weird but Spike actually refused to eat Christmas lunch without them!

I have to say that we both agreed that it was the best Christmas lunch we'de ever had and the truffle shavings on the top of the fish left us both eating in blissful silence (only to be occasionally broken by a few 'mmmms', 'yummy yummy' noises and deep sighs). 

Truffled quails eggs

On Boxing Day we invited our friends, Karin (who had come with me for moral support to buy the truffle) and her husband, David, over for supper.  

For the starter Spike poached quails eggs and served them on brioche toast with a truffle cream sauce and truffle shavings on the top.  

He had cleverly thought the night before to keep the quails eggs in a jar with the truffle to see if they would take on some of the flavour but it's hard to say if it worked (having been slathered in the aforementioned yummy truffle cream sauce!) 

Sadly there is not much our petit truffe left now so we have decided to finish it off tomorrow morning for breakfast by having truffled scrambled eggs on muffins - of the English variety!  

The dwindling truffle that had infused the quails eggs

We had a truly lovely Christmas this year and hope that you did too.  Soon things will be back to normal and I will be back to posting blogs on my usual trucs in the New Year but in the meantime I send you my very best wishes for 2014.

A Merry Little Christmas in Rural France

It's that lovely time of year when I clamber up into the loft and fetch down my Christmas decorations.  They are stored in a shabby old Fortnum & Mason's wicker hamper which keeps all my precious Christmas trucs safe.

Every year Spike and myself exchange lots of little silly gifts in the hand-made Christmas sacks I made a few years back (you can safely assume that I'm a bit of a Christmas freak... the stockings we had before were far too small to fit anything in!!!)  

We also have a lovely tradition of picking out for each other a special bauble each year for the Christmas tree which gives it a wonderfully eclectic look and although our tree is smaller than usual I think it's beautiful all the same and because it has roots it can be planted out in the garden in the new year.

Our tree - small but perfectly formed

The drinks cabinet stocked & ready for friends who drop by 

This year we are having a quiet Christmas day to ourselves that will hopefully consist of sitting around in pyjamas for the first part of the day while we open our presents, moving on to necking the booze out of little bottle shaped liqueur chocolates (not the healthiest breakfast but you may say but you might as well start as you mean to go on!!) before eventually being persuaded by the dogs to get dressed and take them out for a long winters walk. 

By this time a bit splodgy but still yummy

Once all these things have been done the preparations for Christmas lunch can start. This year, as it's just the two of us, we are not being traditional at all so we are going to roast some monkfish stuffed with a mushroom duxelle (hopefully with some truffle shavings too if I can get my mitts on one... another story for another day!).  

I know this Christmas lunch sounds a bit unorthodox but I don't eat meat (that makes me a pescetarian apparently). Luckily for Spike we have meat-eating friends over for supper on Boxing Day so he will not miss out. 

Something I always make this time of year are Christmas cupcakes which are a variation on the traditional Christmas cake but much lighter, oozing with cognac with a yummy cream cheese frosting on the top.  

They keep really well and can be offered all through the holiday season to anyone who drops by (our French neighbours absolutely gobbled them up last year when they popped in for an apero or two).

Here is the recipe for my Christmas Cupcakes if you would like to try them (sorry it's all metric but there are, as I'm sure you know, conversion tables available online):-

Ingredients

90g butter – softened

100g brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tbsp of orange marmalade

500g finely chopped mixed dried fruit

100g plain flour

½ teaspoon of baking powder 

1 tsp of mixed spice

2 tbsp of cognac

Ingredients for frosting

45g soft butter

100g icing sugar

100g cream cheese

Method

• Preheat your oven to 160°C
• Line a 12 cupcake pan with cupcake cases
• Using an electric whisk, beat the butter, sugar and eggs until just combined
• Stir in the mixed fruit and marmalade.  Mix until well combined
• Sift the flour,baking powder and spice.  Add to the mixture
• Add the cognac and mix well
• Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases – dividing evenly
• Bake for about 30 minutes
• Remove from the oven and pour a little cognac over the top of each cake
• Immediately after this cover all the cakes with foil
• Allow to cook before removing the foil and removing them from the pan

 Method for the frosting

Beat together the soft butter with the icing sugar, then beat in the cream cheese. Pipe on the top with a swirl!

I think that if you try them you will enjoy them as much as we do and I really hope that you 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' too.

From 'Trucs' to Treasures

During the summer I visited a brocante in Cognac and bought an elegant French silver plated ladle.  The vendor informed me that it was a louche à sauce (a sauce ladle) and I happily took it home with me along with some other finds and set about cleaning it up.  

I love cleaning and researching the trucs I buy and find it incredibly satisfying when an object begins to show itself in all it's glory. This particular find not only did that but the famous French maker's mark of Gombault soon became clear.  

The clear maker's mark Gombault

Gombault was a renowned silversmith during the Belle Epoque period in France where he earned himself the nickname 'Monsieur Absinthe' because he specialised in making drinking paraphernalia for the rituals associated with the notorious drink, Absinthe. 

