That good old Confit de Canard

Last Saturday evening we enjoyed the company of Steve and Penny who live about 100 metres down the road, along with Steve and Jeanette (my brother and sis-in-law). Penny is a pharmacist at the local hospital and was on call, so had to curtail her alcohol intake to virtually zero. Unfortunately, Steve (not brother) is a pilot, so he’s away quite a lot and last Saturday was the only time their diaries and ours coincided!

We started with our current favourite, Julie’s Salmon & Prawn with Lime. It really is so simple but so delicious. It’s one of those recipes made in heaven! We’re always aware that Jeanette, my sister-in-law, is alergic to crustaceans, so make sure that the salmon and prawns never touch during the preparation. It also means, of course that her salad is missing one of the ingredients, but it’s wonderfully delicious nonetheless! We served this great starter with a Duc de Morny 2012 Picpoul de Pinet which is a wine that won the Medaille d’Or in the 2013 Agricultural and Food show in Paris (a rare accolade).

confit de canard duckFor the main course, we took an easy option (for us) and served Confit de Canard with a mixture of Sautée Potatoes and Cepes (penny bun or porcino mushrooms). It’s easy for us because we bring from France big tins of Confit and also tins of Cepes. So peeling and cooking a few potatoes is no hardship. However, for our friends who would not normally get to eat confit, it’s something different and fun – particularly when served with a bottle or two of Château La Caze Bellevue, a smooth, velvety 2010 Saint Emilion!

Orange CarpaccioAfter a selection of cheeses (with a little more St Emilion!), dessert was a Gâteau Creusois and a Carpaccio d’Oranges à la Cannelle (Orange slices with cinnamon). Together, a nice simple, refreshing and tasty way to finish the meal (particularly since it took a new bottle of Saint Emilion to help it go down!).

Damage on Douglas PromenadeMeanwhile, a combination of storms and high tides has given The Island a real pounding with many of the sea walls damaged, some shops and homes flooded and everybody huddled indoors waiting for summer! Fortunately, the island is hilly, so we don’t get many places where water lays on the land for long periods such as they are experiencing in Somerset.

castletown2robinwootton_500x333However, all’s well that ends well because Penny is coming round tomorrow night to help us finish the raclette ingredients that we had with Terry and Julie last week! We have just enough for three people, Steve’s away and Penny’s not on call, so it sounds like a good excuse to dig into the wine cellar and see what’s available – I love it when a plan comes together! Who cares about the weather?

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!

Welcome to a gastronomic 2014

Looking back at 2013, it has been a good year full of new friends, new recipes and old wines. If there was a single highlight (difficult to choose between several that spring to mind) it would be the discovery of Julie’s Salmon & Prawn with Lime, which our neighbours, Terry and Julie, introduced us to just a few months ago but which has now figured several times when we have entertained guests.

Close on its heels was Bruno’s “Double-take” apple flan that just melted into a utopian black hole as we polished off the whole plate in minutes!

One of the recipes we’ve enjoyed introducing other people to was Rich Gravy Lamb Shanks (though I confess that we more normally use a leg of lamb rather than lamb shanks). This is a deeply rich dish that almost cooks itself. The lamb comes out tender and succulent while the gravy has a ‘secret’ ingredient that adds a surprise element to the dish.

December 31st saw us out on our 4th floor balcony at midnight, watching the antics of the local ‘yoof’, who had got hold of the biggest Chinese Crackers I’ve ever seen – some of them lasting well over two minutes. M-D’s sister, Christine (from Lille) is staying with us for a few days so we invited their aunt Susanne who lives near Versailles to come for lunch on New Year’s Day

Now ‘Taty Susanne’ can out-talk anybody I know (in fact, my nickname for her is “the machine gun” because of her continuous rapid fire!), so I was happy to spend my time in the kitchen preparing the meal while the ‘girls’ chatted (or Susanne talked and M-D and Christine listened!). When, eventually, I could squeeze a word in edgeways, to announce that our lunch was on the table, Susanne decided it was time to go to “the little corner” and we all sat looking at each other as the silence rang in our ears for a couple of very peaceful minutes!

monkfish medallions in orange sauceEven eating didn’t stop her talking, though it did slow her down a little as our lunch started with foie gras (as you do!) served with a lovely crisp 2005 Sauternes from Chateau Roumieu. Even M-D’s aunt showed a bit of respectful silence for that one! Following that, we got stuck into the main course of Médaillons de lotte à l’orange (or Monkfish Medallions in Orange Sauce to us Anglophiles!), served with Braised Fennel and a two-tone potato stack! Yep, that’s two different coloured potatoes!

