Tag Archives: soup

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!

Salads, Seafood, Soup

Salad Days

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I got thinking about seafood today. That’s my problem … I see food and I eat it! And I reminded myself of an outstanding starter I did a while back. You can read all about it at Prawn Perfection. The problem is that I wanted to do it for my brother and my sister-in-law when we go back to the Isle of Man (they’re great at looking after the house for us, and a meal together to say ‘thank you’ is the least we can do).

Salade GourmandeSadly, I remembered that Jeanette is allergic to prawns (last time she ate them, apparently she glowed like a traffic light for days after) so I have to come up with something a bit different. And then I remembered Salade des Gourmets which is seriously one of the best starters of all time. In fact, we’re going to our favourite restaurant tomorrow evening (La Petite Rôtisserie – 65, chemin de Halage, 95610 Eragny, France) and without doubt I’ll be tempted…

Life in France ticks along as usual. It’s no more exotic than anywhere else, but I do confess to enjoying the food culture. Mind you, it doesn’t always work that way. Last weekend, M-D and I went into Paris to meet up with a couple of her cousins and their partners. We arranged to meet at a restaurant called “Le Dalou” in Place de la Nation and have lunch there. This turned out to be less than average. Those of us who had steaks found them overcooked (not normally a fault in France) and my French Onion Soup was luke warm and tasteless. Probably we could have lived with that if the bill hadn’t arrived totalling 350 euros – that’s 50 euros each ($70 or £45). We left declaring “never again” for that particular establishment.

Hopefully tomorrow night will be different. I’ll keep you informed!