Time in New Zealand

 I have just returned from the most amazing trip to New Zealand.  I jumped into bed with Joey every morning while dad made us a cuppa.  It was just the most unreal 2.5 weeks.  

Coming back via Hong Kong was so so strange.  It felt really wierd having not transitted the airport for many many years and having such a gorgeous experience in NZ everything just feels so odd, being thrown from one huge airport to another (my favouite airports to date are KL and Istanbul).

I just had a beautiful and fully enriching trip, spending time with family.  I can't explain it.  It was unforgettable.  

Joey's amazing lamb casserole

Lovely dinners and memories

Having lunch at "the batch"

Lilly, she's a complete delight and is the centre of attention

Juanita and Mark have an average beach house which we knock around in from time to time, it's a bummer going to the batch!

Look at that couple, married 60 years in October

Dad's AMAZING cheese banana toasties.  Caramalised to perfecection

Croissants from Beabeas in Westmere, better than most in France

What a stunning couple

My gorgeous sister

Joey always looking photo ready and gorgeous

Dad's famous (in our family) burger.  Nothing comes close!!!

Slow cooked char siu pork

 One of my absolute favour flavour profiles.  Chinese BBQ pork with star anise, char siu blend, chinese five spice.  I adore it and have done since I was a kid.  We cooked beautiful pork fillet very long and slow over charcoal, sage and lavender to give a beautiful smoke.  Cooked to 57 then fully rested.  Absolutely amazing.  And once again under the tree our front.  Stunning.  

We also did the same with a pork collar.  With it's amazing fat cap that cooks and melts to taste like the best pork fat you've ever eaten.  

Pork colar, cooked long and slow with amazing melting fat

Lunch out the front under the tree

When I was in NZ Andy made a concrete slab for our dinners outside in the summer, when there is a lovely breeze on the north side of the house overlooking the valley.  It's been amazing.  Once the crazy 40 degrees days cooled down we've been eating out the front every night.  The tree is like an umbrella now.  Completely private from our (one) neighbour. The slab has transformed this area for us.

We had lunch today: rabbit terrine,  boursault cheese (a triple cream cheese and absolutely one of our favourites), lambs lettuce (marche) with roasted tomato dressing which I like to make.  Sourdough, fresh pear and a lovely Gewurtztraminer from the Alsace.  A lovely afternoon under the tree.  A real treat.  

A little pear, salad with that wonderful dressing and rabbit terrine is a beautiful mouthful.  Then a little crusty sourdough with that amazing boursault cheese is another gorgeous mouthful.  I live dipping and diving into a wee treat or two.  It's a wonderful way to spend an afternoon in the French countryside.  Oh! and midway the cat came to visit after waking from a huge sleep.

 

 

Beef from Signeville

 Finally for the first time we got around to going to Dominique and Olivier's gourmet grocer in chaumont and bought a lovely piece of cote de boeuf from Signeville.  

It is stunning weather here so we did it justice on the BBQ using charcoal and some lavender ( we use what ever we are in the middle of trimming, whether it's lavender, thyme, sage, rosemary etc but last night it was lavender).

Cooked to 52 degrees, then rested it was absolutely amazing.  You read all the stuff about happy animals tasting delicious and I often think it's a load of rubbish but in this instance it would turn out to be 100% correct.  We watch these beef grow and frolic everyday, eating the fresh grass and nutrients carefully supplied by the lovely farmers.  

These cows make up a part of our daily lives whether just watching them from the bottom of the garden, seeing the hay being made, enjoying seeing them hanging out under the trees on hot days or simply enjoying the baby calfs being silly little ones.

This is simply as good as beef gets to taste and it's amazing to know we can buy it locally having watched them being cared for and doing it justice on the plate.  

For future reference, we served it with a Josh Emmet recipe we have done before which is a bone marrow crust but this time we used smoked bacon fat and served the crust separately rather than grilled on top.  A caramalised onion puree, a lentil roasted mushroom onion dish, smoked roasted potatoes on the bbq and salad.  Superb.

 

 

 

A final snow....

 I'm sooo cold in this photo, jamies and a coat.  

Andy captured this one of Montot

Our bonhomme de neige is getting a little snowed in! And he looks like he needs therepy.  Oops!

I've said it before but ... our barn is a beauty

I'm trying to thumbs up, but it's cold!!!

And I'm trying again but it's still really really cold!!!

Yup that's me in my PJ's and my cosy coat looking like a wierdo!