Dear readers,
HAPPY NEW YEAR! I am very excited about 2012, and today have made available online prints from some work that I undertook in Paris in 2011. I will be returning to Europe this year to continue this series, and to embark on other exciting projects.
Click here to view this evolving series ~ 75000
In 2012, remember your infinite potential ~ I hope this year brings many new beginnings, transformations, adventures and love!
I am so excited by this recipe that I decided to blog about it… My personal take on roast pumpkin hommus.
INGREDIENTS
1/2 butternut pumpkin
2 tbs tahini
1 can organic chickpeas
100g fetta cheese (Dodoni or similar)
Juice of 1 lemon
Olive oil
Water
Salt & freshly cracked pepper
Chilli flakes
Sumac (to serve)
1. Remove skin from pumpkin and chop into chunks. Drizzle with olive oil, a pinch of salt, cracked pepper and chilli flakes to taste. Roast until tender and edges begin to brown.
2. Using a blender or hand blender, puree pumpkin and then add 1/2 the chickpeas. Add a little water to make blending easier.
3. Add the rest of the chickpeas, 2 tbs tahini and the juice of 1 lemon and blend again until smooth. Add 1-2 tbs of olive oil and more water if necessary, until you reach a smooth consistency.
4. Break the fetta into chunks and add, blending again until smooth. Slowly add more water and/or olive oil if necessary.
5. Season with pepper and blend once more.
6. Spoon some hommus on to a large plate and with the back of the spoon smooth the dip to the edges of the plate. Drizzle with olive oil and a little sumac to serve.
With these quantities I covered a dinner plate and still had a bit left over.
I’m not exactly sure how much water and olive oil I used – the trick is to add it slowly so that you don’t overdo either one. The pumpkin gives it a beautiful smooth texture. We ate this dip with a lentil salad, roast capsicum & yoghurt dip and some delicious crusty bread.
The most memorable day of my French adventure started with un café et un pain au chocolat, before a drive to the local grocer to buy a few bits and pieces to take with us on the boat. While we waited for the tide to come in far enough to allow our boat to float, my friends took me to see a gorgeous windmill a few minutes out of town.
Finally around 11am our oceanic adventure began. We were blessed with a magnificent day, warm enough to swim in the chilly water.
Once we had reached deeper waters we dropped two lines from the back of the boat, in search of our lunch. As we bobbed along, and I studied the horizon (a great trick to avoid sea sickness!) we caught three mackerel, and then continued on our way towards my friends’ favourite spot, and dropped anchor. Out of the tiny kitchen on the boat, appeared lightly pan fried mackerel (officially the freshest fish I have ever eaten), which we ate along with salad of tomato and egg, plus the obligatory bread and a little pork terrine that we had picked up at Saveur D’Auge, Pont L’Évêque during our day in Normandie.
After our dip in the ocean, the water had completely receded and we began to search for our dinner. We raked the sand in search of les coquillages (clams) until our bucket was full. We shucked oysters off the rocks (yes, again!) and collected tiny little sea snails and les crevettes grises – tiny common shrimp found in the waters around Bretagne.
As the wind picked up and the boat once again began to bob, les crevettes grises were pan fried and served with our mandatory apératif of pastis.
To follow, les coquillages were boiled, opened and cooked with rice, onions and crème fraiche. Easily one of the most amazing meals of my life!
As you can probably imagine, I can’t wait to go back!
Following my stay in the pretty town of Bougy, we traveled to a small seaside village in Bretagne, in north-western France which served as our base for the next two days of gastronomical adventure. We began in the town of Cancale, where we bought les huîtres (oysters) and l’homard (lobster) which would be our dinner that evening. I was so excited to see all the amazing crustacea for sale – much of which I’d never seen before. This was to be my first experience eating real lobster, as opposed to the crayfish you find in Australia.
After purchasing our dinner we drove further along the coast and stopped at a small inlet. As the tide was out, the sand was littered with boats. It really is a very quaint sight. We made our way over the sand, towards the rocks, where I was to sample my first ever oyster shucked freshly off the rocks. As a food lover, it’s one of those moments you never forget!
Next we traveled to the historical town of Saint-Malo and wandered the perimetre of the old town. It’s a really gorgeous place and I highly recommend a visit if you’re in the region. It was really stunning in the afternoon sun.
After working up quite a hunger it was time to return home to my friend’s nautically decorated sea side holiday house. I was quite curious as to how the lobster would be cooked, and it turned out that I was in for more of a treat than I ever imagined. The lobster was served in two ways – half of it was oven roasted, and the other half was placed on a grill over hot coals in the fireplace.
For entrée we had a selection of two kinds of oysters – flat oysters (for which Cancale is renowned), and the not so flat kind.
…. And the lobster ….
My gastronomical adventure through Normandie concludes with a day of food caught almost entirely by us – stay tuned for the final installment.
