Feasting on Art

The first post is always the hardest. I wanted to find a painting/recipe that really represented me and the things I love to set the whole tone for the rest of the blog. I knew I wanted something French because I have been on a French kick lately and something with stone fruit. We are heading into autumn here and ripe stone fruits are everywhere. As soon as I spotted Cézanne’s Still Life with Plate of Cherries I knew it would produce the perfect inaugural post.

Paul Cézanne, Still Life with Plate of Cherries, 1885-87
oil on canvas, 58.1 x 68.8 cm, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Cézanne is one of my favorite still life artists. I have to admit I am not the biggest fan of impressionism (although I adore Manet) but there is something about Cézanne’s work that I am instantly drawn to. Perhaps it is because everything is not quite right but you have to really look to see the incongruities. The back edge of the table doesn’t line up and the perspective on the side by side plates is different. It is complicating the viewer’s entrance into the space and is placing all of the importance on the fruit subjects. The white plates seem to frame the fruit and draw the viewer’s eye immediately to the centre of the canvas. Cézanne often painted objects from the earth and homemade works (pots, bottles, and floral fabrics) from his home in Provenance (1). Like the way Cézanne highlights the fresh fruit in his painting, I plan to make the cherries and nectarines the star of my clafoutis.

Clafouis is always made with cherries and when substitutions are made for other berries it is commonly called flognarde. Even though I have added nectarines to my clafoutis I kept the cherries to keep it true to form. It is a custard-like dish made by baking fresh fruit in a batter in a baking dish. The batter is similar to pankcake batter and to keep the dish completely traditional the cherries not be de-pitted because it loses flavour. “Originally from Limousin, the dish’s name comes from Occitan clafotis, from the verb clafir, meaning “to fill up” (implied: “the batter with cherries”) (2).

{Cherry & Nectarine Clafoutis}

serves 6

3/4 cup double (thick/heavy) cream
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 c milk
3 eggs
1/4 c caster sugar
2/3 c plain flour
1 lb cherries
2-3 nectarines, halved and pitted, cut into wedges
icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F/Gas 4). Use butter to grease a 23 cm (9 inch) round baking dish and put the nectarine wedges and cherries in a single layer on the bottom. Put the cream in a small saucepan and add the vanilla essence. Gently heat for a few minutes and remove from the heat, add the milk and cool.

Whisk the eggs with the sugar and flour, then stir into the cream and kirsch. Pour into the greased round baking dish over the fruit and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden on the top. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Substitutions: you could substitute the vanilla extract with one vanilla pod or almond extract to give your clafoutis a different flavour.