Southern Fried French

I'll Have the Special Sauce with That

NOTE: Southern Fried French will be on a twice-a-month schedule for the winter.

“Summer” tomatoes are still growing here, even though the trees are going gold (though today, we sat outside in the sun for lunch in bare feet, but ça, c'est exceptionnel).

Which has me thinking about mayonnaise. The very first time I tasted homemade mayonnaise, I was 20 years old and lunching at a friend’s house.  She served it with homegrown tomatoes and it was le paradis.  It in no way resembles the stuff in a jar.

Now I must tell you that some American expats tuck jars of Hellman’s into their suitcases and bring it to France, saying they don’t like the French stuff. But wait–”mayonnaise”, doesn’t that sound like a French word? In fact it seems to have originated in Spain, but it was the French who popularized the famous spread, long ago. 

Mayonnaise in France looks and tastes different because they put a lot of mustard in it. But down there on the bottom of the supermarché shelf, you can find mayonnaise sans moutarde if you like.

But skip the jar, it’s SO easy to make your own mayonnaise! I made a big batch this week for the last gasp of the summer tomatoes. Plus, it’s the Little Black Dress of sauces.  This is what I did with the rest of that special sauce:

–Added fresh herbs (and mustard) and made a sauce for salmon.

–Stirred some into French dressing #1 and made a BLT salad with creamy dressing.

–Mixed it with smashed avocados and slathered it on a baguette sandwich with cruditiés, boiled eggs, and arugula.

-Used it as a dipping sauce for steamed artichokes.

Summer tomatoes will soon be a sweet memory---better get cooking!

 

RECIPE:  Homemade Mayonnaise

I use this recipe from Epicurious. Purists beat it by hand, but I make it in the food processor.  You can add as much mustard as you like.

1 large egg yolk*

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt plus more to taste

3/4 cup canola oil, divided

Combine egg yolk, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in medium bowl. Whisk until blended and bright yellow, about 30 seconds.

1/4 teaspoon measure and whisking constantly, add 1/4 cup oil to yolk mixture, a few drops at a time, about 4 minutes. Gradually add remaining 1/2 cup oil in very slow thin stream, whisking constantly, until mayonnaise is thick, about 8 minutes (mayonnaise will be lighter in color). Cover and chill. do ahead Can be made up to 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.

Variation:
To make aioli, add 1 minced garlic clove to the egg mixture, and substitute extravirgin olive oil for the canola oil.

* Raw egg is not recommended for infants, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems. To avoid the risk of salmonella infection, you can use pasteurized egg yolk instead.

Now, something for everyone this week:  

FOR SHOPPERS, especially Francophile ones:  Take a deep breath, you are going to get very excited when you see our reader Lidy's fabulous site, French Garden House.  Magnifique!  AND our great friend Belinda, who stayed at the château many months, has started an Etsy store with all the French flea market finds that we all love!  Check it out right here.

FOR AUTHORS AND WANNABEE AUTHORS:  There is an expanded version of my recent article on self-publishing this week at The Daily Basics.  And, our own reader Kim Defforge of 24/7 in France on the Riveria has written a must-read for you too:  How To Write Your First Book: My Personal Step-by-Step Guide.

FOR READERS: Favorite Reads.  Speaking of Kim's book, above, you may want to check out her other two:  Solitary Desire: One Woman's Journey to France and Sun, Sea & Savoir-Faire, about travel on the French Riviera.  This week Barbara Redmond of A Woman's Paris interviews author Rosemary Flannery on her new book, Angels of Paris: An Architectural Tour Through the History of Paris.

FOR ARTISTS:  Our American artist in Italy, Patricia Glee, has a new website, showcasing her extraordinary work.  Felicitations, mon ami! 

 

Happily Descending a Ladder of Stars

Dining at a Michelin three star restaurant in France, also known as spending an obscene amount of money on a single meal, is not something we do every day. In fact the only time we indulged was many years ago at Georges Blanc’s restaurant in Vonnas, in the Bresse, which bumps up against Burgundy. And it WAS a memorable meal. So this week we took a nostalgic trip back to Vonnas with good friends visiting from the states, who had in fact shared that sumptuous meal with us, so many years before. (Georges Blanc is apparently not related to that other famous chef, Raymond Blanc, whom we discussed in a recent post).

This time we skipped Chef Blanc’s three-star. But: across the street from his luxurious hotel/restaurant in this flowery town (owned mostly by the master himself, and renovated to within an inch of its charming life) is L’Ancienne Auberge, his casual bistro restaurant. Same chef, same impressive cuisine  team, but with a 24€ daily lunch menu that may be the best deal in France.  We have savored many a meal there.

