Recipe from the other France

When Americans think of France they see Paris, Provence, Normandie, French Riviera, Burgundy and Bordeaux Regions and for some of them, Brittany, Alps and others might even now the “Cote Basque” and Corsica. Very rarely you will ear about Guadeloupe, Martinique, Cayenne or New Caledonia. All those territories or so called “departement” for some of them, are only known by French because they are French speaking territories and reached by French Airlines.

One of my favourite places is Reunion Island. The landscape is very similar to Oahu island Hawaii. The “Piton des Neiges” volcano rises at more than 10,000 feet (3,070 meters) Previously named “Ile Bourbon” it is located in the Indian Ocean East of Madagascar. If you look closely near Reunion on Google, you will find a more famous Island called Mauritius, known for the beaches and resorts but far less beautiful.
Before you get bored with all the Wikipedia talking, I will just add that Reunionnaise culture is a blend of European, African, Asian, Chinese and insular tradition. So imagine the richness of their food!

Today I will give you the recipe of my favourite Chef Paul Bocuse called “Lamb Masala” or Massale d’Agneau” in French. Served at “Brasserie de l’Ouest” in Lyon, this recipe has been modified from its origin to comply with the ingredients we can find in France and in the US. Cabri (sort of a mountain goat) or the original mix of 4 to 7 spices would be to hard to find and your guests will be long gone before you return to your kitchen.

So here it goes:

MASALA
3 lb shoulder of lamb, boned and jointed
2 onions (white)
7 ounces of butter (I said butter, not those “I can’t believe it’s not butter” stuffs!!!)
5 garlic cloves
2 carrots (same a before, not canned stuffs, real carrots!)
4 large tomatoes
2 springs fresh thyme
1 tablespoon of Massale or garam masala
2 cups of chicken stock (a bit more if necessary)
Salt, freshly ground pepper

GARNISH
18 medium size potatoes
1.4 ounces fresh ginger
4 ounces of Mangetout peas (Mange tout in French means “Eat all”)
1 onion (white)
2 tablespoons groundnut oil (oh yes you gonna buy it! No olive or engine oil in Massale)
Pinch of Saffron powder (yeah I know the feeling, depends on the size of your finger right?)
Salt (same as above)

Preparation:
Peel and chop the onions. Fry them in a little butter till they begin to brown. Turn off TV and concentrate. Set aside
Chop the garlic, dice the carrots and quarter the tomatoes. Do not forget to get those tomatoes stickers out and rinse them.
Season the lamb with salt and pepper, and brown it in butter in a casserole.
When it is nice and brown (not burnt) add the onions, garlic, tomatoes and thyme. Cook gently for a moment (don’t ask) then add the spice mixture. Stir in the stock.
Simmer gently for about 1 hour and 30 minutes without covering.

Garnish:
Prepare the other vegetables while the lamb is cooking.
Peel and wash the potatoes. Peel and finely chop the ginger.
Wash and cut the Mangetout peas lengthwise.
Peel and finely chop the onion.
Stop the bleeding and get a bandage. Call 911 if the blood still flows.

Cook the potatoes in salted boiling water flavoured with saffron.
Gently fry the ginger and onion in oil, adding the peas halfway through. Do not let the vegetables colour. Why? Because I said so!

Once the meat is cooked, reserve the pieces on a plate.
Pass the sauce through a fine sieve, squeezing the goodness out of vegetables with a wooden spoon, before discarding them.
Check the seasoning of the sauce.

Serving:
Get a banana leaf, poor the mix on it at the middle of the table and you are in Reunion Island!
On the American soil, put portions of the lamb and sauce in soup bowls, arranging potatoes around the outside and sprinkling the pan-fried vegetables on top.

Bon appétit!

A CASTLE IN AVIGNON?

