Secret recipe: flourless chocolate fondant!

After a long break from the English blog, we thought it was fitting to start with an exclusive post - this one is not available on the French blog yet!

Régis often makes a very delicious cake, that visitors are always surprised to hear contains NO flour!
Perfect for those trying to go gluten free or just to lighten up your guilty pleasures.


Ingredients:
5 eggs
125g butter
125g sugar
200g dark chocolate (we recommend dark rather than milk for flavour)

Instructions:
* Mix the sugar and 4 yolks plus one entire egg.

* Beat the 4 other egg's white, not fluffy but very firm, it should be solid enough.

* Melt the butter, in a "bain marie" way, then add the chocolate. Melt slowly both of them.

* Mix the butter/chocolate with the sugar/yolks. Then, slowly add, very carefully, the whites, and mix very delicately.

* Butter a mold and prepare your oven, it is even better to add some cooking paper. Temperature should be 180°(celsius) for half an hour. Don't cook too much, a bit raw is even better!

Enjoy.... It really does not need ice cream, but if you are really 'gourmand' you can add nuts, dried fruits, or crystallised ginger to the dough!

Eating well to live well

Home-made pesto and gluten-free pasta at Hongrie

At Hongrie, we firmly believe in eating well to live well. 

In order to stay healthy, one of the basic rules is to eat well: this is a rather conventional wisdom.

However we think that the aesthetic appeal of the dish, as well as that of the table where the meal is served, is equally important. In order to make the most of a healthy and yummy meal, it is essential to let the body relax and soak in all the goodness from the aliments.

Traditional Chinese medicine principles states that alimentation and housing aspects belong to the Earth element, linked with Nature's energy. In other words, this old wisdom states that since people come from nature, we are part of it and can nourish ourselves with elements from nature during our lifetime. Nourish oneself does not stop at simply eating aliments; it also encompasses an almost maternal notion of nourishment which means to be cherished and loved.

The consequences for our diet are that meals go further towards our health that we would think. Eating does not only bring concrete nourishment through vitamins and other nutritive elements; it also provides us with comfort, satisfaction, reassurance and a feeling of protection. When distressed, we yearn to eat our favourite foods to appease our inner turmoil. 

Soy sauce sauté of green and yellow courgettes, onions, sesame seeds and rice

Thus a lovely table, set with beautiful cutlery and well-arranged dishes, brings about a great atmosphere, leading to a more relaxed body, a better digestion. If colours and flavours harmonise, we will feel better disposed towards the rest of the day, more productive and energetic than before.

On the contrary, a meal composed of carelessly assembled aliments, taken in a hurry, and in a noisy or threatening atmosphere, will raise alarms in our bodies. The stress hormones are more likely to be produced, even at a supposedly resting time; digestion will be slower and energy levels will drop.

Furthermore, a meal that favours a beautiful presentation, where the aesthetics of dishes has been taken into account, establishes a direct relation between the eater and their nourishment. There are no distractions from the meal, we can focus on our plate and the people we share the meal with. Our body is fully taken into account, and instead of fuelling hurriedly, we cherish the feeling of caring for ourselves. Often the immediate result is that this time spent is a direct return investment: an easy digestion, a flowing energy and a joyful mood marks the end of the meal.

A vegetarian meal in a Kyoto Temple, Autumn 2015

In Japan, where meals are composed as if they were works of art, it is rather rude to speak business while at the table. Even when eating with colleagues or customers, it is important to focus on the meal to facilitate the digestion and build up energy for the coming discussion. When tea is served, or a digestive walk is taken, it is then time to start the negotiations. 

We would all gain to imitate the Japanese example, in any way possible. Watching television while eating with family is a common mistake, which prevents us from fully savouring the meal and reconnecting with loved ones.

Eating well is living better, and whatever our circumstances there are always small steps to be taken to improve our well being.

Bialetti or nothing !

Some habits are not easily forgotten, especially when involving familiar fragrances.

As the French Prout wrote, we all have a ‘madeleine’ – a trigger that brings us back to a nostalgic moment of our past.

For Claudia, this trigger involves a Bialetti Moka Express coffeemaker.

Every morning during her childhood, Claudia woke up to the delicious smell of coffee that her granddad prepared for the family. The fragrance would fill the house from top to bottom. Nice, in Provence, is one of the parts of France that once was Italian – and it can still be felt in its culinary traditions. The infamous Bialetti Moka coffeemaker was a normal part of Claudia’s household habits, but it would have been true for her neighbours too. 

What does this coffeemaker mean for Mediterranean people?

                                       

                                                                              

The ritual of coffee making with a Bialetti has been well summarised this way:

“Unscrew the water compartment and fill it up exactly the right amount.

