She has a new book coming out, The Bordeaux Kitchen, and to mark the occasion she will be launching it CIVB on December 4th.

About the Book:

Part cookbook, part travelogue, part photo essay, The Bordeaux Kitchen is an ancestral French cookbook (with wine pairings and an in-depth wine chapter) that celebrates the rich foods and wines of France as well as the “disappearing” culinary arts of butchery, tying roasts, filleting fish, curing bacon, rendering fats, and preparing organ meats.

The book comprises a journey through the southwest of France, a chapter on the wines of France, and over 180 recipes from around France, along with Tania’s own search for better health for herself and her family. As wine is central to the French lifestyle of communing with friends and family, she has made French wine, especially those from the French Southwest figure prominently in the book, alongside recipes and her own photographs.

The book focuses particularly on sustainable-raised animals and organically-grown foods and wines, the tradition of eating in-season, and the need for a shift in our “quick and easy” paradigm of convenient, low-fat, and refined “foods” over nutrient-dense, homemade, satisfying meals of meats, fat, fish, and fresh vegetables, as traditionally eaten in the French Southwest.

The Bordeaux Kitchen released in mid-June, and has already garnered #1 New Release in Wine Tasting and in Wine Pairing on Amazon.com, as well as #1 Bestseller in Food & Wine in Canada. The book will also be available locally at the Mollat bookstore.

About the Author:

Tania Teschke is a writer and photographer passionate about French food and wine, who holds a diploma in wine science and tasting from the University of Bordeaux. Tania has learned from winemakers, home cooks, butchers, and chefs in France, while exploring the nutritional density and health benefits of an ancestral approach to food and lifestyle.

She has compiled her knowledge into The Bordeaux Kitchen book, a comprehensive guide to French cuisine in a user-friendly manner, illustrated with her own real-world photographs. Her family ties to Europe and her interest in languages and culture have led her and her family around the globe. She currently lives in Switzerland with her diplomat husband and two daughters.

“This beautiful, richly illustrated book is Julia Childs infused with a low-carb sensibility. For anyone who loves French cooking, especially those creamy sauces and succulent cuts of meat, this book is an essential addition to your kitchen. And unlike Child’s, the recipes are simple, uncomplicated–easy enough for any home cook pressed for time. The Bordeaux Kitchen combines a return to history with a modern sensibility. Plus, the science now clearly tells us that these foods are good for health: so you can have your leg of lamb and eat it, too.”

–Nina Teicholz, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet

WHEN: Tuesday, December 4, 2018

WHERE: CIVB/Vins de Bordeaux @ 6pm

www.bordeauxkitchen.com

To pick up your own copy, click here!

The post The Bordeaux Kitchen book appeared first on Bordeaux Expats.

Here is my breakdown from many years of first hand Christmas experience with ‘ze French’.

When spending the holiday period in the region, it’s always important to remember that eating is serious businesses. It’s not just about how much you can eat but it’s also about the lead up. Personally, we started talking about what we were going to eat about 3 weeks before the big day.  So here is my breakdown of a typical Christmas as seen from ‘ma famille girondins’.

PLAN & PURCHASE

We always plan what we’re going to eat. I don’t know if it’s because we’re worried that the store may run out of what we want, or if it’s a way to start salivating in advance. In any case, we always make sure that we know what we want. The breakdown of the meal always stays the same: apéro, entrée, main, desert, cheese, café.

This formula can never change, even if you know that you are not hungry.

Make sure you buy the good stuff and buy lots of it.

L’APÉRO

The French aperitif or apéro is a common affair in France. To break it down, it’s basically a chance to have pre-dinner booze with peanuts. It’s so ingrained in the way we socialise, it would be strange not to have it.

My second Christmas in France was a bonding experience with my father in-law. He made sure I felt part of the family by making sure my glass was never empty.  We had offered him a bottle of scotch whiskey for Christmas and he insisted in showing me his roots from ‘Les Landes’ by pouring 4 fingers at a time.

Ingredients:

• Assorted Nibbles
• Scotch Whiskey + Soda
• Ricard + Water (on option)

1st Intermission

A brief intake of Fresh air is always welcomed after first round.

ENTRÉE

Most families will want to mix things up with some seafood, and living so close to the bassin d’Arcachon it makes sense to pick up a platter of the region’s world famous Oysters. Arcachon and the surroundings have a history of Oyster farming going back to the Gallo-Roman era.

Just be sure that everyone in your entourage is able to eat them. Out of four people, only my father in-law and I could eat them due to our partners allergies.

Ingredients:

• 12 oysters each + bread
• Bottle of Lillet White

2nd Intermission

A walk around the garden is recommended. 

MAIN COURSE

When living in the region, it’s hard not to notice the importance of Duck. From the thigh to the liver (and everything in between), Duck is served regularly on the plates in the greater South West France. The fabrication of foie gras in the region dates back to the sixteenth century. This practice is still ongoing, with the production widely spread across Aquitaine, Midi-Pyrénées, the department of Corrèze.

