Villefranche-sur-mer 2020 - 4 Flying Chicken Dinner

Dear Friends,

We have been enjoying our time here in Villefranche as usual.  We have had a couple of unusual adventures, though.  One Saturday, we took a cooking class in Nice from Rosa Jackson.  She has a school in the old town of Nice called, Les Petit Farcis.  She has a variety of courses including many trips.  You can learn more here.

We met Rosa at the Liberation Market.  We had never been there and were blown away by its size and the scope of the food products.  Our goal was to purchase the ingredients for the lunch we were going to make for ourselves (with lots of help from Rosa and her assistant), but we also got a great feel for the market.  We had our choice of many different fish including all of these.

Sea Urchin

Skate Cheeks

Turbo

Sea Bass

We decided on the sea bass, and the seller filleted it for us immediately.

The market also had an incredible assortment of vegetables and herbs.

With our bags and bags of supplies, we took the tram to the old town of Nice where Rosa's kitchen is located.  Everything was ready for us to begin our lesson and our preparations.

We started by preparing the ingredients for the pumpkin soup.

While it was cooking we moved on to preparing the vegetables we would have with the aioli we also made.

Carrots

Turnips

Purple brocoli

Once those were ready to cook, we had to prepare some pancetta for the soup.

The soup tasted even better than it looked, and I think it looked great.

Then it was time for the fish course.

The preparation is easy since it was perfectly filleted when we bought it.  You coat it with coarse salt for 20 minutes, rinse the salt off, dry it, sauté it in olive oil and voilà.

You serve it with the potatoes, vegetables and saffron aioli, and everybody is delighted.

Then comes the cheese course.  The strange thing in the middle of the biggest piece of cheese is a fig.  It was great.

In our spare time as we were preparing the other ingredients, we made a fruit salad to have with the cheesecake we made.  This cheesecake was made with ricotta so it was much lighter, and it had no crust.

What a wonderful day we had.  We learned about how to go to a big market and select ingredients.  We learned how to cook a delicious meal.  We ate a fantastic lunch.  Then we had to go home and take a nap.

Thinking that our market and cooking skills were at their peak, we decided to have a dinner party for some of the friends we have met here over the years.  So we planned the meal carefully - just a small amount of cheese, crackers and olives, followed by roasted chicken with fennel and clementines accompanied by rice, and roasted romanesco and baby tomatoes; and for dessert Montana Mom's Dynamite Cheesecake with fresh berries.

The day of the party arrived.  I had forgotten during the day before that the cheesecake need to rest for 12 hours in the refrigerator before being served.  I made part of it the night before and added the topping at 7 in the morning so it could have the full 12 hours in the refrigerator.

After breakfast we had our detailed shopping list, and many bags to carry things in, so off to Nice we went.  You may know that they are having nationwide strikes over the changes that President Macron wants to make to the retirement plans.  Normally you know a day ahead if the railroad or buses are going to be on strike the next day.  We were relieved when we saw the train running in the morning.  When our bus got us to the Port of Nice, we got off to transfer to the tram.  The first sign of trouble was that people were riding their bikes on the tram roadway.  Well, there was not a strike that day, but there was a protest in the middle of Nice so the tram was not working.  It is a very long walk from the port to the Liberation market so we decided we would go to the Saleya market which is in the old town and only about a 15 minute walk away.  It is also a great market.

As we walked through the old town, we bought some spices and herbs.  Then we added a bottle of champagne and limoncello.  When we got to the market, we added the clementines, fennel, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, lemons, shallots, onions, romanesco and flowers.  On the way back to the bus, we stopped at an incredible cheese store for some wonderful cheeses.  By this time, I was feeling the weight of all our purchases which was confirmed when the cheese guy said I was a pack horse.  However, we weren't done yet.  We still needed the chicken.  So we stopped by one of the better known meat markets.  Now we were fully loaded down for our walk back to the bus.  Fortunately, there were seats on the bus, although with all the bags we were overflowing ours.

Once we arrived home, we set the table.

