Maple Syrup Taffy...Old Quebec City...Avec le temps

by Libby

After breakfast he climbed the steep, slippery street. Turning left, Gamache made his way to the Literary and Historical Society. ... Kids were wrapped and bound, mummified, preserved against a bitterly cold Québec winter and heading for Bonhomme’s Ice Palace, or the ice slide, or the cabane à sucre with its warm maple syrup hardening to taffy on snow. (Bury Your Dead, Kindle, p.27)

Armand Gamache is in old Quebec City, staying with his old friend and mentor, Émile Comeau.

Once again Gamache marveled at the beauty of this old city with its narrow winding streets, the stone buildings, the metal roofs piled with snow and ice. It was like falling into an ancient European town. ... It was a living, vibrant haven, a gracious city that had changed hands many times, but kept its heart. (Bury Your Dead, Kindle, p.28)

He is not there for pleasure, but in need of help, to recover, yearning for peace, away from public attention.

Bury Your Dead brings a change of mood and pace to the series, with the opening chapters revealing three men experiencing the effects of trauma as the result of terrible events. Each copes with it in his own way.  

Armand Gamache has the company of Émile, but most days he also seeks solitude. He immerses himself in a daily routine of breakfasting, walking with his faithful companion, Henri, and finding refuge in an obscure Anglophone library researching the Battle of Quebec.

But he is tormented by memories and 'flashes', re-experiencing what has happened. While physically he is improving, psychologically he is burdened with the pain of loss, responsibility and guilt.

Too late, Chief Inspector Gamache realized he’d made a mistake. (Bury Your Dead, Kindle, p.2)

Wisely, both Émile and Reine-Marie know how to give him space. They are careful with him, letting him be.

Should she say it? It was never far from her mind now, from her mouth. The words she knew were useless ... Certainly she knew they could not make the thing happen. If they could she would surround him with them, encase him with her words. (Bury Your Dead, Kindle, p.3) 

Émile gently counsels Gamache to give himself time to recover ... 'Avec le temps'.

It was a tell-tale tremble, and Émile knew the terrible tale it had to tell. He wished he could take that hand and hold it steady and tell him it would be all right. Because it would, he knew. With time. (Bury Your Dead, Kindle, p.5)

How poignant, and we understand what is needed: time, support, space and finding a balance between these to gain perspective, to heal, find peace, but not forget.

Exterior and interior views of the Lit & His

And knowing Gamache as a Renaissance man, it is understandably his discovery of the library of the Literary and Historical Society, one of the last remaining Anglophone vestiges, where he finds some peace, a sanctuary amongst the books. And what fascinating history!

And inside Québec? An even smaller presence, the tiny English community. And within that? This place. The Literary and Historical Society. That held them and all their records, their thoughts, their memories, their symbols. Gamache didn’t have to look at the statue above him to know who it was. This place held their leaders, their language, their culture and achievements. Long forgotten or never known by the Francophone majority outside these walls but kept alive here. (Bury Your Dead, Kindle, p.17) 

Arched windows broke up the bookcases and flooded the room with light, when there was light to catch. But the most striking part of the library was the balcony that curved above it. ... The room was filled with volume and volumes. With light. With peace. (Bury Your Dead, Kindle, p.17) 

Statue of General James Wolfe

But peace is transient, and images and sounds still haunt him. One is particularly unsettling, always there, and he is 'never alone' as it plays with his sanity.

But louder than all of that was the quiet, trusting, young voice in his head. “I believe you, sir.” (Bury Your Dead, Kindle, p.17)

And he is also unsettled by the politely caring but insistent daily letters (and licorice pipes) from Gabri. He is living through the trauma of Olivier's imprisonment and responds by keeping the home fires burning, engaging with his friends as usual and living with a dogged belief in Olivier's innocence, that manifests itself in a repetitive cycle of one question to Gamache, "Why would Olivier move the body? It doesn't make sense. He didn’t do it, you know." Gabri has great conviction, and knows how to act on it.

From a distance, Gamache finally feels that conviction, too. He calls Beauvoir to investigate further in Three Pines. 

Jean-Guy Beauvoir is looking for an opportunity to escape the crushing attentiveness of Edith, from whom he is increasingly detached. He has withdrawn to his basement.

Hated how much he owed her. Hated how much she loved him. (Bury Your Dead, Kindle, p.42)

And he hates how the ringing of a phone effects him, his heart almost stopping, every time it rings. And it wasn't getting any better.

The Chief’s secretary had answered the phone in the office. ... “Homicide,” he’d heard her say. And nothing had been the same since. (Bury Your Dead, Kindle, p.44)

For Gamache, another distraction presents itself, too.  While he has discovered the Lit & His library, one of its board members, Elizabeth MacWhirter, has discovered him, and tries to enlist his support for the 'embattled' enclave, when the body of a prominent Francophone is found on the premises. 

Though reluctant, Gamache does agree to support the investigating officer, Inspector Langlois, for the sake of clarity. It's a murder case, afterall! Langlois has experienced some English/French language miscommunication with the head librarian upsetting her enough, that she stridently responds, 'The night is a strawberry'!

Voila! Our namesake!!

