Food shopping in France

Food shopping in France is easy. It isn’t necessary to look for English products. Though you will find a ‘selection’ in most of the larger supermarkets. The French do most things just as well and some things even better. Any recipe you treasure from your own cookbooks, or because your mother or your grandmother made it, can be cooked in a ‘French’ kitchen. I do it every day.

Many of my husband’s favourite foods are those originally made for him many years ago by his grandmother. Fortunately, my grandmother and my mother had many similar recipes. I can usually make something for him that, if not exactly the same, is very similar, and he tells me, (lovely man that he is) often better than he had as a child. And apart from one or two very specific ingredients, I can get everything I want from my local French supermarket or market.

Much of the food we buy here is seasonal; much more than in the UK, unless you buy solely from farmers’ markets. So we have the joy of waiting for something to arrive fresh in the markets. It’s so nice to go to the market one morning to find something special has arrived, such as asparagus and to know that you will soon enjoy the fabulous taste of freshly-picked, tender stalks, lightly char-grilled and drizzled with butter. To have it for a short time only, rather than to be able to get it all year round, makes it all the more wonderful.

Easter is not so far away and I imagine that there have been Hot Cross Buns in the UK shops for ages, in some shops they never seem to go away! The latest copy of a UK food magazine, that I couldn’t bear to give up when we came to France, has recipes for them, as well as other seasonal treats unknown on this side of La Manche. They are not something the French make, though my French neighbours were very complimentary about the ones I served them last year, so we‘ve not seen any here.

When I did a trial baking, using a new recipe, last year (and OK, I admit to buying them in the UK) the aroma as they were cooking was fantastic. And they tasted great. My husband ate two before they were even cool! They were very much something he could take or leave in the UK, so it was quite a compliment. Now, I just need to remember exactly where I put the recipe last year… When I do, I’ll put it up on the ‘Recipes’ page of my Orne Kitchen diary.