Some recipes from Michelle - our neighbour in Provence

When we were staying in Provence, in Pernes-les-Fontaine, our neighbours from across the road invited us to their home for apéritif one night. We were very excited about joining them as they were the first "French" friends we had made. 

In the house lived three generations, the youngest of which, Batiste, was a 5 year old boy that became friends with Kian and Kayla after they sang happy birthday to him in French from our balcony looking over the fence that surrounded his backyard, he responded with happy birthday in English! They began playing together after that, even though communication revolved around the happy birthday song and hand gestures - but since when do you need to talk to each other to be able to understand and play together?!

I didn't get to meet Batistes parents but his grandparents and uncle also lived in the house. His grand parents, Michelle and Thierry, and his uncle Henri were the ones we shared this experience with.

I visited the Pernes-les-Fontaines Wednesday night market with Michelle one night, and then she invited us to join them the following night for apéritif at 6pm. So off we went, with a bottle of champagne and some chocolates in hand, and butterflies in our stomachs for our first French home experience!

Apéritif turned into an amazing spread of food, a four course scrumptious, but very relaxed dinner. Michelle has a passion for cooking not unlike my own. She loves to scour the markets for different foods, and particularly loves Indian cuisine, in fact, she loves everything Indian. Michelle and Thierry have been there 9 times, their house which from the outside looks like a typical Provencial 3 story home, is decorated inside as though you were in an Indian bazaar - it is truly beautiful and the contrast is striking.

We started with a capsicum pesto and fish rillette, served with mounds of crusty bread and some pappadums as well as some local muscat to drink. Next came a blette and epinard tarte (chard and spinach tart). Michelle had bought the blette at the night market the previous evening so she wanted to show me how to use it. It was beautiful - and the recipe was something that her mother, and her grandmother before her had passed down to her. Of course some beautiful fresh goats cheese was to follow and then dessert. We had some carrot cake that was once again a family recipe that hand been handed down the generations. 

I lost count of the number of bottles of wine consumed but the funny thing was that the more consumed, the better our communication got! Michelle spoke a bit of English, we spoke a bit of French and we struggled through the rest of it with lots of laughter and hand movements. It was a fantastic night and we are looking forward to heading back to Pernes-les-Fontinaes in July and sharing another meal with our neighbours there!

I was lucky enough for Michelle to share a couple of her recipes with me, but as I haven't been able to get all of the ingredients I needed from the markets in Burgundy, it has taken me a while to make them. Today I decided to alter the recipes a little to suit what I could find in our market in Varzy this morning as I saw some beautiful poivrons rouge (red capsicums) and recalled the recipe.

Pesto de Poivrons (Capsicum pesto)

Ingredients:

3 capsicums 

2 cloves garlic 

1 cup almonds

1 tablespoon fresh coriander (I had to substitute this with parsley - no coriander in Burgundy)

salt

pepper

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses (I couldn't find this either so I added a small spoon of caster sugar)

3 tablespoons bread crumbs (fresh breadcrumbs are best if you can)

juice of 1 lemon

Method:

1. Grill capsicums to blister skin, cool, remove skin, seeds and membranes
2. Combine capsicums and garlic in a food processor - blitz till smooth - remove from processor
3. Toast almonds till fragrant
4. Combine almonds and all other ingredients in the  processor - blitz till all ingredients are thoroughly minced
5. Add the capsicum to the almond mixture to form the pesto
6. Serve with crusty baguette

Gateaux au Carottes (Carrot cake)

Ingredients:

120g almond meal

3 eggs

150g caster sugar

80g potato flour

40g rice flour

(I couldn't get potato or rice flour so I used regular flour)

10g baking powder

300g carrots, grated

1 orange, zested

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

30ml sunflower oil

Method:

1. Toast the almond meal until slightly coloured
2. Beat the eggs with the sugar until pale
3. Add flours and baking powder, along with almond meal
4. Mix till combined
5. Add the grated carrots, orange zest, cinnamon and sunflower oil
6. Mix till well combined
7. Pour into a greased loaf tin, bake in oven at 180 degrees for about 40 minutes
8. Cool in tin for a few minutes, then remove and slice. Spread with some butter if you like

I'm hoping to get Michelle's recipe for the Blette and Epinard Tarte so I can attempt that one too!

I hope my alterations to the recipes are ok with you Michelle, the result may not have been quite as good as the original, but they were still beautiful!

Thank you Michelle for sharing!!

Bon Appétit!!

Kim

xo