BIRTHDAY DINNER

Bloody hell, 48 already.  Where the heck did that time go?  Anyway for dins: 

Entree of smoked duck carpaccio with a beetroot, celeriac and fennel salad, a drizzle of truffle oil and lemon.  Simple and light.

Main of little duck fillets (the wee fillet attached to a duck breast that is sold separately in good shops here, ) and little rabbit fillets (the little piece from the loin again sold separately here when you can find them) wrapped in Iberico Belloa my favourite ham, served simply with celeriac puree and broad beans, with a sauce.  

I made joy bars for dessert and they were just divine!  Was fun and my first birthday in my little French house.  What a tosser I sound like.  Thank god nobody reads this blog.  

Fiddling around with our garden after going to the garden shop.....

Yay a cool day for a change so we bought stuff for our garden.  Was fun.  They are all 'hardy' .  Any plant we have must have that word attached.  Our little house is coming together.  It really is.  It's incredible to look back on what we've done in 8 months of ownership.  

Our cave

We were planning to spend a fair amount of money on our cave, thinking we had to get the stonework redone.  But after various people came in and commented on our bonne cave we thought we were overthinking the wheel.  Our cave is a perfect specimen as it turns out.  Nothing required other than something that breaths on the floor.

Christophe who's become our go to guy knows his stuff with stone and cave and breathing and humidity.  He put the appropriate gravel flooring down that absorbs humidity but still allows the cave to breathe.  And it looks bloody good.  In a zillion years we wouldn't have thought we could have used the cave this time round.  But we have.  Very awesome.  It's been a hot week.  Today was over 35 so when we took our pre dinner drinks down (and then dinner down) it was like stepping into a cool cocoon.  Priceless.  With candles? Priceless galore.

We have plans for the furniture (i.e. our big wooden top is going to sit on the table we bought today) but that'll come.    Anyway,  expanding living pace by approx 600sqft isn't too shabby.

What an awesome place we have.  Im not showing off, this place was cheap (try buying a batch in NZ for what we spent ... good luck on that) but by Christ we're stoked with our humble wee abode.Diner BTW was bavette steak (flank steak cut in a way you cook it rare - common in France and absolutely delicious ) with basil, Marche, potato, beetroot shaved salad and lemon garlic truffle dressing.  Astonishingly good.

Water

Water is a piss of for me.  In a huge big fat way.  Yeap so living in HK the water from the tap was drinkable but tasted ghastly and even the poorest of the poor bought bottled.  In Dubai the water from the tap again is drinkable and I did so for a couple of years but being desalinated I got fed up with the taste of it so we drink bottled.  Dubai tap water means my crap hair (this is for you Juanitz) is super crap so god knows what it does to the intestines.

Good, fine.  Buy water  when in Asia and the the MENA region.  Completely get it.  Many of the Pacific Islands too - go to town.  Stock up on the stuff.

But really????  Here?????  When I'm sitting in rural France?  It makes absolutely no sense to me seeing people in the supermarkets buying bottled water.  The water from the tap is cold even in high summer.  Like super cold.  I have the comparison of Dubai when the water is bath temp out of the tap in summer (I have woollens to prove it, they shrink and I need to chill water to wash a jumper there).  Here it's cold but not just that, it's sweet.  It's glorious.  It tastes far far better than any bottled variety.  My only comparison is Titirangi when I was growing up, the water in Tit was similarly sweet.

When we ski I find it utterly astonishing to see people ordering bottled water for their table.  Huh?  WTF???  The water coming out of the tap is cold crisp mountain stuff that's better than anything you can possibly buy.

And the thing that pisses me off the most is when waiters do the whole "and what water would you like" sort of bullshit.  I am proud to say tap but I really think people get intimidated with the upsell and get a bottle.   It happens in NZ, it happens in Aus, it happens all over Europe (other than Spain). Where it doesn't happen are those great cheap places we all know and love who know if they push the bottled stuff their customers would walk very fast to the exit.  Spain does deserve a mention.  They'll serve tap at 'the best restaurant in the world' and I know this by going to that place (El Celler de Can Roca) twice while it held the esteemed number 1 position (subjective and I'd never say something was the best in the world but that's another story but it is, undoubtedly, extraordinary).

My idea of a great restaurant now is a plonk water on the table, no questions asked (if of course it's OK in that region).  Rule by default.  One can always ask for bottled "would you like still or sparkling with that" grrrrr... rather than the other way around.

