Travel-sized Mise en Place: Northern France marmalade

We took a night train from south France to north France near Calais and Touquet. We were going to our next workaway host. The marmalade lady, as we called her. Judy and Nick are from England but moved to France in 1985 to raise 3 kids. They both were in the film industry, nick was a camera man and director for 30 years and they met each other in india while on a film set. When they decided to retire they started making jams and marmalades in a small kitchen just with a simple recipe showcasing the freshness of the fruits and it turned into a pretty big business, more than they expected. They now sell to over 20 hotels and bed and breakfasts across Europe. Obviously their production got very large and they recently moved to a bigger location and their son bought the business and deals with the hotel side of things. They still produce a percentage of the jams in their kitchen but it's only to sell at the markets and the tea room. They also have a tea room opened everyday across from their house called Tea Together where people come from all over to have afternoon tea and taste Judy's homemade scones and of course their jams.

We arrived at the train station and Nick is there to pick us up. It's Saturday which is the day they are at the market selling jams at the jam stand. So we get to experience a true French market with local people selling their passion and art. Anything from seafood from the coast to smoked sausage to fresh bread and local grown produce. It's beautiful and colorful and crowded. We meet Judy at the stand and she gives us our first job. She said you two are cooking dinner tonight, here is a budget and you can pick out anything from the market to make a meal. We go searching through the market to find a good meal for the right price. After walking around the food section about 3 times we have found the right stand with the right items for the right price. We decided on seafood and we pick a beautiful white fish fillet that we found out later it was called ling. we bought some nice green onions and potatoes, zucchini and a lemon from the stand next to the jams.

When the market is over we help pack up and carry it to the car. We meet the previous workaways that are here from Italy for one more day. We pile into the Land Rover with the jam stand supplies, our luggage, two English people, two Italians, and the two of us. I was squished in the back with the luggage lol. We stopped to see their son Eli and the new factory where they make the larger production. It was so cool they still use the original method with large copper pots and gas burners. We finally make it to their house it has a cute sign shaped like a tea pot that says tea together. They have 3 long buildings that forms a U and in the front are huge hydrangea bushes and one large fig tree. We get settled in and meet one more guy that helped build their house and lives there sometimes his names Bruce from New Zealand. That night we cooked for everyone a Parmesan parsley crusted ling with sautéed zucchini and roasted potatoes. And a new drink we discovered beer with a shot of picon liquor, they call it picon beer!

The next morning we got up early and went to an antique market on the street called a Brocante. We walked up and down the street looking at old war memorabilia and old kitchen things. We almost bought some copper pots, but we might get some in Italy instead. We got back to the house and worked for a few hours. This week our job was to clean the extra kitchen they use for making jams. The Italians before us had repainted it and we cleaned the paint off that had dripped onto the tables or equipment. Our ocd may or may not have taken over because once we started cleaning we noticed other things that needed to be cleaned so we just took the incentive and cleaned everything. We finished a lot faster than they thought, on and off for two days. But when we were done Nick and Judy said the kitchen was cleaner than it had ever been before. So we finished our work for the week and after that we just helped with little stuff. Like that night I helped Judy throw together a dinner because we had surprise company that just stopped by the say hello and ended up staying for dinner. We had sausages on the grill cooked by bruce and I quickly made a tomatoe salad with shallots and cilantro and we had boiled potatoes paired with a wonderful wine the surprise company had brought. It came together nice and it was a good evening. They have a huge movie collection so we got into the habit of watching a movie before we went to bed. That was fun!

On Monday we were sent on a mission to walk to the next town over and find a guy named Philip who sold produce out of his big garden. The walk there was beautiful we could see rolling hills of wheat pastures and cow pastures and a few corn pastures. It was harvest time for the wheat and everyone was trying to finish cutting and bailing before the rain. We found Philip and picked out a few heads of lettuce Judy had asked for and some haricot verts and a sack of potatoes. Once we made it back we helped Judy in the kitchen she had a brunch reservation in the tea room and she is known for her wonderful Indian brunch she even puts them in the little tins like how they eat lunch in India. She made enough for us to sit down and have it for lunch. It was aloo gobi and a lamb roast with rice and sweet peppers. It was so good.

