Kasey Wilson: Vive La France!
Credit to Author: Tracey Tufnail| Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2020 19:00:28 +0000
During the last week of February, Vancouver gives itself over to a week-long celebration of wine. This year the lineup of festive meals, informative seminars and terrific tastings will showcase 1,450 wines from 163 wineries in 16 nations, with France in the spotlight as the 2020 theme country.
Harry Hertscheg, executive director of the Vancouver International Wine Festival, expects competition to be keen for tickets to the more than three dozen events featuring French wines. “France is one of the most popular regions,” he says. “It sells out before we know it.”
If you want to get a handle on France before time, dive into Let’s Eat France! by François-Régis Gaudry (Artisan, 2018). Subtitled “1,250 specialty foods, 375 iconic recipes, 350 topics, 260 personalities, plus hundreds of maps, charts, tricks, tips and anecdotes and everything else you want to know about the food of France,” it is a feast for food lovers and Francophiles alike.
There are classic recipes, such as pot-au-feu, eight essential composed salads, pâté en croûte, blanquette de veau, choucroute, and ratatouille; profiles of French icons like Colette, Brillat-Savarin, Bocuse, the Troigros dynasty and Victor Hugo also a list of great chefs who died before they were aged 60; a region-by-region index of cheeses, charcuterie and recipes; poster-size guides to the breads of France, the wines of France, the oysters of France — even the frites of France.
You’ll meet endive, the belle of the north; discover the croissant timeline; understand the art of tartare; find a chart of wine bottle sizes, from the tiny split to the Nebuchadnezzar (the equivalent of 20 standard bottles); follow the family tree of French sauces and discover the meaning of “take it in the baba” or “bad taste” in “The Erotics of Cooking”.
Here are recipes for two French classics:
This adaptation of the classic French daube is a favourite holiday dish of writer Fiona Beckett at her summer home in France. She adds a little extra wine at the end to lift flavour after long, slow cooking. Serve with mashed potatoes and slow-roasted carrots. (Adapted from Wine Lover’s Kitchen: Delicious Recipes for Cooking with Wine by Fiona Beckett, Rylands, Peter & Small, 2017.)
2 lb (1 kg) thickly sliced braising or stewing steak
3 tbsp (45 mL) all-purpose flour
5-6 tbsp (75-90 mL) olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp (15 mL) tomato paste
4 cups (1 L) Faugères or other full-bodied fruity red wine
2 cups (500 mL) beef stock
1 tsp (5 mL) herbes de Provence
1 thin strip orange zest
2 bay leaves
1 cup (250 mL) black olives
3 heaped tbsp (45 mL) roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Trim any excess fat from the beef, then cut the meat into large cubes. Put the flour in a shallow dish and season it with salt and pepper. Dip the cubes of beef in the flour to coat.
Heat 2 tbsp (30 mL) oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, add beef and fry on all sides until it is browned. You will need to do this in batches, adding extra oil as you go. Transfer beef to a cast-iron casserole.
Heat 2 tbsp (30 mL) olive oil in the same skillet, add onion and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until softened but not browned. Add garlic and tomato paste and cook for 1 minute, stirring. Add 1 cup plus 1 tbsp (15 mL) of the wine plus the stock, herbes de Provence, orange zest and bay leaves. Bring to the boil, then pour the sauce into the casserole. Heat the casserole over a medium heat and bring the sauce back to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer very gently for 2 to 3 hours until the meat is completely tender. Check occasionally to ensure there is enough liquid, and add a little stock or water if it’s too dry.
About 30 minutes before the stew is cooked, stir in olives. Just before serving, season to taste with salt and pepper, then stir in parsley, and remaining wine and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Serves 4-6
This delightful recipe has many virtues: zero added sugar, zero cream and zero butter — but plenty of chocolate. It’s a mousse in its simplest form. (Adapted from Let’s Eat France by François-Régis Gaudry, Artisan, 2018.)
9 oz (250 g) semi-sweet dark chocolate
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp (15 mL) espresso
1 pinch salt
Chop chocolate and melt it over a double boiler. Pour chocolate into a large mixing bowl to cool slightly.
Beat egg yolks and stir them into the cooled chocolate until thoroughly combined. Add espresso and stir to combine.
With an electric mixer, beat egg whites with the pinch of salt, starting on medium speed, then increasing to medium-high once the whites start to foam. Continue beating until whites hold firm peaks.
Using a spatula, gently stir one-fourth of beaten egg whites into chocolate mixture, then gently stir in the remaining egg whites. Spoon mixture into serving dishes and refrigerate for at least 3 hours,
Serves 6
Restaurants usually offer white wine in smaller glasses than red wine to maintain the lower temperature of the white.
CLICK HERE to report a typo.
Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com