What a wasteful society we live in.  We have incredible drinking water on tap if we are lucky enough to be born with and live in our right to passage (place of birth in this instance).  Our taxes pay to pump the stuff into our homes and yet there is still the propensity to buy the bottled version.  Shame shame shame on us.  

Hello table, hello umbrella! Welcome to Sig.

When we first saw this place in flesh it was overgrown and the lovely website pictures weren't anything like the weedy rather (from the outside anyway) messy mass that presented itself.    The 'nice' pbotos we saw online were sans weed matting.  The photos were we believe, at the time, very quickly taken and looking brilliant with the drive and other areas perfect.  However not permanently so.  The weeds grew through.... it just looked very unappealing.  

But shitbags, we loved it regardless.  The "bones" and I so hate that word but in this case it fits , were  verging on steroids for a simple place like this one with the outside just needing that final finish.  The people we bought from were not renovating to sell.  The internal ground work was far too extensive.  I have access to more power sockets than anywhere I've ever lived.  The insulation is unreal.  I can only surmise selling was a necessity rather than an option.  Anyway, whatever,  but the couple we bought off loved this place with a passion and I feel proud to love it as much.  They put forward their heart, soul and euros.  The finishing however  I believe became impossible.

We’ll be working on that final finish for many many years to come but for now, we are so stoked.  We were introduced early on to a fabulous guy who works the roads by day and is an artisan stoneworker plus a practical all round base layer/graveller/ fix stone walls call it what you will by weekends.    The guy’s  A – BLOODY- AMAZING.  And very lovely with it.

We’re getting there.  I pinch myself every second I’m here.  It’s so bloody simple and if that’s not your bag I get it, but I also think one day you might reconsider because sheer simplicity is a splice of life that us, with choice, rarely embrace and enjoy.  For me, right now, at this point in my life... well this little pad is my moment.  Andy's too.  We are besotted.  To hell with expensive real estate.  Sometimes (and I know it's only possible to feel like this with choice) simplicity is life.   We adore it.  

Oh and if I sound like a spoilt brat it is because I am.  We are so bloody lucky.  Coming into Switzerland today and 4 weeks ago they were doing random passport checks.  Ours were, on both occasions, waved though without checking.  No prob.  Danke schoen.  Gutten tag.  The biggest lottery in life is where we were born.  Joey and dad told us that so many times as kids and they are so SO right.  As New Zealanders we were born with a status that comes naturally.  It's a ghastly fact of life.  But that's another epistle.  

Yet to be set up but a pretty cool make shift job with the umbrella

Again not set up but gives us an idea where to position things

Our new driveway!  How awesome is it!!!!

We even have a solid base around our old barn now to park a car. 

Check out the new cave door

We will be getting plants for our urns and chairs etc etc

Our cave has a floor.  We need to buy lots of wine for that bunker that Tim is after.

Leading into the cave

Our little church across the road.  It's so cute.

The cave door.  We will be planting plants over the next year around the entrance

And again, very unfinished.  We only arrived today but the table and umbrella are made for this spot.  

Hello table and umbrella ....

Our stone table, and sailmakers umbrella took more than a bit of my time to get here but by god it was worth it.  Very mishmash right now but when we get it sorted things will look pretty bloody OK.  We couldn't possibly have bought a marine grade quality umbrella here.   The table ... well it was a keeper from the second we bought it over 20 years ago. and it has done more travel than most would dream of.  

Andy did a makeshift number (as Kiwis are prone to do) to set up the umbrella but it needs to be drilled into the concrete.  We flew all night, drove all day, it's OK that we set up without 'setting up'.

Very happy are we, very happy ideedypoo.  

French Apple Cake ... My idea of food heaven

Every time I go to France I have to make apple cake.  I love apples.  I used to live by apple season but in Hong Kong and Dubai we don't get good fresh first season apples and I'm so very particular when it comes to apples so I don't eat them.  Unless I'm in Europe in apple season that is.

But that's a beside.  My love of apple cake came from my LOVE of Nana's apple shortcake.  She made the MOST DIVINE apple shortcake imaginable and served it with condensed milk custard from a brown pottery jug.  I remember that jug so well, it's like I saw it yesterday.  When we went to nana and grandad's and I saw the brown jug I knew I was in for some condensed milk custard and if I was lucky some apple shortcake.  My nana knew us pretty well and therefore she knocked up the shortcake on a regular basis.  I ate it until I felt sick if I was allowed seconds.  Nana would serve me up secret second helpings sometimes.

