Thanks, Vicki. Good to see you here! I know you've eaten a few crepes in your Breton escapades. Was thinking the other day about the meal we ate together in L'Epée in Quimper. Do you remember? (very much not crepes). I'm going back there in December for a celebratory occasion.
Lovely post, love buckwheat. Was the term 'sarrasin' used very much before recent times? I got the impression it was something of a re-branding, 'blé noir' being perceived a bit negatively.
I finally got around to ordering a kig ha farz sack of a sensible size, and we had one, made with sarrasin flour milled at the restored tide mill on the Rance estuary, with a vegetable stew, since we're not so keen on all the traditional porky elements. It was nice, but even with reduced quantities, we were eating leftovers for a week! I kept it solid and didn't crumble it, the cold slices worked quite well in the toaster.
There are a few nice old b/w documentary films on YT featuring kig ha farz, and David Lebovitz in Paris seems to have created some rare English language content about it, detailing his researches into and experiments making it. He remarks how stubbornly local it remains as a dish, with very few people having heard of it even within other parts of Brittany.
I've not tried the whisky, I wonder what that's like? Something for Christmas...
Thanks, Lucy. I'll save up and bring you a bottle one day! It tastes good. Very interested in your kig ha farz experience. I only ate it once (in Plouneour Menez, so absolutely traditional). Very much a dish suited to its place of origin, Léon, quite separate in many ways. I look forward to eating it in your house... (About sarrasin, the quote I gave from 1840ish uses the word, so current then, but I don't know how widespread.)
I've never eaten it in it's homeland, I never seemed to be there at the right moment! There was a restaurant between St Brieuc and Erquy which rather oddly used to serve it once a month, so we did try it there once. If I cook it again I might crumble it up as that might be lighter. I shall put it on the menu when next you visit!
This is so informative and fascinating, Wendy. My son made buckwheat pancakes yesterday -- I came across them first in a US veggie cookbook decades ago and it wasn't until we visted Brittany in the early 2000s that I made the regional connection here.
I'm glad you wrote about gwiniz du. I love it (and love how said bakery makes its bread and croissants from it). In my own cooking I use a it a lot, as it's gluten-free, as you say, and also high in protein. I manage to make a succesful blé noir krampouez maybe 1 time out of 2 (Eloïse has truly mastered it). Aour Du beer is lovely (and I'm not really a beer drinker) - and of course for those who are g-f it's excellent. Dremwell Blé Noir is another lovely Breton one.
So interesting!
Thanks, Vicki. Good to see you here! I know you've eaten a few crepes in your Breton escapades. Was thinking the other day about the meal we ate together in L'Epée in Quimper. Do you remember? (very much not crepes). I'm going back there in December for a celebratory occasion.
Lovely post, love buckwheat. Was the term 'sarrasin' used very much before recent times? I got the impression it was something of a re-branding, 'blé noir' being perceived a bit negatively.
I finally got around to ordering a kig ha farz sack of a sensible size, and we had one, made with sarrasin flour milled at the restored tide mill on the Rance estuary, with a vegetable stew, since we're not so keen on all the traditional porky elements. It was nice, but even with reduced quantities, we were eating leftovers for a week! I kept it solid and didn't crumble it, the cold slices worked quite well in the toaster.
There are a few nice old b/w documentary films on YT featuring kig ha farz, and David Lebovitz in Paris seems to have created some rare English language content about it, detailing his researches into and experiments making it. He remarks how stubbornly local it remains as a dish, with very few people having heard of it even within other parts of Brittany.
I've not tried the whisky, I wonder what that's like? Something for Christmas...
Thanks, Lucy. I'll save up and bring you a bottle one day! It tastes good. Very interested in your kig ha farz experience. I only ate it once (in Plouneour Menez, so absolutely traditional). Very much a dish suited to its place of origin, Léon, quite separate in many ways. I look forward to eating it in your house... (About sarrasin, the quote I gave from 1840ish uses the word, so current then, but I don't know how widespread.)
I've never eaten it in it's homeland, I never seemed to be there at the right moment! There was a restaurant between St Brieuc and Erquy which rather oddly used to serve it once a month, so we did try it there once. If I cook it again I might crumble it up as that might be lighter. I shall put it on the menu when next you visit!
This is so informative and fascinating, Wendy. My son made buckwheat pancakes yesterday -- I came across them first in a US veggie cookbook decades ago and it wasn't until we visted Brittany in the early 2000s that I made the regional connection here.
Thanks, Jan. It has been a literal life-line here for many in the past.
I'm glad you wrote about gwiniz du. I love it (and love how said bakery makes its bread and croissants from it). In my own cooking I use a it a lot, as it's gluten-free, as you say, and also high in protein. I manage to make a succesful blé noir krampouez maybe 1 time out of 2 (Eloïse has truly mastered it). Aour Du beer is lovely (and I'm not really a beer drinker) - and of course for those who are g-f it's excellent. Dremwell Blé Noir is another lovely Breton one.
Thanks, Roselle. Glad you are a blé noir fan. It does have an amazing history.
Lancelot's Telenn Du also!
YES! And Hini Du I think too… Or is it Mamm Du? Here we go…
Feeling thirsty now!