Stuffed cornes de boeuf peppers and a book on food and painting.

These cornes de boeuf peppers from Spain lend themselves ideally to stuffing and they are fascinating with their long and twisted shapes.

…cornes de boeuf…

Suggestions:

1. Any filling can be used…mushrooms, onions, peppers, courgettes, cheese, berries, broccoli florets, tomatoes, dried fruits, breadcrumbs, left over chicken, ground beef, quinoa, rice, lentils…
2. Ordinary  sweet peppers or courgettes can be used instead of the peppers. Or more piquant peppers.
3. Can be served as a starter or a vegetable accompaniment, or even a whole meal served on a green salad with a mustard vinaigerette.
4. When stuffed tightly with a crumbs filling, it can be sliced and served as an aperitif on canapés, with a moelleux wine, (a sweet, fruity white wine).

In Octobre I  had an art friend visiting France and she stopped through here in Touraine, where we met for the first time after being blogging friends for a long time. See both her sites, Making a mark(in which she covers much more information than just art – her latest post is about Technorati and blogosphere…have  a look)  Travels with a sketchbook is all about her sketching and travelling.

Katherine and her sister and niece had dinner with us at home on their last night here and they brought me a beautiful book – Boire et manger that I wish to share with everybody. It is such an inspiration, seeing how food and art have walked hand in hand through all ages, depicting the habits and cultures and changes of the times and the different symbolisms of different foods, some of which we still hang onto today; cherries being a symbol of love and volptuousness, bread being the symbol of the body of christ, the apple seen as the origin of sin. I wish I could share the whole book with you, but here are a few excerpts. I hope they delight you as much as they did me and inspire you to be creative with food, not that I mean to paint it, but to “paint with it”! And above all, to respect it!

You can see more examples on Africantapestry at Food sketches and a book on dining a painting.

…jeunes garcons mangeant des fruits: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo(1645-46)

Le melon-meaning: Sweetness, earrthly pleasure, friendship.

1. Maybe  look between the two boys could be interpreted as a silent dialogue between them to decide which fruit they prefer; the grapes or the melon, both having existentially different symbols.
2. In the mythical sense the melon symbolically represents the earthly sweetness and pleasures of the flesh.
3. the melon is always not only the cosen sweet ness of both adults and children, but a symbol of friendship, because the quality of the kin of the melon can determine the quality on its flesh.
4. Grapes, givng birth to wine, could be reference to the spiritual path and the need to follow it.

…la table d’office: Siméon chardin(1756)…

Olive and oil – meaning: Grace of the Holy Ghost, conscience, clemency and charity.

1. The European porcelain soupterine accentuates the refinement of the table.
2. Two coilcans are presnt- one for oil and one for vingar, the usage of both these condiments togheter would be reaffirmed during the ages.
3. The rustic terrine had a specific culinary function, which was the making of paté and was typically French cuisine.
4. This still life present a contrast between elegance and rustic in the display of the kitchen tools and refined tableware. Chardin was fascinated by the culinary arts and gastronomy and used both at the same time to create his art.
5. The silver warmer with silver seen as a noble metal, was part of the refined table and added to the elgance of the piece.

…nature morte avec des fruits et un homard: Jan Davidsz de Heem(1648-49)

containers- meaning: the human condtion, refers to the content held within container

1. The fruit represent the earthly pleasures and in deeper context they represent the joy of the spirit/mood.
2. The ornate decoration on this pure precious metal container represents its excellence and gives it a symol of saintly spirituality.
3. The lobster is a symbol of resurrection.
4. The peeled lemon represents life; which gradually “peels” off the outer earthly layers to finally arrive at the soul.

…le mangeur de haricots:Annibale Carrache(1583-84)…

Dried beans- meaning: humility, poverty, continence

1. the borken windeow represent the negligence of this humble environnement.
2. The man eating the beans was a subject reintroduced to painting at beginning of the XVI century. Up until then this theme  was only kept to the indignant.
3. The dried bean was condidered the most humle of the starch food and and represents the everyday food of the common peasant.

