The weekly open-air market in Valençay is set up on Tuesday mornings.
There are a lot of vendors there selling local goat cheeses, of course.
And there are also many others selling fresh local produce and meats.
Valençay has a small but spacious market hall on the main town square so that even in bad weatherthe market is a pleasant place to shop. I wish Saint-Aignan had a market hall like this.
Bavette is a lean cut of beefsteak that is cooked rare to medium-rare so that it's tender.Many sources say it would be called flank steak in U.S. terms but I think it's more like skirt or hanger steak.
However, skirt and hanger are used to describe different cuts of beef in the U.S. compared to the U.K.,
so it's hard to figure out what's what.
Tomates ! They remind me that yesterday was like a fine summer day here in the Loire Valley region.Walt has planted tomato seeds in little pots and we'll set the seedlings out in the garden plot in May.
Celery root, a.k.a. céleri-rave in French and celeriac in English, is good peeled and grated, raw, as a cole-slaw type salad,or cut into chunks and cooked like carrots or turnips. You can also roast the whole celery root in the oven.
These are whole rabbits that have been skinned and prepared for cooking. The brown stuff is the liver,which is like chicken liver and is delicious. I've seen such rabbits cooked whole in a pan in the oven,
but most often you see them cut up into serving pieces and cooked in a braise or a stew.
We'll be cooking rabbit (lapin en gibelotte — three old posts) this coming weekend...
Je frise l'indigestion! Ma niece has a recipe for lapin aux pruneaux to die for.
ReplyDeleteWas it like this canard aux pruneaux?
ReplyDeleteIt looks more or less like it.
DeleteMy niece will send me the recipe in two weeks time. I'll send it to you as soon as I get it.
DeleteLOVE those markets
ReplyDeleteIt would be hard not to.
DeleteI'm glad that more American towns have started having open-air markets again... certainly more than 30 years ago.
ReplyDeleteMy town in N.C. has a sort of market hall and has had an outdoor market since at least the 1920s.
DeleteThe city of St. Louis has a big indoor/outdoor market called Soulard Market, that has been in place since the early 1900s, I believe -- the land was left by the family, specifically to be continued as a market, forever. But, now, we see many of the suburban towns have a Saturday market for a few hours, during good weather.
DeleteBeautiful photos today! Spring has come and it's time for you and Walt to eat some Easter bunny. I think I would like CHM's niece's Lapin aux pruneaux, although I've never tasted rabbit.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you would like rabbit. It's good cooked with a mustard sauce, or with prunes or a cherry sauce or apricots. I'm cooking ours this year with onions, carrots, lardons, and herbs.
DeleteThis is what I miss the most about France. Beautiful pictures of beautiful food! The only time I’ve eaten rabbit was in a friend’s home in France. I like it very much.
ReplyDeleteYou and I are like-minded. About 90% of my motivation for coming to live here was the food.
DeleteMy only time with rabbit was when my Mother told me it was chicken...but it turned out to be my pet rabbit.
ReplyDeleteIt was tasty...
Why did they cook and eat the pet rabbit? A similar thing happened to me when I was growing up. My grandfather kept chickens, and it was traditional for children to be given biddies (chicks) as presents at Easter. My sister and I got some one year, and when they grew into adult chickens my parents gave them to my grandfather. Then one Sunday, my sister, parents and I were around the table have a nice chicken dinner. My father said something out how good those biddies turned out to be! My mother tried to shush him, but it was too late. My sister and I had understood what were eating.
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