We are weeks before Christmas and this year again I plan to bake the traditional pompe à l’huile for everyone. So right now once in a while I bake one just to polish my recipe. And I think I got it right this time! The pompe à l’huile is a traditional Christmas dessert in Provence. It is often mistaken with Gibassier. Pretty much every family has a recipe or a preference. Pompe brioche, with orange, with neroli, with anise… In our family we like a thin rather dry one, with neroli and a bit of orange peels.
Since it is an olive oil base dough it is extremely easy to knead and with the neroli it smells extremely good. A real pleasure to prepare!
For a 30cm pompe à l’huile I used: 180g of flour (regular flour not the strong one), 6g of dry yeast, 3g of salt, 35g of brown caster sugar, 60g of water, 75g of olive oil, 1 table spoon of neroli, a few candied orange peels, or a zest of orange.
I mix all the ingredients and add the orange peels in the last few minutes of kneading. I knead until the dough is smooth and soft as usual. Then I wait for 2 to 4 hours depending on the room temperature before shaping it. I roll the dough in a circle, cut and if you want you can strech the dough so that the cuts open loose for 1 cm. Then wait for a few hours before baking at 180deg until it goldens. While still hot with a cooking brush apply a thin layer of olive oil.
Me practising, a few years ago (picture taken by my uncle Bernard when they visited)
It’s been a long time I wanted to talk about it, but recently work kept me so busy that I felt bad writing about something that I had no time to do. Now that I have little business trips scheduled I can practice again more steadily and talk about it without having the impression that I should be in the dojo rather than writing about it. To make long stories short, I’ve practicing traditional Japanese archery, or kyudo, since I moved to Japan. Kyudo 弓道 that literally means “the way of the bow” is an ancient Japanese practice that as evolved as an art, where performance is less important than the form, and require a perfect balance of body and mind. Obviously this is not an activity to burn your extra energy and your anger from work, for that kendo must be more appropriate! But rather a meditative physical activity where breathing and body inner strength are crucial. The bow is much longer than a classic archery bow, mine is a long bow, so about 2.3m, and the strength adapted to it’s owner own strength. Same for arrows, their size and weight depend on the archer, when I started I had a 8K bow, now I have a 13K.
Target accross the yamichi
There are several things I love about kyudo. I guess the place where to practice is an important choice, and I am lucky enough to practice right in the middle of Ueno park, in the middle of ancestral trees and a quiet oasis in the city (except may be when it is hanami season). Actually, I practice it in a shinto shrine, actually, and it has been a great source of knowledge and understanding of Japanese culture to go so often there. Second it is not strictly speaking an indoor activity which I don’t really like: the dojo is wide open to the “yamichi” 矢道 and it is not heated nor cooled o you can clearly feel the seasons! Though you can practice any time, day or night, rain or sunny: no excuse not to go! I also like this balance you need to have between a clear mind and a strong yet relaxed body and I can clearly see the differences when I’m preoccupied or managed to totally clear out all thoughts that could impede my performance.
As any Japanese practice there are tons of cute goodies you need (OK, may be not really NEED, but that you can have!) like the under gloves in many different colors and patterns, the glove cover, the bow cover etc… And of course, the regular outfit to practice is a hakama 袴 like in kendo, and for ceremonial shooting kimono and similar. There are many places in Japan where to practice and now it’s becoming a popular practice among Japan fan in Europe and America, with dojo in many cities. For more information I recommend to check the International Kyudo Federation web site.
Ceremonial shooting (picture taken by dojo member)
“La soupe au pistou”, pronounce ” la souuuupopiiiiistuu” (or pesto soup) is a traditional summer preparation in Provence. Like any traditional food each family has her secret recipe and variations are quite Infinite. Shall it include small pasta or king of cut spaghetti, or none; shall it be served with grated Parmigiano or grated Gruyere; how many types of bean should be used etc… Honestly I would say that each version tastes different but cannot be bad. For me this soup is synonymous of summer, holidays, family gatherings… I can’t even recall when I first it it, probably at an age whe it is not possible to recall. The recipe comes from my grand mother that probably came from her mother and so on, my mother is using the recipe. For us the pesto is made of fresh basil leaves, pine nuts, gratted garlic, grated Parmigiano and ollive oil, a lot of olive oil. The soup consists in tomatoes (big, red ripe summer tomatoes), green beans, broad beans, zucchini, white beans and marbled beans. The beans are inserted by cooking time and it’s cooked during a long time at low eat, and it is served with grated gruyere. No pasta… Though I recall some argument about that!
Reinvention of the soupe au pistou in the making
I’ve been preparing a lot of this soup even in Japan, though I can’t find fresh marble beans and white beans, it is easy to have some dry, and broad beans are really easy to find, fresh and delicious. I adapt the recipe to circumstances and when I serve it as a single dish I usually add a few little pasta. I never use garlic, fresh or dry, so I took it off the recipe, and my husband doesn’t like pine nuts nor cheese so usually I take them off as well… hum… well my pesto is just basil and olive oil and just as good! This time I was about to prepare one when I realized I had no white beans nor marble beans and I was not really in the mood to eat soup on my own, since my husband was out for dinner for work. So I decided to treat myself with a recipe that I just invented on the spot (missing ingredients are the best inspiration!) and went for a dry soupe au pistou. In a pan I diced a tomato and cooked it with olive oil, then added the green beans and the braod beans, finally I added the chopped basil leaves, salt pepper and olive oil and cooked under cover 15min. The served it with pine nuts, and finally topped with Parmigiano (which is totally optional). Perfectly delicious though a bit far from the original recipe but that is evolution!
And ready to eat (I spare you the Parmigiano topping!)
