Earlier this week, I clicked on the wrong button whilst writing this week’s post. I’d not finished writing it at the time, my apologies!. It is now on-line and you can read the full story here. 🙂
Here it is
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Monthly Archives: November 2018
Seasonal blend
The third Thursday of November marks the release of Beaujolais nouveau, a newly made wine which has just finished fermenting. There is quite a bit of tradition surrounding this event, which has been going on since the 1950’s – the Wikipedia article about it can be found here.
The wine producers in our area thought that the idea of vin nouveau would be too good an opportunity to miss, so several producers offer a vin nouveau or a vin primeur, two names for the essentially the same product: newly made wines which are bottled and sold shortly after the wine has finished fermenting. These wines are usually characterised as being light, fruity and easy to drink, preferably slightly chilled. It’s a real treat if paired with roasted chestnuts!
This year, I found that the cooperative winery in Saint-Jean de Minervois was doing their version of the vin nouveau, offering a Muscat de Noel, a Christmas muscat!
I had to make a trip to Saint-Jean and try the muscat for myself, purely in the interest of research, you understand! 😉
The day I visited the winery, the space out front was stacked with pallets of empty bottles! All of these would be filled up in due course!
The Muscat de Noel is the first muscat to be drawn off and bottled from this year’s vintage. I tasted it in tandem with another muscat from the winery in Saint-Jean, Eclat Blanc, which the lady behind the counter told me was the closest equivalent. The comparison was very interesting, with some marked differences between the two wines. The Muscat de Noel had a much fruitier taste and a lovely smell (nose) of pineapple. It tasted as though there was not much alcohol in it, even though it packs a punch with 15.5% alcohol, and it was far too easy to drink! 🙂 The Eclat Blanc muscat was a very elegant wine, with a very good balance between fruitiness and acidity. The alcohol content was the same, but somewhat more in evidence!
A sweet Muscat de Saint-Jean de Minervois wine is ideal as an aperitif before the start of a meal, with foie gras (duck or goose liver pate), or with some nice blue cheese such as Roquefort. It can also be used in cooking – I made a very delicious flan, which was flavoured with muscat!
Do you enjoy muscat wine? What is your favourite food to pair with muscat wine?
Lest we forget
On November 11, 2018, France remembered the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. Ceremonies were held all over the country, to honour those who had fought and died in that war. The ceremony in Saint-Chinian took place at the Monument aux Morts, the War Memorial, in the garden outside the town hall.
The War Memorial in Saint-Chinian was sculpted in the 1920’s by Jean Magrou, a well known sculptor from Beziers.
For the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, the town hall had been decorated with the flags of some of the countries involved in that war. Can you tell which countries the flags represent?
A good number of people and regimental flags turned out for the remembrance ceremony!!
Following a speech by the mayor, a wreath was laid, a minute’s silence observed, and then the Marseillaise was played (and sung)!
After the ceremony, everybody proceeded to the cemetery, to pay their respects at the Carre Militaire, the graves of the soldiers who died for their country.
Their final resting places are marked with simple white crosses, on which their names and dates are inscribed.
November 11th remembers the signing of the Armistice, which put an end to four years of deadly conflict in Europe. Millions of soldiers lost their lives during the war! Statistics say about 6000 people died every day during the four years the war lasted. That’s more than three times the entire population of present-day Saint-Chinian!
Right now we are enjoying the longest period of peace Europe has known for a long time – let’s work together to keep it that way!
Here is the solution to the flag question (from left to right):
Serbia, Portugal, Australia, Canada, Romania, France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, USA, Montenegro, Belgium, Greece, New Zealand. It took me some time to figure them out!! 🙂
Still lots going on!
You’ll be forgiven for thinking that at the end of the summer the area falls into a Sleeping Beauty-like torpor – but far from it! There is still plenty going on to keep us entertained!!
As soon as fall starts, there are the harvest festivals such as the ones I wrote about last week. The theatre season starts up again in Narbonne, Beziers and Montpellier. Beziers has several venues for theatre, classical music, dance and even opera – you can find the full programme here.
The theatre in Narbonne is housed in a very modern building, quite a contrast to the quaint old theatre in Beziers. It does have better sight-lines than the theatre in Beziers, and the second (smaller) auditorium has been equipped for cinema screenings. The programme can be found via this link.
The live broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City are screened at the Theatre in Narbonne, and at the MonCine cinema in Beziers!
Montpellier, being a big city, has a number of theatres of all types – a modern opera house, a grand 19th century theatre building and several smaller theatres. There’s always something going on! The programme can be found here.
November is the time when people in this area start to buy fresh foie gras and other bits of duck and goose, to prepare a stock of goodies to last them the winter!
Coursan and Limoux have their Foires au Gras – literally translated as ‘Fat Fairs’ but they are really foie gras markets – on November 18 (Coursan) and 24 (Limoux), 2018.
The truffle markets start this year on December 15 with a market in Moussoulens. The last truffle market of the season will be on March 10, 2019 in Cabrespine – you can find dates and the programme here.
In preparation for Christmas (think shopping!!), eleven wineries in the Saint-Chinian area have a day of tastings and visits on December 8, 2018 – the programme can be found via this link.