Anyway this is a French apple cake recipe.  It has a fairly hefty dose of brandy in it which gives it a warm spice background, along with vanilla and lots and lots of roughly chopped (4 very large) firm apples.  I used Jonagolds.  They were fresh in season when we were in France and they remained firm when cooked which is essential for a cake like this otherwise you'll have a cake of mush.

Keep the skins on.  Very important.  Looks good, tastes good and it's just a waste of time to peel them.

Recipe for my reference.  This is easy peasy :

150 gms flour
1tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
4 large apples
4-5 Tbsp brandy or calvados
1 vanilla pod (can leave this out if using vanilla sugar as I did)
100 gms sugar
3 eggs
50 gms butter
A dash of whole milk
Extra vanilla sugar for topping

Preheat the oven to 175C.  Prepare a springform tin and line with parchment.  Melt the butter.  Beat the eggs until foamy and add the sugar, beat.  Add the flour, baking powder, salt, melted butter and enough milk to form a batter.  Mix until just incorporated.  Fold through the apple.  Pop into the tin. Top with plenty of vanilla sugar.  Bake for about 50 mins. Cool on a rack.

Rabbit loin and duck fillet wrapped in Iberico Bellota, black rice risotto and cherries

I found gorgeous little rabbit loin already butchered along with duck fillets (i.e. the tiny little fillet attached to the breast) the most beautiful tender part of each animal.  I'd never seen either sold on their own before without having to either wrestle with a whole rabbit or prepare duck breasts.  That's France for you..... you can get things like this.  Yay!

I was pretty excited and it was our first night, we'd stopped off in Mulhouse on the way from Zurich airport to Signeville for our shopping.  I also found some Italian black rice and Spanish Iberico Bellota.

We made dinner together.  The risotto was made with onion, fennel, pernod, sherry vinegar, black rice and some finely chopped cherries.  Finished with some good French butter.

The little fillets of rabbit and duck were wrapped in the gorgeous ham and cooked only just.  They need very little time.

The risotto was served topped with basil and cherries along with the rested sliced little duck and rabbit parcels.  This was an impressive first night dinner after flying all night and driving most of the day having stopped off at garden shops on the way through from the airport.  Not too shabby, in fact extremely elegant and incredibly delicious.

Chicken Sicilian style with white bean puree

OK so I'm just making a note of this because I don't have a recipe to refer back to and need to get it noted before I forget how I made it.

We had guests around.  I didn't take a photo of the dish of course.  That would be a bit naff with people over!  But I did take a photo of our lovely friend enjoying every little scrap.

I've done sweet sour Italian style chicken before many many (many) years ago.  This version was the best ever.  It was an absolute knockout flavour wise so here goes:

For 4 people.

Chicken:

Around 10 skinned and boned chicken thigh filets
1 large onion finely chopped
The heart and a couple of stalks of celery finely chopped
around 50mls sherry vinegar
about 1desertspoon sugar
a few sage leaves finely chopped
1 cinnamon quill
some olive oil
a couple of tablespoons of currents
chopped almonds (about 2 tablespoons)
salt and pepper

White bean puree:

1 400gm tin white beans (I used butter beans) drained
Enough milk to make it smooth when pureeing
salt
1 clove garlic

Garnish:

Decent quality bread (I used my own sourdough) diced and toasted in a pan.  Add a good knob of butter and a clove or 2 of crushed garlic, continue to stir until absorbed and yum.  Finally mix in some finely chopped parsley a decent amount of ground black pepper and the grated rind of one lemon.
About 1 tbsp pistachio nuts chopped
About 1tbsp almonds chopped
Parsley leaves
Shaved parmesan

Brown the chicken in a heavy bottomed pan and remove.  Deglaze with vinegar, add the sugar and onion and cook for a couple of minutes.  Add the rest of the ingredients then pop the chicken back in and either refrigerate at this point until ready to cook (takes about 20 minutes from here) or continue. Cook it until done.  I added about 100mls of water and put the lid on until the chicken was just cooked then popped it in the oven to keep warm until I was ready lid off so the liquid turns into a lovely thick sauce.

Blitz the beans with the garlic, a little salt and milk.

To serve:
Heat plates, remove the cinnamon quill, heat the puree, pop the puree on the plate with chicken and juice etc then top with the garnish.  Yum.

Nobody reads this blog, it is for my reference only so I can post the picture below.  Our friends rather enjoyed this dish!!