Foods of Provence O to P

 Les Olives

Olive Varieties:  Aglandeau, Salonenque, Lucques, Negrette, Bouteillan, Noire de Nyons, Picholine, Cailletier

Olives cassées de la Vallée de Baux de Provence:  Broken, green olives from the Salonenque or Béruguette varieties that have a low shelf life and come flavored with fennel.

Olive de Nîmes:  Whole green olives of the Picholine variety with a characteristically crunchy and juicy texture.

Olive de Nice:  from Cailletier olive

Pan Bagnat:  Often called the Salade Niçoise between bread.  Just like with the Salade Niçoise, there are rules to follow…. The ones on the left are from the Commune Libre du Pan Bagnat.

The vegetables have to be raw:  no cooked potatoes or cooked green beans.  Lots of recipes to choose from:

Bon Appétit

America’s Test Kitchen

Serious Eats

New York Times

Are they authentic??

For a good discussion of the complexity of the issue, go to David Lebovitz.

We’ll discuss the Salade Niçoise in more detail below.

Panisse:  Fried chickpea fritters that are a specialty of Marseille.  Chickpea flower is cooked into a polenta-like mixture, cooled, cut into French fry shapes and then deep-fried. 

Socca: These are chickpea crepes, also called Cade in Toulon and Farinata in Liguria.  We saw these being made in Toulon when we visited Yolanda in 1999 but we weren’t ready for lunch at the time and then didn’t see them again.  We’ll have 6 weeks to hunt them down in Provence.  Or in Nice.

Foods of Provence A to N

 I have a list of foods to try in my notes but not with an explanation of what they are, and sometimes even I forget.  So here I’m going to elaborate on them.  Naturally they are in alphabetical order and this is an ongoing post.  Of course, numbers come first.

13 Desserts de Provence

The photo above from the Maison Mirabeau winery is one of the best illustrations of the «treize desserts» that are eaten on Christmas Eve in Provence standing for Christ and his 12 apostles.  They are Almonds, Walnuts, Raisins and Figs representing 4 mendicant orders; Dates representing the east and the wise men, Fruit pastes put up in the summer, notably quince; Black and White nougat representing winter or evil and summer or good; olives, fresh fruit (apples, pears, or citrus), Calissons, Navettes and Pompe a l’Huile (breads).

Affligen beer:  OK this is really a Belgian ale but I found it on a menu along with Mort Subite Kriek, a Belgian cherry lambic, and I want to make sure I don’t get a lager…

Aioli: A mayonnaise-like sauce made by emulsifying pounded garlic with olive oil, salt and sometimes lemon juice.  Traditionally it didn’t have egg in it but NY Times Cooking adds an egg yolk and ATK adds egg yolk and sugar…

Agneau au lait:  This is suckling lamb which is available only in spring time.  Fernando should get his fill of lamb in Provence.

Artichauts violet de Provence:  These are pretty purple artichokes that are supposed to be very common in Provence.  April and May are prime artichoke season and I’ll need to try them thinly sliced raw as a salad.

Artichauts à la Barigoule: Serious Eats has an explanation of how these artichokes are named after a mushroom that they apparently were  substitutes for.  They are peeled down to the stalk and heart and cooked with vegetables, stock and white wine, and served with a butter parsley sauce.

Beignets de Fleurs de Courgettes:  These are summer squash flowers that are battered and fried, sometimes stuffed.  Usually they use male flowers but sometimes you will find baby zucchini attached to them (more expensive that way).  Julie Andrieu, who has a France.tv show that you can watch on YouTube, has a recipe for them.  Her channel is in French of course and she speaks very fast.  Sometimes there are subtitles (in English, French or Spanish) but you know how those are…

Berlingots:  These are traditional fruit-flavored hard candies in a pillow shape with white stripes.  These handmade artisan products are naturally flavored and colored and have a long history, perhaps all the way back to Avignon Pope Clement V in 1313.  You can read about them in The Connexion.  One of the centers of production is in Carpentras, 97 km north of Aix-en-Provence, 2-3 hours by public transportation.  If you want to see how they are made, it’s easier to watch this YouTube video.

Bouillabaisse:  This is the iconic fish stew from Marseille that used to be a dish of poor fishermen using the unsold fish that they caught.  Now it has been civilized with additions of saffron and shellfish and the price has risen as well (up to 80€ per person).  Peter Mayle recommends going to Le Peron restaurant in Marseille for their bouillabaise (73€) and the view of the sea.

Bourride:  Bourride is a fish stew typically made with lotte (monkfish) and potatoes and covered with an aioli sauce.

Brandade de Morue:  A dish of pulverized salt cod with olive oil and garlic, and sometimes with potatoes mashed in with it.  It is also eaten in Italy (baccalà mantecato) and in Spain (brandada de bacalao).  If you want to learn more check out Serious Eats.

