L'Ancolie Restaurant, Cruseilles

Having lived in this region now for 5 years I am wondering how I managed to miss this wonderful restaurant.  It is one of those places that I have been thinking of going to but as I don't pass it regularly it drops off my radar.  Well...having eaten there twice now in under 2 weeks, I won't be forgetting again!!

L'Ancolie restaurant is also a hotel and it is built in the traditional wooden alpine chalet style   It sits beside a tranquil lake on the outskirts of the town of Cruseilles in the Haute Savoie.

My first visit was for lunch on a rainy day, but we had a circular table in the large picture window which ran the length of the restaurant and watched the mist rolling on and off the lake.  There is a choice of menus and at lunchtime from Tuesday to Saturday there is the Saleve* Menu created daily according to seasonal produce. Everything is made there in their kitchens including the bread.  This is a very good value for money option with a choice of 2 courses for €23.95 or 3 for €29.95 which we all thoroughly enjoyed.

The choices on this particular day were a smoked duck breast salad with a fruit compote and celeriac remoulade.  Fillets of Fera (a white freshwater fish) followed by a rhubarb tart and rhubarb ice cream.   However this was all preceded by a delightful amuse de bouche which comprised marinated salmon, and savoury pastries and all followed by a gorgeous little plate of petit fours.  So this 3 course lunch menu soon became 5 courses!  
The restaurant itself is light and airy, some may say the decor a little dated, but I love the fact that the emphasis is placed firmly on the food and service and not a trendy decor.  The service was very good and friendly, professional and attentive whilst not being too formal.

L: amuse de bouche           

Below: smoked duck breast        

R: fillets of Fera served with vegetables and rice

 L: rhubarb tart

 R: petits Fours

A little celebration dinner was in order last week and with the tastes lingering in my mouth from my previous weeks lunch I called L'Ancolie for a dinner reservation - et voila! now I get to try one of the other menus!!

amuse de bouche with beetroot

avocado, tomato and mango with grilled prawn,
quenelles of crab perfumed with wild garlic

reblochon wrapped in filo, potato, emulsion flavoured with lardons,
local smoked ham - this was like a 'deconstructed tartiflette

So this time we went for the Menu Les Usses* this is a menu with 3 choices of starters and main courses, again with everything freshly prepared.  This menu offered the choice of having 3, 4 or 5 courses.  Again this was all preceded by an amuse de bouche and finished with petit fours. The price range of this menu is €44.85 - €58.50

slow cooked lamb shank in a jus perfumed with rosemary

mille feuilles of pear with a vanilla mousse and pear sorbet

homemade sorbets and ice creams

chocolate fondant with a banana sorbet

petits fours including home made raspberry macarons

There is another menu named Les Allobroges* which offers the 'top end' dishes using ingredients including lobster, foie gras, turbot... This menu ranges from €58.50 - €73.80.  There is also a few classic dishes on a la carte section and an invitation to enquire about a dish you would like if it is not on the menu.

I'm hoping my next visit to L'Ancolie restaurant will be arranged for a sunny day so that we can sit out on the lovely terrace taking in the tranquil scenery, looking at the Saleve mountain and the lake.

I would thoroughly recommend this restaurant and if you find yourself visiting the Haute Savoie, their hotel is in a good location mid way between Geneva and Annecy and we are surrounded by beautiful scenery in this region, well worth a visit.

If you have visited any good restaurants in this region that you think I should go and try, please leave me a comment to let me know.

I loved the use of these menu names depicting regional places and history.
*Saleve This is a small pre-alpes mountain in the Haute Savoie around Cruseilles
*Les Usses is a river which runs through Cruseilles, with its source just east of the Saleve.
*Les Allobroges is a gallic tribe of ancient Gaul dating back to the First Century BC that was located in the Haute Savoie

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A Tradition in the village and Fête du Pain

In the Cernex village square there is a wonderful big wood oven and every spring at the Vide Grenier (the french equivalent to the car boot sale) it is fired up for the day to produce the most delicious fougasse bread, by a local baker.  

This is a great day out for the family in our village as apart from the stalls set up by locals selling their goods and chattels, it is really a social event to raise money locally.  There is a bar, crêpe maker and various other snacks and drinks for sale.

