A Biological Multitool in the Strawberry Patch

A recent study has described the Migrant Hover Fly Eupeodes corollae (Fr. Syrphe des corolles) as a flying 'multitool', which offers pollination, can act as a vector for beneficial microbes, and is a biological control for grey mould disease in strawberries. Wow! Plus their larvae eat aphids!

 

 Female Migrant Hover Fly.

Scientists in Sweden used the hover flies to carry the yeast Metschnikowia fruiticola between strawberry flowers in greenhouses so it would attack the grey mould Botrytis cinerea. At the same time the hover flies pollinated the strawberry flowers. The flowers pollinated by the hover flies produce better quality fruit that is bigger and a more symmetrical consumer pleasing shape. Their results showed that the hover fly activity on the flowers significantly reduced grey mould on the strawberry fruit once harvested and in cold storage. This occured even without the yeast biological control, but was even more pronounced when the yeast was present.

This species is native to Europe, North Africa and Asia, and quite abundant. With the presence of active adults and larvae you can practice interated pest control in your own garden, and enjoy these little natural gems. 

 

 Mating Migrant Hover Flies in our garden.

The Migrant Hover Fly is, as the English name suggests, a migratory species and one of the two most abundant species of hover fly in Europe. Some years there will be massive numbers crossing the Channel from France to Britain. The adults are about 11 mm long, with yellow comma shaped marks on their abdomens.

Further reading: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10340-025-01971-6

Wild Strawberry Season is Upon Us

There are several wild strawberry species, but only one is worth eating, so it is worth learning how to identify them. They are considered one of the greatest treats you can wild forage, and archaelogical evidence suggests we have been eating them for thousands of years.

 

Barren Strawberry.

Around here there are three species that are frequently confused. They are Barren Strawberry Potentilla sterilis (Fr. Potentille faux fraisier), Mock Strawberry Potentilla indica (Fr. Fraisier d'Inde) and Wild Strawberry Fragaria vesca (Fr. Fraisier des bois).

 

Barren Strawberry.

One has leaves that look just like a wild strawberry plant, and white flowers that greatly resemble the true wild strawberry. Many people will delightedly leave these growing in their garden when they turn up, but then be disappointed because they never have any fruit. That's because they are Barren Strawberries and if you know what to look for there are ways of telling them apart by looking carefully at the tip of the leaves.

 

Mock Strawberry.

Then there is another one, which does have alluring looking red fruit, but when you eat one they taste of nothing. Luckily they aren't toxic, so you won't do yourself any harm if you eat them, but they are disappointing. These are the Mock Strawberries. They are not native, but introduced from Asia and have naturalised.

 

Mock Strawberry.

All these species grow in the same season, and in the same habitats. It is not uncommon to encounter a mixture of species growing intermingled.

 

Wild Strawberries.

 

So here are my top tips for telling them apart:

Wild Strawberries

1. White flowers with rounded petals which overlap.
2. Drooping or hanging conical fruit.
3. Strong sweet floral strawberry flavour.*

Mock Strawberries

1. Yellow flowers with a ruff of green bracts that sits just below the pointed calyxes and extend beyond the flowers.
2. Globular fruit on erect stems.
3. Insipid taste.

Barren Strawberries

1. White flowers with knotched petals that do not overlap.
2. No fruit.
3. Leaves have a central tooth at the tip which is shorter than the ones either side.
   

 

Wild Strawberry.

*I know most people who know Wild Strawberries rave about them and are thrilled to find them, but personally I find them a bit too soapy tasting. 

You should be aware that low growing wild fruit *might* be contaminated with tapeworm eggs (Echinococcus sp) due to the presence of wild and feral canids (foxes, stray dogs, wolves) in the environment. French people of a certain age may give you dire warnings of what will happen if you forage for fruit below knee height. In some families the parasite you are avoiding is liver fluke (Fr. douve de foie), which is transferred in wet environments from sheep. I would have thought all this applies equally to mushrooms, but I've never heard it mentioned in that context... And in the old days, the hideous disease you would be keen to avoid was rabies...

A Different Post About Food

Monday is the day we usually post about food. Today is the same, but different.

One of the side effects of hormone treatment for prostate cancer is difficulty controlling blood sugar levels. Recent studies suggest that using a common diabetes medication is beneficial in countering this effect. It isn't, however, part of an approved therapy for prostate cancer - yet.

