Duck on the BBQ

 Saffron and parsnip purée, braised red cabbage, and that wonderful duck.

But I have a wee story to tell about my new microwave.  It is so bloody cute.  I mean if any machine could be cute my microwave is hands down.  It does a "bing' when finished.  Nothing more.  No  buttons, just dials.  So so cute and basic.  

Anyway.  We cooked the duck breast on the BBQ raised high to give it a long slow cook.  I did the parsnip crispy bits in my cute wee microwave on the defrost mode (ping!!!).  The saffron parsnip purée was beautiful... Just a touch of saffron and a silky smooth purée.  Red wine port reduction. Fresh sourdough with propper French butter.  Yum.  

Lauterbrunnen

There is a fantastic car video which Andy took when I was so brave and drove from Andermatt to Lauterbrunnen. I can't download it.  But I did drive this fantastic road. The thing is, we wanted to go to Lauterbrunnen, not realising the drive from Andermatt to Lauterbrunnen would be the highlight of our trip.   The drive was incredible.  I drove there ( very proud) and Andy drove back.  Driving though Interlarken was a slight challenge.  The GPS took me through a bloody bicycle/ walk way. Geezes I was so stressed.  The walkers and cyclers were looking at us like WTF??? On this tiny cycleway.  In Interlarken.  In the bloody Porche with me driving.  I managed to get out via a car park (whew).   We had FUN.  Lunch under under the waterfall in Lauterbrunnen.  It's a very touristy place, but that drive from Andermatt to Lauterbrunnen and  back.  Unforgettable.  And the number of Porsches on that drive was .... well we've never seen so many in a single day even in Germany.  It's a nice drive for a Porche and I drove!

 

Andy's 69th

 
Yep, 69th.  That means 70 next year.  What???  Anyway it was a good enough late afternoon for lamb on the bbq.  We do love our bbqed bone in lamb.  This time shoulder and testing our our amazing bbq tongs and huge spatula from Joey and dad for his birthday pressie.  Andy's devised (as he does) a rack so he can lower and upper depending on the heat.  We love the subtle smoke that charcoal gives (in fact we had a delivery yesterday of bbq brickettes, 9 x 3kg bags on special through amazon so that'll keep us going!). 

Our trick to get the perfect crust is MSG.  Brushing meat, vege etc with a mix of plain oil and MSG gives such an incredible caramelisation.  MSG might be an unpopular ingredient for some, who knows why, it's natural.  Anyway in our house it goes into almost everything savoury and it's absolutely delicious for all sorts of reasons but one being the boost of the Maillard effect when roasted.

Since going to the village 14th July fête and having the most amazing potatoes cooked over fire we've been doing that but this time we did parsnips.  They might look a bit too charred but trust me they tasted divine.  That delicious coconut flavour synonymous with roasted parsnip.  

We've discovered an artisan goats cheese from Fromage du Vernet that comes in a little wooden boat for a reason.  Once you get a spoon into it it liquifies and creates basically a beautiful goat cheese sauce and is utterly sublime served with lamb.  Our little cat is rather fond of it and likes to lick clean the wooden boat.  We served a pearl barley, parsley anchovy confit lemon salad which went so well with the lamb.  Yum.  A great birthday celebration.

Palat du Vernet Lait Cru de Chèvre

Yummy lamb, bloody expensive here.  At least twice the price of NZ

BBQed parsnip, don't knock it until you've tried it.

I think the cat got into every corner!

Andermatt, Gotthard, Furka and Tremola

We went on a wee trip to Switzerland in the Porsche.  On the way we stoppped for lunch in our favorite restaurant in the Alsace, Chez Collette.  I ordered the stone bass.  Absolutely delicious, it was sitting on deep fried cannelloni filled with a prawn mousse with a crustacean sauce.  Exquisite.  Despite being a Wednesday lunchtime in October the place was absolutely packed.  Not one spare seat.  A well deserving busy little local that's for sure.

