The Ice

Soooo, we are very very careful when it comes to ICE.  ICE holds the power. We have huge  respect.  So, when we went out the other morning for runs we decided at the top of the village … “far out, too freaking icy, lets walk back carefully”.  Which we did.  And were doing.  Until 30m from our house when Andy miss stepped on our own road and went down quite slowly (I can replay it in my mind).  He grazed his knee and made breathing holes in his leggings (thank goodness for the leggings).  But the worst was his ankle twisted right back.  We immediately thought it was broken.  He twisted at the oddest angle.  

We’ve been to the doctor in Nogent (our lovely doctor who is unfortunately moving after being there for years).  He says it’s not broken and needs an ultrasound for tissue/ligament damage.  Because he’s leaving on the 29^th for Troys and the ultrasound appointment is for the 29^th we decided to find a specialist which we did, in Nancy and he had a cancellation.  We have an appointment for 24 Jan, early morning.  Whew.  At least it’ll give us some guidance as to where to from here.  The poor guy is completely incapacitated and I have to do all the man stuff which I’m not used to doing, especially in winter with the fire etc!!! And the woman stuff too like keeping up with my bread and cooking and cleaning (Andy always does the floors and now I have to do them too!!!).  Andy’s a great trooper.  He doesn’t complain and is using the desk chair which has wheels to go to the bathroom from our bedroom.  

CHRISTMAS DAY 2019

 Our Christmas day was odd this year.  We started off the day OK.  We did our runs and had our brekkie.  Then our usual lunch which is what we always do on Chrissy.  We don't do a big breakfast or lunch, we like to savour our dinner.

But for dinner….  We were doing this incredible duck main with Indian spiced panna cotta, coconut beans and foie gras.  

So…. I had coconut beans that I had frozen successfully in the past but as it turned out these were far past their used by date.  They did not taste good AT ALL.  The foie gras was also frozen too long.  It was not great.  Note to self Nat …. Proteins can freeze forever but moisture based products including foie gras cannot!!

Alors….

Our entrée of a beautiful crisp brik pastry round, filled with smoked salmon pate, salmon roe, crispy dehydrated Jerusalem artichoke and beetroot shavings was good.  Avacado would have lifted it because the salmon roe just took it to the edge of salty.  It was a textural delight though.  I will make mention to those brik pastry rounds, they were phenomenal,  made by Andy.  This entree is something to work on because the textures were utterly unreal. 

Main, hmmm.

I didn’t like it at all.  The panna cotta was perfect.  The duck was good.  But the beans and foie gras were off due to as said above over freezing.  How ghastly is that!!! On Christmas Day FFS!₊!! 

Dessert was a delight.  Layered apple with aged Christmas pudding, cooked down until sticky, served with cripy brik pastry shards and icecream.  

Overall though, gotta say, Christmas 2019 here was not the best we’ve had.  At all.  We have had incredible Christmases here but this one wasn’t one of ‘em.  

The ONLY thing I'll say is that it was pretty warm.  We had a high of 8 deg on Christmas day.  All I could think about all day is my little Nana saying to me "it's the weather dear" because it felt off all day.  My wee nana knew her stuff!!!

Brik pastry rounds, Andy made for entree.  Super delicate and delicious.

Entree, in the making

Wine, from the cave

Entree still in the making

Nibbles

Entree complete

Et voila!.... breaking into entree

Duck main (pars bon)

Hmmmmmmm

Little Nudge loved the bag our Chrissy pressies from Joey and dad came in.

Dessert was a delight!  Whew.

Spiced chicken with roasted cabbage

Ignore the crap photos.  We didn't expect this dinner to be as amazing as it was.  It was Indian spiced chicken that was cooked on top of a lump of cabbage. All the fatty yumminess of the chicken and spice soaked into the cabbage.  We cooked a simple spiced potato onion and pea side with lettuce and crispy flat bread.  Yum scrum.  That cabbage tasted like scollop .... kid you not!!!

Slow roasted tandoori chicken, roasted cauliflower, spiced potato, onion and peas and simple green lettuce.

Cabbage, who would have thought.  

Roasted cabbage.......... its an absolute dream.  It tastes meaty.  Cooked on the core so that it stays in tact, cabbage can cook for hours.  Tonight it roasted under tandoori spiced chicken legs, sitting on the fire for a few hours in a heavy pan, lid on then grilled off at the end.  The accompaniments were spiced potato, pea and fried onion.  With simple lettuce and crisp flat bread.  An utter complete delight.  

Tree lights and venison care of our Mayor....

We were given some gorgeous wild venison from our Mayor yesterday.  It is extraordinary is the local doe.  Very sweet.  We made a red wine doe stew.  We did a beautifully smooth parsnip and celeriac puree for the base of each bowl.  A very crisp shaved fennel salad, quickly cooked shaved cabbage.  The whole dish was deliciously light and crunchy and bizarrely elegant. It was absolutely delicious.  

We also had delivery of the outdoor solar powered lights we ordered the day before.  They are sooooooooooo pretty.  Andy hung them in our tree this pm.  Sooooooo cool.  

Panacotta for Christmas

I don't have photos for the recent version because they are on the other camera chip ...Just doing a note to self Nat...

1 level tsp tom yum curry paste
1 level tsp green curry paste
lemon grass smashed
Dash of turmeric
dash of fish sauce
100ml or so of coconut milk.
1/2 a gelatine leaf soaked in a little water.

Cabbage and Turkey

We are really enjoying Cabbage at the moment.  Red, white, whatever. We really love it.  It’s cheap.  It’s sweet when cooked properly. My best cabbage memories was as a kid and dad would cook it up in just the tiniest bit of butter and salt, very very thinly sliced.  We decided to cook it under a turkey leg.  To impart the sweet caramalised juice of the turkey into a big fat piece of cabbage on the core.  It was SCRUM!!!!!!!! We cooked it on the fire all day so no wastage in energy.  Yum scrum Khalas.