Making Veal Blanquette for "Brioude Cooking School" Finale!

November 27th
Since it was my last day here in delightful Brioude, I was downstairs by 8:30, as I wanted to experience as much as I could before I left! I put on the water for tea, Jean-Jacques was off to the Brioude Mairie (Town Hall), and Soline came down to start the day.
After breakfast we went first to see Jean-Jacques in his office. He showed and read me a letter which Lafayette had written to the Brioude mayor. I learned later that it is a copy.Jean-Jacques gave me a book by Paul Fontanon called  Lafayette et le Brivadois. I will try to read it...ah, that old French-English dictionary WILL come in handy!
Jean-Jacques signed it (my rough translation),
"To Debbie, A souvenir of the native country of Lafayette.
Yours truly,
Jean-Jacques Faucher, Mayor of Brioude"

Huge container used to make wine long ago?

Weekly town meetings held here

Upstairs in the town hall, they were dismantling a display from the Brioude November 11th celebration. They were packing things into an American foot locker with an American's name on it. While Brioude has a population of 7,000, it is a hub with quite a sizable retail area, as people from the many small towns around come here to shop.
Then we went to the butcher to buy veal meat (cut in bigger than stew meat pieces) for the veal blanquette we were going to make for dinner/lunch. And we went back to the house to start cooking!!

(Disclaimer: I had never heard of veal blanquette before I went to Soline's!)

Veal Blanquette 
1 1/2 lbs of veal (cut into pieces bigger than traditional stew meat)
whole onion with 4 cloves salt    6 bay leaves   1 garlic clove     several "boughs" (?) of fresh thyme

Cook 20 minutes in pressure cooker probably 40 minutes in regular pan.

Check out this site to learn more about pressure cookers! NEW models have features so they will NOT explode as in the "olden" days (haha)! http://www.thekitchn.com/what-can-i-do-with-a-pressure-125813

After veal has cooked, we made a bechamel or white sauce (the former sounds MUCH more interesting!)
 Melt butter (probably could get away with a substitute) 2-3 T
Add 2 heaping T of flour to melted butter and stir flour into butter. It will form a ball,which will break up when you add 1/4 c.of broth from cooked veal. When lumps have gone, add another 1/2 c.of broth; add pepper. Add another 1/2 cup of broth. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and sauce should thicken nicely. Add 10 cl. of cream or nearly a 1/2 cup!
Add cooked veal to sauce and serve with rice or potatoes. This actually served 8 or more people.

DELICIOUS!!!

In the afternoon we did some errands, and I looked into some of the shops, but bought nothing.

Loved this big pitcher with serving bowl!

I was tempted, but luckily my bag was STUFFED going to Brioude!

Quiche was delicious!

Julian, Soline, and Jean Jacques

That night we had veggie and ham quiche with Soline's pastry recipe. I will try it when I get home in my food processor.












And how quickly this week flew by! I told Soline she was very "brave" to invite a stranger for a WEEK to teach her French cooking! I am very appreciative that she did, and I look forward to seeing her when I am in Collioure!

MANY thanks, Soline and Jean-Jacques!!

All the pictures are flying into Nice, as it was too foggy flying into Paris to see anything!

 Thank you again for traveling with my on this FUN adventure!

Marcia and I had seen this from the bus to Antibes