Another lovely but very very cold evening

The weather has been stunning, we really want to light our outside fire but the wind.  The cold isn't the issue because we can bundle up with with this wind there's no way.  Bummer.  It was -5 with a "feels like" -13!!  Gorgeous evening though.

Perigord duck breast, with the suave of an Indian cloak

I have made many Indian panna cotta now.  A lot.  A lot a lot.  I’ve started to experiment with proteins and duck is my favourite here in France.  (On special, Perigord duck breasts are CHEAP.  Far better value than say rabbit which is an expensive protein here.  Go figure.).  

Coconut panna cotta spiced with kaffir lime leaf and lemon grass. 

Purple potato khichdi (spiced rice with potato, an exacting recipe, worth the effort).

Rhubarb chutney (a quick knock up, I use rhubarb compote from the supermarket, add toasted ground cardamom, lemon salt (citric acid), salt and toasted ground star anise.))

Cabbage foogath (which is one of my favourite ways to eat cabbage).

Duck breast, spiced with a little cardamom and star anise.

In Dubai I'd always make this dish with sweet fish.  Here, duck is the best protein (along with quail and chicken and rabbit if it's on special, shoulder for me though is best for rabbit) and highly versatile, it's sweet.  Sweet proteins are no brainers when cooking subtle Indian dishes.  

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm  BTW the panna cotta melts on the plate when you eat it.  The rhubarb chutney is on the side, not shown but brings the whole dish together.  

A starry starry night with Orion's belt and the moon as the back drop, the story of Andy, Philippe and the Porsche

Andy's car just passed it's French WOF it’s called registration in Dubai and here in France it’s called  Controlle Tequinique.  Today was the day.  Philippe took Andy to Joineville because his friend owns the shop.  All went spiffingly well.  Whew.  The lads were gone a while….and Andy stopped into Philippes over the road for a port at 5pm on the way home.  Port is an aperitif afterall in this part of the world.  Now the car is all compliant (almost anyway)  and it has a lovely little driveway to spend it's time.  The house behind belongs to Philippe and Françoise, our amazing neighbours who have been so kind and helpful.  In fact Andy has spent a fair bit of time with Philippe because he's been helping getting the damn Porsche certified.  I don't know what we would have done without them.  Lovely people.  Lovely village   

The old barn, with the old house behind

The old barn

And again the old barn

The old barn to the right of this shot, the old house to the left.  The old house being over 500 years old.  The barn a mere 400 years old

Old barn right, old house left.  (our firewood lives in the barn, Andy's tools live in the house)

Our little house

Chuck Steak .....

This was the most simple recipe out......

Chuck steak (in it's full piece and not easy to find unfortunately).  Outside of France it seems to be pre chopped into small pieces and labeled stewing steak.  Cooking chuck in small pieces results often in a dry beef stew.  If this were my only option I'd go for a whole piece of beef chin or something like that.

Pre caramelised onion ( I hate the taste of boiled onion, IMO onions need to be pre cooked to be OK in a long cooking stock).  Browning off the meat gives a caramelised taste  - do it or don't but by doing so the result will be a little richer in taste.  Skip this step and you'll still have a bloody good beef stew.   Include this step? It's fun and adds a heap of flavour.

Dried spice.  In this case dried smoked paprika, coriander seed, chilli, dried (and fresh) garlic, dried tarragon.  Salt.  Black pepper.  

So the recipe is:

One piece of chuck steak (mine was 500gms good for 2 people).

1/2 to 1 tsp smoked paprika

2 tsp of good quality beef seasoning spice.   Mine was a mix of smoked paprika, coriander seed, dried rosemary and thyme, black pepper and salt.

Salt

Oil

Small knob of butter

One onion

4 cloves of garlic

A little fresh rosemary to finish. 

Method:

Chop the onion and sweat in butter, in a small pot with the lid on until soft and caramelised.

Trim the fat layer off the meat.  Unless you're making this the day or 2 before when you can sit it in the fridge and skim the fat from the sauce.  But if you're making it for same day eating I'd always trim the fat off.  A fatty meat sauce isn't particularly appealing.  I love fat but not swimming on top of sauce. 

Brown it well in a super good quality pan with lid or a dutch oven. 

Take the pan off the heat and top the meat with the caramelised onion.  Tip about 500mls of boiling water into the pan around the meat.  Try not to disturb the onions.  Sprinkle the spices and crushed garlic around the meat in the water.  Add a little salt.  Seal well with tin foil.  Top with a lid.  Put back on the heat (in my case it was put on the fire) and cook undisturbed until tender but not dried out.  It's easy to dry out beef when it's slow cooking.  

Seriously.  This was GOOD.  It took all of 10 minutes to prepare because it used dried spice other than a little onion and garlic.  It was a gift.  From the powers of heat.  Mine today cooked with the lid on for 31/2 hours.  The times vary of course depending on the meat, the heat so just keep an eye on it.  The juices will be perfect in consistency to serve with the beef.  Don't thicken them.  They are best left as is.  Served simply with cabbage.  Yes cabbage.  Sliced finely on the mandolin, sautéed simply in a little butter and salt.  Sweet delicious cabbage, with the sauce from the beef.  Khalas.  Yum.  

Brioche for Françoise

I love making bread.  I love eating bread.  I love making enriched doughs.  I LOVE making brioche.  I love eating it with jam.  Pure and simple.  Cherry jam.  Yum.  I found out my lovely neighbour was not well.  So I thought yay!!!  I'll use this excuse to make her a brioche.  I made a few little ones for us but the big loaf is for Philippe and Françoise.  I'll pop it over when they get home.  Happy house, smells of vanilla sugar and lemon (which is my addition to make brioche even better- always).  

The recipe (very simple, all in one)

500gms flour (I used T55, it gave the best results but whatever you have is fine)

2 eggs

60gms butter

150gms milk

salt

50gms sugar

10 grams instant yeast

Vanilla sugar for sprinkling later

Egg wash (one egg whisked with a little milk)

zest of 1 lemon (or orange or seeds from a vanilla pod or fennel seeds and orange zest or whatever you like or plain).

Tip the flour into the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk, eggs, break up the butter and add, add the salt, zest or flavour and sugar.  Give it a bit of a mix with the dough hook.  Then add the yeast.  Mix for about 6 minutes.  Until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Doing this by hand is fine, it just takes longer.

Cover with cling film.  Pop somewhere warm until doubled in size (or in the oven with the light on, this creates a warm protected environment).  

Once doubled (1hr 30 or so) knock it back, give it a bit of a kneed, then divide into portions or leave as one piece.  I divided some into smaller brioche for us and left the rest whole for my neighbour.  The larger loaf is simply plaited and joined at the ends to make a pretty round.

Pop everything onto an oven tray and cover with cling film.  Back into the oven with the light on for another 45 minutes.  Don't leave it much longer than that.  You don't want to over prove the dough. 

When nice and risen, take out of the oven and set it for 200deg c.  Brush liberally with egg wash, sprinkle with vanilla sugar, bake.  The small ones if they're around 100gms of dough each will take about 17 minutes.  The bigger one if it's about 500gms of dough will take about 25 minutes.  Viola!