The Prune Farm and Darren does a Flambé

 That makes it sound it like a dance actually, which would have been equally as hilarious.

I arose early on our first full day at Le Gargantua and got a good head start on the coffee. This turned out to be a good shout because the days events would turn out to be rather exhausting. 

Our morning excursion was to a prune farm and museum where we learnt all there was to know about prunes, literally everything. From harvesting plums, to drying and how the process has developed through the years as well as packaging and distilling to make ‘l’eau de vie. 

The Lot et Garronne area of France is famous for their prunes. However, plums did not originate in France and instead were introduced to the country when they were brought over from the east at the time of the crusades. 

The process of preparing prunes is a labour intensive process and therefore in the past have meant that prunes were a very precious commodity. To turn the plums into prunes they must undergo a drying process yet if the plums are allowed to get too hot they will turn to a mush. A method was therefore developed, way back when,  where there was a sort of rotating ovens that the plums could dry out in the heat yet be removed again before they got too hot. This ingenious process has been built on and adapted over time including a rolling oven and an oven that included a number of drawers which could be opened and closed t intervals. 

Now, we are able to regulate the temperature is set and therefore this is no longer an issue.  In case you were wondering, plums are dried out in ovens at a low heat of 75 degrees celsius for 24 hours. The finished prune is hard as rock but can be preserved for up to a year. These prunes are hard as rock though so will require rehydrating before being sold for consumption. 

Prunes would be making an appearance in the night’s menu and after loading up our shopping bags and lightning our pockets in the gift shop, we headed back for a scrumptious lunch of cream of cauliflower soup and a selection of delicious local cheeses and charcuterie from the region. 

In the afternoon we joined Marlene in the kitchen for our first cookery lesson. Well I say lesson, Marlene says bootcamp as she put us through our paces as we delved into the world of seasonal french gastronomy. 

The first dis to be addressed was the starter of Tarte Tatin de la Tomate. Tate tatins are traditionally made with apples for dessert yet the upside down tart dish could be made with any dense fruit or vegetable. 

We began by caramelising in sugar and butter yet as this was to be a savoury dish the sweetness of the caramelised tomatoes was to be counter balanced with just a splash of vinegar. 

The question remains whether or not Darren’s splash was significantly larger than everyone else’s splashes as we were met with the first (and only) flambé of the week. It was very impressive too! I wonder if his tarte tatin tasted particularly charred. 

One the tomatoes were prepared, we placed them in a small flan dish along with some garlic and seasoning and finished it off with a lid off puff pastry. Bake shortly before serving

The Torteinne Gascone aka Croustade is an apple and prune covered tart which is made with a very fine and delicate filo pastry case. We started the process by heating the apples with a little butter in a bid to dry them out. As the case of the tart is so thin we want the filling to be as dry as possible so as not to leak out. 

Once the filling was prepared, we prepared a glaze with butter sugar and Armagnac as well as melting butter to coat the pastry with. 

The filo pastry squares were folded in half length ways before being placed in the tin in a flower/sun formation and liberally spread with melted butter. As well as the prepared apples we also placed prunes in our tart before folding the pastry over the top whilst also creating a ruffled up effect by scrunching up the pastry sheets.  Finally we coated the top with our glaze before baking for 25 minutes. 

Last but certainly not least, we turned our attention to our main course; braised chicken in a white wine reduction. This was served with green beans and steamed potatoes. There simply wasn’t enough bread to soak up that heavenly sauce. 

me too mate, me too zzzz