I plan to make figues confites — slow-cooked, candied figs — with most of them, but I've got to get busy before the figs get too ripe. They'll be good served with goat cheese, Roquefort, or foie gras. Meanwhile, Walt said he'd make a fig tart today. More photos to come.
At the supermarket the other day I bought a cheese that I don't think I've ever bought before. It's called tomme de Domessin, and Domessin is a village in the Savoie region in the Alps. Tomme de Savoie and tomme de montagne are cheeses in the same category.
I saw a full-size tomme de Domessin at the supermarket. It was a wheel about 12 inches across and two inches or more thick. The cheese I bought is called a tommette — the miniature model. It tastes as good as it looks.
And just to finish yesterday's subject, here's one last photo of the bœuf aux carottes I made yesterday morning. It gave us a copious lunch yesterday, especially with the cheese as a last course. Then we ate some fresh figs.
To go with the beef and carrot stew, I cooked some wheat berries with pan-roasted zucchini and garlic. The wheat berries here are of the Ebly brand, and they are readily available.
You cook the Ebly the same way you cook rice, but it takes only 10 minutes. I used some of the broth from the beef and carrots, thinned with a little water, as the cooking liquid.
Mmmmmmmmmm! Fresh figs... very little competes at this time of the year!
ReplyDeleteAnd as we have a veggie with us, I think I'll do the wheat "berry"# dish...
but using a bully-off cube of vegetarian origin....
some Tipiak Mili-Melo and some petit épeutre...
and then grill Pauline et moi a couple of LARGE sossijis...
each...
we am suffering from lack of meat!!!
Might sling in some white carrots, too.
And your comment yesterday, about carrots sweetening a dish is spot on...
carrots are a sugar root, like beetroot and sugar-beet... just not the same family!
Hence they can be used to make carrot cake!!
Tim
#[Berry? A berry?? 'Tis a grain!
Berries have flesh on the outside and a hard seed in the middle...
grains have a seed inside an 'usk...
another case of two countries divide by an "uncommon" language?? ;-) ]
What do you call wheat berries? Here's the Wiki article about them.
DeleteWholegrain wheat, or wholewheat grain or, very simply, wheat....
Deletethe grain bit being understood therefore absent...
because after that it would be flour in all its forms...
but we don't get the variation in grade that there is in France...
except for semolina and kibbled wheat / Bulgar wheat.
The same goes for the other grains...
You can also get "polished" grain...
Pearl Barley and Pearl Wheat that has been tumbled with grit to remove some of the
"whole" bit but leave the germ intact.... the former is an essential ingredient in Oirish Stews...
used to bulk out a small amount of meat....
where I grew up, pearl wheat or just wheat grain was used in the same way in "Boiled Beef and Carrots".
Voila!
When you say "boiled" beef, you are playing into the French terminology. "À l'anglaise" means boiled, whether it's green beans, potatoes, leg of lamb, or beef. Braised is not the same thing.
DeletePearl barley, of course, but we don't have pearled wheat in the U.S. as far as I know. We used to buy and cook wheat berries in California, so Ebly was nice to find here.
Boiled beef and carrots was exactly that...
Deleteno browning of the meat...
water in pot brought to the boil, and in with onions, carrots, a stick of celery, the chunks of meat and salt and pepper...
both my Mum and Gran used to let that simmer, covered, for one and a half to two hours on the back burner....
when they thought it was almost ready in went a cup... or mug...
of wholegrain wheat... please note that the cup measure was just that...
the nearest dry cup, or mug, to hand!!
I find it interesting that on our new hob... and the piano we left in the UK...
the back burners are the most powerful...
but as I was growing up, they were the low powered ones!!
Do you use your slow cooker much?
ReplyDeleteHaven't used it much this summer but plan to more frequently in wintertime. Great for bean dishes, stews, plats cuisinés /mijotés of all kinds. Hope you are having a good time.
DeleteMy husband would have fainted with pleasure if I set that cheese and those figs down in front of him. He would have had that for dinner ! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a fine meal! I need to try wheat berries sometime- I love barley.
ReplyDeleteIt all looks delicious, especially that cheese. I really should not read your blog before breakfast!
ReplyDeleteIt must be nice to live in a climate where you can grow figs. And you can get cheeses that look as amazing as that one.
ReplyDeleteAll so good!
ReplyDeleteLove figs! Miss my Mom's fig preserves and her fig bars that she made with the preserves! Your beef "stew" is very similar to the way I make it, though I sometimes add celery. I rarely eat beef anymore, but your photos are mouth watering and have given me a hankering. The Cheese! I am so jealous of your access to such marvelous cheeses. The best I can do here is Lowes food store! I have found that they carry a, good to me, French Brie! …Wedges wrapped in saran wrap! LOL!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to make a stew with beef and celery root. The celery root is actually easier to find here than stalks of celery, though we get both. Or maybe I'll make it with turkey or even veal. As for that Brie, the store must be ordering full wheels of cheese and then cutting and wrapping them on site. That's probably a good thing.
DeleteI cooked another mess of collards yesterday. I rolled up piles of 5 or six leaves and cut them into strips the way you described. That was actually easier than how I cut the last time and the result was very good. I cooked these collards in chicken broth and with some duck fat. Delicious.
I miss the figs we had in N.C. It was generous of our friend to bring us some. I started the process of making figues confites au sucre yesterday. It takes three days.