STAGE 8: BELFORT - PORRENTRUY

A medium mountain stage, which promises to be very demanding as it will be short and difficult (157.7 kms and seven mountains). The Tour enters the Jura, historically part of the Free County of Burgundy, and one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution. Jura is a wine-making region, famous for its vin jaune ("yellow wine") which is made by a similar process to sherry, developing under a flor of yeast, from the savagnin grape. Undiscovered by mass tourism, Jura boasts some little-known and very distinctive wines. Enjoy a glass of sparkling crémant or vin jaune with a platter of charcuterie, cheese and cornichons.



Local specialities include Toétché, a leavened flat bread with a savoury sour cream filling which was traditionally made on a Saturday along with a plaited loaf, and is served as an appetiser; saucisse d'Ajoie, a smoked sausage; chèvre salée, salted goat meat cooked in a pot au feu; raclette jurassienne, a fondue made from Bleu de Gex cheese, and spread over boiled potatoes, charcuterie and pickles; damassine, a liqueur distilled from the damassine prune; and galette comtoise and papet jurassien, sweet tarts with an egg filling scented with orange flower water. The lakes and rivers of the Jura are home to pike, trout, crayfish and eel, and there is no shortage of game in the region either.



Fillet of guinea fowl in a Comté and potato 'pastry'
Serves 4


I found this recipe on a Franche-Comté regional website. The 'pastry' is in fact thin slices of potato. If you can't find guinea fowl, use corn-fed chicken.


Ingredients: 
250 g of Comté cheese, 
4 guinea fowl fillets
600 g of very large potatoes
salt & pepper

Sauce: 
30 g of shallots
10 cl of white wine,
150 g of butter, salt, pepper

Garnish: 

250 g of chanterelles
250 g of pied de mouton mushrooms
250 g of black chanterelles

Wash the mushrooms, sweat them in the butter, and drain them, being careful to keep the juice. Fry the shallots until transparent and soft, add the white wine and reduce slightly. Add the juice from the mushrooms. Reduce by 1/4, thicken with the butter and season.

Prepare the guinea fowl fillets and season with salt and pepper.

Peel the potatoes and using a mandoline, slice them lengthways, and then spread the slices out, so that they form a lattice work, like the tiles of a roof. Spread fine slices of Comté over the potatoes. Place a guinea fowl fillet and cover with slices of comté. Cover the whole with slices of potato. Fry the fillets until lightly coloured, in a non-stick frying pan, with a little olive oil.

Once they are coloured on every side, finish off in the oven at 180°C for 10 minutes.

Place the mushrooms in a plate. Place a fillet on top and pour the sauce over.




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