August ‘Meanderings’ …
All images ©’Meanderings through my Cookbook’ www.hopeeternalcookbook.wordpress.com
Pictured (top to bottom)
Melon & Ginger Ice Cream
Raw Beetroot Salad
Tarte Tatin by Susan Loomis
Last time I wrote one of these updates I was looking forward eagerly to our French holiday, but that has long since gone and since I have been back it feels as if my feet haven’t touched the ground. I have cooked several delicious recipes since our return and I will try to add them in the coming weeks.
We managed to find the sunny weeks in the midst of what was mostly a very disappointing summer and Brittany was as pretty as I remembered it from my previous visits. We ate a memorable meal on our very first night travelling through Normandy en route to Brittany – always good to have a promising start! Brittany, it seems, has a Crêperie on every corner and several times we ate Galettes: sarraisan or buckwheat pancakes with a savoury filling (crêpes usually have a sweet filling). The region is famed for its seafood: we ate Moules Marinières, Coquilles St Jacques (as a Galette filling) and fresh Sardines in the town of Quiberon, with its canning industry and sardine festival. Sweet regional food included Crêpes, the sweet pancake eaten either plain with melted butter and sugar or with any one of a variety of fillings and Kouign Amann, a butterscotch flavoured sticky cake, but I was disappointed not to see ‘Far’ on sale very often. (Never mind, I can at least make that one at home – I have posted an excellent recipe for Far Breton on this site!) Finally, rather than wine, we drank Breton cider and also Kir Breton: a mixture of fruit liqueur and cider (blackberry liqueur was particularly good).
I had a break from posting recipes while I was away so there are very few updates for August. Before I went away I posted the recipe for Melon & Ginger Ice Cream and once I came back, having been inspired by a book I read on holiday I made and posted a recipe for a tasty and unusual Raw Beetroot Salad. This recipe came from Tarte Tatin: further adventures in a small French town by Susan Loomis, about which I wrote a review and I look forward to trying a few more of Loomis’ delicious sounding recipes.
For a full list of postings since my July Meanderings see below. (Recipes already posted have been highlighted and the others will appear in coming weeks.)
August Recipes …
Melon & Ginger Ice Cream
Raw Beetroot Salad
Book Review: Tarte Tatin: further adventures in a small French town by Susan Loomis
Read Meanderings ‘a la carte’ from previous months
‘For what we are about to receive…’ September 2009 and beyond
Food for the mind…
Non Fiction Food book
I have discovered a fascinating little book called In the Devil’s Garden: a sinful history of forbidden food by Stewart Lee Allen. No recipes, but lots of fascinating foodie facts and theories.
… and for the September table …
I will be trying out a few French style ideas in the next month or so, trying to prolong the holiday a bit I suppose! Some years ago I made pâté so I will be looking for a good recipe for a simple pork pâté to try out, I have a crepe pan and as I have some French buckwheat or sarraisin flour we can have galettes. I would also like to try to replicate some more French patisseries: Tarte au Citron and Le ‘Far’ Breton are family favourites.
Recipe books I’ll be looking through (just a few!) …
The French Kitchen: A cookbook by Joanne Harris & Fran Warde – Pub: Transworld
French Desserts by Laura Washburn
A Flavour of Provence by Katy Holder & Susie Ward – Pub: Chartwell Books