Bonjour French Market Friends,
This week in F
rance many areas have been subjected to flooding after 35 days of non stop rain. The tempest named “Nils” is the third major storm this winter, driven by high winds, resulting in over 150 rivers bursting, or on the point of bursting their banks, causing record breaking floods. The storms also caused power cuts to over 900,000 homes. The impact of the flooding is viewed as the worst on record in France since record keeping started in 1959. The next storm coming in is “Pedro” with coastal winds up to 140km. These storms are recognised as a direct result of climate change. (Image courtesy Thomas Bernard AFP)
Back here in our beautiful city we are able to bask in our summer sunshine. The city is still full of visitors post S
ONA and the Mining Indaba. Most Embassies have a presence here in the city during SONA and the couple of weeks following. We supplied our beautiful French cheese to some of the events that were held in the city.
We have received a restock of several of our French dry goods. The most important one is the Confit de canard, Duck confit. This speciality comes from the Southwest region of France where there are abundant lakes and a proliferation of large, fat ducks. Confit is very slow cooked duck thighs and legs, in the duck fat which preserves the meat. It used to be stored in stone jars in a larder, nowadays the duck is packed in its fat and stored in a tin. All you have to do is to reheat the duck meat. We have received jars of duck fat. This fat is excellent for roast potatoes as the fat can heat up higher than most other fats.
We have received new stock of the Burgundy aged red wine and white wine vinegar from Edmond Fallot plus various flavoured mustards including yuzu, raspberry and honey balsamic. We have some attractive old-fashioned stone style mustard jars.
We have received Lentilles du Puy, the very special green lentil that comes from the Puy region and has a unique flavour as the lentils grow in volcanic soil. In addition, we have Black beluga lentils.
New in stock are small tins of Escargots, snails. Plus we have snail she
lls. All you do is heat them up and serve them with garlic and parsley butter and lots of baguette to mop up the butter. We have plenty of new terrines and mousses. Do come in and see what we have to tempt you.
In our cheese counter we have plenty of delicious cheese to tempt you from rich and ripe to delica
te and gentle flavour. We have a cheese to suit every taste from pungent Epoisses and Munster to rich and creamy Delice, firm textured favourites are Comte, Emmental, Morbier, Tomme and Le Gruyere.
For my recipe this week I decided to share a simple country recipe made with Puy lentils because we now have them in stock. I suggest pairing with a Louis Latour Valmoissine Pinot Noir.
I hope you enjoy our warm sunny weather and have a great weekend.
Regards
Suzanne and The French Market Team