My recent blood tests show that even after really careful diet control I have a problem. We have been on a no sugar, no high GI carbohydrates, high protein, lots of fibre diet for 8 weeks, and although weight loss has been noticeable, my blood sugar has been high while my energy level has been low.

Thus I am now officially diabetic, which is being treated with Metformin, the drug mention in the study linked to above. I have to admit the results so far have been subtle, but I think I'm noticing a difference.

Breakfast in preparation

I'm kind of enjoying my diet, although it is rather egg, cheese and meat heavy. Breakfast is a problem, unless I want to start having serious cholesterol issues. Thus if you're reading this soon after it's published I'm probably eating porridge oats with oat bran and Greek yoghurt, sweetened with a small amount of no added sugar apple pulp. It's better (just) than it sounds, and I refer to it as breakfast stodge. Susan has been cooking some really interesting diabetes appropriate meals, but we're still looking for a snack food that is tasty without being problematic.

Still - the cancer is being held at bay, and once the hormone treatment stops my pancreas should regain normal function, and we'll have killed two birds with one stone. (But hopefully not another kidney stone, because that's no fun.)

Getting That Cherry Ripe Vibe in France

Cherry season means cherry desserts. I had some blush yellow cherries from our local organic orchard Fruits Ô Kalm and the fruit flies in the kitchen were in plague proportions. So I stewed the cherries. Then I had the idea of serving them with whipped coconut cream. And just before serving I had the brainwave of grating a little dark chocolate on the combo. A total winner. Super easy, super delicious.

 

Ingredients

400 g sweet cherries

6 tbsp sugar

300 g coconut cream

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 squares of dark chocolate

 

Method

1. Break out your cherry stoning tool from the back of whichever inconvenient cupboard you've shoved it in. Set it up, then rinse your cherries and pluck their stalks off.
2. Run the cherries through the stoning tool, then put them in a saucepan with a dash of water and 4 tablespoons of sugar.
3. Gently simmer the cherries for 5 minutes, keeping an eye on them because they'll have a tendency to boil over.
4. Put the cherries aside to cool.
5. Put the coconut cream, vanilla and remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar in a high sided bowl.
6. Rummage out your electric hand beater and whip the coconut cream. This will take a while, longer than dairy cream.
7. Serve the cherries in bowls, topped with a dollop of coconut cream. Shave some chocolate onto the coconut cream using a fine grater.
   

Australians will understand the reference to Cherry Ripe. Everyone else is probably mystified.

ANZAC Biscuits

Since we are coming up to ANZAC Day, when Australians remember their war dead, on 25 April, I thought I would post a recipe for ANZAC biscuits today. These are delicious.

I copied the recipe from the back of a bag of flour, and it comes from the Country Women's Association, so it is the 'official' recipe. (In the UK the equivalent of the CWA is the Women's Institute, but I have no idea what the North American or French equivalents are.)

ANZAC Biscuits

Makes 50

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup dessicated coconut
125g butter
1 tbsp golden syrup
2 tbsp boiling water
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and lightly grease oven trays.
2. Combine flour, sugar, rolled oats and coconut.
3. Melt butter and golden syrup.
4. Add bicarb to boiling water and mix into butter mixture.
5. Stir into the dry ingredients.
6. Form the dough into large marble sized balls and drop onto trays, allowing generous room for spreading.
7. Bake for 10 minutes until light golden brown.
8. Cool on tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.
   

PS. ANZAC Day usually more or less coincides with la journée de Souvenir des Déportés in France, which commemorates the French men and women who were deported as forced labour, interned or sent to concentration camps during the Second World War.

Who Knew What the Wallpaper Would Tell Us?!

The other day we had lunch at Restaurant l'Image, just around the corner from where we live. Sections of the wall in the bar are covered with old nicotine stained wallpaper. It features couples in military uniforms dating from at least a decade earlier than I estimate the wallpaper was printed. Mathieu, the owner, reckons the wallpaper is original to when the building first became a bar, hotel and restaurant in the 1880s. But apart from that he didn't know anything else about it.

 

 'Infantry Regiment of the Line

Valor and Discipline

23rd Brigade'

So I decided to do a bit of research. A rummage through the online archive of the Musée du Papier Peint in Rixheim didn't reveal an exact match, but it was clear that stylistically the wallpaper dates from the 1880s or 90s. 