Vitelotte PotatoesAt this time of year, Vitelotte Potatoes (also called Vitelotte noire, Négresse or Truffe de Chine) are available in France. Vitelotte is a gourmet variety of blue-violet potato that has been cultivated in France since the early 19th century. In fact, they come in white, yellow, pink, red and violet, but the violet variety are the most common and, though they taste just the same as ordinary spuds, they are fun to use, offering a great alternative presentation on the plate.

Mas AmielThe main course was served with an excellent Menetou-Salon which, though a red wine, is very light and can easily be served with fish. We skipped the cheese (having filled up on succulent monkfish) but Susanne had brought with her a hand-make chocolate cake from a pâtisserie near Versailles so we did some wilful damage to that, served with a glass or three of Mas Amiel Vintage.

Mas Amiel is a lovely ‘vin doux naturel’ sweet wine from Maury in the far south Roussillon region of France. It’s an inky black wine made from 100% Grenache grapes. Rich with a nose of tobacco and garden herbs, it is complex, sumptuous, dense and concentrated – with fruit and spice flavours dominating. It’s perfectly balanced and is probably the only wine that truly works with chocolate. If you like wines that are a bit different (and you’ve got a plate of hand-made chocolate gateau in front of you!) Mas Amiel is probably the only real choice. It also happens to feature in the world’s best Michelin Restaurants!

Tonight, Taty Susanne is back home and we have a beautiful fillet of beef that we can enjoy without the 100mph running commentary! …. Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together!!!

Another Christmas gone… can’t wait for the next.

Well, you know what it’s like… you plan for it, you shop for it, you tear your hair out for it and, at the end of the day, you find it’s December 27th and once again, Christmas is just a memory. But as long as it’s a good memory, who’s worried!

In France the “big dinner” is the evening of December 24th and M-D and I had planned a quiet dinner together since we were heading down to Orleans the following day to have a ‘second Christmas’ with M-D’s daughter and grandaughters. However, the best laid plans etc…. and a few days before, we discovered that a friend would be on his own for Christmas so we invited him over for Christmas Eve dinner with us.

Rich Gravy LambIt had to be simple and straightforward, so we opted for foie gras as a starter, Rich Gravy Lamb as the main course, cheese and salad and then we finished on M-D’s (in)famous Citrus Parfait which we always have ready in the freezer.

The Rich Gravy Lamb is an absolute stunner because it is stupidly simple to prepare – lamb (leg or shank), a couple of onions, a bit of stock and red wine, a few simple herbs and a fillet or two of anchovies (yep, you read that right … anchovies. Though you can’t taste them in the finished dish, they totally transform the meat and gravy, bringing out all the delicious flavours). The joy of it is that you shove it in a slow oven and leave it alone until you’re ready to eat it. It also washes down quite well with a 1986 Roc du Breuil, Cotes de Bourg!

The following day, we drove down to Orleans (it’s about 100 miles) and met up with Muriel and the girls (Clélence and Eléonore). They had spent Christmas with Muriel’s half-sister over on the Atlantic coast so they had driven for about 3-4 hours to get home. Nonetheless, along with Muriel’s Grandmother, Rolande (96 going on 25), we made up a happy gang of six.

We started with Julie’s Salmon & Prawn with Lime which has, in just the few months since our neighbour in Peel introduced us to it, become one of our firm favourites. We already had them drooling and we hadn’t even arrived at the pièce de résistance…
Beef WellingtonThe day before, I had prepared a Beef Wellington to the stage that the fillet of beef was wrapped in its coat of mushroom duxelles and Parma ham. So all I had to do at Muriel’s was to add it’s pastry overcoat (two packets of ready-rolled puff pastry), coat with egg yolk, and pop in the oven for about 40 minutes (it was a 2¾lb – 1.25kg fillet). It came out perfectly cooked to suit us all. The ends were medium-well, the centre was rare and in between a beautiful medium rare, so everybody got what they wanted. (In fact we all got we wanted two days later, too …. left-overs. Cold. With Salad. And a few miniature tomatoes. Bliss!). Helped down with a rather splendid 1986 Chateau Moulin a Vent, Lalande de Pomerol, I can highly recommend Beef Wellington, hot or cold!!

