We bought our house in France....Finally!!!

Even Michel Roux Jr couldn't make this dish look pretty but it it's bloody sublime.  The recipe is here and it's worth the effort.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAZWgdu1u0k

Our celebratory dinner tonight buying our little pad in France.

I KNOW!  What a horrid looking dinner but trust me on this, it was sublime.

Only my family get my blog and I love it that way.  Facebook, likes this and likes that.  Friends this or not friends that..... no not for me.  I like to live a quiet life and life's pretty simple this way.  I'll never change.  I will live my live as a rather antisocial individual but for my own records and that of my close fam... today will go down as one of the best ever.  We bought our little place in France.  Signeville, a village I did not know existed until 7 months ago is part of my/ our life forever.

A decent drop

Beef tartare with fennel, capers and fresh green peppercorns

Oeuf Poché Meurette (and yes more delicious than it looks thank goodness!!)

Duck breast, kumquats, pickles and quail cardamon orange blossom water sauce.

Duck breast, fully rendered skin, cooked beautifully rare to medium rare (i.e. on the rarer side of medium rare which is IMO the way to serve duck breast).  Quail stock reduced with spices of cardamom, black pepper and the addition of orange blossom water and honey at the end is the sauce here.  Kumquats that have been slow cooked whole and steeped in star anise syrup then the beetroot and white onion only just pickled to give crunch and clear acidity. 

Yum yum yumity yum.   It is a pretty dish but that does not mean it's pretty for the sake of it.  Sublime.

Candied Kumquats

I'm pretty sure for the Dubai market they come from Egypt and appear on our shelves regularly.  They are such pretty little things, kumquats and they are so easy to preserve.

When cooked in sugar syrup they take on a glossy sheen and most divine sweet acid orange flavour with a little chew.  Perfect for topping little chocolate pots, tarts, ice-cream, rice pudding etc and equally as fabulous with confit duck.

I did mine this time with the addition of star anise.  That back note of aniseed is delicious.

There's no need to deseed - the seeds just go soft and are undetectable in the end result.  It is important to blanch the kumquats about 3 times in water using fresh water each time to get rid of any bitterness before using a sugar syrup of 1 part water to 1 part sugar and cooking for 15 minutes.  Leaving them in the syrup overnight undisturbed and unrefrigerated and then cooking again for 15 minutes.

They will keep for ages in the fridge.

Caramalised miso glazed chicken with pomegranate parsley salad

This is a recipe based on one by Yotam Ottolenghi, an extraordinary chef who develops the flavours of the Middle East.

The glaze is miso paste that has been roasted in the oven till caramelised then blended with a little brown sugar, butter and mirin.  I didn't have mirin so I used a little sherry vinegar and sherry.

This glaze is brushed over the chicken and the result is a gorgeous dark roasted caramelised umami flavoured stickiness.  Served with a fresh salad of parsley, pomegranate seeds, a little pickled onion and dressing of pomegranate molasses and sherry vinegar.  Delicious.

When I make this again I will add some baharat spice mix to the miso paste glaze for a little extra delicious spicy Middle Eastern oomph.  It's pretty neat using recipes, I would never every have thought of caramalising miso paste and using it as a base for a chicken or quail glaze.  Yum.

Dubai Marina in winter

Dubai Marina in winter is the the most sublime place in the world to hang out.  The evening temperatures are intoxicating.  Unknown in any other climatical environment.

With the 200 odd nationalities in Dubai people watching takes on a whole new meaning.  It's a wonderful thing to see people from all over the globe living in peace.

Dubai comes alive in winter for residents.  Everyone is out with their families and friends or solo, living a life that others do not understand if they haven't been this time of year.

Dubai has a reputation of grandeur and opulence.  There is undoubtedly that side to it.  There's also a very poor side where workers are shuttled to building site and back to their work accommodation living a life of loneliness and poverty.

