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Troubador Publishing Ltd - Di Murrell

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102 pages

English

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A Foodie Afloat is the story of a cook's journey through France on a barge. Di Murrell takes us on a gentle journey across France; her main preoccupation being to make sure that tasty food arrives on the table each day. As she voyages across the country she shows, through her recipes, how the cuisine changes with the landscape. Whether bought in the market, dug from a lock-keeper's garden or even foraged along the towpath, the food she finds and cooks is always seasonal and local to the region. This book is more than just a collection of recipes though. It is the result of a life spent on the waterways of Europe. She talks to lock-keepers, skippers of working barges and those, who, like her, find their sustenance on or near the canal. Di's enjoyment of good champagne, foie gras and truffles leads to an eclectic mix of simplicity and sophistication in her cooking. The boating life, though rarely sensational, is full of small events and chance encounters. This is an enticing story of slow boats and slow food. Di makes it come alive, and her combination of travel and recipe book tempts us to give up everything and join her on the waterways of Northern and Central France. A Foodie Afloat is the 2020 UK winner of the World Gourmand Cookbook Awards in the Food Tourism category.

Sujets

Cooking

France

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Publié par	Troubador Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	12 juin 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781800466036
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0350€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

A FOODIE AFLOAT
To
Tam, Kathleen and Kay
They made this book
The mistakes are mine

Copyright © 2020 Di Murrell
Cover design and illustrations by Kathleen Caddick
Cover photographs by Tam and Di Murrell
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
Matador
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Wistow Road, Kibworth Beauchamp,
Leicestershire. LE8 0RX
Tel: 0116 279 2299
Email: books@troubador.co.uk
Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matador
Twitter: @matadorbooks
ISBN 978 1800466 036
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd
CONTENTS
Introduction
Map of Navigable Waterways of N. France
1 Dear Old Cambrai
2 On Our Way at Last
3 With One Bound
4 I Love Nancy
5 The Perfect Canal
6 Reems, Rimes or Rance
7 A Forage Along the Towpath
8 Afloat in Champagne
9 Barging into Burgundy
10 Time for a Truffle or Two
11 Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness
12 It’s Quicker by Car
My Store Cupboard Favourites
Bibliography
RECIPES
1 Dear Old Cambrai
Watercress and Comté Cheese Omelette
Watercress and Lettuce Soup
Gratin of Chicory with Ham in a Cheese Sauce
Sweetbreads with Morels in a Creamy Sauce
Flemish Beef Carbonnade with Pain d’Épices
Crème Brûlée à la Chicorée
2 On Our Way at Last
Ratatouille 1
Ratatouille 2
Things To Do with Leftover Ratatouille
Asparagus with a Fig Balsamic Dressing and Slivers of Aged Parmesan
Purslane, Sorrel and Green Pea Soup
Fattoush
Sara’s Warm Vegetable Salad
3 With One Bound
Bacon Soup
Baeckenoffe
Leek Tart
Camembert in Puff Pastry
Wild Garlic Preserve
Blackcurrant Jelly with Cassis and Cream
4 I Love Nancy
Goats’ Cheese, Basil and Tomato Starter
A Warm Goats’ Cheese Salad
Melon with Ratafia
Chicken Breasts Wrapped in Foil
Spaetzli
The Rest of the Chicken Baked with Tomatoes
Myrtles with Meringue and Crème Fraîche
5 The Perfect Canal
Melon with Air-dried Ham
Lamb Kebabs
Grilled or Barbecued Quail
Quick Pain Perdu with Roasted Plums
My Queen of Puddings
Fromage Fort
Pears with Roquefort
6 Reems, Rimes or Rance
A Kir Royale
Strawberry Soup
Roast Duck
Courgettes, Mint and Cream
My Shepherd’s Pie
My Rice Pud
7 A Forage Along the Towpath
Cold Sorrel and Cucumber Soup
Wild Asparagus with Scrambled Eggs and Smoked Salmon
Puffballs in Breadcrumbs
Tomato, Avocado and Cucumber Salsa
Sorrel Risotto
Pickled Walnuts
Walnut Liqueur
Dandelion Jelly Preserve
Wild Strawberry Royale
Watercress and Marmite Sandwich
Rocket and Cream Cheese Sandwich
8 Afloat in Champagne
Pâté en Croûte
Scallops, Fennel and Pappardelle
Rabbit Legs Stuffed with Boudin Noir and Prunes
Fillets of Roe Deer with Foie Gras
Celebration Champagne Risotto
Champagne and Elderflower Jelly
9 Barging into Burgundy
Summer Tomato Consommé
Tomato Tarts
A Perfect Tomato Salad
Roast Tomato Risotto with Crayfish
Bruschetta with Red Onions and Goats’ Cheese
Simple Goats’ Cheese Soufflé
Blackberry Liqueur
Pears in Red Wine
Griottines in Armagnac
10 Time for a Truffle or Two
Fresh Ceps with Chilli and Garlic
Truffled Scrambled Eggs on Toast
Truffled Chicken ‘en papillote’
Wild Mushroom and Potato Matafaim
Macaroni with Trompettes de la Mort
Velouté of Trompettes de la Mort with a Poached Egg
Rabbit with Mushrooms
11 Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness
Barley Broth with Chervil Root
Irish Soda Bread
Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Air-dried Ham
Hearty Chicken Soup with Parsley Dumplings
Gratin of Leeks with Cheese
Celeriac with Wild Marjoram
Tartiflette
Pears with Griottines
12 It’s Quicker by Car
Courgette and Sorrel Soup
Crayfish Soup
Catfish Chowder with Comté Cheese
Panfried Catfish in Cornmeal
Boudin Blanc with a Ceps and Truffle Sauce and Tagliatelle
Boudin Blanc with Garlic and Onion Purée and Spring Onion Mash
Mirabelle Plum Sponge Pudding
Tarte Maroilles
INTRODUCTION

