Category Archives: Charcuterie

Bruno gets his Andouillette

Walking the Dogs by Bruno CavellecOur friends Jill and Bruno are, like us, a French-British couple only the other way round – Jill is British and Bruno is French. They live close to us on the Isle of Man and Bruno is a talented painter. We have one of his prints at home in France – ‘Walking the Dogs’ – that I adore because it really captures the essence of Peel (or Sunset City as the locals like to call it). But not only is Bruno a talented guy, he’s also a very genuine guy – as are they both.

Now, living in another country is fine but can leave you with strange ‘holes’ in your way of living since you begin to miss some of the things you were brought up with. Marie-Danielle and I are lucky because we move between the two cultures twice a year so we can get a regular “fix” of the things we like. For me, it’s little things like Salad Cream, Scotch Eggs and Corned Beef that simply aren’t available in France (I take several bottles of Salad Cream back with me!). It’s not that I miss them terribly, it’s just that it would be nice to be able to treat myself once in a while.For M-D, she misses being able to buy confit and veal (yes, I know veal is available in mainland UK, but this the Isle of Man where, for reasons I have never been able to fathom, veal is not available. But, as I say, M-D and I can ‘catch up’ on a fairly regular basis.

Andouillette_AAAAA_cuiteBruno has the same “challenges” and one of the things he misses is that famously French sausage called andouillette. Andouillette is a coarse-grained sausage made with pork intestines (or chitterlings, as we know them in Britain) pepper, wine, onions, and seasonings. True andouillette is shaped like an oblong tube. If made with the small intestine, it is a plump sausage generally about 1″ (2.5cm) in diameter but often it is much larger and stronger in scent when the colon is used. The andouillette has a strong, distinctive odour related to its intestinal origins and component parts. In fact, it is this odour (and subsequent taste) that turns me off this “delicacy”. I have tried eating bits of them several times, but simply do not appreciate them as many in France do. We all have foods like that, which simply don’t “suit” us.

Although sometimes repellant to the uninitiated, the strong odour and taste of andouillette is prized by its devotees (like Bruno and M-D). Since true andouillette is rarely seen outside France (and certainly never on the Isle of Man!), we brought some back with us and decided to “treat” Bruno to an andouillette evening!

tapenadeWe didn’t do a starter course as such, we simply ‘extended the choices’ of the aperitif. In addition to the usual olives and nibbly biscuits, we provided some slightly more ‘substantial’ fare like quails eggs and toasts with homemade tapenade on them. This way of starting a meall allows friends to sit in comfortable chairs around a low table and chat whilst beginning the eating process.

pan seared tunaAnd so to the pièce de résistance, the main course! I believe I’ve mentioned before on this blog that Jill is not vegetarian, but she won’t eat anything that had four legs when it was alive. She’s fine with poultry and fish so I did Pan-Seared Tuna with Avocado, Soy, Ginger, and Lime for the two of us while Bruno and Marie-Danielle got stuck into their andouillettes. The tuna is easy to prepare and takes 2 minutes to cook. The andouillette is ready-made and cooks almost on its own in a pan for 10-12 minutes. A handful of oven chips, a dish of Dijon mustard and a side salad was all we needed to create a main course that pleased all its participants. It doesn’t have to be complex to be a winner! But have you ever seen a grown man cry!!! Bruno was in Bruno heaven and didn’t want to come back down to planet earth!

We finished off with one our favourites (also extremely simple), Orange Carpaccio with Gâteau Creusois. It was a pleasant evening spent with two good people. I suspect we may be hauling back more andouillettes next time we return from France.

We head back to France in less than two weeks, but we’re not done eating yet! Tomorrow, Steve and Jeanette (brother and sister-in-law) have invited us to a little restaurant perched on the cliffs just down the coast. The day after, Terry and Julie are hosting “the big six” (themselves, us and two other friends from over the road) to dinner at theirs. The following Saturday, Penny and Steve (who joined us on Christmas Eve) have invited us to eat at theirs. And a day or two later, the evening before we leave, we’ll be at Bruno and Jill’s, enjoying crêpes for La Fête de la Chandeleur. And then I go on a diet – that’s if France will let me!

