Food Glorious Food

Food Glorious Food
France, Fetes, Food …. a Holy Trinity to be celebrated with the abundant sacramental bread and wine of each region. The annual Fete de Responchons was held in Cordes sur Ciel today in warm sunny spring weather. This festival celebrating the arrival of Spring and a wild asparagus. It is found growing along the roadside and collected by the country people. Lunch for a couple of hundred people was served in the covered market in the old city. This asparagus is weedy looking with a bitter taste and needs to be boiled before adding to any dish, usually eggs. Not only have the asparagus arrived in the market but I have decided to plant a little bed of this delicious vegetable for myself. For me it will herald the arrival of Spring each year as surely as the first cuckoo I heard this week.
My new abode has the tiniest of gardens so I decided that everything I plant must be either edible or fragrant. After much strenuous digging and considerable time spent on eliminating all the roots of couch grass, the previous occupants of my patch of land, my trench was ready. Following the internet instructions for filling the trench with rotted down manure I then drove up to the dairy nearby, braved the three barking dogs and asked if I could take some of the same. I’ve planted Argenteuil plants or Griffes as they are called, advertised as the “the ultimate white French” variety. If the information given by the experts is reliable I can now look forward to a generation of asparagus each spring.

Baking "The biggest Croquant in the World" is also an integral part of the celebrations at the Fete de Responchons. The cooking takes place in the Place de la Bride, the highest point in Cordes. This local biscuit is baked in a homemade thermometer-free oven using the embers from a huge fire lit by a couple of intrepid locals who then supervise the cooking.
The oven, about three meters square is constructed by first shoveling and spreading coals on the ground under a huge tin biscuit tray. A chef in white coat and toque pipes about five hundred biscuits on the tray while the fire is being prepared. A Second tray or lid is then placed over biscuits. More hot coals are heaped on this top tray which is then covered with corrugated iron and the whole thing is left for about an hour while the biscuits bake. The aforementioned locals take a peak at the biscuits from time to time and adjust the coals accordingly to ensure they are cooked evenly. The biscuit mixture runs and spreads into one big lovely mass and even if it is not the biggest croquant in the world it is enough to feed the few hundred people who have been hanging around waiting for it to cook. It costs only a euro for a generous plate of the yummy warm pieces of the croquant. Usually eaten cold they are very crunchy but eaten this way, straight for the big "oven" they are even more delicious.