Bonjour French Market Friends,
This week was La Rentree in France, when all the children head back to school after the long 
summer holidays. Here in Cape Town, we have 2 French schools (Lycee Francais) the Junior school is located in Kings Road Seapoint, and they are celebrating La Rentree on Saturday for all the new parents and anyone who wishes to join in. There will be stands, food, a bar and braai and ourselves with our French cheese, so come along and join in the French community.
Also hitting the news in France was the story of a wine maker who has been imprisoned for several years for making an
d selling in large quantities, a fake “champagne” using a combination of Spanish wine and some bubbles. The French take their wine industry very seriously and do not allow any form of copying or faking.
Here in Cape Town as the weather warms up, we have received quails’ eggs, they are so cute, nestled alongside our duck and super jumbo chickens’ eggs. The broad bean and artichoke season is in full swing. We have sourced from Maestro Dario, an Italian butcher resident in the Western Cape, Guanciale, this is thin slices of salt cured pork meat from the cheek. Another new product is slices of wild boar salami, made with red wine, this has lots of flavour.
In our Frenc
h cheese range, we have received a new stock of Camembert from Normandie, these are great to take on picnics or to bake in the oven with some garlic. We have more trays of ready sliced raclette for melting, and wheels of St Paulin, which is a mild, medium textured cheese. We have ready sliced of Roquefort on special as we have a lot in stock. A new cheese this week is Cambozola, this is a gentle flavoured creamy camembert style cheese with lines of blue go
rgonzola style running through it.
A new accompaniment to cheese, in stock this week, is Membrillo from Spain. This is a paste or thick jelly, made from quince and is usually served to accompany Manchego sheeps milk cheese which we always have in stock.
My recipe this week is a seasonal dish made with broad beans. Feve is the name for a broad bean in French (it can also mean a token) this dish is really easy, combining fresh broad beans served with lardons (chunky little pieces of bacon) topped with a poached egg. Pair with a glass of Gustave Lorentz Riesling from Alsace.
Suzanne and The French Market Team