Open the pot of freshly ground coffee beans, inhale the characteristic smell.

Add a few spoonful of the brown coarse powder in the funnel.

Insert the funnel on top of the water compartment and screw it back to the top with just the right amount of strength. Simple and familiar gestures, anticipating the intense happiness of that moment when the coffee fragrance spreads in the kitchen, accompanied by the simultaneous gurgling of the coffeemaker.”

(The water is pressured by the heat through the funnel, acquiring the flavour of the ground coffee and ending in the top compartment with a gurgling sound)

The magic of this small coffeemaker also lies in its familiar shape which stays practically unchanged since its invention in 1933. 

Alphonse Bialetti worked in aluminium (tin) industry in France then returned to his country after WW1 in 1918. He observed local women wash clothing using a type of washer with a central tube that spread the hot soapy water evenly. He imagined using this system for a coffeemaker and after years of experimentation, the Moka Express was created with a patent from Luigi De Ponti.

However it was Alphonse’s son, Renato, which made of the Bialetti such a hit. This was after WW2 : using the new concepts of marketing emerging at the time, Renato drew a caricature of his father as a moustached, small and chubby man with his finger raised to obtain a coffee. This image combined with the slogan “An espresso at home as in the coffee shop!” transformed Bialetti into the legendary brand that it is now.

Since that time many different machines and techniques to make espresso have been invented, notably with capsule-types machines meant for domestic use. However in Hongrie, we are not very fond of those: not only do they create much waste, cost excessively and reduce the range of coffee beans that people consume, but we cannot get used to their lack of gurgling sounds effects.

We stayed loyal customers of Bialetti, with all its different sizes, accumulating an army of little moustache men to provide for busy breakfast times. Their presence is a reassuring feeling and the coffee aroma they produce is now part of our life habits. We welcome discussion about coffee choices during breakfast time, but you have been warned that we are biased!

Bialetti: what else?

Recipe: Pissaladière or Onion tart provençal-style

Pissaladière is one of the culinary speciality of Nice, where Claudia was born, and her favourite. Often nicknamed "onion pizza", this very simple recipe is indeed to Nice cuisine what pizza is to Italian cuisine.

However there are no tomatoes in the recipe of pissaladière, just a lot, and more, of onions! The onions are the key ingredient: thinly cut and stewed until they release a sweet flavour.

The name of this dish comes from "pissalat", or salted fish in Nice dialect, and evolved into "Pissaladiera". Pissalat originally designated a type of salted fish mash or puree made from anchovies and alevins of sardines, but nowadays young fish is protected by fishing laws so it has been replaced by pure anchovy puree. 

Ingredients:

1 roll of puff pastry (in France rolls come in circles; but the shape doesn't matter as long as it fits an oven)

1,5 to 2kg of white onions

Anchovy paste (usually comes in tubes,  1/4 of tube is enough, keep the rest in the fridge)

12 anchovies fillets in oil

3 garlic cloves, 

Thyme 

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

A handful of black olives, if possible strong taste (those of Nice are preferred)

Recipe

In Nice traditionally, the puff pastry is hand-made ahead of the cooking time, but an organic ready-made puff pastry roll is a good substitute.

The most important aspect is of course to cook the onions properly. Slicethe onions thinly, not in cubes, more like slightly thicker than minced onions.

Cook them in a pan with three garlic cloves still in their skin and a bouquet of thyme. Stew slowly until the onion becomes transparent and juicy, for about an hour. ¾ in the cooking time, add anchovy paste to salt the onions and give it its specific taste. The onion should never caramelise, careful supervision is best to obtain a sweet puree or compote.

Start the oven at 180 C.

When the onion is cooked, take the garlic and thyme away, taste to adjust salt if necessary, add pepper. Unroll the puff pastry on a cooking tray, cover with onion mix almost reaching the edges of the pastry.

Display the anchovy fillets in checked pattern on top of the onions: traditionally we form diamonds with a black olive marking the middle.

Put in the oven for half and hour until the pastry is cooked and the onions slightly caramelised. Enjoy still warm with a refreshing glass of chilled rosé wine from Provence.

So simple, yet divine... can be a starter or a meal depending on how many you serve.

Home-made lime-flower herbal tea

The harvest of lime-flowers is now done and the flowers & leaves are drying in a quiet spot in the shade of Hongrie. Scattered on the white linen, the tiny yellow spots attract the eye while its sweet fragrance fills the room. 

Lime-flower is a herbal tea often associated with grand-ma recipes given to rowdy children to calm them down before sleep. It is certainly one of the lime-flower's properties to relax the body and mind. Drinking a well-infused cup of lime-flower herbal tea before bed makes for a good night's sleep.

