A few years back, we went to visit friends in the Loire Valley and Paris, and to eat. Did we bike along the pretty river? Did we stand in the kitchen eating a whole baguette with salty crunchy butter? Did we buy and cook food from the harvest-your-own market down the road, and eat our weight in fresh goat cheese and crisp, minerally wines? Yes. Yes we did, among many other things, including one of our favorite cold pea soups ever. We think of that time fondly—we had already been cooking together for years, but hadn’t started planning Potliquor in earnest yet—and when this week’s menu started recalling the food from that May in 2009, we had to laugh and call it This One Time in France.
The vegetarian version contains the pea and spinach soup, the omnivore’s contains the duck terrine, and the all-in has both.
All in: $228/$133
Omnivore: $158/$94
Vegetarian: $168/$100
It’s like this:
Duck terrine (about 14.5 oz/about 7.5 oz)
Rich and elegant and every kind of delicious, with Marin Sun Farms duck leg and breast meat, pork fat, aromatics and sherry. Slice thinly and serve with pickled prunes and watercress, on rye crackers or good bread or on its own. These contain dairy and wheat; the regular size will be a classic rectangular terrine shape, the small will be in a Weck jar.
Cold spinach and shelling pea soup (quart and a half/24 ounce jar)
Brilliant green, this soup is to spring as apricot jam is to summer. Serve cold or hot.
Turnip, potato and summer squash tian (9-inch pan/6-inch pan)
Tian is one of those dishes named after the dish it was made in. It can be defined many different ways, but this one will be thinly sliced vegetables packed tightly and baked in well-seasoned custard, with spring herbs and pecorino, for enjoying warm or cold.
Pickled French prunes (8 ounce jar/4 ounce jar)
Sweet and bright, these are like chutney or mostarda. For your terrine, for your cheese plate, or for any sandwich.
Cress salad with fennel marinated in citronette (½ pound, 8 ounce jar/¼ pound, 4 ounce jar)
Everything you need for a bright spring-evoking salad to complete your meal.
Basil mint pistou (8 ounce jar/4 ounce jar)
Basil is here! This rich green sauce will be perfect with your soup, and on a thousand other things.
Rye crisps (2 dozen/1 dozen)
Impossibly thin rye crackers, for serving with your soup or terrine.
Loganberries (1 half-pint basket)
A cross between blackberries and raspberries, late spring treasure.
Extras this week include our chicken bone broth, pickled green strawberries, granola from Nuthouse,Tordu (a twisted baguette) from Morell’s, and some of our special salts, woodsy and celery.
This crate is for Thursday, June 4: East Bay orders will be available for pickup from our kitchen, 2701 8th Street, Unit 105, Berkeley, from 3:00 to 7:30 pm; San Francisco orders will be delivered between 5:30 and 7:30 pm. For San Francisco deliveries, do let us know if you have a preference for a specific one-hour window, and if it’s okay to leave the crate at your door if you aren’t home.
The next crate we offer will be for June 25, 2015, and will include tea-smoked fish, pickled vegetables, and other tasty Japanese elements.
Thanks for supporting Potliquor! We’ll see you soon.
All our best,
Jennifer and Laura