Mountain food – oystersandchampagne

Here in the heart of Les Portes du Soleil on the Swiss/ French Alps border, is the town of Morzine, which, was one of the pioneering ski areas of the 1930’s. A pretty enough town mostly built on the surrounding hills overlooking the town with views up to Avoriaz, a purpose built resort with ski areas up to 2,400 m. From the distance the resort blends well into the rocks and mountain but close up it is really quiet ugly.

Back to Morzine, these days it is more than a ski resort, hosting in the summer “Harley Days” where the town is swamped by about 3,000 Harley riding bikers, the Tour de France and do not forget the hordes of mountain bikers, who use the ski lifts ( which have been adapted) to get up the mountains with their bikes, only to descend at break neck speeds, looking more like Darth Vader, than humans. It is not unusual to see, people hobbling around in casts and on crutches in winter and summer alike.

Morzine is close to Geneva, and hence is accessible to many Europeans and especially the Brits! A whole industry has arisen to cater to them, from catered chalets, to laundry services, to builders, to real estate agents and even to a Tesco delivery service! Restaurants abound, serving predominately mountain food and of course pizza. Chalets give their staff one night a week ‘off duty’ and so the guests descend upon the restaurants en mass. As I have said before Mountain food is variations on a theme, cheese, ham, cream, charcuterie, including Cheese fondue, cheese raclette , croute au fromage, platters of charcuterie, etc etc. However one restaurant we we do frequent above others, is La Grange in the center of Morzine itself. It is run by a young Anglo French couple, Alex and Fred. They have been open for about 8 years and so far so good. When we visited the other night, a Tuesday, we were amazed at how busy they were. One party of about 20 walked in whilst we were there. I think they must have had 100+ covers that evening. As with most restaurants their menu is for serving the tourists , so lots of chees, ham , charcuterie and cream. However, they do have other offerings, such as local lake fish, wild boar stew, steak and salmon trout from the local Ardoisières valley fish farm. Sometimes, they do a very good Steak Tartare, though sadly not that often.

The one thing that we really enjoy when going there is the Tarte au Fromage d’Abondance. Abondance is a ‘ controlled named ‘ cheese from the Savoy region.It is made from semi skimmed milk and made into 10 kilo rounds. It is a very similar cheese to Gruyere but has a buttery, nutty flavour. It is semi hard and melts very nicely, which makes it ideal for cooking and can also be a substitute for Raclette cheese.. Here in the Savoy , it costs between 11€ and €18 a kilo, but in the UK it can cost as much £35( la Fromagerie in Marylebone for example). So I have been experimenting in making this delicious Tart. And it is not a quiche.

So to make this tart, you need enough pastry to line a quiche pan, I used a 12″ pan and pastry using 8 Oz flour you can use your favourite recipe or even buy some ready made, but not any type of puff pastry.

500 grams grated abondance cheese
4 large eggs
200 MLS Crème Fraiche
Salt and pepper to taste.

Method

Roll out the pastry, thin enough to line a quiche pan, but not too thinly. Trim the top edge and prick the bottom of the pastry to prevent it from rising. Line the pastry with some baking paper. Fill this with some form of baking beans. You can buy ceramic baking beans but you can use rice, noodles, dried peas ,beans etc.

Bake at 200 C for about 15 mins only so just a little pre baking. Remove from oven and remove the paper and beans. Whilst the pastry is in the oven , whisk together the eggs and the Crème Fraiche . Season with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Spread the grated cheese over the pastry case evenly and spoon over the egg Crème mix.

Return to the oven and bake for about 45 mins until the top is a golden brown. Remove from oven and leave to cool a little. It is best served warm but not hot. Could be served with some buttered new potatoes or a simple green salad.

Last week, we went to Chamonix for the day, ostensibly to show our house guests the views from the top of the Aiguille du Midi Cable car. This is the same cable car that one takes when wanting to “DO” La Vallée Blanche or the leaping off point for climbing Mont Blanc, I am not sure about Mont Blanc, but for La Vallée Blanche it is strongly recommended ( read Obligatoire) to take a guide. Firstly one has to shimmy down a ridge ( all roped together, just in case one of you falls….. you can all go together!! ) carrying your skis, before setting off to ski down the Glacier towards Chamonix. Why the guide? To get you down the ridge and then to get you down the glacier without you disappearing into a crevasse!

