The first lilas, the first irises, daisy chains made of ‘paquerettes’…
It’s 26 degrees, Spring is beautiful and I’ve just made my first ‘Jardiniere‘ of the season.
Look out for Mamy Jeanne’s recipe in the following post…
a sprung Spring
Category: french culture
some sights #7 – pics from the South!
Hey, hey it’s time for some more sights from around our ‘hood!
the recently bottled ‘Boulevard Napoleon‘ with local smallgoods (where are you Dad?!)
…but check out the tele! – the kids are getting clued-up on winemaking
One of the many perks of living around here is the access to delicious, cheap wines served from tap straight out of the wall of our cave co-ops – simply BYO your own bottle…
… a Renault 4L van
Ashamed to say I get obssessed with many things, advertising keyrings from the 60s for eg! And hang on, I’ve even discovered there’s a name for it – ‘Copoclephliie‘ (!!)
Phew, I hope you got through that!
xo
Roti de Porc au Lait (Roast Milk Pork)
I was on the phone to Mum and Dad last week and mentioned that I’d just cooked up some Milk Pork – ‘Porc au Lait’ – for the next day’s dinner. It’s funny, these conversations about food are always totally out of whack with our time zones. It was 11pm my time and 8.30am the following morning, their time. Normally it’s me cleaning up the breakfast dishes as Dad explains with excitement what he’s got on the stove for dinner.
I’ve never served them Porc au Lait but I know they’d love it. It ticks all our family’s favourite food boxes: MEAT, lots of sauce, herbs, garlic and the required ‘three veg’ – and it is easy to prepare. It’s one of those old-fashioned French dishes that is simply delicious comfort food. My husband and mother-in-law showed me how to cook this years ago and I can’t count how many times I’ve prepared it since. We had the poker men for dinner + a few UK visitors and it went down a treat with the new ‘Boulevard Napoleon‘ wines – white and red.
serves 6-8
ingredients:
1.5kg roll of roasting pork – preferably of shoulder (fillet is drier and less fat, don’t want that)
1 litre full cream milk
2 large onions, sliced
6 carrots, cut into in large chunks
8 potatoes, as above
8 small turnips, as above
4-5 cloves of garlic
2 sprigs fresh thyme
bunch fresh sage (about 10-12 leaves)
2 sprigs rosemary
oil, butter
salt, pepper
method:
Fry up the onions in heavy cast iron pot with a big chunk of butter (30-40g) and a little olive oil, until golden.
Add the roll of pork and brown on each side over medium -high heat.
When the meat is almost all browned, add the garlic and salt, pepper to taste. I find garlic burns very easily, so I add it near the end of the browning.
Pour over the milk (meat should be 3/4 covered, if not add more ) and add the herbs.
Cover with lid and let simmer for an hour.
Add the carrots and turnips and keep simmering for another hour.
Add potatoes and keep simmering until they are tender.
Serve with lashings of dijon mustard on the side and a big white or red wine!
N.B. If this is prepared the night before eating, I don’t add any of the vegetables until the next day.
And. I cook this for a few hours, the longer the better. I like it when the meat falls apart. A lot of recipes cook it for less though, and you keep the form of the pork roll and then slice it. As the French would say, ‘as you want’…
still cruisin’ in Adelaide
A big Hip hip to this New Year, 2013! May it be a good one for all and a happy and healthy one.
Just thought I’d say I haven’t forgotten about the blog, just busy cruising the streets in S.A. (South Australia) and lapping up as much quality time as possible, before the annually dreaded departure. Gotta make the most of it!
But somehow there’s those petite ‘mon Dieu’ surprises that always bring France back to mind…
Back soon…
la vie en rose
Dunny paper, loo paper, bog roll,toilet paper, toilet tissue, papier toilette, PQ (this one is good – it’s French and so tres elegant – it’s pronounced ‘pai-cue’, short for papier cul,’arse paper’)… So many glorious ways to label a roll of perforated paper that wipes your bits. But whatever the name, there is a fashion here in France that never goes out of fashion – your PQ in pretty old pink.
Forget baguettes, 2CVs, the Eiffel Tower… Yes, when I think of a recurring image over here, I think of pink PQ. In almost every home you visit, you help yourself to, pink. In any cafe, bar or restaurant toilet, pink. Have a stroll down any supermarket toilet tissue aisle and you goggle over mountains of… pink. Good luck if you’re searching for non-bleached, non-patterned or basic white. They’ll be the few small piles hidden amidst the enormous volumes of joli rose – or once in a while spotted in a public loo!
Why? In fifteen years of frequent pondering (nearly always whilst sitting on someone else’s loo, reaching over for their dainty pink squares) – and asking most French people I know – I still don’t have an answer for it. I’m by no means the first person to be asking either – I have friends! Loads of them. There are millions of internet search engine results concerning this very discussion in both French and English. Some bloody funny theories too. But still no answers!
It doesn’t explain the pink, but here’s a bit of trivia – correct me if I’m wrong! – about the French and their PQ, found in my search for THE answer: it is said toilet paper was introduced in this country at the beginning of the 20th Century, but as it was long considered a luxury item, it was only from the 1960s its use became widespread.
And in shades of pink at that.
Chic.
The Vigneron's Wife 