Cuisine

"Peppery as the Welsh, proud as Lucifer and as combustible as his matches" was Richard Ford's summing up of the Basque people in the 19th century Handbook for Spain. Red is certainly the theme of Basque cooking, which is dominated by peppers - both the common sweet pepper and a sharper variety called the 'piment d'Espelette' named after a tiny village in the Basque foothills.

A typical basque menu may be 'elzekaria' (vegetable soup), 'merluza' (hake) and 'tripoxa' (tripe sausages) served with the local hot sauce, reminiscent of Tabasco. The basque casserole 'axoa' (pronounced ashoa) is made with lamb or veal and is flavoured with green and red peppers. Also widely found is 'piperade', a mix of green and red peppers, onions and tomatoes thickened with eggs to form a puree. For desert, one may be offered gateau basque - a sweet pastry pie sandwiched with pastry cream or alternatively filled with fresh cherries.

The Basques are great fishermen - Biarritz started life as a whaling town - the main catch today being tuna, swordfish, sardines and anchovies. Sardines are usually fried -and the tuna is baked. Assorted small fish go into 'ttoro' a fish stew.

The Basques are also great users of salt for preserving. Indeed, the name of Bayonne is synonymous with the succulent ham, which is dry cured, and to be found hanging in every charcuterie from Bayonne to Pau. As with all hams, the name refers not just to the place of origin but also to the method of curing. Bayonne ham, for instance, is salted and often rubbed with red Espelette pepper. Traditionally, hams are cured to keep for at least three months and for up to a year.

When preparing a ham, the quality of the pork is vital: the pig would be fed on a diet of maize, household swill and acorns picked up in the woods. Then, the ham would be rubbed with salt every day for three days (using local salt from Salies de Bearn) then left to pickle in special brine for up to a month. The hams hanging from a farmhouse ceiling, wrapped tightly in their protective butter muslin, are a form of rural wealth whose value can be appreciated by looking at today's ham prices. Most mountain hams are cut in thin slices to be eaten raw as a first course or in a sandwich - without butter, say Bayonne ham connoisseurs, because the fat is so delicious.

A basque saying 'lou jambou pertout que he bou' (ham is good in everything) sums up the attitude of the Basque to ham.

The Basque country spills over into the Bearn, the birthplace of Henry IV who hoped, perhaps optimistically to put a chicken in every family pot on Sunday and 'poule au pot' is a speciality of Bearn.

Equally homely are the Bearnais soups which range from 'tourrin' an onion soup filled with garlic and thick with egg yolk (in the mountains, tourrin is called 'ouliat', meaning unctuous) to 'coustinat' made with leeks, beans, carrots and any other vegetables in season. The pride of all Bearn soups is 'garbure' which can contain almost any vegetable, simmered in broth; and with which it is usual to serve croutes of bread either plainly baked or topped with cheese. With the addition of ham, salt pork and goose 'confit' garbure rises above being a mere soup. The vegetables cooked in the broth are made into a gratin to serve as a main course with the meat, whilst the broth is brought separately to the table at the beginning of the meal.

If the ham is prized above all in the Basque region, the duck reigns supreme in the Bearn. Even the smallest piece of land is home to a number of plump white ducks who will provide foi gras and confit which is the speciality of the region. Ducks are sold at market 'with' or 'without' their enlarged livers, which are the size of a large grapefruit.