Brittany's Specialties and Recipes
It will forever remain a mystery as to who
first had the
ingenious idea of blending smoked meats with the salty tang of
the sea by bringing together mullet and Guémené chitterling
sausage, a product that is celebrated every August in Morbihan.
Numerous other examples of such combinations
could be cited as Brittany produces a wide range of quality
pork meats.
This includes country-style pâtés, sausages,
black pudding, bacon (plain or salty; roasted, boiled or
smoked; hot or cold), and the famous Hénaff pâté in its
inimitable little blue tin. Shellfish also provide the perfect
complement for pork products.
A mussel, cockle or clam chowder (made with
white clams from Glénan) can be given that extra special touch
with the addition of diced bacon. To be enjoyed at its best
with cider, celebrated every July in Fouesnant in Finistère,
or with a good Muscadet sur Lie or Gros-Plant, typical Breton
white wines that can do wonders for a plate of bouchot mussels
from Mont St. Michel Bay or Pénestin.
Not forgetting the chips cut from delicious
potatoes that Brittany promotes with pride. A Breton
moules-frites can now be enjoyed in true Belgian style
with a local beer (there are more than 80 varieties) made in
one of the microbreweries which have enjoyed great success
over the past 30 years.
Brittany, the land of cider, quality brandies
and a remarkable mead known as chouchen, has also
become an important brewing region.
Beer and cider are the perfect accompaniment
for the shellfish captured using dragnets in the bays of
Saint-Brieuc and Morlaix, Brest natural harbour, and the
Concarneau, Groix and Belle-Ile Courreaux, or passages.
These include the unparalleled coquilles
Saint-Jacques, or scallops, celebrated every spring in one
of the shellfish ports in Saint-Brieuc Bay (Loguivy-de-la-Mer
in 2007), and also queen scallops, clams and cockles.
To guarantee the perfect blend of seafood and
shellfish in a traditional seafood platter (offered by more
than 100 restaurant owners who have signed a quality charter),
crab boats leave their numerous home ports all year long to
collect nets that have been cast at the bottom of the sea and
are bursting with lobsters, crabs, spider crabs, velvet
swimcrabs and prawns.
Trawlers capture delicate langoustines with
their slightly sweet taste, these demoiselles du Guilvinec
which may be prepared in any number of different ways.
For several years, fishermen have been joined
in their industry by men and women who, over and above the
mere gathering of fish and sea creatures, are involved in the
shellfish business on the Breton coast, which boasts more than
a dozen varieties of fl at and cupped oysters.
These oyster farmers, alongside mussel and
clam farmers, farm the sea just as vegetable growers in the
famous golden belt farm kelp, this veritable manna from
heaven. Brittany is the main region in France for the
production of edible seaweed and is beginning to reap the
benefits of its expertise in this area: the product is now
marketed in various forms by a dozen companies.
Even though artichokes, cauliflowers,
potatoes, pink onions and the white beans known as cocos de
Paimpol are the region’s primary specialities, the mild
climate, fertile soil and natural seaweed fertilizer allow the
cultivation of a myriad of vegetables which are all the more
flavoursome due to the natural methods and commitment to
sustainable development of an ever increasing number of Breton
farmers.
Poultry farmers (the famous coucou de
Rennes chicken, the Séougal goose and the Janzé fattened
chicken) and breeders (salt meadow lambs, pie noire
cows and farm pork) have also signed a similar agreement, much
to the delight of consumers who appreciate quality and taste.
