500g of ordinary Froment Flour
6 egg yolks
250g sugar
400g farm salt butter (don’t settle for lesser quality)
A pinch of salt
Put half the flour in a terrine with the sugar and salt. Make a hole. Put the egg yolks in it, keeping back a little egg white and egg yolk to paint the gateau to ensure it goes brown in the oven). Mix the lot together by hand and add the soft butter (don’t melt it) all at once. Continue to mix by hand, gradually adding the rest of the flour. Once you have a compact mass, which does not stick to the walls of your terrine, put it in a cake tin which you have greased with butter. Paint a little egg yolk and egg white onto the surface, and make a cross pattern with a fork. Cook in a hot oven for 30-45 minutes depending on how thick your gateau is. Once it’s brown, cover it with a sheet of aluminium foil and let the cooking finish like that. You’ll find the gateau is soft when you take it out of the oven, but goes hard quickly. Wait 5-10 minutes before removing it from its tin, and let it cool in a dry place. My grandmother used to say: wait 3 days before tasting it… this improves its flavour…
Marine Mussels
Allow 500g of mussels per person.
Pour two glasses of white wine into a large casserole (gros-plant or Nantais is ideal), having first finely chopped some echallottes. Add a bouquet garni, a little parsley, a decent blob of butter, and some pepper - and a bay leaf, if you have one. Once it’s on the boil, simmer for 5 minutes then add the cleaned mussels. Put a lid on the casserole. The mussels are cooked once they are fully open. Serve with rice.
L’Eclade
A traditional summer mussels recipe. Place your mussels belly down on a slate, cover them with pine needles, which you light with a match. Once the cinders have died down, blow them away, and your mussels are cooked!
Brittany Coquilles Saint Jacques
Allow 2-3 coquilles per person.
Open the Coquilles, take out the black part, keep their water. Keep the shell for decoration. Lightly fry a little onion and some garlic. Add the coquilles, some parsley, some bread crumbs, and then add some white wine and the water you kept. Add a dash of curry, and a pinch of pepper and salt. Let it all cook for 10-15 minutes. Put the coquilles back in the shell, with a tiny blob of butter. Brown in the oven.
