Serves: 4
Approx cost: €4.50
Approx calories (per serving): ~440
Approx preparation time: ~60 minutes
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #0B0B61;”]First off, let me tell you all about my weekend, and believe me – it was a good ‘un. I was speaking with my parents just before the weekend and they mentioned a Château with a rather interesting history not too far from where I live, so come Friday we’d hatched a plan to go and check it out. The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte was built by a “Nicolas Fouquet”, superintendent of Finances, under Louis XIV. During Louis’ reign it is believed by some that Fouquet was charging more than the legally permitted interest rate on debts and then pocketing the difference, effectively defrauding the King. Louis XIV was none too pleased about this and finally decided enough was enough. Fouquet was imprisoned for the rest of his life, and his Château seized. Whatever may have happened during this time, innocent or guilty, there sure was a lot of cash flying around. It’s said that he bought up and demolished 3 villages in order to make room for his “dream home”. These villagers were then employed to maintain his estate.
We started off by checking out the stables – they had a rather interesting display of old carriages and the like. One of them was even made in Bath, England apparently – not far from where my parents live. They had all manner of saddles and other horse-related items on display used during the era and it made for an interesting precursor to the rest of the visit.
We were eager to see inside the Château next so after a few pauses to take some more photos we went inside. These houses always amaze me – you have a maze of passageways and stairs going this way and that. You then have hidden doors, disguised to look like the wall, used by servants to make their “smooth entrances” into the room. After seeing a great many vastly opulent rooms it was interesting to come across a small bathroom.
Boy am I glad I have flushing toilets these days! After this was Madame Fouquet’s private room, the wife of the owner of house. Later on we saw the private chambers of Louis XV and XVI, as well as the King’s chamber – these were built just on the off-chance that royalty should suddenly decide to pay a visit to the Château. Behind these private chambers there was a narrow corridor with a small covered bed in it – I can only assume that some private servant for the chambers was sleeping here (it wasn’t mentioned anywhere else). From the first photo above you’ll notice that the Château has a large dome in the centre. You can actually go to the top of this and it’s a very fun experience to go up into the roof of such an old building. You go up several flights of rickety-looking stairs, across a walkway which goes directly over the other side of the dome (dusty, for sure!) and then up to the little tower on top, complete with a small bell. What was interesting was the numerous people who seem to think it’s appropriate to climb to the top of a 17th century national monument and then carve their initials into a doorway. I doubt the lead cladding over the door itself dates from the 17th century, but it still detracts from the overall atmosphere of the place and is quite sad.
In any case, the views, both from the top of the dome, and the floor immediately underneath were wonderful. I’m guessing the rich people didn’t go up here much – the design of everything was very cold and functional, compared with the lavish, marble and gold encrusted things downstairs. Too bad – they didn’t know what they were missing!
Continuing on the tour, we saw more state rooms, dining rooms, libraries and the like, and then headed downstairs to the kitchens and servants’ areas. The kitchen was amazing – cool, stone, high vaulted ceilings, so much space and ovens and stoves galore! I think I even prefered the servants’ dining room compared to the opulence of upstairs. Simple table settings in front of a huge fire. It looked like an enjoyable place to spend a meal.
After this the tour ended on a rather sad note. They’d converted a dark, damp part of an underground section of the tunnel into a small cell, and had chained a mannequin to the wall in there to symbolise the fate of Nicolas Fouquet. What did I learn from this? If I ever go back in time and meet Louis XIV, don’t get on his nerves! We made our way out into the bright sunlight and after a brief stop at a small café in the gardens we started wandering around to see the estate. The estate and gardens are actually fascinating – all sorts of trickery was used to perform effects which I’m still not quite sure I understand – decelerated perspective, for example. You can be walking along and you suddenly see there are two canals in front of you, which were hidden previously. There is a large square lake too. If you stand on one side you can get a full reflection of the Château, even though it’s about 1km away.
So, would I go again? Most definitely, and I’d recommend you to go too. When I went, the weather was swealtering, so if it’s like this then I would recommend you hire a little motorised car to visit the grounds in. They cost only €15 for 45 mins, and €5 for each additional 15 mins, seat 4 people and allow you to easily travel to far away sections of the grounds. They have a restaurant there I think – I’d probably try and check this place out too. I hope I’ve given you a bit of insight into this wonderful Château, though I really recommend you visit the Wikipedia page I’ve linked above – there is so much more to read about this place! As usual, any photos I’ve taken for today’s adventure post can be downloaded, if desired, from my Downloads Page.