And now we’re back home in Acheres planning the next onslaught!!! Today is Friday (for about another hour) and tomorrow we dive to the shops and get what we need for the next few days because M-D’s sister, Christine, is arriving for a week or so. On Sunday we are having a “late Christmas” dinner with Christine and “Tatty Suzanne” (Christine and M-D’s aunt who lives a few miles away on the outskirts of Versailles.). The plan is for Monk Fish in Orange which is a bit of a mixture of two other recipes but, if it works, should be pretty damn good!

I’ll let you know (or not!)

Glorious evening of simple, tasty food.

Last night, our old friends, Paul and Valérie came round for dinner. They arrived early and left late (which is always a good sign!) and they insisted on taking away with them the recipes for our starter and dessert.

Julie's Salmon & Prawn with LimeWe kicked off with a starter that our neighbours, Julie and Terry, on the Isle of Man had made for us just before we came back to France… Julie’s Salmon and Prawn with Lime. This simply is one of the tastiest starters I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating. We “smoked” the salmon ourselves which not only tastes better but also allows you to slice it thicker than normal. The dollop of cream and horseradish with the fish has a lovely fresh taste but the real delight is the salad dressing which includes limes, honey and fresh ginger and comes as a mouth-watering surprise when you put a forkful of salad leaves in your mouth.

Naturally we helped this down with a little drop of France’s finest… a Duc de Morny, Picpoul de Pinet 2012. It’s a crisp white from the Languedoc coast but, even though it was a young wine, it won the Médaille d’Or at the renowned Agricultural Show in Paris, so it wasn’t a bad drop at all !

Daube ProvençaleOur main course was Daube Provençale (one of our regular favourites) which consists of large chunks of slow-cooked beef with lots of tasty secrets like orange flavours and fresh olives in the gravy. This always works well because it really does taste of France and it can be prepared well in advance. Also, we serve it simply with potatoes (which we crush into the gravy with our forks – bad children!) so there’s not a lot of work preparing the vegetables.

Paul brought an excellent bottle of something deep and rich and red from Bordeaux but I’m darned if I can remember the name of it and the bottle is now being recyled somewhere in deepest, darkest France! Whatever it was, it worked extremely well with the Daube.

Citrus ParfaitAfter the cheese, we finished off with M-D’s famous Citrus Parfait which we totally demolished since everybody went for a second helping! We helped it down with a glass or two of Edelzwicker from Alsace in North-East France though I confess, it didn’t need too much help!

Valérie and Paul were impressed enough to insist that we give them the recipes for the starter, the “self-smoked” salmon and the dessert (they already had the recipe for the Daube). And the real beauty was that – as so often with a good meal – almost everything had been prepared in advance, which allowed “cheffy” to sit with everybody else and enjoy the conversation.

The salmon had been “smoked” two days earlier, the salad dressing for the starter had been made during the afternoon and put in the fridge, the Daube was made the day before and just allowed to slowly reheat, and the Citrus Parfait was from a supply that we keep in the freezer all the time because we know that this dessert is a winner, so it’s always available. In fact, the only thing I had to do was boil a few potatoes – now how hard is that?

I know I’ve said it before (and I’ll probably say it again), but the secret of French cooking is simplicity. While the French are very good at combining various flavours, unless you eat in one of the really top restaurants, you are likely to be served something that is uncomplicated but truly tasty.

I suspect we might be serving these same starters and desserts again at some point in the near future!

From The Rock to the Land of Wine

Back again in France after an eventful last few weeks on The Island. We’re spoilt brats, getting the best of both worlds again. Having enjoyed a fabulous summer of sun and blue skies on The Isle of Man, we are now enjoying a late summer here in France (while UK is suffering heavy rain and high winds!).

But, before we left, it was the forthcoming winter we were afraid of because we had a leak somewhere on the roof or in the gutters that had percolated into the bedrooms and left a trail of water and mould (don’t you just love old houses!). Our neighbours, Terry and Julie had the same problem so we shared the costs and had a scaffold erected across both houses and called in the roofing guys. And, since the scaffold was already up, we decided it was an ideal time to paint the fronts of the houses too! Now, with rain and high winds on The Island, we shall see if our leaks have been cured (or not!).

pork cracklingBefore leaving the island, Terry and Julie invited us to theirs for a splendid roast dinner. Never has so much good grub been served to so few without collapsing the table! It was delicious and, for me, brought back great memories of pork crackling and roast spuds and parsnips and oh so much more. I suspect we also did some considerable damage to Terry’s stock of wine. There seemed to be a lot of empty bottles rattling round at the end! (Reminder to myself: I need to get Julie’s recipe for the starter… a lovely little salad with a vinaigrette that was as light as fairy wings and as tasty as … well, anything you can possibly imagine!)

