Pommeau

Pommeau is a mix of apple juice and calvados, a brandy made from apples from the French région of Basse-Normandie. It's technically a mistelle. There are only two Appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC): Pommeau de Bretagne, and Pommeau de Normandie.

Pommeau is consumed as an apéritif, or as an accompaniment to blue cheese, a Stilton in the above photo.

Haas' Super tosti

Making a tosti seems straightforward enough. However, a good tosti needs some attention. Tomatoes are forbidden. There is too much water in tomatoes. It'll make the tosti mushy.

Get the best bread possible. I used sliced Grand-mère (white) baked by Vlaamsch Broodhuys. It's a traditional sourdough bread.

Assemble the tosti: slice of bread, a slice of a good quality young farmer's cheese, you need the rubbery texture when the cheese melts, some slices of good quality ham (not glued together in a factory), red onion, thinly sliced, another slice of cheese, slice of bread.



Butter BOTH sides of the tosti and fry in a pan.



Flip over frequently until both sides are golden brown.



Perfection!

Chateau Le Clou Monbazillac, sweet white wine

Sweet white wine Chateau Le Clou, 2005 Monbazillac, Dordogne, France. Organic wine producer, the vineyard was established in 1622.

Small 37,5 ml bottle (9,80 euro). The website hasn't been updated in a while. The last sweet wine mentioned (2001) is made of 70% Sémillon, 10% Muscadelle and 20% Sauvignon Blanc.

Drank with old Roquefort cheese and chocolate-raspberry (birthday) cake. Excellent wine, beautiful golden color. Will certainly buy again.

Winter cheese 'vacherine' and red wine

I bought some vacherine cheese and a bottle of red wine, which should go well with the cheese.

The wine (a Beaujolais): Morgon 2006. Le Clos de Lys. Domaine J. Chamonard, propriétaire-récoltant à Villié-Morgon (Rhône).

It's an excellent wine, about 16 euro's in The Netherlands. Probably 10 euro's in France. A very light-bodied wine. Highly recommended.

Made from Gamay grape (?), which has a thin skin and few tannins.

Red table wines & Pinot Blanc

Domaine Deshenrys. Vin de Pays D'oc 2003. Merlot. Languedoc-roussillon. Bouchard & Fils. [used in Red Cabbage stew: one red cabbage (shredded), 200 ml. red wine, one large apple, one large onion, 100 gram butter, one tbs red wine vinegar, bay leaf, salt, pepper, nutmeg. Simmer for 3 hours. Add sugar to taste. From: La Vraie Cuisine Francaise by Robert J. Courtine. Dutch translation: De Echte Franse Keuken (Bruna & Zoon, 1963)] I don't know, the red cabbage remained quite sour and bitter despite the long cooking time. It took 3 full tablespoons of sugar to make it edible. Not really my favorite, maybe my cabbage wasn't too tasty to begin with (bought in supermarket).

Finished the remainder of the wine with blue Stilton cheese from Nottinghamshire. This Stilton is soft like butter, which means it has aged a further 5 weeks (or more?) after the usual 9 weeks it takes to make blue Stilton. Amazing cheese! Omelette with Stilton is brilliant. Beat the eggs, pour in a pan and add plenty of cubed Stilton. Fry with the lid closed.

Domaine Siméoni. Vin de Pays de l'Hérault. Mas Siméoni 2006. Organic wine. [okay but not great, won't buy again.]

White wine. Domaine Rieflé. Pinot Blanc 2007. Bonheur Convival. Vin D'Alsace. [will keep for choucroute garnie Darn, already opened it. It's a lovely wine, quite fruity and will be excellent with choucroute but also on it's own. Drink at slightly warmer temperatures: 10 degrees. Also excellent for asparagus]