 

'Regiment of the Imperial Guard

Cavalry

3rd Squadron quartered at Nevers

 Company ?? the Emperor'

Members of this regiment are Elite Gendarmes, sarcastically nicknamed The Immortals by the rest of the army, because they rarely saw active combat. Their role is security for high-ranking officials and major towns (and today their equivalent is most visible internationally as the police* motor bike escort for the Tour de France cycle race and the Guard at the Elysée Palace, the official residence in Paris of the President of the Republic).

Then I discovered the Images d'Epinal, an enormous range of popular illustrations produced by a 19th century printing firm in Epinal. I'd never heard of them before, but they are iconic, collectible and easy to recognise. I've certainly seen them before without knowing they had a name. Their main output was postcards (and I assume, cigarette cards), but they did posters, illustrated stories and paper dolls too. They also spawned several imitators, so the wallpaper is 'in the style of' the original Images d'Epinal.

 

'The Emperor of the French Advance 27th Dragoon Regiment 

Colonel the Duke of F?

Shining, youth, ?? '

One of their best known themes was military scenes and uniforms, particularly of the Napoleonic era. They helped spark a wave of patriotism and pride in the French military at several points during the 19th century. The soldiers in their illustrations were always depicted in immaculate and scrupulously correct uniforms, looking dashing and often performing heroic acts. The illustrations on this late 19th century wallpaper are deliberate nostalgia. But rather than being from the time of Napoleon I, they show military uniforms from the time of his nephew, Napoleon III, who reigned from 1852 to 1870. Romantically, the wallpaper shows couples - a male soldier, and a female cantinière, in their respective uniforms. In real life army regulations required that a cantinière was married to a soldier in the regiment that she served in.

 

You can see the nicotine staining very clearly in this photo.

Cantinières are combat auxiliaries associated with the French army for centuries up to the First World War. Mostly their role was unofficial, but their heyday was during the Second Empire, right at the time this wallpaper depicts. During that period they were an acknowleged part of a regiment, with a uniform and the right to march with the troops in parades. Their job was to provide sustenance, to make sure the soldiers were kept supplied with sufficient nutritious food to stay fighting fit. Unofficially they also provided nursing and first aid. They set up their tents (canteens) anywhere that their regiment was, including at the front line. As well as meals and drinks they might also provide other essentials such as stationery for writing home, tobacco, and just a nice warm friendly place to take a break, especially in the days when the regiment advanced rapidly and soldiers were forced to leave their personal tents behind.

Cantinières carried a tonnelet (small barrel) of brandy on a strap over their shoulder. This was their trademark and made them easily identifiable. They were business women, independent of their soldier husband, and undertook to buy and sell provisions as the regiment performed their military duties, either from barracks or on campaign. Some cantinieres carried muskets and were perfectly prepared to fight as well as cook.

These women became icons of popular culture, and from the mid-19th century, when brands and advertising in the modern sense were being invented, idealised cantinières were frequently deliberately associated with comestible products. This indicates that the public view of the cantinières was positive, the idea being that these women were experts in nutritious, wholesome victuals. Even so they were sometimes inauthentically depicted in advertising wearing long skirts and riding side saddle, in order to avoid any accusations of unladylike behaviour.

In modern times, if people have heard of cantinières, there is almost always the assumption that they were camp following prostitutes. However, there is no evidence that this was the case, and if they had been it is the sort of thing that would have been commented on at the time.

Further reading: The great expert on French cantinières is the American historian Thomas Cardoza, so if you are interested in the subject then seek out his book Intrepid Women.

Note that in English these women are generally referred to by the old French term for them which is vivandières. For practical purposes in French the two words are interchangeable, but the term vivandière may have been dropped because it was seen as being associated with the Ancien Regime (Bourbon rule) and the term cantinière is associated with the Napoleonic Empires.

*Yes, I know that the Police and the Gendarmes are two different organisations in France, but for practical purposes the Gendarmes act as the Police in anglophone countries would in this situation.

God's Feet

There is Camembert and there is Camembert. Or more precisely there is Camembert and Camembert de Normandie. The poet and gourmet Léon-Paul Fargue, writing in the first half of the 20th century referred to 'Camembert, the cheese that smells like God's feet'. He was doubtless referring to good artisanal farmhouse Camembert, as industrial Camembert often smells of nothing at all. 

