From Our Autumn Potager: Golden Acorn Squash & Broccoli Recipes

Golden acorn squash, resembling small pointy pumpkins, were harvested mid-October and will store well in our cool, dark cellier for several months.

An easy way to prepare this tasty and nutritious veggie is roasting. Scrub well, halve, scrape out the fibrous mass of seeds, rub cut ends with melted butter, sprinkle some dried thyme over them, and then roast cut side down on a parchment-lined pan in a 400 degrees C oven for about forty minutes or until fork tender and carmelised. C'est tout. Though I usually just cradle in my hand a warm squash-half adorned with a flourish of fleur de sel while spooning its luscious innards straight into my mouth, one could scoop out the cooked flesh and then mash, salt to taste, and serve this lovely mound of goodness as an accompaniment to fish, chicken, pork, lamb, or beef. Additionally it can be used as a spread mixed with some crumbled blue cheese for grilled bread.

A slightly more involved approach is first peeling and cubing it into small pieces. Saute the cubes along with garlic, thyme, and some greens if desired, like kale or young, small broccoli leaves in olive oil. After a few minutes, add a tablespoon of apple cider or sherry vinegar diluted with several tablespoons of water or meat/veggie broth. Dry white wine can be subbed for the diluted vinegar. If there are any cooked lentils hanging about, they can be added. Simmer covered for about fifteen minutes, adding more liquid if needed, until tender and lightly carmelised. Salt to taste. Sprinkle on some freshly grated Parmesan if desired. This melange can be eaten as a stew or it could be mixed with pasta or served on cous cous.

Good to the last morceau!

Broccoli, fresh from our potager, is slightly sweet, especially the stalk.

I am immensely proud of this beauty!

Though this is the third season of my growing calabrese broccoli, this is the first time that the heads came out so large and densely packed with buds.

I thinly slice the small leaves, adding them to minestrone & stir-frys

It's a lovely addition to pork fried rice. Rinse the broccoli and lop off the florets with a sharp knife as you work up the head. Slice fairly thinly this now denuded part of the stalk, discarding the rest. Julienne the slices. Heat up some vegetable oil (not olive) till sizzling in a large fry pan or wok. Using some thin strips of pork leftover from a roast, stir fry them for a minute or two until slightly browned. Remove and reserve. Toss in first the sliced stalk and stir fry for a couple of minutes, then add the florets and stir for another two minutes or so. If you want more tender broccoli, add a tablespoon or so of water, cover, and steam for a few minutes. Remove and reserve. Heat more oil if necessary and saute briefly some minced garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Push them aside in the pan and pour in a beaten egg, stirring constantly till you get tiny cooked bits which usually takes about a minute. Add cooked rice (I use brown) and stir fry for a couple of minutes. Add the pork, broccoli, and soy sauce. Give it all a good stir.

The main activity in the potager is preparing beds for late winter/early spring planting which involves weeding and then covering with oak leaves which are roughly chopped with a spade and kept wet. This mulch takes about a full year in our climate to become moisture-retentive leaf mould so by next fall it will be fully decomposed and can be incorporated into the soil. Then a new layer of leaves hauled via our electric car from a nearby oak copse will be placed on the beds. In a few months, the mulch will be moved aside temporarily so lettuce, spinach, onions, garlic, beets, carrots, parsnips, peas, leeks, bare-root strawberries & early potatoes can be planted.

The broccoli bed is in the upper left

Potted mums are great for an accent of colour here and there. That planter was done fifteen years ago! It still is thriving and have provided many cuttings for new plants.

Culinary sage is in the forefront

Dirac the Young Cat, a muscular, adventurous, energetic feline, is allowed to go out at night if he so wishes except during storms, Halloween, and on Firecracker Day, July 14. If so, it is not uncommon for him to sleep in all the following day, preferably way on top of the elm wall unit.

His tail is pointing to the volume that contains the entry on tigers

À la prochaine!

Aubeterre-sur-Dronne

A couple of weeks ago, The Calm One, our electric car, and I all tootled off to Aubeterre sur Dronne which is about a thirty-minute drive southeast from chez nous. Aubeterre, a lovely village of about four-hundred inhabitants, is nestled along a chalk bluff above a loop of the Dronne River and has been listed as one of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France since 1993. Our visit was an information-gathering one focused on identifying what pleases us the most. Well, everything pleased us. We will be back!

Crêperie de la Source not only gets terrific reviews for its menu and friendly, attentive service, but also for fabulous terrace seating overlooking the countryside.

Closed, but we shall return for the tapas, savoury galettes, creamy tarragon chicken...

Seeing hot-pink cascading geraniums hanging from a bracket fixed to a stone house soothed me as much as my catching muted conversation drifting from various sidewalk cafes situated in nearby Place Ludovic Trarieux.

The ubiquitous white limestone inspired the village's name: alba terra = white land

Someday I will find out the history of this intriguing house with its even more intriguing sashed dormer window.

