While English children still anxiously await Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday) on 21 February this year, their little French rivals have already gorged on crêpes.
In France ‘pancake day’ is La Chandeleur, celebrated on 2nd February. It marks Candlemas, whose Christian association is today rather readily ignored in favour of older origins as a mid-winter celebration of light. To all French children its main meaning and purpose is crêpes. A few years ago I perused and tested a number of recipes before settling on a favourite version largely inspired by the classic early-twentieth-century French cookbook La Bonne Cuisine de Mme E. Saint-Ange. Ideally the batter should be made the night before. They are fragrant enough to be eaten alone, though everyone agrees that the purpose of crêpes is the topping. My favourite is classic sugar with a squeeze of lemon — or, better still, a Seville orange!
A propos which — I fear the season for Seville oranges is getting shorter every year, or perhaps they are ever more popular and being snapped up before I can react, or maybe I am always a little slow in moving with the seasons and produce, still standing by yesterdays softening pears rather than snatching the newest forced rhubarb. I had a hard time finding a batch but did get some in the end, with which I will be making vin d’orange, of all my witches’ brews undoubtedly the most appreciated apéritif I have ever brought out. Will I succumb to marmalade too? Probably.
Next week we are going to the Alps. It is more than just a skiing holiday. It is cold air and spectacular vistas, time spent with friends we don’t often see, a moment with our children including those who aren’t at home full time anymore, it is of course a culinary escapade. On holiday it is good to eat differently, starting with breakfast. While at home we have for many years owned a decent espresso coffee machine, in the mountains I love a middling cup of black drip. The poetry of holiday coffee — a short espresso sipped at a counter in Milan, the endless light acrid refills in an American diner, but too a cup of Nescafé upon waking on the beach in Greece (true memory, and Nescafé will always hold a special place in my heart). There is some solace in the absence of that all-prevalent third-generation flat white. And with the mediocre coffee perhaps a decent croissant, scouted from the good bakery in the village.
For dinner we have through the years honed some alpine holiday traditions. They may be prepared just once a year, but will never be passed over. There is a traditional raclette in which a whole half cheese is wedged onto a coiled heating device, each melted slice scraped directly onto the plate. We have a tartiflette tradition. We discovered diots.
Other traditional Savoyard dishes which haven’t so far wedged themselves into our week are crozets — small flat square-shaped buckwheat pasta — and, of course, fondue! (Or is fondue more Swiss than French?). Perhaps this year …
TO MAKE AND COOK
A very good crêpes recipe for Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday) and a kiss of the mountains with this tartiflette prepared with a whole melted reblochon [N&Q]
Whether we have just fifteen minutes or a whole day, there is something to be done with Seville oranges. Vin d’orange is no work at all, though it requires some patience while it seeps. The wait is rewarded and it doesn’t fail to surprise and delight. Marmalade on the other hand is a labourious, full day’s project — pleasurable and addictive in its own way. [N&Q]
I like the sound of this seed and nut and nothing else bread from one of my favourite newsletters, xoxoDorie by Dorie Greenspan.
And so intrigued by a celery sour mocktail imagined by Rebekah Peppler [NYT]
TO READ
This article tries to unpick fondue’s mysterious origins [BBC travel]
So much great advice in this column, a lot of which I (ahem) try to follow as much as possible — ‘never apologize!’ — some that was new to me — ‘Add cold syrup to hot cake, hot syrup to cold cake’ and ‘whisk your mince!’ Worth reading and (re-)committing to memory. [Guardian]
Tempting list of London’s best Chinese restaurants as chosen by the ‘biggest names in Chinese cooking.’ [Evening Standard]
This good read on the illusion of food diversity (“More than half the world’s cheese is made with enzymes and starter cultures from the same Danish company”) and the importance of saving endangered foods such as beremeal and perry. [Guardian]
Dusk is descending less abruptly, the extra minutes surrendered to pink tinged sunsets, we are well into February and the days are getting longer!