Lentils and Bacon Salad with a Sauce Ravigote & 6 Specialities from Lyon to Try Out..if You Dare

Lyon and its culinary specialties always make me feel a little nostalgic. Don't get me wrong, I love London and since it has been my home for 3 decades, I feel more like a Londoner than I do a Lyonnaise.

I can't say immigration is easy, a little bit of me stayed behind. The little bit which likes to feel safe and is not referred to my nationality, the colour of my skin or my accent. But then, would I have stayed and I would have resented the insular mentality of a town which is known for giving the cold shoulder to anyone who is new to it.

Lyon, facade, town center

Lyon's architecture is well known for its imposing buildings with their 18th-century facades, tall windows behind which silk weaving looms worked night and day. The families lived in a "sous-pente" a kind of attic in between storeys. Last time, we went we played the tourists, stayed in a hotel overnight and ate "en terrace" in a "bouchon" cobbled street.
lyon center, cobbled street
So what can you expect from "la cuisine Lyonnaise"?

La Cervelle de canut: As its name does not indicate, it is not about offal but simply fresh beaten white cheese, embellished with shallots, chives and parsley finely chopped, garlic (optional) not forgetting the fresh cream.

The workers of silk, known as the canuts, enjoyed it during for breakfast, after their long night of work.

Quenelle: Without hesitation, we can say that the quenelle is one of the dishes that have made the gastronomic renown of the city of Lyon. It is a dough made from flour, eggs, and fish in the shape of a roll. The dumpling is poached in the water before cooking and served gratinated with its delicious sauce Nantua. Let yourself be tempted you will not regret it.

Andouillette: Andouillette is one of the dishes based on offal and tripe typically Lyonnais. Made with veal or pork, it is served hot, with white wine, breaded or in a gratin. Since 2015, the "veau rose", which was at the origin of the recipe Lyon, is reauthorize and return to almost all restaurants.

Tablier de sapeur: In fact, the name inspires nothing of gastronomy and yet ... Also part of the family of guts and offal, le tablier is similar to an "escalope of fat-double breaded", it is cooked in a pan, served hot with sauce "gribiche" (mustard based).

The Sabodet or Saucisson Chaud: The Sabodet is a cooked sausage based on minced pork head, it is cooked in water and served in slices with steamed vegetables, mustar, and gherkins.
speciality from Lyon, saucisson chaud

Tete de Veau: In the Lyonnaise line of offal and tripe. You should dare to taste the head of veal "a la Lyonnaise" with a sauce gribiche or ravigote and served with steamed vegetables or as a salad with pulse

specialty from Lyon, lentil salad, tete de veau, sauce ravigote

Lentils and Bacon Salad with Sauce Ravigote
I have adapted the tete de veau recipe to the products which can be found in the UK

You'll need grilled bacon.
Cooked Puy lentils, refrigerated for 1/2h to two hours
For the Sauce Ravigote

-2 hard boiled eggs -1 tbs mustard -2 shallots -1 tbs Capers -1 tps pickled gerkin chopped -1 tps fresh herbs (chives, parsley etc..) -6 tps oil (you may need a little more) -2 tbsp vinegar -salt pepper

Method

Peel the shallots and cut into thin slices.
Peel the hard boiled eggs.
Crumble the egg yolks and chop the whites.
Cut the capers in 2.
Chop the gerkins
Mix the egg yolks, mustard and vinegar in a bowl. salt and pepper.
Add a little oil and whisk all.
Then add the shallots, the herbs, the egg whites, the capers and the gherkins. Stir the mixture. Keep in a cool place for 15 min.
Add the sauce to the lentils and bacon and serve cold.

