While staying in a Provencal village near Mirabel aux Baronnies, our good friend Adrienne Jones sent us the following email a few days ago. Adrienne and her husband Cecil have owned a house near Mirabel for about 10 years and, although they can and do visit Provence throughout the year, they always schedule a visit in January and February. It’s one of their favorite times of year in Provence.
“Nothing says lovin’like somethin’ from the oven….”
Sarrians, January 24, 2012
Mes chers amis,
In a display of courage worthy of the Great Generation, I am proud to report that my Silver Fox signed up for a cooking course Monday night offered by a local master chef!
Pascal Poulin is au piano (manning the stove) every night at Le Dolium (http://www.dolium-restaurant.com/Restaurant-Le-Dolium.html), his distinguished restaurant around the corner in Beaumes-de-Venise – every night, that is, except Mondays in the winter when he invites up to five students into his kitchen at 6 p.m. to learn to prepare a three-course seasonal menu. Spouses or lovers are invited to arrive around eight to enjoy the meal along with a table for four guinea pigs seated separately (we guess at a reduced price….something like agreeing to get your hair cut by a student at a beauty school).
Cecil and his classmates
Cecil had only two other students in his class: Jean-Paul, a fifth-generation vigneron (wine grower) who single-handedly cultivates, manicures, and harvests his 22 acres; and Timothy, a 10-year old going on 30, who is serious about cooking and was given the class as his first choice of a Christmas present. His charming, young, formerly Parisian parents own the ultra-romantic Beaumes-de-Venise B&B, “Le Clos Saint Saourde” (http://www.leclossaintsaourde.com) and joined us for dinner. It was somewhat amazing to be in the company of basically a child who was able to stay happily at the table until midnight (on a school night, no less) without drawing, playing video games, wandering about the restaurant, requiring a television, or importuning his parents to leave. And lest you get the idea he was some sort of pampered Fauntleroy, he is actually the second of four children and shares a room with his brother. Cecil claims Timothy wished to brook no special consideration, despite his young age and the fact that his apron came down to his ankles. He participated in boning the sea bass, but Pascal stopped at letting him wield the chalumeau (the special blow torch required to caramelize the foie gras crème brulee).
Monday night was the “Truffles Menu” in honor of truffles season, at its peak here from mid-January to mid-February. The Vaucluse, where we are, and the Dordogne, in the southwest, are the two main sources in France for what they reverentially call “black diamonds.”
Here is the menu Cecil learned to make:
- Crème caramélisée au foie gras, truffes et bouquet de mache – an ingenious recipe like the crème brulée dessert we all know but made instead with foie gras dusted with sugar so you can caramelize the top with the special blow torch, enhanced with a green salad of mache and sliced truffles dressed with truffle-flavored olive oil – Out of this world!
- Loup de Mediterranée, fèves et truffles noires – European sea bass, lima-like beans but better, and (more) black truffles – Super!
- Tarte fine aux pommes et aux truffles– literally, an apple tarte with
Tarte fine aux pommes et aux truffles
shaved truffles, but what the description leaves out is the crème fraiche that makes it Oh So Good. N.B. There were two differences between Pascal’s tarte and the one Cecil made two summers ago: (1) Pascal requires the apples be sliced razor thin, which my Fox discovered when he was required to scrap his first effort and start over: “Non non Cécil, pas comme ca,” (not so fast there, Buster); and (2) he uses less than half the sugar of the summer recipe.
It was graceful feat on the part of Pascal to balance the menu after the sweet first course. The wines were all from Baumes-de-Venise – a white for the first course and a redwith the fish!, and after the espresso, a fortified, florally fragrant Baumes-de-Venise muscat (the kind that makes your eyes roll around in your head after two sips, like cherries in a slot machine).
So there you have it – a bit of news from the rolling hills of Sarrians. We miss you lots already and hope you will send us your news too.
With love and hugs from Cecil and me,
xo Adrienne