Each week the IS school offers a variety of other activities and excursions, which provide a different kind of opportunity to interact in the French language and to learn more about the culture and history of this area.
This week I signed up for the “Cours de Cuisine”—a cooking class—at the home of Madame Catherine Plan. The class cost 25 euro, a good investment since the evening also included an excellent meal. My friends Urs and Susanne also went to the class, and we walked there together from the school at the end of the afternoon. Urs had attended a class with Madame Plan the week before and highly recommended it to us. Madame Plan and her husband live about 20 minutes from the school, at the other end of the Cours Mirabeau and just past the train station. There were three other people at the class. Rupert is a tall older man from Norway, very friendly, who owns a house in Forcalquier, a town about 45 minutes east of Apt. He is commuting to the school each day in an effort to improve his French. He is in class 4 at the school. I didn’t learn the names of the other two people: a woman also from Norway and a man from Sweden. I don’t think either of them spoke or understood much French.
We began our evening at 5:30 pm, grouped around the counter of Madame Plan’s kitchen. She gave us each a little booklet with the evening’s menu and recipes and started immediately into the preparation. The first thing she made was an apricot tart. The preparation of the pastry (pate) really impressed me. She had a piece of baking paper that she had already used several times. Instead of using a bowl, she made her pastry right on the paper, measuring the flour, margarine, sugar, salt and water right onto the paper and then mixing them together with her hands. Then she rolled the pastry out with a rolling pin. Since the paper had already been used, she could tell exactly the shape for her pastry. Finally she just slid the crust into her tart pan, paper and all. The whole process of making the crust took about five minutes. She sprinkled some almond powder (poudre d'amande) in the bottom of the pan.
Madame Plan mixing her tarte crust on paper
Urs helped Madame Plan remove the pits from the apricots and cut them in quarters for the tart. She didn’t wash the apricots or remove the skins. They placed the apricots all around the surface of the pastry. Then she mixed up a cream (using a tall cup and one of those long electric mixers that you just hold in your hand), pouring it over the apricots. The secret ingredient was the almond powder and a spoon of rum. Voilà! The tart was done. This tart can be made with any seasonal fruit, and it’s something I’ll definitely make, though despite the ease of her pastry-making, I think I’ll use a pre-made crust. There are so many different crusts in the supermarket here that I feel sure that’s what most French women do.
The next dish she prepared was a leg of lamb (gigot d’agneau au miel). She laid garlic all over the surface of the lamb and sprinkled it with salt, pepper and lots of thyme and then tied it up with string. She made two of these, and laid them in a roasting pan with a little olive oil. She talked about roasting new potatoes with the lamb, but these weren’t served with our meal, and we think perhaps she forgot to put them in. The lamb cooked for just an hour and a half. Halfway through she turned the meat, and then ten minutes before serving, she basted it with honey.
Next she showed us how to make a caviar d’aubergine—kind of thick eggplant puree that was served cold with the lamb. She peeled and chunked the eggplants, cooked them in a pressure cooker for just about 10 minutes, and then let them cool. Later the eggplants were beaten to a pulp and beaten with garlic, parsley, salt, pepper and olive oil. This dish was served with the lamb. It can also be served cold as an apéritif.
The last dish was a salad entrée involving tapenade: “oeuf à la tapenade” or egg with tapenade. Tapenade is an olive spread that I really like a lot, but I don’t eat hard boiled eggs. Fortunately I was able to ask to have my entrée “sans l’oeuf” (without egg). Since this is a request I often make with salads, I knew exactly what to say. Madame Plan first showed us how to make the tapenade. She mixed the crushed black olives with capers, lemon juice, herbes de Provence, and just a tiny piece of anchovy. Then (the part I didn’t like!), she mixed the tapenade with the yellow of hard-boiled eggs, and then stuffed the whites with the egg-tapenade mixture. Several of the other students helped with the egg preparation, but I don't like to get that close to hard boiled eggs. This is one of the only "mainstream" foods that I don't eat.
Urs and Rupert assist Madame Plan with the tapenade eggs
The tapenade eggs were arranged on a bed of salad greens, along with a ripe tomato. It was a very colorful and appealing presentation. Madame Plan emphasized the importance of presentation. She told us that one way the French encourage their children to develop a broad appreciation for food at a very young age is to ensure that the food is always attractively presented.
Susanne with the colorful salads
Throughout the preparation of the meal, Madame Plan talked with us about the cuisine of Provence: the use of olive oil, the focus on the fresh seasonal produce, and the types of meats and fish available in this area. She talked about some of the changes in cooking and dining habits now that more women are working. And finally she talked with us about cheese and showed us the four cheeses she had selected for our cheese course. These were all cheeses she had bought pre-packaged at the supermarket: a big block of Emmental, a fresh goat’s cheese, a roquefort, and one other. And then the official course was over, and she directed us out to the garden to begin our meal with an apéritif.
Monsieur Plan (Michel) joined us outside. He was extremely friendly with a big smile and a contagious laugh. We were offered a couple of choices of beverages for the apéritif. I had pastis. There were several kinds of olives and little munchies, and I’m afraid several of us ate too many of the munchies. Monsieur Plan told us that their home was originally his grandparents’ house, the house he grew up in. When he was a boy, this house was in the countryside, but now it is in downtown Aix. He met Madame Plan in Paris, where she had studied cooking. Their children are now grown, and they are enjoying grandchildren and hosting students from the IS school.
The 'très amiable" and "gentil" Monsieur Plan
Our dinner was served family style in the big dining room. As I had noticed at Isabelle’s apartment, the dining room (salle à manger) was bigger than the living room (salle de séjour), which says a lot about the lifestyle in France and the focus on food and the family meal. Monsieur Plan served two kinds of wine with dinner, as we ate the tapenade salads, the gigot and caviar d’aubergine, the cheese, and finally the tarte d’abricot.
Gigot d'agneau au miel (leg of lamb with honey)
We were joined for dinner by Amanda, a British woman perhaps in her late 20’s, and a student at the IS school. She has been boarding with the Plans for almost three months, and has loved living with them. She had a very easy relationship with them. Amanda said she had talked to several people who said you really need three months to become fluent in French, so that’s how long she had decided to come for. She seemed very comfortable in the language to me. She told us that she learned a couple of tricks which have been helpful: speak quickly and confidently, look people in the eye, and sprinkle your converation with frequently-used French expressions and comments. I noticed that she said “Incroyable,” “Bien sûr” and “C’est bizarre” several times—and she definitely spoke quickly and confidently. Clearly I need another ten weeks at the school!
It was almost ten o’clock when we left the Plan’s house—we were there four and a half hours, but the time passed quickly. I enjoyed the evening, the company, and the meal—and I learned a several new things about Provençal cooking. Incroyable!!