Although not without the odd moment of high drama, voyages in our barge Friesland hardly equate to the swashbuckling adventures of sailors on the high seas. We just potter along quiet canals and meandering rivers, climbing hillsides lock by lock, passing through shady cuttings and dank tunnels on the high summit levels, then dropping down into the next valley through yet more locks, eventually to be disgorged into a river whose name we probably do not even know.
We have spent the last twenty years on the waterways of mainland Europe, usually in France with occasional forays into Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. The boating is full of contrasts: whole days spent negotiating flights of locks on a small canal in the pouring rain; misty mornings and breezy afternoons keeping track of the buoys which mark the channel on some great river. When necessary, there are early starts in winter darkness, steel deck heavily frosted with me ‘the crew’ in sleepy sullen mood untying icily unyielding mooring lines. Occasionally we will find ourselves still on the move well into the evening, looking for somewhere, anywhere, to stop for the night out of the wash of the huge barges thundering by. Why do we do it? Because even when it’s awful, it’s great. And there are always those long lazy days of summer to look forward to – memories of which fuel this infatuation with the barging life throughout the long wintertime.
Dismissed as ‘ditch crawlers’ by intrepid sailors, I, nevertheless, love the sedate way in which we negotiate the landscape. For us, this is a journey without a final destination; it is simply a journey waymarked by the people we meet and defined by the food and drink we discover en route. We see life, as it were, through the back door of whichever country we are in. How else could we engage in the companionable, albeit brief, exchange of words with that old fellow in his canal-side garden as he hoes between his rows of vegetables or with those guys paddling about in the muddy shallows collecting freshwater crayfish in a bucket as we go boating by?
We are the willing recipients of canal-side largesse: lock-keepers offer their garden produce, pointing me down the path to where the best beans, tomatoes or lettuces are to be found. From one we have bought jars of truffles collected from the forest close to his back door; apple eau de vie from another made with his own apples and turned into a spirituous brew by the last of the roving distillers who stops by every year; from others we have happily accepted gifts of over-sized courgettes, sacks of pears and plums and once three freshly laid goose eggs.
To spend one night cocooned in the velvet darkness of the countryside far from any dwelling and the next to lie exposed and vulnerable under incandescent lights at the centre of a bustling city, offers contrasts not to be found in any other form of modern travel. Nor do we need to be searching always for somewhere new to visit. We look forward to returning to familiar places, each with some special attribute of its own; it may be just the one thing they make really well, like the boudin blanc in Rethel on the Canal des Ardennes, the pâté en croûte from the bakers at Cumières on the River Marne or the wine bought from Alphonse Mellot’s shop on the very top of the hill in Sancerre on the Canal du Centre. We know we can tie up on the doorstep of such places and will be welcome to stay as long as we like.
On our travels we stop to visit farms, smallholdings, gardens and orchards; shop for the region’s specialities at the weekly markets; sample local dishes; visit the winemakers and check out the restaurants. We can buy our milk straight from the cow, cheese direct from the maker and foie gras from the lady who feeds the geese. We have the time to find out from the village butcher the best way to cook an unknown cut of meat and from the charcutier how to serve an unfamiliar dish on display in his window. We do not come as visitors with barely time to settle before moving on, but as residents, albeit in transit. For the time being our address will be wherever we choose to tie our barge, be it the village pontoon, some city quay, a deserted sand wharf on a river bank or that canal-side grain silo on the outskirts of town. Wherever we are, we are at home.
It’s not all rusticity and bucolic living though. After all, canals were built as trade routes to serve the needs of agriculture and industry. We will find ourselves occasionally boating through the old industrial heartlands of France and Belgium. When these waterways are still serving the purpose for which they were originally built, we feel small and out of place as we pass beneath great cooling towers, staring wide-eyed up at the busy scrap and aggregates wharves, steelyards and smelting works. Friesland – 24 metres long and just over 4 metres wide – is quite big for a private boat, yet here in this environment, is utterly dwarfed by the enormous barges that come from all over Europe to discharge their freight of pressed scrap cars and to load again with the finished steel coils destined for Rotterdam or Antwerp. Sand barges progress majestically along the waterway, sometimes six or eight at a time, tied two abreast, propelled along by enormous pusher tugs with names like ‘Nemesis’ or ‘Titanic’; we roll in their wake as they pass by.
Imperceptibly the rainbow laden oily water in whi