In his pantry
Fresh and preserved products.
Markets and vegetable gardens provide the plate with quantities of fruits and vegetables. One can enjoy all possible species: green beans, tomatoes, cabbage, chard, spinach, Jerusalem artichokes.... More specific to the Midi-toulousain: the coco de Pamiers or the Tarbais bean (red label and IGP), imported from Mexico via Spain by the conquistadors, they developed just like corn at the beginning of the 18th century. Tarbes being the main market, it took its name. The cep is the king of autumn. If the pickers jealously guard the nests of harvest, the markets, them, smell good the humus of undergrowth. However, you should know that the harvesting is regulated and that the cep of Vaïssac is part of the French culinary heritage.
Spices and condiments, a colorful cuisine. Nicknamed "red gold", saffron is grown in the Gers. The garlic is white in Beaumont-de-Lomagne (82), purple in Cadours (31), white and purple in St-Clar (32), cooked at low temperature for several weeks and then matured, it becomes black! A powerful alicament much sought after by cooks and excellent for health. The region supplies more than half of the national consumption. The onion of Trébons (small village of the high valley of Adour - 65) of elongated form, with the very soft savour, pushes in the gardens of Bigorre since the XVIIIth century.
Fruits, fruits, fruits.... Pears from Auch, melon from Lectoure, apples and red fruits (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries) or quinces. Chestnuts have fed many an empty stomach. Peaches and nectarines can be eaten directly from the tree, their sweet juice sticks to the fingers and you can enjoy them. The Tarn-et-Garonne is the Occitan orchard. It is the first national producer of table plums, notably Reine-Claude (Label rouge) or prunes d'ente, and the second largest producer of grapes with, among other varieties, Chasselas (AOC since 1971) whose cultivation area is located around Moissac
The farmer does not like to waste. As soon as they are harvested, the surplus fruit is transformed into jellies or jams, they are used to flavour liqueurs or aperitifs, they are put to dry or in syrup. Nothing is lost, everything is transformed.
Meat and fish
L'agneau del Païs is the name given to the region's brands of farm lamb with the Label Rouge. Its particularity: it is raised "under the mother". These are mostly local hardy breeds that are traditionally eaten at Easter. The Gascon beef grazes quietly in the fatty grass of St-Girons, St-Gaudens or Volvestre. Fed on hay in winter, it is raised up to 48 months. Its tender and marbled meat is renowned. The kid, rarer, is also very appreciated. As for the poultry, they frolic in the barnyards: red, white, black or grey chickens, cockerels, guinea fowl, Guinea geese, turkeys... But the queen is the Gascon hen, identifiable by its black plumage. Raised in the four departments of the Pyrenean foothills, it has been the delight of gastronomes since at least the 14th century. Favourite of King Henri IV, it was for a long time the family dish of Sunday, the famous chicken in the pot! Not forgetting the pigeon, a dish much sought after for the delicacy of its flesh.
River fish are mostly caught by angling: salmon from the Adour, trout from the Pyrenees (in the mountain streams and lakes), carp and sturgeon in the Ariège. Ablette, gudgeon, eel (its fishing is very regulated) are eaten fried with a well-brined parsley.
Caviar in Gascony? Of course, with Les Esturgeons de l'Adour. This fish farm located in Riscle (Gers) has been breeding sturgeon for more than thirty years and is proudly ranked 6th in the world for caviar production.
A pan of crayfish. These crustaceans live in fresh water, mainly in rivers and lakes. There are two native species: the white-footed crayfish, the most common in mountain areas; the red-legged crayfish, which is raised in the Hautes-Pyrénées. Among the introduced species: the slender-legged crayfish is very common in the South-West.
