Chauvigny (Vienne)-Sarran (Corrèze), 09/10/2020
Flognarde? Yes, Flognarde, or Flaugnarde. You
can spell it both ways. You all now flognarde, but you call it clafoutis,
apple clafoutis, pear clafoutis, peach clafoutis… In fact, the term clafoutis
is normally exclusively reserved to those custard made with (non-pitted, of
course!) cherries and it is called a flognarde when it is made with
other fruit,.
Apple flognarde is one of the
specialties of the Limousin region, and in particular of the département
of Corrèze. But Corrèze is famous for its other specialty: being the electoral
launching pad for future French republic presidents!!! Yes, this tiny département
of 240,000 inhabitants only, i.e. less than 0.4% of the total French population,
had been the political base of two recent French presidents, Jacques Chirac
(1995-2007) and François Hollande (2012-2017). Could you imagine that? Two
presidents coming from the same tiny area. This is as if two American
presidents were both coming from the Geauga county! Both Chirac, a resident of today’s
stage city, Sarran (he owned a castle there), and Hollande held their first
elective offices and had been regularly reelected afterwards in Corrèze. Yet,
as per their last names, they were not from the same family. They were not even
from the same political family, coming from and representing respectively a conservative
party, more or less in the continuity of Général De Gaulle’s legacy, and the socialist
party that is only socialist by its name. Although they were political
opponents, this didn’t prevent Jacques Chirac from voting for Hollande in 2012 when
this one was opposed to Nicolas Sarkozy, the incumbent president and Chirac’s
successor as the conservative party’s leader. As if the soil links were
stronger or deeper than the political affiliations! This is, for instance, as
if George W Bush would vote for… Well, those things happen!
There were a lot of theories written about the
subject, for instance the fact that being elected by and being in contact with “real”
people from the France profonde (literally deep France) helped them to
better understand the aspirations and expectations of their fellow-citizens. All
the more so as two other recent French presidents were also coming from this France
profonde, the neighbor region of Auvergne, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (1974-1981)
from the département of Puy-de-Dôme
(hosting the next departure city) and Georges Pompidou (1969-1974) from the département
of Cantal (hosting the next finish city)… Four former French presidents visited
in 48 hours, this is the Tour of France’s presidents!!!
* During the Tour de France,
combining two of my passions, biking and cooking, I will try to present
(almost) every day a recipe from the route followed by the peloton.
|
Levels of difficulty |
Cost |
Preparation |
Resting |
Cooking |
|
n |
$ |
20 minutes |
|
45 minutes |
|
Ingredients 4 servings §
4 apples* (3 Golden + 1 Gala) §
3 eggs §
8 tbsp sugar §
5 tbsp flour §
3/4 cup milk §
50g butter § A pinch of salt § A shot of Cognac (or Bourbon) *You can replace apples with pears, plums,
apricots |
Instructions § Whisk the eggs with 6 tbsp (out of 8) tbsp of sugar § Add 4 tbsp of flour (out of 5),
then the milk and the pinch of salt, and mix the whole till obtaining a
smooth batter § Peel the Golden apples, cut them into rough dices, and sear them over
medium in butter with 1 tbsp (out of the remaining 2) of sugar to caramelize
them § Cut the non-peeled
Gala apple in thin wedges § Coat a 4-6 serving
pie mold or 4 individual dishes with butter and the remaining flour § Place the Golden segments
on the bottom of this mold/these dishes § Pour the batter to
cover the apple dices § Place the
non-peeled apple slices on the top and slightly press on them with your palm
to partly “embed” them in the batter § Sprinkle the
remaining tbsp of sugar over the topping apple slices § Bake in a 350F preheated oven for 40/45 minutes and let it cool down §
Serve lukewarm |
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