Venise Verte - Cuisine
Close to the sea at La Rochelle and criss crossed by many canals and rivers, the menus are filled with freshwater and sea fish, mussels, oysters and eel often with puddles of buttery garlic sauce, so good you could eat it with a spoon. Still a very rural area of France you will be offered traditional dishes Farci Poitevin, pork, lettuce, sorrel and garlic cooked in a cabbage leaf, or Mojettes, little white, dried beans grown for winter dishes in the past, as well as excellent beef and lamb. Famous for its goats and their great variety of cheeses you would expect this region to be filled with goats, but as you cycle through you are much more likely to see sunflowers. French goats stay indoors. Try the Tourteau Fromager, a creamy cake with a delicious interior surrounded by a burnt shell resembling a tortoise or the Brioche Vendeene, a sweet bread originally baked for weddings.
The wines grow in little home grown gardens, just a few rows at a time with the largest production in the Haut Poitou. However, close by are the Loire wines to the north and the Cognac vineyards to the south.
Venise Verte, Typical Regional Menu
Soupe de moules de charron glace comme un gaspacho
Ou
Pressé de brochet et omble chevalier, petits légumes aromatiques
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Notre farcis poitevin, son oeuf poché sur un crouton, réduction de Haut Poitou
Et salade de lardons
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Suprême de pintade farci forestière, sauce diable
Ou
Sauté de gigot d’agneau du poitou, tomates fraiches et persil
Gateau de mojettes à l’ail doux
Ou
Tournedos de boeuf du Poitou au poivre de séchouan
Ou
Emincé de saumon fumé au bois de hêtre
Ou
Filet de sandre sur une crème d’oseille
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Plateau de fromages
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Ou
Biscuit mousseline au chèvre frais et abricots, compotée d’abricots et amandes
Ou
Fondant au chocolat noir et glacé à la vanille bourbon