Anyway, now on to today’s recipe! I’ve used, or plan to use most of the quinces I had for various canning-related posts. I wouldn’t feel entirely satisfied unless I had prepared some sort of main meal with them however, so this is the result of that – a “Charles Special”, so to speak. My wife isn’t a big fan of fruit in savoury dishes so, as Kristy would say, from her side it probably only got about “2 spoons”. I was particularly pleased with the chicken. I had never minced (I say minced but it was more like “pulverised” by the time I was finished with it) and it wasn’t until recently that the idea hit me, when reading a post by Sissi. I loved the result – so flavourful and a wonderful alternative to minced beef, I see now. Expect to see more mashed up chicken in the future!
The guacamole I’m still not entirely sold on in this dish. Don’t get me wrong – I freaking love the stuff but one of the only reasons I made it here was because we had two sitting around in the kitchen and I was worried they might be spoiling. Of course, despite being blackened and soft from the outside, when I cut them open they were in perfect shape (even perhaps a little on the firm side). It provided a nice side-flavour but I think maybe some sort of tomato-based creamy reduction sauce might go better with such a dish in the future.
I’m a big fan of dishes made of lots of individual components like this… all stacked up. You really get the feeling that it’s been served to you at some fancy restaurant, even if it’s just something you cooked up at home. It makes quite a light meal, so if you’re really hungry you probably want to add extra chicken/make the patties thicker, add some more potato in there, and so forth. Hope you like it, and enjoy your Thursday!
Ingredients
- 2 Quinces
- 2 Avocadoes
- 2 Chicken Breasts
- 2 large Potatoes
- 2 Onions
- 1 Handful of Fresh Mint
- ~4 tbsps low-fat Yoghurt
- Juice from half a Lemon
- 4 tbsps Olive Oil
- 3 tsp Cumin
- 2 cloves of Garlic
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
- Start off by pre-heating your oven to about 170 degrees Celsius. Peel the Quinces and cut the top and bottom off. Cut each Quince into 4 equal width slices and carefully remove the core. Brush the slices with 1 tbsp of Olive Oil, sprinkle on a little salt and pepper, place on a baking tray and place into the hot oven for about 20 minutes.
- Peel the potatoes and chop lengthways into slices about 5-6 mm thick. This is a choice thing – feel free to make them thicker or thinner if you prefer. Heat another 1 tbsp of Oil in a large frying pan. Rinse the potato slices to remove any excess starch and when the oil is hot, add in the slices into the hot oil and fry. This process will take about 15 minutes so move onto the next step meanwhile – just bear in mind that you’ll need to flip the potato slices every 3 or 4 minutes or so!
- Next we’ll make a very fast, simple guacamole – In a food processor, place the peeled garlic, the peeled avocadoes, the yoghurt, 2 tsps of Cumin, 1 tbsp of Olive Oil and the lemon juice. Add a sprinkling of salt and pepper and blend until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and place in the refrigerator to cool.
- Wash out the food processor mixing bowl and then add in the chicken breasts, the mint leaves and the two onions, peeled and roughly chopped. Add in the remaining 1 tsp of Cumin and a sprinkle of black pepper and blend everything on high speed until well mixed.
- Use this opportunity to check on the potatoes and quince slices, flipping them over if necessary, and then heat the remaining 1 tbsps of Olive Oil in a large frying pan. Divide the chicken mixture into 8 pieces, form each piece into a patty with your hands, making it quite thin, before transferring it to the frying pan. Fry each side for about 3 minutes, until browning nicely.
- Finally, remove the potatoes, chicken patties and quinces slices from their various cooking implements and transfer to a plate. Get out the guacamole ready, and then form little stacks on plates. I laid a quince slice, a bit of guacamole, a chicken patty, bit more guacamole, potato slice, bit more guac, and then the same again, quince, chicken potato, before finally decorating the plate with a final touch of guacamole. Enjoy!
Charles, your dish looks really like one from a fancy restaurant. So complex, original and appealing. If I was served it I would be excited to discover what it actually is (I think I would recognise visually only guacamole) Congratulations for the creativeness! I must admit I have never used quince in a savoury dish, so thank you for the idea.
I am glad you started to mince chicken. It's true it doesn't look like the meat minced in a special machine, but I think it's ok for most of the dishes and if you cook for two it's easier than go and order minced chicken in advance… (Why do the French or Swiss don't eat more chicken? I even have to order in advance chicken wings… but when I have such an exceptional jambon braisé like for today's lunch, I think I shouldn't complain 😉 France has probably the best food in Europe). Thank you for mentioning me and linking to my blog 🙂
Your guided visit is impressive. It sounds like from a professional guide. I love the photos and I agree the kitchen looks amazing. (It reminds me of a stupid British comedy – by stupid I mean I loved it -" You rang M'Lord?" have you ever seen it?).
I hope you feel better (the dish looks like you were in perfect shape! I wouldn't have the courage to make it today!).
