All posts by needarecipe

Veal, Vegetables

2011 ends on Oysters, Veal and Christmas Pudding – sounds good to me!

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On New Years Eve, M-D (my wife), her sister their two cousins and their partners (and myself) sat down to a typical French evening meal (started at 8pm and finished at 3am!) and, somewhere along the way (after the oysters and smoked salmon) we ate Cubes of Veal with Spicebread Sauce accompanied by Cauliflower Cheese and Purple Majesty potatoes. And it was truly delicious.

The sauce relies on the addition of Pain d’Épice (Spice Bread). You can use my own recipe for the Pain d’Épice (Spice Bread) or, if you don’t want to go to the trouble of making it yourself, you can use ready made Jamaica Ginger Cake or Ginger Loaf Cake. Your own home-made tastes much better but sometimes you must trade convenience for taste!

One of the secrets of cooking to entertain guests is to do as much preparation as possible beforehand. For the oysters, it was no problem, I simply opened them (60 of them!) half an hour before the meal. This works perfectly because they are best left for a little while to produce more water. It adds to their flavour. The smoked salmon and jumbo prawns came from a specialist shop just down the road, where they smoke their own produce, so the quality was truly excellent (good, firm, Scottish salmon). Naturally, cold seafood requires no further preparation… only a nice presentation and a good bottle of dry white wine (like the Bel Air Quincy that we served).

So the main course needed to be something that took very little cooking and that could mostly be prepared in advance. The veal cooked while we ate the oysters and the sauce was prepared before our guests arrived, so Cubes of Veal with Spicebread Sauce is an ideal dish for entertaining.

After half an hour of madness with New Year party poppers and various other lunatic activities, we cleared the rubbish off the table and sat down to fresh salad leaves in a vinagrette and a great selection of French cheeses, including one of my favourites – Langres from the east of France. We continued with the red wine we had served with the main course (a Samur Champigny from Domaine des Roches Neuves)

And then came our “pièce de résistance” … Christmas Pudding flamed in Brandy (well, Cognac, actually!!). A “pièce de résistance” is defined as a creation that defies orthodox or common conventions and practices, thereby making it unique and special. So you may be wondering what gives me the right to refer to a common or garden Christmas Pudding from our local supermarket on The Isle of Man as a “pièce de résistance”. Well, quite simply, we have fun serving our French family and friends with typical British dishes that they have probably never tasted before, just as we have fun serving typically French food to our friends and family on The isle of Man. It’s easy for us since we travel backwards and forwards between the two quite frequently, and can bring food products with us as we travel.

Just as we introduced our French family to Haggis, Neeps and Tatties a few days ago, and then came up with traditional Christmas Cake the following day, so we introduced M-D’s sister and cousins to Christmas Pudding about which they had heard and read a lot of rubbish. In fact, in small portions, Christmas Pud is an excellent dessert, served either with custard or cream. The “problem” in Britain is that, on Christmas Day, folk heap their plates with turkey, chipolatas, stuffing, carrots, spouts, peas, three sorts of potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and gravy, then immediately force down a huge helping of Christmas Pudding – and all in the space of one hour. Following French tradition, we served smaller courses, interspersed with convivial conversation (and some excellent wines) and the Christmas Pudding was served (in smaller portions) at about 1:00a.m. – five hours after we started on our oysters. So the body has plenty of time to digest the food before loading up with more!

And so impressed were M-D’s cousins with the Christmas Pudding that one pair asked if they could take home what was left for the following day! Now that’s what you call ‘seeing the light’! No more talk of crap British food from that quarter! I love it when a plan comes together!

And finally, just a little footnote, having mentioned Haggis, Neeps and Tatties, if you read my post of 25th December, you’ll see that we brought a little sunshine into the lives of my daughter-in-law and her husband by serving this traditional Scottish dish to them… and they loved it. In fact, so much so that we plan going to their home this coming weekend to celebrate a birthday (no, I’m NOT going to tell you how young I am!!). Muriel (my daughter-in-law) has asked me to bring the haggis that she knows is living in our freezer, so she can serve Haggis, Neeps and tatties as a starter too! Again, it’s a St. Paul on the road to Damascus moment!

