Feed your skin, à la Française

Five habits of my glowy, 50-something French girlfriends, and a couple of nourishing recipes for the weekend.

Baby, it’s (still) cold outside. And we all know how the lack of sunshine over the winter months affects mood, body and skin. This year January and February have been particularly grey and cold, and my skin is drier and more sensitive than usual.

“Beauty comes from the inside too,” I can still hear my most judgmental French girlfriend say, back in the late 1980s, as she watched me devour my macaron or chocolate eclair or whatever pâtisserie it was that day, while she was lighting her third cigarette. Thirty years on, I wonder how that nicotine and suntan-loving friend’s skin has fared as, funnily enough, we haven’t kept in touch.

But even if my dress size has increased thanks to many, many delicious eclairs, my complexion is looking reasonably good for my age. My diet is healthy. It’s varied, veg rich and low in processed foods, but right now my poor, sun-starved, 60 year old skin definitely needs a little extra love. What if I started adjusting my shopping and cooking to feed it even better? I called a few of my glowiest 50/60-something French girlfriends for their expert tips.

1: Coffee and alcohol

Their worst enemies, they say, are the ones we all know too well: coffee, alcohol and dairy. Coffees are short, black and kept to one or two, always with a glass of water and before 11am, never after dinner unless there’s a long drive back home. None of my French girlfriends drink the way I/we tend(ed) to in Ireland. Spirits are a no-no unless in a very rare cocktail and the rule of just one glass applies as it does to wine and champagne, even if natural and sulphite-free wines are a boon for skin care – so seek them out!

The jury is out on red wine, as it makes mature skins flush more than white or champagne, cancelling the benefits of the antioxidant resveratrol it contains. Cutting out dairy allowed the biggest improvement apparently: most of my little survey sample now consume only plant-based milks, preferring oat to almond because of taste and sustainability value. But for me, a life without real cheese and butter? Too hard to bear.

2: Sugar

Sugar was named as the next greatest culprit in messing with fragile skin, and cutting it out, even in its supposedly healthy forms – root vegetables, rice, fruit etc – has become an almost obsessive quest. When they really want sweetness, they stay away from chemical, fake sugars and swear by low-GI chicory root syrup, which tastes good and has the added bonus of containing a lot of soluble fibre.

Dark muscovado brownies. Photo: Virginie Garnier

3: Water and drinkable vitamins

As for what they like to eat more of, there were a multitude of suggestions. The one obvious thing they do religiously is drink lots of water, and they all said they felt it was what helped their complexions most. It seems that the usual French breakfasts of nothing, or a yoghurt and buttered baguette, are long gone, and the first meal of the day is the moment to ingest a maximum of goodness. Morning smoothies have become health potions, and in their green form, antioxidant nettles and dandelion leaves are winning over tamer spinach as additions to the usual apples and cucumbers. One friend swears by her “Irish Moss” in her morning mush, which upon further questioning, turns out to be dried kelp. A new leaf on the block for another is moringa, an Indian plant ambitiously known as The Miracle Tree. Extremely rich in anti-ageing vitamin C, it can be infused for a herbal drink, or crumbled over morning cereals with flax and hemp seed and a dash of linseed oil.

4: Magical kefir

Glowy friend Julie is a kefir fiend, making a delicious water and ginger concoction which she brings as a gift wherever she goes, complete with instructions for the lucky recipient to keep the kefir alive. Anything that is good for our gut is good for our skin, she says, glowingly.

5: Omega 3s

As well as the usual vitamins and antioxidants in fruit and vegetables, omega 3s are seen as vitally important for skin and general health. Using krill or fish oil supplements, consuming them in oysters and raw fish – particularly fresh salmon and mackerel with added pomegranate seeds in a fish tartare or a freshly shucked oyster – is considered doubly beneficial. Omega 6s and 9s help hydrate and protect the skin and are found abundantly in cold pressed corn, argan, hemp, walnut, and grape and blackcurrant seed oils. Everyone I asked makes sure they consume plenty of one or more of these oils and this roast potato lover was delighted to learn that goose fat also contains omega 9!

Enjoy the recipes and bon weekend! I hope the sun appears wherever you are. Tx

Sorrel and potato soup with salmon tartare. Photo: Deirdre Rooney

Sorrel and Potato Soup with Salmon tartare

Sorrel’s high season starts in April, but it’s reasonably easy to find throughout the year. Bright and tangy, it has a high iron and vitamin C content as well as a host of other nutrients. Here, it’s paired with potatoes and cream and served piping hot to lightly poach the salmon as you dig in. If you can’t find sorrel, use other soft green herbs. A mixture of basil and dill would be lovely too.

For 4

10 minutes preparation, 20 minutes cooking

400g top quality salmon or trout filets, chopped into small cubes.

The rind of 1/2 a preserved lemon, chopped finely, or a teaspoonful or so of freshly grated lemon zest

250g fresh sorrel roughly chopped

2 tablespoons fresh dill, finely chopped

500g potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes

100g double cream

Salt and pepper

Set aside some dill for garnishing.

Mix the salmon, remaining dill and lemon and leave to rest in the fridge while you make the soup.

Put the sorrel in a large saucepan with a splash of stare and heat gently, stirring from time to time, until it has wilted and given up its juices.

Add about a litre of water and the potatoes. Simmer for 15 -20 minutes until the potatoes are soft. Blitz the soup with a blender, adjusting the texture with water and cream. Season well.

Lightly season the salmon (doing to before would have “cooked” it) with salt and paper and divide between four bowls. Pour the hot sorrel soup in to each bowl, garnish with a little dill and serve.

Dark Muscovado brownies with chocolate fudge sauce

10 minutes preparation
30 minutes cooking

• 250g dark muscovado (or another dark, raw sugar)
• 200g semi-salted butter
• 350g good dark chocolate, chopped
• 3 eggs
• 50g self-raising flour

Prepare
1. Heat the oven to 190°C. Butter and line a 20cm square brownie tin.
2. Melt the butter and chocolate in a bain-marie or in the
microwave. Remove from the heat as soon as they are melted and
stir. In the bowl of your mixer or with an electric mixer, whisk the
eggs until they become pale and frothy. Add the sugar and beat
everything together.
3. Add the chocolate and melted butter with a spatula, then pour
the flour and mix to a smooth batter.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for about
30 minutes. The top should be cracked, and the centre still a
little wobbly.
5. Remove from the oven, allow to cool, cut into squares and serve.

Salted chocolate fudge sauce

For 4
5 minutes preparation

• 50g semi-salted butter
• 170ml fresh whipping cream
• 75g dark muscovado sugar
• 150g good dark chocolate

Prepare
1. Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat gently. Stir
occasionally, until you obtain a shiny, creamy sauce. Serve warm.

A previous version of this post first appeared in The Gloss Magazine, Ireland