Monthly Archives: August 2012

Blette or is it Bette

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Enjoying blette a la Gloria

<img class=”alignright size-medium wp-image-124″ title=”Mick avec des blettes”

In Britain or the US, it is known as Swiss Chard, but in France the Swiss connection is absent, here it is simply called Blette or Bette. And Blette or French chard has its own distinctive look, Big, bold and bright green.

We grew some blette this year and it was a very productive crop. It is one of those cut and come again vegetables and we had 12 of them, enough to keep ourselves and our friends eating it as often as we liked. Here we have photo of Mick holding aloft a nice bunch of Blettes, it has been going now for 3 months and I believe there is more to come.

Chard, whether Swiss or French has never caught on in Britain. This may be why Elizabeth David, Britain’s ‘doyenne’ of French cuisine, has little regard for it, in her own words, ‘the large fleshy green leaves called blettes have not a great deal of flavour’, she recommends discarding the fleshy stalks, cooking the leaves like spinach and serving them in a creamy sauce. My dear Friend Gloria Schwartz gave me a much better recipe which capitalized on the fleshy stalks which have the most distinctive flavor. For this recipe you will need 6 large leaves of the kind Mick is displaying plus one egg, some seasoned breadcrumbs ( grind up the oldest chunk of bread in the bin and sprinkle with salt and pepper) and some light oil ( grape seed).
Wash the leaves, carve out the fleshy stalks and cut them into 2-3 inch lengths; chop the remaining leaves and set aside. Blanch the stalks for 3 minutes in boiling water, drain, pat dry and soak in the beaten egg, before coating them in the seasoned breadcrumbs . Heat the oil in a saute pan and when really hot, saute the crumand egg coated stalks until they look delicious, when all are cooked in this way, drain off the oi and drop the chopped leaves int the same pan adding a knob of butter. The leave will wilt quickly which is all you wnat them to do, add them to the cooked stalks in a serving dish and ( if you have it) grind a little nutmeg over the surface. Serve at once. Bon appetite

For other great recipes using Blettes – try Otto Lenghi’s cookbooks.

Whitewash

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Whitewash: Whitewash is an old fashioned lime based paint – the French call it lait de chaux i.e. milk of chalk. It is also used metaphorically to describe ‘cover ups’ typically when politicians mount inquiries designed to hide the truth . This blog is about the material not the metaphorical meaning of whitewash.

Whitewash has some remarkable virtues: it is cheap , effective at covering blemishes and filling crevices and it is breathable or permeable – any dampness in the underlying structure of the wall can evaporate without causing the paint to detach and flake off. This is why it is the only paint that can be used or frescos, if the artist wants the mural to survive. The virtues of whitewash were all good reasons to use it to cover the stone wall in our ancient garden cabin. The photo shows Jon & Mitch, our current workawayers , busily applying the first coat of whitewash in the cabin. Because whitewash is thick and creamy , it must be applied with large wide brushes which I remember my mother calling distemper brushes.

Distemper was what she called whitewash, a reference that confused me as a child because the same word meant the dreaded disease that our dog might catch. Distemper is actually a very ancient generic term for disease – it literally means to be out of temper with body fluids all out of whack. The same word emerged as a term for paint because distemper or whitewash is a based on solution of water and lime, in Latin distemper means to soak.

Wow Wisconsin

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Deb



In the fall and winter of 2011/12 we had an exchange programme with the state of Wisconsin. It was the brain child of our resident house sitter, Deb Biechler who persuaded her friends to come visit her in Bormes and while they were with her, she put them all to useful employment. We are left with the impression of Wisconsin as the home of super practical professionals – ‘hell raising ‘ men & women who, when not in the office, casually clear virgin forest, fell trees, erect fences, build stone walls, repair woodwork just like that Hollywood vision of Oklahoma which older readers will remember in their childhood. They left a lasting legacy at L’Orangerie, the question is: Can we persuade the Deb and her Dream Team to come back again?