Thanks Sissi – I probably won't use Quince in a savoury dish again – my wife's not a fan and when you have to cook for two you tend to have to try to stick to things you both enjoy! I'm loving the minced chicken – I can't wait to start trying things like cottage pie and lasagne with the chicken like this! I never have a problem getting chicken of various shapes and sizes, but I do think that the French aren't very adventurous in their cuts of meat. In England I can easily find a whole aisle in the store devoted to beef – 15 different kinds of roasting joint… silver-side, top-side, sirloin, etc. Here, they seem to have only oblong-shaped blocks of meat, wrapped in fake fat. Very annoying! The butcher seems to have a bit more choice, but still not as much as I'm used to from English stores. I guess they are quite traditional in their cuts of meat, and uses of the product. I remember wanting to make pulled pork and buying a big pork joint from the butcher. When I told him I would slow cook it for 10 hours he looked at me like I was insane and was about to make the biggest mistake of my life :/
I don't think I've seen You Rang M'Lord before… although I've definitely heard of it – I'll look up some clips to see if I know it. I recently watched "Jeeves and Wooster"… that's such a funny show.
I'm glad you liked reading about the trip. I forgot to mention, this place was used as a filming location in the James Bond film "Moonraker". I'm going to another château this weekend which should be good. Alas I'm still feeling all blocked up and coldy. Hopefully I'm reaching the tail-end of this now.
I know what you mean by cooking different meals for two only. Even though I hate it, I sometimes do it. When my husband has a rare steak, I have something else.
I also have various chicken types at my butcher's, but if I want to buy 1 kg of wings, I have to tell him a couple of days ago (he has only legs and breasts because the French don't cook wings…). Same for ground chicken. Although I suppose Jewish butchers must sell ground chicken and Muslims ground lamb…
There are many parts which can be ordered (like beef cheeks) and regular clients simply ask for it (I know one butcher who has it all the time but not displayed). The choice in supermarkets is of course smaller because the French who eat well don't buy meat in supermarkets (no one from my family does and they are not all gourmets… but I think I have told you this already; butchers will even age the meat for you longer if you know them well), so they put those which are most popular. I'm not a big fan of beef, so I cannot tell the difference, but my husband says the supermarket beef is horrible. Free-range chicken is quite good though.
However, from what you say, British butchers have a much bigger -even basic – choice! Have I told you I loved British black pudding? The good one of course (I have also tasted the supermarket-bought and it was awful). By the way, black pudding is what I eat often when my husband has a steak 😉 We are both happy this way.
(I'm so nervous, I'm making now a sponge basis for a layered cake, the first time in my life… I hope I will be able to post it!).
Yeah – I find it impossible to get minced lamb in France – I should try this big halal butcher in the north of Paris I went past one time – they actually had a much bigger selection of meat than I see in many normal French butchers, and that's pretty darn good considering they're missing an entire animal from the things they can choose from to stock.
How did the sponge cake turn out? My mother always made good sponge cakes using a very simple to remember recipe – 6-6-6-3, or 4-4-4-2 (6oz Butter, 6oz Sugar, 6oz Self-Raising Flour and 3 eggs). Looking forward to seeing the post!
What a cool pairing, literally and figuratively. I love the stacks and seeing palace pictures is always fun.
Thanks Greg – It was a good day out 🙂
Look at that final presentation Charles!!!! Beautifully styled. 😉 These little stackers look delicious. And I'm really enjoying these quince posts. The fruit is just fascinating to look at even if it's only 2 spoon worthy in this dish for your wife. And speaking of spoons, thanks for the shout-out! 🙂
I'm really enjoying your adventure posts. Your photos are beautiful and this Chateau looks so incredible! (A far cry from the one room log cabins we visited a few weekends ago!) I remember the opulence of Versailles and this looks just as impressive. (Well, maybe slightly less so…Wouldn't want to offend the King!) How sad and torturous to have built such a grand place and then be locked in a little cage underneath it all. I'm sure there's a fairytale-esque lesson in there somewhere. 😉
Thanks Kristy. To be fair, the guy probably deserved it. If I'd been Louis XIV and I found out my finance chief was robbing my money away from me I'd probably want to toe-punt him straight into a jail cell too! The best thing is reading about how his "orange trees" were seized by the king. I guess orange trees were a big deal back then 😀
The presentation is really nice. I would definitely like to taste these. And Charles, what a wonderful post and amazing pictures!!
Thanks Purabi! Can you get quinces where you live? They seem to be really not common in the world!
What a lovely dish, Charles. I really don't have a clue of what quince tastes like, can you describe it? I do like fruit paired with savory, so this would likely be right up my alley!
That chateau sounds wonderful. I will definitely put it on my list for next year when we vacation in France! I am certainly glad to be living in this day and age, no worries of ticking off the 'king' and getting exiled, or beheaded or worse! (I even heard boiled in oil!)