Beautifully crafted and in super condition

Art Nouveau (Belle Epoque) advertising poster

Absinthe, coined 'The Green Fairy' was later banned in its original form because it was considered not only to be dangerous to the health because of it's sheer alcoholic strength but also to possess hallucinogenic properties.

This stunning poster on the left belies the darker side of the drink but is undeniably a fabulous example of the creative style of the time conjuring up images of the famous Moulin Rouge and bringing to mind the decadence and bohemian artistry of the era.

Being a bit of a history buff I always like to thoroughly research my trucs and I enjoy passing on as much knowledge as I can to my customers in the hope of transforming an often simple inanimate object into something of a treasure.

Researching my trucs can be not only  frustrating but also very time consuming and in this case I was getting very tired of trawling endlessly on the internet and was just about to pack it in when I got incredibly lucky and stumbled across two very interesting things.

The first find was a copy of a couple of pages from Gombault's catalogue showing the very same ladle which as it turned out was not a sauce ladle at all but (to my slightly absurd overexcited delight... shrill squeal!) a punch ladle (cuiller à punch) along with its accompanying original price list (I wonder if they made punch from Absinthe at the time or would that have been considered to be sacrilegious?!!)

There it is at the top of the page the second from the left

Listed by the number 505 and priced at 7 francs

The other interesting thing I came across was an article by the British newspaper 'The Express' that claimed that experts have uncovered the forgotten secrets of the original absinthe recipe and that they were bringing it back.

Well I don't know about you but if it's true and the original Absinthe is back I will have to give it a try otherwise I will feel I have not satisfactorily completed my research and that would never do!!

An Afternoon Antiquing in Rural France

The Courtyard and Charming Rustic Farmhouse

Things have been a bit uneventful lately so I didn't have to be asked twice when a good friend of mine suggested we go antiquing in a rural antique/interiors shop in a little village not far from us.  

On arriving we were overwhelmed by the vast array of architectural salvage and rustic objects that vied for our attention in the courtyard. But seeing that it was a cold and overcast day and knowing that there was a good chance that some vin chaud and a selection of gateaux were waiting for us we wisely decided to head inside first.
  

Being rural the owner of the brocante doesn't keep normal opening hours but my friend had cleverly gleaned that this particular day she was holding a special open afternoon to welcome the approaching Christmas holiday season.

Table Set with Seasonal Trucs

Lot of Lovely Shiny Trucs

Inside the charmingly rustic farmhouse an array of candles, baubles and sparkling decorations greeted our eyes.   The stock was a mixture of the antique, vintage and new so there was something for everyone.   The log burner in the old fireplace was throwing out oodles of heat and it wasn't long before we were pulling off hats and coats and milling around with the numerous other customers in the search for seasonal gifts.

Unsurprisingly being something of a purist when it comes to antique shops and brocantes it wasn't long before I was itching to finish my drink and get outside for a good rummage through the proper old stuff in the courtyard and adjoining barn.

Unfortunately my coffers were a little on the low side that day so it was to be a browsing expedition rather than a buying one but I wasn't about to let a small detail like that spoil my enjoyment.   I do love to chiner though, as the French say, and the glass of mulled wine was sorely testing my resolve not to buy.

Inside the Barn

Having had a good look outside we headed into the barn and found ourselves in a veritable Aladdin's cave of trucs.  

I am always on the lookout for ideas and inspiration for the vintage/coffee shop I would someday like to own and this place didn't disappoint.  For as long as I can remember I have yearned for my own shop, a fact that my long suffering Mum would attest to having been subjected to many a tedious hour visiting my makeshift shop under a myriad of different guises!

Some might venture that she must have had the patience of a saint but I say it doesn't do anyone any harm to hone their acting skills once in a while (and who was it that bought me the little cash till that started it all???)

I am happy to report though that I do now at least have an Etsy shop (yes, it's true, I finally did it, ta ta da da... so please take a look!) so for the time being I shall have to be content with just dreaming of my shop in Cognac... picture this... a little old fashioned bell on a spring tinkling when you enter, the smell of freshly ground coffee assaulting your nostrils, 1930s jazz and blues music playing softly in the background and a room filled to bursting with wonderful, eclectic trucs (sorry about that!  I seem to have meandered off into a lovely daydream).

Antique Terracotta Plaques

Anyway, back to our afternoon out! We decided to quickly nip back in to the shop to say goodbye and pay for our purchases...I bought a solitary bauble (so sad!). I must admit to hoping that having been outside for some time the owner might have failed to recognise us from earlier and offer us more complementary mulled wine and cake!

It was then that I noticed, flanking the lovely rustic blue front door, a couple of terracotta plaques that I sold at a brocante fair earlier on in the year.

It seemed a bit funny seeing some trucs that used to belong to me somewhere else but they did look splendid either side of the door so I imagine it wont be long before someone falls for them and snaps them up.

I must confess that I didn't recall the proprietor as the buyer but I see so many people at these fairs it's really hard to remember them all (I am truly rubbish at recalling faces.. and names... unless they happen to be dogs which isn't very helpful in my profession..."Well hello there Snuggles - what can I interest you in today?")

All things considered I can't think of anything better to beat the winter blues than to wrap up warm and go out with a good friend antiquing!