Every Saturday and Sunday, Vanessa Zhâ and Marion Sauveur make us discover some nuggets of French heritage.
Today, they invite you to go and breathe the fresh mountain air in Méribel, by putting your body to work.
But then a reward awaits you on the plate.
The winter school holidays are coming to an end, it is the right time to enjoy the activities alone and in the great outdoors. And for that, Méribel lends itself well.
Because it is a very open valley, which has developed only on a part of the mountain.
Result: we have always seen the virgin mountains and it is above all the heart of the 3 Valleys.
The heart, the symbol of the resort, but above all a tradition.
In fact, women wore hearts of gold from their wedding day.
More than a jewel, it was a financial resource.
If needed, they could sell it.
So I suggest that we reconnect to our heart, to our breath!
We will do good to our body.
And that's good, Méribel has developed all the appropriate activities this winter.
We're going to go crescendo.
We start with an activity called "Walk your breath".
Shall we go for a run on the snow? Is that what you call crescendo?
We're going to do yoga.
A two-hour walk with breaks to reconnect with the five elements.
Our teacher, Magali, has chosen Lake Tueda as a place.
"We stand on the pontoon in front of the lake. There, we are in front of this plateau of Tueda, with a magnificent view of Mont Vallon, our biggest summit. And then, on both sides, the forest, which comes to bring us this cocoon, like the space of the heart. "
It's extraordinary !
It allows you to let go of everything as soon as you arrive, and refocus.
And that will be useful for the next activity.
We will wake up your little side Martin Fourcade, Pierre!
Florette Camoin from ESF Méribel will brief you.
"It's the combination of cross-country skiing and shooting. You shoot 50 meters, either lying down or standing up. You have to try to calm your breath and try to aim straight."
And it is not obvious: lying down is doable but standing up, impossible.
However, I only did the shooting, not the 2 km of cross-country skiing before!
And the cut above, what is it?
Cross-country skiing: you go up by fixing the skins of seals, you just have to take the rhythm of the sliding step.
And after that, it's all fun.
The descent, you deserved it so much that you savor it.
And if you've never done one, the ESF organizes outings.
And then, more sporty, with an activity that comes to us from the United States.
Alexandre Bastien from Fast Riding People tells us what it looks like.
"I would say there are two big balls that double as wheels, plus a bike frame. It's just a Fat bike."
You have to find your balance at the start, but since you have big tires, there is more grip and afterwards you feel like you are cycling on water.
Otherwise we can also reconnect more gently with sled dogs for example.
It always works, especially at this time when you have access to the big tracks of the Altiport.
It gives a little Lapland side.
Nordic Aventure even offers you outings to learn how to drive the team, if that tempts you.
And if not, the big box this year is the pony-sledge: a wooden sled pulled by a pony, but you are the ones holding the reins.
Watch out for bends while trotting: you fall.
It is done in the equestrian heart.
We look at the side of our plate with you Marion Sauveur, what Méribelloise specialty have you found us?
Pasta !
Small square pasta: crozets.
They were born in this valley of the Tarentaise in the 17th century.
In any case, there are no written traces of this pasta before.
It is a heritage from our Italian friends.
Why this square shape?
For simplicity and for them to cook faster.
It is said that it was for the mountain dwellers: small pasta took up less space in their backpack.
The word “crozet” would come from the word “croé” which in Savoyard would designate everything that is small.
The crozets are made with house ingredients: water, salt, eggs and soft wheat or buckwheat flour, depending on the harvest and the season.
Buckwheat was very present in Savoy, until the 1950s. And the authentic recipe, I asked Mado Gacon, one of the living memories of Méribel.
“With buckwheat flour, they made a dough, like bread dough.
They rolled it like a pie, very flat.
And they cut out the little squares, dried it in the rooms on sheets, in the draft.
It was the women who made the pasta.
So they cooked their crozets like pasta.
And then, they season with red spices, black butter and melted butter and very heated, grated cheese (Beaufort when you have it or Tomme).
It was still a luxury item because it was for the holidays. "
What are these red spices?
A mixture of peppers, cloves, savory, rosemary that was used to flavor cured meats and to give flavor to dishes.
There was no pepper.
Today, we no longer make crozets by hand, it was long and tedious.
It is thanks to a man from the valley: François Fraissard.
It was he who began to market these small pastas in the 1950s, first making them by hand, then with an artisanal machine.
He passed on his manufacturing process to the Chiron family that we know today as the Alpina Savoie.
Crozets
Ingredients:
300 g of wheat flour
200 g buckwheat flour
1 egg
15 cl of water
Production :
1. Start by mixing the two flours.
2. In a salad bowl, beat the egg with the water.
Gradually add the flour.
Initially, mix with a wooden spatula and then with your hands.
This dough must be kneaded well for about twenty minutes.
It must be dense.
3. Once ready, roll out pieces of dough using a rolling pin.
It must be quite thin (about 2 mm thick).
Cut this dough into thin strips in one direction and the other to make small dice.
Flour the doughs if necessary so that they do not stick together.
4. Remove the excess flour and immerse the crozets in boiling salted water.
Leave to cook for about 10 minutes.
We rather eat these crozets au gratin today.
Yes, the recipe has evolved.
From a simple dish of “pasta” with spices and cheese that we ate with sausages, we made a delicacy that au gratin in the oven.
And even a tartiflette, without potatoes but with crozets, it's the croziflette.
These are crozets cooked in a gratin dish with onions, bacon, crème fraîche and reblochon.
The Croziflette
Ingredients:
300 g of Crozets
250 g of bacon (or 5 slices of raw ham)
1 onion
1 reblochon
50 cl of fresh cream
Production :
1. Sauté the chopped onion in butter.
Cook the crozets.
When the onion is golden brown, set aside.
Brown the bacon.
2. Cut the reblochon in half, lengthwise.
Cut one half into cubes.
Mix the onion, bacon, diced reblochon, cooked crozets and crème fraîche in a bowl.
3. Distribute in a gratin dish.
Place the reblochon cut in half over the crust on the crozets.
Brown for 10 minutes at 180 degrees.
And in Méribel, restaurateurs have created their own recipe based on crozets.
It's a crozet risotto with leeks and porcini mushrooms.
Just cook the crozets raw, as if you were making a risotto, with rice, sprinkling them with white wine from Savoie (Jacquère = Apremont) and broth.
And at the end of cooking, add the steamed leek whites, and the porcini mushrooms returned to the pan and sliced.
It's smooth and delicious!
Another way to taste these small square pasta.
The Méribellois Crozets
Ingredients:
300g Buckwheat Crozets
100 g of porcini mushrooms
100 g of leek whites
Beaufort shavings
10 cl of white wine from Savoie (Apremont)
2 tbsp.
heavy cream
2 L of vegetable broth
Olive oil
Chopped garlic
Salt and pepper
Production :
1. Steam the leek whites.
Reserve.
2. Slice the porcini mushrooms and brown them in a pan with a little oil and the previously chopped garlic.
Reserve.
3. In a sauté pan, heat olive oil.
When it is hot, add the raw Crozets.
It is necessary to coat them well with olive oil, before sprinkling them with white wine.
When the wine is absorbed, add the vegetable broth ladle by ladle.
It is necessary that the broth is absorbed, before putting a new ladle.
4. At the end of cooking, add the leeks and porcini mushrooms.
Mix, before seasoning and adding the cream off the heat.
Sprinkle with Beaufort shavings and serve.
What do we drink with it?
A white wine from your recipe or a red wine (a Mondeuse for example).