Newsletter THREE - Olives and Olive Oil 12/21/2011
 A lot has been said about the benefits of the so-called "Mediteranean" diet, where fresh fruits and vegetables, good meat and fresh seafood, goat cheese and many more supposedly fattening ingredients, generously cooked with olive oil and washed down with some light and gorgeous red wine - Cotes-du-Rhone, here we come - are your getaway to good health and longevity. My own ancestors seem to be a good example, as my maternal grand-parents lived to 102 and 95 respectively, my auntie passed away two weeks ago at age 99, and my Mum is leisurely living towards her 92nd birthday! I am not sure I will get that far (I hear a sight of dispair: 'he is not going to blog about food, wine and turntables for another 40 years!). Anyway, let's get back to the subject on hand... I have spend a lot of my youth amongst olive trees that were up to 400 years old, and my Mum used to go to the mill to buy her yearly supply of Extra Virgin Oil in Mouries (where incidently she met my father in 1945...) So, until later in life, olive oil and olives were a staple of my pantry and a mandatory ingredient of anything I cooked without a second thought. A normal cooking session always start with some olive oil in the pot or pan, adding some oignons, peeling some garlic for later, and then think what else would go in that pot! Obviously, more recently, and specially here in Australia, olive oil has become "a la mode" and there are so many cooking shows, either native or imported, on the TV, that you could just switch from one to another in a frenzy of creative cooking competition and be there all day and night (and that's true even between the three or four yearly avatars of MasterChef!) Even Margaret Throsby on ABC Classi FM is falling for it, as she airing tomorrow an interview with Heston Blumenthal!!! So olive oil is in and here to stay and become a staple of the Australian diet, and I am not the one to complain! This is also supported by a strong local production: I have seen many a grove being planted and becoming productive, even famous in the 15 years I have lived here! Some facts to support my gut feelings (so to speak...) - Olive oil has about 4 % share of the world's vegetable oil production. - Olive oil accounts for 19 % of the value of the world oil trade. - 91 % of the world's olives are pressed into oil. - 90 % of the oil is consumed within the producer countries themselves. - In the last ten years consumption has increased by 110 % in France, 211 % in the USA , 320 % in Canada and 230 % in Australia. (source: www.modernolives.com.au) Most of the growers, though, boutique or massive, are using either Greek, Spanish or Italian varieties, the most common being are Frantoio , Correggiola, Leccino and Pendulina from Italy, Manzanillo, Hojiblanca, Sevillano from Spain and Kalamata from Greece, mainly used as table olives. Frantoio and Leccino are used by boutique organic growers, and Manzanillo represents the bulk of the Australian production (some commercial groves have up to a million trees each, like Fini in Western Australia. France represents a mere 2% of the worldwide production and produces mainly a local variety called Picholine, which is suitable for table olives, as well as for producing the most subtle and rich oil. A famous producer in Maussane is Moulin Jean-Marie Cornille, and another one in Mouries is Moulin Saint Michel.( the one my Mum used to buy from...) On top of Picholine these other rare varieties are found only in Les Baux region: Grossane, Salonenque, Verdale, Berruguette, all beautiful old names routed in the terroir and the names of the villages where from they originated. Olives are one of the oldest crops in the World, going back at least 6000 years. I have found so far only one producer of Picholine in Australia: Blacklea Vineyard and Olive Grove in Mudgee. If you know another one let me know. Obviously, you can use olives in recipes as well as using the oil for cooking or in salad dressings. So I will give you a recipe I did for my Mum and Sister over my last trip to France in October: Scallops on a bed of oignons, crushed potatoes, and black olives: And it is really that simple: Cut oignons in little cubes Peel the potatoes and cut them in small cubes, slightly bigger than the oignons so they don't cook too quickly Remove stones from olives, cut in small pieces - reserve In a pan, pour some EVOO, bring to sizzle, add oignons and cook until transparent. Add potatoes, mix and let to cook under a lid for about 15-20mns When cooked, remove from heat, mix the olives with the potatoes and oignons. Keep warm under the lid In the meantime, you would have prepared the scallops, removing the coral part, and keeping the meat. You should also have some fresh coriander leaves at the ready. Now, use a 10cm ring to form the potatoes/oignons/olives mix into a round bed, ready to be served on the plates Cook the scallops in a lightly oiled very hot pan. Sizzle for one minute on each side, keep warm out of the fire. Get everybody around the table and work quickly to assemble six scallops on top of or around the potatoe pie, top up with ground pepper and a generous serve of coriander. Serve immediately, and pour some Cassis Blanc wine in your guests glasses in you are in Provence, or a good French Chardonnay (Meursault anybody?) or a Sancerre blanc. Et voila!!!  