Have a GREAT 2012!

Beef, Christmas, Vegetables

What do you eat after Christmas?

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The age-old question, “What to eat after Christmas” has a somewhat unpredictable answer in our house! If you read my previous post, you’ll see that we have made thorough pigs of ourselves the past few days, so you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s time for us to ease back a bit and let nature sort out the overload. However, nature didn’t take into account the fact that none of us could be bothered to don socks and shoes and go to the shops for something to eat tonight.

Yesterday, my sister-in-law’s sons polished off most of the left-overs before jumping on their trains and heading home, so yesterday evening was a nice simple vegetable soup. Which, today, leaves us with the question of what to eat. Lunch isn’t a problem since we have some nice cooked ham in the fridge, along with a few leaves of lettuce, we’ll be fine. Dinner this evening, however, poses more problematical logistical issues – i.e. no-one wants to go shopping for something to eat!

Obvious answer… the freezer cabinet! And what did I spy, peeping at me from under a pack of Manx kippers? …. Probably one of the most delightful beef recipes ever – Daube Provençale!

It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that I have a passion for Daube (it’s pronounced slightly more towards “Dobe” than “Daub”) so the idea of finishing off the old fashioned vegetable mix that I prepared yesterday (Purple Majesty potatoes, parsnips, green Romanesco Cauliflower and carrots), along with a good old-fashioned recipe like Daube appeals to my natural instincts (and to my unapologetic stomach!)

So here we go again… the table is already laid!! Happy Christmas Graham!!

Christmas, Duck, Goose, Haggis

‘Tis the Season to be Jolly

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Well, Christmas is here again and all that’s left of the turkey is… er… nothing, because we didn’t have turkey! In fact, we’ve just had two consecutive Christmases and are feeling the effects. Here in France, Christmas is celebrated on the evening of 24th when the family gathers round for a long meal, followed by present-opening at midnight. This year, M-D’s daughter and her family came from Orleans (about 100 miles away) on 23rd and left on 24th. Then M-D’s sister and her two adult sons came on 24th, so we had two consecutive Christmas dinners.

With my daughter-in-law and her family, we opted for goose as a main course, with a cold starter of foie gras (accompanied by a nice fresh bottle of Chateau Romanin), a hot starter of (would you believe) Haggis, Neaps and Tatties, and then the main course followed by cheese and salad, then Chocolate and Walnut Cake (the walnuts having been gathered from my daughter-in-law’s garden in the summer). The main wine was a 1992 Savigny les Beaune, a very smooth Burgundy wine from our ‘Special Reserve’.

Haggis Neeps and TattiesWhat was amusing about this meal was the reaction to the Haggis, Neaps and Tatties starter! The French love to give the Brits a hard time about their food, and there are some particularly easy targets like haggis, because the somewhat biased stereotype does not match the reality of this dish. So I thought it would be fun to serve it as a second starter (after some delightful foie gras) and see what reaction we got.

In fact, I cheated a little because we took our two French grandchildren to Scotland last summer so I already knew that one of them liked haggis (we nicknamed her “The Haggis Vaccum”)! However, the one member of the family who is normally a little “French” and inclined to be very critical of anything un-French is our son-in-law, Vincent. So his reaction was the one we were a little unsure of. Yet he was the one who absolutely raved about this dish and cleaned his plate almost as quickly as his daughter (The Haggis Vaccum). It was about as successful as you could ever hope to have in any meal. In fact, the goose that followed was almost forgotten in the glowing praise for the haggis (despite the goose taking much longer to prepare and costing 50 time more than the haggis!)

Then, at the end, with a nice glass of Mas Amiel (the only wine that goes with chocolate), we tucked into M-D’s Chocolate and Walnut Cake, which is always a treat, particularly since she splits the cake in two and fills the middle with apricot conserve mixed with tiny chips of dried apricot!