These opening chapters bring a rush of memories of recently discovering old Quebec City with two wonderful friends, the three of us intent on following the trail of Armand Gamache through the old  town.

Well we had some help by taking a fascinating Bury Your Dead walking tour, run by Tours Voir Quebec.

And with that experience in mind, and for this post, I've managed to bypass all of Gamache's breakfasts in the first four chapters, and allow one small reference to maple syrup taffy, grab my undivided attention!

It brought back a vivid memory of walking down lively rue Saint-Louis with my friends and coming across a restaurant, La Buche, with a snow bar (in the middle of summer!) for taffy making. How could we resist!

At the end of our meal, taffy was served at our table. What a delight! And  what a new tasting experience, with the sweet 'woodsy' taffy, still warm, melting in my mouth with luscious stickiness! Oh this maple syrup is wonderful stuff!

I thought I might re-create the taffy making experience using packed, crushed ice instead of snow. But with 'sweets' firmly in mind (this is doing my waistline no good at all!) I decided to make an ice-cream as an icy bed for the taffy. 
Of course, an ice-cream sundae! 

What better than warm, sticky taffy meeting a cold whisky ice-cream for a burst of sweet earthy, woodsy flavours. And if I topped it with a crunchy maple syrup/pecan praline, wouldn't I stop caring about my waistline? Well for a little while anyway!

As I reached for the the single malt, Scottish highlands whisky, I noticed the bottle of Drambuie that I had bought some time ago to flavour a custard for a marmalade steamed pudding.

Now Drambuie is a very smooth and fragrant whisky liqueur. Perfect for the ice-cream! So here it is...

Drambuie ice-cream sundae with maple syrup taffy and maple syrup/pecan praline 

Drambuie ice-cream

This is basically a vanilla ice-cream, further flavoured by Drambuie. Both the vanilla and Drambuie flavours come through clearly and complement each other very well.

6 free range egg yolks, at room temperature

3/4 cup of superfine/caster sugar

2 cups pure cream

1 cup of whole milk

1 vanilla bean, split

4tbsp Drambuie (or whisky, if preferred)

1.  In a saucepan on medium heat, stir the cream, milk and vanilla bean (scrape some seeds into the liquid) until just before it reaches simmering point. Remove from heat.

2.Whisk the yolks and sugar together in a bowl until thick, glossy and a light colour. Pour in the cream mixture and mix well together.

3.Return the mixture including the vanilla bean to the cleaned saucepan and cook over a medium to low heat for at least ten minutes, while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Do not let the mixture simmer. Allow the mixture to slowly thicken.

4.Remove from heat and cool. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. 

5.Churn for 20 minutes and then add the Drambuie and churn for another 5-10 minutes. Pour into a container, cover and freeze for at least 6 hours.

This is a very creamy ice-cream and won't freeze rock hard because of the alcohol in it. Perfect for a sundae! 

Note: If you don't have a churn, use a hand beater to whisk the ice-cream mixture as it starts to freeze. Repeat twice more (every hour or so).

Maple syrup/pecan praline

I had made almond praline with sugar for the dessert in my previous post, so when faced with the idea of an ice-cream sundae I naturally thought of 'nuts'. It occurred to me that maple syrup would really add a rich and special flavour to praline. I wasn't mistaken. Isn't it a universal truth that pecans and maple syrup were made for each other?

1/2 cup of maple syrup (I used 'Canada no.1 Medium')

1 cup of raw pecan nuts

pinch of sea salt flakes

1.  Heat the maple syrup in a saucepan to about 250F/120C, to reduce and caramelise it. 

2.  Add the pecans and stir constantly with a wooden spoon.

3.  The sugar will crystallise and appear sandy and then gradually liquefy to a dark caramel colour. Keep stirring to coat the pecans completely with the caramel. Reduce the heat if necessary so that the nuts don't burn.

4.  Pour onto a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Sprinkle with sea salt flakes. Break up any clumps with the spoon. Store in an air tight container when cool.

This praline is bursting with a deep, rich caramel flavour (more complex than when using sugar), with a slightly bitter note. I love it!

Maple syrup taffy

1/2 cup of maple syrup

I used 'Canada no.1 Light' for the taffy as I didn't want the flavour to overpower the ice-cream, also given that the praline has a strong flavour.

Heat the maple syrup  in a saucepan over medium heat to 235F/110C, or the soft ball stage. Don't let it heat too quickly and burn. Remove from the heat and let sit for a minute or two.

Serving the sundae

Scoop ice-cream into a stemmed glass or dish. Drizzle warm maple syrup taffy over and around the scoops. Sprinkle finely chopped pecan praline over the ice-cream and taffy. Eat immediately!!

These flavours were made for each other. Not sickly sweet at all.  And as for the cold ice-cream melting under the influence of the warm gooey taffy and releasing its Drambuie essence, well what could be more delicious? I know...the added crunchy brittleness and deep rich flavour of the pecan praline!

Seconds are in order!! Blow the waistline...

Oh, and The Night Really is a Strawberry. Louise Penny said so!!

With thanks to a very, dear friend who bought me this copy, attended a signing in North Carolina and had it personalised by Louise Penny, then sent it to me, in Australia.


How wonderful!! And how lucky am I!