I thought it appropriate to write a post about the fougasse and bread now as May 16th is the Saints Day of Saint-Honoré, the patron saint of bakers and in France this is a staple that deserves to be honoured and it is during the week of this Saints day that the week long 'Fête du Pain' is celebrated all over France.
This festival of bread was created in 1996 by Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the then Minister for small business and artisans.  the idea of the festival is to meet the bakers, learn about their business and their products, in an informal 'open house' and friendly way.  It is also the opportunity to learn about the business opportunities, training and qualifications and to encourage the younger generation to become bakers.  So where ever you are in France this week stroll along to your local baker and enjoy the ambiance of the fête. 

Bread in France is an important part of the culture. Here are some interesting stats, 
taken from the website  Boulangerie.  In France there are close to 33,000 bakers with 37,000 points of sale offering bread daily. In fact more than 15 million people visit a boulangerie/pâtisserie (bakery) in France every day!

The Fougasse is a flat bread typically associated with the Provence area but each region has its own variations. The fougasse is normally the shape that resembles an ear of wheat and it is closed like a calzone and filled with savoury things like cheese, lardons, olives etc.  It is baked in a wood fired oven and has the distinctive woody flavour.

I am planning a more in-depth look at french bread and bakeries as I have been invited to go 'behind the scenes' and talk to our local village baker. Watch this blog!

Have you come across the Fête du Pain anywhere in France? 
Let me know if you would like to know more about any specific french foods.

yum...Wild Garlic

Taking walks around the Haute Savoie are truly wonderful.  The breathtaking views, fresh air, mountain scenes and tranquility of the countryside, coupled with the wildlife, flora and fauna make walking in this part of France a 'must do' when visiting this region. 

Left: Lake Annecy                                                          Right: a walk in the woods at Presilly

Some of this said wildlife, flora and fauna is not only edible but delicious.  I'll work my way through some recipes on my blog in the future but having found wild garlic growing prolifically on my dog walk in the last few weeks, I decided to pick* some and see what I could make.

Wild Garlic

Wild garlic or Allium ursinum to use its Latin name is a wild relative of the chive family native to Europe and Asia. It is also known as bears garlic, wood garlic, ramsons, buckrams and broad leaved garlic.  The latin name is due to the brown bear liking for this plant and digging up the bulbs.  They are also a favourite of the wild boar known as the 'Sanglier' in France.  The Sanglier features on the Chasse menu in the autumn during hunting season here.
The wild garlic plants grow in woodlands and flower in the spring before the deciduous trees have their leaves.  The air in early spring is filled with their garlic-like scent. The leaves are similar to the lily of the valley and the flower heads are a round ball, but only contain flowers no bulbils. 
The leaves are edible and the flowers and bulbs are tasty too.  the leaves can be used as a salad, boiled as a vegetable like spinach, used in soups, or used in pesto in place of the basil.  There is a Cornish Yarg cheese which has a rind coated in wild garlic leaves.  

Recipe for Wild Garlic Pesto

2 or 3 handfuls of wild garlic leaves
Extra virgin olive oil
50g pine nuts (you could try any other nuts hazelnuts would be nice)
75g freshly grated or roughly chopped parmesan

Whizz up the wild garlic leaves, pine nuts and parmesan in a food processor or crush in a pestle and mortar, season with black pepper and add the olive oil to form a think paste.  

I drizzled the pesto over a soup, also tossed it through pasta and spread it onto french toasts and topped with sun dried tomatoes.  Pesto is the most versatile and tasty ingredient to jazz up many dishes.  The flowers make a great garnish.

*Always pick wild flowers and plants responsibly, don't take the roots or bulbs and take note if you are in a conservation area and adhere to the rules so that we can all enjoy nature for years to come.

Maison Carrier, Chamonix

Oh wow!! where shall I begin... Sunday lunch was booked in a great restaurant in Chamonix by friends, who kept telling me how much I was going to love this place!!  So I was really looking forward to my visit to Maison Carrier in the beautiful ski resort town of Chamonix in Haute Savoie. 

Firstly the location: Chamonix itself is a wonderful vibrant town nestled in a valley and flanked by the most dramatic mountains either side, including the peaks of the Aiguille de Midi and the north summit of Mont Blanc.  Chamonix is one of the oldest ski resorts in France and was the site of the first Winter Olympics in 1924.

