Groseillegrowa

Hullo, can someone please help me...I have looked and looked everywhere on the net for a recipe for Pain de Calendeau...lots of references but I would so like the recipe. Thanking you, Groseillegrowa

Hello
What a strange pseudo (groseille is a berry in French : delicious for a jelly).
I am afraid I never heard of Calendeau : could you check the spelling and come back so that I can help you
Thanks

Hullo Dubarry, I use the groseillegrowa pseudo because I used to grow red currants...now I only have a few plants but I still make jelly and jam with the berries. There is nothing like the flavour of them, is there?!! I always serve the jelly as a condiment with hare and venison.
I have read about le pain calendeau (my apologises as I had obviously written it incorrectly) being a Christmas loaf, part of which is given to a poor person (south of France). I would appreciate your help. Thanking you.

Hello
Like you, I love red currants and I have a few plants (red and white) in my garden.
I also use it on french pancakes ("crèpes") and I pour a little of it into apples baked unpeeled but cored in the oven with a little of butter and sugar (to make an apple jelly naturally made during the cooking of the apple.
I do not know calendeau but thanks to your details, Chef Patrick and I will investigate and hopefully come back to you soon
Happy new year

Hi again
After some investigation, the only meaning of "calendeau" we could find is an old (still used as a slang knickname) for "camembert", the very famous cow milk cheese from Normandy.
A very long time ago, a religious female order used to cut some camemberts into small pieces in order to distribute them to poor people, under the name of "calendeau" : this is the only reference we could find, so nothing to do with a loaf (sorry for it).
Enjoy your next festive evening, the last of the current year

2010 arrive! Bonne année à tous!
Thank you very much for your replay, Dubarry. I do very much appreciate your time with this and find the history of this very interesting.
Thank you.

My pleasure.
Bonne et heureuse année également pour vous et votre famille. Hoping reading you again during this new year on this site (did you try the "galette" on the French part of the site ? I will transalte it for you and for the other English speeking visitors : this is an exclusive special recipe for Aftouch by a MOF (Meilleur Ouvrier de France) in pastry making, the highest French distinction. We are very proud of having the concurrence of Norbert on this site

Bon jour, Dubarry...I would very much appreciate you translating the Galette recipe, please.
I found the Madeleine recipe and it asks for a sachet (or a dose) of vanilla sugar...what would be the weight of the sachet...I cannot find sachets of vanilla sugar in my local town so I make my mine but am not sure of the weight...in May it is the start of our shooting season and I am greatly looking forward to hunting with my Epagneul Breton...so I have been looking at pheasant recipes!!!!
Merci!

Hello Groseillegrowa
I am quite busy this week but I will do my best to find time enough for the translation of the Galette recipe.
Vanilla sugar is usually (in France) in 11 grams (1/3 oz approx.) packs but as you say, you can do it yourself using caster sugar and empty (after home use)fresh vanilla beans.
I will find pheasants recipes for you
Rgds

Hullo Dubarry
Thank you again...!! I so appreciate your assistance...I look forward to seeing the pheasant recipes!! That would be wonderful thank you...
Best wishes

Hello
I do not know your level of knowledge and of cooking experience so I will (so far) only list a few ideas : pheasant in a "chartreuse" (cabbage leaves stuffed with the pheasant and baked), pheasant with sauerkrout (check if the "choucroute/sauerkrout recipe has been translated), roasted pheasant flambé with rye and served with mashed sweet potatoe and apples panned into butter. Any recipe of pharaona/guinea ("pintade") applies.
Not found time yet to translate the galette recipe (this week end I make an exhibition of preparation of foie gras and other duck patés to cousins) but I do not forget.
All the best

I just checked that we have several galette types so different recipes on the site : please tell me which one you want me to transalate (give French full name)
Thanks

The roasted pheasant flambé sounds wonderful...I shall try that...
How I wish I was a cousin!!!!! I dream of foie gras but alas have only tried it in the merest of tins!!!!
Dubarry, I grew up on a farm and because we had little money we produced all our own food (it was always my job to hoe the potatoe patch!!!), we ate our own chickens, pintade, and geese...every Christmas we would bring in the geese and gift one to most people in our district; my father brought home deer...and cooking has always been a matter of humble pride on both my parents families...some were known for their wonderful pastry, some for their cakes and so on...at sixteen my parents gifted me Louie Diat's Basic French Cookbook and I have been dedicated to French cuisine every since...I so admire the simplicity but finesse, the flavours but subtelies, the respect, the arguments of whose dish is the real one. Food is just not the eating, is it? Nothing gives me more pleasure than my table with guests, invariably all talking at once(!), and preparing the best meal I can make...I have served Blanc Manger (made from blanched almonds) and pear tarts and it is these desserts that I find so wonderful...I am so glad I have found this forum and have had the opportunity to communicate with you. Merci beaucoup!

Hello
Many thanks for your long message ; like you, I love communicating with persons driven by their passion. Reading your message is the best reward we can dream of for the time and energy our small (3 persons) team can devote to this site...
Your are fully right : cooking is not only recipes (this is the title of the book of a very talented, unfortunately passed away, chef, Alain Chapel)and gastronomy is all about it. One said, in French : having guests at home is about taking full care of their happyness during the time they are at home.
What about the "galette" ?
Chef Patrick has just created one special Easter main course recipe (lamb) and one of his friends, who is a MOF (Meilleur Ouvrier de Frnace) has created a chocolate dessert for Easter as well. I will do my best for translating them for you and for our other foreign visitors.
All the best

can i please have a recipe for the french desert, Christ Cake?

Hi
I am afraid i do not know any cake called like that : could you please check and telle me how it looks like and what is its main flavour so that I can help you ?