Recipe for French Beer Batter Crêpes

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1-1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
3 eggs
1/2 cup beer
melted butter to brush on the pan
For serving:
freshly squeezed lemon juice
sugar

PREPARATION:

1. In a saucepan, heat milk, salt and butter until butter has melted. Remove and allow to cool to room temperature.

2. Place flour in a bowl and make a well in the center. Add the oil and eggs to the well and whisk until the batter is stiff and smooth.

3. Gradually add milk mixture, whisking until smooth. Strain through a fine sieve into a clean bowl and whisk in the beer. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

4. Heat an 8" crêpe pan or skillet over med-high heat. Sprinkle a few drops of water on the pan; if they sizzle, the pan is ready to use. Brush with a little of the melted butter.

5. Using a 1/4 cup measure, fill it with batter and pour it into the skillet. Immediately pick up the pan and tilt and swirl it so that the batter covers the entire bottom of the pan. Pour any excess batter back into the bowl.

6. Loosen the edges of the crêpe with a metal spatula. You can use a spatula to turn the crêpe, but I usually, turn it with my fingers. Using both hands, I pick up the loosened edges with my thumb and index finger and quickly flip it over.

7. Cook on the other side until lightly golden (usually less than a minute) and slide it out onto a plate. Cover with waxed paper. Repeat with the remaining batter.

One serving suggestion:
Sprinkle with lemon juice and sugar and serve.



Click on Link:

Chateau Lalinde : The perfect venue for your event

TAGS: Shrove Tuesday in France Pancakes Events in a chateau Rent a chateau France Recipes Pancakes
Special Events Chateau Lalinde Perigord Dordogne Holidays in France

Shrove Tuesday...International Pancake Day...

and it is carnival time in Bergerac!


Nobody knows just how long people have been making and eating pancakes but you could almost call the flat bread made by primitive families twelve thousand years ago, a pancake. Pancakes were made by grinding grains and nuts and adding water or milk. This mixture was then shaped into flattened cakes and baked on the hot stones surrounding the fire.

I suspect that the making and eating of pancakes has always been much the same… a noisy, stimulating, exhilarating, greedy, happy time. Pancakes just seem to affect people that way. So it's not too surprising that two happy events for people… pancakes and festivals are often linked together.

Perhaps the best known one is Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day, which heralds the beginning of fasting in Lent. On this day (so the historians say) there were feasts of pancakes to use up the supplies of fat, butter and eggs... foods that were forbidden during austere Lent.

In France the main ceremonial day, for pancake eating is Candlemas on the 2nd of February. This holy day is six weeks after Christmas and is the day that Christ was presented at the temple by his mother. During this festival, French children wear masks and demand pancakes and fritters.

In various parts of the country, there are different customs. In Province, if you hold a coin in your left hand while you toss a pancake, you'll be rich. And in Brie the first pancake (which is never very good anyway) is always given to the hen that laid the eggs that made the pancake. And it's always regarded as bad luck to let a pancake fall on the floor while tossing it.

Legend has it that Napoleon, who liked to make and eat them with Josephine, blamed the failure of his Russian campaign on one he had dropped years before at Malmaison during Candlemas.



*****-----*****

In England there arc several celebrations on this day but perhaps the best known one is the Pancake Day Race at Olney in Buckinghamshire which has been held since 1445. The race came about when a woman cooking pancakes heard the shriving bell summoning her to confession. She ran to church wearing her apron and still holding her frying pan, and thus without knowing it, started a tradition that has lasted for over five hundred years.

According to the current rules, only women wearing a dress, no slacks or jeans, an apron and a hat or scarf, may take part in the race. Each contestant has a frying pan containing a hot, cooking pancake. She must toss it three times during the race that starts at the market square at 11.55 am. The first woman to complete the winding 375 metre course (the record is 63 seconds set in 1967) and arrive at the church, serve her pancake to the bellringer and be kissed by him, is the winner.

She also receives a prayer book from the vicar


On the same day at 11 am at Westminster School in London, a verger from the Abbey leads a procession of eager boys into the playground of the school for the Annual Pancake Grease.

The school cook, who must be something of an athlete to manage it, tosses a huge pancake over a five metre high bar and the boys frantically scramble for a piece. The scholar who emerges from the scrum with the largest piece receives a cash bonus from the Dean. The cook also gets a reward.

Pancakes are the traditional treat of the Jewish Hanukkah festival. They are fried in oil to commemorate the oil found by the Maccabeans when they recaptured Jerusalem from the Syrians, two thousand years ago. The one day's supply of oil for the temple lamps burned miraculously for one week. And, tradition says, the wives of the soldiers hurriedly cooked pancakes behind the lines for their warring husbands.