Our trip up the Aiguille du Midi Cable car was not this exciting though, first we were warned that we would not be able to take the last lift to get the best views, closed because of bad weather. Never mind, BUT the higher we went, the faster we travelled into the Pea Soup. The view non-existent but nonetheless the ride was worth it, just for the scary factor, high winds, ice and jagged mountains. On our ride, were few hardy types, on the first half were a team of would be “let us do the glacier Skiers” complete with guide, crampons, ropes, icepicks, backpacks and helmets ! Well, they went back down at half way, better for another day, maybe? On the second half, were two interesting guys, one wearing the latest “onesie” in lime green ( himself declared that would be the next suit for him.) The other was someone who looked, like he had stepped straight out of the set of the Hobbit, or maybe had been doing double duty as one of Santa’s elves.

When we finally . arrived back in Chamonix, it was raining hard, so it was declared Lunch time, just as well, as the rest of Chamonix ( like most of France) was shut down for their relaxed lunch break of 3 hours. We found a friendly Crêperie. We have been sampling lunch time crêpe over the mountains for the last 4 weeks, they are fairly consistent, but here they were more adventurous than most, Savoury Crêpe, are usually made from Sarrasin ( Buckwheat) and filled with ham, cheese, or complète, with Ham, Cheese and an egg. Here we could choose from Crêpe Tartiflette , Crêpe Compagne, Crêpe Montagnard .
I chose the Crêpe Tartiflette , our friend Crêpe Montagnard, himself the usual, Crêpe complete whilst the blonde chose the Crôute Savoyard, having not asked us, what it was, she assumed it was a glorified cheese on toast. How wrong could she be! This was the crème de la crème of Crôute Savoyard .

Croûte Savoyard

Ingredients

2 Cloves of garlic, pressed or smushed
4 thick slices of country type bread
a cup of dry white wine ( to be authentic it shod be Savoie Wine
4 slices of smoked ham
200 grm of either Beaufort, Comté or Emmental cheese, which has been grated.

Method

Put the garlic into an oven proof dish and spread it around. Soak the bread in the white wine, and layer the slices with the ham and the grated cheese, finishing with lots of grated cheese. Put into a hot oven ( 250 C ) for about 20 Mins, until bubbling hot and golden brown. Variations on this , include some sautéed mushrooms in the “sandwich” or top the sandwich with a lightly friend egg.

Savoury crêpe, are also known in France as Galettes de Blé noir, and are made from Buckwheat flour,which normally are only cooked on one side. Today, savoury crêpe are filled with anything savoury, but originally they were served with just salted butter.

Ingredients

Yields: 18-2 crêpe.

2 eggs
90 grms buckwheat flour
125 Grms plain flour

1/2 cup water
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon oil ( olive)
3 tablespoons salted butter
250 grms Emmental, Beaufort or Comte cheese grated

other ingredients, such as potatoes, sautéed mushrooms, chopped ham, tomatoes etc

Method

In a blender or food processor, put the flours and the salt . Crack the eggs into the water and with the engine running , pour the eggs and water into the flour.Add the oil and process until the mixture is smooth and lump free. It should be of a pouring consistency, like thick cream . Leave to rest for 30 mins. However, it will keep in the refrigerator for days, so can be used when needed , do remember to keep it in a sealed container, and mix well, again, before use. If it is too thick, then thin it with more water.

Place your crêpe pan over medium heat. Grease it with a little butter , I find using some kitchen paper towel with a smidgen of butter smeared on it the best. Pour about ½ cup of the batter in the center of the pan. Lift the pan and then tilt and rotate it until the batter is evenly spread forms a nice thin disk and covers the pan. Put it back on the stove. It should start bubbling after a few seconds. Lower the heat to low. Put on the grated cheese and any other filling that you want. If you want to have an egg, the easiest way is to lightly fry the egg first, before placing it on the crêpe. Fold the crêpe ( either fold in the corners leaving the filling exposed or fold it into a triangle) and let the cheese melt for 1-2 minutes.

Serve with some green salad.

On our way back from France, we stopped at Reims ( pronounced Rans), which as you know is the Champagne capital of the world, and as such has a fine collection of Michelin starred restaurants. Some, looked as if their last diners had in fact died and gone to gastronomic heaven, I am sure that their food would have been wonderful, but we did not want to join the previous diners, just yet, so opted for something a little more modern, and we were not disappointed. We ate at the Millenaire.