Wilson the Piggy, Baba au Rhum and Cannelés!!!

I know, this post might shock some of you, but then, this is life in the French Countryside!

Photo taken by Virginie of the Boudin I gave her

A couple of years ago after having moved to the countryside from Paris, I went for the first time to the 'Journée du Cochon' - Pig slaughtering day! This means that with a friend or two, you buy a pig from a farmer and he feeds and raises it for a whole year and when winter comes, it is time to do the slaughtering. Not for the faint hearted but then, being a pucker 'Boeremeisie', am certainly not that 'faint hearted! This is a dying tradition here in France as with all the Europeen sanitary rules and regulations, this happens less and less.

Early morning you go to the farmer's home, the piggy gets killed and bled (to make the 'Boudin Noire' - black pudding) and it then gets cut up by the butcher. At the end of the day there's terrines, and black pudding and andouillette (kind of a tripe sausage), and numerous cuts of meat ready for your freezer.  

The tradition is that one shares the black pudding (normally you have quite a couple of meters) with friends and family and so last Friday night we had a 'Soirée Cochon' with friends! After a Lentil and Coconut soup, we had the first terrine made from Wilson and then we had the black pudding with sautéed apples and a celeriac purée. Our friends from Paris, Samuel and Noel made the dessert which was the most délicious 'Baba au Rhum' - Rum Baba -  that has soaked in rum for 2 days and in stead of whipped cream, Noel made a 'Crème Chibouste (Crème Chiboust is a crème pâtissière (pastry cream) lightened with whipped cream or stiffly beaten egg whites) !

The history of 'Rum Baba  - thank you once again Wikipedia!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rum_baba

Our evening ended in the early hours of the morning, and everyone agreed, Wilson, bless his soul, gave us all tremendous pleasure!

Also on Friday, the batter for the' Cannelé bordelais' was mixed and left for 24 hours to be baked late yesterday!! A delicious treat we took to friends where we went for dinner on Saturday night! 

I found the perfect recipe for Cannelés on the following website for you! 
http://www.cuisine-french.com/cgi/mdc/l/en/recettes/canneles_ill.html

For : 20 cannelés Time : 1 h 45 Difficulty :  medium    Ingredients for Cannelés 2 : 1 liter of milk 2 vanilla pods 500 g of icing sugar 4 whole eggs 4 egg yolks 200 g of flour 100 g of butter 30 ml of rum

Technical stages for Cannelés 2 :

	1 Prepare all ingredients.
	2 Bring the milk to a boil, add the vanilla pods split in two.
	3 Infuse and let cool.
	4 Cream the icing sugar with the eggs and the egg yolks.
	5 Add the sifted flour and the milk...
	6 ...cold melted butter...
	7 ...and the rum.
	8 Mix well.
	9 Pour this mixture...
	10 ...in cannelés Elastomoule cannelés mold.
	11 Bake at 180°C or 356°F...
	12 ...for about 1h10.
	13 At the end of cooking let cool slightly before unmoulding. To turn over the mould and to withdraw cannelés by giving a light pressure on the bottom of the silicone mould.

What they did not say in this almost perfect recipe, is that according to Noël, it is much better if you leave the batter for 24 hours before baking AND for the first 10 minutes of baking, the heat of your oven must be very high(240°) so that it caramalise the cannelés!.


Life is about sharing
Bisous
Lynn