Life in Médoc

CAST & CHARACTERS – THE GOOD TIME GIRLS

by mimithorisson

cabbage&endives

Sometimes the man … is a woman

On Wednesday March 13th, a beautiful, sunny early spring day in Médoc, Mr. Carter Inskeep and his associate, Hannah Barry, pulled their white BMW into the driveway at Château Ormes de Pez in St Estèphe. Records show that later that afternoon they shared a bottle of the 2000 Ormes de Pez, an excellent year for Bordeaux wines, and later headed out for dinner where they shared another bottle of Ormes de Pez, albeit from a slightly lesser vintage. The same evening Frau Sabine Simmross of Brussels and her associate Ms Kamiye Furuta arrived at the same destination though records fail to show what bottle of wine, if any, they enjoyed that evening. Earlier in the day, the Norvegian photographer and celebrated instagrammer, Ms Marte Marie Forsberg and her mother Yvonne had narrowly missed, due to extensive security measures, their plane to Bordeaux and were forced to find an alternate route which they found via Limoges by air and to Bordeaux by train later that evening. Mr. Tim J. Steer, the ever pleasant musician/gardener/jack of all trades at “Château Mimi” in St Yzans was already at the airport to greet them when news of this unfortunate occurence reached him. Like all good Englishmen he took this news on the chin and records show that upon his return to Chateau Mimi in St Yzans he had a cold, refreshing beer.
The following day at precisely 8.59 AM Mr. Carter Inskeep and Hannah Barry knocked on the door of 1 rue de Loudenne (sometimes lovingly referred to as Château Mimi), having managed to find their way through the army of dogs who were (badly) guarding the rusty gates. They were soon followed by Sabine Simmross and Kamiye Furuta who despite the general tendencies of their respective nations were a few minutes late. Some 15 minutes later Marte Marie Forsberg and her mother joined the group from their temporary residence down the road, sometimes referred to as the “Three Sisters”. The diary of the Château shows that the group had breakfast together and then proceeded to make a walnut cake recently featured on “Manger”, the Château’s blog, under the headline “Mothers & Daugthers”. The group then proceeded to make 3 stuffed cabbage tarts and while they all tasted equally delicious the workshop log indicates that the clear winner in terms of beauty was the one made by the “American team”. This judgement was not necessarily accepted by the Norwegian team although there is no record of a formal protest. The Château logs go on to recount a dozen other recipes cooked and eaten, a generous amount of coffees and teas and what can only be considered as an indecent quantity of wine bottles consumed, at least five of which were Champagne. The records note that everyone had a really good time.
Though there is nothing in the Château’s records that suggests this it is worth mentioning that Mr. Carter Inskeep is a woman in her mid-twenties.

mimilaughing

Carter, Marie and I.

 

tim&annie

Anne & Tim.

 

mimi&oddur

Oddur and me.

 

puppies

Hannah and Carter… with all the fox-terrier puppies.

 

savoycabbage

Yvonne and Marie.

 

chickenmarengo

Sabine and Kamiye.

 

Virtual / Reality

As I am writing this two workshops have come and gone. Ten extraordinary women have graced my kitchen, we have spent countless hours cooking and eating together, stories have been told, laughs have been shared … wine has been drunk. Tears have even been shed … on more than one occasion (which is why my husband refers to these proceedings as the “Jerry Maguire workshops”. It is safe to say that my expectations for these workshops (though pretty high) have been far exceeded and I’m happy to report that this seems to be the general consensus amongst the ten ladies. Writing a blog, a book, sharing my life online is a pleasure and a privilege but it can never, ever come close to meeting people in person. I wasn’t familiar with any of the 10 women before they came, except Marte Marie Forsberg, we have corresponded before and are familiar with the curated version of each other’s life on Instagram. She does take beautiful photos (she took the portrait of me and Oddur) and I could feel, through her IG account some of her personality but while she refers lovingly to her mother in her virtual world the relationship they share outside of it seems even closer, her mother even lovelier. I guess what I am saying is that while seeing what a friend is having for breakfast in Buenos Aires can be quite wonderful and interesting, having them at my table, sharing a bottle of Champagne while peeling onions is far better. During these workshops we share long lunches every day and even longer dinners. It’s been a wonderful opportunity to meet people I would never have met, to invite into my home fellow gourmands and lovers of France. During a long dinner Hannah and Carter asked my husband if we had any screening process, if there were background checks. His answer was that our intelligence was so bad that we thought they, or at least one of them was a man. He then added (he retold this to me) that we were fairly confident that we could easily throw out anyone too weird, whether by that he was referring to his own muscles or the considerably larger muscles of Sasha, our Russian “maçon”. My answer would have been that I don’t expect to ever have to throw anyone out, I expect the good rather than the bad, I try to write earnestly, I put my heart and soul into my cooking and I expect my blog to attract mostly like-minded people.
When I announced the workshops I mentioned that the doors would soon be open … and now they are, open wide!

