from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Château de Valençay
In the department of Indre (Berry).
www.flickr.com/photos/sybarite48/8313808905/
Berry
Berry is a historic French province in
the Loire Valley that, during the French revolution, was divided into the two
departments. They are Cher and Indre in the administrative region of Centre-Val
de Loire. Despite more than two hundred years of administrative division, Berry
remains united in its cuisine.
How to get there.
Berry's old provincial capital was the
city of Bourges, now the prefecture, the department capital of Cher.
Châteauroux is the largest city in the department of Indre ad its prefecture.
From Paris, the departments are two-and-a-half-hours by car, and less than two
hours by direct TGV train.
Berrichonne's traditional dress.
Berrichonne the people and Berrichonne the Cuisine
Berrichonnes is the name given to the
people who live in the area and Berrichon was the language they spoke. That
language was a precursor of modern French. Berrichonne is the name of the
excellent cuisine that was and is still is being created in the area.
The cuisine.
Berry’s cuisine has well-established culinary
credentials, but like much of the best French cuisine does not cling to
a single style or type of recipe. Local dishes will often be assigned suffixes
that will show their origin. Your menu may offer dishes… du Berry or…. à la
Berrichonne. Outside of the area, Berry’s
name remains famous throughout France for its vegetables, freshwater fish,
cheeses, snails, and wines. When traveling in the area, local restaurants will
always include at least one dish with their famous green lentil, the Lentille
Verte du Berry, IGP, Label Rouge and their cheeses will include one their
five famouse AOP goat’s cheeses.
Your menu may offer:
Coq au Vin à la Berrichonne – Coq au Vin made with one of the red wines of
Berrichone.
Coq au Vin.
www.flickr.com/photos/nathan_y/5180111161/
Crème de Lentille Verte du Berry - A cream of lentil soup made with the green lentils of Berry. These yellow-green lentils
from Berry have a mild chestnut flavor, and they are France’s only label rouge,
red label lentil. These lentils were the first dried vegetable to be awarded
the Label Rouge for their consistent quality.
Cuisses de Grenouilles Flambées à
la Crème d'Ail Persillée – Frogs’ legs in a cream of garlic sauce flavored with
parsley and flambéed before serving.
Fricassée de Lumas à la Berrichonne – The local Petit Gris snail fried in butter and flavored
with garlic, parsley, sea salt, and pepper, often made with an added local white wine.
RIs et Rognon à la Berrichonne, En Croûte – Sweetbreads and kidneys, cooked in a pastry covering in the manner of Berrichonne.
Salade de Lentilles Vertes du Berry au
Chaud - A salad made with the green lentils of
Berry and warm goats' cheese. Your cheese plate or a restaurant’s cheese
trolley will include at least two of Berrichonne’s five famous goats’ cheeses.
Berry has quite a number of other excellent cheeses, and you may enjoy them
locally; unfortunately, most do not have the production required to receive a
national following. For more about the famous five, see lower down this post.
Green lentil salad with a walnut dressing.
www.flickr.com/photos/stone-soup/357601017/
Salade Berrichonne – A salad in the manner of Berry. The traditional version is a warm
goat’s cheese served with toast, on top of a poached egg, bacon, and tomatoes. The salad is flavored with nuts, cider
vinegar, walnut oil, and a small amount of mustard.
Like all salads linked by name to a specific area, there
are small changes in the recipe from chef to chef, and Berry chefs will also
make one or two tweaks to the original recipe. Ask how your Salade Berrichonne
is prepared; it should be close to the traditional recipe.
Tarte Berriaude - An apple tart flavored with
a cinnamon cream sauce. Occasionally this dish may be
served flambéed with Calvados,
France’s famous and unique apple brandy.
The
fish, frogs, and snails of Berry
Local chefs take full advantage of the freshwater
fish from the National Park of Brenne. The park has over 1,000 freshwater ponds
as well as freeing-running streams and freshwater fish-farms. From here comes
fresh carp, pike, eels, pike-perch, freshwater perch,
and frogs, here
uniquely called guernouilles; in the rest of France, frogs are grenouilles.
Local menus will also feature their lumas snails, the Lumas de Cluis, the local
name for their homegrown petit gris snails. Most
of these snails are raised in and around the small town of Cluis in the
department of Indre. Cluis has a number of snail fairs every year, but the big
one is the Fête Du Luma held
on 1st May.
Sandre
– Zander or Pike-Perch.
www.flickr.com/photos/marsupilami92/46524550024/
The
wines of Berry
Berrichonne is part of the Loire Valley, so even the house wines in small restaurants will usually be the excellent IGP Val de Loire wines. If you do want an AOP local wine, ask for the wine list and look
for a white, rosé or light red Sancerre AOP; a
white, rosé or red Menetou Salon AOP; a white Quincy AOP; a rosé or red
Châteaumeillant AOP or their white, rosé, and red Reuilly AOP wines. For those
who want sparkling wine, the nearby Crémants de Loire
are excellent whites and rosés sparkling wines.
www.flickr.com/photos/e_calamar/7073195509/
The
five most famous cheeses of Berry.
Berry has many wonderful goats’ and cows’ cheeses
though their internationally famous five AOP cheeses are all goats’
cheeses.