Large or small, fat or wafer thin and made with a wide range of flours, pancakes are given different names by different peoples. There are Hungarian palacsinta, Chinese egg rolls, Jewish blintzes, Russian blini, Italian cannelloni, Swedish plattar, Mexican tortillas, American hotcakes, German pfannkucken, Norwegian lefser, Austrian nockerin, Welsh crempog and Australian pikelets: but undoubtedly the most famous of them all is the great French crepe.



Click on Link:

Chateau Lalinde : The perfect venue for your event

TAGS: Shrove Tuesday in France Pancakes Events in a chateau Rent a chateau France
Special Events Chateau Lalinde Perigord Dordogne Holidays in France

Fly-Fishing in the Dordogne

And all it needs is a licence to get from the one to the other!


Click on Link:

Chateau Lalinde : The perfect venue for your event

Carp Fishing in the Dordogne

Fly-Fishing in the Dordogne

TAGS: Events in a chateau Rent a chateau France
Special Events Chateau Lalinde Perigord Dordogne Holidays in France

Demonstration at the barrage at Tuilières.

On 30 January I was driving along the Dordogne when I suddenly realised that there was something quite different. The river was almost empty! There had been a drop of water of up to 3 meters in places, leaving the sides of the river exposed, boats hanging from their moorings - in mid air, interesting grottos and river bank bank caves revealed, tree roots grasping into open air. What a strange sight!

Upon closer inspection, it transpired that one of the gates at the EDF (Electricité de France) barrage at Tuilières had collapsed and thus the sudden 'loss' of water upstream.

It seems that the EDF had committed to spending 2 million euros on the maintenance of this barrage, but had failed to do so. They were also supposed to have analysed the risks involved in the possible failure of these gates, and again failed to do so. Well, it turned out that the 'risks' were realized : Imagine 5 million cubic meters of water, sediment and mud escaping suddenly from behind a 12 meter high wall, a large body of water mass emptying out in a couple of hours, a tidal wave of two meters which comes down on you, a water flow 100 meters wide washing over the river banks, thousands upon thousands of dead fish, public pathways washed away and all fishing and boating on an important river stopeed indefinitely.... Yes, the disaster was huge for fauna and flora alike.

The question being asked by angry boatsmen and fishermen and the people who live on the banks of the river is

"What value do you put on the livelihood of the fishermen, on the unique ecosystem of this river valley, on our safety in relation to the savings you made in the 'analyses of the risks'?"

So -- to show our anger and to make clear our demands, a few hundred of us marched on Sunday, 25 February 2006, from the town hall of Sainte-Capraise Lalinde to the barrage of Tuilières.

Our demands were simple:

An independent inspection of the condition of the barrage - the inspectors providing proof of their qualifications and efficiency.
Regular maintenance of the barrage gates
That the free movement of fish be assured during the inspections
That a regular supervision of the site be put into place by people whose credentials are public knowledge
That if the barrage is found to be unsafe, it be completely removed - as has been done with other industrial equipment which is older than 100 years.
That, should it remain, it be fitted with the means by which migratory fish may have free movement, according to the law.

For all those who wanted to stay after the successful demonstration, there was a delicious 'casse-croute' meal put on where everyone could talk about other barrages (the bain of a fisherman's life!), swop information about good fishing spots, fly-fishing stories and just generally the good life in the Dordogne!


Click on Link:

Chateau Lalinde : The perfect venue for your event

Carp Fishing in the Dordogne

Fly-Fishing in the Dordogne

TAGS: Events in a chateau Rent a chateau France
Special Events Chateau Lalinde Perigord Dordogne Holidays in France

5 March : The Big Walk!

On Sunday 5 March is the 25th Day of the 50km Big Dordogne Walk.

Open to all, the most of routes, no classifications but a medical certificate necessary, regular refreshment stations where you can also catch a shuttle bus back to Lalinde; you can run, jog or simply walk for the pleasure of it.... There are more than 1500 participants enrolled already!
-- No enrolment on the day.





More information and entry forms at the Tourist Office, Lalinde, Jardin Public, 24150 Lalinde
Tel: 0553 610855
Fax: 0553 610064
email: ot.lalinde@perigord.tm.fr

Click on Links:

Chateau Lalinde : The perfect venue for your event

Lalinde Tourist Office

TAGS: The Big Dordogne Walk Events in a chateau Rent a chateau France Special Events Chateau Lalinde Perigord Dordogne Holidays in France

And now for some wine with that lovely food.........

