Wow, what a great day - all of a sudden, summer has arrived, and the bbq beckons! Well, that is unless, like me, it needs a major cleanout as it hasnt been used all winter and it has been so wet this spring that only the truly deranged would have attempted to cook outdoors! Here are a few tips and tricks to make your BBQ successful - exerpts from my Tips and Tricks Guide that accompanies our BBQ Workshop...
How to create the perfect marinade for BBQing food
Different tastes that must be balanced to achieve a really good marinade:
sweet, - this can be achieved using honey or fruit juice – sugar is not a great option unless you don’t have an alternative – it is too non-subtle!
sour, - from acid – so lemon, lime, vinegar etc
bitter, closely associated with sour for many people, coffee, plain chocolate, beer etc
salty – obviously from salt or its derivatives…
umami has been added in recent decades – this is about a savoury flavour such as soya, ketchup etc – very important for this to be blended into BBQ flavours!...
For most dishes, you also need to add in some ‘piquancy’ in the form of pepper (either chilli pepper or black peppercorns), paprika (either smoked or unsmoked) and/or herbs and spices to add that unique set of flavours. You need to be careful not to over-complicate matters when it comes to this lot of tastes – a little can go a long way!
Think about your bbq as a total taste experience, but adding in some simple flavours to give your taste buds a break! The breaks can be provided by potatoes, breads, even simple salads such as couscous or green salads will give a contrast to the stronger more pungent flavours
Recipes and guidelines for BBQ food… just a few options to add zing to plain old chicken breasts - I would recommend that you try and get the best chicken you can afford - cheap efforts often have water added, so you end up with an unpleasant texture to the finished dish.
Mediterranean Citrus Marinade – this will work for chicken or fish…
For 4 breasts of chicken…
o 3 tablespoons of olive oil (one that doesn’t have too strong a taste – doesn’t have to be extra virgin)
o rind and juice of one large lemon or two small ones
o 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
o 1 teaspoon of runny honey
o 3 large sprigs of thyme – you could also use oregano or a smaller quantity of rosemary
o Sea salt and black pepper to season)
Combine thoroughly. Cut each chicken breast into three-four strips and then coat the whole lot with the marinade for about 15 minutes.
Thai-style chicken marinade
o Juice and rind of one lime
o 1 inch knob of ginger, finely chopped
o 1 stick of lemongrass, outer leaves removed and inner core finely chopped
o 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
o 2 tablespoons of sesame oil
o 1 teaspoon of runny honey
o fresh coriander – about a tablespoon finely chopped
o 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds (optional)
Mix all the marinade ingredients together and then mix with strips of chicken; leave to marinade for 15 minutes minimum.
Sticky tomato and fennel marinade
o Five tablespoons of good tomato sauce
o 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire or other tangy sauce
o some drops of Tabasco or fresh chillies (this depends on how hot you like your food!)
o Fennel seeds – about a teaspoon, crushed with a mortar/pestle
o Tablespoon of olive oil
o 2 garlic cloves
o salt and pepper
o Some fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped
Mix all the marinade ingredients together and then mix with strips of chicken; leave to marinade for 15 minutes minimum
Enjoy - get in touch if you would like more ideas for that BBQ, and which wines to match with the different tastes!
Showing posts with label food styles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food styles. Show all posts
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Ode to a Quail (or two!)
Never having cooked quail before, as they are rarely available round my area, I was delighted to spot them in Cavistons in Glasthule, where I visited this morning. In case you dont know them, Cavistons is a family run business, with some of the best fresh produce that you can get in all of Dublin - great fish and meat, wonderful cheeses and fresh vegetables, and a fine array of artisan foods. However, back to the quail! While not cheap food, you could do them as a starter, thus only serving one per person - that way it would work out at €3.50 each, which isnt an outrageous price by any means. Two for a main course is about a nice generous amount!
I love the way that Ho Sen (Vietnamese restaurant in Temple Bar) do them, so we set out to recreate them along the same lines. Our marinade was created from garlic,
ginger, lemongrass, lime leaves, lime juice, chillies, schezuan peppers, sesame oil and peanut oil and a little honey. We left that to sit for a while mixed through the partly boned quails (we allowed two per person as a main course). With part-boned quail, it is much easier to cook them, as you have a fairly even surface to cook, rather than trying to roast the whole bird.
ginger, lemongrass, lime leaves, lime juice, chillies, schezuan peppers, sesame oil and peanut oil and a little honey. We left that to sit for a while mixed through the partly boned quails (we allowed two per person as a main course). With part-boned quail, it is much easier to cook them, as you have a fairly even surface to cook, rather than trying to roast the whole bird.I checked with a few online recipes as to how long they need to be cooked properly (I dont know if they fall into the chicken category of 'must be fully cooked' or the duck category of ' anyway you want to cook from rare to well-done'). I still dont know, but concluded that when in doubt, make sure the food is safe to eat, so I erred on the side of caution and went with the option of 5 minutes on each side, rather than one of the options which was a total of 5 minutes!