That night we were all invited to a dinner party with some of the people that work at the market, so you know it was good food! We pull up to phi phi's house which is short for Philip. He comes out to greet us with a huge smile and red rosy cheeks and a large round belly, this is the guy that makes and sells delicious dried and cured sausages. He was celebrating his successful year with his business. He said I made a lot of money now I want to share it with friends no selfish bone in his body. He was a great host, we started with sparkling wine and he brought out a platter with fresh bread and charcuterie display and quail eggs along with foie gras and you eat it with fig jam. It was the best foie gras I've ever had, Justin had never tried it and he loved it. Then more people showed up we met Morgan that sells produce and is studying to be a lawyer. We met a lady that was kinda crazy and she kept asking Justin and I when we were having kids and if she could come take care of them :/ but she was nice and she had done a lot of traveling since she used to be a flight attendant. We met a guy they call quack quack because he helps his dad with their smoked duck business, yes we got to try smoked duck pastrami style oh my gosh it was so good! Morgan brought yagermeister and we exposed to them what a yager bomb is. Let's just say we became the bar tenders and phi phi was going around saying yager BOMB with his French accent. He BBQd chicken and a sausage made of beef and lamb and we ate that with an assortment of sides then he brings out lamb chops from the grill and potatoes he had cooking down in the coals. And he brought especially for me some cheese and creme fraiche. It turned into a great night and we made some great friends that cook with such a passion.

The next day we didn't do too much work. We helped a little in the garden Judy showed us her different herbs and flowers and what she uses them for. She told me to relax and read in her pink room where she has tons of cookbooks. I curled up on her long couch beside an opened window where a big section of fennel was growing and there I found a new favorite, Alice Toklas cookbook. It was so nice to have time to focus and enjoy what I love. I came up with some new dishes. That afternoon Justin and I made homemade basil pasta to go with our dinner. We ate that with lamb meatballs and polenta cake topped with roasted tomatoes. The next day Judy left for Paris to visit her sister so we helped run the tearoom when they got customers. I also got to help make some jams. I made raspberry jam and apricot with lavender jam. That was fun and I got to see their method of cooking and cooling. And of course we were in charge of all the food while she was gone. We had leftovers the first night she was gone but I made a delicious lemon tart for dessert. It was fun trying to come up with good dishes just using what they had since they didn't go to town very often. The next night we cooked a nice meal with steak and grilled peppers, garlic mash potatoes and glazed carrots.

Friday Judy got home and she gave me a new project of making an Indian dish that she has tried a few times and couldn't master it. Masala Dosa is a thin crepe made from rice cooked on a tawa then filled with a curry, turmeric potato mash and topped with a coconut chutney. It took me two tries to get the method of spreading the batter on the hot skillet to form the crepe right but other than that it came out great! And they all loved it which was a surprise because all 3 of them have been to India several times and had these on the street. That was fun and very educational. We talked about her Paris trip and she told us some bistros to go to and which museums to not miss.

Our last day there we went with them to the market that morning since it was Saturday. We shopped a little for food we wanted to take with us to Paris! We ran into our friends we met earlier that week and it pays to know people. They gave us extra sausage when we only bought two and gave us extra portion of duck. We will be eating good in Paris just from our kitchen in the apartment. We walked around outside of the market and realized we had been on the coast of north France the whole time. We walked out on the beach and saw a huge Disneyland sand sculpture. I'm writing this blog post now while sitting beside my love looking out at the ocean with a sand sculpture behind us. We got back to the house and had lunch which was a potato and parsley soup with sandwiches. Then we packed our bags and headed to the train station towards Paris.

Our clean kitchen!