Food in Provence (and elsewhere)

It’s a chore weekend again, so not much rest after the pop-up: I heat milk for yoghurt and put a wash on as I prepare my morning cup of tea and interleave progressing those with catching up on my note writing and preparing for the coming week during the morning.

There’s a fair bit of talk about what we’re thinking of cooking for our practical examination. I’ve had a major change of heart and given up on the chicken/pintade/rabbit approach as the Ballymaloe recipes for those (which we’re supposed to follow) are more suited to autumn than to July—the timing of the menu which is being proposed as one for a meal at home on my return from Ballymaloe. Amongst the recipes we’ve covered, though—and one I’ve cooked myself—is a roasted red & yellow pepper salad with Kalamata olives. Switch those out for Nyons olives and it would go well with a grilled steak. I worry that the overall menu (Nyons olive soufflé to start, olive oil ice cream as a dessert) doesn’t cover many techniques but it is certainly achievable in 3 hours. However, I’ll also be adding focaccia as an accompaniment to the main course. We can provide a sourdough (and the Ballymaloe focaccia is with a sourdough starter) which will be noted even though it doesn’t count against our time. I’ll be making a sourdough loaf again this week but can try the focaccia the week after before making one for the exam.

JB is trialling her ideas during the day: she prepares labneh and picks fig leaves for a panna cotta in the morning and then prepares a starter with the labneh and a courgette risotto with nasturtium flowers in the evening. All are really good—and I, not someone usually keen on desserts and even less so on milky ones, think the panna cotta is excellent.

Amusingly, as in Masterchef, panna cotta features on a number of the prospective menus, as does ice cream. Both are things that need a bit of active work but then get on with things by themselves. We’re all pretty much planning on making these ahead, though, just to be sure that they have time to set or, in the case of ice cream, freeze to the Ballymaloe level of firmness. (Our time for the exam proper will be reduced but only by the time we’re actively working, so not for the time the ice cream, say, spends churning in the machine.)

I did try JB’s risotto, but my main meal was butter-poached (not pan fried) sole on toast with beurre blanc sauce and samphire. The butter for the beurre blanc and for the poaching (we have been told repeatedly that beurre blanc is not a sauce for pan-fried fish) is some I made that needs using up—similarly, the perhaps unusual “on toast” is as I have some of my sourdough to finish.