After this small visual treat, I will add some more photos related to our topic and let you dream - like me - about owning your own olive grove. Beware though that it is a costly investement (200-300K$) and it takes about 8 years to see a return on a 500 tree grove: not for the faint hearted!             Add Comment  BANON - Chevre A charming little provencal village, tucked between the Mont-Ventoux and the Lure mountain, it is mostly famous for its goat cheese wrapped in chesnut leaves, secured around it with raffia. It takes about two weeks to ripe, then it is dipped in eau-de-vie and wrapped in the chesnut leaves, which have been cleansed in boiling water and vinegar. Because those leaves are collected in autumn, this is the best time also to make Banon. Another good time is Spring, because of the abundance of milk from the goats. Banon cheese was one of the first french cheese to obtain an A.O.C and is the one with the smallest production: only 15 farmers and 3 artisanal cheesemakers produce 68 tonnes of it, which roughly translates into 700,000 individual cheeses! Only one producer is actually based in Banon! Although most people would consume it when still soft, my grandfather used to store his on top on an "armoire" for several weeks, until dry and hard to the point of crumbling when cut... Perfect matching wine would obviously be a Cotes-du-Rhone, from a local Côteaux de Pierrevert, when young, to a more potent Chateauneuf-du-Pape when ripe.    BOULETTE D'AVESNES - Vache The village of Avesnes-sur-Helpe in the north of France is famous not only for one cheese, but two: The Boulette d'Avesnes and Maroilles, which is also a village near by - see further down. The thing is you cannot have one without the other! The Boulette is actually made out of left over of other cheeses but primarily Maroilles today to keep its A.O.C. (like La Vache Qui Rit which is an industrial concoction of many -undisclosed and usually not very good... - other cheeses, but we used to love it on tartines as morning tea or breakfast as kids!). It is also called "Le Puant de Schnord", as it comes from the North and it stinks (puant comes from pungent). So, it is made out of fresh maroilles mixed with pepper, parsley, estragon and cloves, each cheesemaker using his/her own recipe ! Then, it is manually formed into a bell-shaped curd, washed with beer before affinage and then rolled in paprika. Best accompanied with a Corbieres or a Cahors, or if you are game, a glass of Juniper eau-de-vie!    BRIE - Vache   Whether it comes from Meaux, Melun or Nangis, Brie is a region between Paris and Champagne and is where one of the most popular cheeses in France and one the most famous (and imitated...) around the world is made. Made of uncooked, unpasteurised cow milk, it is traditional formed into a large wheel and sold as such or in portions. A pasteurised version, called Fromage de Brie, is exported around the world. A smaller version of Brie is called Coulomiers (named after that city) and is believed to be the ancestor of all Bries in Australia, King Island and Tasmania make pasteurised versions of Brie which are very good and can certainly compete with the original! The Brie de Nangis is the milder of the lot, then Meaux, then Melun. Best red wine match would be a Merlot or Cabernet Merlot, although some people would match it with Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc. My preference would be for a Meursault if choosing to pair it with a white wine, and a Gamay with the Brie de Nangis, a Pinot Noir with the Melun, and Merlot with the Meaux if you fancy a red.    