Chateau dating from the 17th C. rebuilt in the 19th, set in a park of 8.3 ha including 5.3 ha walled with beautiful centenarian trees. It has been lovingly restored and offers various possibilities. Beautiful reception room including a 140 m2 lounge - 15 rooms. Caretaker’s lodgement. Orangery. Pool and pool house. A welcoming and comfortable property.

Ask us to get in contact with the agent and give you a full detail of this property.

Go to http://www.honore-estate.com/ourservice.html and find out what we can do to help.

Cheese and FDA

Ok let’s start by some major truths:
1) Cheese is not square chapped, wrapped in plastic and 1 millimeter thick.
2) Smelly cheese don’t taste as bad as they smell and those are the biggest flavor pay off.
3) Softer the cheese, lower the fat.
4) Have you ever seen cheese served with crackers in France? The answer is NO!
5) Do not freak out if the date on the cheese is past due, if it turns bad, you will see it, certain cheese change over time and the flavor blossom.
6) Yes you can serve wine with cheese, but not every wine goes with every cheese, learn what goes with what.

For the cheese in a box so called Process cheese, please let it go! It is not even good for sandwiches and certainly not for omelets. Those cheeses should not be sold and you should not put them in your mouth under any circumstances! The word “process” should be a hint anyway.

Cheese is a concentrated dairy food made from milk. A starter culture of bacteria is first added to convert some lactose—the primary milk sugar—to lactic acid. An enzyme is next added to casein … it goes on and on, I let you search for the details.

The FDA has set so many rules to prevent us on getting sick that they forgot to taste the food made out of those regulations!

Kraft is a great example of what FDA allows American Citizens to feed themselves. Yesterday I went to Publix and saw “Natural Cheese” written on the Pack, following by those comments “Shredded Fat Free Cheddar Cheese” and if you read the back, you’d freak out: Potato Starch, cellulose powder, natamycin (a natural mold inhibitor) !!!! and they say that Yeast is added but not found in natural cheddar cheese and contain milk (thank God) but 0g of Lactose!!!!

HELLO!!!! Wake up people and stop eating that crap! Cheddar cheese should not be fat free and Milk has lactose in it because well IT IS MILK!!!

Are you Lactose intolerant? Don’t drink milk! I mean do we make fake peanuts for allergic kids?

So before anyone should think on loosing weight, they should know how to eat, period.

Chef Paul Bocuse

Born into a long line of father-son chef teams, Paul Bocuse is arguably one of the most famous French chefs of the 20th century. One of the fathers of nouvelle cuisine, he received a third Michelin star in 1965 for his bistro near Lyon.
The Bocuse franchise consists of at least a dozen spin-off restaurants, scores of cookbooks, an international cooking competition "Bocuse d'Or", as well as a wife and two long-term mistresses.


Contribution to French gastronomy
Bocuse has made many contributions to French gastronomy both directly and indirectly. Because he has had numerous students, many of whom have become famous chefs themselves. One of his students was Austrian Eckart Witzigmann, one of four Chefs of the Centuryand the first German-speaking and the third non-French-speaking chef to receive three Michelin stars. Since 1977, the Bocuse d'Or has been regarded as the most prestigious award for chefs in the world (at least when French food is considered), and is sometimes seen as the unofficial world championship for chefs. Paul Bocuse has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the medal of Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur



Restaurants
Bocuse's main restaurant is the luxury restaurant l'Auberge du Pont de Collonges, near Lyon, which has been serving a traditional menu for decades. It is one of a small number of restaurants in France to receive the coveted three-star rating by the Michelin Guide. He also operates a chain of brasseries in Lyon, named Le Nord, l'Est, Le Sud and l'Ouest, each of which specializes in a different aspect of French cuisine. His son, Jérôme, manages the Chefs de France restaurant inside the French pavilion at Walt Disney World's EPCOT in Orlando,Florida.

Bocuse is considered an ambassador of modern French Cuisine. He was honored in 1961 with the title Meilleur Ouvrier de France. He had been apprenticed to Fernand Point, a master of classic French cuisine; and Bocuse dedicated his first book to him.