Cooking With Michele® » Louviers

June 1, 2007 – On Rue Tatin

Michele — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 23:34:00 +0000

Friday was our farewell lunch, and we started the lesson with a debate about foie gras and food politics and another demonstration on making homemade mayo. Although I’ve done this before in cooking school, we flavored these 3 ways – with tarragon, balsamic, and lemon/pepper – and they were fabulous to dip vegetables into as our first course.

The final meal was incredible:

Cucumber puree with fresh cheese (that had been drained)

Pasta with cream, walnuts and foie gras (killer! my new favorite dish of the week!)

Duck breast with orange sauce, almonds and cumin (oh no! my new new favorite dish!)

Green salad with honey vinaigrette

Fromages

Sauteed cherries with a little of the lemon ice cream and almond cookies (a little burned, thanks I think to Silvestro’s hangover)

I went to dinner at the same restaurant Chaumier in Acquigny with Vicki for our parting night and had a wonderful fish special, then home to pack and head out to Paris for the airport in the morning.

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May 31, 2007 – Rouen

Michele — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 23:15:00 +0000

I woke to a brilliant blue sky this morning, but at 8:30 the clouds began to roll in again. We drove to Rouen for the day and had appointments to visit the faincerie and the fromagier. I love the pottery, but it doesn’t really match my decor at all so I opted to buy just a tiny sign for our new wine cellar as a souvenir.

The fromagier, Francois, was this adorable young French man – too bad he’s married with kids or he’d be perfect for Susan. He was as passionate about his cheese as Herve was his wine and they both talk about how important sight and smell are before taste. We sampled both a young and an old Comte which is the top selling cheese in France by weight – it’s slightly tangy like a Parmigiano, but really buttery. Once again I was surprised to see I really like the harder cheese better.

We dined at Restaurant 37, a trendy new sister restaurant to a Michelin 2-star place next door. Our lunch was selected for us by the chef:

Parmesan crackers
Cod cooked in a slightly acidic broth with braised carrots, fennel and celery as a bed
Dessert was a fudgy chocolate cake on a shortbread crust with a quennelle of raspberry sorbet surrounded by macerated berries – WOW!

After lunch we had free time to shop (my haul included new shoes, a boning knife for fish, Comte cheese, a cheese board, beer meant to go with cheese, and some French eye cream) and then I met up with Silvestro and Vicki for a coupe du Champagne right neat the Cathedral. The skies opened up just as we got into the car!

The evening was a free night (Susan’s son had a school play and in hindsight we all should have gone) so I went to Chaumier in Acquigny, a pub/restaurant, for dinner with Silvestro.

Steak frites the way you dream it should be done
Salade verte

Knowing we were friends of Susan’s, the proprietor set out the good bottle of Calvados after the bill was already settled, and Silvestro must have had 6 glasses. Not sure he’ll be up early for class tomorrow…yikes, I didn’t get home until 11:30!

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May 30, 2007 – On Rue Tatin

Michele — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 22:55:00 +0000

Wednesday is market day in nearby Le Neubourg, but unfortunately is was freezing cold and spritzing rain. Not to be deterred, we set off in Susan’s vintage VW van and started the morning off with a coffee before heading out to shop. It was fun to learn how the markets work, see what’s local and what’s been shipped in, and listen to all the vendors calling out to “Le Americain”.

Our mission was to buy something for a “picnic” type of lunch, and my contribution was a country pate and once I had purchased that I continued on through the market, fascinated by the kids holding chickens and rabbits that I hoped would not become someone’s dinner soon.

Back at One Rue Tatin we cooked up the mussels Susan had purchased plus some tiny artichokes that Sue and I had found. We also cooked an omelet and a pound cake for the evening’s wine tasting before sitting down to eat all goodies from the market. Lunch included:

Mussels in cider

Fried artichoke hearts

Pates and breads

Cheeses

We returned in the evening for a wine tasting with Herve from Honfleur. Listening to Herve talk about wine in French was like listening in to a private conversation about sex and seduction – he was mesmerizing. We learned about inflated Bordeaux prices, the regions of France that you don’t hear as much about, and then did a tasting. For aromas, first sniff to catch the grapes and flowers, then swirl to pick up the deeper traits about the wine. Taste is your confirmation of what you saw and smelled, but you already have 80% opinion of whether you’ll like it at this point. Taste has three phases: the attack, the development, and the finish – the attack and the finish are most important.