Photos: above, the hotel; the wine shop by the creek. Below, our group wishes you bonne santé; le coq is the Blanc symbol.

The decor is inviting and interesting too, something you don’t always get in France.  So we happily dined al fresco on this sunny October day, in the interior courtyard.  

The 24€ menu du jour was this:  rillettes of salmon with a red pepper coulis  for l’entrée (luscious), beef cheeks slow-cooked in a rich red wine sauce for le plat (we sopped every last bit of sauce) which came with a penne pasta gratin (maybe the best mac&cheese we’ve ever had), and une assiette de desserts (chocolate mousse, 3 tarts, and a tiny, 3-tiered mocha cake).  Ron veered off from the set menu and ordered  the famous poulet de Bresse, the ultimate roasted chicken served with potatoes an oh-so- decadent creamy herb sauce.

Vonnas is a perfect little foodie side trip if you’re traveling through Burgundy. It’s about an hour from Beaune, even closer from Macon or Chalon-sur-Saône. And you can spend a morning poking around the village:  strolling through the small weekly market (on Thursdays), dreaming your way through his well-stocked kitchen shop, or tasting the offerings at the wine and gourmet food boutique. Take photos on the flowery arched bridge, then settle in for a very fine meal at the Auberge that will leave you starry-eyed, at a very down-to-earth price. Or if you’re feeling riche, book a room and reach for the sky!

If you go: get all the details here, and do try to take a side trip to the historic town of Bourg-en-Bresse. Chef Blanc also has brasseries in Lyon and Macon. 

 

RECIPE: Pumpkin Gratin, Inspired by the Master 

I poked around on-line for Georges Blanc recipes and didn’t come up with much.  But I did read an interview in which he described how he makes his pumpkin gratin, though in vague terms with no amounts.  So I sort of faked it (and added parmesan, nuts and a bit of bacon to the mix), and you can fake it too, no need to measure. I served it as a main course, and even my resident carnivore was pleased.

For two servings, take a small pumpkin or butter nut squash, peel and cut it into 2” squares. Salt it well and leave it in a colander to drain overnight (this was Georges's idea, though I can’t really see that it was necessary. I will skip it in the future, or let it sit for an hour).  

Dry it well and put it on a sheet pan in single layer, toss with just a bit of olive oil plus some pepper, and  roast it in a hot oven (450F, 220c) for 20 minutes or so, until  just soft.  Reduce oven to 400 (180C).

Meanwhile, chop an onion and fry it with a couple of slices of bacon (this is optional, but made my carnivore happy) until onions are soft and bacon is crisp.  Remove bacon and chop (I used lardons, already chopped).  Drain the pan if you like, but leave enough to de-glaze it. Add some heavy cream to pan with the onions and bacon (¼ cup per person is about right). Bring just to a boil and de-glaze pan. Turn off heat and add squash; I mashed mine ever so lightly. Stir it all together.

Pour it all into a gratin pan, top with coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans, and sprinkle lightly with gruyère and parmesan.  Bake for 15 minutes and serve hot.

 

In the COMMENTS: One of our loyal readers, Kim Defforge  of the 24/7 in France blog, has written a book about self-publishing that looks like a must-read for authors: How To Write Your First Book: My Personal Step-by-Step Guide  (check out Kim's other books too, Solitary Desire: One Woman's Journey to France and Sun, Sea & Savoir-Faire: Travel Focus on the French Riviera ). Michaela, thanks for the great tip on cheap formatting!  Linda, a book trailer is the same idea as a movie trailer, done by the author and posted on-line.  As an example you can see Kelly's tralier for her book Sailing to Jessica on youtube or on her website. Author/photographer/designer Karen Chase does fabulous book trailers for authors, by the way, if you're not a DIY person.

Favorite reads:  Did you know our loyal reader and faithful commenter Natalia is a magazine writer?  Dog lovers, be sure to check out The Yorkshire Terrier Magazine, to see her work. Sue Wallace recommends The Road to Burgundy: The Unlikely Story of an American Making Wine and a New Life in France; I read a great review of this book too, can't wait to read it.  Sue says it's an excellent tale with a happy ending--and it made her thirsty! New reader Doris recommends a book by another American living in France: At My French Table: Food, Family, and Joie de Vivre in a Corner of Normandy, by Jane Webster.  This one is on my list too!

In other news:  Missing Paris?  I love Virginia's latest Paris photos at Paris Through My Lens.  And if you happen to be in Birmingham, Virginia's doing a photography class at Samford this fall.