So our pre-Christmas Eve Christmas passed off well and left us preparing a much simpler meal the following night, for M-D’s sister, Christine and her sons, Jerome and Corentin. We started (what again??) with foie gras (again, with Chateau Romanin), followed by pot roast duck stuffed with oranges, accompanied by another of our ‘Special Reserves’ – a 2002 Chateau Martet (a Merlot) that was, frankly, like drowning in heaven! Then we moved to salad and a wonderful selection of French cheeses and ended with a traditional rich fruit Christmas Cake that we brought back from UK with us a few weeks ago (complete with marzipan and icing). Again, surprisingly, this was much appreciated by the family because, despite often poking fun at non-French food, they sometimes find other interesting things if we take the time and trouble to introduce them to them.

So, no turkey, but lots of other good surprises. Tonight, it’s just soup, to let everything settle a little!

Eggs, Fish

Eggs-actly!

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Last night, we invited over some friends for dinner. Ron has been a friend of mine (and the whole family) since my childhood, and his wife, Chrissy, is probably the smiliest person I know. We were also joined by Jeanette, my sister-in-law so, along with M-D and myself, there were five of us round the table.

Normally, when we are entertaining, it is me that does the cooking. However, Ron is not hugely keen on certain meats, so we decided to start with Monk Fish Delight (fish and eggs) and then, for a main course, Piperade (onions, peppers, ham and eggs), which is one of our regular favourites. Both of these are dishes at which M-D excels, so this time it was she who spent some time in the kitchen (though most of this meal can be prepared in advance).

PiperadePiperade (see photo on the right) is a traditional dish from the Basque region of France (South West). The recipe on the web site uses Parma Ham because the ham that is more traditionally used – Jambon de Bayonne – is not usually available other than in France.

Fortunately, being forward-thinking people, we had brought over a large Jambon de Bayonne with us when we came from France a month ago, so we were able to offer the authentic taste of the Basque region (and the ham is so much better than Parma ham, for this particular recipe).

Monk Fish DelightWe kept it simple and served the Piperade with a a few salad leaves in a vinagrette. It’s enough because the flavours blend so well that this is one of those dishes where more is less!

The Monk Fish Delight (see the photo alongside) is just that… a real delight. Is very easy to make and can be prepared hours in advance, to make your entertaining easy.

The version in the photo has been cooked in an oblong tin and decorated with prawns, tomato and egg. However, we tend to use a circular ring pan, about 10″ (25cm) in diameter and about 2 – 2½” (5-6 cm) high – they come in different sizes, but this is the most common. Ring Pan or Ring TinThe pan is completely rounded, like a half cylinder that has been wrapped around to make a ring shape. So, when we turn the terrine out onto a plate, we end up with a 10″ “doughnut” of fish and eggs. Then all we do is decorate with a little parsley and place a bowl of mayonnaise in the middle, and the job is done!

So it was eggs followed by eggs, and all gently washed down with a few glasses of chilled Terres Ocrées Côtes de Provence (a delightfully light rosé wine). Then we finished off with a Tarte aux Fruits and coffee – and everybody was happy! And who says that France can’t come to The Isle of Man!!

Chinese Food, Isle of Man, Restaurants

Life’s never too hectic for food!

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It’s almost two months since I lasted posted a blog entry. That’s not because I’m being lazy, it’s just that the world won’t wait for me to catch up!

We moved from France to the Isle of Man in early October (we dodge from once country to the other every couple of months). This time we came by car (we often fly) and loaded up with all the ‘goodies’ that you can only get in France – like fabulous French wines at a fraction of the price in UK.

Isle of Man houseHowever, one of the main reasons for spending some time on “The Island” at this time of year was to do some work on our new house (it’s 120 years old, but it’s new to us!). The builder did a great job of renovation (take a bow Jason!) but everybody personalizes their homes so there were lights to buy and fix, bathroom fittings to choose and fix, curtains to choose, additional furniture to buy, pictures and paintings to hang, additional electrical sockets to wire in, plus, plus, plus…. well you get the picture anyway! And that’s my excuse for not having made a blog post for two months!!

