Chartreuse de la Verne

Some visitors to Provence don’t need to chase a tan at the seaside, instead they like to check out the lesser known areas, explore the historical and cultural sites inland.

 These guests I take to La Chartreuse de la Verne, a Carthusian monastery tucked away in the Massif des Maures, one of the oldest and wildest sets of hills of the Var department. There’s no train to Collobrières, the nearest town and busses are very infrequent so the best way to get there is by car; cycling, I leave to the very fit.

 La Chartreuse de la Verne, 11 km from Collobrières is perched on a rocky headland completely isolated in amongst a thick hilly forest of pine, oak, cork and chestnut trees. The set of buildings mostly rebuilt during the 17^th and 18^th centuries are 155 m long, 85 m. wide with walls 425 m high was constructed in 1174 on the site of a pagan temple. This monastery had a turbulent past - plundered in 1174, wrecked by the Protestants during the religious wars and occupied by the Huguenots in 1577. After each of these destructions, the dedicated picked up the pieces and rebuilt. In 1790, after the French Revolution, the contents were sequestered and the monks had to abandon the monastery.

Looking around today at this imposing structure, and the beauty of the forest, it’s hard to imagine that there were at least three serious fires here -- one in the 13^th century and the others n 1318 and 1721.

La Chartreuse was listed as a historic monument in 1921 and today about 30 sisters of the monastic order of Bethlehem live there.

    

Cooking in Provence

Madeleine Montebert from Cooking in Provence says: No one is born a cook, one learns by doing.

This talented lady started her cooking adventure  as a child watching and stirring the pots in the kitchen; today she runs hands on practical  classes based on traditional home cooking from her Provencal hideaway, the hilltop village of Crillon Le Brave.

And thanks to Madeleine, An olive Oil Tour of France, my new e book includes some healthy olive oil recipes. One particularly seasonal dish I’ve come to appreciate this summer is the Provencal Tian.

A tian is a shallow earthen ware gratin dish and the food cooked in it. A tian makes good use of the Provencal seasonal vegetables --  courgettes, tomatoes, and aubergines all neatly arranged in layers.                

Madeleine includes minced lamb in her recipe. Not only is a tian beautiful to look at but with extra virgin olive oil, garlic and Provencal herbs, you can’t go wrong --  this is a perfect healthy one dish  meal.

And did you know you can use olive oil for making cakes?

The French yogurt cake recipe is a simple classic made perfectly moist not with butter but  with extra virgin, a cake that is often the first thing that French children learn to bake. It is a childhood classic because children do not need to be able to read any scale to make it because the “pot” used to measure the ingredients is the first yogurt pot, emptied, rinsed and dried.
But Madeleine adds two ingredients to the classical yogurt cake recipe -- quince and almonds; making this Provencal style yogurt cake with quince totally irresistible.

 1 quince

 2 pots of plain yogurt
 1 pot of sugar
 2 pots of flour
 2 pots of ground almonds
1 pot of olive oil
4 eggs
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 lemon zest

Peel quarter and core the quince then place in a saucepan with a spoonful of sugar and cover with water. Bring to the boil, cook uncovered until tender.

Preheat the oven to 180° C.
In a large mixing bowl whisk eggs, sugar until quite pale.
Stir in the yogurt, olive oil and lemon zest until all the ingredients are fully incorporated.
Add the flour, baking powder and almonds.
Grease a baking tin and pour in the batter.
Arrange the quince on top.
Bake for about 45 minutes checking the center of the cake with a fork to make sure that the cake is cooked.
Leave for 10 minutes or so before removing from the cake tin.

This recipe is also included in An Olive Oil Tour of France.

Cooking in Provence:  http://www.cookinginprovence.fr/

Soap from Marseille

Unique legendary Savon de Marseille --Soaps from Marseille have been around for a long time - since the sixteenth century.

What makes them unique?
They are versatile, rooted in tradition and safe.  Here are some extracts from my eBook, An olive Oil Tour of France which will be published soon.

Soap crafters have been making Savon de Marseille  in France’s oldest city, Marseille, since the middle Ages.  This is no ordinary soap, wrapped up in pretty packaging. These are big blocks of all purpose soap used for generations in France for everything from household cleaning and laundry to beautifying the body. 

The green Marseille soap made from pure olive oil is today recognized by dermatologists the world over for its hypoallergenic and antibacterial qualities.

The Sérail Savonnerie de Marseille run by Daniel Boetto is, however, the only soap maker left that makes authentic Marseille soap. This family business started up by Daniel’s father is one where true artisans have been using the same cauldron and the same strict traditional methods since 1949. At Sérail they make a liquid detergent, and two types of soaps, a white soap made from palm oil used for household purposes and the green variety made with 60% ordinary olive oil obtained mostly from Greece as regrettably France does produce enough olive oil.

How do they make their legendary soap?

The soap master burns a mixture of olive oil, vegetable oil, soda ash  and salt water  in a large cauldron,  a chemical reaction takes place turning the  mixture into soap; once the soap is settled, it can be stamped and dry.

Although it sounds easy, you can’t just follow a recipe, it requires great skill to be a soap master, not something   you can learn overnight.

It took oil Daniel Boetto 6 years to learn the trade from his father.