For us lucky in betweeners and residents of Dubai Marina we just enjoy a city full of diversity and above all peace and these heavenly winter temperatures.

Our house Signéville, Champagne Ardenne, France.

Our little house in Signeville (Haute Marne, Champagne Ardenne) is rather cute and a little like the child we never had.  If you say otherwise (ie it’s not so cute)  you might be faced with some pretty fierce looks from Andy and I.  We’ll defend our wee place until … well forever. 

Apart from being so damn cute, it’s opposite the village church.   Now there’s a story that comes with the bells of this church.  We have a rather wealthy Parisian neighbour and according to our other neighbours (although we do not speak French we understood implicitly) …

When Monsieur Chateau (and believe me his Chateau is spectacular) is in residence from Paris the Church bells finish at 7pm  When Monsieur Chateau is back in his Parisian Chateau  the church bells finish at the usual time of 10pm.  Why??? Well I guess he has some clout but it does have the village up in arms a little.  They say ‘why live here if you do not respect the tradition of the church bell?’….. why indeed.

I admit I was very circumspect about this bell.  We’ve travelled a fair bit and having experienced some rather disturbing bells hailing their glories every 15 minutes all though the night and sometimes doubled up with the ensemble (i.e. instead of 12 at midnight it was 24…a particular village in Spain we’d never stay again!!)... I spent rather fair chunk of time ensuring our BnB/villa or whatever wasn’t near one of these blasted things.  How bloody hilarious that the place we wanted to buy was in fact smack bang next to one.

Oh the relief.  For a start it’s our bell.   Ours.  All ours. It’s off from 10pm to 6am (or if the priest sleeps in 7am which even with our one stay has already happened.)  BTW he’s a good old chap.  Spends his time gardening.  Nobody visits the church.  There are no services that we have observed (although we will be there 24^th December so maybe mass….we’ll pop over it looks like it might happen).  We aren’t religious but the history of religion is imperative. 

You see, in my opinion it’s all the tradition rather than the religion.  Our town has less than 60 inhabitants and they rather like a kip on a Sunday morning it would seem.  Fair play to them but I support our neighbor wanting that bell to be untouched.   After that what is left in these tiny rural villages?  A tweet that the bell rang?  God forbid!!!

We have the backdrop of the beautiful church lit at night.  What a complete delight.  Never say never……I would never have chosen to stay next to let along own a place next to a bell and here am I extolling the virtues of just that.  We get the best of everything with that bell….the beauty of the church, the lighting, the history and above all else the story of Monsieur Chateau and his influence over this teeny weeny village in Champagne Ardenne. 

Our first night, gooey baked cheese, bread, apple, fig confit.  It was a big day of shopping and cleaning.  After a shower this gooey baked camembert was food of the gods!! (and wine of course).

Second night, duck and braised fennel

We brought our slow cooker and made rabbit stew.  YUM!

Our house looking from the bottom of the section

With the church in the background.  The building to the foreground left is our 17th century barn to renovate.  It's a glorious building and we'd love to do it if euros allow. 

Looking over the valley from the top part of our section.  We have a lovely piece of land with various areas to build a couple of amazing courtyards when we do the landscaping in the future.

Apple cakes with apples from our tree!!

Looking from our terrace

One of the locals

Hand dived scallops, cod cheek, home made pasta, lardons and sauce.  From the Chaumont market that morning.

The roads nearby have little pockets of forests.  It's a beautiful part of France

Getting set up.  Note my new kitchen mixer.  I have a great little kitchen.

Andy did in fact sweep that morning.  But those leaves in Autumn fall like they are melting from the trees.  We were so lucky with the weather.  This lunch was warmed duck liver mousse with bread.  Food doesn't get better.

Looking from our house, the church at night.

And from the bottom part of the section at night.

Our bedroom.  It's a lovely little bedroom.  We haven't set up the spare room as yet.

