Food from the French vineyards - Financial Times

Posted: 14 Aug 2015 12:00 AM PDT

Soon the wine regions of France will be at their busiest. Unexpectedly hot weather means that the harvest is likely to be earlier this year. In the coming weeks there will be the smell of wine in the making, and, underfoot in little towns and villages, a mess of discarded stalks and grape skins.

Behind the names and vintages are real people. They work long days, suffering from blisters, backache and the odd hangover. They meet old friends, make new ones and are determined to get the most out of their two weeks' escape from routine.

It is the memory of the convivial harvest meals that stay close to the hearts of these pickers. Salads with bacon or smoked fish, homemade terrines, red-wine daubes, gratins, all kinds of chicken dishes, guinea fowl and duck, fruit tarts, cakes, custards, fruit poached in red wine — this is la cuisine familiale, rustic food that brings the harvesters back year after year.

The recipes are ones we can all use. Few of the cooks are professionals — often they are the relatives of the growers, helped by friends. As a young writer, I worked in Burgundy, where I picked two harvests. The story of these recipes took me into the kitchens and cellars of many of the greatest châteaux and domaines in the six main wine regions of France.

One of the 'harvest heroines' prepares the food

I believe it is important to record these harvest traditions. Among the smaller domaines, more members of the extended family now have full-time jobs and cannot man the stoves during the vintage. Paperwork has become increasingly onerous, as legislation protecting the rights of temporary workers is more stringent. Some growers fear that it will not be long before the dormitories they provide are inspected, measured and declared unfit. Few would have the money to rebuild to current specifications. Some of the families I visited have changed the way they feed their pickers for these reasons. In others, one generation has handed on to the next but much has stayed the same. In a few cases, the vineyards have changed hands. The recipes hold true, however, and they remain a great celebration of French rustic food from the vineyards.

'Recipes from the French Wine Harvest', by Rosi Hanson (Rosemary Wilkinson), is published in a revised edition as an ebook on Amazon.

Burgundy

Burgundian potato dish with fresh curd cheese and cream

Le Treuffé is the Burgundian patois for this potato dish. It is usually eaten with a salad as a supper dish or with meat as part of a more elaborate meal. Use round "soup potatoes" as the French describe them, not the long, waxy ones, which they use for salads.

For 6 people

Wash the potatoes but do not peel them — try to use smaller ones and cook them whole so that they do not become watery. Cook in boiling, salted water in their skins. When cooked, drain and, when cool enough to handle, skin them. Take a fork and mash roughly, leaving some chunks — this is not a purée. Break the eggs into the bowl of potatoes. Sprinkle in the flour and season. Mix all together.
In a separate bowl, mash up the white cheese, with a fork. Add this to the potato mixture with the cream. Mix together without mashing the potatoes too much. It should not be too thick a mix nor be so liquid that it pours — somewhere between the two.
Heat the oil in a big frying pan. Tip in the mixture and spread it so it is like a rather thick pancake. Cook for approximately 10 minutes over a fairly high heat until it is brown and crisp on the bottom.
Turn down the heat and continue cooking for another 15 minutes until the mixture is firm enough to turn over and brown on the other side. The best way to do this is to slide it on to a large plate, invert the pan over the plate and turn them both over. This is quite tricky as the pan is hot but the more often you do it, the easier it becomes. Cook for another five to 10 minutes until the bottom of the potato cake is crisp, then slide on to a warmed plate and serve.

Rhône

Marie-Pierre Teisserenc's leg of lamb slow cooked in red wine with figs, walnuts and grapes

A wonderful combination of flavours, this is a great dish for early September, when fresh walnuts and figs are in season.

For 8-10 people

Preheat the oven to 180C. Peel and chop the onion and carrot. Heat a little oil in the casserole — choose one which is just big enough for the lamb and for the other ingredients to fit round it. Season the lamb with salt and brown in the oil with the onion and carrot. Turn from time to time so all sides are sealed in the heat — about 20 minutes.
Wash the figs and grapes. Roughly chop the figs. De-pip the grapes. Crack the nut shells and remove the walnuts, peeling off as much of the bitter skins as possible. Chop roughly. Add all to the casserole round the lamb. Add the juniper berries and the red wine.
When the wine comes to the simmer, put on a layer of tinfoil and the lid so it is well sealed. Traditionally, a flour-and-water paste was used to seal the lid. Should you wish to do this, put 500g plain flour in a bowl and stir in about 300ml water. This amount will be enough to seal the lid of a Le Creuset oval casserole size H. Mix to a stiff paste (best done with the hands, a messy but quite pleasant business — a good moment to involve a child). Put the lid on the casserole.
Off the heat, press the paste all round the edge. Put the lamb into the preheated oven and leave for 2 ½ hours. When serving, if you have made a paste, now is the time to chip it off being careful to remove it all before opening the lid in case some falls in.
Let the lamb rest for 10-15 minutes in a warm place before carving it and arranging it with the fruit and nuts and its sauce of red wine and cooking juices in a deep serving dish.

Loire

Mme Cotat's caramelised rhubarb cake

This cake is equally good made with sliced apples, pears, apricots, pineapple, blackberries or cherries.
For 6 people

Preheat the oven to 230C. Mix all the ingredients, except the fruit, together in a bowl to make quite a soft, almost runny, dough.
Butter a 23cm round sponge tin. Sprinkle with flour. Spread the mixture into it. Place the rhubarb pieces on top of the mixture. It is a little difficult to be accurate about the amount of rhubarb, which can give off a lot of liquid — but bear in mind it is a very soft cake. The sharpness of the rhubarb will be offset by the caramel.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, until golden. (It will rise a little.) Meanwhile, prepare the caramel sauce. Melt the sugar and butter together in a small pan. Remove from the heat, cool a little, then stir in the egg. When you take the cake out of the oven, pour this sauce over it.
Put it under a hot grill for two minutes or until the sauce has caramelised. Watch it carefully, as it burns easily. Leave the cake to cool. It may be eaten warm or cold.

Rhône

Apricot tart sprinkled with Muscat Beaumes De Venise

This lovely tart is served at Château Redortier — both the fruit and wine are local — at the end of harvest celebration meal.
For 6-8 people

Preheat the oven to 200C, with a heavy baking sheet on the middle shelf. Sift the flour into a large bowl with the salt and sugar. Roughly cut up the butter then, using your fingertips, speedily rub it into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs.
Lightly beat the egg with about a teaspoon of cold water. Make a dip in the middle of the flour, pour in the egg and mix until it is a supple, moist paste. Form this into a ball, cover and leave to rest for an hour. Butter a 25cm removable-base, fluted tart tin. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and line the tart tin with it. Chill for one hour.
Cover the pastry with a piece of buttered baking parchment, weighted with dried beans. Put into the preheated oven on the baking sheet for about eight minutes. Remove the paper and beans. Prick the base of the pastry with a fork and return to the oven for three minutes. It should be just starting to come away from the sides of the tin; do not let it get too brown.
Reduce the oven heat to 180C. Stone the fruit and slice thinly. If they are underripe, it might be worth poaching the slices for a few minutes in a little water and sugar. Arrange them in concentric circles in the pastry shell. In order to prevent the pastry becoming soggy, you can brush the base with egg yolk before doing this.
Sprinkle the fruit with the tablespoon of sugar if using. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes. This tart is nice served warm. Sprinkle the fruit with the Muscat Beaumes de Venise just before serving. It should make a sensational finish to the meal.

Photographs: Katerina Kalogeraki

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