Local Asparagus

We first noticed the sign last year.

It is actually quite easy to miss it because it is on a bend immediately after a level crossing and one is concentrating on other things just at that moment.  I hate open level crossings - despite the lights and the bells and the barriers and all the modern automated technology, I still wonder if a train is going to appear from nowhere just as I start across the tracks - so I am usually just relieved and making sure I take the bend, with a junction on it, properly rather than looking at the signs stuck on posts in the ground that decorate that corner.

I think it was Debrah that noticed it first (she didn't have to concentrate on the driving, just the trains!) and as we were within the narrow window of opportunity to buy of 2 hours each early evening during the week, we made the detour.

The farm is located in the next village to ours, the village of Douzens. The next village in France can be the last place one would visit but Douzens and Moux seem to exist side by side with no great animosity, but then we are hardly immersed in local life, so probably wouldn't even know if there was a war going on between them!

The detour was well worth the effort.  We turned through an unflattering entrance into a slightly scruffy yard to find a charming stall erected in a farmyard with trays of asparagus sorted into small, medium or large and a very simple pricing structure per kilo for each.

I personally prefer the medium size as I think the fat spears can be too woody and the thin ones, well, a bit thin - but they are all delicious so each to his own.  At €5 a kilo for the medium ones I am not going to complain about anything.

I adore the rustic nature of the business, the narrow buying time, the price, the hand written sign and especially the taste of their delicious asparagus.  I hope they continue to thrive and we shall certainly continue to support them with our trade.

Artichokes and Asparagus

The new season asparagus and artichokes are in the market and the sunshine has finally returned - so salads are back in vogue and the winter vegetables will soon be forgotten for another year.

Certainly Charles and Nancy from New Mexico, and my latest market tour and cooking day clients, were wowed by their freshness and flavour last week.  Not that we had sunshine then - the market tour took place under a leaden grey drizzly sky which emitted a torrential downpour at the end of the afternoon.

The small violet artichokes are a little fiddly to prepare and one of those things that you only really get right once someone has shown you how to tackle the job, which means it is the perfect task for a cooking day.  Most people have never prepared one so it is a fun job to have a go at with a bit of supervision.  I like to cook them immediately on the day they are bought because they tend to go soft quite quickly if left.  Look for small hard artichokes with the leaves still tight.  The idea is to prepare them quickly and then you can keep them for a good few weeks in the fridge in a sterilised jar and cooking liquid used to cook them - although they rarely last a couple of days in this household!

The cooked artichoke hearts are fabulous in our superfood salad with asparagus and avocado, a wonderful combination of flavour and texture and a great vegetarian dish if you stop there and don't add the crisped cured ham which adds an additional salty crunchy texture to the vegetables.

The tender top ends of the asparagus spears were used in the salad but the lower snapped off tails of the spears were not discarded but used to make an asparagus soup - a fabulous way to make your produce go further and to reduce food waste. Wherever you have snapped your spears there will still be a good few centimetres of useable green spear that will give more than enough flavour for a simple but elegant soup and for this the thinner spears work better than the fat ones.   Discard any really wooden ends and you may also need to sieve the finished soup to remove any stringy bits.  Of course, if you buy your asparagus ready cut and packaged up from a supermarket chain you will miss out on this option as the supermarket will have already trimmed them and charged you more for the privilege!

The main course for the cooking day was a French classic - coq au vin.  I think of this as a Spring or Autumn dish because it is the lightest of the classic French casserole dishes and can be made with either a good fruity red or a dry white.  I like to marinade the chicken for 24 hours in the wine with some garlic, bay and thyme.  I use finely diced onion, celery and carrot in the cooking of the dish but cook the lardons, mushrooms and leek separately in a frying pan right at the end and add to the finished dish when serving it - this way they keep their colour and a bit of crunch and add texture to the dish rather than being cooked down to nothing in the wine.  Serve with pomme puree and the cooked down sauce drizzled over.

Here is how to prepare the artichokes.

Pull away the hard outer leaves until you reach the softer light green leaves inside. Trim off the hard tips (about halfway down the head), cut off all but 5cm of the stalk and the trim the outer layer of that remaining 5cm.  Rub the prepared artichoke all over with lemon juice to reduce discolouration.

In a pan large enough to take your artichokes, finely chop one shallot and sweat gently in a little butter and oil until softened.  Add 100ml of dry white wine and bring to the boil before immediately turning down to a simmer.  Add the artichokes and lemon juice, a bay leaf, a sprig or two of time and enough water to just cover and simmer very gently until cooked (when a sharp knife just penetrates the artichokes with ease - do not boil or overcook or they will fall apart)

Either serve immediately or leave to cool before packing into sterilised jars topped with the cooking liquor.  They will keep in the fridge for several weeks.

