...ranks high on my list of favourite summer desserts. It's basically a loose, cream-based pancake batter with very little flour, poured over pitted cherries and baked till just set. My mom always made it with canned cherries, the real thing being in short supply in South Africa, and we called it platvoetjies (which translates as 'little flat feet') - I forget how that started...It's pretty good for breakfast, too.
I LOVE clafoutis, the choice of the cherries makes a big difference.
ReplyDeleteTo me this is so evocative of childhood.
Another big favorite of mine is the "gâteau basque aux cerises", (basque cake with cherries) which I highly recommend.
In 1998 we rented a house in Provence with my parents and picked cherries liberally from the surrounding trees. I'd tasted my first clafouti in a local restaurant and wanted to make one of my own...delicious. The next time I picked cherries I pitted them and left them overnight. When I went to bake the next morning, I noticed a tiny worm coming out of every cherry. I imagine we'd consumed quite a bit extra protein in the earlier clafouti. It still tasted good!
ReplyDeleteAnd would you please ask Lambert for the recipe for gateau basque aux cerises?! Thanks.
ReplyDeleteOh my that looks delicious!! Maybe you could post the recipe?
ReplyDeleteEven i can make this one. Thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteLambert - I found some recipes for your gateau basque and will make it for my Frenchie...
ReplyDeleteEllen - that is so funny. Vincent has a similar story about Provencal cherries, with the worms also discovered after many had been consumed - he still eats them with circumspection.
Lambert?
Mary, I will, soon.
Jane - jaja.
Ellen, I asked my mother who is in Basque territory for a good recipe, I know that in theory you need endemic basque black cherries from Itxassou but I know from experience that it tastes delicious with other cherries as well ...
ReplyDeleteLambert - I will wait or your mother's recipe for the source, then! I wish she could send some endemic cherries :-)
ReplyDeleteTonight, another clafoutis. I am greedy.