The Bergerac Wine Stock

White Grapes
A grape which produces a fine, aromatic wine with a good colour. Its importance has increased in making dry white wines.

Le Semillon
This grape takes great pleasure in growing in chalky and clayish soils. It produces a golden coloured wine which is fine, clear and sweet. Due to its ability the famous "noble rot", it is one of the most important grapes for making sweet wines.

La Muscadelle
this is a delicate grape which is sensitive to "noble rot". It produces a highly aromatic wine. Since the 18th century is has had the reputation for being the best grape for eating as well as for making delicious wine.

Red Grapes

Le Cabarnet sauvignon
A grape well known for its consistency in production and its quality. It produces a tannic wine with a rich vibrant colour. With maturity it acquires a certain delicateness and fragrance.

Le Cabarnet franc
Like the sauvignon but with more of a bouquet and a tendency to mature at a faster rate.

Le Merlot
This grape occupies nearly half of the bergerac vineyards. It is perfectly adapted to the local soil and climate. It has an impressive bouquet.

Le Malbec ou cot
This vine stock occupies a mere 3% of the Bergerac vineyards. It produces a light, delicate wine with a nice colour.

Click on Links:

Chateau Lalinde : The perfect venue for your event

Lalinde Tourist Office

TAGS: Bergerac Wines Events in a chateau Rent a chateau France
Special Events Chateau Lalinde Perigord Dordogne Holidays in France

La Chasse : The Hunt

Asterix and Obelix did it. The Kings of France did it. The man next door does it. ---- In an area of France where many of the village schools are disappearing, where village churches seldom hold regular services and where the small boulangeries are fast disappearing, the local Chasse is often the last bastion keeping the community flag flying.

This time of year it is best to take out a good life insurance, check that your last will and testament and affairs are in order, put on your brightest fluorescent clothes - and - to be on the safe side - practise your shrillest whistle - when going into the woods for your daily stroll! The hunters are out and about in the French countryside and anything that moves is a target!

Anything? Well, the fact that at least a few people get shot and even killed every year during the chasse, is not necessarily planned, but, what game is it that the hunters are then actually after?

The generic term "gibier" relates to any wild creature that can be caught and eaten. This is what the solitary huntsman is looking for. Small game, rabbits, hares, pheasant or duck, or perhaps even a large thrush or two. Anything that can be turned into a tasty pot roast or a terrine to enjoy with crusty bread.

Groups of men spread out along a lane, acting as a team, are usually after bigger game, the "chevreuil" or deer, or the "sanglier" or wild boar. The shooting of both these animals is strictly licenced and regulated so hunting for them is a carefully organized joint operation.

With so much game regularly hunted and caught in the Dordogne, it obviously plays a large part in the cooking of the region. The best introduction to local recipes for the bigger game is to attend the local chasse dinners.

Smaller game is more easily available to the shopper and cookery books in both English and French are full of ideas to use.

(See: Rabbit casserole below)

The Ultimate hunting boy's toy:
Apart from the checked shirts, the peaked caps, the orange or red jackets and the dogs, there is also the tree house. High in the trees, reachable only by a rickety ladder, you may spot these big tree houses. Do not be fooled. This is not a Wendy house for big boys, but a hide built for the hunters of the "palombe", or wood pigeon or collar dove. Some of these hides appear to be derelict -- so mucy better for the camouflage! and others are more obviously in use - with a captive pigeon hung outside to tempt its fellows to come closer.

And of course, the beauty of these hides are that even if you never shoot a pigeon, or anything else, you get a precious few hours with your copains and away from the wife and bureaucracy........



Click on Link:

Chateau Lalinde : The perfect venue for your event

TAGS: Recipes Events in a chateau Rent a chateau France
Special Events Chateau Lalinde Perigord Dordogne Holidays in France

Recipe: Rabbit casserole

(adapted from "Life and Food in the Dordogne" by James Bentley)

1 Jointed rabbit
2 bay leaves
125gr lardons or thick back bacon cut in cubes
3 sprigs of parsley
fat or oil for frying
pinch of thyme
1 chopped shallot
1/2 glass white wine
80gr celeriac cut into small pieces
1/2 glass of chicken stock
salt and pepper

Mix the rabbit pieces with the lardons and gently fry in the oil for twenty minutes until well browned.
Add the shallots, celeriac and herbs, and season.
Pour in the white wine and chicken stock.
Simmer very gently, uncovered, for ten minutes, then cover and cook very slowly for another half hour, stirrng from time to time.
Serve with any winter vegetables, such as carrots and mashed potatoes.
Serves 4.

