Nina's blanquette de veau

With all our visitors that we have had the French traditional dishes didn't stay behind, as we love introducing our visitors to the French culture.
Shortly after my mom arrived Nina came to visit us for the weekend and offered to make a blanquette de veau (veal stew) for the Sunday.  We were happy to hand to kitchen over to her and have some time off.  Blanquette de veau is one of the most popular traditional dishes in France.  I first had it in Fouras when JL's sister cooked it for us.
It is a dish that takes long to cook (and long to prepare as you need to remove the fat from the meat), but is absolute worth it.  We had an excellent meal and I'll hand the kitchen over to Nina in the future at any occasion!  She took a recipe of the internet, but changed it based on her past experience, so I am happy to share her recipe with you!  It is an ideal dish to have in the winter!!

For 6 people:
Ingredients:
1.5 kg of veal (if you have the benefit of a butcher close to you, ask him to cut the veal pieces that are not too fatty)
1 marrow bone
1 bouquet garni (thyme, rosemary, parsley, laurier, pepper - we buy bouquet garni in a spice bottle instead of making a fresh one and she used almost a full bottle!)
2 carrots
300 g white mushrooms
1 leek (that is one good thing of buying vegetables in France - you can buy 1 leek and even if you buy celery, you don't have to buy the bush, but can ask for only one stem!)
young onions (the ones with the long green stem and a small white bulb)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 soup spoons of flour
2 soup spoons of butter
250 ml of cream
1 egg yolk
salt
cloves

Put the meat, salt, bone, bouquet garni, carrots (cut in round slices) and the onions (put 3 cloves in the onions) in a casserole.  Cover with cold water and boil that it is foaming.
Simmer for 2 hours, add the mushrooms and simmer for another 30 min.
On a low heat, whisk the butter and flouer for 5 min in a casserole and remove from the heat.
Once the meat is cooked, pour it through a sieve and throw away the onion and the bouquet garni.  Put the meat, carrots and mushrooms in a dish.
Incorporate the veal stock with the butter and flour and whisk to acquire a smooth sauce.  Put back on stove and cook for 5 min while continuing to whisk (it won't be thick, but cover a sppon). Add the lemon juice and cook another 2 min.
At the same time beat the cream and egg yolk together, add salt and pepper if required. Then mix with the sauce.
Add the meat, carrots and mushrooms to the sauce that it is cover, for about 2 min.
Enjoy!

Mailly's gastronomy fête

I was a bit too optimistic to think I'll be able to blog while having visitors...
Nerina and Hennie arrived during the weekend of the gastronomy fête of our neighbouring village, Mailly.  It was a long weekend, as the Monday was a public holiday (although a special one in France, as some companies may choose to work on this one with the salaries of that day being donated to charity organisations - don't ask me the detail of how it works. Some things in France you just aceept, you don't try to figure it out...).  The Sunday afternoon on our way back home from Hautvillers, a champagne village on the other side of the Montagne de Reims, we had to pass through Mailly's main road and they could see the streets, all being pedestrianised during the festival, packed with people.  We had plan to walk the Monday, as it is only about 2.5 km, but after dropping JL at the station, I told them it will get very hot, it will be better to drive.  Being the driver I'll just take care on the wine tasting.  So off we went, making sure we'll arrive after 10 am, as I have been lecturing them quite a bit that nothing happens before 10 in France...
Fortunately we have arrived before the crowds and parking was easy to find...

One pays an entry fee of 5€ but for that you get a tasting glass and you can taste as much food and wine as you wish.  Since JL and I have been there last year as well, I glanced at my list of good wine places to be revisited, to save my mom and friends the difficulty of tasting too many wines before finding the best. (For somebody not fond of admin - my brochures and notes of last year were actually filed under Mailly Foire Gastronomique...)
However, just after the entrance we temporarily ignored my list and tasted some champagne from Mailly, as Nerina & Hennie only arrived the day before and still had to explore champagne.  The house had a very good rosé champagne and we've decided we'll buy one on the way back to drink with the salmon that evening.

In the champagne house

Then their tour of good Burgundy wines started.  The best two stands of last year were just around the corner...