After leaving the marinade on the quail for about 20 minutes, I cooked them by browning them on each side for about 2 minutes each side, then putting them into a preheated oven for about 5 minutes, then for the last minute, doing them on dual grill and oven setting. They turned out brilliantly! Succulent, yet crispy-skinned, and the flavours from the marinade came through beautifully without overpowering the quail taste. We served them with wok-fried veggies and some brown rice and had them with some really nice Australian Chardonnay - the Stonier Reserve 2004, which is a far cry from the still-lingering image of over-oaked Aussie Chard!If anyone would like the recipe in full, get in touch with us and I'll send on the details to you! You can send the mail to info@thetastingroom.ie
Friday, January 30, 2009
The Clatter of Forks and Spoons...
I asked for and got a copy of Richard Corrigan's latest cookbook 'The Clatter of Forks and Spoons' for Christmas. I had bought it for someone else as a pressie, and then realised that I wanted my own copy! Apart from the great recipes that I want to try out, I've been reading the autobiographical bits that intersperse each of the chapters. In a weird way, his upbringing and mine have many things in common. His mother was brought up in Conamara in West Galway, and she moved to Co Meath as part of the experiment with transplanting families from the West to parts of Meath which took place in the 1950s and 1960s, resulting in some strange juxtapositions of cultures.
My grandparents on my mother's side of the family also moved during the early days and settled probably only about 5 or 6 miles away from Richard's family. My parents (and we children of course!) moved to the nearby town of Trim via a 9 month stay with the grandparents in 1970. We used to visit The Kirwan Arms in Athboy for a Sunday lunch treat for a number of years - it isnt clear from Richard's book if he was in the kitchens there during the early to mid 70s, but my father could never resist the brown windsor soup (I couldnt see the attraction of a consomme myself - still cant for that matter!).
His book is full of stories of how life was in his part of Meath in those days, and many of the stories resonate with my visits to my grandparents for holidays, as they were also smallholders. I think that Richard fared better on the food front though - I cant remember any spectacularly interesting meals being served up to me in those days. I do remember the quality of the water fetched from the local well, which was used for drinking and cooking (the house well water not being the most potable!); it was fantastic water! And I remember the lambing season when we would end up minding the occasional orphan lamb indoors at the range for a few weeks - great excitement all round for that.
Of course, we also visited the relations in Conamara - mainly on my father's side of the family - again during the 60s and 70s, during the long summer holidays (my parents being teachers fared well on the holiday front!). I still remember learning to milk a cow, feed chickens and watch with horror when my aunt killed a chicken in honour of our visit! Richard mentions the rosary being said each night in his home - I remember the same ritual in my aunt's house - I can still feel the hard surface of the ground where we knelt, while my aunt would lead the rosary for everyone in the house - adults and children and any visitor who was in the house come 10 o'clock! And all in Irish of course - no English spoken there unless some of the overseas cousins from the UK were over for their summer visits!
In those days, there was a weekly van which was the main grocery shop for the village, and a butchers called once a week, and fish could be bought straight from the boot of the fisherman's car. Everyone grew their own veg and had their own eggs from the 'sicini' (chickens), so the carrots were pulled from the garden and an hour later we were eating them for our dinner - no al dente cooking in those days!
My grandparents on my mother's side of the family also moved during the early days and settled probably only about 5 or 6 miles away from Richard's family. My parents (and we children of course!) moved to the nearby town of Trim via a 9 month stay with the grandparents in 1970. We used to visit The Kirwan Arms in Athboy for a Sunday lunch treat for a number of years - it isnt clear from Richard's book if he was in the kitchens there during the early to mid 70s, but my father could never resist the brown windsor soup (I couldnt see the attraction of a consomme myself - still cant for that matter!).
His book is full of stories of how life was in his part of Meath in those days, and many of the stories resonate with my visits to my grandparents for holidays, as they were also smallholders. I think that Richard fared better on the food front though - I cant remember any spectacularly interesting meals being served up to me in those days. I do remember the quality of the water fetched from the local well, which was used for drinking and cooking (the house well water not being the most potable!); it was fantastic water! And I remember the lambing season when we would end up minding the occasional orphan lamb indoors at the range for a few weeks - great excitement all round for that.
Of course, we also visited the relations in Conamara - mainly on my father's side of the family - again during the 60s and 70s, during the long summer holidays (my parents being teachers fared well on the holiday front!). I still remember learning to milk a cow, feed chickens and watch with horror when my aunt killed a chicken in honour of our visit! Richard mentions the rosary being said each night in his home - I remember the same ritual in my aunt's house - I can still feel the hard surface of the ground where we knelt, while my aunt would lead the rosary for everyone in the house - adults and children and any visitor who was in the house come 10 o'clock! And all in Irish of course - no English spoken there unless some of the overseas cousins from the UK were over for their summer visits!
In those days, there was a weekly van which was the main grocery shop for the village, and a butchers called once a week, and fish could be bought straight from the boot of the fisherman's car. Everyone grew their own veg and had their own eggs from the 'sicini' (chickens), so the carrots were pulled from the garden and an hour later we were eating them for our dinner - no al dente cooking in those days!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
January mid-week supper inspiration...
Yesterday was a very busy day - the first day back syndrome (yes we do take a long break in Ireland around Christmas/New Year!). I knew I would be at a meeting that could stretch right into the evening, so dinner had to be flexible and quick. So, stir fry beckoned as the right way to go. This recipe can be made with almost any meat, but I did it with turkey breast, as I hadnt had turkey at any time over the festive season! It took a total of 20 minutes from start to finish - and the longest time was for the brown rice to cook.