…l’enfant gaté: Jean Batiste Greuse(1865)

Cutlery- menaing: Elegance, finesse, treason, word of God.

1. The presence of the cauldron emphasizes the popular character of the represented scene.
2. The little boy holds a silve spoon, which contrasts with the humble and diorganized environnement. During this era, a silver spoon was given to children, because silver was believed to have antibiotic properties.

Pears in red wine and a wine harvest.

Pears in red wine. Always a winner in our house during the winter and especially over the festive season. In this recipe I used a cabernet sauvignon, but I have also used a (moelleux) sweet white wine before like a Montlouis moelleux or a semi sweet, which is just as delicious. Decorate the pears in red wine with some edible gold leaf and the pears in white wine with spun sugar. A post on how to make spun sugar will follow soon – before Christmas!

Why not gather all your wine corks and display them in pretty empty containers somewhere. Always a good talking point and especially the men like to dig and see the wines that passed through. I also colletct the wine cases, hoping I can get hold of enough to convert them into drawers and kitchen tops and units for Coin Perdu, our house in Corréze. They also make nice storage space in the pantry, can be used in the wine “cave”, the cats sleep in the empty ones and some even carry small twigs for lighting fires in my atelier.

In October we had one day of grape picking at the vinyeards of our friends Vincent and Tania Careme. The domaine vincent Careme is a bio vinyeard where no chemicals are used, wild herbs and weeds are allowed to proliferate, adding to the health of the grapes and picking is still done by hand. They have a traditional Saturday  during grape harvesting in Octobre, when all their friends and family get togetherfor a day of grape picking, press the grapes, feasting on a  huge lunch, continue picking afterwards, pressing again and finishing off with some more eating. We were all dead tired, but what fun we had, one of which was a grape fight when everybody started getting tired and sticky towards the evening. Here are some pictures of the Saturday at Domaine Vincent Careme.

…starting off early morning…

…moving forward…

…up and down…

…picking carefully…

…emptying the bucket…

…into the remorque…

…almost full…

…taking a break…

…something for the thirst…

…healthy vinyeards…

…at the cellar…

…onto the press…

…cleaning up…

…resting…

…late afternoon fatigue…

…going home…

Soon to be followed: More about the wines of Vincent and Tania, their wine cellar in the typical “caves” of Touraine, a sculpteur doing his artwork in one of their caves and the many pleasure(and hard work) of daily life at Domaine Vincent Careme.

Baked topinambours with thyme(Topinambours aux thym)

Topinambours counts under “the old vegetables/foods” which have been making a come back the last few years. Previously I made a Velouté de topinambour which is great. This time it is is cut into chunks, sprinkled with powdered espelette pepper and baked in the oven on a bed of fresh thyme.

Suggestions:

1. Sauté some apple chunks in butter, add a bit of cassonade(brown sugar) and fry until nicely caramelized. Mix gently with the baked topinambours and serve warm.
2. The piment d’espelette can be replaced by any other chili of your choice, either dry and in powder form, or finly chopped.
3. Cook the  topinambours in water on the stovetop until almost tender and then add to an oven pan with the seasonings to caramelize. It shortens the baking time.
4. Serve the topinambours on a bed of salad greens or as an accompaniment to any meat.
5. By adding créme frâiche after baked in the oven,  you can serve it with a pasta or add it to a saffron risotto.
6. Be sure to have it nicely tender or else it has a “burning” taste, much like raw potato.
7. It is a healthy alternative to potatoes, seeing that it has a lower glycemic index than potatoes.
8. Enjoy!

…topinambours…

Piment d’espelette is a variety of pepper, with a light “bite” that is produced in the Basque region of France. Because of its fragrant flavour and taste, it is frequently used instead of pepper. We also find a beautiful fleur de sel d’espelette, which is powdered espelette mixed with a good quality fleur de sel, which is what I used on my baked topinambours)

…piment d’espelette…

For Liandri’s  birthday in beginning of Octobre, we had dinner le chateau de Beaulieu here in Tours. A nice quaint hotel with a menu gastronomique;  we could choose between foie gras, turbot, pigeon, filet de boeuf, magret de canard, carré d’agneau… A small dinng room, a local wine list as well as some distant cousins, nice dessert, coffee and olde worlde ambiance. A charming place to stay and dine when you visit our area.

