I was thinking about this today as I talked to Jacques. Now Jacques is truely a Jacques of all trades. He's done all kinds of work on our house. There seems to be little he won't tackle AND do a good job of it. For example here he is building a new fireplace - single handed! Note the cap; we'd known Jacques for months & months before we ever saw him without his hat.
So far so normal. Turns out, however, the Jacques has spent several years in the middle East teaching French to foreigners after that he was a social worker in Paris. He & his wife decided to move down to the country when they decided to start their family (they now have 3 children) as they didn't want to raise the children in a city enviornment. What to do? Elizabeth still works with the elderly locally, but Jacques decided to work for himself. HIs father was a great handyman & taught Jacques a lot so he decided to make a business of it. Given his background, education & intelligence he can work out almost anything. He's much in demand.
A few months ago we were bemoaning the fact that we couldn't find a good school or teacher to improve our French. Jacques volunteered & now gives each of us an individual lesson every Monday. He's a great teacher. We're learning not just 'proper' French, but everyday French as well. We always have lunch together when Jacques is here. Not only is this good for our French, its good for Jacques English. No doubt that his English is better than our French. We all enjoy getting each other's perception of world events, French politics and whatever topics come to mind. As I said this is a very bright well informed man.
A 'normal' workman? I think not. Actually I should call Jacques an artisan which is what the craftsmen here are called. Its a priviledge to know him.
We thought Jacques was the exception until we met Gerard the falconeer who also happens to make beautiful cabinetry and then Stepan the gardner who climbs mountains most of the time. I'll tell you about them in a future post.
Its hard living here. Today was yet another very hot day, well over 90 degrees so I suggested to my wife that we go for a long drive in the air conditioned car & have lunch somewhere. Good idea so she started getting ready. I had a quick look at Michelin on line & worked out a route that looked interesting & had a good looking restaurant at about the right distance away.
We left home about 10:15 & went North via Limogne to Cajarc, passing the Lot valley on the way with its beautiful scenery. We stopped in Cajarc for coffe & a look in the local Real Estate agents for houses for some friends who are looking to move to France. ( Turned out that the agent was out showing a house, but his wife was there & didn't know much about the properties for sale. So she labouriously wrote our his name, phone number & e-mail adrress & proudly handed it to my wife, She was very happy to have been able to have helped. I didn't have the heart to tell her that all of the information was on the back of her husband's flyer. You're got to love the spirit, if not the efficiency!)
On to Maures up the Cele valley, very pretty. There we turned right (East) towards Montsalvy on the D19. Empty country, but beautiful. As we gently climbed the views just got better & better. Nice small villages & hamlets with steep rooved houses with round slate tiles. Great in the summer, but probably pretty cold & isolated in the winter. Traffic? What traffic?
We reached Montsalvy about 1:15 & went into the Auberge du Fleurie. The dining room was very well set up, nicely decorated and about half full. Menus & wine list were brought & we then knew we were in for a good meal. Four courses for 28 Euros. (A bit expensive for these parts.) Linda had a langustine starter with a whole crustaton & a "tail" made of a crisp crepe stuffed with langustine & porc all on a basil sauce. Very pretty & good, but a bit too mild in flavor. I had what was billed as a gazpacho of cucumber. There was a small glass of tomato & cucumber gazpacho, but there were also two good sized portions of smoked salmon on a bed of salad with a light vinegarette & a tiny cup of melon puree. It was absolutely delicious. We both had the fillet of beef with truffle sauce. WOW! This was accompanied by a ball of mashed potatoes with a thin crisp slice of ham moulded to the top, the whole had been fried lightly in duck fat then topped by finely sliced crisp onions. A great main course. A nice cheese selection featuring local cantal & chevre & a blue veined tome. ( I got a real rise out of Madame by asking if this was where the Montsalvy cheese was made, its an artificial 'supermarket cheese which isn't veey good, I got an emphatic non! And in English "NO good!" with a dramatic thumbs down.) Linda had a dessert consisting of finely sliced fresh strawberries with creme freshe sandwitched between large rounds of very rich chocolate. I had an individual apricot claflutte.
In addition to the food the Auberge had a huge wine list with over 300 entries. Some great bottles at fair prices. What I appreciated was about 30-40 choices of half bottles. Thus we could have a split of Chablis Grand Cru & follow it with a 50cl bottle of Corbiers. All this for just under 100 Euros. Pas mal as they say.
We slowly wended our way home admiring the views as we descended to the Lot valley again, then along the Lot via Decazville, Capdenac Gare & Villefranche de Rouergue on the Averyron & home. We stopped on the way so Rupert could have a nice swim in the river which he loved.
What a nice way to spend a hot day. I do love France!
There are lots of recipies for magret out there. Both Paula Wolfert in SouthWestern French Cooking and Jeanne Strang in Goose Fat & Garlic have good ones. My recipe is just my way of doing it; nothing special.
Last time we were in the states I discovered that Whole Foods was selling magret; don't know if they still are what with all the flap about force feeding the ducks for fois gras. Sure glad we live in France.
Ingredients:
Roughly 1 whole magret per person, a bit less if they're large.
Lots of fresh thyme leaves, well rubbed
Coarse sea salt & freshly ground pepper.
Method:
- Trim the fat on the magrets to remove any pin feathers, veins & the like.
- Carefully cut a cross hatch pattern in the fat avoiding cutting into the meat underneath as much as possible.
- Rub the salt into the fat.
- Place the magrets fat side down in a frying pan over low/medium heat.
- Cook until the fat has rendered. This will take 15-20 minutes & you will want to drain off the accumulated fat 2 or 3 times. (Save the fat in a sterilized sealable container such as a canning jar. Let the fat cool then keep it in the fridge. Its wonderful for cooking with.)
- Once the fat has rendered take the magrets off heat & grind the pepper and sprinkle the thyme leaves over the meat side. Let rest until you are ready to finish cooking.
- There are three basic options for finishing the magrets. In the frying pan, in the oven or on the BBQ.
- In the pan. Place a frying pan over high heat. When hot put the magret in FAT SIDE DOWN. Fry for 2-3 minutes until fat is crisp. Turn over & cook meat side for 1-3 minutes to taste. (Traditionally magret is served rare.)
- In the oven. Heat oven to 400F. Place magrets in a roasting tray with a rack. Fat side down. Roast for 10-15 minutes checking to get the right degree of doneness.
- On the BBQ. Get the BBQ good & hot. Place magrets FAT SIDE DOWN over the coals & roast for 1-3 minutes moving them around whenever there is a flareup. Turn the magrets over & cook the meat side for 2-3 minutes. (This is my favorite method.)
- Slice the magrets thinly across their width & serve immediately.
That's it. A simple dish, but delicious with the Aillade.A wonderful variation is drain the frying pan of any fat & then too add slices of fresh fois gras to the frying pan for the last minute or so of cooking. Slice your magret as before & serve each portion with a slice of fois gras on top. Very rich & very wonderful.