Chamonix offers tourists year round activities including some of the best skiing for all levels in various different areas, including the well know Argentiere area for the more accomplished skier.  Visits via the Montenvers railway to the Mer de Glace glacier, the spectacular cable car up to the Aiguille de midi and for those extreme skiers access to the world famous off-piste run the Vallée Blanche.

In the summer months Chamonix is a mecca for mountaineers, hikers, mountain bikers and many other outdoor sports. The town of Chamonix offers a great selection of shops and restaurants, most of which are open practically all year round.

So...back to lunch!
The restaurant Maison Carrier is the 'restaurant de pays' of the Hameau Albert 1er Hotel, their other gastronomic restaurant has 2 Michelin stars!  Guess where I want to eat next?

The Maison Carrier serves traditional french cuisine in a wonderful farmhouse with mountain architecture, setting the scene of a bygone era. My impression of the atmosphere in the restaurant was that it was warm, friendly and although a fairly large restaurant it had a cosy feel and I loved the montagnarde style furnishings.  

They describe their food as 'montagnarde cuisine' however I would say it is slightly more refined and in some ways a slightly fusion more modern take; all beautifully presented and using the same wonderful local and Savoyarde ingredients. 

           

  Amuse-bouche
 There are delightful dishes on their menu like dandelion salad, a selection of Grandmother's tarts and always a great selection of Savoie cheeses.  There is an element of very traditional french with one whole pork menu offering the 'top to tail' pig.  

Half smoked and half pan fried salmon, broad beans and pancetta, 
cream with pink berry

from the 'whoe pork' menu - pigs trotter with bearnaise sauce

The service was good, friendly and informative when clarifying what was what on the menu! The restaurant has an upstairs area, where we were seated which was light and airy and had a great large oval table making sociable dining for a large group, but downstairs is where more of the 'buzz' is.  

There is a wonderful wood burning open fire for cooking the meats which were hanging from the high beams.  A great array of stunning desserts laid out around a pillar made a real feature in the restaurant. 

Roast duck breast with Mondeuse and damson juice

Rack of lamb spit roasted over the open fire, pea puree,
crystallised root vegetables

Savoie Cheeses       

Desserts!

This was a most enjoyable and thoroughly French dining experience in a great restaurant.  Chamonix is well worth a visit at any time of the year and and a good lunch always makes a perfect day for me.

Diots - roasted one pot dish

I have been enjoying finding new ways to cook this savoyarde sausage called Diots, pronounced Deeyo.  The traditional savoyarde dish is Diots au Vin Blanc, check out my blog post and recipe.

Diots can be cooked in the same way as most other sausages and they have a dense texture and full strong meaty flavour.  I used Diots nature in the following recipe, you could maybe try this with Diots Fumé too (smoked Diots).  

Roasted Diots recipe

8 Diots, nature
1 red pepper - deseeded and chopped into large pieces
1 yellow pepper - deseeded and chopped into large pieces
3 red onions - peeled and cut into wedges
4 whole peeled garlic cloves
olive oil
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
handful of fresh cherry tomatoes
250ml of vegetable or chicken stock
2 teaspoons of sugar
A good squirt of balsamic glaze
handful of basil

1. Put the oven on at 220°C or 200°C for fan oven.

2. Put the Diots, chopped pepper, garlic and onion wedges into a roasting tin and toss with a dash of olive oil and roast for 20 minutes.

3.  Turn the oven down to 200°C or 180°C for fan ovens.  Take the roasting tin out of the oven and then add in the tinned tomatoes and whole cherry tomatoes and the stock.  Sprinkle over the sugar, some basil leaves and the squirt of balsamic glaze, then season and stir well.  Roast in the oven for a further 20 minutes. 

4. Sprinkle more fresh basil leaves over the dish. This would be good served with the Savoie special pasta called Crozets or baby roasted potatoes, or crusty french bread and a green salad...