We then tasted 3 roses from 3 wineries, and then 3 reds from the same three wineries – all done in a blind taste test to see if we could match styles of the wines from the same wineries. My gut answer was 100% and I should have listened to that!

Dinner wasn’t really dinner, but was a fabulous crudite of carrots, cucumbers, beets, radishes, turnips all drizzled with lemon oil and served with a dollop of mustard infused creme fraiche. Of course, many slices of baguette accompanied this. A red pepper and mint omelet followed, then dessert of poundcake with nuts and fruit glaze on top.

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May 29, 2007 – On Rue Tatin

Michele — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 22:06:00 +0000

It’s been raining for two days straight and combined with the fact that it was Sunday and a religious holiday on Monday, we haven’t seen anyone in the town. This morning the sun came out and the stores are open which makes for an entirely different town.

Cooking lesson #2 started a little later today since we had a late night, and began with a review of the fish local to the Normandy region. I learned how to remove the pin bones from a delicate fish – my second learning of the week.
We made lunch for ourselves plus two paying guests who were coming just for lunch and the menu included:

New garlic soup (with whipped egg whites on top to make it frothy)

Mackerel with radishes and spring baby carrots (I didn’t care for the strong taste of the mackerel)

Green salad with almond oil vinaigrette (do you see the pattern here?) and French bread

Fromages

Chocolate pots de creme (smooth and creamy – like chocolate pudding only better!)

Susan demonstrated how to mak e homemade marshmallows which was very cool, and I might have to try this at home (even though they are a bit addictive).

I popped over to the art exhibit in Acquigny before dinner and bought this mixed media painting of an artichoke flower from the artist who is 84 years old! Susan says he has lived with his partner for 30 years but never came out of the closet – sad…

For dinner we went to an Algerian restaurant in Acquigny owned by a friend of Susan’s because she wanted us to understand the African influence on food and politics in France. She explained that the French seem to hate the Algerian people as a group, but love them as individuals, and African food is fundamental to the changing French cuisine.

Dinner included:

Salad – cold dishes, largely unidentifiable, but seeming like hummus and eggplant and tomato dishes all meant to be eaten with the thick flat bread

Lamb shanks that fell off the bone in a mild curry sauce served with stewed prunes and Marcona almonds – this could be the reason alone to discover Algerian cuisine!

Algerian pastries for dessert (plus the marshmallows we had snuck in!)

Algerian wines were served an my recommendation is that you not rush out to buy them just let – they are still working out the kinks in making wines on par with other regions.

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May 28, 2007 – On Rue Tatin

Michele — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 21:45:00 +0000

The morning session of class started promptly at 10am with a discussion about those amazing Norman cows, why creme fraiche from them is so much richer, and how sea salt is harvested in Brittany. Susan recommends using coarse gray salt for grilling and in pasta water, fluer de sel is a finishing salt, and fine gray salt for all other cooking. She makes flavored salts like cinnamon salt and using it on things like lamb.

Our menu for lunch included:

Braised asparagus with pistachio oil

Rabbit with sorrel and lardons (I butchered the rabbit which was a first for me)

Quinoa with pine nut oil (I bought some of this oil it’s so good)

Fromage assortment with wonderful breads

Garden salad with hazelnut vinaigrette (my new favorite salad dressing!)

Strawberry parfait

During the meal we learned about the 95 year old priest next door who invited Susan and her kids for tripe on their very first night in Louviers, discussed the French school system and how kids are taught never to question authority (what would my outspoken daughter do here?!), and how France is virtually bankrupt but the people still want social programs.

