Sud-Ouest Cuisine

Yes, there is another Southwest! Today I am co-posting with Susan from The Modern Trobadors. She had an opportunity to try out some wines from the Southwest (Sud-Ouest) Region of France, specifically Gascony. If you want to know more about wines from this region, click here. Susan asked if I would be willing to make some Gascon Cuisine to go with her wines and I, of course, responded with an eager yes!

A favorite painting of ours by our friend, Donn - he captures the light so beautifully.
Mark and I recently visited Susan and Towny and this provided the perfect opportunity to create our co-post. For the main course, I made a terrine of pork, duck, veal and foie gras, encased in buttery, homemade quick puff pastry (this fantastic pastry recipe is courtesy of my friend Paula from Vintage Kitchen Notes). We invited foodie and winey friends Win and Claire to join us for the meal. Win, proprietor of South Street & Vine (a delightful wine and cheese shop in Portsmouth, NH), made some great suggestions on pairing and serving the wines.

The terrine came out of the oven about an hour before the guests arrived and, as you see here, it looked darned good. Sadly, though, my creation needs some tweaking before I share a recipe with you. Don't get me wrong, it was one of the best tasting pâtés I have eaten, but it did not unmold well and ... well ... it was a visual mess, and looked a wee bit like a ship-wreck. Maybe it only needed a day in the fridge to gel? After a little more experimentation, I will let you know.

The day before, I was paging through Susan and Towny's book, A Culinary Journey in Gascony by Kate Ratliffe, and happily found just the right dessert recipe, which I share with you today. It is simple, elegant, and light, which is important after eating a Gascon meal. Theirs (including my terrine homage) is generally a heavy cuisine, requiring a light touch for dessert.

So, really, this post is Sud-Ouest Cuisine, Part One. This will be my summer post and, when the weather cools down a bit in the Tucson desert, I will post Part Two: the terrine recipe.

Today's recipe is triply perfect - it is made using:
   • Cahors, an appellation from the Sud-Ouest wine region made from the Malbec grape, native to Southwest France
   • Armagnac, the Gascon brandy often paired with prunes, and
   • strawberries, which are coming into season in many markets in the northern hemisphere, probably in Gascony, too!

We ate this dessert paired with a St. Albert AOC Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh - a wonderful dessert wine reminiscent of a Sauternes. Win made the suggestion that this particular wine begged for a cream-based dessert. As I am not one to argue with authority (or cream), I made a minor addition to the original recipe by topping it with a dollop of unsweetened crème fraîche. Thanks to Win, it was an amazing pairing.

So, I give you marinated strawberries à la Gascogne. Béver! Manjar! Cèu! (Drink! Eat! Heaven! in Gascon dialect)

~ David

Wine and Armagnac Marinated Strawberries
Minimally adapted from Kate Ratliffe's A Culinary Journey in Gascony

1 bottle Cahors wine
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 cup sugar
zest of 1 lemon
2 pounds ripe strawberries, hulled
1/2 cup Armagnac
1 cup crème fraîche

The night before you plan to serve this, place the wine, cinnamon stick, sugar and lemon zest in a large, non-reactive saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool. Place the hulled strawberries in a glass or ceramic bowl. Strain the cooled wine mixture over the strawberries and let marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Just before serving, add the Armagnac and divide strawberries among 8 bowls or goblets. Add a couple of tablespoons of the wine-Armagnac mixture to each serving. Top with a dollop of unsweetened crème fraîche and serve.

Serves 8.

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