intimate culinary journeys allow people to experience the world through food. each journey is crafted by dorette and rich and echoes long-time experiences with local farmers and artisans as well as bon vivants around the world. participants harvest personal experience in preparing food using cultural traditions and savoring the repast they helped prepare. tour-goers journey to regions throughout the world for hands-on, personal experiences in harvesting, preparing food using cultural traditions and savoring the final culinary creations they helped prepare. truly an exercise in preparing food from harvest to table.
for adults:
by special request: a seasonable feast "chocolat" adult class feb 12 - 6:30 p- 9:30 p $75/person
menu from chocolat, the movie
melt into this luscious feast
langoustine with tomato & garlic sauce with chocolate and chile
roast cornish hens with orange and sage - and bittersweet chocolate demi-glace
baked asparagus with chipotle beurre nosiette
salad with rose and olive oil
cocoa dusted chocolate cake with almonds
twice poached plums in red wine with chocolate
customized chef tours to some of the world's most desired and provocative destinations—create your own pilgrimage to a provencale vineyards, parisian cheesemongers, armagnac distilleries, waterways lined with hills of foie gras, hikes through cinque terre grape harvest in corniglia—when wine runs in the streets, aoc chesnut groves in the languedoc, pasta con sarde and painting jeweled marzipan fruits on the corso umberto in taormina, sicily. all with a chef traveling and cooking with you as you roam!
recipe from erick vedel and the 2007 provence teen tour
papeton d’aubergine - eggplant papeton
another name for the eggplant in provençal is the mérijanne.tremendously abundant and with so many varieties on the markets of provence.large and purple, round and violet, egg-shaped and white, tiny and dark maroon.the legend goes that this dish was first prepared for the pope during his time in avignon in the 15th century.he apparently told his cook that he preferred the food he was served in italy, from whence he came.the next day, the cook served him a molded dish shaped like the pope’s hat, and when queried, told the pope that it was a papeton (the word for pope in french is ‘pape’).
we can also make a variation of this dish with zucchini.
serves 5-6 persons
preparation time : 10 minutes ; cooking time for the eggplant 40 minutes ; cooking time for the papeton 45 minutes - 1 hour
for the papeton
4 eggplant (or 5-6 zucchini)
2 bay leaves
5 eggs
pinch of salt
dribble of olive oil
for the coulis :
5 tomatoes peeled and chopped (the best tomatoes you can find, st. pierres, or vine tomatoes, or ideally, fresh and deep red from your garden)
4 garlic cloves
juice from 1/2 a lemon
a pinch of fine salt
2 tbsp fresh chopped basil
1-2 tbsp olive oil
corse sea salt to taste
poke the eggplant with a fork and bake whole in the oven for 45 minutes or till a wooden spoon can press it down – till the inside pulp is fully cooked.if using zucchini, peel first and then steam till very tender. (you can also simmer or steam your eggplant with the skins on till tender, and then purée it).
meantime, start your sauce. peel the tomatoes over a stove top flame one by one.this removes only the thinnest outer skin, and leaves all the rich and flavorful flesh from just under the skin intact.once chopped, move them cup by cup into a heavy mortar and pestle and crush them to a pulp.
prepare the garlic: on a small plate, squeeze the lemon juice, sprinkle the pinch of fine salt, take a sharp pronged fork and place the prongs flat on the plate, take a peeled garlic clove (the larger the easier to handle) and scrape it back and forth on the tips of the prongs.you will produce a fine puree that will be lightly cured by the acid of the lemon juice, ideal for cold sauces and salad dressings.
mix together the tomato pulp, the garlic puree, the chopped basil, the olive oil, and the sea salt to taste.place the sauce in the freezer to chill before serving.
remove your eggplant from the oven, let cool a bit till you can handle them, remove the pulp from inside the skins, discard the skins.mash the puree till smooth. (do likewise with the steamed zucchini). then place in a colander to drain excess liquid.
mix the eggs in a bowl with the pinch of salt, add the eggplant (or zucchini) puree. to speed up the cooking process, use a large omelette pan, well greased with olive oil, and “pre-cook” your eggs and eggplant mixture till the texture of very wet scrambled eggs (about 3 minutes, with constant stirring and turning).then put this still soft mixtureture in a well-greased/non-stick loaf pan (or simply line it with tin foil, dribbling the olive oil on the foil), placed in a water bath of its own, lay 4-5 bay leaves along the bottom and sides of the dish, then pour in the eggplant and egg mixture.place in the oven and bake till browned on top and solid, about 45 minutes - 1 hour.
to serve : remove from its mold and place on an oval or long serving platter and slice.accompany with the cold tomato coulis.