Farmhouse Camembert that adheres to all the rules has to be 50% milk from Normande cows pastured in Normandy, unpasturised, made in Normandy (the départements of Orne, Manche, Calvados, Eure and Seine-Maritime), and created by carefully hand ladling the curd into the moulds to drain in four separate stages. To distinguish it from the ubiquitous industrial stuff, the artisanal cheese is called Camembert de Normandie and has an AOP. Some of the industrial producers where allowed to 'cheat' and label their product 'Fabriqué en Normandie' to fool consumers not paying attention, but this is no longer allowed.

Around 170 000 tonnes of Camembert is made in France, of which 100 000 tonnes comes from Normandy, and 10 000 tonnes is made from raw milk. It takes two litres of milk to make one Camembert cheese.

The cheese is named after a village in Orne, which is said to be where it was first made. The story goes that a priest from the Ile de France fleeing the Revolution was sheltered by a young dairymaid. To reward her he gave her the recipe for the Brie that his abbey made. In this new location, with different milk and different local fungi, Camembert was created. Camembert is made in much smaller rounds than Brie too. Brie is a cheese you buy triangles of, Camembert you buy whole. The downy white rind is a penicillin mutation, and has been favoured for commercial and aesthetic reasons. Customers are less attracted to the blotchy cheese that a standard penicillin would give.

To make the cheese the milk is semi-skimmed then innoculated. The gentle ladle by ladle filling of the moulds means that small air holes are present between the layers. This is a sign of quality. The moulds are allowed to drain for twenty hours then the cheeses are tipped out and coated with fungal spores and salt. They are left to mature for a minimum of 21 days.

The finished cheese will be a thick disk weighing 250 grams and with just 4% fat. The downy crust is lightly marked by the straw lined racks the cheese has been sitting on to ripen. The cheese should give a bit when pressed but should not run when cut (unlike Brie). Inside it should be pale yellow, sometimes with a white streak through the middle. Camembert is often sold too young, and as a consequence can have an unappealing flouriness.

It is sold in wooden boxes, an idea the producers adopted from Mont d'Or, which enabled the cheese to be shipped to the big city markets, especially Paris, on the train and arrive in perfect condition in the 19th century. As a consequence, Camembert has become ubiquitous in France.

It's good to eat all year round, although apparently real gourmets spurn Camembert made in the spring. Traditionally it is eaten with the famous reds of Bordeaux and Burgundy.

Apero

 Apéro. It's a legendary part of the French lifestyle.

Want to feel embedded in la France Profonde ? Here's what you should be drinking at apéro in the late afternoon/early evening, before dinner...

If you are young it's easy. Beer. Doesn't matter what sort.

If you are, say, 50 or over, and middle class, Suze or Lillet is a good choice. Bitter orange flavour. To read my previous post about Lillet click on this link:   https://daysontheclaise.blogspot.com/2023/09/lillet-makes-comeback.html

Pineau des Charentes covers all the bases, especially in the south west where it is made. Favoured by women, and is a bit like sherry. To read my previous post about Pineau des Charentes click on this link:   https://daysontheclaise.blogspot.com/2012/01/pineau.html

Pastis is mainly drunk by older blokes. It's aniseed flavoured.

You could also choose half and half white wine and limonade known as a vin limé (note that limonade is not lemonade). Or a kir which is white wine with a dash of the blackcurrant liqueur called cassis. A kir royale is with sparkling wine and a kir cardinal is with red wine.

If like me you opt for alcohol free these days you can try some nice herbal non-alcoholic vermouth with tonic. Or for a more traditional drink, a diabolo. This is sparkling water with a fruit or herb flavoured syrup. The national favourite is mint (menthe). Everyone from old men to small children drink this. I go for strawberry. To read my previous post about Diabolos click on this link:  https://daysontheclaise.blogspot.com/2023/02/diabolo.html

 

I'm a fan of citron pressé too (fresh lemon juice with sugar and water) but I rarely see it offered any more. It disappeared about a decade ago.

Early Spring Forest Walk

On 9 March Simon, Dotty and I did a 2 kilometre circuit in the Forêt de Preuilly. The Wild Cherries Prunus avium (Fr. Merisier)  had just come into flower but I didn't get a decent photo. And the wild garlic, known as Ramsons in English, was covering a huge swath of understorey around the damp confluence of the Sauvaget and another small stream that both rise in the forest.

 

 Blackthorn Prunus spinosa (Fr. Prunellier) blossom.