Saint-Jean is an underground, monolithic church whose earliest beginnings date from the 7th century. Many pilgrims on their journey to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain visited this prominent reliquary.

The village, as it is built into steep terrain, has haute (upper) and basse (lower) divisions. We started our walk halfway between the two and could see the remnants of le château d'Aubeterre above and...

...and the countryside below.

Deciding not to fight gravity, we ambled downwards till we reached the bottom...

I see their soupe de poisson, paupiette de veau & fondant au chocolat in my future

...and then met sneaky, old gravity on the way back up!

Resting from time to time allowed us to admire the buildings full of character...

Balconies with stupendous views

...and beauty.

Limestone houses with red tiled roofs

We both loved Aubeterre and will return for the restaurants, various artisan shops, and its natural and historical ambience.

À la prochaine!

Taking a Short Autumn Break!

Souped-up Garden will be on hiatus the next two weeks.  The Calm One, Dirac the Young Cat, and I will be relaxing, and of course chowing down on good food like my warming, nourishing minestrone soup. Brimming with delicious ingredients like olive oil, garlic, basil, beef broth, tomato paste, bay leaf, carrots, potatoes, white beans, porcini, Parmesan, peas, greens, macaroni, and beef, it is perfectly attuned to all things autumn including our turning on the central heating!  The recipe is here.

Dirac demonstrates how relaxing is done.

À bientôt!

Quick Crusty Chewy Pizza

There are sundry ways of making something resembling real pizza without spending that much time. Lightly grilling a split English muffin first, then topping it with ingredients you love, and putting it back under the grill does result in a familiar enough goodie. But if you want a fresh, chewy dough coupled with a charred crust along with that favourite topping, shallow fry an easy-to-make flatbread dough in a skillet slicked with olive oil. Partially folding it over not only allows hassle-free removal but also slices which can be held in your hands via the folded edge. Pizza after all is a supreme finger food.

This lovely slab of goodness eventually got cut into hefty strips

Makes enough dough for about 10 individual pizzas: mix 600 gms/21 dry oz of plain, white flour, 325 ml/11 fluid oz of milk, and 1/2 tsp salt together. Knead until smooth which takes about five to eight minutes by hand. The ingredients can be halved to get a smaller amount, but keep in mind it does freeze well. A piece of dough the size of a golf ball is what you want for an 8 inch/20 cm to 9 inch/23 cm skillet. Roll it out as thinly as possible. Put at least a tablespoon of olive oil—more if you, as I do, want rivulets oozing onto the flatbread—in a heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat. Test for appropriate temperature by placing the tip of a wooden spoon's handle in the oil; a steady stream of tiny bubbles will appear if the oil is ready for the flatbread.

Carefully place a flatbread in the oil and then flip it over after thirty seconds or until slightly golden. Lower the heat and add your topping. Mine consisted of sliced tomatoes, freshly grated Parmesan, capers, dried basil, salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Cook for about five minutes or until everything is nice and warm, crusty but still chewy. Partially fold, serve on a platter, and slice into portions.

The large air bubbles simulate a yeast dough

Making pizza from dough that did a slow-rise in the fridge overnight is worth the effort, but there is no way to get the fabled charring that only commercial ovens can achieve. But it does happen when tossing a super-thin flatbread circle into a sizzling frying pan! 

A charred pizza crust is the way to my native New Yorker's heart...and stomach

The last big batch of our potager's tomatoes has been processed into stewed deliciousness. Happily there are still a few fresh toms here and there which are ideal for making some quick, crusty, chewy pizza.

Recent days have been warm and rainy of which our fig tree shows its appreciation by being full of ripening fruit. Store-bought figs are expensive simply because they bruise easily which makes transportation a challenge. If all possible, plant a fig tree chez vous as they are tough and productive, almost embarrassingly so. Fully ripe figs—partially ripe ones taste like chalk—are gorgeous.

A ripe fig feels like a little water balloon and needs just a slight pressure to harvest

Harvesting bay leaves is done best in spring as their aromatic sap rises then, but if one's stash is getting low don't hesitate to do it now.

Pick the largest leaves, wash, dry & cure on a dish/rack for about two weeks

Though honeysuckle is known for both early summer and autumn blooming, it's the first time our bushes have graced this season with their fragrant flowers.

One bush in the back of the garden has been allowed to drape itself over a pile of pruned branches. Because of wanting to be near its perfume, I use any excuse for adding to the compost piles situated just behind their trailing branches.

Dirac the Young Cat knows how many hedgehogs and lizards reside in this honeysuckle-covered mound but he isn't telling!

Reluctant to romp in the rain, once coming inside he enjoys kneading and cuddling my old fleece jacket.

À la prochaine!