For each large portion of turkey breast (or chicken, pork, lamb or beef) you need approximately
1/4 teaspoon of chilli flakes (less or more according to how hot you want the dish!)
1/2 teaspoon of black beans (dont overdo the black beans as it can overpower the other flavours)
1 clove of garlic and
equal quantities of root ginger, both finely chopped
sesame oil
soya sauce (I use Tamari, rather than traditional makes as it is gluten free)
juice of half lemon
teaspoon of cornflour or other thickening agent (Kuzu is great) dissolved in water
Slice the turkey or other meat into bite-sized portions while the wok is heating
Add some oil (approx a tablespoon) - preferably groundnut or sunflower oil - to the wok
When smoking, add the turkey to the oil and stir fry for approximately 1 minute until the turkey pieces are almost cooked through.
Add the black bean and chilli flakes, then almost immediately add the garlic and ginger.
Cook for about 10 seconds, then add a dash of sesame and soya.
Add the lemon juice and then the cornflour mix. Cook for a minute and its done!
Serve with lots of stir-fried vegetables - keep them crunchy! and brown basmati rice.
Enjoy and remember that pretty much all of the ingredients are health-giving. Ginger, garlic, chillies, black beans, brown rice, - lots of goodness - and even some tryptophan in the turkey to help you sleep after a long day!
I also had a glass of wine with this - for once I went away from white-wines-with-Asian theme and plumped for a Southern Rhone Gigondas, packing a fairly powerful punch, but somehow it all worked together.
For each large portion of turkey breast (or chicken, pork, lamb or beef) you need approximately
1/4 teaspoon of chilli flakes (less or more according to how hot you want the dish!)
1/2 teaspoon of black beans (dont overdo the black beans as it can overpower the other flavours)
1 clove of garlic and
equal quantities of root ginger, both finely chopped
sesame oil
soya sauce (I use Tamari, rather than traditional makes as it is gluten free)
juice of half lemon
teaspoon of cornflour or other thickening agent (Kuzu is great) dissolved in water
Slice the turkey or other meat into bite-sized portions while the wok is heating
Add some oil (approx a tablespoon) - preferably groundnut or sunflower oil - to the wok
When smoking, add the turkey to the oil and stir fry for approximately 1 minute until the turkey pieces are almost cooked through.
Add the black bean and chilli flakes, then almost immediately add the garlic and ginger.
Cook for about 10 seconds, then add a dash of sesame and soya.
Add the lemon juice and then the cornflour mix. Cook for a minute and its done!
Serve with lots of stir-fried vegetables - keep them crunchy! and brown basmati rice.
Enjoy and remember that pretty much all of the ingredients are health-giving. Ginger, garlic, chillies, black beans, brown rice, - lots of goodness - and even some tryptophan in the turkey to help you sleep after a long day!
I also had a glass of wine with this - for once I went away from white-wines-with-Asian theme and plumped for a Southern Rhone Gigondas, packing a fairly powerful punch, but somehow it all worked together.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Lamb meat-balls with tomato, roast peppers and herby dip
I was experimenting with flavours last week, for once trying to prepare a dish that would match a wine, rather than the other way around. The wine in question was a St Emilion Grand Cru, one of the wines that we are working with our wine importing partners to market and showcase. I decided that lamb would work well, with a tomato and herb-based dip to go with some lamb meatballs. Due to the higher fat content in lamb, I thought it would work better to reheat than beef meatballs, and I wanted to play with the tastes in the dip to match. I roasted some red and yellow peppers in the oven - 20 minutes max, and then didnt even try and remove the skin afterwards. In the meantime, I chopped up a large clove of garlic, and softened it in some warm olive oil. I then hunted in the garden for some herbs and found some thyme, oregano and mint - mostly mint! I added this to the olive oil and garlic mix. I then blitzed the peppers and herb mix in the food processor and put them back onto the heat once they were fairly well blitzed. I then added about 200ml of tomato passata and about a glass of red wine and a generous squeeze of lemon juice (you have to taste it at this stage to know how much lemon juice to add, as it all depends on the sweetness of the peppers and the style of red wine. Finally, I seasoned it fairly generously with salt and black pepper. For the lamb meatballs: Cook off finely chopped onion (about half a small onion for a kilo of lamb mince and garlic - and some chilli if you are so inclined!. Then when that has cooled, add into lamb mince, salt and pepper - you can then form either small meatballs or larger kofti shaped ones - or even burger size if you want... Fry them in olive oil until browned and then finish off in the oven - 5 minutes for the smaller ones, up to 10 if you have burger size. As this dish went down so well, I will have to do it again, paying more attention to the quantities, and publish it on the website as a proper recipe... And it worked really well with the St Emilion - great dish for a supper party as it reheats wonderfully well...
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Rabbit food!
I have been struggling for a while now to get a recipe to cook rabbit, which looks and tastes good. One recipe tasted great (lots of red wine and slow cooking), but looked unappetising - mainly a dull grey colour! The other recipe - loosely based on something someone had eaten in Spain - was incredibly tough (a quick cook recipe) and the rabbit tasted extremely gamey! A friend - Charlotte - who is french, suggested the following, which she has cooked a number of times and tells me tastes and looks delicious...