Pouligny
Saint Pierre AOP;
Selles
sur Cher AOP,
Valençay
AOP.
For ideas on taking French cheeses home, read my post
on Buying Cheese in France. Bringing
French Cheese Home and a Lexicon for buying French Cheese.
The
Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine cheese.
Listening
to French in Berry
You may have learned excellent French in school or
college; however, among themselves, the locals do allow old Berrichon words to
slip in, and that, along with local usage, may interfere with any
eavesdropping!
Visiting
Bourges the old capital of Berry
Bourges, the ancient capital of Berry, is now the prefecture,
the departmental capital of Cher.
Bourges has a fantastic history, a unique Gothic 13th-century cathedral, and is
set on the River Yevre. Of particular interest is the Marais Berruyers, the
marshes of Berry; there is no longer any marshland there though the name
remains. The marshes are an amazing agricultural area in the center of the
city, a 10-15 minute walk from the cathedral. Originally, this was a market
gardening center; now, it has over 700 private plots with some that include
amateur fish farms. You may visit and walk among most of the plots. Bourges is
250 km (153 miles) from Paris. With a direct TGV train, traveling time is 1
hour and 45 minutes, and by car two and a half hours.
The
cathedral of Bourges. (Cher).
www.flickr.com/photos/sybarite48/5026494266/
Visiting
Châteauroux the largest city in Indre
and
the Brenne national park.
Châteauroux was the largest city in Berry and now is the
prefecture, departmental capital of Indre. The town is set on the River Indre
and the edge of the Brenne national park. If you just wish to enjoy the country
travel slowly around the National Park of Brenne with its ponds, fields,
forests, and villages along with many small, but good, local restaurants. The
park’s English language website is http://www.parc-naturel-brenne.fr/en/.
A Squacco
Heron (ardeola ralloides).
In the
Brenne National Park.
www.flickr.com/photos/bensphotograph/25816609498/
The
Circus Museum
and
the annual Green Lentil fete in Vatan (Indre).
If you are traveling with children, the small town of
Vatan has a unique circus museum. Vatan is just 30 km, or twenty-five minutes
by car, from Châteauroux. However, when visiting the museum, do check its
opening times as they used to close daily for two hours for lunch! The circus
museum’s French-language website is www.musee-du-cirque.com/Vatan; it is easily
understood using Google or Microsoft translation apps.
On the second weekend in September, Vatan hosts the
annual Fete de la Lentille Verte du Berry à Vatan, the Festival of the Green
Lentil of Berry in Vatan. Their French language website is www.lentilleduberry.com/FR/esprit-terroir.html.
This green lentil was the first dried vegetable to be awarded the Label Rouge,
the Red Label.
The
snail fete, the Fete de Lumas, in the town of Cluis (Indre).
Cluis has several snail fetes every year, but the
largest begins on the first of May. The town also has a farmers’ market on the
first and third Sunday mornings of every month. The Berry Province French
language website https://www.berryprovince.com/agenda/fete-du-luma-cluis/ give
more information; it is easily understood with the Google or Microsoft
translate apps. You can write ahead for dates and information on all their
snail fairs to info@cluis.fr. They promise
to reply in English.
Château
Valençay and its gardens
The beautiful Château Valençay was once the home of
that consummate politician Talleyrand. Talleyrand: Charles Maurice de
Talleyrand-Périgord, Prince Benevento (1754- 1838).
See its English language website https://www.chateau-valencay.fr/en/preparer/prepare-your-visit/
Talleyrand was a gourmet and France’s first
internationally famous politician, as well as the first politician to use the
dinner table for political maneuvering. As a Minister, he first served King
Louis XVI but later supported the French Revolution and took part in writing
the Declaration of the Rights of Man. As a true Everyman’s politician, he later served Napoleon I as Foreign Minister, and then when the monarchy returned, served King Louis XVIII and King Louis-Philippe, Philippe Égalité.
One of
Talleyrand’s most famous quotes was:
L’Angleterre
a deux sauces et trois cents religions; la France au contraire, a deux
religions, mais plus de trois cents sauces.
The
English have two sauces and three hundred religions, while on the other hand,
France has two religions and more than three hundred sauces.
The nearby town of Valençay gave its name to the
Chateau. It is the only town in France to have an AOP for both its cheese and wine, as well as a chateau
named after it. The Valençay AOP wines are whites and reds and its cheese is
one of France’s most respected goats’ cheeses.
The main fountain in the grounds of the Chateau de Valencay.
www.flickr.com/photos/zigazou76/18620718256/
Champagne
Berrichonne
Look at a map of Berry, and you will see one large
part is called Champagne Berrichonne, and that causes some confusion. Champagne
Berrichonne has no Champagne; the word
champagne historically refers to a type of soil and the name was adopted
further north for the famous sparkling wine. Champagne Berrichonne is not a center for bubbling wine, or any wine for that matter, though it does have a micro-brewery. Champagne Berrichonne is a vast plain and a center for the cultivation of Berry’s famous green lentils and also their cattle farming. The
area is covered with hundreds of small lakes and is also home to the Pouligny
Saint-Pierre AOC goats’ cheese.
--------------------------------
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
Copyright 2010, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2024
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
--------------------------------
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