Melted cheese followed by a left-over lunch

Last night we enjoyed the company of our neighbours, Julie and Terry, with their children Esme and Merlin (12 and 7 respectively). Whenever younger people are involved, it’s always best to find something simple that will capture their imaginations, so we decided to do a Raclette, which is a dish created in Switzerland where, originally, cheese was heated in front of a fire then the melted cheese was scraped from the unmelted part of the cheese onto the diners’ plates (the term raclette derives from the French verb racler, meaning “to scrape”). The cheese is accompanied by small firm potatoes, gherkins, pickled onions, and dried meat, such as raw smoked hams and viande des Grisons (beef).

Raclette with all the trimmingsObviously, we didn’t buy a 50kg block of cheese, light a fire and start scraping it – we used a more modern way of serving raclette that involves an electric table-top grill with small pans, known as coupelles, in which to melt slices of cheese. When we do this, we bring the cheese to the table already cut and sliced, along with a plate of charcuterie like Grisons (which is what we used last night) or pastrami or salami or cooked ham (or whatever floats your boat) accompanied by a big dish of boiled or steamed potatoes and a bowl of cornichons (small gherkins).

Diners place a slice of cheese in their coupelle, slide it under the grill to melt and, meanwhile, help themselves to potatoes, meat and cornichons. As soon as the cheese is melted it is simply “poured” over the food on your plate (with a bit of help from small wooden spatulas if necessary). Then you load your coupelle with cheese again and pop it under the grill to melt while you are eating what’s on your plate. It’s like a mini production line, the emphasis being on relaxed and sociable eating and drinking.

And, just for fun, we had brought some purple Vitelotte Potatoes back from France with us, which we mixed with normal white potatoes to create a splash of colour. We had also brought back with us some packs of ready-cut cheese that are specifically intended for raclettes. However, you can use almost any firm cheese (particularly Port Salut – a semi-soft pasteurised cow’s milk cheese from Pays de la Loire, France, with a distinctive orange crust and a mild flavour). As a guide, there were 4 adults and two youngsters last night and we ate 750g (just under 1¾lb) of cheese.

French and other European supermarkets generally stock both the grill apparatus and ready-sliced cheese and charcuterie selections. However, elsewhere in the world you can buy the grills online at places like Amazon (just search under raclette). The other fun aspect of modern raclette grills is that they incorporate a hot stone, so you can have a “cook your own meat” evening too (which we often do). If you buy your cheese as a block, you need to cut and slice it to create pieces roughly 5cm x 7cm x 6mm (2″ x 2¾” x ¼”)

Last night, just for fun, we also put a few uncooked quail’s eggs on the table and some of us played making “omelette on cheese” just for the hell of it (told you it was all about relaxed and sociable eating!). Thought it’s not essential, we also provided little side salads of baby leaves, raw mushrooms, clementines and a vinagrette that used tomato ketchup! We served a Pinot Noir from Alsace that is light enough to complement the somewhat heavy cheese. Afterwards, we indulged in Bruno’s Double Take Apple Flan, which is light and delicious! (Hazard warning!!! Don’t serve ice cream after a raclette; it will solidify the cheese in your stomach and you’ll feel like you’ve eaten a barrow load of lead!)

So we arrived at lunch time today wondering what to eat and decided on a “left-overs” salad of Grisons (left-over), potatoes (left-over), mushrooms (left-over), quail’s eggs (left-over) and spring onions. M-D had her potatoes as a Warm Potato Salad while I just had mine sliced and cold. And we both added a little Thousand Island Dressing to the raw mushrooms… delicious! Tonight will be just soup, I suspect – I rather overdid the cheese last night!