In the Vendée, a coastal region strongly reminiscent of Brittany, you may well find gastronomic adventures in the towns of Chantonnay and Pouzauges and a seaside idyll in the village of Croix de Vie.
HÔTEL. CHÊNEVERT in Chantonnay is a typical crossroads inn with better-than-typical food. The Vrignaud ménage provides the traveler with fine fish and shellfish specialties and a cellar of delectable wines—Muscadets, white and red wines from the Anjou and Touraine.
HÔTEL DE FRANCE in Pouzauges demonstrates that fine Poitou cooking in pure butter once again. Monsieur Tricot is particularly adept with sauces, and you will certainly like his escalope de veau à la crème. His cellar contains some fine-dry Muscadets and old Vouvrays. The menu is generous, and the prices we considerate.
The HÔTEL EMBRUNS in the little Atlantic fishing town of Croix de Vie offers much more than good food. If you cherish a few days at an unsophisticated seaside resort, this could be the answer. Here is a small summer hotel located on the beach, with a garden, a café terrace, and clean, comfortable rooms. Such a description applies to hundreds of seaside hotels, however. The Hôtel Embruns is different because of its truly excellent cooking. As you can imagine, sea food is a glorious specialty. Homard à l'amériaine and langouste Neubourg [sic] are daily occurrences, and sole appears in several delectable disguises. The wines are good, the prices inviting, but you'd better write ahead for reservations!
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We have tried out a sheaf of Poitou recipes which adapt themselves to the American kitchen. Most of them come from a delightful little book, La Cuisine en Poitou, written by Maurice Béguin, a jovial and scholarly archiviste. The book represents years of research in old libraries and more years of questioning amateur cooks, professional chefs, housewives, and innkeepers of the Poitou.
With a bow to Monsieur Béguin and his varied informants, we submit the following adaptations:
Dindon Roulé (Rolled Turkey)
Cut a turkey in half and bone it, leaving meat and skin as intact as possible. Spread out each half and cover with a layer of the following stuffing: Cut ham or lean bacon in small dice to make ½ cup. Mix with 1 cup sausage meat and 1 cup ground cooked veal or beef. Add and combine well 2 beaten eggs, a little salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper, 2 tablespoons mixed chopped parsley, tarragon, basil, and thyme, and a pinch each nutmeg, cinnamon, and clove. Roll the turkey halves and tic each with a number of lengths of string to resemble two large fat sausages. Tic a few strips of bacon under the strings.
Put the rolls of turkey in a casserole with I cup white wine and 1 cup chicken or meat stock, a sprig of parsley, 2 onions cut in thick slices, 1 carrot, 1 small white turnip, quartered, 2 cloves of garlic, a sprig of thyme, 1 bay leaf. tarragon, salt, and pepper. Cover and cook on a low fire, turning the meat now and then, until it is tender. Remove as much fat as possible from the sauce, strain, and thicken it with 2 egg yolks beaten with ¼ cup cream. If there is too much liquid, reduce it before adding the egg yolks. If not enough, add a little stock.
Remove the strings from the turkey rolls, arrange on a hot platter, and pour the sauce over.
This dish is sometimes made with rabbit meat instead of chicken. It is a favorite at Eastertime in the Poitou.
La Tourtière Poitevine (Chicken Pie Poitou Manner)
Bone a 3-pound frying chicken, except for the wings which you remove and put aside for making stock. This boning is not so difficult as you may believe. Cut off the drumsticks, cut all the tendons against the bone, loosen the meat at the large end with your boning knife, and pull the meat off whole. Do the same with the second joints. Start then at the breast bone, lifting the meat with the left hand and freeing it from the carcass with a scraping motion. You will have six good pieces, two each of drumstick, second joint, and breast.
Sauté them a light golden color on all sides in 3 tablespoons butter, season with salt and pepper, cover, and continue cooking for about 15 minutes. Never overcook them or they will be hard and dry in the finished dish.
In another pan brown 6 or 8 sausage meat balls about the size of small walnuts, made by combining ¼ pound sausage meat with the chopped liver and heart of the chicken, 1 teaspoon chopped parsley, and 1 teaspoon chopped chives.
Place a lower crust of pastry in the bottom of an 8-inch pic dish and dispose the pieces of chicken (cutting each in half if you wish) on (his, interspersed with the sausage balls and pieces of 1 hard-cooked egg cut lengthwise. In the meantime, simmer the chicken bones, neck, and wings in seasoned water to make a stock. Put 3 or 4 tablespoons of this into the pan in which the chicken was cooked, blending with the butter and remaining juices. Pour this over the contents of the pie dish and set over all a layer of pastry to make a top crust. Moisten and pinch the edges with a little water to hold the crusts together and cut a small hole, or chimney, in the center. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F.) for about ½ hour. Never overcook, or the dish will be dry.
Serve with a sauce made by combining 1 teaspoon melted butter, 1 teaspoon potato flour, and ¾ cup chicken stock. Heat, stirring constantly, and reduce a little.
A goose's neck may seem a rather superfluous article, but the resourceful Poitou cook has adapted it to make a savory sausage casing lined with flavorftil yellow fat. The next time you have a goose, save the neck and try:
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