Serves 4
Preparation and cooking time 50 minutes
this dish is suitable for freezing

Please look for and like my facebook page to see more recipes and photos from the Taste of Savoie kitchen: https://www.facebook.com/TasteofSavoie
This recipe is a variation that I have adapted from a recipe I found in Easy Cook part of BBC Good Food

Ô Calme, Carouge, Geneve

Just popped over the border to the wonderful little town of Carouge* in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland for a guided tour of the town (in french) and a great lunch in a tiny bistro called Ô Calme, which stands for Comme a la maison and translated into English means 'like at home'.  You walk through the front door straight into the kitchen, then through to the cosy dining area with a lovely ambience and some great modern art on the walls.  There is also a wonderful enclosed garden eating area.

The menu is simple and the food is well prepared and all made there.  It is attractively presented and really tasty.  I have never seen such large scrummy looking quiches.  There is a good selection of large main course salads.  There is a soup and quiche de jour everyday and also a formule degustation which comprises, soup, quiche, mixed salad and cake maison for 25 chf.  

Ô Calme serve a breakfast until 11am and at weekends a great brunch menu.  They are open from Monday - Sunday 10am - 6pm, but they will open for an evening for a reservation of 20 people or more.  I would suggest making a reservation for lunchtime.

They are situated at 36 Rue Ancienne, 1227 Carouge, Switzerland Tel: 0041 22 301 22 20.

Visit their website to see the menu and for more details: Ô Calme

Goats cheese and roasted vegetable quiche

really tasty apple and lemon cake

Roulé de feuille de brick et salade mêlée

*The town of Carouge dates back to the middle ages, but the town as it stands now was built entirely by The King of Sardinia and the Duke of Savoy starting in January 1786. It  has approximately 20,000 inhabitants and is a thriving small town with a great market on a Wednesday and Saturday in the town square.  Wandering around the small streets you will find some fabulous individual boutiques and shops.  This small town is listed as a Swiss heritage site.  

                                                               

  

Biscuit de Savoie

The biscuit de Savoie, is really a cake, a very very light sponge cake, normally made in an attractive kugelhopf shape mould.  Its origins go way back to the 14th Century, when in 1358 in Chambery the Count Amadeus VI of Savoy asked his pâtissier to make a cake as light as a feather.  The occasion was dinner with Charles IV of Luxembourg.  The chef asked to create this cake was Pierre de Yenne.  Yenne is a small town on lake Bourget, where to this day they claim to be the birthplace of this speciality.  The recipe was refined over time with the addition of various flavourings: lime zest, cinnamon, orange blossom, vanilla etc., and icing sugar by Francois Massialot in the 17th century (who published anonymously the first dictionnaire de la cuisine, entitled 'Nouveau cuisinier royal et bourgeois' in 1691). He referred to the biscuit de Savoie as a gâteau.

The Biscuit de Savoie is very popular in the Savoie and Haute Savoie and can be seen in patisseries and on dessert tables throughout the region.  A great tea time cake, it is often served with fruit,  jams or a creme anglaise.

During my research of recipes, I discovered a few variations of types of flour used 50% of either corn flour and wheat flour or potato flour.

I have slightly adapted this recipe which I found in France Magazine but originated from Bocafina an event management and culinary school in Talloires on Lake Annecy. 

Biscuit de Savoie Recipe

100g caster sugar
50g plain flour
50g cornflour
4 large eggs
40g unsalted butter
50g flaked almonds
orange flower water - I used vanilla essence

1. Preheat the oven to 190℃/gas mark 5.  Grease a round 20cm shaped mould or baking tin and dust with flour before sprinkling the flaked almonds around the base.
2. Separate the egg whites and yolks.  Be careful to keep the bowl for the egg whites grease free.  Whisk the egg yolks with half the sugar and a drop of orange flower water or vanilla essence until the mixture is very pale and thick.  Add the sieved flour and cornflour without mixing them in.
3. Melt the butter and allow to cool.  Whisk the egg whites, adding the rest of the sugar halfway through, until they stand in peaks.  Spoon the egg white mixture into the yellow mixture along with the cooled melted butter.  Fold it all together.
4. Pour the mixture into the mould and put it into the pre-heated oven.  The cake should be ready in 30 minutes, you can insert a skewer, which will come out clean when it is baked.  Allow to cool before removing it from the mould/tin.
5. Serve with fruits, jam and/or creme anglaise.

This was the only recipe I found that used butter, most other recipes had no fat in.

I think this cake would be lovely served with fruits marinated in alcohol too, the flavour reminded me of English sponge fingers.