It looked beautiful even though we had to mix and match some napkins and silverware.  We then prepared the vegetables and the roasted chicken with fennel and clementines.  I even took time to arrange the fennel and clementine slices in an attractive manner in the big pyrex casserole.  The great thing about this chicken dish is that you put it in the oven and take it out 45 minutes later and serve it.  There is no fussing while the guests are looking.

The guests arrived.  One brought some homemade crackers (made from an old baguette) and a paste of squished olives.  Everybody smelled the delicious chicken dish so didn't eat too many hors d'oeuvres.  Finally the time came to serve dinner.  I went to the kitchen, opened the oven door and was very pleased to see that the chicken was nicely browned and the dish looked great.  I pulled the oven rack out part way, admiring my work, when all of a sudden the shelf tipped up and the casserole slide silently but unstoppably to the floor.

Notwithstanding my disappointment and embarrassment, I am proud to say that I did not utter a single bad word.  Our guests enjoyed a terrific vegetarian meal.  We finished off the hors d'oeuvres, and had a nice plate of rice, tomatoes and romanesco.  Our guests were very understanding, but one commented that the rice and vegetables would go great with chicken.  Of course we finished off the meal with the cheesecake.  I have to say it was great cheesecake despite the fact that some of the ingredients called for by the recipe were not available.  We have never found graham crackers in France.  At Jane's suggestion we substituted some ricotta for a third of the cream cheese, making it perfectly light.  Everybody enjoyed it thoroughly.

So all's well that ends well.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

Villefranche-sur-mer 2020 - 3 A photo tour of Villefranche

Dear Friends,

Villefranche is a very photogenic spot.  Everyone knows how much artists love the light on the Côte d'Azur.  The light is exceptional.  Unfortunately since I am not Ansel Adams, my photos do not do it justice.  Our apartment balcony faces east.  Here is a not atypical sunrise.

Here is the view from the balcony as the sun is setting behind us.  In case you are wondering the photo is of a compound for a single family.

The hills above Villefranche are quite steep, and the colors change with the time of day.

At the beginning of the month the moon was rising early.

We just past the full moon, and it is now rising later so the sky is dark when it arrives.

There is not a lot of visible wildlife, but the sea gulls love to glide on the updrafts in front of our apartment.

The flowers even in January are quite beautiful and plentiful.

The harbor at Villefranche is the only natural deep water harbor on the north coast of the Mediterranean.  In the winter there are not a lot of tourist boats, but there are an assortment of boats just hanging out for the winter.

At one time the town had over 30 families that made their livings fishing.  There are now just a couple, but they go out a few times virtually every day.

There are some well known landmarks for us in Villefranche.  The Hotel Welcome is probably the best known.  It was the home to many celebrities and artists when they visited Villefranche and occupies a premier spot on the bay.

Of course religion played a big part in the history and life of Villefranche.  The main church with its bell tower is easily seen.

Jean Cocteau was a very well known artist who spent lots of time in Villefranche.  In addition to doing a lot of paintings in the Hotel Welcome, he completely decorated a small chapel on the waterfront for the fishermen, Chapelle de Saint-Pierre des Pêcheurs.

Since I enjoy playing pétanque while we are here, I have to include a picture of the members only pétanque club.  I have never played there, but I pass by it on my way to play pétanque with a certain amount of envy.

No group of photos of places in Villefranche that are important to us would be complete without a photo of the apartment where we stay.  It is the more orange building with the green shutters.  We have the top floor.  If you look closely you can see one of my shirts hanging out to dry in the front and the rest of our laundry drying to the right.  

As you walk around Villefranche you are almost constantly surprised by yet another fabulous view.

As the only natural deep water harbor on the north coast of the Mediterranean,  Villefranche has a long history of building and maintaining ships and boats.  It still has a working harbor with in the big bay referred to as the Darse.  To get to the Darse you must pass by this landmark.

The Darse is full of boats, big and small, utilitarian and beautiful.

I hope you enjoyed this little pictorial tour of Villefranche.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal