The finale for our Food and Wine of the Rhone Valley was Bouffade of the Rhone Valley and a Warm Goat Cheese Salad with Honey and Walnuts.

This was served with the same red wine ‘Brise Cailloux’ that we had with our Wooden Leg Soup ‘appetizer’. Some people appear to be substantially more talented at saving their wine than I am, but I’m sure that if I had managed to save some it would have been great with these dishes. The Bouffade of the Rhone Valley was a veal casserole with some interesting toppings: anchovies, capers, cornichons, nutmeg and red wine vinegar.
This was served together with another of the Rhone Valley’s fabulous salads: Warm Goat Cheese Salad with Honey and Walnuts.
The dessert for this meal was fresh fruit in an eggy custard: Rhone Valley Clafoutis. Traditionally unpitted black cherries coated in a little corn starch are used in clafoutis but for this particular one we used all kinds of fruit. The chosen wine was an inexpensive ‘La Vieille Ferme‘ white.

FOOD & WINE OF THE RHONE VALLEY IN FRANCE

Class 1 Part 1:  ‘Roasted Onion Trilogy Soup Lyonnaise’ paired PERFECTLY with 2011 Cotes du Rhone Heritages Ogier, followed by an appetizer that could have been an entire meal: ‘French Potato Salad, Saucisson Chaud Lyonnaise (Sausage in Pastry) and Cranberry Spinach Salad’
Class 1 Part 2:  The main course for this meal was ‘Pan-fried Fish of the Day with a Juniper Berry Buerre Blanc and Curried Lentil Cauliflower’ and for dessert we made ‘Pine Nut Custard Pie with Caramel & Whiskey Sauce’, both accompanied by interesting wines.

Class 2 Part 1: ‘Epicurean Fish Consommé’ followed by a delicious ‘Salad with Bleu de Bresse Cheese and Grilled Walnuts’
Class 2 Part 2:  ’Mandarin Orange Pork Ribs with Roasted Carrots and Potatoes’ (with a Lirac wine), followed by a dessert of moist ‘Dark Chocolate Cake with Orange Blossom Ice Cream’ with a sparkling sweet rosé.

Class 3 Part 1: We started off with the very meaty ‘Wooden Leg Soup’ served with a red wine made from 100% Syrah grapes. The wine also went with the second course, Tuna Cakes and ‘Cervelle de Canut’ (silkworker’s brains) also known as herbed cheese.

Chef Eric thought this would make a great brunch dish and in fact, we had something very similar, right down to the unpitted cherries for breakfast at the Verdi Bed and Breakfast in Bruges, Belgium.