"One of my favorite dishes in the world is lapin a la moutarde it is yummy. Basically a chopped rabbit cooked in a stew dish with 1 cup water, once cooked slowly for 1-2 hours add a 50/50 mixture of French mustard and crème fraiche about 250ml of each and mushrooms (thinly sliced). You can have it with rice it is yummy the rabbit flakes off (can do same dish with chicken).We had it a few weeks ago with irish wild rabbit (cavistons I think) it did not taste too gamey."
So, there you go - I'll be trying it out one of the days, but in the meantime, if you want to try it, take a photo of the end result and send it to me with your verdict!
This is what it is supposed to look like...
"One of my favorite dishes in the world is lapin a la moutarde it is yummy. Basically a chopped rabbit cooked in a stew dish with 1 cup water, once cooked slowly for 1-2 hours add a 50/50 mixture of French mustard and crème fraiche about 250ml of each and mushrooms (thinly sliced). You can have it with rice it is yummy the rabbit flakes off (can do same dish with chicken).We had it a few weeks ago with irish wild rabbit (cavistons I think) it did not taste too gamey."
So, there you go - I'll be trying it out one of the days, but in the meantime, if you want to try it, take a photo of the end result and send it to me with your verdict!
This is what it is supposed to look like...
Sunday, November 9, 2008
November lunch for 7 - including a vegetarian!
I was planning a lunch for a group of wine-tasters recently, when I realised that one of them is a vegetarian (I always check with people these days). This put a different perspective on lunch, as up to that point, I was planning a warming lamb casserole with Indian spices and flavours, which I had planned to prepare the day before. I know that a lot of vegetarians hate the idea that they are left with the 'side dishes' while everyone else scoffs down the dish that is the centre-piece of lunch, so I had to rethink my approach. It was made even more complicated by the fact that said vegetarian has also been diagnosed with wheat intolerance. So, I decided that a series of 'help yourself' dishes would work well - that way each dish would be interesting in itself, and the vegetarian luncher could simply not eat the meat dish. It worked out extremely well! I included the following:
Roasted squash (yes, more of the wonderful Crown Prince!), with lots of rocket, roasted pine nuts, little chunks of goats cheese, pink peppercorns and dressed with a mix of olive oil, lemon juice and cider vinegar. Because this dish is quite robust and filling, I reckoned that the vegetarian would get enough to eat! I hadnt reckoned on it going down as well as it did for the carnivores around the table, so it was just as well that I had hedged my bets with some 'meaty' aubergine as well! Everyone commented on how delicious the squash was - most people saying that they are sick of butternut squash at this stage, so something different and more interesting in taste was great. I forgot to take a photo of it, but I will the next time I make it and post the photo to my blog.
Tomato salad - I used the last of my home-grown toms, and the rest of them were bought at the market, so they tasted delicious! I added some red onion, some long red pepper slices and some basil, then drizzled some olive oil on top.
I made some tztaziki, and bought some really good hummus from Lilliput Stores in Stoneybatter, and I made some flatbreads with spelt flour. I also roasted some aubergine that morning.
Last, but not least, I roasted some lamb in the oven - fillet of lamb off the leg, which had marinated in garlic, mint, olive oil and thyme for a while beforehand. Unfortunately, while concentrating on making the flatbreads, I left the lamb in the oven for about ten minutes too long, so it was more done that I would have liked, but otherwise it was delicious!
We had a lovely meal out of all this - everyone just helped themselves to the various dishes and I dont think that anyone else realised that one of the guests was a vegetarian at all! And just about everything we ate was healthy - lots of organic vegetables, healthy fats, dips made from healthy ingredients (hummus with chickpeas and tztazaki from yoghurt, cucumber, garlic and mint), organic lamb, organic spelt flour, etc...
To drink with the food, we had a French Syrah Les Grands Augustins from Tardieu Laurent in the Vin de Pays d'Oc, which complemented the food beautifully!
Let me know if you would like any of these recipes, I would be delighted to send further details to you... The whole meal took about an hour and a half to prepare, so a great option for a relaxed Sunday lunch maybe followed with some more cheese and fruit to round it off...
Roasted squash (yes, more of the wonderful Crown Prince!), with lots of rocket, roasted pine nuts, little chunks of goats cheese, pink peppercorns and dressed with a mix of olive oil, lemon juice and cider vinegar. Because this dish is quite robust and filling, I reckoned that the vegetarian would get enough to eat! I hadnt reckoned on it going down as well as it did for the carnivores around the table, so it was just as well that I had hedged my bets with some 'meaty' aubergine as well! Everyone commented on how delicious the squash was - most people saying that they are sick of butternut squash at this stage, so something different and more interesting in taste was great. I forgot to take a photo of it, but I will the next time I make it and post the photo to my blog.
Tomato salad - I used the last of my home-grown toms, and the rest of them were bought at the market, so they tasted delicious! I added some red onion, some long red pepper slices and some basil, then drizzled some olive oil on top.
I made some tztaziki, and bought some really good hummus from Lilliput Stores in Stoneybatter, and I made some flatbreads with spelt flour. I also roasted some aubergine that morning.
Last, but not least, I roasted some lamb in the oven - fillet of lamb off the leg, which had marinated in garlic, mint, olive oil and thyme for a while beforehand. Unfortunately, while concentrating on making the flatbreads, I left the lamb in the oven for about ten minutes too long, so it was more done that I would have liked, but otherwise it was delicious!