We have tasted Auxey-Duresses of different years to compare, Monthélie, Pommard, Santenay, Chassagne-Montrachet....Or should I say, I have submerged/drowned my visitors in Bourgogne wines?  By lunch time we had tasted 10 wines, including the champagne.  My mother gave up before the end.  After the Montrachet (one of the best and most expensive Bourgogne wines) she didn't want to taste any other wine, convinced nothing can compare to that, even though she normally doesn't like white wine.  When the winery heard that, they offered my mom another glass of Montrachet and we had a good laugh at her jumping at that opportunity.  I don't think the family back home would have recognised her!  For the sake of the uninformed - these Bourgogne wines are all either Pinot Noir or Chardonnay, but as France do not use the grape variety in the name, but that of the region, these are all different regions you'll find in Bourgogne.  And you'll appreciate that a Pinot Noir from Pommard does not taste like a Pinot Noir from Auxey-Duresse.
After all these wines, and buying some paté (which I afterwards agreed with JL is not the best, but after so many tastings it was super) we had to eat lunch.  Still lecturing my visitors about French gastronomy, we had a croque monsieur with a twist for lunch, with the strong smelly tasty cheese from the North - Maroille.  By then the driver decided to be more prudent and the white Meursault of Bourgogne N&H had to taste alone, 5 different types from the same wine grower. 

getting a lecture on Meursault wines

Then it was St Emilion, Chablis, Pineau, Montbazillac, oysters from the west coast (and Nerina decided she'll have to buy some for dinner), jambon (ham) and cheese from Bayonne, saucisson and cheese from the Savoy...

Mmm, delicious!!!!!!!

Below: these two guys must have thought we had far too much to drink. We were laughing so much.  After tasting the first piece of jambon we got a second, cut a bit thicker. I've said after tasting that I prefer the first and Nerina & my mom agreed, to which Hennie was saying but both were the same. We were mocking him, saying he had too much to drink. Just to be told by the guy after enquiring more that both were the same! Then we were laughing at ourselves!

We even had some street entertainment. Spot the lady in the blue dress in the back pushing the amp!

We left with arms full of wine and food, thankful that the car was not far. 

At the gate we were handed a gadget that measure your alcohol levels.  As Nerina was forced to taste the most (even Hennie gave up towards the end), she had to test it.  Thanks to the long time that we have spent at the fête she was fine (although it took us some time to figure out the gadget...).
The evening we continued at home with our own fête...

Randonnée with the French

After almost two months of very miserable weather we finally have sunshine, wonderful, bright hot sunshine.  Hence Wednesday afternoon, after realising the house is colder than outside (due to JL switching off the central heating that morning), my mom and I went for a walk.  On the way back we bumped into a friend of mine who invited us to join a group from Metz arriving the next morning for a walk through the vineyards and the forest.  The group are people in their sixties and Céline was confident it will be fine for my mom.
Yesterday morning arrived and sure, even warmer than the day before.  With a bottle of water in the backpack and money for in case we left to Champagne Rousseaux, the meeting place for the group.  We had to wait a while for the group to arrive as they were delayed by thick fog on the road.  When they got off the bus they looked like quite a 'op en wakker' group of people, geared with hiking boots and walking sticks.  I had my doubt whether our tekkies would be fine and wondering where did I put my walking stick...We are joining a group of pro's here!
We already had breakfast and didn't want more coffee or cake (on a table that comprised a wine barrel with a top), even though the friendly group of people offered us some. My mom, who started with French classes a few months ago, was a bit nervous about all the French, but tried to catch some words here and there.

Finally, we got going, the first part of the route through the vineyards.

It was very humid after all the rain, so quite hazy

The champagne farmers are quite busy in the vineyards this time of the year.  You see cars and the little trucks dotted in the vineyards as you drive around in the area (or walk like we did yesterday).

Some tracks in the vineyards are a cul-de-sac. Like this one...Hence after up hill, in vain, we had to go down again.... (the first of many ups and downs for the day, even though the others were not the result of a cul-de-sac but because of our location in the Montagne de Reims!)

 I was admiring the old omie (in the brown shirt) who, at 82 years old, walked courageously through the vineyards at his steady pace.

On our way to our neighbour village, Verzy

The walk delivered some surprises as I discovered that Veuve Cliquot's house has a beautiful garden that one does not see from the road.

