The new Cat Window morning space in the Barn.
With a move years in the making, I am at last re-organizing this ramble of an old French farmhouse with a barn and piggery thrown in for good measure. The familiar pigeonnier with my 18th century kitchen hasn’t changed but this morning, for the first time ever, I am taking my morning coffee in the living room/library/TV room/den next to what has always been called the Cat Window in the former Barn. While this might not mean much to anyone new just walking into the space, It is HUGE for me. This was the Barn! And I did feed Boudin, the skittish black cat, at this window for many years. And now, this is my new winter digs, with a new wood stove, cozy wood wall, bookshelves and a view of the potager, towpath, and canal beyond as I sit and write these mornings.
The transformation has been long and hard, from the initial re-roofing and new foundation digging that was started 9 years ago, to these post covid lockdown days. There has been a lot of water under these bridges, and like in the disastrous floods the world sees now as climate change, I feel that much has been swept away from under my feet. What remains are the solid foundations of everyday French life in a building that was begun nearly 300 years ago near the Garonne River and still stands- floods and all.
Camont’s barn 2012 with old Cat Window on the right.
The restoration was prompted by a leaky roof, compromised walls and an aging distant mother. My late sister Stephanie and I decided that we could tackle the project with some family help with the aim of having our mother, then in her mid-eighties, come live with us. And that is exactly what we did. But time doesn’t stand still, as mom arrived and aged further and then died at home with us in this now finished shelter; we congratulated ourselves on having survived that decision not know what would happen next. Next, a few years down the road, would come my sister’s cancer and her ensuing departure a year and a half ago just as Covid closed all the doors, borders, and tourist businesses. Time continued in a limbo state and I still didn’t know what would come next. Until I woke up this morning and started to write the story of fluffing a new nest by the Cat Window and how moving a table has given me a new perspective. Now, I see that this story is really about family and home ended up being woven together and how hearts open to change. In a few weeks, I’ll fly ‘home’ to reassert my family position as Fairy French Godmother for the Hill Clan and lay my sister to rest in the Pacific waters on Hawaii. It is where she began and where she ends. What might seems a sad trip is also with great joy that we come together at last.
New Barn foundation and walls within the old. Camont 2012
Writing is a sneaky thing. You think you're going to tell a French recipe and give some market shopping advice. The next thing you know, your brain takes over and you're looking back at family now gone and how you got here. This new perspective from a new window on an old view is a perfect metaphor for how I am approaching this book in progress- Finding France. Rearranging furniture, moving locations within the new/old walls, even clearing out the Covid clutter, gives me a different look at those old foundations that I established so long ago here in Gascony. So to that end, let’s look at a simple recipe from a new perspective. Poached pears. I wrote a basic recipe in my first book published in 1995. I’ll be making a video class of this new recipe this week and posting it next along with a guide to poaching fruit. These videos are part of my Gascon Year video classes and you can buy the October membership a month at a time now to finish this year.
October’s classes feature ‘The Windfall Orchard’ and no other fruit exemplifies the French orchard better than pears. Pears are the ideal keeping fruit and there are hundreds of varieties: long, squat, yellow, green, golden, smooth, rough, hard, and meltingly soft. The easiest pears to find, the William pears, are those golden squat smooth skinned juicy pears that are perfect for eating in hand or using in a quick baking tart. But I am growing an old variety called a Poire Curé which was named for the educated priest Curé Leroy who planted it in the potager at the same time that Camont was being built—the late 18th Century—as part of the medicinal living treasure trove of herbs and plants. When picked it is still green and hard with a distinctive stripe down one side. This is a pear for storing over winter and baking and roasting and poaching. And I am using them in my video class on oven roasting armagnac stuffed with roquefort and walnuts.
My Poires Curé and an evolution of a recipe: Pear, Roquefort & Walnuts
This is the Pear, Roquefort, and Walnut Tarte that I made last year for French Friendsgiving. It started with an old Cordon Bleu recipe for little Christmas tartlets years ago and transformed into a shareable French tarte that seemed perfect for the harvest season. Make it and be happy with the creamy melding of pear and roquefort flavors cradled in a buttery crust. How could I possibly improve on this?
Well, if you know me even just a little bit, and you know how much I love to make (and eat) pastry, it’s hard to imagine changing this further. But I wanted to offer an even simpler approach to this great flavor profile, hence ditching the pastry and taking the poached pear idea to one step further- roasting. Roasting rather than poaching changes things using the hot dry heat of the oven to create a golden brown crust of its own. Roasting these pears (which need thorough cooking) also means creating a buttery golden syrup at the same time with which to baste them so that the exposed fruit doesn’t get leathery. I chose to cut the pears in half to reduce the cooking time and make them easier to serve and eat. That way, I can add the roquefort cheese and walnuts at the last minute to just heat through- not melt- and then serve it with the armagnac and butter sauce drizzled over all.
Sometimes the fruit dictates the changes in a recipe; sometimes it’s my own perspective. This is a simpler croustade version I made when Ruth Ribeaucourt came calling to interview me for My French Country Home. While I won’t make a complete pear and roquefort tart for myself these days, I will roast a couple of these potager-grown Curé pears and eat one for lunch with a salad and one for my dinner as dessert. Switching the barn living space around to become a Winter haven has started me thinking about many of the beloved recipes I would make for a crowd, but now, need to adapt to a cozier table. Did you change your perspective in the kitchen these last few years? If you are enjoying reading and cherish a taste of France every week or so, please consider supporting my newsletter by paying $10 a month- the price of a couple coffee and croissants at a neighborhood café.
Pear tarte for My French Country Home by Ruth Ribeaucourt
NOTE: Roasted Pears with Roquefort and Walnuts in an Armagnac Butter Sauce will appear as a video class in my October: the Windfall Orchard videos and classes. Sign up now and enjoy a live cooking class this Saturday (Oct.16th at 6pm France time); paid newsletter subscribers will also receive the written recipe after the class posts.
Recipe links:
https://sharonsantoni.com/2020/09/croustade-aux-poires/
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