We had a lovely meal out of all this - everyone just helped themselves to the various dishes and I dont think that anyone else realised that one of the guests was a vegetarian at all! And just about everything we ate was healthy - lots of organic vegetables, healthy fats, dips made from healthy ingredients (hummus with chickpeas and tztazaki from yoghurt, cucumber, garlic and mint), organic lamb, organic spelt flour, etc...
To drink with the food, we had a French Syrah Les Grands Augustins from Tardieu Laurent in the Vin de Pays d'Oc, which complemented the food beautifully!
Let me know if you would like any of these recipes, I would be delighted to send further details to you... The whole meal took about an hour and a half to prepare, so a great option for a relaxed Sunday lunch maybe followed with some more cheese and fruit to round it off...
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Post party review...
All over now, party girl has departed for a few days to recouperate in West Cork, and the rest of us are still in recovery mode. Despite the weather being pretty inclement, it all went off extremely well, everyone had a great time and the party atmosphere lasted four days. Photos will appear soon, when I've had the chance to reduce them for the web, but all in all, the advance planning paid off. I decided to cook something from a new cookery book (A year in my kitchen by Skye Gyngell) which was an Asian inspired lamb and prune slow-cooked dish, in which the flavours really appealed to me - and as it turned out, they appealed to all the guests as well. Someone pointed out to me that it really isnt a great idea to try a new dish for the first time for 60 people (thank you Iarlaith!), and normally I would heartily concur with that. However, I had used similar techniques many times before, and couldnt resist trying it out. The wines went down a treat as well (a Macon Vinzelles from Burgundy and a red Cotes du Rhone), the entertainment was a piano player extraordinaire, who electrified the party with his playing and singing (he also I suspect electrified half the street at times, and had to be toned down later on in the evening!). Despite my misgivings about how 60 people would fit into the house, there was no great problem at all, it was just nicely packed, encouraging people to mingle and talk... an aunt of ours made the suggestion that we should make it an annual event (not likely to happen) and my now 50 year old sister is starting to look at ideas for my equivalent celebrations in two years time...
Friday, August 1, 2008
Ordering at French restaurants
Things to watch out for when ordering food in French restaurants...
If you are not travelling with someone well-versed in the type of food on French menus – bring a dictionary or travel guide book with you. We didnt remember it a few times with some interesting results! The French are well-renowned for their love of offal, so if you are anything other than adventurous about the innards of various animals, then avoid things like ‘rognons’ – kidneys or ‘nois de Riz’ – sweetbreads, while foie is used not just for foie gras, but for all liver dishes`- this is before you get to gras-double which is tripe... You have been warned! We ended up ordering rognons de veau, and nois de Riz de veau – not realising what they were. One of us even ordered foie gras and the nois de Riz at the same lunch, and the foie gras was really lightly cooked, so a lot of slimy looking and tasting food was presented to us! Then you can end up thinking that things are more complicated than they actually are – ciboulette is chives, faux-filet is sirloin and steac-hache is minced meat...
After some experimentation with different style restaurants, our strong preference was for the simpler style of French cooking found in inexpensive bistro type places - a lot of the 'gastronomique' food was very complicated, and over-accessorised! As someone said to us at one of the visits to a chateau - they dont give you enough of what you order and insist on giving you tid-bits of things that you havent ordered - that says it all really! We really enjoyed our local creperie in Vertheuil - they saved our hungry tummies more than once with great crepes - check them out at http://www.le-v-en-vertheuil.com/ as they also do Chambres d'Hotes (ask for Patrick or Bernard). Ther was also a great seafood restaurant in Granville called La Citadelle - a photo of their fruits de mer will be published shortly - worth a trip to France for this alone! Again, though, bring the guide-book for names of both fish and shell-fish - otherwise it is a total lottery as to what you get (pardon the pun - Lot was one of those fish we had trouble identifying!)
If you are not travelling with someone well-versed in the type of food on French menus – bring a dictionary or travel guide book with you. We didnt remember it a few times with some interesting results! The French are well-renowned for their love of offal, so if you are anything other than adventurous about the innards of various animals, then avoid things like ‘rognons’ – kidneys or ‘nois de Riz’ – sweetbreads, while foie is used not just for foie gras, but for all liver dishes`- this is before you get to gras-double which is tripe... You have been warned! We ended up ordering rognons de veau, and nois de Riz de veau – not realising what they were. One of us even ordered foie gras and the nois de Riz at the same lunch, and the foie gras was really lightly cooked, so a lot of slimy looking and tasting food was presented to us! Then you can end up thinking that things are more complicated than they actually are – ciboulette is chives, faux-filet is sirloin and steac-hache is minced meat...
After some experimentation with different style restaurants, our strong preference was for the simpler style of French cooking found in inexpensive bistro type places - a lot of the 'gastronomique' food was very complicated, and over-accessorised! As someone said to us at one of the visits to a chateau - they dont give you enough of what you order and insist on giving you tid-bits of things that you havent ordered - that says it all really! We really enjoyed our local creperie in Vertheuil - they saved our hungry tummies more than once with great crepes - check them out at http://www.le-v-en-vertheuil.com/ as they also do Chambres d'Hotes (ask for Patrick or Bernard). Ther was also a great seafood restaurant in Granville called La Citadelle - a photo of their fruits de mer will be published shortly - worth a trip to France for this alone! Again, though, bring the guide-book for names of both fish and shell-fish - otherwise it is a total lottery as to what you get (pardon the pun - Lot was one of those fish we had trouble identifying!)
