If you’re longing for a bit of peace and quiet,
it’s super difficult these days to find a place for a family holiday away from
the madding crowd, yet with enough activities within reasonable driving
distance to keep several generations occupied and amused. Recently, we managed
to find just that almost by accident. We found ourselves in an agricultural
area in the southwest of France that I’d never even heard of before called
Gers, sometimes Gascony. Apparently, it’s one of, if not the most rural part of
France, internationally renowned for its fine gastronomy, how about that for a
find!
It’s also famous for its many bastides, beautiful fortified medieval towns and
villages. There are no motorways in Gers, no high-speed trains though you can
get a train to the capital Auch or ‘Ouch’ as I mistakenly pronounced it. Best
of all there is no mass tourism, and the locals seemed genuinely delighted to
see us. We drove for miles through rolling countryside, undulating fields
of sunflowers and sweet corn, grazing pastures with bales of hay and occasional
Blond Aquitaine cattle. Beautiful allés of plane trees originally commissioned
by Napoleon to provide shade for his marching troops. Hedges bursting with
yellow broom and honeysuckle, perennial sweet pea and purple vetch…sounds like
I’m writing tourist blurb, but I kid you not, this is exactly what it’s like!
How come, I never knew about it before.
There were 18 of us, so we had rented a restored 17th century château
just outside the little village of Seissan called Château Labarthe. As was the
custom, it had its own chapel close by where the bells rang out both morning
and evening, so, so beautiful and tranquil.
On the first evening, we went to a little restaurant called CRU – Cave et
Repas à l’Unisson that we had pre-booked in the city of Auch. Tables
outside under a spreading Judas tree, we ordered everything on the little
blackboard menu, typical French bourgeois food and delicious.
Every village has a market day, most start
early in the morning and finish at noon-ish, but in the Armagnac and
d’Artagnan area, they often start in the late afternoon and continue
on into the night, finishing circa 11pm.
On Sunday we headed for the market in the medieval village of Bassoues, dating
back to 1016 and happily coincided with their annual fiesta to celebrate the
feast of their patron Saint Fris. The whole community were out in their Sunday
best and the village brass band played merry tunes with gusto before the long
table feast under the village square. Lots of little shops, another impressive
chateau and a beautiful church dedicated to the Saint.
On Monday, we drove 45 minutes to Samatan, a much bigger market, spread over
many of the streets in centre ville, apart from stalls piled high with seasonal
vegetables and fruit, ripe nectarines, peregrine and doughnut peaches,
apricots, and a bounty of summer produce. Many stalls selling green Moroccan
pottery, candles, wispy cane lampshades and tajines. Among many things, this
area seems to be famous for its foie gras and ducks, so we made a pilgrimage to
the Halle de Gras which literally translates to the Hall of Fat. Local farmers
were proudly selling their prize produce, whole ducks, magret de canards, ducks
hearts, and of course beautiful fresh foie gras. Close by, other farmers were
proudly selling a selection of live poultry, chickens, fine cockerels, ducks,
quail, geese, a turkey, rabbits, pigeons, even canaries and budgies.
My favourite section is where small farmers and their wives were selling their
small harvest of homegrown produce, often organic or chemical-free on simple
stalls. Little bunches of the rich and spicy local white garlic, dried
Tarbais beans, new season onions, tiny Gariguette and Charlotte
strawberries, state of the art Boucherie and Charcuterie vans were selling
artfully butchered meat, charcuterie and coils of Saucisse de Toulouse and the
local Noir de Bigorre pork. Others had a fantastic array of cheeses. We ate steak
frites at one of the little cafés on the edge of the market soaking up the
atmosphere. The steak was rare and juicy and delicious, possibly from the local
Blonde d’Aquitaine cattle, famous for their delicious beefy flavour.
We filled our bags and baskets with beautiful produce, some of the famous
prunes from Agen and a fine bottle of Armagnac for which the area is also
justifiably famous.
Home again with my head swirling with memories of an area that I long to
explore further. Here are some recipes to remind me of the week.
Salad of Heritage Tomatoes, Peaches and Mozzarella
We used huge heritage tomatoes, super ripe peaches and tender buffalo mozzarella – a delicious combination.
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
2-3 ripe peaches depending on size
4-8 heritage tomatoes depending on size
2 balls of buffalo mozzarella
8-12 leaves of basil or mint
flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Dressing
2 tbsp of lemon juice or mild white wine vinegar such as Forum
8 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp honey
salt and pepper
Method
Slice the peaches off the stone – you will get 8 pieces approx. from each fruit and place in a large low sided bowl. Cut the heritage tomatoes into similar chunky pieces as the nectarines and add to the bowl. Tear each piece of buffalo mozzarella into 4 pieces and add to the bowl. Season with flaky salt and freshly ground pepper.
Whisk the dressing ingredients together, taste and correct the seasoning.
Tear the herbs on to the fruit and cheese and add the dressing. Stir and mix gently, being careful not to break up the fruit.
Place on a large platter or individual plates and serve immediately garnishing with a few more mint or basil leaves if you have them to spare.
Agen Prunes in Armagnac
Super easy to make, serve as a delicious dessert with vanilla bean ice cream or just a blob of whipped cream if you will…also delicious served as an accompaniment to roast duck, goose or pork.
Ingredients
225g Agen prunes with stone in (20 prunes approx.)
grated rind of 1 organic lemon
150ml Armagnac
150ml sugar syrup (*equal quantities of sugar and water – dissolve the sugar in the water and bring to the boil for 2 minutes then allow it to cool. Use any leftover sugar syrup to make lemonade, fruit compotes…)
1 Kilner jar
Method
Fill a sterilised Kilner jar with Agen prunes, add the freshly grated lemon rind. Half cover with Armagnac, then top up with the sugar syrup. Seal and allow to macerate for at least ten days.
Tarte aux Pomme from Gers
Use freshly ground cinnamon or mixed spice or sprinkle generously with Armagnac, the local spirit.
Serves 8-10
Ingredients
1 packet of filo pastry (you may not need it all)
50g butter, melted
3-4 dessert apples, e.g., Cox’s Pippins
110g caster sugar
1 tsp cinnamon or mixed spice or 1 tablespoon of Armagnac (optional)
icing sugar
1 x 23-25.5cm round tart tin, preferably with a pop-up base.
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.
Brush the tin with melted butter, cut 3 sheets of filo in half widthways, brush with melted butter, fold in half and arrange overlapping in the tin. Peel and cut the apples into chunks, sprinkle with plenty of sugar (plus cinnamon or mixed spice or Armagnac if using) and toss. The tin should be generously filled with fruit. Fold the edges of the filo back into the tart.
Divide another 3 sheets of filo into 4 pieces each. Brush generously with melted butter. Scrunch up each piece and arrange on top. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour approx. or until the apple is cooked and the pastry crisp and golden.
Pop the tart out of the tin onto a serving plate.
Dredge with icing sugar, serve warm with softly whipped cream.
Note: The apple may be par cooked ahead in which case it will take a shorter time to cook.