At least we found the time to pay a visit to a couple of our favourite Island restaurants. First of all, we went with my brother and sister-in-law to The Abbey Restaurant near Ballasalla. M-D and I had been before, but for Steve and Jeanette it was their first visit. So let me give you the good news first… the meal was excellent. We all enjoyed quality food in quality surroundings. The bad news was that they had a party of 18 dining that night, and the morons decided to quaff drinks at the bar for over half-an-hour before sitting at their table in another room. For those of us seated near the bar, it was a disaster – but one that the staff could easily have avoided if they had politely asked the cretins to sit down and take their drinks at their table.

Don’t let this put you off going there because, as I say, the food and the surroundings are great (and, in fact, we even stumbled across a magnum of St Emilion at a very reasonable price). However, you may feel it worthwhile, when booking, to ask fo a table away from the bar… it will save disappointment later.

The other restaurant M-D and I went to was The Majestic Chinese Restaurant (called The Water Margin under previous owners) overlooking the sea in Onchan. When we learned that the previous owners were leaving, we were truly disappointed because their standards were high and the food (mostly Cantonese) was excellent. However, the new owners have maintained the previous high standards, so our disappointment has been reduced! Sure, there have been some changes (that’s natural) but essentially the restaurant continues to serve great Chinese food at a sensible price. “The Majestic” is perched on top of a headland, overlooking the 2 mile sweep of Douglas bay, so try asking for a window table when you book – the evening view is very special.

And talking about Chinese restaurants, we have discovered a small one not 400 yards from our home. We’ve not tried it yet, but we certainly will (and I’ll let you know how it goes). One of the things we have discovered over the years is to never be put off by the size of a restaurant. Often there are true gems to be found hidden away in small side streets and we’re hoping this will prove to be one of them.

One of the pleasures of being on The Isle of Man is the lamb! The butcher that we use is A1 BUTCHERS, 7 Snaefell Road, Willaston, Douglas (01624.627200) and they serve only Manx lamb that has grazed on the heather-covered hills, adding a light, delicate flavour to the meat.

Stewey and Tommy sell the finest lamb chops we have ever tasted (they also do a great line in cooked ham, but that’s another story!). The lamb chops are juicy, tender, full of flavour and we have yet to find their equal. Just cook in a frying pan with a few cloves of garlic until they are browned on the outside and pink in the middle (about 6-7 minutes)… truly a delight.

Peel castle across the baySo we have one more month on ‘The Island’ before heading back to France for Christmas and the New Year. Right at the moment (despite what you see on the photo) the sun is shining, the sky is blue and I reckon it’s time for a nice walk over the top of the cliff with a view of Peel bay and castle … sometimes I think we are very lucky people!

 

Seafood, Wine

Zee best in zee world

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Oyster stall at CancalEarlier this year we spent a few days in Brittany with our two French grandchildren. During the trip, we visited Cancale, which lies along the coast to the east of Saint-Malo. It is a picturesque fishing village popular with visitors, many of whom are drawn by its reputation as the “oyster capital” of Brittany. On the sea front there are many stalls selling crustaceans of all types – all fresh out of the sea. I’ve never seen so many oysters of so many different shapes, colours and sizes.

While we were there, we went into a shop owned by one of life’s “characters”! Everything we looked at was ‘the best in the world’… “Ah, zat box of snail shells, ‘ee iz zee best in zee world!” (Actually the guy was speaking French, but I’m sure you get the gist!!)

Well, it seems to have worked because we walked out clutching a bag of ‘goodies’ and were about 100 euros lighter in our pockets! However, one of the things we came away with was a small packet of Court Bouillon Marin (marine fish stock – and that’s a very loose translation!). I used it once and it was truly excellent, it really does add all the flavours of the sea to the fish. According to the packet, all it contains is sea salt, seaweed and herbs, but I can promise you, it really is “zee best in zee world”.

If your French is good enough, you can order this Court Bouillon Marin from the family that makes it… http://www.lehomedys.com/saveur.php. It’s perfect for (as the name implies) a court bouillon, but also for mussels, fish soup, or any sort of fish or crustacean.

