Food in Provence (and elsewhere)

Wind was the bane of my life in Agde last year. But that was just a pain for sitting on my balcony of an evening. It didn’t stop me doing much else (and, to be fair, the wind was a problem only because I needed a parasol on the west facing balcony).

But rain… The clear-sky spell has gone, being replaced by heavy rain until Monday at least. Not just around here: a planned hike in the Kerry area this weekend has been cancelled. Now, I have to admit that JB, MB and SB in the cottage did venture out for a run and a walk after the demo session this afternoon but it’s certainly not cycling weather as far as I’m concerned and I don’t have any waterproof (or quick-dry) trousers for an enjoyable walk.

Result? An early blog post—my order of work for tomorrow is already prepared.

But a blog post with no pictures. All I had to present today was a caesar salad—three leaves and some croutons on a plate with dressing and parmesan shavings. Not exactly earth shattering. But it did look quite good, even so.

The real effort today was making two Victoria sponges but these were then used to line a bowl and filled with cooked blackcurrants for a Winter Blackcurrant Pudding. This needs to set in the fridge overnight so I’ll only present it tomorrow.

Making the sponges took _way_ longer than I expected, though. Finola, my teacher today, wanted the butter creamed to the texture of face cream—no resistance at all if a spatula is run through. This took about 15 mins as the butter was still cold even after 1.5hrs out of the fridge. (Did I mention it was raining? And cold? “Welcome to Ireland” is the constant comment from the locals…). And then Finola wanted the same texture after the sugar had been added. Which took another 10 minutes at least. Still, the effort was worthwhile: the sponges were evenly baked, flat not domed and tasted really good. So I have hopes for the winter pudding tomorrow.