French wine trip - part 1 - Tuesday 22nd July 2008
This is being written sitting outside in the garden of the small house – La Maison Bleu – that we have rented for the week. It is in a very small French village in the Medoc – part of the Bordeaux wine region – where the sound of cock-a-doodle doos ring out through the countryside from about 5am – frequently accompanied by the sounds of the local church bells, and more infrequently by the sound of dogs barking. At this time of the day – about 5.30pm, the sounds have been replaced by the many wasps and bees busily forraging in the climbing plants around the garden.
We arrived here on Saturday evening, somewhat later than originally planned – take it from me, the ferry from Royan across to the north-end of the Medoc, is not for the impatient or the faint-hearted! Be warned – you could face a three hour delay with the queue for the ferry wending its way backwards through Royan, with almost nowhere to even buy some water. We took an early decision and retraced our steps back to Bordeaux and around by the estuary – somewhat reminiscent of arriving at Tarbert for the ferry across to Killimor only to discover that the ferry would be delayed by a couple of hours and then having to detour into Limerick – at rush hour on a Friday on a bank-holiday weekend.
The early part of our trip wasnt without incident of the boating variety either. We arrived at Rosslare in good time to board the Oscar Wilde for our 17 hour trip from Wexford to Cherbourg. We were due to arrive in France early in the day to give us loads of time to explore the wine shops around the port, buy a few wines to try out during our trip, and then return on the way home to purchase a few more bottles of the ones we had liked most. However, while as a plan this had great merit, the ferry had developed ‘technical problems’ which took some time to resolve (several hours in fact) and then we had lost our berthing spot in Cherbourg, so that we didnt arrive onshore until 8.30pm the following evening. We were onboard for over 27 hours – not a great start...
Fair dues to my travelling companions – my brave sister agreed to do the driving to our initial stop-off point – Alencon, where we arrived at about midnight. We had gathered provisions for a midnight feast in the Auchon in Cherbourg (a really impressive supermarket, open until 10pm), and let ourselves into our hotel. The Hotel des Ducs was almost like a self-service hotel – they gave us a number to key into the key-pad at the door of the hotel, our room keys awaited us and we took it from there! The rooms were very large and comfortable and the showers were great! We did see people the next morning – well, we saw two painters who were doing up the main stairwell, and eventually a pleasant woman who checked us out and took our money. Alencon is a nice little town, with pedestrianised town centre, some impressive old buildings and a great food market. I was really sorry that we werent staying somewhere where we had a kitchen to try out some of the local produce.
Our next two nights were spent in Chinon, in the Loire Valley, in a very small hotel, which was adequate but not impressive – a typical old-fashioned hotel where we had to climb three floors of stairs to reach small but adequate rooms – but I cant say the same for the shower facilities! However we were now getting down to the serious business of wine tasting, so accommodation etc became a secondary issue. En route to Chinon, we visited Domain Huet that afternoon, in the village of Vouvray, and their wines are superb. They use bio-dynamic methods and while it may be seen as an extreme measure to grow produce by the moon phases, the proof of the pudding is in the quality of the outcomes – and in most cases – the results are great. The following day we went to Chateau Bernard Baudry, within the Chinon area and were given over two hours by Mathieu Baudry, who runs the vinyard with his father Bernard. Again, the vines are grown by bio-dynamic methods and organic farming principles, and the quality of the wines was really great – Cabernet Franc grape at its best. Before leaving Chinon behind, we have to mention the 5* omelets we got at the Hotel Le Lion d’Or (another small 2* hotel in the town), where we were made extremely welcome by the proprietor and where we would certainly stay if we were back in that area again (they can be contacted at id3709@inter-hotel.com tres agreable!
As a result of too much hospitality in the bar at the Le Lion d’Or (armagnac and calvados on top of wine isnt to be recommended!) we were a bit behind schedule heading for Bordeaux, so with the ferry-delay etc, we didnt arrive to our little village at Veurtheuil until much later than anticipated. We were made very welcome by our host Alain, and soon headed over to the local creperie for a much needed bite of dinner. One of the best crepes you’ll ever eat, made with proper Breton buckwheat flour, and did it taste good after so many hours on the road along with what felt like hundreds of thousands of drivers all determined to make far-off destinations in as short a timeframe as possible, or die in the attempt. We think that a few of them might indeed had the latter outcome, as there was a serious accident en route which also delayed us. A sobering thought all round, but one which didnt deter many of the drivers to continue to drive recklessly...
By Sunday, we had been existing on food that was either bought already cooked, or that we ate at restaurants for several days, so some home cooking was definitely in order! A bout of shopping at a not very impressive supermarket did yield up some goodies – great fresh salad ingredients (why oh why can we not get tomatoes that taste of something anywhere in Ireland??), some freshly cooked prawns to go with the salad for lunch and then the makings of home-cooked chicken for that evening... all washed down with some of the wines we had brought with us from Chinon... a few nice cheeses rounded off the evening. France has so much great produce, it is a pity that many of its restaurants insist on putting so much on top of it by way of complicated dishes and tastes...
Tuesday saw the first of our Medoc wine visits – we spent a great morning at the Lynch-Bages Estate, being looked after by Charles – and followed this with a light but delicious lunch in the nearby Cafe Lavinal which is in the place at Bages – seemed almost like a film setting - it was so perfect! And in fairness to them, the food they served us was absolutely great – really fresh goats cheese/roasted tomatoes on the best rocket salad was the best of three lovely starters, and is definitely one to recreate at home – if I can find equally good ingredients.