Wonderful Asparagus Soup

One of the great joys of living here in the Languedoc and having Carcassonne market just two minutes down the road is locally grown asparagus in mid-March, a good month or more earlier than I could ever get hold of local asparagus in the UK and earlier than most parts of France if reports from friends around the country are anything to go by.

In London we would buy it at any time, flown in from far flung places all year round - but it never ever compared to the locally grown stuff. When we moved to France we vowed to eat local and seasonal because we could - and we do.

So we have waited for nine months for the new asparagus season and it arrived two weekends ago when the the stall of M. Villa from Cavanac appeared in the market for the first time this year. That Saturday we were a bit tardy getting down to the market, it also being a grey, wet and windy morning, and were lucky to grab some of the last spears - it seems that the whole of Carcassonne has been waiting for the asparagus too!

We will eat it for the next three months until we are sick of it but that's ok because there will be lots of other things to gorge on by then. Even so, it's always good to find a new way to treat it and that's what happened this week - not only that but I used the left over ends after eating the tender part of the spear in a conventional way (melted butter and parmesan shavings if you must know) and I like nothing better than getting a delicious dish out of leftovers from another delicious dish.

Credit where it's due - this recipe owes an enormous amount to Yotam Ottolenghi's recipe for Asparagus Vichyssoise from his book 'Plenty', a marvellous source of ideas for vegetables - but his soup is cold, uses the whole asparagus spear and includes potato and sugar whilst mine is hot, uses the leftover ends and has no starch or sugar. Isn't that the way it should be though? - we use other recipes for inspiration but put our own twist on them based on instinct and what we have to hand at any given time. Sometimes it doesn't work but just sometimes you end up with something wonderful - as with this soup.

Ingredients;
- leftover ends from 500g of asparagus spears, green parts chopped into 2cm bits and any really woody white parts discarded
- one leek and one shallot/three spring onions (whatever you have - I had half a huge end of a comedy spring onion the size of a cricket ball) outer layers removed and chopped.
- 500ml of vegetable stock
- 25g butter
- 50ml cream
- 2 tablespoons fromage frais (or greek yoghurt or creme fraiche)
- lemon zest
- salt and pepper

To prepare;
- saute the leek, onion and asparagus in the butter for 5 minutes over a gentle heat
- add the stock and some salt and pepper and simmer gently for 30 minutes
- blitz to a smooth consistency in a blender (you can then pour it through a sieve for an even smoother texture if you wish)
- stir in the cream and fromage frais and check the seasoning
- reheat gently to serving temperature
- serve with freshly grated lemon zest ( a truly inspirational final touch that elevates the dish to the monumentally sublime)

If you are making this to impress you could add finely chopped mint and a swirl of cream or keep back some of the tender asparagus tips to garnish the final dish.

We were so impressed that I plan to make it again tomorrow and then again for this weekend's clients on Sunday. I bet it's delicious cold too - I just haven't tried that yet.

Spring is so close

It has been the most glorious weekend in Carcassonne - unbroken blue skies, new produce in the market and blossom bursting forth - Spring is so very nearly here.

Here at 42rvh we have just about had our fill of cauliflower and cabbage - we adored it's comfort back in November but are now so craving something fresher and livelier. We are on the cusp of the change.

Yesterday's market had the first local asparagus and some Spanish peas, beans and strawberries. They are not yet at their best - far from it - but they are a sign of things to come. Last night we had simply cooked asparagus with butter and this morning strawberries, yoghurt and granola for breakfast. Nothing dramatic in that but a welcome shift in our eating habits that promises delights around the corner.

An hour sat outside The Saillan with friends yesterday lunchtime resulted in layers being removed at regular intervals, such was the effect of a sheltered spot in full sun out of the breeze. Today was no different - we drove to Lastours and the Minervois with the roof down on the Audi.

The impending change is very evident out in the countryside. There is white almond blossom and pink cherry blossom and yellow mimosa providing spectacularly colourful highlights against the still mostly grey/brown drab winter landscape. The scent of the blossom lifts the spirit and highlights the joy of driving an open top car on days like these but although the fields are ploughed and the vines are pruned it is still too early for signs of agricultural growth.

Spring is not yet here - we have had a Springlike weekend full of the promise of the joys to come, but the temperature still plummets during the clear starlit nights and the cabbage will remain in the diet for another couple of weeks at least and the vines will surely wait a little longer before they feel it is safe to start the new wine production cycle. Don't go to early because we await as ever what you have in store for us this year.