Friday, July 9, 2021

Wine & Food of Le Tour 2021, Stage 13 Nîmes to Carcassone

Where are we? Heading to the Languedoc. 
Carcassone: The local tourist site has a legend for us: The Saracen occupation inspired medieval writers with one of our most famous legends. Charlemagne is of course the hero! The emperor sieges Carcassonne. The Saracen king, BALLAK is killed and it is then that his wife "Dame Carcass" decides to intervene. The siege has been going on for 5 years already and famine got the better of the last defenders. Alone, behind the ramparts, Dame Carcass watches; she has the straw mannequins; she shoots crossbow bolts at the besieging army to make the defenders still numerous. In the city, there is only a small pig and a measure of wheat left to feed the population. So Lady Carcass stuffed her pig with the rest of the wheat and threw it over the rampart. The pig bursts upon touching the ground and from its torn belly escapes a flood of good grain. Charlemagne immediately raised an unnecessary siege: there was so much wheat in Carcassonne that we fed the swine! Before the great army disappeared, Dame Carcass recalled Charlemagne to make peace. She sounded the trumpets "Carcass sonne" (which means rings in french). Then the emperor retraced his steps to receive his allegiance!
Le Tour Specialties:
Carcassone: cassoulet (a universal cassoulet academy), petit carcassonnais (madeleine), Micheline, Or Kina (plant-based liqueur). Wines of the Aude: Minervois, Cabardes, Corbières, Malepère, Limoux...
Christian Prudhomme says: From the Roman arenas that are considered as the most well preserved in the world to the medieval city part of the UNESCO world heritage, this stage will follow the course of history. It also tells us that despite what the geography seems to suggest, never has a finish by the Carcassonne towers finished with a bunched sprint. Good news for the audacious!;"
The stage: The question of the day was also yesterday's question of the day: would this be a sprint stage and a chance for Cavendish or would they let a break up the road? Our break of the day was small: Omer Goldstein (Israel Start–Up Nation), Pierre Latour (Team TotalEnergies), and Sean Bennett (Qhubeka NextHash). They would get a gap, but not a very large one.
At the intermediate sprint, maximum points from the field for Colbrelli.  Relevant to my interests:
An ugly crash, with many riders down and slow to get up. Quite a few went down a hill. Among those involved:  Tim Declercq, Rafal Majka, Simon Yates, Nacer Bouhanni, Wout Poels, Sergio Higuita. 
Kluge would abandon. As the catch came:
After the catch and some initial efforts to attack, the group would slow as the dropped riders returned to the bunch. Forty four kilometers to go and an attack by Pacher. Forty kilometers to go and he had twenty five seconds.
News of another abandonment, Simon Yates.
Bike change for Cavendish causing some stress, but he would be back in the bunch quickly. Heading off the front in pursuit of Pacher was Bakelants.
Another abandonment, Lucas Hamilton.
Another crash, this one smaller. 
Just under twenty kilometers to go and the catch was made. 
Off the back, Alaphilippe. DeClerq was also not there to help, after being in an earlier crash. Interesting that on the day, the race had extended the 3 kilometer rule to 4.5 kilometers, so the gc teams could leave space for the sprint.
After not breathing for several hours, a took in a gulp just to scream. Cav! Not as textbook as the other day, but still glorious.
The wine:  Mas Coutelou Kina Rouge NV from Copake Wine Works">Well, this is an oddly shaped wine bottle! A natural wine pioneer in this region of France and certified organic since 1987, Jean-François "Jeff" Coutelou makes terroir driven wines that speak deeply of corner of the South of France. For this Chinato style bottling, a base of  wine is blended with wine brandy macerated with the likes of gentian, red quina, sweet and bitter orange peels, kola nuts and more. To avoid using industrial sugar, he uses a bit of his wine that is not fully finished fermenting and thus retaining some natural RS.
The food: Petit carcassonnais This small oval cake with a texture close to a sponge cake or a madeleine reveals its subtle aromas of candied orange peel when you wear it in the mouth. This specialty was created in 1928 by Mr. Gau and was bought by the Fuster family which is currently the sole producer of this specialty.
Since I could not find a recipe, I turned to Dorie Greenspan for traditional madeleines:
TRADITIONAL MADELEINES
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours
Makes 12 large or 36 mini cookies
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons; 3 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and keep close at hand.  
Working in a mixer bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and fragrant.  Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment, add the eggs to the bowl and beat the eggs and sugar together on medium-high speed until they are pale, thick and light, 2 to 3 minutes; beat in the vanilla.  Grab a large rubber spatula and very gently fold in the dry ingredients followed by the melted butter.  Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the batter and chill the batter for at least 3 hours or, if you have the time, overnight.  (For real convenience, you can spoon the batter into the madeleine molds, cover, chill, then bake the cookies directly from the fridge.  See below for instructions on prepping the pans.)
Getting ready to bake:  Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Butter 12 full-size shell-shaped madeleine molds (or up to 36 mini madeleine molds), dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess.  If you have a nonstick madeleine mold, give it a light coating of vegetable cooking spray.
Spoon the batter into the molds, filling each one almost to the top.  Don’t worry about spreading the batter even, the oven’s heat will take care of that.  Bake the large madeleines for 11 to 13 minutes and the minis for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the madeleines are golden and the tops spring back when touched.  Remove the pan from the oven and release the madeleines from the molds by rapping the edge of the pan against the counter.  Gently pry any recalcitrant madeleines from the pan using your fingers or a butter knife.  Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool to just-warm or to room temperature. If you are making minis and have more batter, bake the next batch, making certain that with each new batch the pans are cool and properly buttered and floured or sprayed.
 Serving: The cookies are ready to serve when they are only slightly warm or when they reach room temperature.  Dust the tops with confectioners’ sugar and serve the sweets with tea or espresso.
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