12 French Weekend French Week December 10-16, 2010

Jill Colonna’s RecipeChocolate Macaron

with mango and passion fruitAs well as flavouring the cream with passion fruit,

reserving the juice and pulp of one fruit to garnish thisdish is an attractive and mouth-watering addition.

Ingredients:

For 6 large chocolate macarons:50g egg whites33g caster sugar60g ground almonds90g icing sugar4g unsweetened cocoa powderBrown food colouring

Mango and passion fruit cream:Half a ripe mango3 passion fruits2 tbsp caster sugar250g mascarponeCocoa powder or grated coconut to decorate

Method:Prepare the macarons. Jill’s basic macaron recipe is sixpages long – too long for this column. See the book* forperfect results, or just: � Sift the icing sugar and cocoa into one bowl.� Whisk the egg whites in another, add the caster

sugar and whisk into peaks.� Fold the first gently into the second, adding the

ground almonds and food colouring.� Spoon into a piping bag. When using the piping bag,

start working your way out from the middle in aspiral shape to form a larger circle about 6-7cm indiameter. Baking time will be between 10-15minutes at 160°C, depending on your oven.

� When cooked, set the macarons to cool on a wiretray.

For the cream:� Mash the mango and sieved pulp of 2 passion fruits

with the sugar and mascarpone. Whisk togetheruntil light and fluffy.

� Serve on top of each giant chocolate macaron anddribble the pulp from the last passion fruit over it.

� To garnish, dust the plate with dark cocoa powderand grated coconut. You could also add fine sliversof the other half of the mango.

� Chill for about 1 hour before serving.Serve with a late harvest Gewürztraminer or other

dessert wine, eg Rivesaltes, Banyuls, Maury or Rasteau.

* Read Jill’s tips at http://madaboutmacarons.combefore you start, and see page 14 for her book.

This unobtrusive little brown bird (or ‘LBJ’ in birders’parlance, meaning ‘little brown job’) is anotherunusual winter visitor to parts of lowland France.

As its English and French names suggest, it is an alpinespecies, being the mountain cousin of the dunnock orhedge sparrow, a common resident throughout Britain and France.

At around seven inches long, it is rather larger andbulkier than the dunnock, while its plumage is a little moremarked. It has a blue-grey head with a brown-streakedbody. There are two narrow, white wing bars with a darkpanel between them. This latter feature and the pale throatwith dark barring (hence the Latin name ‘collaris’),separates it from its commoner cousin. The bill is alsostronger and has a yellow patch at its base. It flies stronglyin a shallow undulating thrush-like style.

The song is similar to a hedge sparrow, a simple butpleasing musical warble, often delivered from the top of arock or in a fluttery song-flight. The name ‘Accentor’ wascreated from the Latin word ‘cantor’ meaning ‘singer’.The call resembles a skylark and is a short bubbly trill. Thealpine accentor feeds on insects and small plant seeds as itwalks and hops quietly on the ground.

It breeds high up in the mountains between 1,200 and3,600 metres, generally above the tree line and often closeto old snow patches. It is widespread in the Alpine andPyrenean ranges and is also present in Corsica, the Jura,Vosges and Massif Central. Its habitat is rocky alpine

grassland, even close to human habitation such asmountain huts, where it may forage for picnic scraps.

I have found alpine accentors without much difficulty,high up in the Pyrénées on the Col de Tourmalet, close tothe famous ‘Tour de France’ route. It nests among rocksand is believed to be largely monogamous – unlike thevaried marital arrangements of its common cousin thedunnock. In the winter it drops down the slopes and ismore likely to be seen, as it often frequents ski resorts. Itis regularly found in small groups at this time. In somewinters it disperses further afield and like the wallcreeper(French Week issue 18), can be found in lowland Francefar from its mountain breeding stations. In the Dordogne itsometimes appears in the central valley around the bigchâteaux. In fact, there are widespread wintering recordsof this species right across France.

David Simpson (audave2505@yahoo.fr) rents a holiday cottage for wildlife loversnear Lalinde in Dordogne, (www.ownersdirect.co.uk Ref. FR3444), as well asleading wildlife trips and holidays. He is the author of ‘Birding Dordogne’ availablefrom BirdGuides: www.birdguides.com.For information on wild birds in France seewww.lpo.fr

David Simpson’s

Birds in FranceAlpine AccentorAccenteur Alpin / Prunella collaris

We’ve had the first few days of cold and snow fallsto let us know that winter has arrived.Nevertheless, it’s still possible – and a good idea –

to plant trees and bushes whether container-bred or bare-rooted.

In the vegetable garden: few vegetables can be sown orplanted out now, but you can plant out cabbages, with strawaround the base, for a late crop. You can try ‘frost sowings’,too – carrots, blettes and beetroots, which won’t germinateuntil the spring – during the cold weather. Cover them withtree branches to protect them from being flooded out andwashed away. You can still plant out bulbs for the spring.

Dead leaves can be left in clumps at the base of shrubsto rot down, or put on the compost heap or a separateleafmould heap.

Deciduous trees can be pruned but only to removediseased branches, for training young trees, or to reducevolume where necessary. Don’t prune woody plants: youwill weaken them by destroying their reserves.

Conservatories and greenhouses with hibiscus,bougainvillea and other plants which are sensitive to thecold need to be heated at night to between 0 and 5°C butremember them too in cold daytime temperatures.

If you have not already, be sure to drain any buriedirrigation systems and disactivate them by removing thepower source. Insulate outdoor valves and pipes. Wateryour indoor plants less as the daylight diminishes, but besure to keep the foliage misted or wiped over to counteractthe dry air which central heating can produce.

Have a great festive December and... happy gardening.

Jobs in the garden by Jean-Yves Meignen, gardener at Valsaintes Abbey

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Top cheese-maker sticks up for real Camembert

From December 8 to 19, Hervé Mons, a cheeserefiner based in the Rhône-Alpes,celebrates his tenth anniversary as

Meilleur Ouvrier de France. He’s using this asan opportunity to support the DefenceCommittee of Real Camembert deNormandie. With the respect for traditionand taste, the qualities of authentic farmproduction, he is sponsoring PDOCamembert from Normandy. Mons, withshops in Lyon, Roanne, Renaison andMontbrison, is donating 10% from the sales of hisspeciality cèpe Camembert, refined over a 10-yearperiod, to the Committee.

Francis Rouchaud, president of the association,strongly supports the development of a

Normandy Camembert made with top-qualityraw milk which will effectively restore thecheese’s credentials and help to assign thePDO (Protected Designation of Origin)based on traditional farm production.

The committee also seeks recognitionfor farm products as ‘exceptional products’

and feels lucky to have Hervé Mons, well-known for making his voice heard, as their

spokesman.www.my-fromages.com /

http://veritable.camembert.free.fr AOP: Appellation d’Origine Protégée.