Roll on Chateau Margaux tomorrow!
We arrived here on Saturday evening, somewhat later than originally planned – take it from me, the ferry from Royan across to the north-end of the Medoc, is not for the impatient or the faint-hearted! Be warned – you could face a three hour delay with the queue for the ferry wending its way backwards through Royan, with almost nowhere to even buy some water. We took an early decision and retraced our steps back to Bordeaux and around by the estuary – somewhat reminiscent of arriving at Tarbert for the ferry across to Killimor only to discover that the ferry would be delayed by a couple of hours and then having to detour into Limerick – at rush hour on a Friday on a bank-holiday weekend.
The early part of our trip wasnt without incident of the boating variety either. We arrived at Rosslare in good time to board the Oscar Wilde for our 17 hour trip from Wexford to Cherbourg. We were due to arrive in France early in the day to give us loads of time to explore the wine shops around the port, buy a few wines to try out during our trip, and then return on the way home to purchase a few more bottles of the ones we had liked most. However, while as a plan this had great merit, the ferry had developed ‘technical problems’ which took some time to resolve (several hours in fact) and then we had lost our berthing spot in Cherbourg, so that we didnt arrive onshore until 8.30pm the following evening. We were onboard for over 27 hours – not a great start...
Fair dues to my travelling companions – my brave sister agreed to do the driving to our initial stop-off point – Alencon, where we arrived at about midnight. We had gathered provisions for a midnight feast in the Auchon in Cherbourg (a really impressive supermarket, open until 10pm), and let ourselves into our hotel. The Hotel des Ducs was almost like a self-service hotel – they gave us a number to key into the key-pad at the door of the hotel, our room keys awaited us and we took it from there! The rooms were very large and comfortable and the showers were great! We did see people the next morning – well, we saw two painters who were doing up the main stairwell, and eventually a pleasant woman who checked us out and took our money. Alencon is a nice little town, with pedestrianised town centre, some impressive old buildings and a great food market. I was really sorry that we werent staying somewhere where we had a kitchen to try out some of the local produce.
Our next two nights were spent in Chinon, in the Loire Valley, in a very small hotel, which was adequate but not impressive – a typical old-fashioned hotel where we had to climb three floors of stairs to reach small but adequate rooms – but I cant say the same for the shower facilities! However we were now getting down to the serious business of wine tasting, so accommodation etc became a secondary issue. En route to Chinon, we visited Domain Huet that afternoon, in the village of Vouvray, and their wines are superb. They use bio-dynamic methods and while it may be seen as an extreme measure to grow produce by the moon phases, the proof of the pudding is in the quality of the outcomes – and in most cases – the results are great. The following day we went to Chateau Bernard Baudry, within the Chinon area and were given over two hours by Mathieu Baudry, who runs the vinyard with his father Bernard. Again, the vines are grown by bio-dynamic methods and organic farming principles, and the quality of the wines was really great – Cabernet Franc grape at its best. Before leaving Chinon behind, we have to mention the 5* omelets we got at the Hotel Le Lion d’Or (another small 2* hotel in the town), where we were made extremely welcome by the proprietor and where we would certainly stay if we were back in that area again (they can be contacted at id3709@inter-hotel.com tres agreable!
As a result of too much hospitality in the bar at the Le Lion d’Or (armagnac and calvados on top of wine isnt to be recommended!) we were a bit behind schedule heading for Bordeaux, so with the ferry-delay etc, we didnt arrive to our little village at Veurtheuil until much later than anticipated. We were made very welcome by our host Alain, and soon headed over to the local creperie for a much needed bite of dinner. One of the best crepes you’ll ever eat, made with proper Breton buckwheat flour, and did it taste good after so many hours on the road along with what felt like hundreds of thousands of drivers all determined to make far-off destinations in as short a timeframe as possible, or die in the attempt. We think that a few of them might indeed had the latter outcome, as there was a serious accident en route which also delayed us. A sobering thought all round, but one which didnt deter many of the drivers to continue to drive recklessly...
By Sunday, we had been existing on food that was either bought already cooked, or that we ate at restaurants for several days, so some home cooking was definitely in order! A bout of shopping at a not very impressive supermarket did yield up some goodies – great fresh salad ingredients (why oh why can we not get tomatoes that taste of something anywhere in Ireland??), some freshly cooked prawns to go with the salad for lunch and then the makings of home-cooked chicken for that evening... all washed down with some of the wines we had brought with us from Chinon... a few nice cheeses rounded off the evening. France has so much great produce, it is a pity that many of its restaurants insist on putting so much on top of it by way of complicated dishes and tastes...
Tuesday saw the first of our Medoc wine visits – we spent a great morning at the Lynch-Bages Estate, being looked after by Charles – and followed this with a light but delicious lunch in the nearby Cafe Lavinal which is in the place at Bages – seemed almost like a film setting - it was so perfect! And in fairness to them, the food they served us was absolutely great – really fresh goats cheese/roasted tomatoes on the best rocket salad was the best of three lovely starters, and is definitely one to recreate at home – if I can find equally good ingredients.
