We have returned from France

The highlight of our trip was attending a cooking school given by Susan Herrmann Loomis in her home on Rue Tatin in Louviers, Normandy, France.  There was a total of 6 students (including me).  That was all that her large and well appointed kitchen could easily hold. It would be hard to imagine a more interesting and congenial group.  The theme was mushrooms.  On the first day we prepared and ate:


Lunch

Roasted Almonds with Fresh Thyme
Rabbit Liver
Morels and Comté on Grilled Toast
Rabbit Fricassee with Mushrooms
Lettuce Salad with Walnut Oil Vinagrette
Camembert Cheese  & Grapes
Normandy Apple Custard
Wine: a white Pays d'Oc


Dinner


Mushroom Soup
Artichoke & Mushroom Salad
Duck with Cepe Powder
Grilled Cauliflower
Lettuce Salad
Two Cheeses: Neufchâtel and Livarot
Poached Pears
White wine from the Loire
Red wine: Plan Pegau


We finished at about 11 PM.  At that point I felt that we had been in class for a week.


The next morning we went on a mushroom hunt in the forest surrounding Louviers.  An amazing success.  In about an hour we had more mushrooms than we could ever use.  Returning to the kitchen, we cleaned and baked the cap of a giant white mushroom and also sautee'd sliced cepes.  Then we stood in the kitchen and ate them with a glass of white wine from the Loire.  Pure heaven!


Then we went to work and prepared a dinner of:


Hanger Steak roasted with Duxelles
Beet and Watercress Salad
Cheeses: Olivet with Smoked Hay, Brie de Melun
Tarte Tatin
Red wine: Clos de l' Anhel from Corbiers

The third day we went to the weekly market in Le Neubourg and picked up things for a "picnic lunch".  Returning to the Louviers, we stood in the kitchen and ate sliced raw scallops, baked scraps of pastry, Omelet with Mint and Mushrooms, and slices of various local sausages.  All this was washed down with hard cider.  This was followed by our picnic lunch of:


Sautee'd Chanterelles
Baked Scallops with Black Truffle Butter
Mushroom Tarte Tatin
Black Radishes with Butter
Mussels
Braised Endive
Three cheeses
An Apple/Chocolate desert made by Susan's daughter, Fiona.


By this time, although three days had passed, we had done so much and had so much intellectual stimulation that I felt we had been there for a month.


(In the photo above, Brooke Young- anther student- is on the left.  Susan Herrmann Loomis is on the right.)