NEWS, FEATURES AND EVENTS

Contents : May 2008
Regional Recipe of the Month
Regional Wine Recommendation of the Month

Events and Festivals

Once you are back home and missing all that lovely Languedoc food, keep yourself going until your next visit to France with our monthly recipe to try at home.

If you have tried one of our recipes, let us know how you got on!  Or, if you have your own favourite traditional French recipe and would like us to publish it on this page, send it to us:

info@aweekor2inlanguedoc.com

PETITES COURGETTES FARCIES

Stuffed baby courgettes

Ingredients: Serves 4

4 small courgettes
2 tbsp oil
300 ml/½ pt tomato coulis (see recipe if you prefer to make this yourself)
30 g/1 oz parmesan cheese, grated

For the stuffing:
65 g/2 oz+ rice
200 g/7 oz minced meat (pork, beef, chicken, veal or a mixture)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 eggs
salt and pepper

Method:

First prepare the stuffing - bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, add the rice and cook over a high heat for 12-15 minutes or until just tender. Drain, rinse under cold running water and drain again. Mix the rice with the minced meat, garlic, eggs, salt and pepper. Sauté a small piece of the mixture and taste - it should be quite highly seasoned.

Heat the oven to 200C/400F.

Halve the courgettes lengthwise and scoop the seeds out of the centre. Place the courgettes in an oiled baking dish and fill them with the stuffing mixture, mounding it well. Sprinkle with the oil and bake for 15 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 175C/350F.

Spoon the tomato coulis over the courgettes and continue baking for another 15 minutes or until tender.

Sprinkle with parmesan and serve hot.

COULIS DE TOMATES

Tomato coulis

Ingredients: Makes 1 litre/ 1¾ pt of sauce

3 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
2 onions, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2.5 kg/5½ lb ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
10 basil leaves, chopped
2 tsp sugar (optional)
bouquet garni
salt and pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper

Method:

Heat the oil in a large frying plan, add the onions and cook over a low heat, stirring often for 10 minutes or until softened. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

Stir in the tomatoes, basil, sugar, bouquet garni, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and cook over a low heat, stirring often, for 25-30 minutes or until the tomatoes have softened to a purée.

Discard the bouquet garni and add cayenne and seasoning to taste.

Taste and enjoy on holiday, then bring some back home! You won't find this wine in the UK, the French keep the best wines for themselves!

Cellier de Trouillas:  Tradition 2005, Appellation du Cotes de Roussillon Controlée - red wine

Cépage (grape mix):  Syrah, Grenache Noir, Carignan, Mouvèdre

Description:  This is a great example of how good wines from co-operatives can be. If you thought the best wines need to be produced by individual vignerons, think again. This is a classic Roussillon cépage giving the familiar Roussillon fruity taste (plum, blackcurrant, raspberry) with an agreeable mellow aftertaste. This wine has body and depth and is testament to a beautifully blended wine (NB 2005 is proving to be an exceptional year for French wines).

Cost:  3.40 Euros to 4.00 Euros

Where to buy:  Cellier de Trouillas, Trouillas, near Perpignan; local supermarkets including Intermarche, Carrefour, Auchan, Champion.

Star Rating:  ****

Value for Money:  *****

Your Recommendations

If you are an enthusiast of Languedoc-Roussillon wines, please send your own recommendations and comments on the wine(s) by email and we will publish these in our Wine Recommendation section (with your name and contact details - optional).

Feedback - we are keen to receive as much feedback as possible on our recommendations (especially if you agree with them!) and would be delighted to know if and when you have sampled and purchased any of our selections.

info@aweekor2inlanguedoc.com

Introduction to Roussillon wines - Pyrénées-Orientales (dept 66)

The Roussillon climate is very hot and dry. Apart from occasional storms, rainfall is mainly in spring and autumn and wind is also an important influence, helping to evaporate moisture from the soil and the vines. This results in grapes with a high natural sugar content and deeply coloured. In the past, the need to vinify in the hot climate and impracticality of ageing at a low enough temperature resulted in wine produced for drinking straightaway. Many local vignerons focussed instead on producing "vins doux naturels" which, with added alcohol and high natural sugar content, are stable and do not suffer from heat when stored or transported. 30% of Roussillon wines are vins doux naturels and Roussillon produces 90% of France's vins doux naturels. These include Banyuls, Maury, Rivesaltes, Muscat de Rivesaltes (and Muscat de St Jean de Minervois in the Aude (dept 11)).

