{"id":4015,"date":"2017-09-06T10:20:20","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T10:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.applelanguages.com\/blog\/?p=4015"},"modified":"2017-10-13T16:30:35","modified_gmt":"2017-10-13T16:30:35","slug":"gastronomic-specialties-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.applelanguages.com\/blog\/locations\/france\/gastronomic-specialties-france.php","title":{"rendered":"Gastronomic specialties of southern France"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Hello everyone! This post is going to be all about gastronomic specialties from Provence and a little bit beyond.\u00a0I love food and have been about a bit. You might say that I know a thing or two about the gastronomy in this region!<\/p>\n

I grew up in a town in the Var region called Grimaud<\/strong>, which is about an hour and a half away from Aix-en-Provence<\/strong><\/a>. My paternal grandmother is from Toulon<\/strong> in Provence. My paternal grandfather grew up in Strasbourg<\/strong> and his family was from Bordeaux<\/strong><\/a>. My grandparents on my mother\u2019s side are from Toulouse<\/strong><\/a> but have German origins.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I was born in a town in north-eastern<\/strong> France<\/strong> but moved to Grimaud<\/strong> in Provence when I was only a couple of months old. My paternal grandparents were near us, in the town of Cassis<\/strong> near\u00a0Marseille<\/strong> at the time.\u00a0 We stayed in Grimaud for six years and then left Provence for Bordeaux<\/strong>,\u00a0where I went to school for two years. I then spent the last three years of primary school in Toulouse<\/strong>, moving there following my parent’s divorce.<\/p>\n

My father moved to Paris<\/strong><\/a> (and now considers himself a Parisian) and we stayed in Toulouse near our mother\u2019s parents. However, my mother all of a sudden decided to move us to Frankfurt<\/strong><\/a>, in Germany. I was eleven and only spoke basic German at the time, my sisters knew even less of the language. We were kind of worried about the language barrier, but we made it! We were already fluent in German<\/a> within only a few months in Frankfurt! I have a lot of relatives on both sides of the family. Dozens of cousins on my mum’s side and about twenty on my dad’s side.<\/p>\n

I have at least one family member in every region<\/strong>, which is nice. Believe it or not, we somehow always manage to see most of them at least once a year!<\/p>\n

That’s a little on my background, now\u00a0let\u2019s discover these gastronomic specialties:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Fougasse aux olives<\/h3>\n

\"\"The first specialty I am going to write about is olive fougasse. Fougasse is a type of flat bread, livened up with olives which are applied to the surface of the bread before baking. Once cooked, the fougasse is eaten with an aperitif or as a side dish during meals. It is a great accompaniment for soup, salad or deli platters!<\/p>\n

Where I am from, the traditional fougasse is the olive one, though some can also either contain diced bacon, anchovies or cheese. Fougasse is primarily savoury, but a sweet variation of it is the fougasse from the town of Aigues-Mortes in the Gard department. This version is slightly brioche-like and orange blossom flavoured.<\/p>\n

Originally, the fougasse bread recipe was quickly made up to test the wood-fired oven in bakeries. Baking this first would make sure that the temperature was good, before baguettes & other types of bread went in the oven. The baked fougasse would then be used as a morning snack for apprentice bakers.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, fougasse is sold in every bakery in Provence, markets, etc. It is my favourite thing to eat and is very popular! I grew up baking fougasse with my grandmother and was lucky enough to get her very own recipe. I am not allowed to publish this one though! Not everyone has access to a bakery in Provence to get a fougasse (or two) every day. This is why I will be sharing a very good recipe with you, just not my grandmother’s \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Preparation time: 30 min
\nStanding time: 3 hours in total (2h + 1h)
\nBaking time: 20 min<\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/strong>
\n300g flour
\n20 cl warm water
\n5 cl olive oil + a few drizzles before both baking and serving
\n16 g baking yeast
\nPitted black olives (can be sliced)
\n1 teaspoon salt
\nSalt flower<\/p>\n