Tanya
In the middle of my two and a half week stay in Paris, I had the pleasure of traveling to a small town called Bougy, near Caen in north-western France, in the region of Normandy. Here I stayed with some dear family friends, who took great delight in showing me the absolute best of their region. The photographs that follow really do centre around the delicious food that I ate over my four day stay – I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed every morsel!
We begin our gastronomic adventure at Saveur D’Auge which I suppose in Australia we would call a Delicatessen, or “Fine Food Store” filled with local specialties and fine produce. Saveur D’Auge is in Pont L’Évêque, which some of you will recognise as the name of a famous French cheese. Yes, my friends, I was in the land of stinky French cheese and French apple cider, otherwise known as heaven. Here, you can buy a sizable chunk of unpasturised delight for around 4€ – and if you ever find yourself in this part of the world, and enjoy the cheese, I encourage you to attempt to eat your body weight in the stuff before returning to Australia, where you will pay around $100 per kilo. And of course you definitely will not get it through customs!
At Saveur D’Auge we bought two types of local Normandy cheese and some tripe for my uncle. We sampled some delicious local apple cider, and I marveled at the range of fois gras, flavoured honey, (cheese) and other treats. Foodies beware. It all looks amazing. One hint: if you buy cheese and continue on your way throughout the countryside for the afternoon, it’s best to keep your delightfully stinky French cheese in the boot of the car.
Saveur D'Auge, Pont L'Évêque, France
Cheese selection at Saveur D'Auge, Pont L'Évêque
Tripe
Next we drove to Honfleur, a picturesque port town north-east of Caen, famously painted by artists such as Claude Monet and Gustave Courbet. A feature of this town is the Sainte-Catherine Church, which has a roof made entirely from wood. It is in Honfleur that my hosts bought les moules, for our dinner of Les Moules Marinières.
The mussels in France that we tried (we ate them both in Paris and in Normandy) were much smaller and sweeter than the mussels that we have in Australia. That said, apparently it wasn’t really mussel season, but that did not stop us enjoying them immensely. Our meal consisted of rockmelon for entrée, les moules marinières, tripe (only for some!), a gorgeous chocolate dessert and finally, les fromages! (My personal favourite of which, is Roquefort!).
Honfleur, France
Honfleur, France
Les Moules Marinières
Les Moules Marinières
Tripe
Les fromages
Needless to say, our gastronomic experience was accompanied by the most incredible selection of French wines, and wound up around 3am, with each of us relying on our elbows to hold us up at the table, and our brains completely exhausted from trying to translate. Not one of us is fluent in both English and French… It was one of those dinners you never forget.
Stay tuned for part two of my gastronomic journey in Normandy, which includes a boat ride and a whole day of food caught almost entirely by us on our oceanic adventure.
Tanya
Today was day three in Paris, and another stunning spring day. Paris aux printemps is really shaping up to be gorgeous sunny day after gorgeous sunny day. Yesterday morning we visited Le Marché Auguste-Blanqui (Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui, 13eme, Metro – Place d’Italie), a quintessentially Parisian street market filled with the most divine fresh produce, cheese, meat, fish and other delicious treats, hot and cold. I shot the market mostly on my Kiev60, but did take a few quick photos with my iPhone.
Following the market, we made our way down Boulevarde Vincent Auriol towards La Seine, and embarked on quite a journey as we followed the river around to the end of the 16th. Yesterday’s walk totaled around 17km, so today my legs were a little tired. I look forward to processing all the film I shot yesterday! It was a pleasure to enjoy the major tourist sites of Paris on such a beautiful sunny day.
We stopped for lunch at Les Deux Magots, a gorgeous Parisian Café-Restaurant. I ordered ‘quiche aux asperge et au thon’, it was light, fluffy and very tasty. The pastry was easily some of the tastiest I’ve ever sampled. After spying all the beautiful asparagus at the market I couldn’t pass this dish up. I was not disappointed!
Today we made our way to Metro République and followed a walking tour as described in the Gilles Desmons book Walking Paris (this book is jam packed full of weird and wonderful facts about Paris – my traveling companion swears by it!) The walk begins at République, finishes at La Villette/La Citée de la Musique and runs alongside Canal St Martin & Bassin de la Villette.
We stopped for lunch at Place de Stalingrad and I had Salade Niçoise while my companion had Confit of Duck with potatoes and salad. We had a lovely bottle of white wine from the Alsace region.
Looking up and down the canal, I didn’t feel as though I was in Paris anymore – more like a cross between Amsterdam, Prague (the colour of the water) and Berlin. But perhaps this is because my experience of Paris so far has centered around museums and galleries in the heart of town, having explored little of the areas around the periphery of the city.
We followed the Canal up to La Citée de la Musique and then went inside to view their permanent museum collection which includes over 200 historical and contemporary guitars, many harpsichords, stringed instruments, wind instruments, synthesizers and others. The English audio guide was informative and also included pieces of music often played using the instruments in the museum. It was one of the better museum guides I’ve listened to.
Stay tuned. À bientôt!
Tanya Dyhin