Roll on Chateau Margaux tomorrow!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Cookbook recommendations
Excellent cookbooks from the last few years include:
Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook - great for seasonal recipes and more
Rick Stein's Fruits of the Sea - around quite a while, but a great reference and recipe book
Jamie at home - Jamie Olivers accompaniment to the TV Series - some really straightforward recipes which are easy to follow and work well
simpleIndian - Atul Kochhar - only discovered this by accident - Atul is London based and was on the Great British Menu a couple of years ago - if you want a fantastic introduction to Indian cooking - look no further - all the recipes work and they are so simple as well!
Have you cookbooks that you would recommend to others? If so, let us know and we'll add them to the list.
I'm also thinking of putting a list together of cookbooks that arent worth their price - watch this space!
There are some great fruit recipes in Sarah Raven's book - cant wait for these blackberries to ripen so that I can try out her Baked Blackberries and Mascarpone dessert.
Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook - great for seasonal recipes and more
Rick Stein's Fruits of the Sea - around quite a while, but a great reference and recipe book
Jamie at home - Jamie Olivers accompaniment to the TV Series - some really straightforward recipes which are easy to follow and work well
simpleIndian - Atul Kochhar - only discovered this by accident - Atul is London based and was on the Great British Menu a couple of years ago - if you want a fantastic introduction to Indian cooking - look no further - all the recipes work and they are so simple as well!
Have you cookbooks that you would recommend to others? If so, let us know and we'll add them to the list.
I'm also thinking of putting a list together of cookbooks that arent worth their price - watch this space!
There are some great fruit recipes in Sarah Raven's book - cant wait for these blackberries to ripen so that I can try out her Baked Blackberries and Mascarpone dessert.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Growing edible plants - the good, the bad and the ugly
Some interesting herbs for experimentation in new recipes, including borage (the ugly one!) and some bronze fennel...
I've now been growing some fruit and herbs in the garden for a few years, and this year was to be the extension of that into a lot more vegetables and salad ingredients. Some of these growing adventures have been very successful - others less so. For example, green beans have been a disaster (see photo - yes those stalks were originally nice plants), as the snails obviously considered the growing shoots to be a feast for them - and because I'm not into putting chemicals into the soil to kill anything, I've no defence mechanisms that work for the poor plants. Beer in a container is meant to attract the snails and slugs and then they drown - well I did try that some years ago, to no avail, but maybe I'll have to give it another go. If anyone knows of anything sensible and non-chemical to try, please let me know! Otherwise, my success levels have been mixed.
I've now been growing some fruit and herbs in the garden for a few years, and this year was to be the extension of that into a lot more vegetables and salad ingredients. Some of these growing adventures have been very successful - others less so. For example, green beans have been a disaster (see photo - yes those stalks were originally nice plants), as the snails obviously considered the growing shoots to be a feast for them - and because I'm not into putting chemicals into the soil to kill anything, I've no defence mechanisms that work for the poor plants. Beer in a container is meant to attract the snails and slugs and then they drown - well I did try that some years ago, to no avail, but maybe I'll have to give it another go. If anyone knows of anything sensible and non-chemical to try, please let me know! Otherwise, my success levels have been mixed.Most of the herbs are quite happy, and I'm extending the types of herbs way beyond previous years, so they will give me great experimentation opportunities for new recipes. The tomato plants are growing very nicely, with lots of flowers on them which bodes well for a good crop. I've planted a kiwi plant to match up with the pre-existing apple and blackberry specimen - not sure if we'll get any kiwi fruit, but its worth giving it a go anyway.
The garden is now totally full, with no space for anything that needs its own room, so it'll be a struggle in the Autumn to cull some of the existing plants - although a particularly invasive rose bush is a likely candidate and that should free up lots of space for winter greens and the like - although the snails are likely to be attracted to those as well... must ask Jenny at the Farmers Market what she does to stave off those hungry creatures!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Pergola Party report...
Well, the week-end party to launch the pergola went really well - a great time was had by all! As a dry run for my sister's party in August it was mightily successful - even though it was anything but dry, as copious amounts of wine was consumed (nice Spanish Rueda (white) - Basa, and a Chilian Carmenere (red), along side some Macon Uzichy Chardonnay and some Chiant Classico). Things kicked off around 3pm, with most people getting here between then and 4.30. Last guests to leave the house toddled off around midnight - except for two who ended up spending the night with us and left around 5pm the next day!
On the food front, well - it was simple rather than complicated, with lots of antipasti and salads, roasted veg and tztaziki, with some great focaccia brought by my friend Dave and some lovely desserts brought by Mary and Reg - a magnificent meringue roulade and an equally lovely elderberry champagne fresh fruit jelly. My mother had also made some of her famous brown bread and she had brought flowers - as did a few others!
The impact of the pergola - or it really should be more accurately called a gazebo! - was all that it should have been. It added another dimension to the whole event, with it being used all evening until about 1pm, when we regrouped inside in the house. Tealights were lit around 9pm, and people sat outside telling stories and planning more evenings there - the next one, I was informed by one of my sisters and a really good friend of mine will be a musical evening - they are really into music with my friend having been part of a really good band at one stage called Tanglewood, and my sister taking part in various light opera and musicals in recent years...As a rule of thumb, the one-bottle-of-wine per head worked well, and averaged out almost exactly right. I had lots of sparkling water, and also had some fresh fruit juices which when mixed with some sparkling water was a welcome option for people later on.
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