Sometimes tasty food can be surprisingly simple and easy to make!
Case in point: this French onion tart. Those two words may not sound like they go together, but trust us, it tastes surprisingly good ! 
Onion tart is actually quite a staple of French cuisine, especially at this time of the year. It is the “go to” autumnal recipe of our French “Farmer Hunter” Agathe, when she needs to cook a quick but ‘fancy’ meal, serving as either a starter to your dinner party or as a main course for a light lunch (or in whatever other setting!). The key is using the right onions: aromatic and high quality.

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC
2. Peel and chop the onions. (pro tipp: use protective glasses!) Mix the eggs and set aside.
3. Place the puff pastry in a buttered tart pan (or, if you are using the ready-made one like us, you can also leave on the paper to keep it from sticking to the pan)
4. Pour the olive oil and onions into a frying pan and cook for about 10 minutes on a medium heat, stirring from time to time.
5. Once the onions have browned, turn off the heat, add the crème fraîche, the 2 mixed eggs, salt and pepper (feel free to add more spice if you like!)
6. Pour the onion mixture over the pastry, bending the corners on top (as pictured) and bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes.
   
   

Enjoy!

In this episode, she tells us about the challenges of working in the Philippines, what it is like being a young female founder (“I was told I would fail in a public forum”) and what Auro Chocolate is doing to make a difference.

We also learn about chocolate itself, myths and misconceptions and what truly makes it good.

• Did you know that dark chocolate is not necessarily vegan?
• Or that there is a huge variety of flavours within cocoa that influence how each chocolate tastes? 
  

Talking about made-up labels, taste buds and combining chocolate with dried fish, Kelly lets us catch a broad glimpse of her world.

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If you want to learn more about Kelly’s project, you can find it here.


Because we could only record this podcast in one language, we chose English in order to reach as many people as possible.

Roquefort, whose traces can be found as early as the 11th century in a rural region with a terrain that is difficult to farm, is a blue cheese made from raw sheep’s milk, which was recognised and protected by many kings of France at a very early stage. At the time, it served as a payment owed to the Abbey of Conques. It was also the first cheese to be recognised as a Denomination of Origin DOC (Appellation d’Origine (AOC)) in France in 1925. 

The higher you climb, the bigger the cheeses, because historically, producers used to join forces to move their herds to pasture in summer after the snow melted and collect their milk to produce large cheeses that could be kept until the following summer. Already in the 8th century, fruiteries in the Jura produced these large cheeses, probably the ancestors of today’s Comté. 

In the Alps, a mountainous region, large cheeses such as Beaufort and Abondance were made the same way.

In the Massif Central and in Auvergne, with cold and snowy winters, there was the same need to produce large cheeses with a longer shelf life, such as Cantal, which has borne its name since 1298, or Laguiole. 

The Pyrenees also produced large sheep’s milk cheeses, such as Ossau Iraty or Béthmale, which could be kept until the following spring, when the sheep started producing milk again. 

In the drier regions of the Mediterranean, goats adapted better to the climate and sparse vegetation, and small cheeses such as Picodon were produced, evidence of which can be traced back to the 14th century and which would also have served as payments in kind for farm leases. 

In the Northern Plains, hardly any grass grows in the winter and therefore there is little milk, so that the cheese originally produced in the monasteries had to be kept all winter long. Thus Munster was born in an Alsatian monastery in the 9th century, closely followed by Maroilles a century later.

Brie is also part of France’s history, many historical anecdotes refer to it being used by Blanche de Navarra to flatter King Philippe Auguste in 1217 to preserve the County of Champagne. Later, in 1814, at a congress in Vienna, he was named “King of Cheeses”. 

In Normandy, the humid climate favours the presence of grass, which allows the production of milk and cheese throughout the year. The cheeses therefore do not need to be stored for long, so that Camembert and Neufchâtel cheeses are produced with short, soft maturing periods. When winter comes, the cheeses of this region mature a little longer, such as the Pont l’Evêque and the Livarot, which date back to the 13th century.

In conclusion, the diversity of the landscapes in France mirrors the diversity of the cheeses. Each region has its own flora and climate, which has an impact on the composition of the milk and the way the cheese is made. 

These cheeses, like many others that have not been mentioned, belong to the history of France, as a mirror of its landscape, which gives each region a special touch. 

References

• FranceInter [Online] at: <https://www.franceinter.fr/histoire/connaissez-vous-les-origines-du-fromage> [Accessed in July 2020]

• Fromage de France [Online] at: <http://www.fromage-france.fr/> [Accessed in July 2020]

• Origin Food [Online] at: <https://www.originfood.info/histoire-aop/> [Accessed in July 2020]

• Le Sénat [Online] at: <https://www.senat.fr/rap/r07-440/r07-44018.html> [Accessed in July 2020]

• Formage AOP [Online] at: <https://www.fromages-aop.com/wp-content/uploads/AOP_brochure.pdf> [Accessed in July 2020]

• Picondo AOP [Online] at: <https://www.picodon-aop.fr/fromage-terroir-et-territoire-picodon-aop/> [Accessed in July 2020]