Depending on your families views, you may want to steer away from debating whether or not force-feeding of ducks is ethical or not. I just know that in my adopted family, this is is rarely brought up.

In this round, we sturdy up ourselves to devour plates of Confit de Canard, Foie gras poêlé aux pommes and potatoes and green beans. All the while, a bottle of red is produced, uncorked and served after breathing.

NOTE: Under no circumstances is it OK to forget the bread. On my wedding day, our relatives forgot to pick up the bread. They then drove 1hr to pick it up. Bread, is important stuff!

Ingredients:

• Confit Canard
• Foie gras poêlé aux pommes 
• Green beans and potatoes
• Bread
• Bottle of Chateau Vieux Fortin (Saint Emilion)

3rd Intermission

Go hang out with the chickens up the back paddock. Deep breathing, once again.

CHEESE

If you haven’t filled up enough already. There is always the chance to keep stuffing your pie hole with a selection of cheeses. Even if you are ready to be rolled away from the table, you’ll probably be served with bite size wedges of Camembert de Normandie, or an Abondance from the Haute-Savoie.

NOTE: My better half just told me that I was not nearly French enough, as I had totally forgotten to put a section about Cheese in this article.

Ingredients:

• Selection of Cheeses
• Bread

DESERT

This is usually when I can escape without having to eat anything. Good excuses are: Don’t have a sweet tooth or that’s not your favourite desert. It is recommended to stick with coffee and retire into a comfy chair in the corner of the room.

However, if you are able to eat desert you’ll most likely have an assortment of Macarons, Canelés or Tarte au Pommes (apple).

Depending on how you’re holding up, you’ll either be offered a black coffee (milk is for the English) or a digestive may make it’s way to the table (typically in the form of Cognac).

Ingredients:

• Macarons
• Canelés
• Tarte au Pommes
• Café
• Bottle of Cognac

4th Intermission

This is where you will usually want to try and grab at least 20 mins shut eye. As you’re a non native speaker, you will be able to tune off from the conversation and recharge the batteries. 

You’ll need to rest as it’s only 16h in the afternoon and the apéro for dinner starts in an hour!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I would love to hear about how some of your typical Christmas dinners are in the South West?

Feel free to leave them in the comments below!

The post HOW TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS IN GIRONDE appeared first on Bordeaux Expats.

Margot has a diploma in Communication Strategies and Marjorie was a PhD student in Sustainable Development until they both realised that their studies were leading them into fields they didn’t enjoy. This was mainly because they would have to follow a patterns they did not particularly relish. They did however share a strong common love for cooking and sharing with people.

Their major concerns focused on ecological issues that the planet is facing. Mixed with concerned about animal cruelty and being tired of industrial food that do not promote local farmers and that damage our health. They came up with the idea of organising events where Veganism, zero waste and local partnerships would be the three pillars of their food offers.

This is how Sweet Greens was born. After one year of designing their own recipes, finding local partners and finding ways to produce as little waste as possible, Sweet Greens is now firmly implemented in Bordeaux.

The company has three main offers:

• Catering services for a broad range of events –  weddings, birthdays, family gatherings or corporate events / meetings
• Organisation of vegan brunches every first Sunday of the month / manage the Veggie Pop festival that takes place every month at Le Garage Moderne in Bordeaux.
• They deliver fresh croissants, chocolates and Cinnamon Rolls every Saturday in a Vegan Concept Store named Un Jour Vert.

Today, Sweet Greens is 100% Vegan, 90% Zero Waste, uses 70% of organic and/or local ingredients.

Find them here:

www.sweetgreens.fr

https://www.facebook.com/sweetgreensbordeaux

https://www.instagram.com/sweetgreens_/

The post SWEET GREENS VEGAN CATERING appeared first on Bordeaux Expats.

Author: Viktorija Todorovska for Fines Bouches Magazine

Bread is such an intrinsic element of French food culture that recently, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested baguette should be added to the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, which aims to protect traditions, such as music, dance, and cuisine, from the effects of globalisation.

French artisan bakers think that in addition to the name and shape, it is the ingredients and recipe of baguette that should also be protected. Mass-produced imitations, often made outside of France, threaten this centuries-old tradition.

A 1993 law specifies that traditional baguette cannot contain anything other than wheat flour, yeast, water, and salt. But even with these four ingredients specified, there is a world of difference in the texture, colour, and taste of a supermarket baguette and one made by an artisanal Boulanger.

So, what transforms these four simple ingredients into the crusty, delectable loaves that bakers worldwide aspire to?

Predictably, when a recipe is this simple, it is the quality of the ingredients that makes the difference between a mediocre product and an exceptional one. The ingredients must be fresh and of high quality to yield the crusty yet chewy perfection the world admires.

