Colours of Autumn...the farmers' market in Poitiers, 2006

The onset of autumn may see leaves yellowing and dropping en masse but at the farmers' market, it is the beginning of new tastes and colours for the cuisine-adventurers. Tomatoes of all shades that reds and oranges can give in the spectrum of light fire up the stalls selling vegetables. Ripe pepper bells in orange, yellow and reds; squashes of all colours, sizes and textures; radishes and parsnips - whites, fuchsias, violets, buttery yellows and even black; chrysanthemums of all shades, shapes and sizes; mushrooms with names and exotic parfum that screams 'taste-me!'; cabbages and artichokes; charcuterie; games; nuts of all kinds, etc, etc...the list goes on and on.

If one likes food, this is bonanza time. Fresh seafood, called fruit de mer (litterally fruits of the sea) are bountiful at the Atlantic coast of France where I used to live. There is a bewildering choice of oysters to choose from and what better way to discover French cuisine by starting with learning how to open an oyster yourself from the fishmonger himself (who will willingly teach you if you ask politely), digging into the mysterious French gastronomy - by starting with one of the most eaten hors-d'ouvre for Christmas: oysters. To discover that oysters have a wide range of subtle flavours and textures is in itself an eye-opener. But beware! Oysters must NEVER be eaten 'dead' as you may end up with a very nasty case of food poisoning. If they are not freshly opened and have been chilled for awhile on a salad tray in a buffet, don't go for it. A simple tap on the edge of its shell will easily show if the opened oyster's still alive -it can actually retract its muscle to react to your probing. If not, open it yourself! Below is a simple recipe for a sauce that I have adapted for eating with raw oyster so do enjoy!

Wine sauce for fresh oysters:
1 cup of chilled rose wine
a teaspoon of honey
a squeeze of lemon
one finely chopped shallots
finely cut juliens of young ginger
finely chopped coriander leaves
a pinch of salt for taste

Mix the ingredients well and serve with freshly opened oysters

colourful squashes for sale

These are not for Halloween. The nutty flavour of this pumpkin, called potimarron in French is good in pancakes, baking and soups.

Small red radishes are best eaten raw as salad or like the French, with a good salted butter and freshly baked baguette as an appetizer! They are most delicious using the simplest and unpretentious approach. The leaves attached to the radishes may be used for a soup and are seldom wasted. The French has incredible ingenuity when it comes to food as they have use for almost anything edible under the sun, a bit like Chinese...

Beautiful shades of pink to fuchsia radishes...

parsnips of divers shades...

Chrysanthemums - a Chinese cultural import that turned commercial and IS the flower used for Toussaint (1st November) to decorate tombs and cemeteries. Beautiful as they are, NEVER offer your hostess these stunners less you want to be mistaken for insulting them.

Noisettes, or hazels in a basket

Chou de milan, the Savoy cabbage, makes a fantastic wrapping for a baked potato dish, called a gratin in French: Blanch a few dark green leaves in boiling water to soften the leaves. Use them to line a greased baking tray.

For the potato filling:
boiled potatoes, roughly diced, enough to fill the size of the baking tray
roughly chopped heart of the Savoy cabbage
2 cloves of garlic with skin, smashed
1 shallot -chopped
1 cup of fresh cream
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

In a large casserole, melt a cube of butter and sweat the shallots and the garlic. Throw in the cabbage, stir well and saute until the cabbage it soften a bit. Remove and mix in the boiled potatoes, cream, eggs and the salt and pepper to taste. Fill the cabbage leaf-lined baking tray with this mixture, grate in emmenthal cheese and bake for about 25 minutes in medium heat in an oven until the mixture is well set.

Serve the gratin with butter sauce or simply au naturel.

Small violet artichokes are delicious and simple to cook. They are preferred over the large globe artichokes from Bretagne (Brittany) and here's an adapted Provencal recipe:

Serves 4

8 heads of violet artichoke, stem cut at the base of the artichoke. These need not be opened to remove the inner filaments called foin in French as their diminutive sizes made them easier to cook.
Lamb, diced (around 400 grams)
2 tablespoon smoked bacon pieces (called lardon in French)
1/2 cup black olives, unpitted
1 cup sieved tomato puree, easily obtained prefab from supermarkets, sometimes sold under italian name as passata
2 large ripe tomatoes, diced
1 large white onion, diced
3 gloves of garlic, simply smashed with the back of a cleaver, skin intact
1 cup white wine
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
bay leaves, rosemary and thyme
sea salt

In a cast metal casserole, sweat the garlic and shallots with the olive oil. Infuse this mixture with the bacon and herbs. Throw in the the diced lamb. Coat the meat well. Add the tomatoes and the puree, the artichoke, the olives and the wine. Add 1 cup of water, cover and bring to boil. Make sure that the artichokes are well coated and put the whole casserole in the oven and bake in low to medium heat for about 45 minutes. Serve with fresh pain campagnard or foccacia.

The cepes, called sometimes porcini (in italian) is a very aromatic autumnal bounty and it is extremely delicious in omelettes, stews or simply saute.

Trays of mushrooms

Musseron, one of the less aromatic, so less expensive variety. I remembered one day during the first frosts of 2004, I went mushroom hunting with my sister's friends at Soosay in the department of Haute-Vienne but it was really off season. Anyhow, we went, paniers at hand but we did not find much - a few chantrelles, one miserable pied de mouton and a bunch of half-frozen mousserons. Well, so much for bragging to us about their superb harvest in the woods but really, any real Frenchman would NEVER lead you to his real treasure cove as they guard their collecting sites like the secrets of a sunken treasure ship. Well, the story ends happily with a perfect mushroom ommelette made with musserons.

Here's my adapted version for the supermarket :

Serves 2 persons

4 fresh eggs: beaten in a bowl separately
Smoked bacon pieces
4 large fresh button mushroom - thinly sliced (called champignon de Paris)
1 medium sized leek, sliced thinly. Better still if you can find spring garlic (they look like baby leeks)
fresh herbs: thyme and finely chopped chives
fresh cream
Finely chopped clove of garlic and shallot (omit the garlic if you use the spring garlic in lieu of the leek)
salt and pepper

In a large non-stick frying pan, pour in some olive oil and stir in the chopped leek, garlic and shallot. When fragrant, mix in the bacon, stir well and distribute evenly over the frying pan. Pour in the beaten eggs evenly to make sure you have an even omelette. Next, place the sliced mushroom over this and sprinkle the herbs, salt and pepper over this. Cook only one side of the omelette. When the omelette shows sign of browning on one side, quickly pour the cream over the still moist and mushy side of the omelette, fold and serve hot with freshly baked bread and garden greens.

Pied de mouton

Trompettes de mort, litterally translated as 'death trumpets' but they are not poisonous despite their colours. They are delicious cooked in rabbit stew and mustard. Mushrooms must be eaten cooked but one mushroom, the button mushroom (champignon de Paris) can be eaten raw like a salad;

250 g fresh button mushroom, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 cup of fresh cream
fine sea salt
finely chopped chives

In a salad bowl, mix the cream, mushroom and cucumber together. Sprinkle with fine sea salt and serve at once, as the salt can cause the cucumber to leach liquid. This is a traditional dish that is often eaten in summer as it is refreshing.