Before June 20, St Sylvere's day in Perigord, pick about forty fresh green walnuts and chop them into quarters and then put them into a large pot with a lid. It should not be glass. An enamel fais tout is best.

Add eight litres of red wine (white wine makes a distinctly milder drink) and one litre of gniol. (Perigord patois for the real alcohol eau de vie. If you cannot obtain it from a friendly farmer, French pharmacies sell an acceptable substitute. If all else fails, cheap Spanish brandy will have to do.)

The French like their vin de noix sweet and usually add a kilo of sugar to the mix. Bruno adds only half a kilo.

Stir it all together, close the lid and leave it in a dark place for 42 days. Stir again, pour it through a strainer and then bottle the result. It is drinkable at once but I think it improves with age. My 2002 vintage is great.

One of the joys of living where I do is regular access to ailou, a whipped fresh cream cheese drowning in garlic and herbs. It's perfect on bread, served as a dip, and added to all sorts of egg dishes and cream sauces. Boursin and garlic and herb cream cheese can be used as replacements, but it won't be quite the same. 

This sauce is another one dreamt up by my daughter to use up our seemingly endless  bounty of walnuts. She serves it with pasta, on polenta, or with grilled chicken or pork.

100g garlic and herb cream cheese (preferably ailou)
2 large handfuls toasted walnuts, roughly chopped
150g tub creme fraiche
150g mushrooms, sliced (preferably an earthy variety like cep or portobello)
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp olive oil
70g flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

1. Heat up the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan over a medium heat. When it begins to shimmer, add the mushrooms, stirring to coat with the oil.
2. Cook gently, stirring often, until the mushrooms have halved in mass. Add the garlic and cook for two minutes, stirring constantly.
3. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the cream cheese, stirring to help it melt. Add the creme fraiche in small quantities, stirring all the time, until the sauce has reached your desired consistency.
4. Take the sauce off the heat, stir in the walnuts and parsley, and serve.

Several weeks ago, a neighbour lent me her school cookery book from the 1950s.  It is a wonderful guide to the basics of French cooking, and contains dozens of recipes that should be preserved for posterity. The book builds on previous recipes, assuming that students will work their way through from start to finish. Flipping through, the recipe for friands caught my eye - it requires a portion of puff pastry (covered earlier in the book), some ham, and a half portion of mornay sauce (also covered in a previous chapter). Later in the book, basic preparations for preserves, tarts, pâtés, and stews all build on the skills learned earlier. To cook your way through the book, from start to finish, is to get an education in traditional French home cooking. Unfortunately, I won't have access to the book for long enough to copy it out - and translate it - in full. I do, however, have time to present some of the greatest hits in the form of forgotten classics.

3 shallots
1 medium white onion
1 tbsp goose fat
1 small glass white wine
1 tbsp plain flour
2 black truffles

1. Finely chop the shallots and the onion, but keep them separated.
2. In a frying pan over a medium heat, soften the shallots in half the goose fat until translucent. Once softened, add the white wine to the pan and continue to cook over a low heat.
3. In a separate pan, soften the onion in the other half of the goose fat. Stir in the flour and add enough water to keep the mixture moist, forming a roux.
4. Add the roux to the white wine sauce, whisking until the roux has been fully incorporated with no lumps. Once mixed, cook over a gentle heat for one hour.
5. Just before serving, finely slice the truffles and add to the sauce. Cook for a further 3-5 minutes, then serve.



Serve with red meat.