Clafoutis with foraged fruits - balckberries, rose hips and sloes. Gluten-free

This is another variation of clafoutis, the pastry-less Limousin tart and I will be posting a savoury version shortly but I wanted this recipe to introduce the fabulous foraging season. September seems to have ushered in a bumper crop of wild fruit, which is timely, as the apple harvest, here at least, doesn't auger well.

The fun of foraging

If, like us, you are buying a percentage of your organic foodstuffs, then it can be both profitable and enjoyable to find some additional provisions for free. The good news is that this time of year, if you are living in the Northern hemisphere, you are coming up to the optimum time for foraging. The hedge rows are literally laden down with fruit and we have never seen such a year for sloes and they are also quite unusually sweet, we ate a lot as we were foraging!

Of course you can forage in your own garden, for rose hips, nuts and berries if you have hedges but you can also go out into the fields and meadows. 

Remember to take a walking stick with which to gently pull down the fruit, without damage to the hedge or individual plant.
 

It's good idea is to contact your local organic farm and ask about wild fruits on their farm land. In general though, horse paddocks, pasture land, parks, canal tow paths and common land, far away from spray drift from conventional crops, make for good foraging. Below is one of our favourite paths, on the cliffs along our local coast line, too dry this year, we did better in local meadows but it was a wonderful excuse for a walk all the same.

As we really enjoyed the gluten-free version of my plum clafoutis I made a few weeks back (recipe here) , I decided to go with the same mix again. I did however, omit the coconut oil, by mistake but I don't think it needed it as the mixture of fruits carried the rich flavours on their own.

Ingredients

Whole berries and fruit halves to cover the bottom of dish

80g (3oz) of potato flour

20g ( ¾oz) of arrowroot

80g (3oz) of sugar

300ml of milk (I use raw local milk from Normandy cows, which is very rich)
2 eggs (or 4 bantam eggs)

50g (1 ¾oz) of ground almonds

Optional - raw cane for sprinkling on the fruit.

Cooking times 

30 to 40 mins or until the top is well set and golden at 180ºC or 350ºF

Preparation

Cut the rose hips in half and using a teaspoon remove the hairy seeds from the interior. These are the rose's defence system to stop birds and mammals from absorbing the seeds once consumed! The hairs are actually quite aggressive I found I needed to rinse my fingers well, after this operation. 

I then precooked the rose hips for a few minutes in a little water just to soften them slightly as they were much harder than the remainder of the fruit. 

Method

Butter your pie dish generously and place upon it, cut face downwards, the whole black berries or halves of rose hips and sloes with the stone removed. Use enough fruit to cover the base, I'm using a 22cm or 8½" circular dish with an internal depth of 30mm or 1".  I sprinkled the fruit with a little raw cane sugar, not rapadura as I thought this would be too strong a flavour.

Place all your dry ingredients in a bowl but keep back a little sugar for sprinkling on the clafoutis when it comes from the oven. Mix well.

Make a well in the mix and add eggs, incorporate by bringing the dry ingredients gradually in towards the centre. You can do this by hand or with a beater if you wish. Beat well to obtain a smooth paste.

Add milk slowly, whisking all the time to obtain an homogeneous batter. This is a thin batter - do not worry!








Pour over fruit and put immediately into the oven

When cooked the clafoutis will 'spring back' when you touch it with your finger tips and it will also be a beautiful golden brown. You can see here it has also risen more than the plum one





The clafoutis can then be sprinkled with the remaining sugar just to give it a little crunch and extra texture. You can eat it straight from the oven, but I usually have some left over for the next day. I found this one developed in flavour overnight, although we didn't actually have much left over!

Hope you enjoy this dish, again it is simple and yet delicious and the free foraged fruits, as my grandpa used to say; 'don't taste of the copper', though nowadays it's probably nickel! 

Now if you'd like to sit back and watch the film: 

Please feel free to comment, ask questions and share.