SamphireSo, tonight, we’re going to be eating halibut, cooked in Court Bouillon Marin, and I’m really looking forward to it. However, we also bought some samphire (one of the salicornia species, also known as glasswort or pickleweed). If you’re not familiar with samphire, it is a succulent, salt tolerant plant that grows in salt marshes, on beaches, and among mangroves. Salicornia species can generally tolerate immersion in salt water and it is highly edible, either cooked or raw. Due to its high salt content, it must be cooked without any salt added, in plenty of water. It has a hard stringy core, and after cooking, the edible flesh is pulled off from the core. This flesh, after cooking, resembles seaweed in color, and the flavor and texture are like young spinach stems or asparagus… truly worth looking forward to with a nice crisp Chablis!

Cheese, Duck, Quail, Wine

La Petite Rôtisserie

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So – was it Salade des Gourmets or not???

Well, believe it or not, I was able to resist and, for a starter, I went for the Salade de Caille et Magret de Canard (Salad of Quail and Lean Duck Breast). Deeee-licious! Now I have two favourites to choose from! What’s a man to do, I ask?

La Petite Rôtisserie is living up to its reputation. The food, the service and the wines were just perfect. Starting with a little apperitif (M-D takes an Americano and I take a Cocktail Maison), diners are given plenty of time to study the menu and the wine list before having to choose. As a main course, M-D took Rognons de Veau (Veal Kidneys) which were cooked to perfection. I took a fillet steak, rare, with a sauce of Bleu d’Auvergne (a blue cheese from the Auvergne region of France). These were accompanied simply by a few sautéed potatoes and mushrooms… very simple but very effective.

We followed up with cheese from the amazing selection that they keep here. I took some Pont-l’Évêque, some Chaource and some Bleu d’Auvergne (yeah, I know, I’d already had that with my steak!). Nadine (the restaurant owner) keeps her cheese in perfect condition and the Chaource just melted on my plate (as, indeed, it should!).

Dessert (which follows the cheese in France) was, for me, an aumônière which, literally translated means a purse or sack. In fact, it’s ice cream wrapped in a crèpe (thin pancake) and tied with a strip of orange peel, the whole thing sitting on a bed of thick chocolate sauce, sprinkled with crushed almonds. Ooooo – I can still taste it!

And all of this was washed down with a 2001 St Julien. The wines of St Julien are the epitome of Bordeaux. Sandwiched as it is between Pauillac to the north, and Margaux to the south, this small commune still makes a huge contribution to the wines of Bordeaux, with a distinctive and elegant style and the promise of consistency which is perhaps unrivalled by its neighbours.

Well – we enjoyed it anyway!!

Duck, Salads

Confit for all

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I just finished posting Confit de Canard (Duck Confit) to the site and it reminds me how lucky we are to spend six months of the year in France. You see, we can get tins of confit from the local shops without having to go through the arduous process of making it. In fact, it’s so common that you can get it in most restaurants without paying the earth. Mind you, the prices can vary quite a lot because there’s quite a difference between the mass-produced commercial production and the more intimate ‘artisan’ producers. For that reason, we buy ours by mail order from Godard in Gourdon in the south-west of the country… and it is quite delicious.

Whenever we travel back to the Isle of Man by car (usually once a year) we always take back a supply of stuff (like confit) that we can’t get in Britain. We also have a habit of weighing the car down with wine, since it is so much cheaper (and better selection) in France. We will be going to the local wine fayre in a couple of weeks. That’s always good fun… it’s an evening of tasting of up to about 100 different wines, and the sellers are all determined that you should taste their wine, so there’s no ducking out after 10 or so! Must remember to book the taxi!

And talking of wine, M-D and I were just deciding what to pull out of the cellar for her daughter’s 40th birthday (coming soon). I noticed we had several bottles of Cote de Beaune Villages 1971, Chateau La Fleur 1975, and an absolutely stunning deep red wine called Chateau de Cayrou (1989 and 1990).

