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.