What is ?????

My friend Cathy's comments on my Facebook posting the other day (What is Gambas? what is Puy Réal ? etc) made me laugh and took me back to when I first arrived in Paris in 1990 and my first real encounter with French Cuisine and someone that knew loads about it. And who was a total Gourmet on top of it!

After a couple of hours walking around in amazement in the city of love and lights, I decided that that is where I want to live! (Knew no-one, did not speak a word of French, with only a tourist visa!! but had my 'Afrikaner' headstrongness and determination!!)

In front of the entrance to the Hôtel Particulier in which Mathilda had her appartment

So the first obstacle was to get a place to stay and a job - a little add on the noticeboard at the American Church said : 'Authoress looking for companion-cook. First Paris then Scotland!' This was for me!

Little did I know when I phoned from the nearest phonebooth (no cellphones in those days) that I'll work a short while for, and become friends with, Mathilda Mortimer, Dowager Duchess of Argylle.

Mathilda was a wonderful, eccentric woman who LOVED food. I was this real uncouthed girl from 'souf africa' that lived for 5 years in the Tsitsikamma Forest and knew NOTHING about cooking except the concoctions I made on my wood stove in the forest! She took me to the old Saint Germain du Pré market and taught me so many things about buying fresh fish, meat, veggies etc.  It was amazing. She also loathed going to restaurants on her own and this way I accompanied her (in her Ford Mustang Cabriolet - the first car I drove through the tiny streets of Paris) to many a great restaurant all over Paris (and learned even more about food with a capital F)!

In Matilda's flat rue Tournon, Paris

One of the first meals she wanted me to cook was a 'Blanquette de Lotte' and for dessert a 'Sabayon'.

So I asked her : 

What is Blanquette ?

What is Lotte (monkfish or devilfish) ?

What is sabayon - zabaglione??

* Blanquette - Originally invented to  make something with left over meat, blanquette has become a proper dish with an unctuous sauce - I suppose in English we'll call it a kind of stew! The basis for this Rural Stew is to cook the meat (or fish) in a white wine and vegetable stock and when ready to serve, coat it with a Roux sauce additioned with an egg yolk.

* Zabaglione - [zah-bahl-YOH-nay] is a simple Italian dessert made of egg yolks, sugar and Marsala wine (although you can use rum, or champagne, or sweet wine) and served warm. The French refer to this as Sabayon and it is used as a dessert or a sauce. Other variations include the addition of whipped egg whites to lighten the dish, as well as a frozen version.
A bit of History from one of the most incredible reference books on food :

ALAN DAVIDSON, The Oxford Companion to Food
'Zabaglione is said to have been invented in the 16th Century in Florence, Italy in the court of the Medici. This dessert is classified as a "caudle" rather than a custard.  A "caudle" is a sauce used as a custard to fill pies or tarts. The original pre-sixteenth century version was a drink made or wine or ale thickened with egg yolks.'

Now, if I get down to it sometime soon, will do step by step pics of how to do sabayon and post it - but you'll have to be patient!

Life is about sharing !



Bisous
Lynn