Arnaud Ulrich with his Monte Cristo pleurotes and Marjorie Charraire who created Le Comptoir eight years ago

Would you like to grow pleurotes mushrooms in your cellar with the leftover grind of your coffee machine ? Well here is the recipe provided by Arnaud Ulrich at Comptoir des producteurs, a newly decorated vegetable shop which is conceived as a showroom for three star chefs. The very pretty Monte Cristo mushrooms, have a definite coffee aftertaste and I just slightly fried them in the pan for dinner with some of the bicolor Bluebell potatoes, I had purchased at the same time.

Very rare and pretty salads

Colourful radishes

They are grown in the Somme, and distributed by Adèle and Françoise Bayard, two strong minded women. Juliette des Sables, la corne de gate, la prunelle, la Magenta, l’Andean sunside, la Vitelotte, each has a different colour and a specificity.

The vitelotte potato originally came from Peru and is good in purées

Seaweeds came from Le Croisic in Brittany and are very “in” to enrich fish dishes and Allymis flowers were interesting for my salad of Purple Oxalis. This magical little shop near Denfert Rochereau in the South of Paris, is the produce of long time potatoe and vegetable wholesale dealers the Charraire family who needed a show room in Paris for chefs and private clients.

With the help of communicator Valérie Solvit, they renewed this charming and low key store in the very popular rue Mouton Duvernet. Their list of purveyors has been researched for years and the result of over twenty growers from all over France is precious.

Adèle and Françoise Bayard, who run a huge potato distribution farm

I was curious to find out about this  comptoir and was ravished by the people I met there and the conversations we shared. I am like many of you obsessed with good homely food and enjoyed their produce immediately at dinner. (Le Comptoir des Producteurs, 25 rue Mouton Duvernet, delivers in Paris)

A little corner of paradise near Denfert Rochereau