Although the wine co-operatives are well established, machine harvesting is still the exception - partly because the vinification process of the Carignan grape requires hand-picking and partly due to the steep gradients of some of the terraced vineyards. However, modern temperature control technology has transformed production of white and rosé and more importantly enables the fruity character of the key red wines to be preserved. Red wines make up 80% of table wines produced in Roussillon, varying from strong and full-bodied to light and fruity. The whites are light, fruity and flowery, whilst the rosés tend to be more full-bodied than they appear, depending on the grapes used by different producers.

Vin Doux Naturels

These are sweet wines whose fermentation has been arrested by adding alcohol (which kills the yeasts) so that the wine retains part of its natural sugar ("naturel") - this process, which requires much skill, is called "mutage". The grapes are vinified in the normal way and sometimes the white grapes - especially Muscat - will be given a "maceration pelliculaire" to enhance the fruit flavour. Unlike the reds, white vins doux naturels from Muscat grapes are not exposed to oxidisation and are generally drunk young to enjoy their fruit at their best. Red vins doux naturels are aged to varying degrees to reach their best with oxidisation and evaporation important catalysts; storage is usually in wooden vats outside with a degree of air access and older wines eventually acquire a mature taste similar to Madeira. Alternatively, red vins doux naturels are matured in closed vats (the "rimage" method). They still acquire complexity with age with similar characteristics to port and some are bottled earlier as they can also be enjoyed young for their fruit.

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May 2008

Aude (11)

Rues en Fete - Fleury d'Aude - Mid May

Fete des Plantes et du Massif - Narbonne - Mid May

Fete du Nautisme - Narbonne Plage - Mid May

Fete de la Transhumance - Fleury d'Aude - Late May

Troubadours Festival - Various venues at Roman sites - May to October

Hérault (34)

Excellent weekly market - St Chinian - Every Sunday am

Les Artes du Cirque - Cap d'Agde - Early May

Feria de la Mer - Pallavas les Flots - Early May

Battle of the Year (hip hop) - Montpellier - Early May

International Festival of Extreme Sports - Montpellier - Early May

Fete de l'Arn - Gignac - Early May

Recital des Vois - Cap d'Agde - Early May

Festival Musiques Entre Terre et Mer - Pallavas les Flots - until Mid May

Fete du Nautisme - Cap d'Agde - Mid May

Saperlipopette Children's Festival - Montpellier, Beziers - May

Gard (30)

Festival de la Randonnee en Cevennes - Dasn les Cevennes - Early May

Feria de l'Ascension - Ales - Early May

Vogua Monstra Fete - Le Grau du Roi, Port Camargue - Early May

Feria de Pentecote - Nimes - Early May

Fete de la Vignes et du Vin - Vezenobres - Mid May

Fete Traditionnelle - Le Vigan - Late May

Course Camarguaise - Remoulins - Late May

Lozère (48)

Festival d'Olt - Le Bleymard - Early May

Fete du Pelardon - Ste Croix Vallee Francaise - Early May

Semaine Botanique - Le Pont de Mont Vert, Florac - Early May

Pyrénées-Orientales (66)

Excellent weekly market - Ceret - Every Saturday am

International Guitar Festival - St Cyprien - Early May

Fete de la Belle Epoque - Vernet les Bains - Early May

Fete du Sport - Alenya - Early May

Extreme Sports Festival - Argeles - Early May

Festival Paroles Vives - Alenya - Early to Mid May

Festival de la Bande Dessinee et de l'Album Jeunesse - Serignan - Mid May

Festival Sirocco - Perpignan - Mid May

Spring Kite-Flying Festival - St Cyprien - Late May

Music Festival (pop, rock, jazz) - Perpignan - Late May

Saint Jordi Fete du Livre et de la Rose - Perpignan - May

Cherry Festival - Ceret - Late May / Early June

For lots more events and festivals, together with more details on the above events and exact dates, which can be subject to change, contact the Local Tourist Offices - website addresses and contact details available on www.tourisme.fr

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