Dieppe : autour du port

One of the great advantages the port of Dieppe has is that it's one of just a few ports on the French side of the English Channel that is deep enough to allow boats and ships to come in and out at low tide. Another is that it's the closest port and seaside resort to Paris (2 hours away by train, 2½ by car).

1    2

3    4

Dieppe has also prospered because of shipping traffic with England since the time of the French Revolution of 1789. Newhaven is just 75 miles from Dieppe — the crossing takes four hours. By any standard, Dieppe's port is quite picturesque on a pretty day.

5    6

7    8

Étretat, June 2003 (2)

Photos taken in Étretat, including one with Walt and our dog Collette in it, and one of the house called Le Clos Lupin.

Walt turned 62 yesterday. Collette was born in 1992, came with us to live in France in 2003,

and passed away in 2006 at the age of 14. I don't know how old Le Clos Lupin is.

It's probably not getting any younger. Who among us is?

Enjoy this two-minute slideshow.

Étretat : ses falaises et sa plage

Just 40 miles down the côte d'Albâtre from Dieppe, and about 40 miles northeast of Rouen, is the famous town of Étretat (pop. 1250), with some of the most picturesque white chalk cliffs on the Channel coast. We were lucky in early June 2003, just three days after arriving with our dog from the U.S. to settle down here in France, to be able to enjoy a beautiful warm day in Étretat with bright sun and no wind. We had lunch in a beach-side restaurant, outdoors. Without having been asked, the waiter brought a bowl of water for the dog. After lunch we went on the high ground north of town and took pictures. Here are some of them.

1 

2   3  
4   5  
6   7  

8   9  

Clafoutis ou quiche sans pâte ?

The French sweet confection called a clafoutis and the savory one sometimes called a quiche sans pâte (crustless quiche) are basically made by the same method. The only significant difference is that le clafoutis is sweetened with sugar, and la quiche is flavored with cheese. The two classic recipes are clafoutis aux cerises (cherries) and quiche lorraine, which includes lardons (smoked bacon). Yesterday I made a savory quiche/clafoutis aux brocolis et au poulet.

The primary ingredients were eggs (5 in this case), cream (50 milliliters), and grated cheese — in this case, grated hard goat cheese (Selles-sur-Cher and grated hard Mimolette Vieille, a cow's milk cheese. Optionally, stir 3 or 4 tablespoons of flour into the filling mixture. Don't forget the salt and pepper, as well as a pinch or grating of nutmeg.

Dice up some cooked chicken — or cook some diced up chicken. I cooked some diced chicken tenders with chopped shallot, which gave good flavor. Butter a baking dish generously and arrange the pieces of cooked chicken in the bottom.

Steam or blanch some broccoli florets so that they are tender but not over-cooked. Arrange them over the chicken in the baking dish. Scatter the cooked shallot and drizzle the butter or oil it cooked in over the chicken and broccoli.

Mix the cream, eggs, flour, and grated cheese together if you haven't already done so.
I blitzed the liquid mixture with a stick blender to make sure it didn't have any lumps of flour in it. Carefully pour the liquid into the baking dish so that the pieces of chicken and broccoli stay in place.

I decided to grate some more hard goat cheese over the top of the quiche/clafoutis before I put it in the oven. You can of course substitute Parmesan or Romano cheese for the cheeses I used... or whatever finely grated cheese you want.

Bake the quiche/clafoutis in the oven at 175ºC (350ºF) for 30 minutes or so until the filling has set up
and the top is golden brown. Enjoy it hot, warm, or cold with good bread and good wine.