Food recipes Archives - Maison d'hôtes B&B Aux Bories de Marquay en Dordogne avec piscine et SPA

Pavlova with strawberries from Périgord

Eric CHALARD — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 14:20:16 +0000

Pavlova with Périgord strawberries is one of the desserts we prepare for our table d’hôtes (an 3 courses home made meal), and also one of the most popular …

We’d like to share this sweet delicacy with you, which needs time to prepare, but is not really difficult. It can be made all year round, using fruit in season.

Ingredients (for 7 individual pavlovas)

Meringue

120 g egg whites (about 4)

Sugar 100 g

Powdered sugar 100g

Lemon juice 1 tsp

Cornstarch 1 tablespoon

Chantilly cream

Full cream 400 g

Powdered sugar 60 g

Fruit 250 g

Cooking time 1 h 30

Preheat oven to 90°C
Mix powdered sugar and cornstarch.
Start beating egg whites until stiff. When they begin to foam, add the lemon juice.
Gradually add the sugar and continue to whisk until you obtain a “bird’s beak” texture.)
Gently fold in the powdered sugar and cornflour mixture with a spatula.
On a baking sheet lined with baking paper, poach 7 “nests” about 8 cm in diameter.
Bake for 45min at 90°C in a fan oven.
Close oven door to let steam escape. Close and bake again for 45 min.
Leave to cool in the closed oven for at least 1 hour.

Cool in the closed oven for at least 1 hour.
To prepare the whipped cream, place the bowl and whisks in the freezer for 10 min.
Add the cream and powdered sugar to the bowl and whip until light and fluffy.
Just before serving, fill meringues with whipped cream and sprinkle with strawberries of Perigord.
For an even more delicious dessert, you can add a drizzle of strawberry coulis prepared by blending a few strawberries with a little lemon juice.

Enjoy!

Truffle market in Sarlat, Black is delicious!

Eric CHALARD — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 21:53:04 +0000

In the Dordogne, when we talk about black diamonds, it’s by no means a jewellery term. Rather, it’s a reference to the black truffle, tuber melanosporum by its scientific name.

From November to March, this mushroom (yes, it’s a mushroom) is the talk of the Dordogne markets. It is harvested at this time of year, and if you happen to pass through a market devoted to it, you won’t forget its distinctive fragrance.

In Sarlat, the certified truffle market takes place on Saturday mornings. From 9am, when the bells of the town hall ring out, the market doors open, the sellers uncover their baskets and the buyers rush inside. Above all, an unmistakable fragrance wafts through the rue Fénelon. A strange ballet is played out, with shoppers scrutinising, feeling, smelling, choosing and finally paying in cash. Prices are displayed according to category, extra (there are very few), 1st and 2nd category and the variety of truffle (black truffle, brumella truffle, summer truffle). Truffles are expensive, but with less than ten grams per person, you can flavour scrambled eggs.

You can also make truffle butter. Very simple:

Choose a good quality semi-salted butter.
Chop 10g of truffles for every 125g of butter.
Mix well with a fork.
Place the butter in a glass jar and leave to infuse in the fridge for 48 hours.
Serve on fresh bread toast.

Some gourmets, during the first stage of preparing the brouillade, place some risotto rice under the paper towel to prepare a delicately flavoured risotto. In fact, truffles like fat but not heat. Be careful not to cook them!
And if you’re a curious gourmet, you should know that every year in mid-January, a special truffle weekend is held in Sarlat. Demonstrations of cavage (truffle hunting), sales, tasting of truffle menus in restaurants… you’ll find out all about this jewel.
Back home, there’s one address we particularly like to recommend: Maison LAVAL. Sandy Laval concocts delicious chocolate bites flavoured with truffles! Yes, chocolate and truffles go very well together. Come and try it for a weekend!

Our eco-responsible approach

Eric CHALARD — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 22:06:49 +0000

You know the legend of the hummingbird which during a gigantic forest fire, while all the other animals are terrified, will seek a few drops in its beak to throw them on fire. Apostrophized by the other animals who tell him that it is useless, he replies “I’m doing my part”.

Well we too have decided to do our part to reduce the carbon footprint, energy consumption and waste generation of our guesthouse.

In all of our rooms and common areas, where possible, we have installed low-energy light bulbs that consume less energy.

Heating and air conditioning are provided by latest generation heat pumps managed by an automatic system which stops the device in the event of open doors or windows.

Our pool has been fitted with an anthracite gray liner which promotes the heat of the water only through the sun.

In our rooms, instead of providing individual toiletries, we have chosen to install large-format soap and shower gel dispensers.

Since this year, we have decided to replace the plastic water bottles that we make available to guests with jugs to limit the plastic waste we generate.

When it comes to food, most of our fresh products come from a short circuit. We source seasonal fruits and vegetables at the Ferme de Vialard, an association of producers from Carsac, 10 kilometers from us. The foie gras and charcuterie come from producers in Sarlat. The homemade smoked trout comes from the Eaux de l’Inval fish farm. We make our own jams with fruits collected from the tree. The yogurts and pastries are homemade. We have thus reduced our carbon footprint and the production of waste.

For cleaning we use white vinegar, black soap, household alcohol.

We have chosen to dematerialize our means of communication as much as possible. Our hosts receive booking confirmations, welcome booklet, invoice by email so that they do not make unnecessary impressions.

In short, we are doing our part to pollute less, consume less, reduce our carbon footprint, produce less waste and we are sure that our guests will adhere to this approach 100% because if everyone does their part, perhaps we will avoid it disaster.