CAMEMBERT - Vache A tiny village in Normandie has given its name to one of the most famous cheese... I visited it almost by accident when renting a house near by as a base for a Tourism Trade Show in Deauville 20 odd years ago for my wife and her Australian business partner visiting with his wife and their recently adopted 2 year old son, a gorgeous South American boy. I can't tell you how many Camembert au lait cru I ate in my lifetime! When ripe, it is the most extraordinary cheese: pungent enough, but mild inside, rich and creamy and definitely not recommended if you are on a diet! And you need bread and red wine to do it justice... Invented by Marie Harel in 1790, being given the recipe by a priest travelling fom Meaux to England, she did a very good job at promoting it. By 1900, having acquired the wooden box which is its trademark, invented by a certain Mr Ridel, it was able to travel the World, including the USA where it was accepted then unpasteurised... Marie Harel is buried in the near by village of Vimoutiers, the village best know for the best "Tripes a la mode de Caen" - go figure - and yes, I did buy Tripes from the local butcher who won the Gold Medal at the Foire de Paris!    CROTTIN DE CHAVIGNOL - Chevre A small village near Sancerre in the Upper Loire Valley, it is home to one of the most famous French goat cheese, and certainly one of my favourite. Usually eaten aged, it become friable and very tasty. It is even smaller than the Banon at an average of 80 grams and 28% of fat content. There are only two producers in the village, but obviously more around, and also in other regions of France. The near buy city of Sancerre on the Loire river is very famous today for its Sauvignon Blanc, although until the 1900s when the vines were destroyed by Phylloera, it was Pinot Noir country like further South in Burgundy. I recommend you try a Menetou-Salon, a less known Sauvignon Blanc, made just outside of the Sancerre A.O.C. boundaries, you guessed it, near and around the village of the same name!    FOURME (or TOME) DE LAGUIOLE - Vache Well, Laguiole is certainly more famous for its knives, and the restaurant of Michel Bras, the king of the vegetables. And I have to admit that until I research for this article, I had no idea of the Fourme de Laguiole. So, of all the cheeses reviewed here, this is the only one I have not tasted myself... But, the village is so famous and so picturesque, that I could not resist finding an excuse to mention it! Fourmes and tomes and not my favourites cheeses anyway, but if any of you had a chance to try this one, I would love to hear from you! Laguiole in the Southern part of France, in an arid region called Aveyron, and more precisely in Aubrac, a region very famous for its beef. Several restaurants in Paris are specialised in steaks from the region: my favourite happens to be minutes from where one of my nephews live: Le Pareloup in Rue Saint Charles: http://www.aveyron.com/parisien/pareloup.html. That should be the subject of a future review on our blog... To come back to the Tome of Laguiole, it is a big cheese, much like a Gruyere or Parmesan that takes a good 12 months to mature and weighs between 40 and 50kgs. More than 600 tonnes are produced annually. Recommended matching wine: Cahors    GRUYERE - Vache This is a controversial name, as the A.O.C. was originally granted to Switzerland in the village of Gruyeres (with an "s" suggesting they are a number of them...there is even one in Australia!). The "gruyers" were the tax officers during the reign of Charlemagne and instead of collecting ecus or euros or dollars, they were collecting cheese! Hence the name of the cheese... In 2007, after a long and protracted battle, the French also won an A.O.C. for the Gruyere made in Franche-Comte around Besancon and the Rhone-Alpes region centred on Lyon. It takes 400 litres of cow milk and a 120 days to make a 42kgs "meule" of Gruyere "francais". The Swiss version is aged longer (up to a year) and the production process prevents it to develop the large holes that are the trademark of the French version. Why not try a Riesling with Gruyere?    LIVAROT - Vache This is another village in Normandy, not that far from Camembert or Pont l'Eveque to be reviewed later. The Livarot cheese is the oldest in Normandy and is a soft, pungent, washed rind cheese made from cow's milk. It is both beloved and reviled for its earthy aroma. It was also referred in the past as "the meat of the poor" for its good nutritional values and also because it kept itself up to six months. It is quite easy to recognised on a platter with its orange colour and the five rings of straw, which has given its nickname of "le colonel" A rich red wine like a Pomerol or a Saint-Emilion would be an ideal match. I believe that some of the Barossa Valley reds would be quite a good match as well.    