A day at the Market in Southern France

From sunny Girona to even more sunny southern France, we have found a place where spring has sprung. Today, we’re eager to walk to the market in the next town. From where we live, it’s an up and down hike along the road that follows the Mediterranean Sea’s coastline. The wind is up and the waves are slapping the beach and sending spray our way. Even though the sun is out and quite warm, we lean into the wind on our way to the market, wondering if it will be well attended. No worries! It sits in the sheltered cove of the port and even though the wind every now and then tries to blow things away, the vendors are there in full force lined up six rows strong and we weave our way through and around the people to look at hats, shoes, tablecloths and food of all sorts.
Our destination is the fish booth where we hope to find some filets for a new recipe. Our hostess is part of a group of women who are passionate about local food. They come from farm families and want to share the richness of their traditions in food. I just bought a cookbook that they have published with some of the local recipes. So tonight we are hoping to make a fish dish. At the fish booth, five men are working. They all wear long rubber aprons and rubber boots. They’re all wearing black sweaters with the sleeves rolled up. And they are doing a brisk business. On their table, set in ice, lay shrimp, octopi, tuna, merlans, sardines, mussels and salmon. We are fishing for merlans and we have found them. These fish are from the cod family and are relatively small. I wait my turn while others are being helped. One man orders three octopi. Someone else is getting a bagful of mussels. Now it’s my turn. I ask for a pound of merlan, in filets. The young man grabs five and weighs them on the scale. He takes them back to the table and starts scraping off the scales then cleans and filets them as I stand and watch. Here are my fish filets.
Now on to the the produce booths where I need to find eggplants, tomatoes, lemon, onions and mushrooms. As we wend our way, we stop at the booth of the man selling sheep cheese by the rounds. The price is high but the cheese looks even better. Slyly, the cheesemaker slips us a taste of the cheese: one is aged three months and tastes like a delicious mozzarella with a bite; the other is aged six months and tastes like a sharper swiss. It’s the best cheese we’ve ever tasted. We give our money and get our treasure. Back to business, we gather the rest of our ingredients for our supper and head back now with the wind at our back. The air is fresh, the sky is a deep blue and the sun shines on. When we lick our lips, they taste like salt.
Our home away from home awaits us. We pull out all of our ingredients and to work we go. Tired and hungry, we sit down at the table, take a sip of wine and dig into the plat du jour.
We decide that the locals eat well here and that we’ll find another recipe for tomorrow night.
Later, when it’s time to leave, our hostess signs the front of our cookbook, writing that she “hopes it will be the ambassador of Provençal cooking on the other side of the Atlantic!” I share this recipe in that spirit.

Fricassee of Fish with Eggplants

1/2 c. of parsley, chopped
2 or 3 cloves garlic, diced
2 bay leaves
2 lbs of merlan filets
2 lbs of eggplants, peeled and sliced
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
1/2 lb of tomatoes, sliced
2 lemons
1 onion, sliced
olive oil
1/2 c. cream

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Rinse the filets under water then towel dry. Squeeze lemon juice on them and on the eggplant slices. In a large skillet, heat some olive oil and fry the onions. Put the onions in the bottom of a casserole. Keep it in the oven while you work. Next, one after the other, fry the mushrooms and the eggplant and put them in the casserole on top of the onions. Put the bay leaves on the eggplant. Continue with the fish. Fry and place on top of the eggplant. Fry the tomatoes. Place them around the fish. Sprinkle with the parsley and garlic and return to the oven. Finally, put the cream in the skillet. Stir to loosen all the juices. Then pour over the contents of the casserole. Serve immediately. Serves four.