All Together,at Casa Sola

24/09 – 08/10 2014

The Introduction

Before we commence this tale, we should provide some background info

Where: La Casa Sola, Arles-sur-Tech, Pyrénées Orientales, France

When: September / October 2014

Why: For fun, walking, great food, excellent company, but no daily swims!

“Beyond the house is the Party, and that added to Tim and Leslie's great idea and work. Made me think of near Mediterranean house parties of the 20's, 30's as written by Gerald and Sarah

Murphy in "Everybody was so Young" (doesn't apply to us, and Picasso did not drop in ... though we had a glimpse of Dali) or and Sybille Bedford's "Quicksands" and other books.

A rare treat.”

- Jancis

Most importantly, who?Tim & Leslie aka The Responsibles! Without Tim and Leslie's vision to bring together a diverse range of people from across the world, (annually in autumn), who this unique and incredible couple have met, known, befriended, worked with, engaged with, sailed with (and much more) since the 1960s, none of us would have likely have ever met! Additionally, they are the Ping Pong champs.

Jancis & Millard – inspirations, wonderfully bizarre anecdotes, retro bowls, frozen peas.....

Diana – botanist, culinary whizz, linguist, pasta advisor.....

Cathy & Larry – hard walkers, Cap de Creus explorers, providers of insights about religion, law, and more.....

Betsy – our talented in-house artist, photographer, video monkey....

Ann & Bernard – les chefs oooh lala, sommeliers, translators, with a car packed full of goodies.....

Sue – moonwalker, storyteller extraordinaire, summat magical to do with sheep...

Lins – that'll be me. Unwalker, youngest, ever curious, techie, wannabe writer.....

Where to begin?The transatlantic flights began arriving around 8am at Barcelona Airport...three flights bearing the American party goers. The national flight from Malaga had already arrived so, once all had met up, we piled into the hire van/bus and set off north through Cataluña towards the border at La Jonquera and hence to the Pyrenees.

So much catching up to do amongst old friends, especially once Jancis, Millard and Lindsey realised they had met before - in Washington on the Borka trip! Navigation was a doddle, once we had escaped from Barcelona, and before very long we were into la belle France.

La Casa Sola proved to be easy to find; less easy to enter! Once penetrated, the house offered 2 swimming pools, steep stairs to the top floor and plentiful, comfortable accommodation. A great find by Leslie.

The view was also perfect and captured by Betsy over the coming days.

Time to shop! We ventured down to Amelie les Bains to explore supermarket options and had soon filled a trolley with goodies, beer, wine and possibly the best bread we found all trip from the tiny boulangerie nearby.

View from the terrace

Amelie, as a spa town, was full of infirm wrinklies, staggering around on their walking sticks, awaiting their appointment in the thermal baths, perusing souvenirs. Not so our group! Only one minor infirmity, soon solved with a pack of frozen peas for Millard – the top item on our shopping list.

With jet lag on the horizon, an early night was avoided with food, wine and a huge assortment of maps, pamphlets, tourist brochures and information to wade through – so many plans to make and walking routes to consider.

And then there was bridge to play.

Perchance it did not begin that first night, but if so, it must have been the only night that bridge was not played at the table in the sitting room!

A fixture for each evening...some of us endeavoured to learn simply by listening, others to improve their game and bidding with surprisingly cool discussion of previous hands, and all enjoyed the comfortable scenario provided by that hardcore bridge group each night. Often, late into the night....

Meanwhile, others read their Kindle, local and international newspapers, books, or engaged in discussions and banter which ranged from stiff economic insights peppered with recent statistics (Millard – how do you keep all those figures in your head and to hand so easily?!) to menu planning for coming days, tales from the outside world, or anecdotes from previous and present lives.

No question could remain unanswered for long, or crossword clue unsolved (ahem! Mea culpa), because we had a stable wifi connection that gave everyone who needed it internet access. A must when booking holiday accommodation these days.

WalkingThe scribe of this aide memoire for a special time is ill-equipped to comment on the lengthy walks undertaken by the group during the fortnight. Lack of footwear – stupid oversight – and a burning need to write not roam are valid excuses, non?! Luckily, Ann and Bernard shared the interest in 'shorter walks' and all of us visited market towns too to enjoy the food markets, churches, fortresses, postal museums, and local 'fiestas'.

Ranging cross-border into Spain, up hill and down dale, through forests, gorges and along cliffs, following well-traversed trails and unbeaten paths, regularly passing through fungi foraging country, as well as town walks, fortresses, lighthouses and lunches, the walkers returned each day with strange, wondrous tales of all that they had passed.

And often bearing the most bizarre, probably highly toxic, species collected en route to lay on the outside table or in the street for us to gawp at, google and touch only with protection before assigning to the bin.

Millard dreaming of peas!

And.....time to relax!

We ate.....oh, did we eat! And fantastically, in this modern world of convenience food, time pressures, and general idleness in the kitchen (not in our group, I must add), we only ate out one evening. Every other meal was prepared in the Casa Sola by extremely talented chefs, delighting us with recipes from around the world.

Cheese and Flognarde (although I still think it is almost a Bavarois)

Cheese – of every type you can possibly imagine. Goat, sheep and cow. Especially Tomme.

Pâtés, terrines and an astoundingly good homemade foie gras (Les Glycines in Arles)

Bread and croissants – fresh from the village every morning. Or brought on our travels.

Salads – fresh ingredients, imaginative combinations, mouthwateringly good, wholesome, fresh food.

