Widely misquoted, what Marie-Antoinette actually said “Let them eat cake salé au potimarron”.
What a lot of people don’t know is that the French use the word “cake” to define baked concoctions, usually containing eggs and not much flour, both sweet and savoury (sucré et salé) and baked in a tin.
A tin in French is a moule. So, when I reached the front of the queue at M. Brion’s bread stall on Arcachon market and asked what “pain moulé” was, a little old lady behind me (there’s always a little old lady behind me) cackled “he thinks it’s bread with mussels!”. Another time down in the Pyrennées-Atlantique, we were queueing at the butchers van and one old lady says to another “They’re up early. Must be hunting snails. Ha, ha ,ha!” I blame them for Brexit myself.
Anyway, being in possession of the second half of an onion squash, I whipped out my copy of “Recettes paysanne en Gironde” and checked out the cake recipe.
Start off by making the squash purée. I cut it into smallish dice and cooked it gently with a splash of water and a bit of butter. Mash and cool.
Fry the lardons and mushrooms and cook off the liquid. Cool.
Cream the butter and the eggs, stir in the milk, and all the other ingredients. Mix well then scrape into an oiled bread tin.
Bake at 220C for 45 minutes
Serve cold or slightly warm with salad.
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