Our bathroom.  It's nicer than it looks and there's a large shower which is unusual in France.

Our french guard teddies.  Francios and Francine (Francine likes her music hence the head gear.)

All shuttered up, fridge off, cleaned and goodbye little house until we return at Christmas.

Grey Mullet - a very underrated fish of sublime qualities

Grey Mullet is rather one of those fish that people discard as a secondary cut, rather like the silliness of discarding certain beautiful offal as secondary.  

Grey mullet are found in the local waters here and are common in New Zealand and Australian seas.  Not overfished, plenty of supply and they have the beautiful fattiness which is rather like a sea bass resulting in fabulously crispy skin and lovely tasting sweet meat.  

Tonight I served it with a fish reduction sauce.  You do have to be careful when doing fish bone reductions - the trick is to treat it as a quick stock.  If you boil it for ages it takes on a bitterness.  Very unlike chicken stock where the longer the cook the more the flavour.

Paired with some pickles of onion beetroot and carrot, on fennel braised until meltingly tender with pastis.  A little saffron aoli and the aforementioned reduction sauce.  Yum.  Scrum.  

Yum.  

And yet another incredible night here in Dubai.  

Prawn bisque sauce, prawns, lightly pickled onion and fennel with saffron aioli and pasta

A beautiful night here.  Temperatures unknown to most of the world.  That calm air, dry heat, very early 20s.  Not many places pull this off (and nowhere I've been before).  Oh my it makes the Dubai summer worth while.  These early winter days are absolutely exceptional.

Prawn head bisque sauce is a favourite, a little time consuming but worth it in the tasting, balanced with pastis, acid, tomato and saffron.  Served with the forementioned prawns, along with the most subtle of pickled onion.

If I were to take anything from this dish (apart from the fact I know how to do a decent bisque, well cooked freshly made pasta etc) is the onion.  An experiment.  A keeper.  White onion, very mellow and brought up to boiling point in a beetroot coloured sherry vinegar pickle.  Left to cool.  Unreal.

This onion would hold it's own in many dishes from carpaccio to venison to red mullet to .... well who knows but it's a keeper.

SEAFOOD AT IT'S SUBLIME BEST

Red mullet, tick.  Bivalve clams, tick.  Fresh prawns, great stock, silky freshly made pasta tick tick tick.

The seafood items are difficult for most people to source for one dish but here in Dubai we have the most sublime of seafood it is actually possible to do such a stunning creation.  The red mullet is a local catch (as are the prawns and clams).  Fresh as fresh and fresh off the boat.  An absolute honour to fillet, pin bone, de vein, clean, everything.  Fresh from the sea is fresh from the sea.  It's all just so sensationally clean smelling that dealing with it becomes a pleasure rather than a chore.

Tonight, we cooked together.  We made a stock from the red mullet bones and prawn heads (saving one full prawn each.  We love eating the heads (and for those of you who are saying yuk - I feel pity), saffron, pastis, white wine, fennel, onion, dill the usual then reduced.

Pasta is an easy knock up and fresh is best.  Dried has an unusually slimey texture.  Fine for a knock up but given an extra 10 minutes the fresh stuff is so silky it does not ever compete with dried (no matter what you read and Italians do not use dried pasta unless they are out of time which is common place.  Fresh is a different ingredient that cannot be compared).

We cooked the prawns, cleaned of vein but with the shell on, in a hot pan. The shell imparts so much flavour and cooked in a little oil on a searing heat means they are edible and lend a lovely crunch (along with the taste).  The clams went into the reduced stock in the final moments before tossing through the pasta.  A little fresh chopped fennel and tomato, dill and chives were added as a finishing touch.

Without a doubt one of the best seafood dishes we have had ever anywhere.  No this is not an exaggeration.  Pure essence of the sea beautifully balanced.  The additions of anise flavours, sweetness and acidity along with a little saffron.  Very difficult to fault and who wants to fault a dish that all you are doing is eating and not touching the wine which was one of Slovenia's finest.