MAROILLES - Vache It is one of the oldest cheeses know in France, believed to have been invented in 960 by the monks of the local Abbey. A square washed rind, quite smelly, but actually quite mild on the tongue, and with a soft texture, it is the best know cheese from the north of France. It has been protected by an A.O.C. since 1955. Some suggest that, as it is typical from the north of France, beer would be a good match. I have not tried it, but I can see it being a good match. My preference would be for a strong red, maybe a Cahors or a Madiran    MUNSTER - Vache Munster is a village in the Vosges region in the east of France. The name seems to be a contraction of the latin "monasterium" - monastery. A Benedictine Monastery is dedicated to St Gregoire (my son's name...and the name of the school I attended for over 10 years in Tours) and was founded in 668, and it took until 855 for the Munster cheese to appear on the local market. A similar cheese called Gerome is made on the other of the Vosges mountain near Gerardmer - pronounced Gerome by the locals... A wine from near by Alsace, like a Gewurtzstraminer would be a great match.    PONT L'EVEQUE - Vache Our last cheese from Normandy, it is also a square washed rind, very similar to the Livarot, but less pungent. It is my favourite among the "smelly" cheese family! As it is quite expensive, it is sold as well as a "demi" or "half portion" The most famous brand, available on export markets (and here in Australia) is from E. Graindorge - you can find it at the Blackwattle Deli at the Sydney Fish Markets. A local matching beverage could be a cider, but any strong red wine will do.    SAINTE-MAURE - Chevre My all time favourite since my childhood, maybe because living in Tours, this was local, but also because I was fascinated by the straw hidden inside it to help ripening uniformly. It is tasty, but with subtle flavours, its texture quite firm but not crumbling when properly "affine". Introduced in the region by the Maures who invaded France up to around Poitiers where they were stopped by Charles Martel, it is probably the only "imported" cheese in France! And my friend Karen and David at Willowbrae Cheese are making an outstanding Australian version! Best wine could be a Sancerre white, or a local Chinon red.    First Newsletter 03/25/2011
As promised, here is a review of the five movies we managed to see during the French Film Festival in Sydney. I am tempted to start with my favourite "Of Gods and Men" but I will keep it for 'la bonne bouche" and start instead with my least popular one... All photos are courtesy of www.frenchfilmfestival.org.au and www.imdb.com Potiche Even with the cast, including Catherine Deneuve, Gerard Depardieu, the inevitable Fabrice Luchini and the sexy Karine Viard, and all the hype, I cannot be anything else than disappointed. For sure, I laughed, as there are many very comic situations indeed, reinforced by the talented (although predictable) Luchini, and you have to praise the researchers for their 1970s sets (that wallpaper in the kitchen...) and all the vintage cars! The Renault 16 was the family and company car of choice at the time, and I got one as I joined HP in 1978. The film is set more or less 10 years after "Mai 68" and it seems to me that the rhetoric employer/employees had moved on in the meantime, beyond what is the core of the film script. The dialogues are recited most of the time, rather than acted - it is, I am afraid, a trademark of Depardieu, who is not at his best. The two best actors are certainly Luchini and Viard, in the old stereotype of the boss having an affair with his assistant. And Luchini is culminating in his chauvinism when he suddenly remembers his wife on a Thursday, because the local bordello is closed that day! Some of the secondary characters that are often the icing on the cake in many French films are ridiculous most of the time and could well be the real "Potiches" of the film. All in all, not worth skipping Sunday lunch for it, but if you want to see it, wait until the DVD is available.... My Father's Guests (Les Invites de mon Pere) A good and funny attempt to talk about immigration and how it can affect both the immigrants and the people that are trying their best (at least at the beginning...) to help them integrate. Again Luchini, Viard are superb in the roles of succesful Parisian Bourgeois whose life is suddenly disrupted by the antics of their respected and beloved father. In this film, a lot of the side characters, like the kids, act deliciously and really add to the story, by providing an innocent regard on the situation. There is a certain level of depth to the whole story, as each main character is faced with real questions about their life and the choices they made before the event. The film ends up with what looks like an unlikely reconciliation between father and son. There are some good