Chateauneuf-du-Pape:  These are the famous red wines from outside of Avignon, north of Aix.  Translated it means the new castle of the Pope, as in when the popes relocated to Avignon.  Daddy once sent me to buy a case of it with Nana (I was 20) because the May Company advertised the case in the LA Times at an incredibly low price.  It turned out to be a missprint but they sold it to us at the price anyway.  I’m not sure if we’ll be able to afford it these days.

Coquillages:  Shellfish, of which there are a lot, although some say the shellfish from the cold waters of France’s north coast are better than those of the Mediterranean.  In any case I promise I will slurp down a raw oyster…

Daube de Boeuf Provençal:  This is the Provençal boeuf bourguignon but it has orange peel in it and its vegetables are mainly onion and carrots.  It gets its name from the daubiére earthenware pot that it was traditionally cooked in.  The photo of it at the left is from an article in Craftsmanship Magazine about Paula Wolfert and her clay pots.  It includes an article by Wolfert:  The Magic of the French Daubière.

Fougasse:  Related to the Italian focaccia and other flat breads of the Mediterranean, fougasse is usually slashed to resemble a stalk of wheat. Unlike focaccia, it is not slathered with oil but can have savory additions like garlic, olives or anchovies.  Here’s a recipe from Domaine Mirabeau.  Naturally it goes well with one of their Rosés.

Gardiane de Taureau:  Also known as daube camarguaise, this is a beef stew using the black bulls from the Camargue region west of Marseille.  Julie Andreiu has a recipe for this as well, along with a short video.  It includes orange peel, chocolate and olives, as well as red wine and vegetables.  She serves it with the red rice of the Camargue that you see in the photo.

Huitres de Bouzigues:  Bouzigues is on the southwest French Mediterranean coast to the west of the Camargue and Montpellier.  They are supposed to be the best if you can find them.  You know I am swearing to eat an oyster raw.

Miel de Lavande, de Chêne et de Châtaignier:   Lavender, Oak and Chestnut honey.  We have 6 weeks to use up 3 jars of honey as I don’t think I would risk bringing it home in a suitcase.  Or we could just buy it from The Honey of Kings (so much for the French Revolution) or just have a taste of each at the marché.

Navettes:  These are dry cookies in the shape of small boats that are flavored with orange blossom water and traditionally prepared for Candlemas (Feb. 2), especially in Marseille.  Le Grand Pastis has a list of where to buy them.  Le Grand Pastis reports on the Food Scene in Marseille in case you want to read more.  In French.

There is also a navette bakery in Aix:  Les Navettes Aixoises.

Practicing French

 Yes, that's right, I've been practicing my French, reviving high school French from 56 years ago, not that I was ever able to speak it or understand "Fast Spoken French".   At least now they have a term for it and admit that the French drop a lot of vowels, consonants and whole syllables.  Sort of like what operatic Italian does to normal (well, as can be) Italian.  Geraldine has several YouTube videos to get you prepared for what you won't understand once you get off the plane at CDG.

In preparation I have gone beyond the lessons of Comme une Francaise and have plunged into the 100% French of KTO Television Catholique.  No, I am not listening to masses but watching La Cuisine des Monasteres in which François Lespés goes from monastery to monastery in France, filming monks and nuns preparing fairly simple but nourishing dishes.  The dishes remind me of the vegetarian food we had on the Road Scholar retreat at the Buddhist center in Santa Cruz, where cooks really do have to use their imagination.  

And yes, most of the dishes in the monasteries are vegetarian except for the pork they slip in there sometimes, most often in the form of andouillette (pig's colon filled with pig intestines -- and some herbs, spices and wine, of course).  Don't be fooled when they call it Andouille de Vire or Andouille de Guémené and start thinking it's a regular sausage filled with ground meat.  The nuns and monks slice it quite thinly and it is quite pretty with its concentric circles.  But Will will discourage you from eating it.

The monks and nuns like their milk, butter and eggs which is understandable in monasteries that raise their own cows and hens or in places like Normandy or Brittany where they traditionally use a lot of dairy products.  But sometimes they go overboard, as in this Tourte Normande which lines a pie plate with a circle of puff pastry, then covers it with creme fraiche, then a layer of onions sautéed in butter, followed by a layer of thinly sliced apples sautéed in butter, then a layer of the andouillette.  Top that with several thick slices of Pont l'Eveque cheese and sprinkle on a persillade (parsley and lemon), beat an egg with some cream and pour that on top.  Then cover the tourte with a second round of puff pastry, brush it with an egg yolk and cook it for 45 minutes.

The monk follows the Tourte Normande with a Teurgoule which is a rice pudding using 200 grams each of sugar and rice, 2 liters of milk and that bakes for 4 hours.  It comes out looking like the Basque Burnt Cheesecake but I bet it tastes good.

I bet this is why the French women stay so thin.

Finally I just want to mention the Macédoine Polanaise  that a Polish nun serves with her pierogies.  Pretty much a  Russian salad.  Usually I think of Macedonia as a mixture of cut-up fruit but a macédoine des legumes is one of  vegetables in France.  Yes, all bound together with mayonnaise, the French sauce par excellence and Camila's favorite.