On to the wine.  We picked it up from the wine maker who owned the villa in which we stayed late May. A Sauvignon but not as you know it.  Mealy, nutty and generous (in both taste and % by volume, it came in at a whacking 15%!  No wonder it was a good night!!)

What the photo does not show is the saffron aioli which we added at the end and the silky pasta coated in stock underneath.  These brought the dish together and ... well yes as I said I'd be happy to eat it anywhere, anytime. To have it at home was a treat beyond my mere words. YUM happy tum.

Beef with 'Raji' sauce

A while ago I discovered a ready made Indian line of spice pastes which put all other spice pastes to shame.  Raji make incredible chutneys too (and I'm not talking about over sweetened mango jobs which taste like jam, their chutneys are fresh and absolutely zinging).

The spice paste though is the stuff of gods.  It is cooked at high heat to give off a seriously toasty flavour.  To do it at home would mean your kitchen would smell of said spices for well over a week.  They would be very very difficult to replicate and whilst I rarely buy ready made anything, Raji is my exception.

The variations I buy are rogan josh paste, chicken tikka paste and chicken tikka masala paste.  I put some of the richly coloured paste in a pot, add a little sherry vinegar, salt sugar and water and mix up a sauce that is beyond words in depth of beautifully balanced indian spice flavour.  Each one I've tried are delicious and I vary depending on mood but basically each paste works with any protein.

This dish was therefore simple as anything.  Some 'Raji' sauce (this time the rogan josh version) served simply with fennel and star anise crusted beef fillet (cooked rare), green beans and beetroot.  Yum.
Job done.

Chardonnay

We have had a few wines over the decades (a few too many I would surmise). 

Chardonnay in New Zealand was my personal kicking off point for enjoying fabulous wine.  In the early 90s NZ had started to hit its straps it would have appeared.   Black label Villa Maria, Kumeu River Chardonnay along with their Mate’s Kumeu River, moving on to  Clos de Ste Anne (Milton estate)  along with the sublime Ararimu Chard and the unequivocal Neudorf Moutere .    Generous with oak, mealy nutty and absolutely huge.   That was the chardonnay back in the day and I loved it.

I recollect a rather drunken evening at Mama Rossa’s in Kohi (a guess? 1992) when Andy and I had this idea of taking some bottles of Kumeu River chardonnay to France (a place we had NEVER been to) and suggesting these ‘French’ tasted it and understood great chardonnay!.   How very naïve of me.    The intentions were good, the grounding and intellectual understanding of wine, history and specifics of flavour - absolutely flawed. 

I love NZ … geez  it’s me and will always be but to think the chardonnays of NZ are the epitome of chardonnay?… sorry guys but no it’s just not.  There lacks a flintiness, a freshness, a balance of vanilla versus the oak….even the great ones -  I might have missed something along the way over the decades but … no it’s not present.  I went off chardonnay altogether until recently and rediscovering it in a different style – the French style.

Pouligney Montrechet specifically.  The fact this village delivers pretty much the best the world can offer in chardonnay, well a teeny bit ridiculous on my part not to have heard of it (but I admit my European wine study focuses on reds apart from the whites of Alsace and Mosel whites due to my peskiness with the chardonnay grape).    No excuses, I have been narrow in my focus for far too long. 

The whites from this very small village are superb.  SUPERB.  Sublime.  SUBLIME.  Unreal.  UNREAL.  Get my drift?  I kind of like them.   I have yet to try the big granddaddy Grand Cru but the entry levels and Premier Crus are stunning.  Not cheap.  The basic whites even buying them from the celler doors start at around 20Euro (expensive for Europe) and escalate rapidly depending on cru and age.  One day I want to get a fully aged Grand Cru….and I shall.  For now feeling like I’ve rediscovered an old friend who has a far more refined and polished finish is comforting and very very delicious.