Gingery road

RECIPE:   GINGER-INFUSED DARK CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

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I sometimes get the impression that we live in a timeless, unchanging part of the world. Since the volcanoes have carved and engraved the landscape millions of years ago, it’s easy to automatically look at the farms, cattle, and villages in the same way. The sun rises and sets over the fields around Verne, the fields that have always and will always be there. The only thing that changes during the year is the point in nature’s cycle of growth and decay. Similarly, I have been thinking that the way we live here today is probably not unlike the way people lived here half a century ago, and it will continue looking like this far into the future. In short, I thought of country life as being somehow outside of history. But a long talk with the Rabeyrin’s made me realize I have been completely wrong about the Verne of yore.

Yesterday, I dropped by their house to give them the ginger chocolate mousse Adélaïde had just made and they insisted that I stay and have a cassis (blackcurrant) apéritif with them. Unable to resist the offer (they make their own crème de cassis, which diluted with a little bit of water tastes amazing and is very refreshing), I succumbed and we began chatting about the indian summer, winter vegetables, how to raise, slaughter, pluck and prepare a duck, beekeeping… the usual subjects of casual conversation. As they recounted episodes of village life and raising a family, I asked Madame Rabeyrin where she is from originally (it is curious to note that, after almost a year of knowing our landlords, we still address each other as “Monsieur” and “Madame”). With a coy smile she said, “Oh not at all from here! I’m from a village close to Dunières”. Dunières is about a 20 minute drive but to her (and to a lot of people we meet) that kind of distance means it’s a totally different place. And Monsieur Rabeyrin? “I’m from Verne, born and raised” he said with a proud look on his face. His father owned a stone shaping factory where they would prepare the material that would go into making houses as well as tombstones and memorials. “So you must know so much about the area, all of the families in the region, the different generations, no?” I inquired. He was affirmative. “Everyone knows us here. Well, a lot of relatives live in Verne. My cousin lives two houses up the street from you by the iron cross facing the field, and my uncle was married to a woman who ran a café by the church, the Café Pradier. Now there are less people around, some have passed, others are retired so we see them less often”.

Verne, I found out, was not always the sleepy hamlet it is today. Young people used to be able to easily find work in the area. Agricultural production and cattle raising were in full swing, and textile factories hired many people. When the textile industry declined, they were replaced by plastic factories; “plastic saved us” M. Rabeyrin likes to say. In Verne alone, there used to be four cafés (!), a boulangerie (bakery), and an épicerie (grocery store)! One of the cafés had live music on Sundays, and people would gather there after church for a drink, or as they call it un verre d’amitié, “drink of friendship”. “That was where we first met,” Madame Rabeyrin casually mentioned, and I tried to imagine them as a young and handsome couple, dancing in a crowded room full of life and joy and laughter, the clanking of glass and clouds of cigarette smoke, and of course the bouncy accordion and crooning vocals of the bal musette.

Today that street is a busy highway. Many cars and trucks pass by, but one sees few people and no commerce whatsoever. The Café Pradier, with its faded out façade and closed door, is not open for business anymore, although at times I’ve seen an elderly lady looking out the window through the white lace curtains. The tables are still there, but the former customers have passed or are now older and less prone to leave home. With less and less opportunities for finding work, the new generations left to go to the big cities, Saint-Étienne or Lyon.

I felt a strange mix of emotions after hearing all these stories; people had such a good quality of life here, living close to nature while rooted in the land their families had lived in for generations. The region hasn’t lost its beauty, but there are certainly less people, and those memories become faded like a postcard of a forgotten place that was once so vibrant.

The Rabeyrin’s could read my thoughts, but they didn’t seem as worried. They still have their beautiful vegetables, chickens and ducks, sunsets, and fresh air. “That’s just how it is, the old generations go but new ones will come”, they seemed strangely confident as they reassured me. They cited some reasons: people can work from home now and many choose to live in the countryside. And who knows, maybe immigrants will also bring new life to this part of France. Although there will surely be waves of growth and decrease, it is precisely the timeless aspects of life here that will always keep bringing people back.

Chocolate mousse was my favorite dessert growing up in Brazil. For years, I knew it by its Portuguese pronunciation — moossy gee chocolâchee. Here we used a small amount of sugar and added a more adult ingredient, ginger, to make things fizzle just a bit.

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Ginger-infused dark chocolate mousse | Serves 8-10

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If you do not like ginger, you could replace it with cinnamon and/or nutmeg!

• 200g cooking dark chocolate, finely chopped
• 200g single cream
• 70g sugar
• 50g water
• 5 free-range farm eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 20g fresh ginger, peeled & grated
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• candied ginger (optional), finely chopped

1. The night before, in a pot, heat up the single cream and 10g of fresh peeled and grated ginger. Bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and leave to cool. In a a separate pot, heat up the sugar, water and another 10g fresh ginger, peeled and grated. Bring to a boil and turn off the heat. Reserve both preparations overnight in separate bowls in the fridge. It is important to give the ginger enough time to infuse to get the flavor right.
2. The next day, strain the single cream to filter out the ginger bits and whip until light and fluffy. Reserve.
3. Directly in a stand mixer’s mixing bowl, strain the syrup (sugar and water made the night before) to filter out the ginger bits. You should have about 100g syrup. Add the 5 egg yolks and beat with a hand whisk until homogeneous. Poach over a bain-marie, whipping constantly, until the preparation reaches 85°C (check the temperature with a thermometer). Immediately beat the blend using the stand-mixer until light, fluffy and cool (it should take about 8-10 minutes and have an airy consistency). Keep the water from the bain-marie to melt the chocolate. Reserve. 
4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until light and fluffy.
5. In the meantime, lower the heat of the bain-marie and melt the chopped dark chocolate in another clean bowl. Stir often with a spatula to make sure the chocolate is nice and smooth. Once melted, add 1 tsp ground ginger and stir well. Bring the melted chocolate to 50°C.
6. Pour a third of the whipped cream into the melted chocolate and beat with a whisk until homogeneous. Add the syrup & egg yolk blend and gently stir with a spatula. Add the rest of the cream and egg whites and keep stirring gently, lifting the spatula in circles from bottom to top, until all four preparations are homogeneous. If you want a more intense ginger flavor, add some of the chopped candied ginger and keep some for decoration. Do not over mix.
7. Pour the mousse into glasses or cups and gently shake to even it out. Depending on the presentation you choose, keep some mousse to fill up a pastry bag in order to decorate the top of the cups. Refrigerate the cups and pastry bag for at least 3 hours. Before serving, pipe the desired shapes (we used a “Saint-Honoré” pastry tip) and decorate with candied ginger, chocolate shavings, or dusting with confectioner’s sugar.

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