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from an old farmhouse in Normandie,

Sue

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© 2014 Sue Cross

How to freeze raw, organic cows' milk and crème fraîche

All milk is not the same, even if it is raw, organic and grass-fed and when you can get the best, you want to hang on to every last drop. Although, living in France, we can get hold of raw milk easily, I've always toyed with the idea of freezing both milk and cream but this Summer, the long spell of hot weather convinced me I needed to find out how to go about it.

These Normandes are part of the herd belonging to the local organic dairy farm, where I buy grain for our chickens. We also buy their raw milk and crème fraîche, which is made in the dairy every Thursday.

A2 and A1 type diary cows

The Normandy cow is presumed to have descended from cows brought over by invading Vikings, who settled and farmed here in the tenth century. These beautiful and docile animals along with the wheaten coloured Froment du Léon, are thought to have given birth to one of the most famous A2 breeds, the Guernsey. Some 5,000 years ago a mutation occurred in the milk solids of dairy herds, in particular in the beta-casein chain of amino acids at position number 67. Cows without the mutation are known as A2 and those with the mutation, such as the Holstein race, are called A1. If you want to delve into the fascinating subject of ancient cattle breeds, amino acids, A1 & A2 milk and the implication on health then try this link as a starting point ¹.

(Pictured above left) A beautiful Froment du Léon at this year's Organic Salon at Guichen, Brittany.

Freezing milk as ice cream

The very best milk comes with the new grass in early Spring, so it's then I tend to make large batches of ice-cream to last us the Summer long. On the left  is dark mocha chocolate and rose petal ripple, this year's invention.

Freezing milk as milk

Raw milk actually doesn't really go 'off' it just turns into something else but if you want milk for coffee or tea, then freezing seems a great option. All the books I looked at and websites I visited, informed me that milk had to be homogenised to freeze, which raw of course is not. However, I finally found the answer on the Simple Foody blog² . The answer is amazingly simple, the milk just needs to be blended prior to freezing or when it is thawing.  

All the blender does is distribute the cream more evenly but it still comes to the surface again as it freezes. However, when you heat it gently it does not come out as the 'chunky milk' you get if you freeze it without blending. Some people blend before freezing, some on defrosting, personally we have found it better to blend before.
 

To make for ease of use, we freeze it in containers and then cut it into usable slices. These can then be used directly as needed or as I do with my own eggs, I freeze in portions for recipes.  So, if you live in a State or country where you can not buy raw milk but you can go across the border and bring back a large volume, this could be a great way of getting your daily elixir. 

Freezing crème fraîche

The crème fraîche we get from the farm, is so thick the spoon will stand up in it and I was told I should be careful blending or whisking it as it would turn into Chantilly. If you have thinner crème fraîche, then I would think of whipping it before freezing.

 

Again, we froze it in containers and cut it into slices. I just left it to thaw in the open in the Kitchen










It looked no different thawed than it did when it went into the freezer.

Here I used it to accompany a foraged fruit crumble of blackberries, elderberries and bullaces.

If you live in a country where it is illegal to sell raw milk then your alternative, other than buying on-line, is to get yourself a cow-share or, as my sister did, get yourself a housecow or a couple of cows. Here they all are on my recent visit back to Scotland. Meet the very friendly, easy to handle, rare-breed and giving A2 milk; Shetlands, Marilyn and Daisy:

...and here's another of our films made on the organic farm from where we get our milk, it shows us helping to get in the cows for milking and how to make cream and butter.

 

All the best and thanks for dropping by, Sue, Daisy and Marilyn

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The Victorians, including the Queen, had a very sweet tooth, so I've cut the amount of sugar in half. This is also because all the ingredients are organic and I find organic sugar...read more

¹
http://www.westonaprice.org/thumbs-up-reviews/devil-in-the-milk
²
http://www.simplefoody.org/freezing-raw-milk

© 2013 Sue Cross