Galette des rois 2015

I made the traditional galette des rois (cake of the kings) on Tuesday. The puff pastry was good, but I was not all that happy with the way the cake rose; it came out a little lopsided. I think it was because I forgot to notch the edges of the cake as I usually do. No matter. It tasted perfectly delicious.

The finished cake, well risen (one side more than the other) and nicely brown and crisp.

The technique is not complicated. I cut my block of puff pastry in two, then rolled out the first one. I used a dinner plate to cut out a circle of dough. Then I spread the almond cream (a mixture of ground almonds, butter, sugar, and an egg) in the center of the circle. I placed the fève into the almond cream at one edge. This year's fève (literally "fava bean" but nowadays it refers to the little prize inside the cake) is a ceramic fresh-water salmon called un omble.

The little ceramic fish came from a commercially made galette many years ago.

I rolled the second block of pastry out, cut another circle, and laid it over the first, having first painted some beaten egg around the edge to seal it all. Next, I used a knife to cut a pattern into the top of the cake. It was at this point that I should have used the knife to make little notches all around the edges of the cake, but I forgot. I then painted the top of the cake with more beaten egg before putting it into a hot oven for 20 to 30 minutes.

The assembled cake ready for the oven. It would easily serve six people.

As I said, the cake puffed up a little more on one side than the other, even though I turned it around halfway through the baking. Oh well, stuff happens. It tasted great, and Ken got the prize in his slice. He was king for the day! Yesterday.

Not much

The combination of short days and foggy mornings and/or rainy afternoons has made it difficult to take pictures on my walks with the dog lately. I took this one, like the last one, last week on New Year's Day when we had clear skies and frost. It wasn't a great photo, so I stylized it a little with Photoshop.

A winter scene in black and white.

Today is the epiphany, or twelfth night, so we will eat our galette des rois (cake of the kings) for dessert. I made the puff pastry (flaky pastry) on Sunday and it's ready to go. I'll make the frangipane (almond cream) filling and bake the cake today. Hey, a photo op!

A mole's work is never done

Unfortunately. They've calmed down a little since the fall. I wonder if they hibernate. Because our summer was wet, the moles had an easy time digging their tunnels in our yard and finding plenty of worms and insect larvae to feast on. When the summer is dry, they move down the hill toward the stream beds in search of moister places.

Mole hills in one section of grass between the garden shed and the vegetable plots.

I have a lot of mole hills to eradicate this spring before I cut the grass for the first time. I will shovel some of the dirt into the wheelbarrow and use it to fill in low spots. Otherwise I will rake it onto the surrounding ground. The worst part is the tunnel network, just below the surface of the grass, that makes the ground spongy. And I've learned in recent years that cats do not like (to eat) moles. Just our luck.

It's drizzling cats and dogs

Our frosty weather is behind us for the moment. Things have shifted around and now we're back to relatively warm and wet. And muddy. Yuck. Such is the nature of a temperate climate. This photo is from New Year's Day, just last week.

This time of year, I prefer frozen ground to the squishy, muddy stuff we have now.

While we haven't really had rain, we are having a very heavy drizzle that is, at times, driven horizontal by the wind. It's not pleasant to walk in and it gets Callie nearly as wet as actual rain. Yesterday morning, as we made our way back to the house, I heard cats growling in the neighbor's yard. On inspection, I saw Bert rolling around with another cat under a tree. Callie went after them and they ran. I found Bert in the neighbor's driveway a few minutes later and almost had him when Callie came bounding back. Needless to say, Bert ran again. He came back home shortly after and took a long morning nap.

What's on tv

Here's the cover of this week's television program, at least the one that I subscribe to. Nothing earth-shattering here. I think television is trying to get back into a normal pattern now that the big holidays are over.

Move along, nothing to see here.

Today Ken and I are going to the annual mayor's New Year speech in town. She will briefly review the past year's events and talk about what's coming up this year. It's also a chance to see and be seen and to raise a glass of local bubbly to our fellow townspeople, which is remarkable because I cannot imagine any American municipality or government body providing alcohol at a meeting. The French are so much less hung up about such things.

Frosted

New Year's Day was one of those nice winter days that is cold, but clear and brilliantly sunny. When I went out with Callie just before sunrise, most everything shone silvery thanks to a light layer of frost. The puddles in the road were all frozen as were the muddy spots, so Callie didn't get dirty. And the pond outside out back gate had frozen over in the night.

The pond is choked by jussie (ludwigia), but there are still some open spots where you can see the ice.

The layer of ice on the pond was certainly very thin and wouldn't support much, maybe a small bird at most. Still, the freeze was welcome. The lady that delivers bread in the morning greeted me with a smile on Wednesday. "Ça fait du bien," she said (It feels good!). The weather is changing today and it won't be as cold. We could use a few more freezes before spring. We'll see.

Oyster in the rye

Among the traditions practiced during le réveillon de la Saint-Sylvestre (New Year's Eve) in France is the eating of huîtres (oysters). I'll bet that the largest sales of oysters in the nation happen during the end-of-year holiday celebrations. Ken and I did our part, getting two dozen oysters for our New Year's Eve meal, along with a mess of shrimp.

My home-made cocktail rye bread, without caraway seeds. I will make this again.

Oysters are traditionally eaten raw, on the half shell, with une sauce mignonette (vinegar, shallot, and black pepper) or lemon. Along with them you will often have small slices of rye bread spread with butter. I had some rye flour in the house, so I decided to make my own rye bread. It worked out well, and we gobbled most of it up with our oysters and shrimp.

Fresh oysters, ready for steaming, or just opening and eating as they are.

We cheated a little with the oysters and opened them by lightly steaming them in a hot oven. They come out not quite raw, but also not quite cooked. They were delicious, and a lot easier to open than raw oysters. We ate the shrimp with a basil-flavored mayonnaise. I didn't take any photos of those, but they were very tasty. Today we will have our traditional New Year's Day meal of black-eyed peas made in the style of a southwestern French cassoulet, with duck confit, sausages, and pork.

Happy New Year!