Postscript: Got it!!!!…. Julie’s Salmon & Prawn with Lime

tajineAlso, before leaving the island, Bruno and Jill invited us to theirs for a dinner. Bruno had prepared a great tajine for us. A tagine is a dish from North Africa that is named after the special earthenware pot in which it is cooked. The traditional pot is formed entirely of a heavy clay and consists of two parts: a base unit that is flat and circular with low sides and a large cone-shaped cover that sits on the base during cooking. The cover is designed to return all condensation to the bottom. With the cover removed, the base can be taken to the table for serving.

Typically, a tagine is a rich stew of meat, which can include beef, chicken, fish, or lamb, and most often also includes vegetables or fruit. Bruno’s was a chicken tajine and darn tasty it was too!

The only disagreeable part of the evening was that I had taken round a summer pudding and, since it was the first I had made from our home on The Isle of Man, had used a plain stainless steel dish that I wasn’t used to (as opposed to the fluted Tupperware dish we have used for summer puddings when in France). So the summer pudding looked like a splodge of red mud instead of a nicely-shaped invitation to taste its inner delights! I’m not in competition with Bruno to beat the unbelievable apple flan he brought when they came to ours, but it would have been nice to have come up with something halfway presentable! Ah well – better luck next time, Graham!

Haggis Neeps and TattiesAlso before leaving, we had a pleasant evening with my brother Steve and my sister-in-law, Jeanette. They’re great at keeping an eye on the house while we are away, not to mention forwarding the mail, looking after my car and much more. For some reason, however, the whole summer had passed by without the four of us having a quiet evening together. So, since Steve and Jeanette had been to Scotland earlier in the year and had brought us back a haggis, I decided to do my famous Haggis, Neeps and Tatties as a starter, followed by Rich Gravy Lamb and finished with a nice Fresh Fruit Salad. All very simple but wallowing in taste!

Our trip back to France was not without its unwanted “highlights”! At Charles de Gaulle airport our suitcases didn’t appear on the baggage carousel and we were obliged to seek the help of the lost luggage office. It eventually transpired that someone down below (turning the cogs of the baggage handling machinery) had switched off whatever brain cells he might have had and had decided that our cases (and a few others) should be sent back to Manchester (our transit airport). Fortunately he was stopped in time and ‘requested’ (rather firmly) to engage brain and send the cases up!

One hour later, the lady in the lost luggage office got a big hug and we got our cases back… only to find that the railway line between the airport and Paris was being repaired so we had to get a bus into central Paris and then a train out to Acheres where we live. We eventually walked through the door just a few minutes short of midnight. However, fortune smiled on us just a little bit because I had envisaged a possible delay and had made a couple of baguette sandwiches before leaving The Island, just in case we were too late to get to the restaurant … Any port in a storm!

sashimiSince being back, we have, of course, been to our “local” – Happy Sushi – where we were greeted with kisses and big smiles (makes a pleasant change from the surly faces in the airport restaurant at Manchester!). Their maki sushi (for me) and sashimi (for M-D) with sushi rice is a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach! Though we are always happy to be on The Isle of Man, we’re always glad to be back in France so we can make the occasional foray into Japanese cuisine in relaxed surroundings. (In fact, we went again a few days ago with M-D’s sister, Christine).

Mind you, it also works in reverse; while we are in France we dream of getting an “Indian fix” at The Royal India, our favourite Indian restaurant on The Isle of Man where the owner, Jose Verananickal, is both friendly and professional and the food is perfectly balanced.

Like I said at the beginning, we’re spoilt brats, getting the best of both worlds!

 

Duck, duck and the best apple flan I’ve ever eaten!

