Café Presse chef de cuisine James O’Hern will be the featured Guest Chef at Farestart on Thursday September 12th. Make your plans (and reservations!) now to attend! It’s a great bargain, it’s fun and all proceeds support Farestart in the great work they do helping people with barriers to entry into the job market acquire the skills to succeed!
Contact Farestart to purchase tickets or purchase on-line.
It’s time to celebrate Bastille Day! At Le Pichet, get our limited edition Bastille Day T-Shirts, featuring an illustration by local artist Kyle Wendt, made in America and 100% cotton. Supplies are limited so come by today!
Thanks to the Washington Post for including Café Presse in their recently released “A Local’s guide to Seattle“!
In April 2019, I had the opportunity to visit the Fromagerie Ecologique Agour Irati located high up foothills of the Basque Pyrenees. A quick word about Agour (I also noticed it spelled Agur, which I believe is in Euskera, the Basque language? You Euskera speakers, correct me if I am wrong). If you are a fan of French cheeses, and especially of Basque sheep milk cheeses, you have likely heard of Agour. They are the largest family run independent cheese maker in the French Basque countries and have been exporting to the U.S. for over 20 years. We have featured their lovely cheeses on the cheeses boards at Le Pichet and Cafe Presse for as long as they have been open.
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Mackerel filets from Saint Jean de Luz, sauteed and served with bay leaf roasted new potatoes, fava beans, spring onions and lamb jus.
Here are some photos of the preparation:
There’s a new fromagerie in Orthez (officially in Argagnon but that is only about 4 minutes from Orthez). This is big news because 1) well things can move pretty slow in Orthez and it is therefore not that often that we arrive to find something totally new and unexpected has opened up and 2) goat cheese is not really the cheese of choice in SW France. With all due respect to Rocamadour and Cabécous from the Midi-Pyrenees, this is the Atlantic end and in the Béarn and Basque countries, the its all about sheep milk tomes, with Ossau Iraty being the reigning king.
The farm Les Chevres de Brassenx is a modest operation, with only about 60 animals and sales only at 3 local farmer’s markets and direct at the farm 3 days a week. When we stopped by, cheese making had just restarted after the winter period when the goat’s stop producing milk, which means limited supply and mostly young cheeses available. But for all that, the cheeses are beautifully made and redolent of fresh, raw milk…no surprise given that the owners (career changers like myself) learned their new craft working in the Poitou-Charente, the most prolific region in France for goat’s milk cheeses.
The other benefit of a spring visit is that the farm is literally awash in baby goats! Not to mention a border collie very insistent on playing fetch, 2 barn cats who seem a bit starved for attention and Monsieur the cheese maker who was more that happy to stop what he was doing to explain the functioning of the farm and cheese making laboratoire (and to introduce the animals).
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After many hours of travel, finally the arrival in Orthez. For a simple lunch, crevette rose from Saint-Jean-de-Luz and freshly made mayonnaise. Deep sign!
Brandade nîmoise is back on the menu, starting at 5:30pm this evening. This traditional favorite from the south of France is made with salt cod, cream and olive oil, seasoned with garlic, thyme, lemon and nutmeg. We also add a bit of potato, a variation found in the city of Nîmes.
Try it with a glass of of rosé from Corsica like our Clos Fornelli “La robe d.Ange” (or why not a bottle!)
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