However this are not the only properties of the lime-flower. As a calming herbal tea it helps digestion by 'relaxing' the digestive system and preventing stomach cramp. This can be helpful in case of illness or after a heavy meal taken in stressful conditions - for example during a business meeting. Digestion will always be eased by a cup of warm lime-flower herbal tea, and the stomach will hurt less during the digestive process. 

Lime-flower also has a 'detox' reputation because of two additional properties: 1) it is an hidrotic, aka it helps sweating; 2) it is also a diuretic, aka it causes an increased passing of urine. Both properties help eliminate faster, without straining the body: if drunk in moderation after each meal for a week, a mild detox cure can be achieved naturally and smoothly. 

One final way to use lime-flower herbal tea is to soothe skin irritations: once it has cooled down, dip a clean cloth in the infused herbal tea and lightly apply on the irritated skin. It should bring a soothing refreshment to your skin - of course this is in addition to consulting your GP. 

Preparation:
 
As most people are not as lucky as we are and cannot harvest their own lime-flower, it usually is bought in tea-bags at the shop. 

Preparation is very simple: pour boiling water on the flowers or the bag - a half tea spoon infusing about a half-litre of water. Be aware that herbal tea usually require a longer infusing time than normal tea. If you own a thermos bottle, you can also use a bag to infuse a whole pan of lime-flower herbal tea and bring it with you during the day. 

Find more daily inspiration in our Instagram @domainedehongrie

What is the origin of the name "Hongrie"?

Today we will explain why the Domaine is called "Hongrie". Well... actually we will just offer a few possible explanations, as we are still not 100% positive about the origin of the name. 

1) "Hongrie" means "Hungary" in French, and our first supposition was that somehow this was linked to the first owner's nationality or perhaps named in souvenir of a war in that country. That interpretation was seemingly corroborated by the fact that a small abandoned cabin near Hongrie is named "Serbie" (Serbia). However, later on we found out that Serbie originated in fact from the gascon (from Gascony) dialect "Serbi", meaning "to serve" and probably used by domestics in the past.

2) The path leading to the entrance was already planted with beautiful oaks when we bought the house, lending it some character. We found out that there was a type of tree named "Hungarian Oak" so we thought it might be why Hongrie was named as such - but none of the existing oaks are Quercus frainetto so this hypothesis was abandoned from lack of evidence.

 

Planche extraite de l'Encyclopédie Diderot et d'Alembert : Tanneur, Travail des Pleins (ou pelains) -1762 © Reproduction Service régional de l'inventaire de Poitou-Charentes / G. Beauvarlet, 2006  

3) The most convincing hypothesis was found when renovating the kitchen. Régis found large holes in the ground, shaped like amphoras: they had been man-made by digging in the clay of the soil beneath the house. There are several of these across the house, as far as we can tell (we did not destroy the whole floor!) and at first this was really puzzling. When Josepha saw them it reminded her of the archaeological course she took on gallo-roman farms where big jars were stored in the soil itself. 

Further research led us to think that Hongrie might have been in the past before the house the location of a tannery: the holes would have been used to treat and dye the skins. 

Some of the tanners were named "Hongrieurs" or "Hongroyeur" as they were tanning so called "leather of Hungary" even if located in Paris.

So this is the origin of "Hongrie" - this location probably used to be a tannery! There was water in the surroundings and the location is a bit apart from the rest of the village, which would have been normal for such a smelly activity. Ask us to see the kitchen "hole" if you visit us, Régis even installed a light bulb so that its size - as an adult can even stand inside it - can be well appreciated.

You can find here some more information about the process of tanning, which can involve oak bark as well.

Welcome to our home - Hongrie!

Welcome to our home - Hongrie!

From this day Hongrie can express itself on the web. "Hongrie" is the name of our house, but also the estate surrounding it. Not an estate in the posh sense of the word: it means the land that René Gillet first bought with his wife Jacqueline when they moved in the Gers in 1987 from their provençal birthplace. This land or estate was called "domaine" in French, before our family arrived here, but we kept the name going. 

All friends and guests that visit Hongrie tell us that this is a special place, a bit magical, and it stays in their heart as a safe haven from the frantic life outside. Our family is composed of Claudia, daughter of René & Jacqueline, her husband Régis Meyer and their daughter Josepha. We decided to let Hongrie speak for itself online, and share our daily delights in the small pleasures in life. Hongrie represents our motto of eating well and living well, and every single day we are grateful for this place. 

This English blog is the twin of our French one, so you will notice our unique Frenglish tone in the writing - let's hope we will improve as it goes!

Truly, welcome to Hongrie - and carpe diem.