Chez Rochefort a la Plancha
Sunday 21 August 2011
Volia! First entry from the cheesier side of the channel. Here I am chez Rochefort (my boyfriend's parents' house), Cours la Ville, Rhône-Alpes, eager to keep up with the updation (especially after stern warnings from my brother to not let my blog trail off and die after one enthusiastic entry)
Adrien with mackerel à la plancha
I enjoy what seems to me to be a very traditional French welcome at Philippe and Catherine's, centered around long lunch, dinners and aperitifs with a collection of family and friends- each passing guest commenting on how fat my boyfriend grown since his time in England ("c'est la bière"). Catherine has been feeding us magnificent salads to battle against the oppressive heat in the garden.
La salade francaise: It's a salad, but not as we know it...
(quick clarification this is a note on French salads in general: not specifically Catherine's delicious salads)
The French have a talent of making the seemingly healthy uttterly and devilishly unhealthy- a great example of this is their approach to salads. A salad in England is a slightly wimpy menu choice for someone trying to lose weight. In France its 10% leaves, 40% pork, 30% cheese and 20% vinagrette- and they taste bloody marvelous. The other plus side being that you can consume a mountain of ham, sausage, lardons, comté, emmental and croutons guilt free, its OK, its only a salad!
A new arrival at the casa del Rochefort has turned things around since my last visit. What does it take to get a frenchman to cook? A large gas powered "Plancha" in the garden and a collection of impliments for tending meat, apparently. Philippe's new discovery has got him cooking us delicious pork and fried apples, mackerel and sardines, even a fried egg just for the sake of using it. It must be love. Adrien even heard him tending to his new gadget at 7 o'clock in the morning- lovingly cleaning off the remains of last nights feast...
I enjoy what seems to me to be a very traditional French welcome at Philippe and Catherine's, centered around long lunch, dinners and aperitifs with a collection of family and friends- each passing guest commenting on how fat my boyfriend grown since his time in England ("c'est la bière"). Catherine has been feeding us magnificent salads to battle against the oppressive heat in the garden.
La salade francaise: It's a salad, but not as we know it...
(quick clarification this is a note on French salads in general: not specifically Catherine's delicious salads)
The French have a talent of making the seemingly healthy uttterly and devilishly unhealthy- a great example of this is their approach to salads. A salad in England is a slightly wimpy menu choice for someone trying to lose weight. In France its 10% leaves, 40% pork, 30% cheese and 20% vinagrette- and they taste bloody marvelous. The other plus side being that you can consume a mountain of ham, sausage, lardons, comté, emmental and croutons guilt free, its OK, its only a salad!
A new arrival at the casa del Rochefort has turned things around since my last visit. What does it take to get a frenchman to cook? A large gas powered "Plancha" in the garden and a collection of impliments for tending meat, apparently. Philippe's new discovery has got him cooking us delicious pork and fried apples, mackerel and sardines, even a fried egg just for the sake of using it. It must be love. Adrien even heard him tending to his new gadget at 7 o'clock in the morning- lovingly cleaning off the remains of last nights feast...
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