Le Hameau de Pirelonge

Last month we went on a coach ride, organised by our leisure group, to  Le Hameau (hamlet) de Pirelonge in Charente-Maritime, about 2 hours drive away towards the coast. The hamlet is owned by the Brillouet family and an appointment is necessary to visit, as they give you a guided tour, of which more later! They have a  winery, perfumery, a printing museum, some craft work,  a shop and a restaurant.  This post is longer than my usual ones, but I did not feel that splitting it into two was a good idea!

We were so looking forward to the trip, but sadly there was much of Pirelonge that we did not get to see and we spent many hours sitting on hard wooden benches, listening to French commentary that we found almost impossible to follow. Not only a foreign language for us, but the speech was much too fast.  It appeared that much of it was about tracing the history of the hameau over the centuries and how the place worked.  They showed us the beautiful cognac stills and explained (in French of course) how the distillery operates.  The son, Jean-Marc did speak English well, but there was so much to get through that we did not  have the opportunity to talk to him, and he seemed to be speaking extra-fast to cram in everything he wanted to say!  There were only 4 English speaking people on the coach and although 2 of them speak reasonable French, the lengthy monologues were even too fast for them! Nevertheless, we did take many photos and I think they are worthy of going into this post.

Above and below - the old shop and sign where the barrels used to be made

Above and below, some of their products for sale in the shop, pineau, cognac and lavender bags.

Jean-Marc gave us all a tasting of each of his 5 pineau vintages, of which he is rightly very proud! Not good for the head at 11 in the morning!

In 1987, he planted lavender, and 1989, he organized his first Festival with the stills and old crafts. 

Jean-Marc talking about some of the stills that you can see behind him.

There were barns and barns of different types of stills, all museum pieces, but I need to limit the amount of photos I took to a few interesting ones. These mobile stills below were pulled around to the various vineyards, where alcohol would be brewed on the spot from the farmer's own grapes!!

This was obviously not part of the museum pieces, but I was fascinated by the fact it was partly hidden under a pile of empty boxes! For you car fans, this French classic  appears to be a Rosengart LR4 N2, manufactured I think in the 30's  by French engineer Lucien Rosengart. The marque ceased production during WW2 due to the Nazi invasion of France, and post-war models failed to sell, leading to its demise. There are better preserved examples in car museums around France and elsewhere!

Then there was a break in the talking for lunch, where of course, language did not deter us from enjoying the event, and event it was!  In a large barn converted to a restaurant is a stunning stained glass window, the work of a cousin Brillouet, master glassmaker.

I managed to catch this photo first, before it was taken over by the hungry crowd!

First were the starters, to which we helped ourselves

Once these were cleared away, through a curtained opening in one of the walls, a selection of our French male friends appeared, all dressed in frilly can-can clothes, carrying a pig on a large platter, shoulder-high.  The beast had been cooking all morning on a spit in the hallway.  There was much laughter and camera flashing, as they walked the full circuit of the room.  Sadly most of my photos were not good, but here is one of their entry, lit by a spotlight.

and another, having placed it on the table for flaming with cognac and carving

the mandatory cheese course followed and then this delicious apple tart

   

Then one of the family members arrived to play us some tunes on her accordion and the result you can see here went down well, especially after the earlier pineau tasting and limitless wine with the meal!

After the meal there was yet another long talk on the making of  perfume from the lavender; we skipped this one, as we felt that we could not take in any more high-speed French in one day!  Needless to say, we did join up again with the group to attend the printing lecture (more sitting on benches!); this museum had many interesting presses, and I gather that most of the wine labels used to be printed here, as well many historic articles on both wine and viticulture.

For the cat lovers out there, and I know there are many of you, we saw the many farm cats  being fed

It was then back home again on the coach, and I thought that these two photos taken from the window were worth adding to the post.

Vineyards at Jarnac

and last, but not least, the Charente River at Jarnac which I have now also put as my header photo for the next month.

 

See also - My Life Before Charente updated  14 October 2012 

DEVILLED CHICKEN (or Pork) LEFTOVERS AND COUSCOUS

This is another recipe that I have had for years and I have no idea where it originally came from!!  I use it often when I have small amounts of chicken or pork left over, because with the onion it is easy to make it 'stretch'.



Devilled Pork served with Couscous and Vegetables

DEVILLED CHICKEN (or Pork) LEFTOVERS

Ingredients

Left over chicken or pork
1 large onion
1 oz butter
½ pint chicken stock
2 rounded teasp of  mustard
1 teasp Worcestershire sauce
2 tablesp tomato sauce
1 teasp brown sugar
4 drops Tabasco sauce or to taste
2 level teasp cornflour
2 tablesp water
Salt and pepper

Chop onion and fry till slightly brown. Add stock and flavourings, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce, sugar and Tabasco. Boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Add chopped chicken or pork, heat for 5 minutes. Blend cornflour and water together till smooth and stir into mixture. Simmer gently for 5 minutes. Season to flavour.

