Our 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.
Bruno 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!
We 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.
And 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!