Another essential element is the know-how of the baker. Anyone who has tried to make bread at home knows how quickly this seemingly simple pursuit turns into hours and hours of research, dozens of attempts, many phone calls to friends and more than one loaf of inedible dough. Which is why a great boulangerie, one that consistently crafts loaves with a crusty outside and a chewy middle, is worth seeking fervently.

Michel Fiori’s boulangerie in Nice won the title of best boulagerie on M6.

When asked what his secret to great bread is, Fiori shrugs his shoulders and says simply,

“Time… we work with time. It takes us 20 hours to make a baguette.”

Twenty hours?!?

Yes, because the few simple ingredients he starts with need time to develop and achieve the complexity of flavor and the texture of a perfect baguette.

Each ingredient plays an important role.

The flour provides the carbohydrates used for fermentation and the proteins (gluten) that give the bread texture. Depending on the type of flour, the dough rises differently and gives bread with different textures.

Fiori uses only selected flours, with no additives or stabilisers. Pure grains, grown in a way that respects the environment. His preferred are Farine Label Rouge, a premium flour that gives the bread depth of flavor and also is environmentally friendly, and CRC (Culture Raisonée Controlée) flour, produced from 100% French grains of high quality in a way that benefits both humans and nature. The mills he buys his flours from only work with artisanal boulangers, not large distribution. That way, they can make great flour in a sustainable way.

To these high quality flours, Fiori adds very little yeast, only 1% (10 grams per kilo of flour) and 10% leavening (100 grams per kilo of flour). The leavening causes the fermentation that creates bubbles of CO2, which cause the bread to rise. Water brings it all together enabling the unravelling of the process of fermentation.

First the ingredients are mixed together in a large bowl and the dough is kneaded.

This seems like a simple step but it all starts here: the type and quality of the flour determines the intricacies of this part of the process. To make great bread, this step must be executed with precision and know-how: the baker needs to know the ingredients, how they interact, and how those interactions might change depending on weather and other conditions. He needs to also be able to modify this part of the process as necessary, observing how the dough comes together and tweaking things so the final product is consistent.

After the dough has achieved the desired consistency, it is left to rest for an hour. The experience and know-how of the boulanger are critical here: years of experience and experimentation have allowed Michel Fiori to developed a process that yields dough with depth of flavor and the right consistency.

After the initial rest period.

Fiori lets the dough slowly rise in the fridge for 18 hours at 10C. This long, slow rising ensures perfect development of the gluten chains for elasticity and also leads to a complex, rich flavor. The slow process gives the bread its final crust, in several shades of golden brown, and persistence on the palate.

Finally, the dough gets its final shape (including any cuts and decorations). This step is time-consuming. Fiori explains that in the past, when it was done by hand, the cutting and shaping of baguettes to fill one oven would take up to 14 hours. Now, machines can do this in about 2 hours. The recipe, of course, had to be adjusted and is still tweaked every time an ingredient changes for example from white to darker flour, from summer to fall, etc.

After the dough is shaped, come the final two steps: baking and cooling. This is when the dough loses moisture and becomes bread, forming a crust and the inside.

The temperature, usually 240 to 260C, is critical: at the beginning of the baking process, the dough continues to rise in the oven, the inside of the bread develops, and the crust is formed. The vapour injected into the oven allows the bread to cook without drying out and hardening.

After the bread comes out of the oven, it needs to cool to optimise texture and flavor.

This is the crowning moment of the 2-day process that leads to the perfect baguette: brown and crusty on the outside, with a chewy middle dotted with air bubbles. The crust of Michel Fiori’s baguettes has 4 shades of brown: from a light beige in the folds to deep rustic brown on the ridges.

When enjoying a freshly-baked baguette, warm and crusty, most of us don’t think of the fact that it took 2 days to make. It is possible to make a baguette in a lot less time, of course. But a baguette made in 2 hours can never have the same texture and flavor as the artisanal one, let to develop flavor and texture over many hours. The fast-rising baguette has no colour and little flavor, so of necessity it contains additives, including sugar, to develop the golden colour so appealing to the eye.

A skilled labour.

In a globalised world, where physically demanding jobs are not in high demand, the biggest challenge for artisanal boulangeries is skilled labour: it takes years to become a boulanger. Fiori’s assistant baker, after 4 years of working at the bakery, can handle the mixing and kneading of the dough, but not yet the oven. That takes a lot more experience, knowing the dough intimately, knowing the oven and all the conditions that can affect it.

Bread is a living thing and a good boulanger knows how the bread will change after a customer buys it. Michael Fiori likes to study his own bread: he leaves a baguette at his house for a couple of days, even more, to see what happens. The bread loses moisture, but it stays fresh and edible for a long time, the sign of excellent bread, one made with passion from high quality ingredients.

About the author: This article was written for Fines Bouches Magazine by Viktorija Todorovska. Viktorija is a journalist, sommelier and author of numerous cookbooks. You can find more articles like this, in French, over on the Fines Bouche Magazine website.

The post THE ART & CRAFT OF BREAD MAKING appeared first on Bordeaux Expats.