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Maison Travers

~ Living & Cooking in France

Maison Travers

Tag Archives: Journiac

Is it Spring? What happened to Winter?

04 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by Nadia in General, Life in Dordogne

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

daffodils, Dordogne, Journiac, magnolia, spring, uprooted tree, wood

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Daffodils on February 2!!! That is unheard of but that is exactly what is happening all over the Dordogne. Look around and everywhere you see little flowers popping up. The lawn is littered with tiny white and yellow daisies, daffodils and crocuses are lifting their heads as if to say hello and even the odd tulip has been spotted. Yesterday, I was quite surprised to notice the magnolia was starting to bloom. It is way too early. We really have not had much of a winter at all this year. I can count on the fingers of one hand, the number of days it dipped to below zero (Celsius, that is) here in Journiac. We even had a 16 C / 60F day last week and they are predicting another this coming weekend. What is happening? The local farmers are very worried as this too warm winter will affect their crops, some vines are budding before having been pruned. What if we get a few days of hard frost? The buds will be killed and the fruit will not materialize. The old folk are complaining that it has not been cold enough to kill the germs and thus a lot of diseases will spread. Likewise, they are predicting lots of insects and bugs this summer. Oh dear! What can we do? Not much but admire the beautiful flowers for now.

We did have one big winter storm – it lasted for 36 hours about 3 weeks ago. But that was long enough to uproot an elderly and sickly, rather large, ornamental apple tree in our garden.IMG_20160111_153549-3IMG_20160115_101106-1

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This is what remains after Stuart had spent two days clearing the branches and about another 3 rows of logs. It was a very large tree. On the day it happened, it was raining and we had gale force winds, very unusual for Journiac. I remember looking out the lounge window and remarking that the tree looked rather unusual, it seemed closer to the ground. Yes, well, it was, in fact, much closer to the ground. It was on the ground, completely uprooted. Our neighbour, Monsieur Lalot, a cattle farmer and lumberjack, very kindly offered to come help chop the tree up as Stuart’s chainsaw was not powerful enough. He spent several hours, chopping up the tree for us. Then it was Stuart’s job to discard all the branches and start moving the logs into a dry area where we keep the wood. There is so much wood. Just some huge logs left now that will need maneuvering off the lawn in the next few days.

 

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Potato pancakes with smoked salmon / Pancakes au pommes de terre et saumon fumé

02 Saturday Jan 2016

Posted by Nadia in Appetizers, Breakfast, General, Seafood

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Tags

Journiac, new year, pancakes, pomme de terre, potatoes, saumon fume, smoked salmon

IMG_6382This was born out of some left over smoked salmon and a desire to eat it with something other than a bagel, (not available in the Dordogne), a slice of bread, (so many great choices here in the Dordogne), pasta, (too many carbs after Christmas and New Year), salad, (too healthy), so I decided to try something a little different and it turned out really tasty. With the addition of the beaten egg whites, the pancakes are very light and fluffy. I served it with some créme fraîche, lemon slices and freshly ground black pepper and a glass of champagne for dinner yesterday. A perfect light meal after our 6 course New Year’s Eve dinner at the local Journiac town-hall. That was quite a feast. We had mushroom soup, a slice of foie gras, scallops on a bed of pureed leeks, venison steak with potato gratin and veggies, salad with a brillat savarin cheese with truffle and nougat glacé. All washed down with limitless wine and champagne. The evening started at 8pm and the first guest left around 02am!
As you can now understand, we needed a light dinner the following day. This recipe however would work equally well for lunch or even make a scrumptious breakfast, just add some creamy scrambled eggs and you are good to go.

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Pour 6 personnes

Ingrédients:

3 grosses pommes de terre
2 oeufs
40 cl de lait
4 c. à soupe de farine
1/2 sachet de levure chimique
Huile végétale
Sel et poivre noire du moulin
6 tranches de saumon fumé
200 g de crème fraîche
1 citron
3 brins de persil plat, hachez

Préparation:

Pelez et lavez les pommes de terre
Coupez-les en gros morceaux et faites-les cuire 20 minutes à la vapeur
Ècrasez-les avec une fourchette et laissez refroidir
Dans une jatte, mélangez les jaunes d’oeufs avec le lait
Ajoutez les pommes de terre, la farine et la levure
Montez les blancs d’oeufs en neige
Incorporez-les délicatement à la préparation
Faites chauffer un filet d’huile dans une poêle
Versez des petites louches de préparation
Faites cuire les pancakes 2 à 3 minutes sur chaque face
Réservez au chaud
Superposez une tranche de saumon sur chaque pancake
Mettez une grosse cuillerée de crème fraîche et du persil
Donnez quelque tours de moulin à poivre
Servez avec un morceau de citron
Bon Appétit!

 

IMG_6383Serves 6

Ingredients:

3 large potatoes
2 eggs, separated
400 ml / 14 oz milk
4 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking powder (or use self raising flour)
Oil
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
6 slices smoked salmon
200 g / 7 oz crème fraîche or sour cream
Fresh parsley, finely cut
1 or 2 lemons cut into 6 wedges

Preparation:

Peel and wash the potatoes
Cut them into large pieces and steam them for 20 minutes
Mash roughly with a fork and leave to cool slightly
In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with the milk
Add the mashed potatoes, the flour and the baking powder and mix
In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff
Gently fold them into the potato mixture
Drizzle a little oil in a sauté pan over medium heat
Add the mixture using a small soup ladle
Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes on each side
Keep warm until you use all the mixture
Place some smoked salmon on each pancake
Top with a large dollop of cream
Sprinkle on some parsley
Add some freshly ground black pepper
Serve with a wedge of lemon
Enjoy!

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Bonne Année / Happy New Year

02 Saturday Jan 2016

Posted by Nadia in General

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Tags

champagne, Journiac, new year, onion confit, rose champagne

Rimage

A glass of rosé champagne and foie gras with onion confit. Great start to 2016.

Wishing all my readers a very Happy New Year!
Bonne Année!

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