A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, and this bit of southwestern France – whether you call it Dordogne or Périgord or even Aquitaine – smells sweetly of walnuts, washed-rind cheese, and wine. Emily and Caroline are breaking down Périgord's seven strawberry varieties, delving into why a cheese invented by monks was vastly improved by nuns, and explaining how the wines here got to be so deceptively delicious for how reasonable they are. Caroline shares a recipe for a delicious local walnut cake, Emily reduces the 100 Years' War to 15 seconds or less, and they both fangirl over the ultimate badass Eleanor of Aquitaine, who married two kings and proved to be cooler than both of them.


Tarte Aux Noix Perigourdine Recipe by Caroline Conner

I made these into little tartlets but you could just as easily make one big tart. It was so delicious, pecan pie vibes but more caramelly and with the lightest crispest pastry!

Yes, you could buy pastry, but store bought pastry sucks. It sucks! Making your own pastry is so easy and it's really a zillion times better. The pastry makes enough for 6 tartlets easily cut out with as many scraps leftover for the next project, or one big tart again with scraps. It's so easy, trust me!

If you want to make one big tart, increase the cooking times on everything by about 20 minutes

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

200g walnut halves
200g sugar
200g of creme fraiche or heavy cream
30g unsalted butter cut into cubes
1/4 tsp of salt
30g honey
2 eggs
Pate sucrée - or sweet pastry crust - this makes enough for 2 big tarts

Start by making the pastry since it will need at least an hour in the fridge before rolling.

Pate Sucrée

250g AP flour or pastry flour
95g powdered sugar
30g ground nuts, walnuts if you have them, but almond or hazelnut will do, you can skip this if it's too much of a pain
2 big pinches of salt
150g butter
1 large egg

Combine flour, powdered sugar, salt, and ground nuts. Whisk together
Cut butter into cubes and mix into the dry ingredients, pinching and rolling the butter between your fingers until the mixture is sandy and there aren't any big pieces of butter left
Crack the egg into a bowl and break it up with a fork, then add it in and fold with a spatula
You want to work the dough enough so it starts to create a mass, but it doesn't need to be uniform or totally cohesive
Dump it out onto plastic wrap including any dry crumbs, flatten into a disk shape and wrap
Store in a cold part of the fridge for at least an hour
Preheat the oven to 350F or 175C (if using convection lower it by 10 or so degrees)
Spray or butter the tart shells
Roll out pastry with plenty of flour
Line the tart shells, it doesn't matter if there are some holes just patch them up!
Grease some foil and lay it butter side down over the pastry and fill with either rice, beans, or baking beads
Blind bake like that for 10-15 minutes until the sides look like they are starting to be drier
Remove the foil and beans and bake for another 10 minutes

Meanwhile - for the tarts

Have all your ingredients at hand before you make the caramel, it waits for no (wo)man! And for god's sake be careful, caramel is dangerous.

Roast the walnuts in the oven or toast them in the microwave so they get all that good roasted flavor, I don't have a microwave so it's usually 10-15 minutes in the oven for me
I dump them into a kitchen towel and crunch them up with my hands, this keeps the chunks large enough to be toothsome and removes some of the bitter skin
Melt the sugar in a dry pan over medium heat, you can stir the unmelted sugar into the melted sugar to help it along
Once it is uniformly melted and a rich amber color, take it off the heat and add the butter cubes and stir, it will spit!
Once the butter is in add the honey and cream and salt
Put it back on the heat and cook it until it thickens up a bit, it should coat the back of your spoon or spatula rather than sliding straight off
Add the walnuts and stir, removing from the heat
Ignore for 15 minutes so it cools down and doesn't immediately scramble your eggs
Add the eggs one at a time and stir in until the mixture is uniform
Spoon into the tart shells and then return to the oven for about 15 minutes, it's done when the whole surface looks set, there will be bubbles
Let it cool before you stick your face in it, which will be difficult


Join us on Patreon: Patreon.com/parisundergroundradio

Find Us Online
Website: www.parisundergroundradio.com/theterroirpodcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/parisundergroundradio
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parisundergroundradio/


Credits
Host: Emily Monaco. @Emily_in_France; Website: http://www.tomatokumato.com and http://www.emilymmonaco.com
Host: Caroline Conner, https://www.parisundergroundradio.com/carolineconner; https://www.instagram.com/winedinecaroline/, www.winedinecaroline.com; www.lyonwinetastings.com
Producer: Jennifer Geraghty. @jennyphoria; Website: http://jennyphoria.com


Music Credits
Mon Paris by Ikson https://www.iksonmusic.com; https://youtube.com/ikson


About Us
France is home to thousands of wines, thousands of cheeses, and countless recipes – almost all of which are inextricable from their local terroir. Terroir is a word that links foods, wines, and more to the places they're from and the people who make them. Let culinary journalist Emily Monaco and chef and wine expert Caroline Conner take you through the ins and outs of France's phenomenal regional richness.