Bonjour French Market Friends,
This week is the start of the online “MyFrenchFilmFestival 2025”, which is the first 
online Festival dedicated to French language films. The
Festival runs until the 17th February. There will be enough time for you to fully immerse yourself in the pleasure of French creativity. Your opinion counts too – as you can submit your ratings for the films. And there is a bonus – a prize of 2 return tickets to Paris on Air France to a lucky viewer. You can find out all the details on https://www.myfrenchfilmfestival.com/smartlists/festival6.
Other news from France concerns the abundance of wildlife in the countryside where wild boars (sanglier) still roam freely in forests. A marcassin (baby 
wild boar piglet) was abandoned by her mother next to a rubbish bin on the horse farm of Elodie Cappe, in the countryside near Chaource, over a year ago. Elodie named the piglet Rillette as a joke. (Rillettes are slow cooked shredded pork or boar meat that are packed in fat and spread on fresh baguettes). She hand reared the little piglet. Rillette became completely domesticated and is now fully grown weighing about 100kgs. Due to the strict rules in France concerning keeping wild animals, the local municipality decided that Rillette should be put down.
After continued applications to the Courts from Elodie and support in petitions from over 300,000 people, including animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot, a senior Judge has agreed that Rillette is 
domesticated and conforms to the necessary regulations and has instructed the local municipality to review their decision and that Rillette and should be allowed to live……(In case you are wondering, we do sell rillettes in the shop but they are not related to Rillette).
Back here in CPT, global rock star Robbie Williams wowed fans in Cape Town and c
aused a traffic jam around the city for several hours, as fans descended on the DHL stadium. Everyone who did make manage to get to the concert was blown away by Robbie and his music, he shows what an active 50-year-old is capable of achieving.
This week in the shop we continue with our special offer on Epoisses (less 50%), Delice and Vacherousse, Munster and buche de chevre (less 25%). We have received new stock of St Paulin, this orange rind cheese has 
a medium firm centre and a gentle flavour. From the Pyrenees we have the hand crafted Ossau-Iraty sheep’s milk cheese which has a dry crust and medium firm centre with a distinctive but subtle flavour. From across the Pyrenees in Spain, another popular sheep’s milk cheese is the Manchego which is made with pasteurised milk and aged for 6months. The flavour is milder than the Ossau-Iraty. Our third sheep’s milk cheese Roquefort which has an in
tense taste and salty flavour. Considered by the French to be the King of all blue cheeses. It is often served on a slice of fresh baguette that has been spread with a layer of unsalted butter and paired with a glass of sweet white wine such as Sauternes from Bordeaux. The sweet flavour of the Semillon grapes pairs beautifully with the strong flavoured Roquefort.
From Holland this week, we have received a new stock of the vols aux vents pa
stries made with real butter. They come in a standard size pack of 4, or a mini size pack of 12. Ideal to use for an easy starter or main course, you can fill them with the traditional chicken and mushroom filling or a melted cheese sauce, or prawns in mayonnaise, or mushrooms and truffle sauce. There are endless filling recipes. All you do is warm the pastry cases up slightly and add you’re your favourite filling.
We have in stock the Crème de Cassis which is a blackcurrant liqueur made in 
Burgundy and is usually served with some Champagne to make a Kir Royale, although the humbler origin was blending the Cassis with a still white wine from a lower-than-average standard to improve the taste of the wine. If you prefer a non alcoholic Cassis we now stock a Cassis cool drink with zero sugar.
To serve with your cocktails we have received new stock of the cheese wafer balls that have a cream cheese filling. These were fashionable with little old ladies as they served their pre-lunch drinks, I always remember my grandmother making me hand them around at her cocktail parties whilst her guests swigged back the sherry. These wafer cheese balls are definitely coming back into fashion.
In our fresh meat produce we do have stock of pork rillettes, pork terrine, duck liver mousse and duck 
liver and port parfait. To pair with the meat, we have crunchy salty cornichons. We also have freshly made traditional French style mayonnaise and Aioli, a garlic flavoured mayonnaise.
Please remember to let me know if you wish to order an individual sized heart shaped chocolate cake for Valentines Day. They will be freshly baked and ready for collection on the Friday 14th.
For this week’s recipe I decided to share one of my favourite easy recipes, a crumble made with French butter (makes such as difference to the taste of the crumble) and fresh raspberries. Pair this with the Rose l’Exuberance from Clos Contenac, St Emilion, Bordeaux. See recipe below.
I wish you a warm and sunny weekend full of treats and beautiful French food.
Regards
Suzanne and The French Market Team