 

So You Want to Publish a Book? Start Here

Two authors in the family! That's me on the right, in Australia with my talented and beautiful step-daughter Kelly, who published Sailing to Jessica, about her trip around the world. Which ended, by the way, with the adoption of our daughter/grandaughter in the Gilbert Islands.

"You should write a book about that!"  Have you heard that before?  Well, now you can. 

It’s now possible for me to publish a book for the states, Europe, and beyond, from my desk in France (as I did this summer).  And whether you’ve written the Great American Novel or you just want to write your family history for your grandkids, you can do it too. Here are some thoughts, from my experience and from our readers who are authors.

The Plan:  Decide if you just want something just for family and friends.  If it's just for family and you want to pay for it yourself, there are lots of print-on-demand options, you don't need a publisher (try Snapfish, for example).  But if you want to sell the book to even a small audience, self-publishing might be the way to go.

The cost: if you are handy enough to do the cover, editing, and formatting yourself, you can publish for almost nothing. If you're serious and seeking something professional looking however, you'll need to hire a cover designer (I was very happy with my designer: Damonza.com). I signed up a friend as my editor, but this was too much to ask and I should have used a professional. You simply cannot believe how many times you have to read a book to catch the errors. To get a cover design, editing, and formatting done, you could sqeeze by on $1000 but you could spend a lot more.  

The time factor:  Writing it may be the quick part!  There are many publishing options, and it took a while to sort them all out.  In the end I decided to go just with Amazon's Createspace (for print, with both free and paid services) and their Kindle Direct (for the ebook), which is the easiest DIY way , and the fact is that Amazon controls a huge chunk of the market. What took time: finding a cover designer, educating myself about how to be an author and publisher and marketing person; the formatting; the marketing itself. I was lucky in that Ron was willing to do my formatting.  You can have that done for you as well; Damonza.com does it for $199, for example.  For the hassle factor and the time it took, this, I can tell you, is a bargain.  (Note that you can also go with a self-publishing service, who will do some or all of the work for you for a fee or a cut. Smashwords or Bookbaby are two to try, but study them carefully to see what you're getting).

The how-to:  Before you type the first word of your book, read a how-to book and/or several how-to articles or blogs. Why?  Apart from the obvious reason of figuring out what you're getting into, your typing will later have to be formatted.  I typed mine in Mac Pages, which I later found out was a bad choice for Amazon's Createspace (Word is better, and there are other options). When you type you must avoid all formatting, such as tabs and paragraph indents.  So save yourself a LOT of bother, and do your homework FIRST.

Loyal reader Michela Rodeno, who has just published From Bubbles to Boardrooms: Act 1: Startups Are Such Fun (Volume 1) , recommended a great book for authors, called APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book. Study it, before you start. Just about everything you need to know is in this book.

The marketing:  If you publish it, they won't come---unless you bring them to the book.  Most self-published books sell less than 100 copies.  There is a lot of competition out there.  So before you even begin, figure out how you'll market it.  Marketing will be an on-going time-eater.

My step-daughter Kelly has a good marketing tip: "I would recommend that everyone makes a book trailer for their book. In my mind, a book trailer is today's high tech version of a glossy brochure - but it is more fun to watch and share". She was clever enough to do her own, or perhaps you have access to a teen-ager? 

Our loyal reader Christine Webb-Curtis is a self-published author, with co-author Dimity Hammon. One key to building successful sales is to have a series of books, and they are now writing their third, after The Diva's Demise: A Cape Cod Crime Mystery  and Rehearsals for Retribution: A Cape Cod Crime Mystery. She recommends taking notes on the publishing process as you go along, so the next one will be easier. "Each one has been a little like birthing a baby, for heaven's sake," says Chris. "After this last time, we have kept instructions on some of the nuances."

Now, to all  all you aspiring authors out there, I say, go for it!  And for you, a big fat bon courage!

 

 One more tip:  We have a free-lance editor among our readers, I have just discovered!  So if you need an editor for your book, you know who to contact:  Barbara Bell. You can get in touch with her through her website or through LinkedIn.

 In the COMMENTS:  The artists from last week's post will be thrilled to read your nice comments!  And Natalia, you are so right, we can learn to appreciate different styles, when they speak to us. Sally, I agree--Marion pulled off a pretty amazing feat, given the French love of red tape.  And Judy, pigeonniers were originally towers that were homes to pigeons. Pigeon caca is prized above all for it's fertilizing properties, so having a pigeonnier was a status symbol--as it is today, but only because of their charm.