When my mother came to visit us this summer, she had one real attraction in mind. It wasn’t one of the normal sights like the Jet d’eau or the Mont Blanc. She wanted to watch bread baking at an original communal bread oven of rural France and complete a sort of pilgrimage to the historical source of the artisan bread baking movement. As it turned out, there was a reblochon cheese festival in nearby La Clusaz and for one day only (actually they bake on several special occasions) the four banal du Bossonnet would be baking hundreds of loaves of rustic bread to accompany the several giant tartiflettes and piles of freshly made ‘reblochon fermier’ cheese produced within the surrounding Aravis valley.
To accompany some plates of home made tabbouleh, I lightly pan fried some small fillets of a lake fish that I don’t know the name of in English. A dash of salt and pepper and a light dusting of flour was the only prep for the fish. Super quick and a good balance for a light lunch.
I don’t drink many soft drinks. It used to be a special treat, in my family, to drink the ocasional Coca-Cola, and having grown up in a town that, at the time, had a Coca-Cola bottling plant offering free samples, that particular drink will always maintain some fond memories for me, and I think a lot of other people for similar reasons. Sitting out on a hot summer day drinking a coke (from a frosty glass bottle, if possible) is just such a classic American thing to do. However, it has lost the magic. It doesn’t taste the same to me, and while part of that is due to the substitution of high fructose corn syrop for traditional cane sugar, part of it is due to the fact that I just don’t want to drink things that are that sweet anymore.
There has been a boom, in recent years, in companies offering alternative beverages to the big names. Often called ‘adult soft drinks,’ they contain less sugar, are organic, or are all natural. This alternative market has been lucrative, and has allowed companies like Hansen’s Natural’s stock to go up over 7000% in the last 10 years. If you had invested a few grand in that stuff instead of the technology companies that you thought were so hot in 1999, you would be rolling in the stuff.
Now, I can’t offer you the killer stock tip for the next decade, but I can show you how easy it is to make some syrup which can be combined with sparkling water to create your own tasty soft drink. To make any naturally flavored syrup, you essentially want to cook a simple syrup with whatever ingredients you want. Lately I have been drinking a lot of elderflower and blackcurrant (cassis) syrups, but today I am going to make separate ginger and lemongrass syrups.
I am saying syrup, but you of course may know it better as cordial or squash if you are from the UK.
It’s called simple syrup for a reason. Mix 2 cups of water with 1 cup of sugar for each batch of syrup.. Bring to a boil, and make sure all the sugar is disolved by stirring occasionally. Because I want maximum infusion, I put the ginger and the lemongrass in at the beginning. I used approximately 2/3 of a cup sliced ginger and 3 sliced lemongrass stalks. After bringing it to a boil, I turned it to very low and let it simmer for 10 more minutes. I let it cool and then strained out the pieces and poured the thickened syrup into bottles. It should keep for at least 3 weeks in the refrigerator, probably much longer.
Mix with sparkling water and pour over ice. Garnish with whatever you feel like if you feel like it at all; maybe some mint, a wedge of citrus, or a slice of cucumber.
Of course it is also great mixed into a cocktail or with some fruit juice, poured over ice cream or sorbet, stirred into some polenta, porrige, or even (please don’t kill me) grits, although I don’t think you are going to impress many people with ginger lemongrass grits as a dessert. If you do, let me know.
Not wanting to waste the nearly candied ginger, after pouring the syrup off, I added some more sugar and water and brought it back to a boil, then simmered again and finally, after it was translucent, removed the pieces of ginger and coated them with sugar. I then put them in a jar with some extra sugar to later use in cakes, cookies, ice cream, or just as a snack.
For dinner, I cooked a roasted chicken. I chose a coquelet, which is a young chicken also called a poussin or a spring chicken, because it is ideal for two people. I roasted it in a big heavy pan along with potatoes, onions, and eggplant. I served that with some classic and simple corn pudding.
Here is a video. If the embedded video does not work for you, just click on the link.
We are at Entremont this week, so today we went to the market at Le Grand Bornand, the nearest market town. It was raining pretty hard and snowing only a few hundred meters higher than us, so it was quite cold and grey and a bit wintry, but the beautiful spring vegetables on offer at the market proved that spring is definitely here, even if the ski lifts only stopped last week.
After getting back from the market, I put together a quick lunch. Yesterday I made a simple lentil and potato soup, so I heated that up and added some yogurt to mine. We ate the rest of the soup with some fresh bread from the village baker, plain salad, and fresh tiny radishes from the market.
It’s picnic season in geneva, so my wife and I made some food ahead of time that will accompany us to the park tomorrow, weather permitting.
Eggplant, called aubergine in French and in the UK, is very cheap at the moment. I bought two tender medium eggplants for 2 francs. I cut it into 1cm cubes and cooked them on low heat into a heavy pan.
I added 2 chopped dried tomatoes and 1 chopped fresh tomato, some brown sugar, some balsamic vinegar, some salt, and some olive oil and cooked with the lid on, sirring occasionally and checking the level of liquid in the pan. The result is an earthy dip, perfect to accompany an antipasto platter, to go alongside cooked meat as a sort of chutney, or to spread on bread. We’ll eat it tomorrow with the foccacia that I baked tonight.
I can’t believe I never really baked until last year. It is so rewarding and requires so little time, depending on what kind of bread you are going for. I have made a lot dried tomato foccacia because it is one of my wife’s favorite breads, but this week I have started adding pumpkin or seeds as well. They add nice texture and look great in the bread when it is sliced.
The weather forecast is calling for rain, so we will probably have to eat our picnic inside tomorrow. Oh well, eating some homemade cake with a cup of tea in our cozy flat and watching the rain sounds pretty good too.
The dried tomatoes add richness and a rustic flavor.
I have been making a lot of foccacia lately. I start the dough in the afternoon, then bake as I’m cooking dinner.
My wife made a lemon sponge cake and glazed it with boiled lemon juice and sugar
Update:
The rain, as forecasted, canceled our plans for a picnic in the park, so we had to settle for the indoor version. Ellie’s friend Sophie brought a beautiful salad, boiled eggs, and some tasty young carrots. What a great lunch.
When my mother came to visit us this summer, she had one real attraction in mind. It wasn’t one of the normal sights like the Jet d’eau or the Mont Blanc. She wanted to watch bread baking at an original communal bread oven of rural France and complete a sort of pilgrimage to the historical source of the artisan bread baking movement. As it turned out, there was a reblochon cheese festival in nearby La Clusaz and for one day only (actually they bake on several special occasions) the four banal du Bossonnet would be baking hundreds of loaves of rustic bread to accompany the several giant tartiflettes and piles of freshly made ‘reblochon fermier’ cheese produced within the surrounding Aravis valley.