Maybe it’s time to pull out the Cote de Beaune Villages 1971 … same year as my daughter-in-law! It should be ready for drinking any time soon!

Anyway, it’s La Petite Rôtisserie tomorrow night. Let’s see if I can resist the temptation to take Salade Gourmet as a starter. There are so many good things on the menu, it seems a shame not to work my way through the whole list!

Chicken, Salads, Salmon, Vegetables

The End of Summer

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While the UK (and the poor old Isle of Man) is suffering from 80mph (130kph) winds and floods, here in France, the weather is a very pleasant 27C with just a gentle cooling breeze to take the edge off the heat. But even so, I sense that the summer is coming to an end. The birds are circling and the fields are being harvested (us country folk know about things like that!)

Caesar SaladMeanwhile we’re making the best of what good weather we still have. We’re eating salads like Caesar Salad or Salade Niçoise at lunch time and simple fayre in the evenings like Chicken and Ham Soup or Leek and Smoked Salmon Rolls

Often the simplest of meals are the most satisfying. M-D and I have just had a salad that was nothing more than a cooked chicken breast and Marinated Carrot Salad.Simple, yet tasty and filling (and very few of those nasty calories!). I just finished adding a recipe to the site for Roast Belly Pork Dinner. Now that’s serious comfort food! But maybe I can wait till those dark winter evenings!

M-D is busy planning for our return to the Isle of Man in about 3 weeks. She’s digging out all sorts of stuff that we have duplicated here in France (like a wok, for example) and creating a “heap” for us to take with us. We’ll be going by car this time, so we can carry lots of stuff (including the obligatory cases of wine!).

Until August we lived in a small apartment when we were on the Isle of Man. However, we decided that we needed somewhere bigger since our families are always made welcome. Within six weeks we had found the right house, bought it, moved in and rented out the apartment! But it took a bit of a toll on us physically and mentally so we came back to France for a rest.

Now it’s time to go back and sort out everything we didn’t manage to get done before – like a couple of extensions to the phone line and a desk each and…. a wok, it seems!

Japanese Cuisine, Seafood

The Japanese Connection

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Well, last night didn’t quite end up the way we planned it. Originally we were going to go to our favourite local haunt, La Petite Rôtisserie (65, chemin de Halage, 95610 Eragny). However, M-D has been suffering from a bad back all week (probably a reaction to moving house a couple of weeks ago) and she didn’t feel like making a big effort to get ready and drive a few miles up the road. So we ended up walking 100m to the local Happy Sushi, where she got stuck into a dish of sashimi and I took half a dozen seafood kebabs. Along with the miso soup, cabbage salad and rice that come as part of the meal, we had a good feed, and all for 38 euros ($53 – £33) and that included a drink while we waited to be served and a pitcher of the house rosé with the meal.

SashimiWe keep hearing of the so-called dangers of eating raw meat and fish, but neither of us has ever suffered any adverse reaction from either. M-D regularly eats sashimi and she also eats carpaccio on a regular basis, and about once a fortnight she will eat a raw steak (no – not blue – raw!). The last time I looked, she still had one head, two arms and two legs.

I firmly hold the view that, as long as you use saltwater fish, you’ll have no problems eating it raw. Freshwater fish may contain parasites that are killed by cooking. Saltwater fish do not contain these parasites. And, as far as mercury levels go, you’re at a lot more risk from filled teeth than from raw fish. On the other hand, if you are eating raw (like M-D’s sashimi) it pays to get the freshest fish available, from a fish market on the wharf, not from a supermarket.

As far as raw meat is concerned, buy only good quality and the risks are pretty minimal. Of course, one way to eat raw meat is to eat horse meat! No, I’m not kidding; remember, for the majority of mankind’s early existence, wild horses were hunted as a source of protein.It is slightly sweet, super-tender, low in fat and high in protein. So get over the taboo and, next time you have a chance to try it, see what you think.

Anyway, we plan going to La Petite Rôtisserie next weekend instead – presuming I can wait that long! I don’t know whether to order the raw horse or raw squid! … Just kidding!!