New years eve dinns 2021

The thing is, we were invited to the Chateau Orqueveaux  for dinner.  But it was cancelled due to COVID.  It was only going to be a small get together, but we were hesitant given the increasing numbers.  Bhulah and Ziggy were wise to cancel.  

We had a glorious day this neck of the woods.  The warmest we can remember for this time of year.  

We had wine out on our terrace with an outside fire before coming in for an early dinns.

Dinner was serious.  Not traditional for this region.  AT ALL. We had 6 different varieties of vegetarian Indian side dishes, with an incredible farm raise French chicken done in the not so French tradition of Tandoor style, with flat breads, raita, and basmati rice. We couldn't fit it all on the table so I popped a little bit of a few things on our plates.   So we basically had vegetarian   -  with chicken.  Andy had chicken  - with a touch of vegetarian.  

We had spiced red cabbage with beetroot, turnip and tomato curry (a revelation), celeriac spiced remoulade, potato and tomato curry, spinach pea and chickpea curry, fresh raw lentil salad for freshness.  An absolute knockout with fresh fennel, lime juice and zest, toasted mustard seed.  

This meal had everything.  Richness from the tandoori chicken, underlying notes from the various vegetables, acidity from the chutneys, pickles and raita. And lettuce cups.  Yum.  

That tandoori chicken was unreal.  Whatever Andy put on it, it worked.  The chicken itself was beautiful but that marinade.  Yum.  He added a bit of smoked paprika I think.  Fresh ginger, garlic, spices.  Not sure but it was the best chicken tandoor I've eaten.   I might be slightly biased.  But Andy knows his f...ing spice.   

Below, a salad of raw soaked red lentils, lime zest and juice, tempered mustard seeds, finely chopped fresh fennel, lime juice, salt and fresh chilli.  A beautiful fresh addition to any Indian meal.  However, tempered fresh curry leaves and fresh coriander finishes this off.   I don't have access to fresh curry leaf or fresh coriander here.  But..... it's delicious anyway.  

French prawns, bisque, fresh pasta and prawn heads

The Christmas celebrations which we sort of couldn’t attend this year ended out being delivered by the mayor because Andy is over 65 as per my post earlier in December.  Everything was delicious.  But.  The thing we were the most intrigued was a single prawn.  It was fully seasoned throughout.  We saw them yesterday in Chaumont and decided to give them a go, thinking they might be the same.  I’ve rarely, if ever bought precooked prawns. 

 

These really are a revelation.  Fresh as fresh (same day fresh) and I think cooked on the boat in sea water then brought in and distributed.

 

So, yes.  Our Chaumont prawns were unreal.  I mean can the French seriously get everything right with food?  It appears so.

 

Anyway.  We took off the heads, made a bisque.  Prawn heads, white wine, shallots, fresh tomato, fennel, pernod, saffron.  Then crushed it down, took out the heads and put them on oiled baking paper to cook off again separately to make them crispy (waste not)….

 

Andy rolled out the pasta, cut it and floured it.

 

We sweated down shallots, fennel and tomato very finely diced and added it to the bisque.

 

We grilled the prawns under a hot grill very quickly. 

 

We added the drained pasta after just 30 seconds in boiling water to the bisque sauce.  With plenty of cooking liquor to give viscosity to the sauce. 

 

With extra pernod, lemon zest, parmesan shavings, fleur de sel and lemon juice. Prawns on top of the pasta. A little fresh shaved fennel for freshness. With those crispy prawn heads and parmesan on the table.....

 

Yum.  YUM

 

Smoked chicken and roasted tomato risottto...

 With pieces of pavé d'affinios (good cheese) sitting on the bottom of heated bowls with smoked chicken bits.  Then the risotto poured on top.  With slow roasted tomatoes.  The parmesan tuille.  It's so so enjoyable eating this stuff because you sort of can drag that gooey cheese up and drag it through all that wonderful acidity.  It has texture, acidity (because everything needs a touch of acid), the crisp toasty flavour of a parmesan tuille and freshness with lettuce cups.  Absolutely, utterly delicious.  With a buttered lump of freshly baked sourdough on the side.  UTTERLY DELICIOUS. 

W

 

Sourdough and Onion Soup

First of all, we made an incredible sourdough loaf this morning.  My bread is getting ratther incredible.

Andy scored it perfectly.  

