Lockdown Larder

With ferries and events suspended, a larder stocktake reminds me what I need to shop for on my next visit to Carrefour Market, Ouistreham and offers some ideas of where to go in the area.

Some of my cupboard's lockdown essentials

Qu'y a-t-il dans mon placard? Les éléments essentiels au confinement pour la survie, my lockdown larder survival guide for an Anglo Francais foodie. Above pictured Viandox is like a liquid Marmite for flavouring consomme. In the back, a packet of coquillettes, a type of pasta simply served with a knob of butter, grated cheese or made into a gratin.

A simple gratin which pleases all the family for a lunchtime snack.

Below are a few items which permanently reside in the French kitchen cupboard.

Marmite and crunchy whole peanut butter not easily available in France Morrisons no added sugar, no palm oil, seems the healthiest. A stock reside in my French cupboard.

Let's face it, lockdown is no fun here or in France, Sussex or Normandy (I have a foot in both camps). On social media pages I commonly hear cries by UK expats or French residents who can't get the delicacies they enjoy as they are too expensive or unavailable.

Kids choice Poulain chocolate drink for breakfast, various type of biscuits and chocolate bars

requisites for the shopping trips to Carrefour, the adult's choice is very different, cheeses, saucisson, and wine.

It may seem trite or whimsical to talk about the foods we enjoy at time when many of us are suffering from enforced incarceration, but the tastes of home are missed by many. They help lift the spirits; if the larder is stocked, we can dip or dunk a McVitie or spread some Marmite, fix a grenadine milkshake or faire une tartine de beurre accompanied by three or four squares of Poulain chocolate, a French favourite.

French biscuits which teach Les Infants English words, a novel idea and innovative.

Most ingredients or groceries are easy to get hold of, but supermarkets limit their range to products to maximise their profit, purchasing from large factory producers which means your imported penchant is simply not stocked or if it is twice as expensive.

Lavender honey from Provence, sunshine brought to the table.

Marmite isn't easily available in France, and peanut butter is the smooth variety. Wholemeal bread, pain complet is expensive, as a small sliced loaf which is dry. It's better to bake your own, but even good strong bread flour isn't easy to find. Cheddar is almost non-existent (although a mature Cantal is almost as good). Vegans and vegetarians find it tough going in France; one unfortunate lady wrote plaintively she was down to her last frozen bag of Quorn pleaing for alternatives on a Normandy Facebook page.

An easy addition to any cake mix to give an arome de vanille

Finding French food seems a lot easier in the UK rather than vice versa such as cheese: Pont L'eveque, Camembert, and Brie croissants, and French bread made with French flour, Madeleines and Pains aux Raisins are all available at reasonable prices.

Camembert, artisanal, from Normandy. A leading supermarket in the UK sells Camembert made in Brittany - sacre blue !

Camembert can be obtained non-pasteurised which is essential for a full flavour soft cheese, but rarely a Camembert found in the high street which is Moule a la louche, hand-made, hand crafted ladled into each individual mould. Visit La Fromagerie 'd Estelle for a personal service and an amazing plate of cheese. Estelle is based in Courseulles a 20 minute drive from Ouistreham via the coast's D-Day beaches, a whale skeleton and park with it's children's zoo in Luc-Sur-Mer, and passing a Churchill tank parked permanently in Hermanville.

Fromage d'Estelle Courseulles, 20 minutes for the channel port of Ouistreham

Now onto my larder, no self respecting Francophile will be exiled without these: Confit du Canard, or Cassoulet (or both combined) preserved duck or goose in its own fat, or duck in a in a bean stew, tastes better than it sounds. Confit has to be served with Pommes de Terre Sarladaises, a recipe originating from the medieval tourist town of Sarlat in the Dordogne. The potatoes are fried in the goose fat from the confit with chopped flat parsley and garlic and served with girolles (Chanterelles) mushrooms or Cepes (another type of wild mushroom). This must be taken (doctor's orders) with a well matured Bordeaux, a St. Emillion would be fine.

Confit, or Cassoulet should be a 'must' for the lockdown larder

Another wine which should grace the wine rack is a bottle of Montbazilliac, made with shrivelled Muscadelle grapes which makes it a very sweet dessert wine,or a necessary accompaniment to a 'tartine du pate de foie gras', brown whole meal slices with pate, served as a starter. if you're by the coast there oysters, scallops and other coquillages are fresh from the Normandy quayside. I insist on a visit to Au Vivier Collville sur Mer, the Montgomery Normandy Invasion beach, and a family run business. Live shell fish, lobsters and crabs bought fresh from le sou-sol or basement. Their wares are sold beneath the large house the family inhabits, most houses are designed with a basement space which is used not only as a garage but to store winter vegetables preserves and as a cave, freezers and a second sink and stove for preparation of food. Below is a little history about the business Au Vivier, it's in French - use Google translate if your French is not up to it.