Next, we have Christmas markets! They are becoming ever more popular in the area – here is a small selection for you:
November 24 and 25, 2018 – (Christmas) Cracker Fair at the Abbaye de Valmagne
December 2, 2018 – Christmas market in Saint-Chinian, Salle de l’Abbatiale
December 9, 2018 – Christmas market in Capestang, Salle Nelson Mandela
In the bigger towns, the Christmas markets are on for most of December:
Les Hivernales Christmas market in Montpellier is open from November 29 to December 27, 2018.
Carcassonne’s Magie de Noel opens on December 6, 2018 and closes on January 6, 2019.
So far, most of this post has been about food and other shopping opportunities. Here now are a few more opportunities for entertainment:
On December 12, 2018 the Salle de l’Abbatiale in Saint-Chinian hosts a concert with the La Cantarela choir from Beziers, Ulrike van Cotthem (soprano), Sebastien Mazoyer (bandoneon) and Conrad Wilkinson (piano). There’ll be music by Debussy, Faure, Schumann and Strauss, and the Misatango by Martin Palmeri. This should be a very good concert – don’t miss it!
The Christmas concert in Narbonne takes place on December 15 in the cathedral, with the Narbonne Symphony Orchestra, the Via Lyrica choir and Daniele Scotte (soprano). This should be another great concert.
And finally, If you are a fan of the circus tent, you’ll have to visit Toulouse between December 1, 2018 and January 6, 2019. The Grande Cirque de Noel pitches its tents at the Cepiere racetrack in Toulouse. There will be acrobats, clowns, horses, daredevil stunts and more!!
A firm favourite
In our area, autumn is chestnut time, and there are several festivals to celebrate the chestnut harvest. I’ve written about the festivals before. You can find the posts here, here, and here. This year, I went to the Chestnut Festivals in both Saint-Pons and Olargues – over the years they have become firm favourites of mine!
The weekend the festival took place in Saint-Pons, the area was experiencing a cold-snap: temperatures plummeted to 6 Celsius, well below the seasonal average!! The stall-holders were well wrapped up against the cold! Below is a picture of a very warmly dressed Lex Page from Love la Foret! Lex and her husband Andy specialise in dried mushrooms – I bought some delicious cep (porcini) mushroom powder from them a little while back, and I needed a top-up!
The festival in Saint-Pons always has a large number of exhibitors and I found many familiar stands!
I adore roasted chestnuts, so I made a beeline to the square where the chestnuts were being roasted over open fires!
The hot chestnuts were delicious AND they warmed my hands!!
Bands of roving musicians provided entertainment, and there was lots to see and taste. Despite the cold weather this was a very enjoyable festival!
The Fete du Marron et du Vin Nouveau (the festival of chestnuts and new wine) took place in Olargues a week later. The weather couldn’t have been more different – it was beautiful! The sun was out and there was a marked difference in temperature – absolutely no need for thermal underwear!!
I had of course come for the roasted chestnuts!! The set-up in Olargues is much smaller than it is in Saint-Pons, but the chestnuts were every bit as delicious!
On a recent visit to L’Auberge de l’Ecole in Saint-Jean de Minervois, I tasted a tiramisu which had been made with creme de marron, a sweet chestnut puree made from broken pieces of marrons glacés. This was a very delicious dessert and I have attempted to recreate the recipe for you below. When you next visit L’Auberge de l’Ecole, you’ll be able to taste Brigitte’s authentic version!
Tiramisu with creme de marron
A delicious tiramisu, with a special flavour of autumn. You can make this in individual serving dishes, or use one large dish.
Ingredients
- 250g mascarpone (1 tub)
- 3 eggs
- 125g creme de marron (chestnut puree)
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 12 sponge fingers (also called ladyfingers or boudoir biscuits)
- 200ml strong coffee
- 2 Tbsp Rum
You will also need six to eight individual serving dishes (I used glass preserving jars), or a single serving dish, large enough to hold 6 sponge fingers in a single layer.
Ingredients for chestnut tiramisu
Directions
1. Separate the egg yolks from the whites.
2. In a medium-sized bowl beat the egg yolks with 1 Tbsp sugar until white and thick. Add the mascarpone and the creme de marron and mix until lump-free.
3. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
4. Fold one third of the beaten egg whites into the mascarpone mixture to ‘loosen’ it. Then add the remaining beaten egg whites and fold in until the mixture is smooth.
5. Pour the cold coffee into a shallow bowl and add the rum.
6. To assemble the tiramisu, put some of the mascarpone mixture in the bottom of your dish (one third of the mixture if using one large dish). Dip each sponge finger briefly into the coffee and arrange in a neat layer in your dish. Top with another third of the mascarpone mixture and repeat with the sponge fingers. Finish with the last third of the mascarpone mixture and level with a spatula. If you are using individual serving dishes, break/cut the sponge fingers to make them fit.
7. Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge to chill for four to six hours.
Before serving you may wish to dust the tiramisu with cocoa powder but try it without the cocoa powder first. I find that it can overpower the delicate flavour of the chestnut puree.