A couple of months ago, we enjoyed looking round various locations in the local “WOSAT” (Western Open Studio Art Trail) at 10 open studios featuring 46 local artists in 8 venues here on the Isle of Man. We saw some lovely work in different styles, using different techniques and materials and, during our travels, we bumped into a very talented artist called Bruno Cavellec (whose website can be seen at http://www.brunocavellec.com/ )

Walking the Dogs by Bruno CavellecFirst of all, the name Cavellec is typically Breton (from Brittany on France’s Atlantic coast). Secondly, Bruno was a really approachable guy with an easy-going manner and a contageous smile. Third, being French, he and Marie-Danielle could stop talking English for a few minutes and relax into their own language. And fourth, I fell in love with (and bought a copy of) his giclée print “Walking the Dogs” that shows Peel beach at sunset. This one is going back to France with us at the end of August and I know exactly where I shall hang it once it’s been framed.

Quite by chance, we bumped into Bruno a couple of times whilst out walking and enjoying the exceptionally sunny weather. So we thought it would be nice to get to know him better and get to meet his English wife, Jill… sounds like a perfect recipe for a “French” evening (food, wine, good conversation, more food, more wine – yawn, “Good grief is that really the time?”). So yesterday evening we shared a truly pleasant few hours together until we got to the “Good grief is that really the time?” moment!

To begin, we did what every couple of “mixed nationality” do, and swapped stories about how we met our partners. It’s not being nosey – it’s just what we do, because there’s nearly always a nice story there somewhere! Naturally, as we did that, we quaffed a few glasses of chilled Prosecco that Jill and Bruno had kindly brought with them. It’s a beautiful, light and dry Italian sparkling wine that uninitiated people like me can very easily mistake for champagne!

Bruno had told us that Jill liked duck, so what could be more natural than to start the meal with foie gras accompanied by an onion compote. Bruno was happy – he thought he was back in France! Jill was happy because it was duck! M-D was happy because she loves foie gras! And I was happy because all I had to do was open the jar!

Confit de CanardAnd, if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing, so we carried on with the duck theme and served Confit de Canard for the main course. Confit is difficult to get wrong but, for reasons still unknown, the skin of the duck didn’t brown as it should (it’s normally lovely and crisp). While it tasted just as it should, I was disappointed with the presentation. So, when in doubt, what do you do? Why, you pour another glass of wine! We managed to see off a couple of bottles of 2009 Chateau Lamothe-Vincente which lessened the blow a little!

After the cheese, we arrived at the moment of dessert and Bruno had made a gateau aux pommes – apple flan – that was truly brilliant. I asked him for the recipe which he told me was top secret, so I tied him to the chair and poured wine down his throat until he relented and you can read it here…“Double Take” Apple Flan.

I’m not usually a huge apple fan but this was honestly the best apple flan I have ever eaten. It was light, tasty, sumptuous and I immediately voted it the dessert most likely to brighten your day. Truly a masterpiece – much like Bruno’s paintings.

A pleasant evening in good company and the best apple flan I’ve ever eaten! – Can’t be all bad!

An evening with a Spanish twist

In my last post, a month ago, I mentioned that we had invited our neighbours, Terry and Julie, to join us for a meal. Well we repeated the happy experience only this time including their two children (Esme, who is 11 and Merlin, who is 7). So what do you cook when you are having what is, essentially, a family meal, and yet make it just a little bit out of the ordinary?

paellaWe decided on a paella. It’s easy and, as a diner, if you dig around a bit you can soon exclude any bits that don’t please your particular palate. And, having decided on a paella, it was natural we should think about some sort of tapas mixture as a “starter” and a nice fruity sangria to wash it all down with.

For the tapas, we simply used packs of mixed olives and peppers from the local store. We served slices of French saucisson and Spanish chorizo, also from the local supermarket. M-D made her famous tapenade which we spread on thin slices of fresh baguette and we produced two different verrines. (A verrine is a “taster” that can be can be either sweet or savoury, made by layering ingredients in a small glass.)

verrineThe verrines we made were stupidly simple. The first was tomato with fresh goat’s cheese. We placed two 400g tins of chopped tomatoes into a pan, crushed in a garlic clove and a bit of salt and freshly ground pepper, then brought it to a gentle rolling boil until all the juice had evaporated and only the pulp was left. This, we left to chill. Once cold, we placed about two teaspoons of the tomato pulp into the bottom of each glass. On top of that we crumbled about 1-1½ teaspoons of fresh goat’s cheese which we had broken up with a fork. Drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil over each and dress with chopped fresh basil – and yummy … lovely as an apperitif or, as we did, with a tapas selection.