Au Vivier 02.31.97.13.38 The 'poisonnerie' is only ten minutes drive from the port of

Ouistreham and the Brittany Ferries. The restaurant on the seafront provides meals with an amazing array of seafood, the shop epicerie with fine jars, vinegars, oils and spices.

Au Vivier restaurant platter of Fruits de Mer, can be bought and frozen, or kept in the cool box for the return ferry home to the UK

Vous rêvez d'une douzaine d'huîtres, de moules de bouchot, de langoustines ou d'une poignée de crevettes ? Direction Le Vivier. Vous y ferez le plein d'iode, toute l'année, même le dimanche, matin et après-midi. Depuis 1958 et trois générations, la famille Colleville vous régale de coquillages et de fruits de mer à emporter, tout droit sortis de leur eau. Prenez le temps de faire le tour des bassins dans le sous-sol de la maison. Le Vivier, c'est, aussi un lieu de dégustation, « La cabane du Vivier », installée face à la mer et de plain-pied... En saison, installez-vous pour vous régaler d'un tartare d'algues, d'une poignée de crevettes, de gambas, de tapas ou d'un demi-homard. Attention, on y mange à la carte et les prix se rajoutent les uns aux autres. Alors, à trop vouloir tout goûter, la note peut s'avérer salée...

Au Vivier basement poissonerie

Most store cupboards are stocked with ingredients for cooking, specially refined flour for crepes or Dijon mustard and red wine vinegar to make a fine homemade salad dressing or Puy Lentilles vertes grown in the Auvergne. The wine cellar stocked with reds which can be laid down for up to six or seven years, a Saint Estephe, or a Pomerol, and always a bottle of Champagne Lanson ready to toast any occasion and a white specially for fish dishes, a Pouilly Fuisse or a Sancerre made with Chardonnay or Sauvignon grapes. You don't have to come from Normandy or Brittany to enjoy these, most French recognise these ingredients as part and parcel of French life, Francophiles enjoy them and so do most lovers of fine food.

Essentials for your Lockdown Larder - Mustard vinegar and olive oil for a superior salad dressing

Bordeaux premier 'cru' is a special occasion wine, but a Bordeaux superior any other time

For your lockdown whether you live in France or in the UK certain items are essential for the larder. A well stocked larder can both relieve boredom and lift the spirits. If you don’t have your spread of Marmite or marmalade, or Petits Sables (or Rich Tea) you may feel something is missing in life, and possibly left with that wanting feeling. This lack is similar to an irksome itch which won’t go away symptoms lead to a craving for that link to life back home.

The Rolls Royce of sardines from Brittany 115g at £5 per tin, more expensive that the most expensive salmon, but well worth the taste - a must for the lockdown cupboard. La belle iloise.

Banania is drunk from a bowl, with bread normally dipped to soak up the milky mixture

Sometimes it is just the ingredients that are needed, for a curry a dry store of coriander, cumin cardamon seeds, Madras curry powder or some Indian pickles, are on my list, bought from a trip to my local Indian shop. These are the types of staples which aren't available in rural areas of France or in the outer reaches of the UK. In England we have ample supplies in the cupboard of Banania, a chocolate and banana drink made with hot milk for breakfast or sachets of vanilla sugar for cake making and a prerequisite for making creme Chantilly.

Artichoke Rose de Provence, the larger varieties as well as these, are grown in Brittany but are easy to grow in the garden without the need of any maintenance, as a herbaceous bush. The young ones we preserve in olive oil. An addition as anti-pasta to a winter meal reminiscent of summer.

Specialist fruit and vegetables in both countries which do not suit the tastes of the masses may need to be home grown such as chicory, globe artichokes or endive if you are French and live in England or parsnips and swedes if you live in France. The root vegetables were much maligned in wartime France as they were used to feed to farm animals, the stigma remains as a peasant's vegetables. In the UK it's difficult to find a fresh Muscat or a Chasselas grape much superior in taste than the standard supermarket offering of bland South African grapes.

Garlic ready to be turned into strings. Garlic is grown on the isle of wight where there is an annual garlic festival each summer.

Try growing your own garlic, making jams or storing fruit in jars, thereby adding to the reserves garden produce when it is abundant - tomatoes, black currents, raspberries and sweetcorn eaten in season; ingredients frozen or added to the store cupboard, pickles,

pureed tomatoes, and garlic, or purchase a drier, dried apples and pears last, and are very tasty as snacks. Resourceful ex-pats have been buying bees and raising chickens of late.

Rich Tea and Digestive biscuits, a rarity in France can be found in a tin dans ma maison

There has been much talk about mental health during lockdown time, knowing that there is comfort food ’ dans le placard’ will really boost the spirits, but also have a go at growing, even if it is to dry herbs in the airing cupboard, there is a sense of achievement. The next blog on this subject will be at harvest time, (la recolte), apple fairs, quintessential flower shows, in Normandy and Sussex, Brittany and Kent, counties straddling the coast. 'What's in the cellar'! Qu’y a-t’il dans la cave, les produits du jardins, and the allotment in the October edition.