Welcome to this month’s edition of the Culinary Alphabet…Where I am exploring some culinary delights beginning with the letter V…I can be found over @Esme’s Salon every month…Next month it will be W…

Unusual for me as I am a savory girl and not a sweet girl…I am starting with a dessert…

Vacherin

Well, it could be one of two things they are both spelled the same…

Photo credit: eltham_mob on Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC

Swiss people call this soft, washed-rind cheese  Vacherin du Mont d’Or, in France, it is called Vacherin du Haut Doubs (or just Vacherin in local shops).

Vacherin is made from pasteurized cow’s milk, which offers a full-flavored and slightly acidic taste. The cheese becomes almost liquid after maturation. It has a greyish-yellow blanched rind which has to be removed before eating it. This rare and luxury cheese is eaten like a Fondue. Vacherin is produced only from 15th August to 31st March. The cheese tastes delicious with wines such as Beaujolais Nouveau, Côtes du Jura, and Champagne. It comes in various shapes enclosed with a strip of spruce bark.

Photo credit: distopiandreamgirl on Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-ND

OR…It is a sweet yet simple, French dessert of vacherin, which is made by layering meringue discs and ice cream. A very pretty dessert.

Vanilla Sugar

Dried vanilla pods are long and black encasing hundreds of tiny black seeds expensive but so worth it…Just make sure what you are buying as there are many inferior products on the market. Vanilla sugar is when  If the vanilla bean is whole, slice down the side of bean with back of a knife and scrape seeds into an airtight container with the sugar. Bury bean in sugar and seal tightly with a lid. Let sit for 1 to 2 weeks. Use as regular, granulated sugar…

Veal

The meat I have never knowingly eaten or will but one which is quite popular.  Veal comes from young bovine animals aged 6 to 7 months. When the calf reaches the age of one year they are called a cow/bovine animal. The veal is then called beef. The color of the meat has become darker and the structure and taste have also changed.

My grandad was a farmer and kept cows all his life…He never ate veal and it is through his teaching about the cruelty that I never have. Along with foie gras and shark fins, veal has a bad reputation because of the extreme confinement and cruelty involved in the way veal calves are raised on factory farms.

To read more please click the link…

Thank you for reading I hope you have enjoyed this post…We are nearing the end of the alphabet now next month it will be  W…

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and well being.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there are now regular columns on my blog this year. It is important that we are mindful of the world we live in…

Retired No One Told Me!

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all having a productive week xx

If you’re new to my blog and missed any of the previous Letters in the Culinary Alphabet, we got you covered, as you can always read them all.