I've added this post to July Inheritance Recipes this month hosted by the lovely Coffee and Vanilla as it is part of my growing up food culture

Predicting The Future of Blogging

The Future of Blogging:  No doubt that 10 years ago, when Pebble Soup first post went live, the blogging world by and large was very different. To start with few people were on the scene, everyone knew more or less everyone else and companies disregarded us: "come back when you'll have a paper commission" seemed to be the universal answer.
retro style keyboard
Elretron Penna Keyboard, retro look for advanced technology demonstrate that we have to look in the past to see the future

Move forward to 2017 and blogging is a big business. Companies all want to appear on blogs, ratings are all the rage but as a follow blogger put it the other day on Twitter where is the fun gone.


Hopefully, there is still fun to be had and bloggers who are not aggressively focused on monetarising their blog still exist but will they stem the tide of money above quality? or will the marketeers take over? it's .....Crystal ball time:  

The introduction of Accelerated Mobile Pages AMP introduced by Google with a couple of its partners like Twitter, tend to point in the direction of micro-blogging. Fast search environment, snippet of info. Which shape or form will this kind of blogging take in a year or two time? is everyone's guess. The answer to this one is around the corner.  

No doubt that Vlogs will be on the increase. Story telling is as old as mankind and that's the attraction of video-logs. With voice recognition tools becoming more sophisticated, it's not difficult to imagine that in a few years time, sound will play a larger role in blogging.

Ranking can't be ignored, it's nice to blog but to sustain a blog for a long time, you need to know that you are read. Bloggers love comments because they love their readers so why so many bloggers have closed their comment box? simply because brands don't care very much for comments, they want clicks. Clicks on influential blogs.

Bloggers have become Influencers, in the future we will see more of that, no doubt. Is it a good thing? probably as it looks like despite the odds good content still reign. I think that in the future, blogging platforms will offer better quality blogs. So focusing on Domain Authority (DA) can only be a good thing though, Google doesn't make it easy by favouring sites with a huge DA.

What would you add to this list? Pebble Soup comment box is still opened ;)

Disclaimer: I've written this as part of Innovation Company's Study on what bloggers see as the future of blogging - http://innovationcompany.co.uk  As always words and opinions are my own.

Yuzu Curd : Curious Ingredients Series

Yuzu curd is a recipe for all the people who like their fruit preserves sharp and zingy with a touch of exotic. Yuzu is a fruit originally from Japan.

Yuzu Curd

Taste wise it is a cross between a tangerine, lemon and grapefruit with a strong resemblance to the latter. It used widely by chefs as it gives an element of surprise when added to any dish.

I came across it when asked to develop unusual chocolate truffle recipes. The yuzu truffles where my favourite of the lot, on account of yuzu's sharpness but also its floral undertone.

Yuzu Curd

Superfruit: I am not a fan of the terminology but, facts are facts Yuzu contains three times more vitamin C than a lemon. Kellie at Food to Glow which is my go to place when I need help on food and health has over 10 recipes using this small and orange coloured fruit. I raise my case.

How to source Yuzu is far less difficult than it was three years ago when it hit the West. It's still expensive and if you want to buy it fresh to use the zest you will need to go to an Asian supermarket. Thought, if you can get away with the juice only it's better to buy a 100ml bottle.

Having made the truffles and delighted a friend with them for his birthday, I was left with 3/4 of a Yuzu bottle so I opted for curd. It makes a nice change at breakfast time. The recipe is more or less the same as a lemon curd recipe.

Yuzu Curd


Yuzu Curd
Ingredients
80ml Yuzu juice
50g of butter, cubed
100g of caster sugar
2 egg yolks

You will also need a bowl to fit snugly in a saucepan for the bain-marie. 

Method
  1. Place the yuzu juice, cubed butter and sugar in the bowl. Fill the saucepan with enough water to go up half way of the bowl. Sit the bowl on top of the  pan and stir until the butter has melted. Make sure that the water never overflows in the bowl
  2. Add the egg yolks to the bowl and continue stirring over a gentle heat for 10–12 minutes, or until the curd has thickened to a custard-like consistency. Refrigerate. Don't worry if the curd seems a little loose as it will continue to thicken as it cools.
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