After a short break/nap in the afternoon we returned for the evening lesson and dinner:

Cocoa spice nuts with fleur de sel – really different and tasty

New potatoes with a smoked herring mayo and young salad greens – one of my favorite dishes all week!

Spice rubbed pork loin with onion marmalade

Goat cheeses (see below)

Green salad with peanut vinaigrette

Rhubarb poached in vanilla served over lemon ice cream – my favorite dessert of the week!

During dinner we had Susan’s friend’s with us – Alain is a cheese maker and taught us all about goat cheeses, ashed or not, young (days), medium (weeks), and old hard goat cheese (6 months aging). I found that I really prefer the aged over the type that’s sold in the soft tube in the US and was astonished to find how different each of them tasted. Alain’s partner is a florist in Rouen.

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May 27, 2007 – Alone in Normandy, Louviers, On Rue Tatin

Michele — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 19:13:00 +0000

After breakfast of a quick yogurt and coffee near the hotel, I set out to deliver my husband to the airport. Here’s a tip for you – make sure you know which terminal your airline flies from at CDG in Paris because if you miss it the first time it takes 15 minutes driving in circles to find it again!

I was so sad to see my husband leave and be alone in France – for my next solo travels, I’ll be certain to travel alone first and have my husband meet me for the second half. I drove from CDG to Louviers, and uneventful drive along the highways outside of Paris. Once in Louviers I had to call the hotel to get directions. The woman spoke no English and the man was willing to speak to me in Italian, but my brain wouldn’t make the adjustment after 10 days hearing French.

It never occurred to me that nothing would be open in Louviers on Sunday at lunch time, so on the advice of the cooking school instructor I drove to Acquigny, a tiny town a couple miles away with an old chateau and for some reason several high end restaurants. I stepped into La Table du Bearnais and found it full of families having Sunday dinner, so I dined alone at a table for 5 that was set with roses tucked into the napkins.

Creme Brulee l’Aliyette – in between an onion custard and a creamy soup, served with salad and 3 slices of meat that I think is a type of bacon

Filet de Bar – sea bass gorgeously presented skin side up (I just can’t get into the skin!) with garlic mustard sauce made with vermouth, risotto served in a tiny ring of zucchini slices, small mushrooms, a piping of potatoes Dauphinois, and peas.

Delice de D’Artagnan – specialty dessert of the house, an orange flavored mousse with creme brulee style caramelized sugar on top, served with caramel sauce and ice cream flavored with baking spices.

The poor woman serving be must have thought I was a reporter with all of the notes I was taking, so she kept bringing me menus and other information about dining in Normandy, and was distressed I didn’t eat everything.

I returned to my hotel and zonked for a little while in front of CNN (did you know they get new news only every 3-4 days?) then had a brisk walk about town for a half hour to revive myself before heading to On Rue Tatin for the opening dinner for our cooking class which consisted of myself, Sue (retired, her husband Doug would join just for the meals), Vicki (from CA, her husband would meet her to go to Bordeaux at the end of class, and Silvestro (an Italian-American who now lives in Lecce, Puglia and runs a cooking school there called The Awaiting Table). Everyone seemed to get along and we were all excited for the week.

Susan Herrman Loomis author of French Farmhouse Cooking and the memoir On Rue Tatin, opened the school a few years ago in her home in Louviers, a 500 year old former convent. Here’s the big spread from the first night:

Orange Wine Aperitif (excellent, recipe in her cookbook)

Olive & Parmigiano Sweet and Savory Crackers

Fresh Spring Pea Soup with just a touch of cream

Roast Guinea Hen with Citrus served with roasted new potatoes and roasted garlic

Salad du Jardin with walnut vinaigrette (the first of many flavored oils we would try)

Artisinal Cheeses from Normandy (at this point I was totally into the swing of having cheese after most dinners)

Rhubarb Tart with sliced strawberries that had been cooked in butter.

Dinner conversation was lively – the wine industry, changes in the cookbook publishing world, Susan getting divorced, and the food we were eating. Time for bed – first lesson at 10am the next day!

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