The second verrine was crab and soft cheese. We used 2 x 170g tins of White Crab Meat and 150g Boursin Full Fat Soft Cheese with Garlic & Herbs. We drained the crab and placed the meat in a bowl, then we added a tablespoon of finely chopped onion, a tablespoon of chopped chives and a few twists of black pepper. Mix it all together then, as with the tomato, we placed about two teaspoons of the crab into the bottom of each glass. On top of that we crumbled about 1-1½ teaspoons of Boursin which we had broken up with a fork (any full fat soft cheese will work).

In total, with those ingredients, we made about 20 verrines (10 of each) so, along with the other tapas tasters, we had a good mixture to begin. (Incidentally, we cheat when we make verrines! We don’t have 20 small glasses but we sometimes buy Panna Cotta from Marks & Spencer and then wash the clear plastic containers. They are about 3″ tall and 2″ in diameter, so are perfect for this purpose!)

sangriaAll of this, of course, was washed down with several decent-sized glasses of sangria which M-D had made three days earlier (it tastes better when it’s prepared in advance). Depending on your guests’ ability to quaff the fruit of the vine, you can change these quantities to suit yourself. This time, there were just four adults but I know that both Terry and I can manage our way to the bottom of the glass without too much difficulty! So we used 3 x 750ml bottles of 14.5% red wine (a rather palitable Bordeaux – 2010 Coteaux du Languedoc called L’Ame des Schistes). The actual recipe is as follows (ingredients below are for 1 litre of red wine. For 4 people, use at least 2 bottles, i.e. 1.5 litre – quantities of fruit etc. can then be adapted accordingly). Since the fruits in particular are going to water down the sangria, the wine used should be at least 13% volume. Never use the so-called “sangria mixes” to do this recipe, since they are already watered down.

Per 1 litre of wine use…
3 oranges – the juice of one and the other two sliced and cut into wedges
2 lemons – the juice of one and the other one sliced and cut into wedges
2 tablespoons caster sugar
100ml (1 glass) sparkling water
100ml Martini Rosso

Simply pour the wine, the sparkling water, the fruit juices and the Martini into a punch bowl. Add the sugar and slices of fruit. Give it a stir, cover with cling film and store in a cool place. Stir once or twice every day. Taste before serving and add 1 or 2 tablespoons of sugar if necessary (Sangria, however, is used as table wine, so mustn’t be too sweet).

And, yes, we did manage to see our way to the bottom of the punch bowl (all except for a couple of glasses which M-D and I forced ourselves to dispose of the following day!). As if all that alcohol wasn’t enough, for desert we had ice cream with Rumtopf (which has been sitting patiently for 12 months, just waiting for this opportunity!).

All in all, a very pleasant evening!

Mad Sunday!

No, Mad Sunday has got nothing to do with my mood, or my state of mental health – it’s all about motorbikes and where we spend about six months of each year … The Isle of Man.

Isle of Man TTThe Isle of Man is only about 36 miles x 12 miles at its longest and widest points. Today, about 85,000 of us perch on this rock in the middle of the Irish Sea, and every summer we are subjected to hundreds of motorbikes racing through the streets of our towns and villages and around the island on the 37.7-mile Snaefell Mountain Course. Their average speed is over 130 mph and in places they exceed 200mph!

Tens of thousands of fans flock to the island every year to watch this spectacle. Sometimes these visitors crash into one another, sometimes they fly off cliffs, sometimes they collide with parked cars or light poles, sometimes they forget we drive on the left and sometimes they don’t just kill themselves but also the locals going about their lawful business. This has been going on since 1907. On the Isle of Man every May/June, death is business as usual.

Landing after leaping Ballaugh BridgeNever mind the visitors, the TT races themselves are extremely dangerous (over 250 rider deaths to date on this circuit). Imagine riding at over 200 mph on tiny, narrow, twisting streets, roads and lanes flanked by stone walls and buildings, dodging manhole covers and stray dogs! Some, including a few former competitors, have called for the race to be banned, but for the most part the riders love the TT. They know it’s dangerous, but they also know it’s the absolute pinnacle of motorcycle racing. It’s the ultimate, and if you’re good enough – and you’re brave enough – then you go for it, regardless of the risks. Personal responsibility and the love of speed triumph the desire for safety here.

As current record-holder John McGuinness said, “People seeking to ban the TT are a load of do-gooders … We all know and accept the risks. Maybe we’re a bunch of hard-nosed bastards.”

As for us Manx islanders, we’re generally supportive. While some understandably complain about road closures, litter, irritating spectators and the death toll, others realize the race is a part of our tradition (and essential to the local economy). Plus, though we may not always admit it, we enjoy the spectacle too. They’ve been doing it this long. Why stop now?

