What goes down in Argytown...

April 20, 2008

Our move to Argy has been a big change from our wonderful two weeks of homestays in Bordeaux. For one thing, it is cold here and rains a lot. The town of Argy is very small, and all we can see from inside the walls of the château are the roofs of a couple of houses and the sign for a pizza restaurant that is always closed. They’re pretty big walls completed with a pretty big gate.

Adjusting to our new very structured schedule in Argy has been difficult. Our first week here has been a chain of illness and blisters, and the work is challenging and messy. There is so much work that has to be done ; we arrived for the three busiest weeks of the year leading up to the renaissance festival in may. We are building a picnic area and creating games for the garden. We have been scraping paint off of beams, peeling wall paper, painting, plastering, sealing windows and avoiding cobwebs. There are a lot of cobwebs.

With so much work to do, we have to maintain our energy by eating a lot of food, so everday two of us work in the kitchen preparing massive amounts of French delicacies (not including escargot or frogs legs). A few things we have made are Boeuf Bourguignon, Quiche Lorraine, Gratin Dauphinois and Blanquette de Veau. Jack and I would like to think we make a pretty good Blanquette de Veau, and they say that if you can make a good Blanquette de Veau, all is well. Mmmmmm. When the sun was out, we had a picnic.

The château is beautiful, and the grounds are huge. There are two resident peacocks who make a lot of noise, a lot of interesting looking ducks who leave little presents EVERYWHERE, and one very lonely donkey. Unfortunately, once again, there is not a washing machine here, and Colin ran out of clean clothes two days ago.

Taking a break off of work Saturday afternoon, we got the opportunity to split off into groups of two and three and explore the area with local families. Carly, Rebecca and Joanna visited the Château Valencay with their family, and then ate way too much. Rachel and I visted Loches and got to see the nice dungeons. Jack and Tamara visited the mansion of George Sand and two medieval churches with remaining 12th century frescoes.

After dinner each night we play games for an hour or so, and we have played a lot of games with a lot of yelling, screaming and blindfolds. We also played dodgeball, which hurt. Saturday night we did a little medieval dancing, and Jonathon, our leader, taught us a little bit of the «danse techtonique » which is all the rage in France right now. Or so he says.

We celebrated two birthdays this week : Joanna’s on Monday and Rachel’s on Friday, and Jonathon spent all day in the kitchen creating a monster of a cake : double layered with whipped cream and berries and nuts and chocolate and wow it was amazing.

We thought it would be nice to share a recipe each week, but remember if anyone actually tries this, all of the quantities are meant for 15 people, so downsize accordingly. We also don’t have a cookbook or anything, so a lot of the quantities are estimated.

Blanquette de Veau
(serves 15)

5 lbs small veal steaks
5 heaping spoonfulls of flour
8 cupfuls of water (not measured cups, just drinking glass cupfuls)
2-3 cups white wine
18 carrots chopped a la francais
2 onions chopped
4 big mushrooms, peeled and sliced
3 cubes of boullion

Place a large pot on the stove and add enough oil to cover the bottom. When heated, add the veal. Cook the veal just until the outside is completely white and a little golden.

Add the 5 spoonfuls of flour one at a time, stirring to cover the meat after each spoonful.

Add 6 glasses of water to the meat. Mix the remaining two glasses of water in a bowl with the three cubes of boullion and add to the meat.

Add the wine.

Cover and let cook for 5 minutes.

Add the carrots and onions, cover and cook for an hour and a half, stirring every so often.

For the sauce : after the veal and vegetables have cooked for an hour and a half, laddle some of the liquid into a sauce pan and place over the heat. Add flour and whisk until it has the consistency of gravy. Continue adding liquid and flour until the desired amount is reached. Take off the heat.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice.

Bon chance,
Emma