The Joys of the French Potager

Some friends popped over a couple of days ago with some of their garden produce. They had been away on holiday and anyone who has grown their own will know that it doesn't take long for a courgette (zucchini) to turn into a super-sized monster.  

We had a large ornamental potager at our last house where we ran cooking holidays and a chambres d'hôtes business so we quickly learnt, among other things, how to deal with these prolific wannabe marrows. 

The potager at the old house- my pride and joy but a killer for my back

One of my favourite methods for using up courgettes is Antonio Carluccio's recipe for courgette fritters. I know it's Italian and not French but you can't beat the Italians for wonderfully simple and fresh flavoursome food.   

I laugh in the face of over-sized courgettes!

Here is the recipe (it may have been changed a little to suit our taste... I can't remember) and some photos of the process (I have missed out steps such as tripping over the beagle who is annoyingly ever present when we cook!):-

750g courgettes (grated)

1 large garlic clove (crushed)

3 eggs (beaten)

2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese

1/2 tablespoon of salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/4 tablespoon of nutmeg

5 tablespoons of plain flour

2 tablespoons of fresh mint

Olive oil for frying

Having typed out this recipe I do hope you have a tablespoon otherwise you're scuppered!  Anyway, if you have it's just a matter of mixing all the ingredients together and shallow frying heaped spoonfuls of the mixture in the hot oil until they are crisp and golden on both sides.

Mr Carluccio cooks them until they are somewhat darker than mine but when I don't want to eat them all immediately I can reheat them in pan later and brown them off a bit more (the uncooked mixture does tend to become a bit watery once you add the salt).

All the ingredients needed for this yummy recipe chopped and ready to go

When I was fed up with grating courgettes I gave the chickens a little treat!

It couldn't be simpler - just mix all the ingredients together and

after a quick rummage in the fridge you can make up a salad
 on a lovely vintage plate

and enjoy a light summery meal and perhaps like me drizzle on
some homemade lemon mayonnaise

I hope you give this recipe a try because these fritters are absolutely delicious and if like us you keep chickens it's also a useful way of using their eggs.

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

It's been a fairly uneventful week this week as far as antiquing goes.  Lots of hard work on the house, Spike feeding the hoards at the Cognac Blues Passions Festival and for me some part-time seasonal work at a lovely local gite complex (more spending money for trucs... hooray!) so as a consequence I've not had a moment spare to buy any new stock this week or concentrate on my Etsy shop.

However, I knew that a week like this would come one day so I've been saving this post for a situation just like this.

A couple of months back in the beginning of May we stumbled across a truly magical place after visiting a flea market in a little village called Plassay.

A bit of a small brocante but good to get out and about all the same

It wasn't the best market ever but we bought a couple of trucs and on the way had earmarked a lovely little restaurant with a pretty courtyard in the charming village of Port d'Envaux for lunch.  We decided to sit outside and the sun came out for us - it was one of the first really sunny days we had had this year and I decided to try some locally produced goats cheese... it was yummy!  

Spike insists that I use the "fuzzy" setting on my camera for all food shots!

I digress.  The thing I really wanted to share was the amazing place I mentioned earlier. As we left Port-d'Envaux we caught sight of a couple of stone sculptures and being intrigued pulled over to investigate. There was a distinct lack of signs or obvious publicity but the unassuming car park led to a place where artists from all over the world have visited and carved some awe inspiring sculptures into the natural rock face of the area.  I later found out that that this curious centre of art is called Les Lapidiales.

I can't really describe just how impressive these carvings were especially as they were found so unexpectedly on a quiet little road -  I just hope that my photographs of just a handful of them go some way to doing them justice.

It never ceases to amaze me the wondrous things we come across just driving around our area and this place appears to be one of its best kept secrets.  

As we set off for home Spike spotted a little sign indicating that a roman aqueduct was to be found down a small lane.  Well we couldn't miss out on that and with visions of towering archways built out of stone carrying water at a great height I have to admit that we were a little disappointed at what we found!

Not quite what we had hoped for but the mosquitoes seemed to like it!

Oh well you can't win them all!  

A 'Ménage à Trois' in Rural France

Alright so it's not so much a household of three - it's more like a swampy threesome. Since we installed a pond a couple of years back many creatures have come to live alongside our ducks, Clarence and Claude.  

Clarence and Claude (Claude is green headed and Clarence is grey)

So we were very happy when a couple of noisy bright green frogs (Franc and Francetta) decided to take up residence.  The only problem we had is that we have never been able to tell them apart so when a third frog turned up this year that also looked exactly the same we decided that they would now collectively be known as 'The Francs'.   

Franc chilling in the shallows

Often to be found doing very froggy things like croaking, resting on water-lily pads and playing leapfrog with each other I felt compelled to try to learn a little more about our little long-legged friends.  

Franc sunbathing on the edge of the pond

To my surprise and delight it seems we have three Grenouille Verte also alarmingly known as the 'Edible Frog' (oops!)  Yes our little 'Francs' are sadly an endangered species largely thanks to the appetites of certain Gallic gourmands.  Suffice it to say I will not let on to our neighbour, Lionel, who has on numerous occasions mentioned a great penchant for frogs' legs.

Can you spot all three?

All joking aside I had no idea until now that the native French frog had declined so much and according to a very interesting, although rather upsetting, article in the British Guardian newspaper it really has become a serious problem that needs to be addressed.  

Anyway, please give a thought to 'The Francs' before you decide to tuck into a plate of frogs legs.  On a more cheerful note here are a few quirky frog related items I found on three of my fellow Etsy traders sites:-

 A lovely sterling silver frog brooch with pearl.

A 1930s tinplate frog from Germany.

And finally a beautiful illustration by one of my favourite artists - Edmund Dulac.