Thanks Eva – I think it's not so much the day and age though, but rather a case of lucky to be living in countries where our leaders aren't tyrannical megalomaniacs. You still hear stories about poor residents of Iran or North Korea, suffering at the hands of their slightly less than kind leaders!
Charles, I love stacked dishes and this one is so perfectly combined! The guacamole surprised me but I can imagine how the taste could compliment well. The presentation is fabulous! I've never used quince before; I've learned something new from your post 🙂
Thanks Linda – you should try and get a hold of some! As I said – I wasn't sure about the guacamole either – it's one of these things which needs… "something", but you're not quite sure what. Need to experiment more 😀
And your jealous of my cabin in the woods?!! What I wouldn't do to spend just one day in France. Look at that Chateau… my heavens, the history and grand beauty. I'm so glad you've expanded into these photos. One of the coolest things about blogging for me, is learning about how other people experience the world – what surrounds them and how they feel about it. Funny enough, my son wrote a paper on Louis XIV last year that I think dealth with a certain swindling finance dude… I'll have to ask him – would he ever enjoy this post!
Your stacks look great. I too enjoy the layering of different flavours and foods – I love the you added mint and lemon – delicious additions and I can't imagine that the avocado wouldn't work. I've never heard of avocado not working in anything!! 🙂 (at least not in this house; we eat avocado almost every day!).
Cheers Kelly! You know, that must have been the same guy your son wrote about, surely?! What a coincidence. Are you still planning to visit France in the spring? You must definitely try and check this place out!
I love avocado too… such an amazing, smooth, creamy taste. Loaded with calories though – eek!
Sounds like you had a wonderful time with you parents, Charles. Love all of the photos. Oh, and I'm glad to have flushing toilets nowadays as well. Quite convenient, ha! I'm a fan of fruit in savory dishes, so I think I'd give this dish four spoons. 🙂
Thanks Caroline – at least they had some sort of "toilet-like furniture" here. The palace of Versailles was originally built without toilets. They had a corridor where servants went to…er…. take care of their business. I can't even begin to imagine the stench in there!
quince is one of those english fruits i've yet to try! it's in season now, so i hope to get my hands on some, and your recipe is definitely one to keep in mind! the stacks look so yummy! and i'm jealous of your tour, the place looks like a fairytale!
Thanks Shuhan! It was very light – a great meal to have when you don't feel like too much!
Charles, this dish definitely looks like something I'd find in one of the finer restaurants in town! Sounds tasty to me. Good to find another use for quince, which I like to use simply because one does not find it everywhere.
Wow, what a compliment, thanks Jean! They're really not common at all are they? Even the book I was reading about them was called "Quinces – the forgotten fruit"! 🙂
Charles, thank you for asking! Actually, my mum's layered birthday cake doesn't have a standard sponge basis (it's not spongy…). It is quite original (I think). It was very tricky to make, I'm really so clumsy: cutting the layers, putting cream etc. is really for calm and attentive people. However, the cake was soooooooo good. I will post it soon (I hope at least one photo will not look scary).
As for halal butchers, a "standard" butcher once told me that the halal meat doesn't contain much blood, which makes for example halal steaks not very good and halal meat apparently drier. I'm very curious what your experience will be and if this butcher was right!
Nice – I'm looking forward to seeing it. It sounds wonderful! As for the butcher conundrum – As someone who has muslims in his family I can tell you without a doubt that there's no difference between halal meat and regular meat. It's a common misconception that halal meat has little/no blood – possibly because they get it confused with kosher meat, which has to be salted to remove the blood I believe, or possibly because of the method of killing – but all this does is cause a fast drain of blood away from the brain! It's just as tasty 🙂
I have nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award!
Thank you so much Autumn! Is that your veg-crazed cat in your picture there? 😀
Yes, That would be him!
Where do I begin. Well lets start with this delectable dish. The Baked Quince and Chicken Stacks look amazing. I can just see myself eating these on a wonderful day relaxing at home. Delish! And this chateau looks AMAZING. I would most certainly go if I was in the area. Who am I kidding, I would make it my point to visit to be in the area to see this place.
Thanks BG! If you ever come to France there's so many châteaux here that it's just impossible to see them all in one trip. I definitely think this is one of the best ones I've seen so far though, so I really recommend it a lot!
The pictures are great! How much time did it take you to explore all the castle?
The stairs look scary though, I wonder if they had to climb them back then when women had those big dresses… That might have been an adventure )
The castle took about 1.5 hours I think, though we certainly didn't dawdle – I guess you could easily spend 3 hours there if you took the time to read every single information board and so forth.
As for the stairs – I think the "ladies" probably didn't go up to this part of the castle. The way it is furnished makes it seem that it was only maintenance and servants who came up there. Too bad, it's a great view!