Cooking with the Seasons: February

Hello All

A wonderful event in February is the appearance of Mimosa. The Mimosa trees near us are yet to flower, perhaps a little behind this year, or were early as the weather in February for the last couple of years has been unseasonably warm. Not this year! It was a joy at the market on Saturday to spot the beautiful yellow splash of a jug filled with bunches of mimosa just waiting to be bought and taken home. A real sign of brighter days ahead, but meanwhile a cheery vase of tiny yellow fluffy pompoms in the hallway, daring you to smile and dream of warmer days.

Bright colours continue to dominate our local market as the citrus fruit season progresses. This week blood oranges have made an appearance – I love these and they also make beautiful marmalade – a reddish hue to the orangey breakfast spread. We had some last year and it was one of our favourites, so a must to make again this year. In this house, marmalade days are still here! I am building up quite a stock for the year ahead.

We were recently given a jar of orange slices cooked a little like marmalade but whole slices rather than chunks. This is amazing on ice cream or with Greek yogurt or fromage frais. My neighbour made this preserve with oranges from her garden in the south of France. Whilst regaling us with tales of all the mimosa trees in gardens there and how amazing a sight it is at this time of the year, she has promised me the recipe in exchange for my marmalade chocolate brownie recipe – a fair trade! So I, in turn, will promise it to you later this week.

In the meantime if you feel like making some marmalade there are recipes in the posts: Citrus Days and Making Marmalade.

The market also offers French kiwi at this time of the year. I tried to grow a kiwi plant but sadly it succumbed to the frost last year after being a very difficult plant to encourage. I imagine it just didn’t like our garden. Apples and pears continue through the winter months, providing ingredients for warming crumbles or cinnamon infused tray-bakes to accompany a steaming cup of coffee or tea by the fire after a chilly dog walk. We have even discovered an apple called LoliPop – a huge utterly delicious red apple available from November to April. The variety was born in 2017 and is grown in an environmentally responsible way in the following regions in the South of France: the Tarn et Garonne, Vaucluse, Isère and Alpes de Haute Provence.

A few days ago I was rereading some old magazines – I am a bit of a magazine hoarder if I am honest. This was an old copy of The Simple Things – a lovely read. They often put in a list of suggestions of things you could do each month. The copy I was looking at suggested ‘Try a recipe with a vegetable you have never tasted before’. I love trying new things but didn’t give it much thought until our Saturday trip to the market.

During the winter one of the local producers has wonderful mesclun (a mixture of at least 5 salad leaves) for sale. We buy a bag each week for our salads. Mesclun actually originated in the South of France, invented by monks in a monastery in Nice. The word comes from the Niçois term mesclum meaning mixture.

This week, however, she had an unusual vegetable on her stall – something the size of a green pepper but paler and a bit lumpy, also very weighty and solid. She explained that it is called chayote or christophine – an exotic vegetable which she grows, with a taste similar to courgette. It is also known as the mirliton squash or chocho, and is part of the gourd family. The article I had been reading came back to me – voilà a new vegetable that we had never tried, and actually never heard of either. So obviously we had to buy some! Armed with cooking instructions (another thing I love is that the producers take great pride and interest in their produce and how it will be treated), we purchased a couple and will try them tomorrow. They work well sautéed like courgettes or done as a gratin in the oven. I think I will sauté them this time so we get the flavour of the vegetable on its own. I will let you know what they are like.