RELATED POST

How to make pizza (photos from this old post got corrupted somehow, but the instructions remain correct)

Soupe à l'oignon...and le château de Balzac

French Onion Soup is much loved chez nous. Though my recipe doesn't call for a splash of cognac, don't let that deter you from adding a tablespoon or so just before filling and placing the dish/bowls under the grill.

Paille des vertus onion variety from our potager has a superb depth of yum

For an excellent soup, the onions need to be fully carmelised, usually taking thirty to forty minutes over low heat. For more flavour substitute some dry white wine for the beef broth when simmering the soup. Making it the day before allows further mellowing. For even more wallop, the soup can be reduced in volume until your taste buds say, yup, that's for me. And don't forget the soup sans the cheesy croutons can be frozen.

Croutons are grilled, garlic sourdough rye slices smothered in Gruyère

Though a roomy, no-fuss casserole dish was used, for a special serving I finally dug out a small bowl that we found at a flea market.

So you don't forget you are eating soupe à l'oignon!

For this week's jaunt in our electric car, a Renault Zoe, we headed north in the late afternoon. Our destination, the village of Balzac that once was a seigneurie (fiefdom) as far back as the 12th century, is about a fifteen minute drive from our Angouleme. The lovely rural landscape is enough for a visit, but there are a few architectural gems also. Le Château de Balzac is one of them.

Yes, that's a cornfield on the right close to the château courtyard's wall!

The majority of corn grown in France is planted in the southwest, including our region of Poitou-Charente. Mainly exported to other European nations, it is used for feeding chicken, sheep, and pigs or made into silage for cattle. The cobs can be used for fuel, mulch, litter for animals, and soil conditioner.

The château is open just during July and August, but it still was interesting to see its exterior.

Where is the handle for the Zoe's rear side door? It's that black triangle on the bottom right of the window!

Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac whose parents built the château was a renowned writer of epistolary letters and one of the founding members of L'Académie française. Since he is noted for focusing on the idiomatic expression of French, the credit of executing in French prose a reform parallel to Francois de Malherbe's in verse is attributed to him.

Marie de Médicis visited the writer here at his hermitage

Apparently in this region, it was often the case of estates having two entrances, one for people, the other for carriages.

Stone carriage portal flanked by rose bushes and the smaller one for people on the left

There was another gate, one of metal, that allowed us to get a glimpse of the extensive grounds.

Though a peek through the gates was a treat, we will try to come back when the château is open.

The skies were quickly darkening as we left.

À la prochaine!

Penne With Creamy Roasted Sweet Red Pepper Garlic Sauce...and the early autumn potager

Our sweet red peppers are coming in. And coming in. Did I say they are coming in?  They are and they are all gorgeous!

My Roasted Sweet Pepper Spread/Dip (recipe here) is not only a wonderful way to enjoy these scarlet delights but also to process any surplus as it freezes well.

Contains olive oil, roasted sweet red peppers, roasted garlic, cream cheese, fennel the herb, lemon & salt

Though tasting great when slathered on all manners of delicious breads and crackers, it also takes to pasta with ease. All that is required is to put a couple of tablespoons, along with a little bit of the pasta cooking water, onto a pile of penne. Add some freshly grated Parmesan if so desired and mix well. Garnish with a sprig of fennel (the herb, not the bulb).

As the days are now cool, I have harvested most of the green tomatoes, leaving a few on the plants to take their chances.

Broccoli, by leafing out with a vengeance, is adding a subtle blue to the autumnal palette.

Mornings tend to be somewhat misty chez nous as we are not that far from the Atlantic Ocean.

Bee-loving abelia in the forefront and asparagus festooned with red berries in the background

Few of the rose bushes are putting out buds. The jewel-coloured dabs eventually opened up once they were inside the sous sol's potting room. My looking through the window which confirmed a wintry chill is soon on its way only accentuated the joy of brushing my nose against soft, fragrant rose petals. 

The coral buds have a captivating Old World Rose scent, though the others are pas trop mal 

Dahlias last through early autumn. The many varieties offer great versatility. They can be as tall as five feet with blooms the size of dinner plates...

...or demure and dainty when dwarf.

An early rising of a half moon etched in the late-afternoon sky is one of the prettiest sights.

The cranes soon will be migrating towards North Africa, usually right over our house!

From the link below:  Here’s what happens. On average, the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day. But when a full moon happens close to the autumnal equinox, the moon (at mid-temperate latitudes) rises only about 30 to 35 minutes later daily for several days before and after the full Harvest moon. Why? The reason is that the ecliptic – or the moon’s orbital path – makes a narrow angle with the evening horizon around the time of the autumn equinox. The narrow angle of the ecliptic results in a shorter-than-usual rising time between successive moonrises around the full Harvest Moon.

Around September 27/28, depending where you live, look out for the full Harvest Moon, which will be also super-sized showing off a Blood Moon eclipse!

À la prochaine!

RELATED LINK

Comprehensive explanation regarding the up-and-coming Harvest Moon
September Equinox (day and night are approximately equal in length)