scenes of bourgeois life in Paris and its occasional collision with a more proletarian existence. A film well made, well worth a visit. The Age of Reason Or, how can you have a midlife crisis at 35??? Well, first there is Sophie Marceau! she is not only very attractive and beautiful, but she can act, and it is amazing to see the range of emotions she can command. Again here the smaller roles are almost the core of the story: The notary, Maitre Merignac, played by Michel Duchaussoy (you might remember him in "Le plus beau jour de ma vie"), is certainly the star, and again the children all play marvelously what is really a fairytale. Another star that might stay anonymous is the building in which Margaret/Marguerite is working. It is the Cite Internationale in Lyon designed by Renzo Piano, one of my all time favourite architect. He has designed the fabulous Aurora Place in Sydney and the Pompidou Centre in Paris with Michael Rogers, probably his most famous building Les Femmes du 6eme/The Women on the 6th Floor What is so special about the 6th floor? Well, if you are familiar with the Paris designed by Haussman you would know that most of his buildings are 6 storey high and that the sixth floor in under the zinc roof and fitted with small rooms for the "domestiques" who used to be a staple of the rich families living in these buildings. Originally, these nannies and "femmes de menages" were coming from country France, and these new employment opportunities have always been a way for new arrivals to raise up in the post-revolution society. Actually, a book I read recently, called "The Arrival City" argues that these new arrivals were the ferment of the 1789 French Revolution. Over time, the French countrywomen were progessively replaced by a new wave of immigrants: The Spanish during their Civil War, then the Portuguese, the Yugoslav, and more recently the Moldaves and other Eastern Europeans (see My Father's Guests...). Our kids used to understand arabic as two of their best babysitters were Algerian and Moroccan respectively. Ah! Myriam's tagines after a long day at work...un regal! Fabrice Luchini (again...) has his best role here, discovering a new world in his own building, where he was born and raised and married. He never had to ask himself any questions about his place in society as he has inherited his Dad's stockbrocking firm and continued to make it strive without any apparent stress or difficulties. And suddenly a new Spanish maid, Maria, makes her entrance and turns his life upside down. (well, first up to the 6th floor, that is...) Luchini plays this simple, honest and generous man amazingly. Maria played by Natalia Verbeke is gorgeous, irreverent and smart and eventually wins the heart of the man of the house (A bit predictable and chauvinistic...but it is a French film after all!). Two of the other Spanish maids are favourite actresses of Almodovar, nobody is going to complain. All in all a very refreshing look at clash of cultures, immigration and integration. Of Gods and Men Well, this the star of the Festival, probably one of the best films I have seen ever! The cinematography, the pace and depth of the (real...) story, the acting are all first class. I can't wait to see it again. Again here is a story of the clash of cultures although in reverse. These Trappist monks are perfectly integrated in this remote Algerian village, and their life will be tragically terminated by Islamist extremists, although they are providing real help to their community in the respect of each other way of workshipping the same God. Wilson Lambert, as the elected head of the Congregation, is magnificent. Michael Lonsdale, as the dying doctor, is remarkable in his rendition of the "moine paillard", providing comfort to the body and the soul. The fraternity between the monks is extremely well and subtlely portrayed. The decors (filmed in Morrocco) are grandiose or intimate, and plain beautiful, and you cannot not love the local population that shares a very humble and rustic life with the monks. I have been waiting to see this film since my last visit to Paris in October last year, as it was triggering discussions between passengers in the Metro, something I have never witnessed before, as you normally feel more like strangers than fellow travellers. The two most magnificent sequences are what you could call "The Last Supper" and the last and very long shot where the monks walk in the snow towards their fate. Travel to Melbourne before you have to rush to Paris to see it! | AuthorBorn in France, well travelled, relocated to Sydney in 1997. ArchivesDecember 2011 CategoriesAll |
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