We now live in a world where people file lawsuits over spilled coffee and put helmets and knee pads on their kids during playtime. If you ask me, it wouldn’t hurt if we had more places like the Isle of Man where insanity is a cherished tradition.

200mph past the housesOh yeah – I almost forgot about “Mad Sunday.” One day every year at the TT, they open up the 37 mile course to the public. That means anyone on a motor bike can try his or her luck trying to match the professionals for speed (and insanity!). Imagine, if you can, a Formula 1 or NASCAR event where they let 50,000+ fans onto the track, charging around in whatever vehicle they came in. In recent years, to try and reduce the carnage (and maybe also to give the visitors even more thrills!) the roads have been made one-way for about 8 miles over the mountain section of the course. Big, powerful road bikes hitting their top speeds of 170mph-180mph is not unusual on this section.

Today is Mad Sunday and it looks like we’ve scraped by without a mortality! As I have been typing this post, over 1,000 bikes have roared past my window, on their way home having enjoyed ‘a day at the races’. So it’s Mad Sunday over with for another year… lots of happy campers and still some empty beds in Accident and Emergency – doesn’t get much better than that!

Food?

Oh yes, food!

Trio of ScallopsLast Saturday evening, we invited our neighbours, Terry and Julie plus Dominic and Kate from over the road for a meal. We decided to mix the best of the Isle of Man with the best of France (as you do!) so (after polishing off a couple of bottles of Champagne with the aperitif) we started the meal with one of our favourites – beautiful fresh Manx scallops, and prepared the excellent Trio of Scallops washed down with an amazing 2007 Château de la. Gardine – a white Chateauneuf du Pape.

We followed this up with a whole Leg of Lamb in Rich Gravy which I have mentioned before on this blog (March 2013). I was less satisfied with the sauce this time, still not being totally used to the oven here in Peel. Nevertheless, it seemed to work ok and fortunately we had a couple of bottles of the matching 2007 Château de la. Gardine – only this time the more typical red Chateauneuf du Pape. Unfortunately, we only had two bottles so, as we descended on the cheese, I opened the reserve bottle – a 2005 Boisrenard – also a good Chateauneuf du Pape.

Raspberry and Caramel CrunchAs we always do, we served the meal French style (dessert last) and I dug around in M-D’s wine cooler and came up with a really nice bottle of 2008 Côtes de Bergerac. The Côtes de Bergerac is a deeply smooth sweet white wine that complimented our Raspberry and Caramel Crunch (better known in France as Gratin Framboises au Speculoos) superbly.

So with six satisfied diners, I found myself asking, was it the food or was it the wine? Two bottles of Champagne with the apperitif, a bottle of white Chateauneuf du Pape with the starter course, three bottles of red Chateauneuf du Pape with the main course and the cheese. A bottle of Côtes de Bergerac with the desert, and then several glasses of Sheridan Coffee Layered Liqueur. Oh dear, did we overdo it again?

Maybe we should have christened it “Mad Saturday”! After all, as John McGuinness said, “… We all know and accept the risks…”.

 

Back on “The Rock” and Jumbo Prawn Stir Fry beckons!

We got back on “The Rock” (The Isle of Man) three weeks ago (mid April) and will stay here now until mid-August. We’ve been lucky so far, since the weather has been kind and we’ve enjoyed regular walks along the sea front, around Peel castle and onto the harbour to watch the seals steal the fish off the lines of the fishermen!Peel Isle of Man

We enjoyed the company of M-D’s grandchildren (Clémence and Eléonore) for ten days and later M-D’s daughter (Muriel) came over for a few days and then took them back to France. Naturally, we did all the tourist stuff with them (Steam Train etc) but we also took them to one of our favourite local restaurants, The Royal India Restaurant. In fact, we took the girls twice (by unanimous demand!)

It might sound a bit strange to choose a small (about 30 covers) Indian restaurant for a holiday treat but the food is so good and tasty that it’s difficult to resist. In fact, I just got back from there about two hours ago after another visit with just Marie-Danielle and myself (Dingri Methi for me and Cafrial for M-D… yummmm!). Our French guests loved the food because, while there are many arabic restaurants in France, there are very few true Indian restaurants so, for them, it was a voyage of discovery and having really first class Indian cuisine so easily available (it’s only about 250 metres from where we live) is an added bonus. Eléonore (aged 10) voted the Chicken Biryani her favourite, giving it 21 out of 20! I had a fiery Madras curry that should have carried a government health warning (or at least been served with an optional fire extinguisher)!