We ate fresh soughdough with foie gras pate and aged gouda for lunch.  An absolute treat.

For dinner, Andy made an onion soup.  He says don't call it French Onion Soup but it as actually French Onion Soup. The beauty of this beast was not just the soup but the huge chunk of perfectly ripe cheese we put at the bottom of each bowl, then topped it with hot caramalised celeriac pureé.  Thick and full of umami deliciousness.  

He then poured the hot onion soup over everything.  

OMFG.  I know the photos don't do it justice.  We were eating then we thought this is one of the best things we've ever eaten so had to get the camera out.  For our reference only.  I can look back on this post now and we can sort of remember what we did.  Served with sourdough, good butter, crispy fried shallots, shaved parmesan and lettuce cups.  Yum.  Thank you babe for an exceptional dinns.   

 

 

Christmas Day and Boxing day dinners....

We bought a deboned Chapon which is a castrated rooster and fed with fat.  The stuffing was with farce of chicken livers and morel mushrooms.  We served it with roasted fennel in the fat of the chapon, roasted celeriac.  Crispy roasted Jerusalem artichokes, Jerusalem artichoke puree.  We made a sauce from the juice and pâté de foie gras with butter.  All those roasted juices with the addition of foie gras..... YUM.  A touch of sherry vinegar for acidity.  Finger licking ....  To say it tasted unreal is an understatement.  Those Jerusalem artichokes are something else in themselves.

But before that, there was entree.  A sourdough blini topped with beetroot, celeriac and fennel remoulade, smoked tuna and shaved parmesan.  A complete and utter treat.  

Then there was dessert..... Lemon curd and passionfruit soufflé.  Need I say more? Nope I think not.  

SO... moving right along.

Boxing day dinner was Indian.  Celeriac & fennel remoulade (we are loving this stuff), we added fresh chilli and ginger with some toasted cumin and fennel.  Utterly delicious. 

With.... Andy's potato tomato curry. 

Spinich and pea curry with chickpeas and fresh ginger.  

All served with tandoori smoked chicken breast.  Charred flatbreads.  Basmati rice. Lettuce cups, raita, coriander and mint chutneys...... (and yes there were leftovers) 😘

 Yum.  Two completely different dinners.  One purely French, one our version of Indian (with the ingredients we can get here).  We love both cuisines.  Nudge just sleeps on 😴💤😪 He's so cute.  But I deliberately didn't add him to this because...

Sourdough

I'm now experimenting with different ratios with sourdough starter.  I'm being more attentive to it.  Feeding it more regularly.  This was simply popped it in the oven and given some steam.    The easiest of techniques.  It works.  Kind of going back to basics with my gorgeous sourdough.  The first photo is obviously the base.  It's so beautifully bubbled.  Top, side and .... bottom.  And an absolute delight to eat.  I reckon I could charge $12 in NZ for this loaf. It's that good. 

 

Just going back to that cabbage

 Absolutely as good if not better basted with miso paste butter for vegetarians ( I guess vegan wise with cashew butter, that'd taste delicious too)..... I love no waste.  

Osso Bucco Turkey. With seriously roasted cabbage (OMG YUM).

We bought this different Turkey cut which we've seen here before.  It was half price so we went with it.  They call it Osso Bucco Diande (ie osso bucco turkey not veal).  Cut through the bone.  So you get all that marrow flavour from the turkey leg.  We've had it with pork leg on many occasions.  So... I had a scrap of cabbage left, the end bit.  With the core that most people I guess chuck out.  I shoved quite a lot of butter on it, a bit of chicken stock and kept toppining it up with water while it cooked for quite some time in the oven.  OMFG.  It was so so so delicious.  All sweet and melty caramel cabbage (I've said time and time again cabbage needs to be rebranded because "cabbage" is not the best if your trying to promote a gorgeous veg.  Anyhooo.... that osso bucco turkey was unreal.  Hard to explain.  With fresh rosemary from the garden, shaved parmesan, lemon zest and Carmargue rice.  It might not look the best, but trust me/us.  Yum scrum. We ate it with baby gem lettuces leaves and Andy's crispy flat breads for texture.   

 

Just saying.....

It might look a bit funky but trust me, it tasted de-fking-licious....;;

 

Creamy cauliflour soup

With ras el hanout, pavé d'afinios, parmesan tuille, butter roasted cauliflower, egg yolk.  Sourdough with very good butter.  Yum.  YUM