There were lots of these White Asphodel Asphodelus albus (Fr. Asphodèle blanc) leaf rosettes which had simply punched their way through the dead leaves from autumn.

A White Asphodel just coming into flower.

Ramsons Allium ursinum (Fr. Ail des ours) as far as the eye can see. I foraged a dozen leaves to have with soft fresh local goats cheese.

Ramsons growing on the stump of a fallen tree.

Wood Anemones Anemonoides nemorosa (Fr. Anemone sylvie), a sign of a stable, biodiverse, long established woodland habitat.

Wood Anemone.

Spanish Slug Arion vulgaris (Fr. Loche méridionale), a species with an undeserved bad reputation, due to several misunderstandings of its behaviour and origins.

Ramsons and Cheese

It's the season for foraging the wild garlic known as Ramsons in English. In French it is called 'ail des ours' (bear's garlic) and the scientific name, Allium ursinum reflects a similar idea. The plant is found in large colonies, in damp shady places such as alongside streams flowing through woods. It is one of the few wild plants that I have no qualms about people harvesting, as many locals use the same site I do, and there is clearly no damage to the numbers of plants or their environment being done. It is abundant and occurs in many places.

This year I took a dozen leaves and on the suggestion of a friend, chopped the Ramsons finely and combined with soft fresh locally produced goats cheese. This makes a good dip or spread. If you don't have access to good fresh goats cheese, well drained cottage cheese would do.

Foraging for Wild Plants in Spring

With the spring comes the possibility to forage for wild edible plants. This is increasingly trendy and last year's booklet of nature outings published by the Département of Indre et Loire was full of workshops and outings to teach the public how to forage for edible plants and how to prepare them.

 

Autumn Crocus photographed in March.

Part of being able to forage for edible plants is knowing how to correctly identify them and not poison yourself. Between 2020 and 2022 there were 28 cases of poisoning, resulting in four serious cases of liver damage and two deaths, because people mistook toxic Autumn Crocus Colchicum autumnale (Fr. Colchique) leaves for the delicious edible garlic flavoured wild leaf of Ramsons Allium ursinum (Fr. Ail des ours). There is a risk of mistaking Wild Arum and Lily of the Valley for Ramsons too.

People mostly make pesto with Ramsons, but it is also used in salads, sautéed or in quiches. One simple way to tell if you have Ramsons is to rub the leaves between your fingers. This should produce a strong garlic smell. If it doesn't, do not eat your harvest.

 

Ramsons.

Autumn Crocus leaves are stiffer, slightly fleshy, with rounded tips and no stem. Ramsons leaves are pointed ovals, with stems. 

The French Anti Poison Centres recommend the following as best practice:

• make sure you know the plants you harvest well.
• check each leaf for a smell of garlic by rubbing it between your fingers.
• don't cut the leaves in handfuls, to avoid cutting several species at once and mixing the toxic with the edible.
• if you have any doubt about the identification, don't eat it!
• stop eating it immediately if you experience any bitter or unpleasant taste.
• photograph what you pick to facilitate identification in case of poisoning.
  

Hachis Parmentier

Just out of the oven, made in one of those big paté dishes that
the charcutiers give away once the contents have been sold.

Hachis parmentier is a French family favourite, the equivalent of the anglophone Shepherds Pie. The main differences are that there are often multiples of both the mashed potato and the meat layers. In my version I've made a savoury mince filled mashed potato sandwich, with top and bottom being thick layers of mash, with a thin layer of meat in between. And that's another difference with hachis parmentier - the proportion of meat to potato is often that the potato is far more substantial than the meat. My version uses 1.5 kg of potatoes and only 500 g of meat (with lots of diced and puréed vegetables added) and serves 6.

A healthy dollop of classic comfort food,
and more for the freezer.

Apparently hachis parmentier entered the French culinary lexicon in the 18th century, and is named in honour of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, who championed the use of potatoes as cheap, nutritious and filling back in the days when they were still considered unsafe for human consumption in France. Like Shepherds Pie, it is traditionally made from leftover meat (usually a beef stew in the case of parmentier). Any leftover vegetables and gravy are gladly added for colour and flavour. These days it's probably more often made from scratch with purchased raw minced meat. This is certainly what I did, using chair à farcir (pork mince, literally 'flesh for stuffing').

