LATEST NEWS

This last week has been hectic – we did a cheese and wine tasting event for a corporate client with 70 attendees (which is why I never managed to send out a mail last week plus I moved home on the weekend and I am surrounded by boxes and can’t even find a wine glass). With this number of guests, it required a considerable amount of planning and preparation, we were even asked to do a mini pop-up shop which was fun!

The South African Black Winter truffle season has arrived, and we will have some fresh truffles in the shop this weekend. They have an intense flavour and are home grown which makes them even more exciting. Additionally, in our fresh produce range, we have beautiful free-range eggs that often have a double yolk, they have a great taste as well. Therefore, for this week’s recipe I am proposing some deliciously creamy free-range scrambled eggs mixed with fresh black winter truffles.

In our shop tomorrow we have a wonderful range of French cheeses and French wines for you to make your very own special 14th July Bastille Day party. Tomorrow we are offering 10% discount on all our cheese and French wines in celebration of Bastille Day!

New stock this week includes Reblochon from the Savoie, these beautiful cheeses are great for making Tartiflette, the classic French potato bake topped with Reblochon. We also have a Fourme d’Ambert which is one of the original blue cheeses dating back to pre-Roman times. We have lots of small Camemberts, Pont l Eveque, Munster, Epoisses, Morbier, Raclette, Brie de Meaux, Brie with truffles and more to tempt you!

From France this week was a new stock of beautiful cheese including baby Munster, raw milk Camemberts and wheels of Brie de Meaux. These Camemberts from Normandie and Bries from Meaux are all traditionally made with raw milk and therefore full of flavour. As they ripen the aroma gets stronger and their centres soften into a lovely creamy texture. The brie has a slightly more buttery flavour, while the Camembert has more of a tangy flavour. Do stop by the French Market shop, or order online and try some of these delicious cheeses!

Lots of new cheese stock came in from Paris to the shop this week. We have loads of Brie de Meaux, Epoisses, brie with Truffles, Vacherousse, Delice triple cream, Pont L Eveque, little fresh goats crottin, raw milk Emmental, Tete de Moine, Comte aged 16 months, Morbier, and an amazing 20 month aged Gruyere, the flavour is quite exceptional. Do come in and try some!

New cheese in stock this week from Switzerland is the unpasteurised Swiss Appenzeller, this popular cheese has a dense texture and is aged for a short period. In addition, from Switzerland this week, we have received boxes of readymade cheese fondue which is very popular in this cold winter weather. All you need to do is to heat the fondue and bake some baguettes, which you can use to dip into the fondue!

The cheeses from Burgundy that we have in stock in the French Market shop right now, are the addictive Delice triple cream, this cheese is made with extra cream thereby making it incredibly rich and dense, with a slightly tart delicate flavour. On the other end of the taste scale from Burgundy, is the famous Epoisses de Bourgogne. This cheese is finely sprayed with the Marc de Bourgogne (Burgundy brandy) until the rind develops a distinctive orange crust and gooey centre. It has an incredibly pungent nose and delicious flavour. It is even rumoured that this cheese is banned on public transport in France!

This week in our shop we have a range of blue cheese. The Roquefort is designated by the French as the “King” of all blue cheeses, it is made from sheep’s milk and has a strong salty flavour, try it with some baguette spread with lots of unsalted butter and pair it with a pear preserve. Our Bleu d’Auvergne is a crumblier, medium flavoured blue cheese made from cow’s milk in the heart of the Auvergne region. Our Fourme d’Ambert is one of the oldest cow’s milk cheeses originating from the town of Ambert. It is shaped like a cylinder as it was traditionally made in a wooden bucket (Fourme) which gave it a cylindrical shape. This blue is the mildest of the three French blues and has a delicate fruity flavour. We also stock Gorgonzola from Italy which is a strong pungent flavoured cow’s milk blue cheese. In addition we have a whole range of cheeses from creamy to hard, mild to strong for you to enjoy!

We have lots of delicious cheeses for you this week, from the strong aroma and runny Brie de Meaux; lots of creamy but not quite as strong Vacherousse, dense and rich but delicate flavoured Delice triple cream. Tete de Moine from Switzerland. Tart and crumbly Devonshire cheddar. Firm textured and strong flavoured Appenzeller to mention but a few. If you wish to try something new then taste some of the St Nectaire, this is a dry crust, mountain cheese with a medium firm centre and its own distinctive flavour.