truffles&favas

Fresh black truffles and fava beans.

 

champagne

pigeons

Photo diary of a workshop

The photos you see were all taken during the first workshop and I hoped to have them published before the second one. But time is a tough opponent and got the better of me as he often does. In fact we had no special plans to do a blog post about a workshop, many of the recipes we cooked have already been shared on the blog or in the book, the stuffed cabbage, the pigeon tart, the chocolate meringues, the strawberries in mascarpone and wine. But the chemistry was just so great, the opportunity was there so Oddur went ahead and shot some of it to share on “Manger”. He also had a lot of fun dragging the ladies around the house (some into the dark and cold cellar), making them pose with vegetables, wine and puppies. It felt appropriate that workshops born out of a blog should end up there for all of you to share our first experiences … until, that is, you can come in person!
And to make it all a little tastier for you I am sharing two recipes from our workshops, both very light and simple and easy to make. One of them is the simplest little tart but one that looks a little fancy, like a flower on a plate, perfect for an unexpected guest that shows up in the morning but lingers on for lunch. The other recipe is inspired from my lunch with Alain Ducasse and Kevin, the founder of Instagram (another example of technology bringing people together). At that lunch we had incredible food but somehow the thing I liked best was this little vegetable cocotte with quinoa and truffle shavings.

Bon Appetit!

hannah

workshop

candles

ladies

cabbagetable

Recipes

Endives tartlets

These little wonders look like a bunch of country roses, I love the bitter taste of the endive caramelized with butter and sugar. They work perfectly well with a shallot vinaigrette and the best part… it takes a couple of minutes to prepare!

For 7 to 8 tartlets

Ingredients:
4 to 5 endives
230 g/8 ounces puff pastry
Icing/ confectioner’s sugar
1 generous teaspoon of butter per tartlet

For the vinaigrette:
1 small shallot
4-5 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F

Roll out the puff pastry and cut out 6 to 8 circles to fit the tartlet pans.
Cut the tip off the endives.
Sprinkle generously icing sugar on the tartlet pans and place the butter in the center. Sprinkle a bit more sugar.
Slice approx. 2cm/1 inch to 1 and a half-inch of endive and place on top of the butter. Place the puff pastry on top and tuck on the sides of the endives so it is covered entirely.

Bake the tartlets in the preheated oven for 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown.

Turn the tartlets upside down and serve with a shallot vinaigrette and shaved parmesan.

vegetablecocotte

Vegetable stew with red quinoa and shaved truffles

This recipe is inspired from a wonderful vegetable stew I had a few weeks ago when I was invited to a lovely lunch wit Alain Ducasse. He served this as a starter and shaved a few slices of fresh truffles on top. I was in heaven. This recipe can be improvised and you can use just about any seasonal vegetable.

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
5 ounces/150 g bacon/poitrine, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 large parsnip, peeled and diced
1 celery stalk, sliced
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
100 g peeled & shelled fava beans
8 slices of savoy cabbage, sliced
250 ml/ 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
A handful of red quinoa, rinsed

Peel and cut all the vegetables into small chunks. Cut the bacon into matchsticks. Heat the olive oil in a cocotte and sauté the bacon until golden, add the onion, garlic then the rest of the vegetables for 5 minutes on a medium heat. Add the vegetable or chicken stock, add the quinoa grains and season with salt and pepper. Cover with a lid on a low heat and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until the vegetables and quinoa grains are tender yet slightly crunchy. Stir in the butter and serve with a few slices on shaved truffles on top (optional).

magnolia