Frites de carpe

Homemade frites de carpe, a delicious local treat.

Carp is a despised eating fish in the anglophone world. Unless they come from an Eastern European background, most Australians would not consider eating carp, for example. But here in central France we are neighbours with the important wetland known as the Brenne, where fish farming, especially carp, is traditional and is a significant contributor to the local economy. The favourite way locally to eat carp is either mashed into a paste called rillettes and spread on bread, or cut into strips (goujonnettes), battered and deep fried, and called frites de carpe.

A live carp in the water.

Ingredients
200 g goujonnettes (strips) of carp
100 g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
150 ml cold water
1 litre canola oil

Method

1. Put the flour, baking powder, salt and cold water in a jug and blend with an immersion blender.
2. Cover the batter and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
3. Heat the oil in a large deep pot to 160 - 190 °C.
4. At the last minute, just before the oil reaches temperature, tip the carp into the batter and mix so all the carp is coated.
5. Gently deposit the strips of battered carp one by one into the oil. Take care because the oil will foam and is super hot.
6. Cook the carp for several minutes, until golden brown, stirring once or twice to make sure cooking is even.
7. Take the battered fish out with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
8. Serves 2, with chips and mayonnaise. 

 

Goujonnettes of carp.

The carp goujonnettes came from Fish Brenne and is priced at €17/kilo.

The secret to crispy batter is to keep the batter refrigerated until the last minute.

No Blog Today

There's no blog today, because yesterday was such an appalling day we didn't even feel guilty about doing nothing. It wasn't exactly cold, but every time we thought we'd do something it started to rain again.

This gave Susan an opportunity to cook, and me an opportunity to catch up on the cricket and plan next year's holiday.

We did remember to put the bins out. Does that count?

Be Careful!

There's no photos, because it was dark when we first noticed them, but there are a number of new stop signs around our end of Preuilly sur Claise.

They're all on the Route de Grand Pressigny: two are by the Chapelle de Tous-les-Saints on Rue de la Croix and Rue de la Chapelle, and the third is on Route de Chaumussay. On all of these the main road now has priority and the intersections are no longer give way to the right.

The new stop signs are marked with red dots

I can't recall any accidents there recently, but these intersections have been the sites of many a fright, as they are basically blind corners.

It's December Already?

How did that happen?

So what's Simon been up to lately?  Not much - we went to l'Image a week ago, and been on a couple of very shorts walks. We've had a couple of visits from friends, and had a few medical appointments. We had our flu jabs, too.

The fire has been lit for about 2 weeks now, after we had a sprinkle of snow - enough snow to be cold and wet, but not enough snow to tempt one outside. This means we've spent most of our time indoors keeping warm, doing bits and bobs.

We have had a slight lifestyle change. We have reverted to the traditional meal schedule of having our dinner in the middle of the day, and a lighter meal in the evening. This is quite easy during winter when we're at home during the day, but whether it will last through summer I'm not sure. 

As far as my cancer goes, at the moment it appears to be under control. I am still having the hormone treatments, but I don't have to go back to the oncologist until September next year. What happens after that I'm not sure.

And that's the minutiae of life in rural France for us at the moment. 

Egg Shortage in France

I must admit I hadn't noticed. Someone on Facebook pointed out to me that there had been a flurry of news reports about egg shortages in France, and the supermarket shelves were looking a bit bare. So next time I was in the supermarket I checked, and sure enough, there were obvious gaps. So what is it all about? France is Europe's biggest egg producer, and French people eat a lot of eggs (more than 4 each per week, and that figure has been increasing over the past few years)*. So that's one reason -- supply is not keeping up with demand, especially while we have bird flu doing the rounds (which has reduced production by about 4%).

Apparently, since the beginning of the year, demand has outstripped supply by 13%. Last year France produced more than 15 billion eggs, and the normal level of supply is about 2% less than demand. These days eggs are seen as an economical and ecologically sustainable alternative to meat or fish. But also influencing the market are changing ideas on cholesterol (it's OK to eat eggs again), the fashion for high protein diets (promoted particularly by sports nutritionists and scientist influencers such as Jessie Inchauspé the Glucose Goddess advocating savoury breakfasts), and how eggs lend themselves to quick and simple preparation.

 

How to decode your egg stamp: the top line is the best by date (dd/mm), 28 days after laying; the bottom line indicates how the hens live, with a number 0-3 (this one is 1, so this is a free range egg), then the country code (FR for France), then the département (county) code (02 is Aisne).

In order to meet this increased demand we will need a million more hens, and 300 more egg farms. French egg farms have on average flocks of 16 000 hens, but nobody wants to live next door to an egg farm, so permission to establish new farms takes time. French consumers want French produced eggs, preferably organic, Label Rouge and/or free range (Fr. élevée en plein air) ie the stamps on the eggs should include codes 0 or 1, not 2 (barn) or 3 (caged). For the moment France is making do with importing 4% of eggs in the market from Spain, Poland and the Netherlands, where much bigger egg farms are permitted, and French consumers are dubious about traceability.

 

Eggs at one of my local supermarkets on Tuesday.

 

*Australians eat even more eggs per capita than the French, but consumption is declining slightly. Average annual consumption in Australia is 259 eggs per person, in France it is 226 eggs per person.

Bogues and Borscht

The Galoches walk on Friday 17 October was a 5 km circuit, first along the river, then up onto the heights above Yeures sur Creuse, followed by Ukrainian food as part of the schools' Semaine de Goût ('Taste Week').

 

 Svitlana, her mum and Patricia the school canteen cook prepared about a dozen Ukrainian dishes for people to try as part of the annual food studies school week. Borscht and varenyky mushroom dumplings are always popular.

A replica of the Lourdes grotto, behind the church in Yzeures.

A wildlife 'highway', leading down from the heights into the village.

A rustic shed.

A horse chestnut conker above and a sweet chestnut below. Can you tell the difference? (Look for the way a sweet chestnut tapers to a fibrous point opposite the base pad. This base pad is also smaller, as is the nut itself in sweet chestnuts.) Don't eat conkers as they will give you gastro-intestinal pain.

The River Creuse.

Walking along the river path.

Sweet chestnuts which have fallen on the walking path from an overhanging tree. The extremely spiny outer protective sheaths are called bogues in French.

Japanese anemones.