Click on Link:

Chateau Lalinde : The perfect venue for your event

TAGS: Recipes Events in a chateau Rent a chateau France
Special Events Chateau Lalinde Perigord Dordogne Holidays in France

Recipe: Scrambled eggs with Truffles

...And a story on truffles cannot be complete without a recipe!

Here is a traditional recipe for scrambled eggs with truffles -- an easy recipe for anyone -- and importantly, if you have never tasted truffles and do not have ready access to fresh truffles, you can use a good truffle oil from your grocer or deli and then you, too, can experience the taste that have made kings and emperors dream since the beginning of time!

SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH TRUFFLES

Ingredients for 4 persons :
8 very fresh eggs
80 g of butter
80 g fresh truffles*
2 spoonfull of thick fresh cream
salt & pepper

Put into a pan whith a thick bottom and well heated before, 50 g of tepid butter, 8 slightly whipped eggs and 80 g of roughly chopped truffles.* Season with salt and pepper.
Cook the eggs on a low fire or in a "bain-marie" and continuosly turn with a wooden spatula. Remove well from the edges of the pan the clotted parts of the eggs. The cooking must be done very slowly.
When the mixture is well homogenized and smooth, slighthy thickened and without lumps, remove the pan from the fire.
While you continue to turn the eggs with the wooden spatula, add 30 g of butter and 2 spoonfull of the thick fresh cream.
Serve with fresh crusty French bread.

* If you do not have fresh truffles, substitute with one large tablespoon of truffle oil.

Click on Link:

The St Alvère Truffle Market: Buy Online

Chateau Lalinde : The perfect venue for your event

TAGS:
Recipe
Truffles Events in a chateau Rent a chateau France
Special Events Chateau Lalinde Perigord Dordogne Holidays in France

The Gastronomy of Truffles

A perfect truffle should be firm, have a good aroma and full of taste. It breathes and absorbs oxygen and rejects carbon dioxide and other gases containing its aroma. After a while it oxidates and loses its aroma. It is this clear that once ripe, it should be eaten as soon as possible, whence the need to buy straight from the market, or from retailers with recent supplies.

The Truffe noire du Périgord fresh and grated improves everything that is in contact with it. It goes very well with celery, shallots, and well reduced sweet onions, artichokes, avocados, jerusalem artichokes.

It is important to trap its aroma, either in fats such as oil, butter, cream, or by infusion in a sauce or it should be added at the end of cooking, or enclosed in puff pastry, brioche, bread, or in slivers under the skin of poultry.

The best Brumales can be used in sauces. Aestivum is only used grated pasta and risotto.


The Varieties Harvested
...and their gastronomic value
Tuber Melanosporum
Called the black truffle of Périgord, it is harvested between November and March.
Epidermis wartish brown with red reflections Soil marbled with white on anthracite base colour. Smells of forest undergrowth and damp earth, roasted dry fruits.
Taste: finely peppered, recalling its aromatic composition, long in the mouth. Only admitted in Grade 1; Ste Alvère.

Tuber Brumale Harvested between November and March, on the same sites as Mélano which it strongly rivals.
Darker epidermis, flaking off easily. Soil less subtly marbled with a grey background. Smells of turnip, nuancée with garlic (suavum version) ethereal, disagreeable (version moschatu).
Taste: Very peppery and characteristically turnipy, relegated to Grade 2 Ste Alvère.


Tuber Aestivum Harvested between May and September sometimes later..
Epidermis dark brown, large pyramid-shaped wartlike deformations, striped in both directions. Soil: finely marbled with branches on a white background, veering towards grey matures well.
Subtle smell of underwood.
Taste of forest mushrooms.


Tuber Uncinatum
Called "Bourgogne", closely related to the previous, quite rare in Dordogne.
The best season is between September and December. Same visual aspect, soil; chocolate, smell and taste more pronounced.

Click on Link:

The St Alvère Truffle Market: Buy Online

Chateau Lalinde : The perfect venue for your event

TAGS: Truffles
Events in a chateau Rent a chateau France
Special Events Chateau Lalinde Perigord Dordogne Holidays in France

La Perle Noire (Black Pearl) de Sainte Alvère --- ...the tradition of truffles.

Twenty minutes from Lalinde is the picturesque little village of St Alvère, the main centre of all things truffle!