This is delicious and so easy to make. I used left-over smoked ham hock today, with duck stock that I had on hand (as you do!!).

MY COUSCOUS AND VEGETABLES. (for the 2 of us)

I chop up an onion and then anything else that I may have lying around in the fridge; this time I chopped a carrot, a celery stalk, half a red pepper and added a few frozen peas that I had in the freezer.  I tossed them all in a little oil and then cooked them gently for about 5 mins.  I then added one cup of boiling water and a teaspoon of chicken stock granules.  Bring all to the boil again and add 1/2 a cup of couscous, stir well, put the lid on the saucepan and allow to stand  for 5 to 10 minutes.  Fluff up with a fork and serve.

Enjoy.

Back in my Kitchen for a bit. Smoked Pork Hock and Curried Pumpkin Soup

Last night, I cooked a large smoked pork hock for dinner and it turned out to be quite delicious. Sorry I forgot to take many photos but maybe next time!

I large smoked hock (You could add more if cooking for more than 2 people)
1 large onion sliced
1 large carrot sliced
1 whole garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
10 peppercorns
A bunch of parsley

I put all into a large saucepan with enough water to just cover, brought it to the boil and allowed to simmer slowly with the lid on for 2 ½ hours.

I peeled off the skin, sliced the meat and served it with mashed potatoes, mushrooms and brussel sprouts. Nigel said he dreams of dinners like this; what a recommendation!

I had masses of stock left over, so today I decided to use it and make curried pumpkin soup. As I do not usually weigh or measure amounts when I make soup, I have made the effort here but I advise you to use quantities that suit you.

Curried Pumpkin Soup

2 ¼ kg (about 5lbs) pumpkin, pips removed and kept aside, peeled and cut into smallish chunks for quicker cooking

1 or 2 apples
2 medium onions
50g (about 2 ozs) butter/margarine
1 tblesp curry powder plus extra if necessary for later tasting
2 tablesp cake flour
zest and juice from one orange
I used 2 litres (about 4 pints) of pork hock stock, but you could just use water and a couple of chicken stock cubes
500 ml (about 1 pint) milk
salt and pepper to taste

Peel, core and chop the apple. Peel the onions and chop. In a small saucepan, sauté the chopped onions in the butter/margarine. Add the curry powder and fry the mixture lightly. Add the apple and sauté the mixture for a while. Add the flour and stir-fry lightly. Slowly add the milk stirring all the time until it is bubbling and thick.

Meanwhile bring the stock to the boil in a large saucepan. When boiling, add the chopped pumpkin. Add a bit of the stock to the milk mixture, stir well to make pouring easier and then add the milk mixture to the stock and pumpkin mixture. Allow that to boil for a few minutes and then taste the liquid to check the flavouring. Add more curry powder to taste and a little salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper. Boil, with the lid on, over moderate heat until the pumpkin pieces are soft. Stir the mixture occasionally.

Add the orange zest and juice and puree or blend until smooth. The colour of the soup should be a deep yellow and the texture creamy. If it is too thick, add a little extra stock if available or some milk. Check the flavour and add seasoning to taste. Serve the soup hot with a splash of cream on top.

This made about 3 ½ litres (about 6 pints) of soup and it freezes well.

While the soup was cooking, I roasted the pumpkin pips in a little oil at 180C (350F) for thirty mins. They make a great snack and do not last long in this house!

Don't forget my give away closes 30th November; to enter leave your comment here

Apple Pork Chops - Part 80

APPLE PORK CHOPS (Easy) 4 to 6 pork chops 2 apples, thinly sliced and dipped in a little lemon juice to prevent discolouring. I onion cut in 1/2 and sliced 1 cup apple juice or cider Cinnamon Sugar

Brown the pork chops in a pan with a little oil, remove and place in an oven proof dish.
Lightly cook the onion in the same pan with the juices from the chops. Remove and place over the chops with the sliced apple.
Sprinkle with a little sugar and cinnamon. Pour the cider or juice over the top.

Cover and bake at 180 degrees C  for 1 hour. Take off cover and bake 15 more minutes.

N.B. I cooked this early as I did not want to cook it at the last minute when I had visitors arriving at an unknown time.
I cooked it for an hour and then switched off the oven and left it in the oven. When we wanted to eat I just switched the oven back on and as soon as I saw it was bubbling I took the lid off for 10 minutes.  It was delicious and the pork just fell off the bone.


Serve with vegetables of your choice.