Last Supper In La Touche

For our last night in La Touche we tried to finish off every edible thing in the house before packing up. I recruited a few friends to help hunt down, peel, and chop every vegetable we could find lurking about. I sautéed the brightly colored mass of veggie goodness in olive oil until slightly softened before adding thyme, a bay leave, and a quart of homemade chicken stock. Everything made its way into the copper stewpot: turnips, carrots, red onions, shallots, garlic, celeriac, celery, and potatoes. I cooked the soup for about an hour then passed it through a mixer to create a smooth puree which I spooned into bowls and topped with chopped chives. It was the perfect dish, simultaneously warm and hearty, to serve on a cold winter night after a long afternoon walk in the woods. We walked to a majestic lake with tons of ducks flying around and sitting on the shimmering water. The landscape was absolutely stunning on a clear though frigid day in the French countryside. I began to feel a touch of guilt for eating foie gras but alas it is a delicious food that I get to enjoy rarely.

Our second course was another dish intended to do away with the excess of leftovers accumulating in the refrigerator. Jean-Claude took a large bowl of leftover spaghetti Bolognese and topped it with gruyere, parmesan, and a bit of olive oil to create a gratin of sorts. I looked at him rather quixotically as he prepared the gratin but he assured me that it would be good and more importantly that people would eat it. He was right on both accounts. While rummaging through the refrigerator I stumbled upon a large container of ginger-chocolate sauce that our friend had used in his New Years Eve dessert. I promptly thinned the ebony concoction with some cold milk and threw it in our fancy icecream maker. Thirty minutes later we had little scoops of seemingly light chocolate ice cream though I hesitate to call it that because it did not have any eggs or cream and had a mouth feel more like granita. We successfully recycled leftover foods and created new dishes from the remnants that would have otherwise been thrown away. As they say in France, c’est la crise or it’s the economic crisis! The French are eternally poetic. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!