The Sainte Ste-Alvère region, historical domain of the Lostanges, is on the South Western edge of the Périgord Noir. A hilly area, whose limestone slopes are the natural home of the truffle.

Towards the end of the 60's, many abandoned farms were bought by people from outside the area. They considered growing truffles, particularly as scientific progress had brought into being a new generation of truffle host plants, enabling more rapid production. Once their efficiency had been proven many more farmers took up truffle-growing. In 1987, a little while after the renovation of Ste Alvère market a truffle market was opened, through the initiative of the mayor, Mr Philippe Ducène, and several producers seeking new business openings. Now producers come from all over the Dordogne and neighbouring departments, attracted by favourable trading conditions, resulting from unprecedented efforts in obtaining quality and good presentation.

To keep up with the needs of the market and to promote its aims the Ste Alvère Town Council decided to use new technologies and put the Truffle Market on Internet, using the first real "truffle server" in France.


What is a truffle ?

The truffle is a fungus hypogée (growing underground). It forms in Spring between April and June. When it is born it has the form of a tiny cup ( stade apothécioïde ), of which the edges will close up and form the Tuber. The interior of the Tuber will grow veines stériles then veines fertiles. This whole autonomous ensemble is the gleba (body) of the truffle, coloured white, and covered with a skin ornamented with small warts or scales which, as well as protecting the tuber, contributes to its respiration and nutrition.


After a period of inactivity, the hot periods in July ( thermal stress ) and the storms in August ( or irrigation ), will set off the growing cycle. If the amount of water and heat are optimal, the nearly finished size will be attained at the beginning of September . Inside the gleba, the number of of asques ( sacks containing the spores ) will increase. First hyalines (nearly transparent the spores, which represent the seed of the fungus, will little by little brown during the melanisation process, which will end by the acquisition of aroma and the maturity of the fungae.

If the truffles are not harvested, they will degrade and rot, setting free asques which, under various influences will set free (or not) the spores. The biological will continue with the germination of a certain number of spores, liberating of'hyphes ( primary mycélium ) likely to infect the rootlets of the symbiote ( truffle host tree ) by giving birth to new mycorrhizes.
The mycorrhizes are the organs of symbiose (symbiosis) between the tree and the fungae. The link between the fungus and the roots is established from a a inter-cellular network called the Hartig network. The mycorrhizes emit colonising hyphes which pass the infection on to to other root apices and, replacing the absorbing hairs, will explore the soil, looking for mineral elements.

It is at the level of the mycorrhizes that the nutritional exchanges of the symbiosis take place. The tree gives sugar to the truffle (carbon hydrates) resulting from photosynthesis, while the fungus provides mineral salts (phosphorus) for the tree. It helps the tree to support high calcium levels and better manage its water supplies. If the hyphes stay outside the cortical cells of the root they are ectomycorhizes the case of the truffle Inside they are endomycorhyzes.
These symbiotic organs are called mycorrhizes. As soon as they are formed they emit colonising hyphes which transmit the infection to other apex roots; which propagate by the root cortex.

The fruiting is preceded by the phenomenon of "brûlé", due among other things to a phytotoxic process which inhibits the germination of certain seeds.
The fructification begins by the modification of the arrangement of the mycéliens filaments which will gather together in a special structure with a cellular appearance.

Several possibilities may be at the origin of the fructification from endogenic or exogenic causes: the degree of mycorrhizian colonisation( glomérules stages), accumulation of nutritional reserves sexual processes between mycéliums, stress. The suddenness, brutality and force of certain stresses can often be beneficial at certain stages of its biological cycle it is possible to say that truffle is the daughter of change.


The ecology of the truffle : The life and death of the roots in the soil take part in its permanent transformation. The living roots enter the cycle of organic matter and help improve the fertility of of the environment necessary for the development of the fungus. The mésofauna will do its indispensible work of chopping up, digestion, aeration and nutrition where the mélanosporum will prosper.

Trees for truffles :Among the known symbiotes of the truffle, oaks, holm oaks, hornbeam, hazelnut trees and colurna, the others being more exotic, it cannot be said that there are better or worse trees. The importance is to choose one that is adapted and recognised for its performance in a given soil and climate. We cannot enlarge on this vast subject in this summary. The bibliography which we suggest will help to master the question.


Click on Link:

The St Alvère Truffle Market: Buy Online

Chateau Lalinde : The perfect venue for your event

TAGS: Truffles
Events in a chateau
Rent a chateau
France
Special Events
Chateau Lalinde Perigord Dordogne
Holidays in France