Note: In her version, Brigitte uses chestnut brandy, which is pretty impossible to find. I found rum to be reasonable substitute, but if you can find chestnut liqueur it would be even better. Brigitte also omits the coffee and uses only alcohol to soak the biscuits in.
Back again!!
It’s been a long time since my last post – my apologies to all of you who have been wondering what had happened to me!! To answer that in detail would take a long time (and might not be all that interesting), so I’ll keep it brief! 🙂 What I had thought of as a short summer break turned into a more prolonged vacation! The summer in Saint-Chinian was busy, filled with visitors, endless days of hot and sunny weather, and lots of work in helping to organise the music festival in July. As soon as the July festival was over, work started on another series of concerts in September. The good weather continued until fairly recently, and with it the flow of visitors.
Some of you will have read reports of the devastating floods which hit our area in Languedoc recently. Saint-Chinian did get a huge amount of rain, but our river did not do any serious damage to the village. Some of the gardens along the river were completely flattened, and the nursery downstream outside the village suffered some damage and loss to their plant stock, but that was pretty much it.
My heart went out to the people around Carcassonne who lost so much to this devastating flood, and I counted myself to have been very lucky.
Now that things have settled down, I am writing once more. I thought I would start off with a food post. I recently taught a couple of friends how to make chocolate mousse and i would like to share that with you.
Making chocolate mousse is not difficult and it requires very few ingredients: good chocolate, eggs, cream and water. Depending on your taste, the chocolate can be dark, milk or white. It needs to be of a good quality as the final result depends very much on the chocolate. It goes without saying that the eggs should be very fresh. (You’ll find a printable recipe at the end of this post.)
Ingredients for chocolate mousse
For my tutorial, I decided to use two different kinds of chocolate, white and dark. The dark chocolate was 72% cocoa; white chocolate contains no cocoa solids at all. This way, both of my friends could have some hands-on experience! 🙂
Preparing chocolate mousse – melting the chocolate
The chocolate pieces were melted in separate bowls set in bowls filled with hot water. Melting chocolate takes very little effort – just give it a stir from time to time and wait until it is all melted. The main thing is to not over-heat the chocolate, which can happen when it is melted in the microwave. When melting the chocolate, be careful not to splash water into the melted chocolate, as this would cause the chocolate to “seize up” and become granular.
While the chocolate was melting, we separated the egg yolks from the whites. Once the chocolate had melted, the egg yolks were stirred into the chocolate. This was easier with white the chocolate than with the dark. Don’t worry if the chocolate goes granular or gritty to begin with, just keep stirring/beating until it becomes a shiny mass or lump.
The water was added next. In this recipe, the water is used to make the chocolate and egg yolk mixture a little less stiff, so that the whipped egg whites don’t deflate as you try to fold them in. For the white chocolate only a very little water was required – about half a tablespoon was enough for 135g of white chocolate. For the dark chocolate we added about 5 tablespoons to 135g of chocolate. Every chocolate reacts differently, so you’ll need to use your own discretion with the water. The finished mixture should have the consistency of softened butter.
All ready for folding in the egg whites
We first whipped the egg whites, taking care not to over-beat them, until they formed soft peaks when the (stationary) whisks were pulled out. I added a tiny pinch of salt to the egg whites, which improved the flavour of the finished mousse. Next, we whipped the cream to soft peaks – it remained somewhat “floppy”.
The egg whites being folded in
The whipped egg whites were divided between the two bowls, and folded in gently. The reason that we added the egg whites first was that they would not have deflated if the chocolate mixture had still been a little warm. The whipped cream would have gone runny had it been added to a warm mixture.
We added the whipped cream before the egg whites were completely blended in. Further careful folding helped to keep the mixture as light as possible!
The finished mousse.
The white chocolate mousse turned out to be more runny than the dark, most likely due to the lack of cocoa solids in the white chocolate. We filled eight bowls and ramekins with some of each colour mousse.
Ready to go in the fridge!
The filled bowls looked very pretty!! Before they went into the fridge, each bowl was covered with cling film/plastic wrap.
Chocolate mousse needs a minimum of four hours in the fridge, so it is best made the day before you want to eat it, or in the morning if you want to serve it for dinner.
Delicious!!
We ate it the following evening – it was delicious!!
Chocolate Mousse
A light and airy chocolate mousse, the perfect ending to a meal.
Ingredients
- 270g chocolate
- 4 eggs
- 200ml whipping cream
- 100ml water
Directions
- Chop the chocolate or break it into small pieces. Separate the egg yolks from the whites
- Melt the chocolate in a medium-sized bowl over hot water.
- Beat the egg yolks into the melted chocolate until the mixture is glossy and clears the sides of the bowl.
- Add water one tablespoon at a time, mixing it in until the chocolate mixture has the consistency of soft butter. You may not need to add the full amount of water.
- Whip the egg whites with a tiny pinch of salt until soft peaks form.
- Whip the cream until soft peaks form.
- With a spatula or spoon, fold the whipped egg whites into the chocolate mixture, followed by the whipped cream.
- Divide the mixture between your individual serving bowls, or use one large serving bowl. Cover with film and refrigerate for a minimum of four hours before serving.
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