Bonjour French Market Friends,
This is my favourite time of the year when all our plans come together in preparation for Xmas Festivities. Our shop is literally bursting at the seams with lots of special treats to enjoy with friends and families.
Around us the shops are full already with many international visitors, we hear accents from across the globe as these visitors come to enjoy our beautiful city and summer weather. We also welcome families from around S.Africa as everyone comes to enjoy our beaches and mountain and of course to find special treats in our French Market shop.
Right now
people are looking for Secret Santa gifts for their friends and year end office parties. Usually, the gift should be under R100. The most popular gifts are the mini panettones, the Baci dark chocolate tubes which contain 3 chocolates, the chocolate coated marzipan bars and the small tins of French pate.
Now is the time to place orders for your Buche de Noel. These are the traditional French chocolate log Christmas cakes, that are so
beautifully decorated and taste amazing. Our French baker Cedric is again preparing to spoil us with a selection of the best chocolate log cakes in S Africa. There are several different versions, and they come in different sizes. Please contact me for more details. Orders must be placed by 15 December.
In the shop we currently have about 200kg of cheese and another 300+ kgs are landing this weekend. This shipment includes various speciality cheeses that I bring in for the Festive Season, 
including Mont D Or, little triple cream delice with truffles, Puligny St Pierre and plenty more. I will send out more details next week.
New in stock this week is wild caught smoked salmon from the North Pacific, this beautiful salmon has a different texture and deeper flavour to farmed salmon.
Another favourite that has just arrived is Blinis, these small pancakes are made in France and are great to serve as tapas, for example, blinis topped with crème fraiche and caviar, which we also stock. You can substitute Keta pink salmon roe or black lumpfish roe. There are many ways to serve the blinis, usually I lightly toast the blinis on either side to crisp them slightly, before serving.
We will be getting a small quantity of fresh black autumn truffles in the shop this week, please let me know if you would like some and I will reserve for you, or if you want to order some for closer to Xmas.
We have a new stock of jars
of duck terrine and duck rillette from France, these are always popular as a snack or on a picnic. We have plenty of duck confit which is my absolute favourite for Christmas dinner. Confit de Canard (preserved duck) is made by slow cooking fat ducks thighs and legs, after several hours these legs (cuisses) are packed in their fat, to which is added some aromatic spices.
This is the ancient way of preserving meat as the fat preserves the cooked duck over the long winter nights. It is very easy to serve, you just have to reheat the duck and accompany it by potatoes roasted in the duck fat.
Duck fat has a higher cooking temperature which enables the potatoes to become crispier. We stock tins of Duck confit in various sizes and we stock frozen duck confit in 4 leg packs. There are many ways to serve duck confit including
a version of Hachis Parmentier (shepherds pie). In this week’s recipe you create a base of onions and sliced duck skin and top this with roughly chopped duck topped with mashed potato. Pair this with a glass of our Cabernet Sauvignon from Bordeaux. I recommend The Charmes de Kirwan a Cabernet Sauvignon dominated, stunning wine from the Margaux region in Bordeaux.
This weekend Cape Town is hosting the Rugby Sevens, I hope you enjoy the match, remember to take a snack of Truffle chips or cheese biscuits with you to enjoy.
Regards
Suzanne and The French Market Team