Jelly Cakes

Jelly Cakes are, as far as I know, an old fashioned Australian speciality. A sort of pink raspberry flavoured alternative to the lamington (invented by a French chef in Australia -- see my previous blog post on the subject https://daysontheclaise.blogspot.com/2020/12/lamingtons.html).

 

Jelly Cake recipes are to be found in old Australian Women's Weekly or Country Women's Association (CWA) publications. Here is the one I used https://www.thecookingcollective.com.au/jelly-cakes/.

Jelly is not something French people understand or get on with in the way Australians do. Aussie jelly comes in packets of flavoured and sweetened crystals to be made up by adding water, so it mystifies British people too, who are used to a sort of gelled concentrate.

Anyway, a kind friend sent several packets of proper Aeroplane brand jelly crystals, so I made a trifle with one packet, and some jelly cakes with another. 

I filled my jelly cakes with whipped coconut cream, adding vanilla, sugar, whole raspberries and raspberry coulis. Coconut and raspberries is a nicer combination than dairy cream and raspberries in my opinion.

Further Reading: The story of Aeroplane Jelly on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroplane_Jelly.

Fish Pie

 The fish, vegetable and white sauce filling for the pie.

 

We love a good fish pie, ideally with a mixture of smoked and oily fish with veggies in a white sauce, and topped with mashed potato. So when I found some smoked haddock at the supermarket, I quickly put together the other ingredients and made fish pie. Smoked haddock is a treat which I don't see very much here, so I was delighted. And when I do come across it, it is generally artisanal rather than industrial, so even more of a treat.

 

Ready for the oven.

 

Ingredients

1 kg potatoes, scrubbed, peeled (optional) and cut into 5 cm chunks

125 g butter (50 g for the mash, 50 g to sweat the veggies, and 25 g to dot on top)

1 tbsp olive oil

100 g cream

 500 ml milk (for making the sauce, but use 3 tbsp in the mash)

A pinch each of salt and ground white pepper

150 g smoked haddock

200 g salmon

An onion, sliced

A bay leaf

A leek, cleaned and sliced

A large carrot, cut into dice

100 g frozen peas

3 tbsp flour 

1 tbsp chopped fresh herb (optional, whatever you fancy, eg parsley)

A few drops of bottled lemon juice

Method

1. Turn the oven on and heat to 190°C.
2. Boil the potatoes, drain and mash with butter, cream, milk, salt and white pepper.
3. Skin the fish.
   
4. Bring the milk to boiling point in a large saucepan and add the fish, fish skin, half the onion, and bay leaf. 
5. Reduce the heat and simmer for 6 minutes.
6. Heat butter and oil in a large pan and soften the remaining onion, leek and carrot for 15 minutes, on low heat with the lid on, stirring occasionally.
7. Using a fish slice remove the fish from the milk and set aside.
8. Add the flour to the veggies and mix it in well.
9. Cook on a low heat for several minutes.
10. Gradually strain the warm milk into the veggies, stirring constantly.
11. Simmer for a few minutes to thicken.
12. Add the frozen peas to the veggies in sauce.
13. Break the fish into chunks and gently incorporate into the veggies and sauce.
14. Pour the fish, veggies and sauce into a large deep oval pie dish.
15. Sprinkle herbs and lemon juice over the fish mixture.
16. Carefully cover the pie with mash, a spoonful at a time until the whole surface is thickly covered.
17. Go over the top with a fork to both even it out and ensure rough bits which will brown in the oven.
18. Dot the top with the remaining butter and place the dish on an oven tray because it will bubble up and over.
19. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
20. Serves six, with steamed broccoli.

 

Mash ready to dollop on top.

Creme Caramel

Crème caramel is a truly classic French dessert, served in restaurants from the humblest workers canteen to the fanciest high end classical French cuisine establishment. They are also made at home by those who enjoy cooking for their family or entertaining. A crème caramel is welcome on any dining table, and it is in many ways an archetypal French dessert -- small and dairy based, a few creamy sweet mouthfuls to properly round off your meal. The few ingredients necessary will be in everyone's pantry and kitchen -- sugar, milk, eggs and vanilla. It's not difficult to make perfectly edible crème caramel. It does take practice not to over cook them and make perfect crème caramel.

Here are a couple of recipes that I've used and I know work. They give you a classic crème caramel. If you are nervous about turning them out, don't bother. The caramel will still be there in the bottom of your dish.

https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/french/creme-caramel

https://www.pardonyourfrench.com/creme-caramel-recipe/