The eating habits of people in the Southwest
Fat and salt
Fat is good. It is also a means of preservation. We confit, that is to say that we cook in the fat of the animal after having put to salt a few hours. In the region, the goose and the duck are the flagship, but the pig is also cooked in the same way. The fat markets of Samatan, Gimont, Fleurance, Seissan, Éauze in the Gers, open from the end of October to the beginning of March, in the morning, punctuate the festive calendar before Christmas and Easter. People come to buy duck (4 million per year) and goose (130,000 animals in Gimont or Masseube) directly from the producers. If the duck dominates, it is nevertheless the goose which marked the history of the gastronomy since the ancient Egypt. The tradition of force-feeding with figs has been revived by Gers producers with "fuiguigers", a mixture of fruit and white corn. As for the duck, Barbary or Mulard, it is confit in the region since the 17th century. Cooked or semi-cooked foie gras, rillettes or fritons, stuffed necks, dried or fresh pan-fried duck breast (invented by the chef André Daguin in 1965, chef of the Hotel de France in Auch), gizzards or candied legs...
Cured meats are also honored in this country of breeding. Ventrèche, boudin galabart, fetge (raw, salted and dried liver) pâté, hure, graisserons, coppa, coustellous, rind sausage... accompany a solid farm breakfast. Lacaune ham is dried for at least 9 months in natural drying sheds; Auch ham is boned, salted and then slowly cooked "à l'étouffée" in its own juice. The black Gascon or Bigorre pig grazes on meadows or in undergrowth, feeds on acorns, chestnuts, cereals or grass, it is appreciated as ham, sausage or dry sausage. The Toulouse sausage is a must for regional tables. It contains only pork meat. Chopped by hand and stuffed into casings of 3 to 4 cm in diameter, it is presented on the shelves in "brassée", i.e. rolled up flat. Pork is eaten from head to tail!
Game
Hunting is an integral part of Occitan culture. It includes the hunting of big game which is practiced in battue. The latter allows to regulate the herds and is the occasion to feast during the great banquets that close the season. Boar on a spit, ham or wild boar pâté, venison stew (a roux with ventrèche moistened with red wine and seasoned with a bouquet garni) delight the guests; and the hunting of game birds. Between St-Michel and St-Martin, the paloumayres camp in their palombière: it is the period of the hunting of the palombe (migratory wood pigeon). Cooked in salmis (a roasted game stew cooked with a spicy wine sauce) - other birds such as pheasant or woodcock are also cooked in this way - or candied in fat.
Today's menu
The speciality menu
"Country food keeps the body strong and helps with the work So expect hearty but very tasty dishes. Both starter and main course: the garbure. A Gascony recipe based on cabbage, white beans and seasonal vegetables, it is completed with gizzards, confits, pork shanks or a heel of country ham. Tourin is a soup made with garlic, onion or tomato. It can be bound with egg and accompanied by croutons. It is often eaten the day after a well-watered party or on the evening of a wedding. Towards the Quercy, we eat miques: small balls made of flour and egg that accompany the soup.
Meat in sauce or on the barbecue. A beef or duck stew with Madiran wine, "demoiselles" (fat duck carcass, the wishbone served with the aiguillettes) grilled on vine stocks. The fricandeaux, a minced pork meat enclosed in a strainer and cooked in the oven. The millas or maillassou, a block of corn flour like polenta, is used as a savory or sweet garnish.
The Toulouse cassoulet is different from the Castelnaudary one because it contains the famous sausage, rind and mutton breast in addition to the duck confit. A very complete dish that can also be eaten with beans instead of mounjettes (white beans).
Some starred addresses
The list of good addresses cannot be drawn up in this file as the number of recognized good restaurants is important. On the other hand, the list of starred restaurants allows a more selective gustatory journey. In Haute-Garonne, 12 establishments have been awarded the Michelin star, including 6 in Toulouse, among which the restaurant of chef Michel Sarran ** or the PY-R** with Pierre Lambinon and Xavier Saffon-Peres in the kitchen. Only one star in the firmament in the Gers, but one that is the talk of the town: the Puy-Saint-Jacques ** in Pujaudran with William Candelon. To this address add two "Michelin Green Star" which highlights establishments committed to a sustainable approach to gastronomy: Domaine de Beaulieu by Maxime Deschamps and Stéphane Mazières in Auch, La Table de Nazère by Christopher Roussat in Avezan. The same goes for the Hautes-Pyrénées: "green star" for Luke MacLeod's Sandikala in Galan.
