In Nice, you can often
buy fresh small cleaned and scaled daurade, sea bream, in supermarkets. The
following recipe is an easy and carefree way to cook daurade. Daurade is a
tasty white fish, and like all seafood it is good for your heart. It has very little fat so you can well use
some heart-healthy fat, like olive oil, in the sauce. Olive oil, garlic and Piment
d’Espelette give this recipe a nice twist from the French Basque Country.
- 2 cleaned and scaled daurade,
about 300 g each
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 large cloves garlic
- 1 tsp Piment
d’Espelette (mild chilli powder)
- Lemon slices to serve
Preheat the oven to
200 ⁰ C.
Make cuts all the way
along the daurades and place them in a large oiled baking tin. Sprinkle with 1
tbsp olive oil and bake in the oven for about 20- 25 minutes.
Meanwhile peel and
slice the garlic cloves. Gently heat 2 tbsp olive oil, the garlic slices and
the Piment d’Espelette in a small sauce casserole until the garlic is golden
brown. Set aside when ready and take the
daurades from the oven. Pour the olive
oil sauce over the fish, and serve with lemon slices.
I like to serve
daurade with steamed new potatoes and wilted spinach or green lentils and
roasted cherry tomatoes, as in the picture. Green lentils need about 30 minutes
cooking. I prefer the small Puy lentils for the taste and texture. Cherry
tomatoes are roasted in about 10 minutes. Pour 1 tbsp olive oil in a small
baking dish, add the cherry tomatoes and swirl the dish so that the tomatoes
are coated with the olive oil. Place in the oven together with the fish when 10
minutes of the cooking time remains.
This is a really great recipe when tomatoes and basil are at their best in the end of summer..
This was a super hike we made on 14th of July!
The hamlet of Boreon north of St-Martin-Vésubie has become a
centre of both winter and summer sports activities.
In the summer, the hiking trails offer numerous options and
grades of difficulty. The hike presented here is one of the most popular ones
because of relatively easy access and stunning views. The parking of Salèse is
already at 1670 meters. Even so, the ascent to Lac Nègre is roughly 700 m
vertical, and if you opt for the Préfouns mountain pass at the Italian border
it’s about 300 meters extra.
The trail is well marked up to the lake. There are some
steep parts before the lake. Some parts
were even covered with snow in mid-July 2013. From the lake upwards, the trail
is marked with cairns only. The view from Pas du Préfouns (2615 m) is dramatic
enough but experienced hikers may wish to continue by climbing the nearby
mountain tops of Tête des Tablasses(2855 m) and Tête des Bresses(2824 m). This
variant is well described in French in the book:” Les plus belles randonnées
les Alpes du Sud” (Bernard Ranc; editions Gap) page 26.
The tour from the parking to Pas du Préfouns and back takes about 6-6,5 hours. The distance from
Nice is 70km.
Climb: 720 m (Lac Nègre) 980 m (Pas du Préfouns)
The booklet Les Guides Randoxygène “Haut Pays”, also in
French, gives excellent basic information.
Map: Moyenne Tinée 3641 ET.