And we haven't even started yet!

Maminade (or 'onion tart' – an English name which fails to do this dish justice)

A family recipe and delicacy named after Bernard's mum, Mamie. Who can forget

watching this be made with the solid silver (OK, maybe not!) pastry beads laid on top to create a pattern designed in itself to feast upon before you got your paws on this oh so moreish yumminess?!

Highly irregular to put the explanation for the * above the text, but here goes. Some may have missed the conversation in the kitchen regarding pastry. French, Italian, English and Spanish versions of flaky, rough puff, puff, shortcrust etc were under discussion.

Flour to fat to water, should you use milk, bake blind, suet vs butter, etc. Family recipes, regional specialities, what pastry to use when ….

It turns out that pastry is a hugely complex subject that puts the simplicity of world economics to shame!

Either use good-quality ready-made fluff pastry* or make your own equivalent

•PASTRY (I use a fork for mixing these):•1 cup plain or self-raising flour•1 tsp baking powder (optional for added lightness, nearly like a fluff pastry)•1 egg•2 tbsp olive (salty) or sunflower seed (sweet) oil•1 tbsp milk (skimmed ok), optional•1 tbsp water •In a bowl, pour the whole flour and baking powder, mix quickly with fork or fingers, dig a hole in the middle, break the egg in whole and with the fork, beat it by itself first, then gradually incorporate the flour that surrounds it. When the mixture starts resisting, pour the oil in, 1 tbsp full at a time, until it gets incorporated. Add one liquid at a time (either water or milk can be used, or both, depending on the environmental moisture that day, and should be used to make the dough more supple). Roll into a bowl, flouring it gently all around, incorporating flour further if you feel it still sticks too much to your fingers or the bowl. Flatten and roll on a floured board.

•Options on top: thin raw onion ringlets or cut lengthwise, chopped olives, chopped anchovies, thinly sliced saucisson or sausage, sparse tuna crumbs, grated parmesan or cheddar, various seeds, finely chopped fresh parsley or coriander- in fact, anything you can lay your hands on. For instance, one half can be one thing, and the other, something else.

•Dough can be pre-baked on its own for 5-7 minutes for a drier, biscuit-like taste

•Bake another 10 mns or so, depending on the topping.

•Cut out in losanges while still hot

•EAT!!!!

M...m...m.....mayo!!!First and foremost, who can even think of the Casa Sola mayonnaise without their mouth beginning to water?!

No excuses now – here is the recipe for the most incredible mayo any of us have ever had the privilege to taste.

(And you all know this came from Ann and Bernard!)

1 egg yolk1 tbsp good mustard (try Maille's Moutarde fine à l'estragon)sunflower seed oil (avoid any strong-tasting - olive, walnut, etc.)salt, pepperoption: light whipping cream, finely chopped chives, a little garlic, another good vinegar (try Maille's Vinaigre à la framboise)

•in a bowl, pour the yolk (with no white whatsoever) and the mustard.•Whisk well•Start pouring the oil direct from the bottle VERY GENTLY AND CONTINUOUSLY while whisking - avoid stopping. The mixture will eventually start to thicken.•Keep on pouring the oil in the same flow while whisking until the mixture starts looking like mayonnaise. The more oil you will add, the thicker will be the mayonnaise.•For a lighter mayonnaise, separately whip the equivalent of a yogourt pot (125g) of light whipping cream which you'll add to the mayonnaise. This adds in quantity and lightness.•To this, you can then add any one of the above other options, preferably one only to enhance the original flavour.

Flognarde aux pruneaux (Auvergne)

Ingrédients• 50 g de pruneaux d'Agen• 50 g de raisins de Corinthe• 50 ml de rhum• 2 œufs• 50 g de sucre• 1 pincée de sel• 50 g de farine• 1/2 litre de lait• 10 g de beurre

Ustensiles• 1 bol• 1 saladier• 1 plat à gratin

Préparation1. Dans un bol, faire tremper les raisins et les pruneaux dénoyautés dans le rhum

pendant au min 1/2 journée ou mieux depuis la veille si c'est possible2. Préchauffer le four à 220°. Dans un saladier battre les œufs avec le sucre jusqu'à

obtenir un mélange mousseux puis ajouter la pincée de sel et la farine en fouettant bien pour ne pas faire de grumeaux. Délayer avec le lait. Ajouter le mélange raisins, pruneaux, rhum

3. Garnir un moule beurré et faire cuire 30 mnBien laisser refroidir puis servir dans le plat.

http://lacuisinedannie.20minutes.fr

Potaje – Canarian version of the French potage

Lentils

Onions

Garlic (at least one bulb)

Chorizo

Lardons /chopped up bacon

Veg (whatever is available)

Stock

Herbs, spices, salt, pepper

Soak lentils, if required. Fry onion with garlic, coriander, garam masala etc until soft. Dice carrots, and briefly fry with lardons and chorizo. Add lentils and stock. Season. Take one garlic bulb (whole), remove 'paper' and slice gently lengthays down each clove. Put entire bulb into contents of pan. Depending on cooking time for veg, add during cooking time eg hard veg (potatoes, turnip, sweet potato etc) early, then softer veg (spinach, greenery, etc) near end of cooking time. Fight over the garlic cloves.

Most important pasta lesson learnt in Casa Sola

Never, ever (on pain of death) mix different types of pasta in the same cooking water. Ever!

Still to come

Sheep

Cap de creus

Dali

final thoughts from emails etc.