Two days ago we bought truffle oil (olive oil from Provence infused
with the aroma of truffles) from the Ecomusée de Truffe in Sorges. For
our first taste of truffle oil at dinner time, we sprinkled a little
over a mix of salt-and-peppered avocado, mozzarella cheese and tomato.
Oh yum! Last night, we used it on tomato only, but the effect was still
subtle and magnificent. I’ve heard people describe the flavour of
truffles as ‘earthy’, and that’s the best I can do too. Coming down the
wooden stairs of our gite the next morning I could still detect the soft
truffle aroma like the best truffle pig or dog. It made me want salted
truffle oil on grainy toast for breakfast. I resisted, and, thinking of
mon transit as all good French people do, had All Bran instead.
- Yep, ugly truffles
Being
in this amazing food-rich area where regional loyalty towards its
products is somewhat feverish, food just tastes different. It’s walnut
harvesting time here, and we see these amazing sweeping/sucking machines
gathering the nuts from under the lanes of stately trees, which results
in the grass being soft, green and nicely combed after each sweeping.
With the dappled autumn light coming through the slowly dropping leaves,
it all looks amazing. I’ve grown up with walnuts being foisted upon me
as cheap and readily sourced snack food (walnuts and Vegemite sandwiches
for school lunches, for Pete’s sake). I tolerated them but that’s all,
and mostly I didn't really even
like them. But here, now, they
taste fabulous. Our gite hosts gave us a basket of locally gathered
walnuts on our arrival, and we all tucked into them with great pleasure.
Since then, we’ve also bought a walnut apéritif, a walnut and cassis
apéritif, a walnut oil for salads, and
croquants aux noix du Périgord (crunchy sugary egg-y walnut-y biscuits).
We’ve now eaten meals with various local Dordogne ingredients, including: truffles, chestnuts (oh more yum!),
foie gras (the kids for lunch), cèpe mushrooms,
confit de canard,
aiguillettes de canard (strips
of tender duck breast – the kids for lunch again), and Bergerac red
wine. We visited a gourmet food filled shop yesterday in Domme and were
treated to tastes of different apéritifs, and those crunchy biscuits.
The manager was large, accommodating and lovely, and I’d recommend a
visit there (top of the main street, opposite the Office du Tourisme).
The views from Domme would have been amazing, had it not been for the
fog! After lunch and once the fog cleared, we also saw wild, side of the
road apple trees, laden with sun/tree ripened fruit (so delicious if
you are able to ignore the creatures that like apples too), and dozens
of wild fig trees, that had obviously been laden in their earlier peak
time. I want to live there!
Our friend from the Dordogne, Pascal,
said he would walk 500 miles for the taste of some good cèpe mushrooms,
and I agree. At a frightfully posh restaurant in Sorges I really enjoyed
salmon with cèpe mushroom sauce, plus a side dish of broad beans,
parsnips, chestnuts, artichokes, purple potato, and carrot. Delish. (How
did they know that broad beans, parsnips, chestnuts and artichokes are
some of my all-time-favourite foods?!) Lovely husband had a truffle
omelette, which is apparently one of the best ways to ‘carry’ the
truffle flavour. It was soft and melty.
- Cèpe mushrooms
And
as for chestnuts, I grew up gathering chestnuts with my sisters from
our small-town neighbourhood, and they were the best treat on a cold
winter’s night, heated in a beaten old lidded pan over our open fire in
the living room, and, before they exploded, eaten quickly off spread-out
newspaper. We would all end up with blackened and singed fingers but it
was worth it. In France in the winter time you will often find street
vendors roasting chestnuts, and the aroma is wonderful. You can buy
un cornet de châtaignes
(a twisted roll of paper filled with roasted chestnuts) from the
vendor, and walk on your happy way munching them. I’m not sure there’s
anything better; except, perhaps, if you’ve got a glass of
vin chaud (hot red wine) in your hand too.
- Oh yum, roasted chestnuts
And
incidentally, Pascal-from-the-Dordogne’s-wife, Marie, had us to dinner
at their house recently. I’m going to write more about that meal another
time because the food was just soooo good, but for now a little aside
to say that her duck and cèpe mushroom with pureed chestnut topping for
the main course was simply heaven and very ‘Dordogne’. In my opinion she
is quite seriously practically a multiple-starred chef, working at IKEA
and living quietly in Muret. For the cheese course Marie had bought a
nice selection, including brie with a layer of truffles. I absolutely
love(d) it.
- Truffle brie
This afternoon we visited the
Maugein accordion
factory in Tulle. My husband couldn’t contain his excitement. It was a
real factory with real workers, fabricating everything on site and to
unique specifications, and not in China! The tour was free, the sights
were special. Nothing to eat there though but enough beautifully crafted
squeeze-boxes to keep us happy for a lifetime.
© Sara Crompton Meade 2013
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