A Taste of My Long Village in the long late Season of Tomatoes: a Tourin des Batelier

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Those days are long gone when I drove the big barge down the Canal de Garonne. Hopping off at a lock and grabbing a bicycle to pick up the daily croissants and baguettes, swooping down into the galley to whip up a delicious lunch before off in the van for wine tasting and shopping, then returning to the boat for aperitifs and a long leisurely dinner—that was for the guests, of course. The crew ate discreetly in the wheelhouse, or out on the back deck. These days, I move more deliberately through the day. I wake to a quiet cup of coffee as before, but I let the morning stretch at its own pace. Lunch breaks the day in a simpler way usually; School Lunch when there were students, but now, a solo sandwich or bowl of soup makes do. When Elaine Tin Nyo is in town and staying at Camont, we open La Cantine, and make a good solid lunch while working on the digital edition of my first book together. It’s great to share a meal with a old friend. As of late, these lunches have been the results from a morning of shooting food photography for the book.

Seasonality and some of my favorite recipes cohabit the same weeks in September; it is the last of Summer days with a whiff of Fall in the cooler night air. Soups and cooked dishes replace the hot summer’s salads. I think of September as the “Ratatouille Month” as a glut of tomatoes, courgettes (zucchini) and aubergines (eggplants) flood the weekly markets and look forward to making a few kilos to preserve in the pantry for a winter’s day. My own potager produces the close at hand and thin-skinned Coeur de Boeuf or Ox Heart tomato. I first saw these growing in canal side gardens by old men in big black berets- long lonely hearts dangling from scraggly vines. The image of a beret on a tomato has firmly stuck in my brain. This most favored of all recipes ‘tomato’, besides the summer standard Tomato Tart, is a quick-to-make taste of tomatoes, onion, egg, and crusty garlicky crouton—in a bowl.

Coeur de Boeuf home grown at Camont- harvested September 4 2020

Coeur de Boeuf home grown at Camont- harvested September 4 2020

Here is the recipe from the original edition of A Culinary Journey in Gascony. Not one thing has changed as the basket of simple ingredients are perfect and the soup can be made from start to finish in less than 30 minutes. A jar or two of good home-canned tomatoes can be substituted but make sure to adjust the salt and other seasonings as needed. I made this dish every week I cruised through the Long Village. Best of all were these September months when the tomatoes peel themselves and jump in the pot. Buy the best farm eggs you can as their rich deep yellow yolks embolden the soup. With just a handful of ingredients, it pays to seek out and buy the very best. Always my mantra as I learned to cook from the best cooks in the area.

Enjoy and if you want more great recipes like this and the stories that inspired them, pre-order the 25th anniversary ebook edition of a Culinary Journey in Gascony here on my site.

TOURIN DE BATELIER ~ SOUPE DES TOMATES

Called a Bargeman’s Soup, this tomato soup is made when the tomatoes are so ripe they unpeel themselves in your hands. Taught to me by a retired bargee, I still make this tureen every year as the garden tomatoes plop into my hands and the days cry out for soup.

  • 4 lb (1.8 kilos) very ripe summer tomatoes, peeled and crushed

  • 7 onions, coarsely chopped

  • 1 handful garlic cloves (4 to 8, depending on your taste), peeled and crushed

  • salt and freshly ground pepper

  • 2 eggs

  • chopped fresh basil and thyme, or herbed sea salt

  • 4 to 6 thick slices country bread, one for each bowl

  • 1 or 2 garlic cloves

1. Place the tomatoes into a big pot over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic.

2. Add water (only about the same volume as the tomatoes) and a generous amount of salt and pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes.

3. Beat the eggs then stir them into the hot soup. Turn the heat down immediately and add the herbs. The herbs will infuse the soup as the eggs cook and thicken this simple tourin.

4. Toast some slices of rustic bread, rub with garlic, and place in a tureen. Pour the soup over the bread. Or serve in bowls with a crusty loaf of bread, a salad, and a bottle of good red wine.

To pre-order the 25th anniversary edition of A Culinary Journey in Gascony: recipes and stories from my French canal boat click here. a bonus of the first series of cooking videos made at my Kitchen at Camont will be included.

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Kate Hill