…chateau de beaulieu…

…Olde world memories for olde world foods…

Red berry crumble and old wishes(Crumble fruits rouges à l’eau de rose et voeux anciens

Except for a scoop of ice cream from the fridge, I don’t think there is a quicker, easier and more delicious dessert than a crumble.

I grew up with crumble in my mother’s house. Usually an apple crumble, made in her usual pyrex glass baking dish and she served it with fresh cream scooped from the full cream milk my father brought home from the farm every other day.

Crumbles have changed a little face today, being now made with all kinds of fruit, topped with all kinds of different toppings, either sweet or salty, served from a big dish or  as individually petite servings. It is popular with old and young and equally at home at the family table or finishing off an elegant meal.

…frozen berries whole year long…

I especially favour red berris for a crumble. I love the colour and I love the sweet/tartiness of the berries and now that we can have berries available the whole year in frozen form, I could’nt be happier. I don’t feel guilty for eating berries frozen out of season, for the simple reason that they are so healthy and low in sugars, and they add some welcome colour towards the end of winter when the root vegetables and bleak winter foods start getting a bit difficult to swallow down.

…slowly and deliberately…

Suggestions:

• With a bag or two of frozen red berries in the freezer you have dessert at the tip of your spoon whole year. *Add beaten egg whites and some whipped cream and refrigerate for a feather light mousse. *Defrost in the firdge and add to a salad. *Mix to a puree and add to a vinaigrette. *Make a coulis for ice cream or a chutney for foie gras or roasted duck. *Bake a muffin on a sunday morning. *Simply saute with a bit of honey in a pan and spoon over french toast. *Make a sorbet to lift a heavy winter casserole. *Spoon over joghurt for an evening snack. *Simply defrost to room temperature and nibble on a handful. Any more ideas?

…old wishes…

When I was born all those years ago, a neighbour further down our street came over to see the newborn baby, me.  She congratulated my parents and gave my mother this little cup and saucer with the wish that when I turn 21 one day, I should drink from this cup, and with it all the good wishes and happiness she wishes for me in life. So. I turned 21 and I did drink tea from this cup and I am a happy person!  I own this little cup today and it got damaged with all our moving around, but I carefully glued it all together and low and behold, it still holds a cup of tea without leaking…. and even in that I find solace. Our lives aren’t perfect either, but we can be happy and content, by opening up to it. Not that I dedicate my happiness to the drinking from the cup, but symbolically it means to me that every good wish we receive will eventually help fill our cup. Given of course that the wishes are really meant and not only empty words!

I love this little cup and saucer and have started carrying on the tradition.  This specific cup and saucer is promised to a little six year old girl named Karla, who will one day have her tea poured into this imperfect, but beautiful and unleaking cup. I have in the meantime started collecting my own special little anitique cups and saucers to pass onto my grandchildren one day and other new born babies who come into my life. My wish will also be that their cup be filled with happiness.

…ongoing tradition…

LASTLY:  An update on the spices of Zlamushka:

• My husband drew a name from all the comments recieved on the two pervious posts and Monique at latabledenana, is the lucky winner and her parcel as well as Zlamushka’s will soon be on its way.
• The list of the secret ingredients can be seen in an update on Zlamushka’s spices.

Similar posts you might  be interested in :

Pork chops with spices and cherry tomatoes(Cotelettes de porc epicées aux tomates cerises.)

A simple family meal, using one of the secret spices of Zlamushka. See previous post on Zlamushka’s secret spices.

…add secret spices, cherry tomatoes, serve with cooked wheat…

Suggestions:

• Any other meat can be used
• Use these spices with oven baked winter root vegetables
• Crush the mixture together in a mortar and pastle to a paste.
• Serve with white/wholewheat rice, or cooked wheat or fluffy steamed potatoes.

…autumn…