Walking along their wall at the back of their property before we got a peep through a gate

After a short walk through Verzy we were in the forest, following steep muddy paths

The uphill becoming a bit too much for my mom (and a few other ladies)

Fortunately the part in the Faux Verzy (see the tree in the background then you know what is a faux) was flat.  We were laughing afterwards as the one guy was very enthusiastic when he heard we are South Africans and asked my mom in a very broken English where does she lives in SA.  And told us he went to SA and Namibia two years ago. And drank wonderful wine.  The type that we don't have in France.  'Pinotage?' I've asked him.  With enthusiasm he confirmed that is the wine.  He was talking 'dat die spoeg spat', waving his hand in front of my mother, who was walking in the middle, describing his wonderful trip while we were fearing that he will hit her in the face.  He rejoined me with a friend later on, talking about Italy, as it turned out that they are busy learning Italian.  My mom walked ahead of us, perhaps afraid of being slapped in the face, and was approached by another French who really wanted to talk to her.  He was so disappointed that he cannot speak English or German (as if she can speak German!) and she cannot speak French!

The bus took us from the Faux to a restaurant in Verzy.  However, they were full and couldn't accommodate me and my mom as well, so we bought pastries and Orangina at the boulanger who was still open, to our relieve (here everything normally closes between 12 and 2!).  The sweltering heat as we start climbing the steep streets of Verzy towards the garden with its picnic benches made me doubt if we'll make it to Verzenay.  Fortunately the young man who occupied the only picnic table in the shade realised he needs to make place for us to have our snack.  The shade and the sugar gave us the required energy to continue our road, on a very muddy road in the forest to Verzenay.

It was the first time that I saw water flowing at this spot!

We were relieved when reaching Verzenay, completely exhausted after a walk of about 7 km, very up hill and down hill and in humid heat!

 

Chenonceau - the ladies' château

I had to insert this aerial photo from their website, as it gives a good idea of the layout of this feminine château, one of the most visited in the Loire and recognisable due to its location across the river Cher.  The garden on the top is the one of Diane, the one at the bottom the one of Catherine.  The tower building was the donjon.  You enter from the ticket office from the left, passing through a tree lined avenue, then entering through two sphinx before entering the open space in the center of the photo.

On its right (not visible on the aerial photo) are buildings which hosts a self service restaurant and behind it a more upmarket restaurant (with good food and reasonable prices, but you'll be lucky to find a table!).

The restaurant:

One of the most interesting facts of this château is that during WWII the one side of the river was occupied by the Germans, the other side was free, part of France not occupied by Germany.  Fascinating that one could be so close to freedom, yet so far!
The first castle was built in the 13th century, as a fortified mill.  The Cher was an important source for transporting building material, salt, wine and other goods.  During the 100 year war the castle was occupied by the English and was destroyed when the French retook it whereafter it was rebuilt. 
After financial difficulty of the owners, the castle became the property of Thomas Bohier, secretary of king Charles VIII and also serving in the administration of king Louis XII and François I.  His wife, Catherine Briçonnet, also from a rich family, liked to entertain the royalty at Chenonceau, including François I.  Thomas and his wife undertook a lot of work at Chenonceau.  They have destroyed the ancient castle, keeping only the donjon, and building a new castle and the walls along the river you can still see today.

 

 

It was mainly Catherine who oversaw the work while her husband was absent for long periods for work.  Thomas died in 1824 and Catherine two years alter.  Due to financial difficulty they had by the time of their death, François I confiscated the castle in 1835, paying an amount to the couple's son.

King Henri II offered the castle to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers.  After his death in 1559 his wife, Catherine de Médicis claimed the castle from Diane, offering her the castle in Chaumont-sur-Loire in exchange (a pretty castle between Blois and Amboise).
Both these ladies made changes to the castle. Diane had a bridge constructed across the Cher and a beautiful garden. 

Catherine installed two galleries over the bridge and her own garden, in a different style than that of Diane.

 

In 1733 a rich farmer, Claude Dupin, bought the castle.  His second wife, Louise Dupin, was responsible for the difference in spelling of the town, Chenonceaux, and the castle, Chenonceau.  They entertained famous people like Voltaire and Rousseau in the castle.  During the French Revolution she saved the castle buy camouflaging the little chapel as a storeroom for wood.  The original windows were destroyed during WWII when a bomb dropped not far from Chenonceau.
During WWI the castle served as a military hospital, treating more than 2 000 wounded soldiers.
For me it is one of the prettiest castles and the rooms give you a good idea of what it looked like during its former glory of entertaining royalty. 

 The kitchen offers insight in preparing meals for those big fêtes.

A final word of advice - unless if you are fit and used to cycle for a distance, rather go by car to Chenonceau than by bicycle (like we did in 2009 from Amboise to Chenonceau...). Although it is a pretty (hilly) road as you cycle through the wood and small villages, passing rustic farms.