We also visited Jade Harbour, a Chinese restaurant that has always been most pleasant. Sadly, our regular waiter and waitress weren’t there and the service was not up to standard. Whilst the food was good, the slow and erratic service somewhat spoiled the evening.

Isle of Man RailwayHowever, one place that never fails to please is Station Hotel in Port Erin. Yes, it’s just a pub, but their food is hot and fresh and served with a big smile. It’s mighty convenient if you arrive in Port Erin by train since it is just across the road from the little railway station (often described as the most beautiful building in the village) where the famous Manx Steam Train terminates.

There’s nothing wrong with pub grub as long as it’s good pub grub! If it’s plentiful, freshly cooked, tasty, hot and served by people who appear to be happy that you are there, then a meal in a pub with a nice glass of beer can be one of the great pleasures of life, just as much as an intimate evening in a top class restaurant.

Basking SharkAs we were out walking the other day, we met one of the local “characters” – a lady by the name of Pauline who, it turns out, is involved in the monitoring of Basking Sharks, which are often found in the plankton-rich waters around the Isle of Man. The Basking Shark is the second biggest fish in the world (second only to the Whale Shark) but it is truly an endangered species. It is a slow moving filter feeder that has a greatly enlarged mouth and highly developed gill rakers. These enormous fish have been measured up to 12.27 metres (40.3 ft), and weighing an estimated 19 tonnes, yet these gentle giants are not aggressive and are harmless to people.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, Pauline encouraged us to go see a film that was being shown yesterday evening at the local “Centenary Centre” which revolved around the Basking Shark, but also covered lots of other wildlife on this curious island. Why do I say curious? Because, amongst other things, we discovered that The Isle of Man has the largest Wallaby poulation outside of Australia! Since they have no natural preditors here and do no damage to crops or hedges, the wallabies thrive in the hills yet it seems that very few people even know they are there (including me until last night!).

I started off writing this post with the intention of mentioning a stir fry that we often do (and did while the grandchildren were here)… but I seem to have sidetracked myself! So – Jumbo Prawn Stir Fry… this is a recipe that is very, very simple and doesn’t take much looking after. I know that, traditionally, stir-fries are cooked quickly over a very high heat but this one is much slower over a low heat! It’s a mixture of vegetables and King Prawn, with a good splash of Vegetarian Stir-Fry Sauce. You can mix-and-match the vegetables to suit yourself but I personally use two onions, a very small cabbage (or half of a larger one), two carrots, a handful of fresh peas, a handful of mushrooms, a tin of beansprouts and a tin of bamboo shoots. But the recipe is very versatile because you can add small pieces of broccoli, water chestnuts, miniature sweetcorns, sliced bell peppers, spring onions, mange tout (snow peas)… almost anything you fancy, in fact!

Peel and slice the onions, chuck them in the wok with a tablespoon of goose fat and cook them very gently to soften. Meanwhile, cut the thick stems out of the cabbage, leaving just the leaves, roughly tear these and add them to the work. It may seem that you have a lot but they shrink and reduce quite drastically. Peel the carrots and Julienne them (cut into long thin strips, similar to matchsticks) then toss those into the wok. Add a good splash (4-5 tablespoons) of Vegetarian Stir-Fry Sauce (I use one called Lee Kum Kee, but it can be any stir-fry sauce that takes your fancy). I often add a splash of light Soy Sauce as well – but that’s just a personal preference. Cook this mixture, stirring frequently, over a low heat for about 15 minutes to soften the vegetables.

Check the seasoning and adjust if necessary. Thinly slice the mushrooms and add to the mix. Drain the beansprouts and bamboo shoots and add these to the wok, along with the peas. Stir and cook for a further five minutes. Now add your Jumbo King Pawns and increase the heat. Turn the mixture regularly and watch as the prawns change colour from translucent grey to whitish-pink. These should be cooked for about 4-5 minutes (no more), then serve your stir-fry and enjoy! It’s a recipe that’s simple and VERY tasty and it has the advantage that you can choose your own preferred vegetables and even your own preferred seafood (we’ve done this recipe using Queen Scallops before now, and very tasty it is too!). Serve with a nice, crisp white or rosé wine and you’ll think you’re in heaven!

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