Our famous cheese from the northern Basque region is Ossau-Iraty AOC. The name derives from the forest region of Iraty and the next door valley of Ossau, in the foothills pf the Pyrenees mountains. This cheese has been made for centuries in this region, with the earliest records of the cheese being sold in the markets at Toulouse. Wheels of the cheese were used by farmers as barter to pay for their taxes. The milk comes from sheep raised in the Ossau-Iraty hills. The cheese was awarded AOC status, confirming its uniqueness and protecting the name from copycats. The cheese is made into a wheel weighing about 2,5kg. It has a dry crust and dense medium firm texture. The flavour is gentle and is similar to the well-known Spanish cheese Manchego.

With the temperature moving down to 10 degrees at night, it’s starting to feel really wintery and I think longingly of all the delicious cheese dishes which are so typical of the ski resorts in Savoie, in the French Alps. The melting cheese in fondues, Raclette melted in front of log fires and the flavoursome potato bake Tartiflette made with Reblochon de Savoie, are some of the most famous.

For this week, in addition to a wonderful selection of cheese that is fit for a king’s table, we also have a stock of Pol Roger Champagne which was the preferred champagne of Winston Churchill, and certainly the perfect champagne to toast the newly crowned king of the United Kingdom!

With the onset of the chilly winter weather, now is the time that everyone starts making hot dishes from various types of French cheese. The simplest one is slices of Raclette which you melt, either in front of a fire, or in a pan over heat or microwave, you then scrape (“Racler” in French) the melted cheese over potatoes or bread. You could however, also choose to bake a whole Camembert, which comes in smaller sizes if you want a little fondue for just 1 or 2 people.

For this week’s recipe I decided to make a quick and easy dessert with some of our fresh dragon fruit and readymade frozen pastry tartlet cases. The simplest way to use the tartlets is to bake them blind in the oven for 10 minutes, then line them with some strawberry jam, top with fresh sliced dragon fruit and thick yoghurt. You can also decorate it with some dragon fruit granita. Best served with a glass of Italian Prosecco!

We have lots of delicious cheese to offer all the visitors in town this weekend. We have bio organic, raw milk Camemberts from 
Normandie which have an amazing flavour and lovely soft creamy centres. These come in individual boxes and are ideal for picnics and alfresco entertaining. You can also pop them in the oven and bake them to create a fondue. We have the gold medal winning Brie de Meaux by Donge, which has been hand-ladled and stored on mats of straw during its maturation. The centre is soft and full of flavour. Try some of each and you will notice that this Brie tastes completely different to the Camembert!

All our cheese has arrived in time for this Easter weekend, including many that were out of stock. We now have Brie with truffle cream filling, delice triple cream, vacherousse, Tete de Moine, Mont D Or, Reblochon, Morbier, Tomme de Savoie, Comte, lots of unpasteurised organic camemberts, Pont l Eveque, Epoisses, Munster, raclette, St Nectaire, aged Le Gruyere, aged Emmmental, buche de chevre and crottin de chevre, and a whole range of blue cheeses. There is certainly something for everyone!

We have trays of the most beautiful black Persian figs this weekend, they are large and full of flavour. I found a great recipe in one of my favourite recipe books by famous French chef Eric Frechon, for a simple fig dessert, baked with honey, vanilla, cinnamon and rosemary.

With the abundant crop of figs currently in season, I seem to always end up with a few soft ones which I then turn into a dish. This week I decided to make some fig and cinnamon chutney. This is a really simple recipe using ripe figs, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and cinnamon sticks. Very yummy with our range of French cheeses too!

With the public holiday on Tuesday the 21st, this coming weekend is likely to be turned into a long weekend by many. Our shop will be open every day, as will all the shops in the Gardens Centre, so do come in and avail yourself of some delicious treats to enjoy over the weekend (note we close at 14:00 on the public holiday on Tuesday).

New cheese in this week for the first time, is a unique mature cloth bound cheddar from Quicke’s Farm in Devonshire. This dairy farm has been in the Quicke’s family for 15 generations and is located outside of Exeter. The Devon cows graze in the deep grass pastures of this West Country farm and produce rich creamy milk. Across the channel lies Normandie which has similar deep grass pastures.

Hello French Market friends, This week is the start of the month of Francophonie around the globe, where French speaking people celebrate France and all its amazing culture. There is a full programme of art and culture at the Alliance Francaise in Cape Town and...

Hello French Market friends, Our beautiful sunny city is very busy this weekend with three global sporting events taking place in the city, so traffic will be challenging. This afternoon we have the Cape Town In-Port sailing race taking place in Table Bay. This is...

Hello French Market friends. Looking back on the last three years I am, like so many of you, a business owner who navigated the Pandemic crises and nurtured my business back up the economic cliffs, surmounting the challenges of getting our produce to travel 10 000 km,...

Bonjour French Market friends, Our city is coming back to normal after a very busy Christmas and New Year season, for which we are all truly grateful. There was plenty to attract tourists here including the 50th Cape to Rio race, with entries from around the world....