FrenchMarketNews 25Jul2024-PARIS2024-Olympics-Versailles-Chablis-Choc rum Truffles-Nougat-French Market Recipe 2024 34 Champignon au souffle de Cantal

Published on: 28 July 2024

Bonjour French Market Friends,

This weekend the world is watching Paris, as France hosts the Summer Olympics 2024, with the Opening Ceremony taking place tomorrow along the Seine. Athletes, officials, VIPS and entertainers will travel along the Seine on barges with the Olympic torch on its final leg, in front of thousands of spectators seated on tiers of benches on the banks of the canals. This is the 68th leg of the torch from the start of its journey in Greece, it has travelled throughout France and overseas territories, as far flung as the Pacific and Indian Ocean Islands. The torch bearers have included many athletes and other famous people. Recently it travelled through Louis XlVth’s magnificent palace, the Chateau of Versailles, carried by famous actress Salma Hayek. (Image courtesy of press.paris2024.org) I loved the words that Salma wrote on her Instagram post after the event: “Yesterday, I had the honor of carrying the Olympic flame, a symbol of light, hope, peace, and unity. If you believe in these values, know that you were with me every step of the way. As I passed the torch and took part in the relay, I was proud to represent the enduring spirit of the Olympics, bringing light, hope, and unity to all” #Olympics #Paris2024

With 10,500 athletes participating in the games from 205 nations this is truly a uniting global event. You can find all the details of the events and results on https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024 website.The Blitzboks have just beaten NZ this evening and will play France in the semi finals on Saturday afternoon (Image courtesy sarugby.co.za/news). There are plenty more events where S Africans are representing ZA. I suggest you invite your friends over to enjoy the spectacle, to make you feel part of it, come and get a French cheese platter and some French wine from our shop (we can deliver to you as well), just Whatsapp me on +27 83 300 6725 and we will organise.

With all the excitement of the Olympics it has almost overshadowed the upheaval in the Presidential race in the USA, with Biden retiring from the lists and the formidable Kamala Harris looking poised for nomination. We live in interesting times. I’m 100% behind her and wish her lots of strength. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Back here, in our shop this week we have lots of delicious cheese to tempt you. In the soft cheese range we have lots of gooey Brie de Meaux, rich triple cream Delice, soft Vacherousse from the Jura, smelly little Munsters and Epoisses, individual boxed Camemberts which make a beautiful gift. There is plenty of Raclette to melt in front of the fire. I recommend that you also try some of the Swiss Le Gruyere, our one is aged for a minimum of 15 months and has a crunchy texture and great depth of flavour. This is one of our premium cheeses and nothing like the plastic wrapped products found in supermarkets.

Our new French duck liver mousse is having a great success, with clients coming back for more. Have you tried our small jars of traditional terrines made with goose, duck and pork meat? These are ideal for a relaxed weekend lunch served on the table with freshly baked baguettes.

We have received a new stock of Chablis wine by J.Moreau and fils from Burgundy. This wine has been produced by the Moreau family since the 1814, around the town of Chablis at the northern end of Burgundy. The wine has a distinctive pure aroma, intense fruitiness and subtle minerality due to the soil where the town of Chablis is located, on top of the Kimmeridgean ridge. This soil contains ancient shellfish, giving a unique taste to the grapes with their roots sunk into this soil.

New in stock this week are some sweet treats to warm you up in our chilly weather. Made by Tina, a hard-working entrepreneur from Lebanon, who grew up in her grandfather’s patisserie and learnt to make sweet treats in the French style. Tina has created a range of products using authentic French recipes. We already stock her delicious madeleines. This week we have added madeleines dipped in imported Callibaut chocolate. We have some beautiful chocolate truffles made with rum, they blew me away the first time I tasted them. You can buy them individually or in a jar. We have honey and almond nougat and chocolate nougat. Come in and be tempted.

Correction to last week’s recipe – Cheese biscuits – sometimes I make mistakes with my measurements sorry, last week it was kindly pointed out to me that my measurements were a bit out – 3cm slices was really thick for the cheese biscuits – it should have been 3mm (an average biscuit width).

For this week’s recipe I did a cheese soufflé style filling for large field mushrooms. The secret is to use large field mushrooms with high sides which curl in a bit, forming a wall, as this helps the soufflé to rise, if the mushrooms are too flat the filling spills out and does not rise much (as I found out) but it still tastes good. It is also important to get the right temperature otherwise it does not rise. I used Cantal Cheese and a lot of garlic in the sauce which makes it nice and pungent. I sprinkled small croutons and crumbly bacon bits over the mushrooms which is not essential but adds an interesting saltiness to it. One advantage of the sauce is that it can be made the day before, then kept refrigerated until the dish is assembled. I suggest pairing with the Pavillon St Pierre, an earthy red wine from the Rhone valley.

I hope you have a great weekend, enjoy the Summer Olympics and good luck to our South African team.
Regards

Suzanne and The French Market Team

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