All Images: Pauline Boldt
You may not know too much about the political views of France’s new president, François Hollande, but most people outside of France learn first about his views on sex and marriage before anything else. The world expects the French “normal” to be a little more colourful than commonplace, or downright scandalous compared to that of their own countries.
Hollande hasn’t let anyone down: the new First Lady, Valérie Trierweiler, is not his partner by marriage, and announced she wouldn’t even be moving in with Hollande in his new palatial digs. This journalist first made news — rather than simply reporting it – in 2007 when Hollande admitted both that he had been having a secret relationship with her and that he was splitting with his other flame, Ségolène Royal, who was campaigning for president herself, against Sarkozy. And why shouldn’t he have split? Although he’d had four children with her, they weren’t married either, so no biggie.
Nicolas Sarkozy had kept the French standard high himself. Soon after his election, he announced divorce from his second wife, and by the next year he had a third. He now has four children, from three marriages.
This kind of non-traditional approach to coupling in France is not a modern phenomenon, but a proud centuries-old tradition. However, since this is primarily a culinary column, our concern here is if there’s not perhaps a connection with the French diet. If we are what we eat, we had better understand what the French are really eating.
Oysters, for example. They are, along with scallops and escargots, examples themselves of non-traditional mating and reproduction. Yes, these are all hermaphrodites, eschewing any coupling in the expression of their adult sexuality. The oyster itself prefers the most liberal of sexualities, as the most common oyster undergoes a full sex-change every year, flip-flopping as male and female throughout its life.
When the French aren’t eating hermaphrodites, they are commonly eating aphrodisiacs, washing them down with the most famous aphrodisiac beverage of them all, le vin rouge. Did you know frog legs are considered an aphrodisiac? I didn’t either, and don’t recall any such effects back in 1997, when I was a cook at the one and only French restaurant that actually served them (but that was on the Canadian prairies, and those frog legs were coming out of the deep-freezer).
“Raw oysters don’t require a recipe, and since maybe half of you will claim you don’t like to slurp them, still squirming, out of a shell, why not try throwing them in a soup like the French classic with leeks and potato?”
Almost any food that is fresh and ripe has a good chance of being an aphrodisiac, when left in the right hands. Add some crunch or sizzle, a rush of sweetness, cut of acidity or nudge of fermentation, and you are bound to start falling for the person who cooked your meal. Shape matters. Colours are perky. Pink bubbles do out-charm white ones. In this case, I opted for pink because that little bundle in the background was my baby girl, one week out of the hospital, and already receiving her first guests.
Pauline gets extra kudos for somehow transforming the apartment chaos into the zenspace our guests dropped into moments later.
Classic Endive Apple and Walnut
Chop roughly ¾ C walnuts and toast over medium heat in a sauté pan till lightly browned, five to 10 minutes.
Remove the leaves from three or four plump fresh endives, trimming down the size if necessary, using only similar bite-size pieces.
Finely-slice two Granny Smith or other crisp, acidic apples.
Lay down the slices to julienne.
Make a quick vinaigrette by whisking three T of cider vinegar into one T Dijon mustard with a pinch of salt and one T honey, then mix in 1/2 C walnut or hazelnut oil and one T. chopped fresh chives or tarragon.
Toss apple julienne gently with vinaigrette, and place in endive leaves.
Sprinkle with cooled toasted walnut and pinch of coarse sea salt.
Oyster Vichyssoise for Seven
Ingredients
21 freshly shucked medium oysters, reserving flesh
Two large leeks, trimmed, chopped and washed
Two T. butter
Six small Charlotte potatoes, peeled and chopped, or two Yukon Gold
Four C. whole milk
Four C. water
One carrot, whole
One stalk celery, finely chopped
Two bay leaves, two sprigs thyme, or ½ t. dried
½ C. fresh chopped chives and/or parsley
Salt and pepper
Procedure
Heat soup pot and melt butter, then add leeks, celery, bay leaf and thyme.
Sweat-covered over medium heat about 10 minutes without browning.
Add carrot, chopped potatoes, and cook covered another five minutes.
Add water, 2 t. sea salt and bring to simmer.
Simmer lid on till vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes, then add milk and wait just till it returns to simmer.
Remove carrot and bay leaf and purée with hand blender, or transfer to food processor to purée.
Add more salt and pepper to taste, then fresh herbs just before serving.
Adjust amounts of liquid to obtain the consistency of soup desired, not too thick, not too thin.
Lightly rinse oysters and strain, reserving liquid to add to soup.
Place three oysters in each hot soup bowl, and pour simmering soup directly over to gently cook.
Serve hot or cold, depending on the weather.
Brian’s extra tip: In some moments, there’s no shame in being caught drinking alone in the kitchen. Your goal is not to get tipsy before your guests arrive so that you have a better chance of cracking good jokes over dinner, but to give yourself a moment of calm pleasure as a reward for the hard work of preparing good food from scratch. It’s a moment of transition, after which you move from the introspection of cooking, to an evening of opening yourself to others in social interaction. Perhaps you were interrupted by your preparations, and could not really taste the food you cooked before the doorbell rang? Let your partner take the guests in, grab a spoon and check that sauce, sip some wine and adjust your seasoning till you’ve got a flavour you’re proud to pass on to your guests.
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Brian DeFehr is a freelance chef in Paris. Brian can be hired for private cooking through www.briandefehr.com or found giving market cooking classes at www.cooknwithclass.com.
Pauline Boldt is a travel photographer, specializing in food, people and lifestyle. Follow her on Twitter@26MertonRoad More of Pauline‘s work can be found at www.26mertonroad.com.
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