Category Archives: Duck

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!

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!