Well, today dealt with the fruits of an earlyish trip to a
local fish market at Sanary Sur Mer (pics). 

On the menu we had :-

Anchoidade - and anchovy paste to serve with vege
'batards'/sticks,

aioli (Garlic Mayo) to go on croutons for the soup,

Brandade de Morue (Cod Puree), which could be served
as a whole dish like a shepherds pie but with fish,
whereas we just used it for an entree,

The main dish for the day being 'Bisque bouille safranee',
Mediterranean fish with sun potatoes, croutons and
aioli in a fish soup (aka bisque) - see pic.

I will say that cooking with a star chef is interesting -
he has high standards to maintain, and checked our
fish filleting etc for bones and such, before allowing
it to be used.
Another reason for this is we are not only cooking
for ourselves, any 'leftovers' are used to help feed
the staff of the hotel, and there's about 30 of them
(not all at once, on rotation/shift), but it wouldnt
do for us to inflict injury on them. I dont know what
they eat usually - ? leftovers from the restaurant
gastronomique or the bistro

To finalise our meal, we had a passionfruit sorbet,
with raspberry coulis, fresh raspberries in the leftover
creme patisierre from yesterday

Tomorrow, we can expect a somewhat simpler repast,
Aubergine Caviar, Stuffed onions, tomatoes and zucchinis,
followed by Lavender flavoured creme brulee

We had 5 'extra's in the kitchen today, 4 x Americans who
were visiting for the day, and an extra lady from the
local region brushing up on skills/learning a new recipe
or two - it seemed a little more cramped, but we all got
along, and from the Hotel/cooking schools pov, a paying
guest is a good guest (one of the reasons the cooking
school started was that the nearby car racing circuit of
le Castellet was closed down, and they needed something
else to keep customers coming, as well as the spa. )

Well, its a paupers dinner for me tonight

I'll sit here with my bread, cheese, some jambon (ham), and a
banana...

... What's the catch ?

Well, ok, I did have a 3 course lunch, all made by (us), and some
things like saddle of lamb we've prepped/marinated for Thursday

So, today, we made

Tapenade,
Fougasse (read onion tart), served with a light salad for entree, (see pic)

a stuffed saddle of rabbit, served with pommes fondantes (sauted
potatoes then finished in stock), and tatin de tomates (see pic),

then a 'croustillant', think like a thin wafer/brandy snap with thyme,
which we 'stacked' with raspberries and creme partissiere (see last pic)

So, ah, don't feel sorry for the bread/cheese supper I'm having ;-)

Tomorrow, its off to the fish-markets early, to procure fish etc for
lunch, two of the menu items are a cod puree, and mediterranean
fish with sun potatoes, croutons and aioli in a fish soup

Our chef/instructor, is Rene Berard (not Mr or 'chef', he uch prefer's
just 'Rene', no allo allo jokes please), a 1 Michelin star gent, who
has recently passed his hotel kitchen onto his son (but still keeps an
eagle eye on proceedings) - he loves teaching, and although we won't
graduate with a Michelin star, his recipes are going to go down well
I suspect at home (specially after Thursday when I've mastered lavender
flavoured creme brulee, Matt !!!)

Last bit for today - nothing is wasted - tops/tails of veges and the
lamb backbones are boild for stock, some extras - I think pig's ears
for gelatine, the tomato skins and seeds etc we didnt use .. mind you,
apparently the stock simmers for 8-12 hours !!!

Le viaduct de Millau

Just returning my thoughts here for a second, and posting a pic
of the viaduct, one things strikes me as quite 'odd' ... Why spend all
that money on such a structure (one has to pay a toll to cross, at the
northern end, €6.40 for a small car) and then put squat toilets in the
viewing/history area's amenities !!! Aaaarrrrgghhhh I should have
listened to Dom and Berts instructions on such, they being familiar
with the concept from Nepal ...

Actually, I didn't actually, well, need #2, which was lucky, but ....

(The only reason I can think of is that they are easier to clean)

The foibles of following a gps

Ok, so, on the way here, 'Karen' (aka GPS B*tch) requested
I take a route that was illegal (I went through 2 small sections
of road that I shouldn't have, but after being in a car that long,
wanting a bio break, tant pis (too bad) !)

So today, I took my other gps, and backtracked, to trace what
should have happened, and it seems Karen was a tad 'eager' -
had I followed the scant instructions from the hotel, and not
eyeballed the gps so much, I would have made it - ah well, c'est
la vie (or, put another way, 'putain !')

(Think of 'putain' as being french for the Australia 'bvgger')

Ttfn, time for some pain, fromage, jambon (lunch) that I picked
up on my stroll this am (when in France ....)

Phew ...

Was just about a victim of network death - my nokia cs-10/roaming
sim connection wasn't going anywhere, that seemed attributable to
2 issues

1) The device drivers (loaded from the cs-10 usb stick) didn't like
windows 7/64 bit
2) This is a lousy 3G area (stuck up high on a hill)

Ok, so, the solution, tricky - get a wifi pass from the hotel, valid
for 24h/200mb, download new drivers, apply ... So far so good, now,
try the stick again - now Orange Fr 3G seems to be there, until the
wind blows, so the device/sim is set up, I'm at the mercy of the
wind it seems (bvgger that, I'll use day passes from the hotel as long
as I can - they seem to expect it, which is jolly sporting of them)

Oh, of course, the driver d/load used 64mb of my limit for the day,
so I'll have to be judicious with todays posts ...

Although Im a bit further south than where I'll be cycling
next week, the days seem to start the same - sun up circa 7,
by 9am the coolness of the night is rapdily being heated off,
then into scorching afternoons, then cool late evening. I
hope the afternoons are a little more moderate from a
cycling pov, I'll have to wait till I get back to Avignon -
?2-3 hours drive, to see if there's a varioation in the
temperature/cycle, there ....

Made it

Talk about epic drives ... Made it to little town perched on
hill (Bastide/fortified town) where accom/cooking classes are
 - gps made me do some illegal turns at this village, but what
the heck - 8 hours drive !! (Ok, 2.5 was a side trip to the
Viaduct de Millau)

I've decided no ducks will die for me tonight - they might not be
so lucky tomorrow night.

So I'm starting with

1) French vegemite - tapenade - now, usually I don't eat olives,
but this is good !
2) a chevre bruschetta, with figs, mushrooms, and lettuce heart
3) then moving onto boef (ok, something has to die !) with
sauteed potatoes, and a carrot/mushroom/?onion roast

MMmmmmm