With Spring at Le Cormier come the flowers - the tulips, bleeding hearts, daffodils and, of course, the flowering of the fruit trees and bushes: the peaches, cherries, blueberries, currants, apples, pears, plums, cranberries, and more. Mother Nature delivers its young and the grass starts growing. The grass must be mowed. The poor riding lawnmower is all beat up from last year and this year it won't start because the battery is dead. It's one of those 'Maintenance-Free' batteries which seems to mean that when it's dead, it is truly dead. You can't fix it even if you wanted to.
But, anyway, back to the flowers. Take a look at these pictures of the peach tree buds, apple tree and quince blossoms (left to right). The peach buds were just beginning to break open. Later, after the peaches bloomed, the apples followed suit. The quince blossomed at the end of April. Indeed, a heady time - we just hope that a hard frost doesn't hit now or the summer fruit crop will be greatly reduced. Two years ago, an April frost wiped out the plums and reduced the cherry and apple crops. With all these fruits we make our wonderful jams and jellies that we serve every morning.
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This year we will be able to dry some of our fruit. By losing about ninety percent of its water, dried fruit can be kept at room temperature for a long time. Drying the fruit using a solar drier saves a lot of electricity. I am in the final stages of building a solar food drier that should dry several pounds of whole or sliced fruits and vegetables in a single, sunny day. It is simply a large covered box with a piece of corrugated metal in it, painted black with high temperature paint. The metal absorbs the suns ray and gets very hot. When I tested it in the sun last summer, I burned my hand when I touched the metal. The metal, in turn, heats the air around it, which rises into the chamber with the food trays. The speed of the air through the food is controlled by a vent at the top. Slowing down the air velocity increases the temperature inside the drying chamber. Well, we'll see how well it works this year. Fingers crossed ...
Spring also brings 'Spring Cleaning.' We spend the month of April sprucing up the apartments and our house - washing windows, chasing spider webs, cleaning out the chimneys, repairing any problems, painting, dusting and cleaning. We also open up the windows, put in the screens and air out all the rooms. We're ready for guests starting in May.
We have had good luck with the ducks and coots this year. The coots have four young hiding in the reeds and two of the three mallard females that found our pond this year are sitting on their eggs. One mallard has three young already. (That's her with her chicks strolling on our front lawn in the photo above.)
One of our neighbors saw a hot air balloon the other day. And the gardens at Chaumont sur Loire have opened for the season (get more information here). It must be Spring!
So, what do we cook during the springtime? Asparagus, of course - it's just popping out of the ground. I can't keep up with it. Asparagus goes very well with a butter sauce like Hollandaise. I make a 'blender' Hollandaise and mix it 50-50 with unsweetened whipped cream. It is so sublime and light (though, not in calories - just use a small amount). Put three large egg yolks in a blender with the juice from half a lemon (fresh is best) and a sprinkle of paprika powder and salt. Melt a stick of sweet butter (4 ounces or 120 grams); let it cool; then turn on the blender low speed and drizzle the butter in until you have a nice mayonnaise. Fold in the whipped cream (made from 4 ounces or 125 ml of heavy cream whipped in a cold metal bowl) and serve with freshly picked and cleaned, hot steamed or broiled asparagus spears. While keeping the sauce, lay plastic film directly on top of it to prevent a skin from forming.
What else can we cook in the Spring? Many say spring lamb - and I like lamb. But our lambs are born in February, so they are too young. Pintade is good. In the States (and maybe in the UK), this is called guinea fowl. It is a bird from Africa that tastes much like chicken but has very little fat; it is much like a pheasant in both size and texture. Both pheasant and pintade are difficult to prepare because they so easily dry out while cooking. I have experimented a bit and have come up with a recipe that I like; it is easy to prepare and the results are moist and tender. Essentially, the bird is baked as 'pieces parts' in the oven in a covered pot with veggies and wine. Cut the bird into pieces (and here, if you like, you can remove the skin), dredge the pieces in salted and peppered flour, and fry in a mixture of butter and oil until golden. Coarsely chop an onion, two carrots and two celery branches and put them in the bottom of the casserole. Add a few branches of thyme, a bay leaf or two, one or two whole cloves and at least a cup of white wine (you can vary the spices to match your taste). Lay the pieces of grilled bird on top of this vegetable bed, cover and bake for 30 minutes at 350F (180C). When done, transfer the pintade or pheasant onto a warm, covered serving dish and filter the sauce from the casserole into a sauce pan, discarding the veggies (The first time I did this - discard what seemed to me to be perfectly good vegetables, following another recipe - I couldn't believe it. But it's all right. All the flavor and nuitrition is in the sauce you are about to make). Reduce the sauce by about one quarter to one half, depending on how loose it is. Taste it and adjust the seasoning by adding salt or pepper, if necessary.
So, that's a Spring dinner at Le Cormier - asparagus with light butter Hollandaise and guinea fowl (or pheasant) with its light and tasty sauce. Yummm! To complete the evening, add a little wine (your favorite, of course), some cheese, salad and, at the end, a chocolate dessert and maybe coffee!