The drive through to Andermatt was largely forgettable having to navigate the motorway that passes through Basel.  It's a motorway we try to avoid big time.  But once we were closer to Andermatt things opened out and we were in the pristine Swiss countryside. Andy drove to Zimmersheim and I drove onwards from there.  I really do despise that motorway but at least it wasn't pitch black in heavy rain like it was one time we were travelling from Zurich airport to the Alsace.  That was a complete nightmare.  We couldn't see a thing, the traffic was bonkers as it always is and for some strange reason in Switzerland on the motorways there's no cats eyes or anything so you sort of have to guess where the lanes are in the rain in the dark.  Very odd.

Our apartment was superb and breakfasts were delivered on a trolley at 8am outside our door by the lovely hostess.  Every morning it was different and she even went to the trouble of labelling all of the cheeses and hams with little Swiss flags.  

Andermatt itself is a pretty little town.  The first night we stayed in and had mont d'or baked in the oven with white wine until caramalised and gooey.  Yummy yum yum.  I do love a baked mont d'or.

We drove the Gotthard Pass, Furka Pass and the Tremola road.  The highlight was the Tremola.  It's cobbled, in incredible condition with almost no traffic.  A fabulous road which we enjoyed immensely.  It's so hard to capture the beauty of these roads and the scenery on camera.  I get a bit nervous with the hairpins but Andy's a great driver and has to put up with my little squeals.  

The weather.......OMG we were so lucky.  Clear blue cloudless skies every day.  Very unusual for October that's for sure!  It was fun in the Porsche.

Stone bass from Chez Collette in Zimmersheim

Mont d'or

Our terrace

Cute breakfast trolley complete with eggs and a egg poacher, home made bread and one morning export quality golden NZ kiwifruit.  It's strange to have eaten the best kiwifruit I ever have.... in the Swiss alps.

Tremola road.  It's so much more spectacular in life.

Lunch high in the alps.  If we hadn't booked we would have been out of luck.

The sign on our breakfast trolley, so cute!

 

A little bit of a random celebration

We went to Chaumont to collect my 10 year visa.  Andy collected his last year as over 65 he had lived here long enough to get it without any language test.  I  had to sit the test.  I did my TCF in Chaumont to achieve the level of French I needed.  Whew. I did it and when I collected my actual visa I was in and out in literally 30 seconds.  This prefecture is amazing.  Hands down the best prefecture in France.  Not that I've experienced others but I've read enough horror stories visa wise.    Now we are basically French citizens (without the right to vote).  Our visas are easily and naturally renewable they come up in 10 years time.  So Andy and I basically have the right to live in France for however long we like with health care and old age care.  That's pretty cool.  We celebrated with oysters as fresh as they get which Andy shucked.  Cheeses and bread with an amazing Burgundy we had stored in the cave.  The thing that stole the show was the goats cheese, it was a cheese fondue.  Melting and delicious.  It all looks very simple but ..... YUM. and yay!!

 

Villingen Schwenningen

 Nope, even though I took German through school I can't pronounce it either.  Anyway a lovely town in the heart of the Black Forest.  Some great restaurants and we stayed in an incredible apartment 10 minutes walk to the old town.  I love Germany.  It's so relaxed.  If you want to eat at 6 or lunch at 2 you can unlike France!

Chabichou de Poitou

 To say this cheese is epic is no exaggeration.  When properly ripe is is 3 cheeses in one.  The amazing rind, the gooey inside layer and the crumbly centre.  It's so very clever.  How these cheese makers do it .... who knows.  The history of this cheese is centuries old and in fact it was declared the best cheese in France back in the 16th century.  

It has held an AOP status since 1990 (one of only 46 cheeses in France to do so).  The name originates from Arabic, chebli meaning goat and Poitou-Charentes from the area it is produced.  

I like to keep it for a week or so after the best before date to give it time to develop extra nuttiness and goo.  It becomes almost alive. 

It is absolutely stunning served with melon, roasted dates and walnuts on a beautiful late summer day in the Haute Marne with a chilled bottle of Viognier.