Wild Boar star anise, garlic, ginger, soy, tamirand,

 An utter joy to eat with herbs from the garden.  Loads of fresh ginger and Andy's pepper mix.  A complete treat.  Salt sour sweet hot deliciousness.  Love that boar, it's a subtle meat.  Not gamey, very lean, they like a long slow cook.  An absolute treat.  And with lots of star anise and miso, this was unreal.  With rice and lettuce cups and crispy flat breads, YUM. Khalas.  

YUMMY

Open lasagne......

We did open lasagne with textures.. De fucking licious.  

Smoked Chicken Tandoori, sitting on cabbage, roasted in the oven.  The cabbage was so amazing cooked this way.  The juices just melt into the cabbage (which has to be rebranded)  Unreal. 

 

The cherry tree this year is unreal.  So full of blossom.  Last year with the late snow and frost it just didn't do it's thing.  The same with the apple tree, we had no apple blossom (and no apples of course).

 An Indian dinner, on the terrace, with those amazing crispy breads Andy's making.  Smoked chicken works so so so well with Indian spice.  So we had smoked chicken breast, raw dahl tempered mustard seed and fennel salad, fresh spinach and pea curry (we serve it room temp so it's like a chutney), tomato, ginger and chickpea with basmati rice, coriander chutney, fried onions, yogurt raita with a whole lot of YUM. 

Open lasagne with bits and bobs

We decided to knock around in the kitchen for a bit and make an open vegetarian lasagne with crispy bits and bobs.  It took a bit of time but it was seriously worth it.  Pea and tarragon purée, celeriac purée, crispy topinambur, topinambur purée. Crispy roasted cheeses, freshly shaved 36 month aged comté.  Egg yolk, warmed. Mushrooms cooked in butter with tarragon, little pieces of celeriac cooked in butter, roasted fennel, fennel fronds, fresh fennel, chervil and chives from the garden. 

Building up the layers

The celeriac purée isn't as smooth as usual because we use the skins but it still tasted amazing.  We use EVERYTHING.  The pea purée is also not as silky smooth as usual.  Lazy.  But it doesn't take away anything away from the flavour.

The fresh pasta was (in our opinion) beautifully cooked.  Not soggy at all, just with that tiny bit of bite.  
We added diced roasted celeriac pieces....

Then crispy cheeses (crisped in the oven, blue and delice de bourgogne)  I also added uncooked shaved 36 month aged comté. It's so seriously delicious.  We won't be able to buy these once we leave France.  The Comté has crystals from the ageing process.  It is a complete treat to eat these AOP cheeses.

So, we have an open lasagne, with celeriac purée, pea purée,  crispy roasted Jerusalem artichoke, roasted fennel,  Jerusalem artichoke purée

With crispy fried onion, the egg yolk and all those purées underneath...... and the crispy cheeses and shaved aged cheese.  Completely vegetarian.  

Yum. We were completely stoked with this dish.  We were able to enjoy our dinner outside with the fire and those crispy breads Andy made were unreal....we do love our crispy bits and bobs. 

 

                      Like little pillows of crispy deliciousness, Khalas!

 

Traditional roast chicken dinner

We bought farm raised chicken legs, which we do regularly and the French chickens are a complete and utter treat.  Dry skins, semi lean and extremely, utterly delicious.  

Tonight with pea and tarragon puree, cabbage, roasted celeriac (sitting under the chicken to suck in all those delicious juices), sage and sweet roasted onion purée with crispy flat breads and baby gems.

Yum. We took it down to the cave.  

Smoked chicken, cabbage, celeriac and cheese risotto and Nudge ....

Yum. Crispy smoked chicken and varieties of cheese.  A creamy cheese underneath.  A descent stock from the smoked chicken.  Fresh herbs from the garden.  With finely chopped celeriac and cabbage.  It might sound odd, but trust me.  It's absolutely delicious.  Playing around with risotto is fun.  We aren't Italian.  We aren't strict with rules.  

And then there's wee Nudgules.  He gets his paws right in there.  One plate clean, on to the next.  We give him that because he's a slim cat and he really really enjoys his food. He has a wide palate does our Nudge.

 

Thai pork curry with back pork

In France pork is butchered so differently to anywhere we've lived.  One of the best BEST things is the back of the pig.  It's sold tied.  It's gorgeously fatty and unctuous when slow cooked.  I guess they scrape  the meat off the back and then tie it up so it can slow roast and not fall apart.  Each and every time we've cooked this particular part of the pig, butchered this way it's been incredible.

Tonight we did a Thai curry.  Very clean in flavour.  Coriander from the garden, fried onion on top.  Loads of ginger, quite a lot of fresh chilli (Moroccan red chilli, they are really delicious and fruity but pack some heat). We needed bowls to eat because it was a fresh light curry with lots of delicious Thai pork broth 😋.  

Jasmine rice, dipping sauce, lettuce and flat breads.  In the cave.  We were hoping to eat outside because the weather was gorgeous but the wind was annoying and the cave is our quiet talking space.  

Then up to watch the BBC highlights of the Grand Prix in Melbourne.  We do love our Grand Prix.