So, the Sanglier. To get some perspective

Doninique texted us the day before to say she was giving us un morceau de Sanglier.  Which means a little piece of wild boar.  Andy was in his undies doing the vacuuming and lighting the fire .  I was on my run when Dominique knocked on the door. It's pretty casual here.  I see Olivier in his god knows what doing his farming stuff.  We've actually seen Philippe's undies hanging in the upstairs bathroom! 

Anyway..... what a treat.  To have this level of meat.  I can't explain.  We'd never be able to even buy it in other countries.  We will treat it with respect.   It's all zip locked and clean. I have high standards in my fridge and freezer.  I'm a super happy person writing this right now.  What an absolute treat. 

 

Wild boar, delivered to us.

 Freshly killed.  We separately wrapped it and zipped locked bagged it in the most hygienic way.

We cooked some tonight.  OMG.  It's unreal.  Tender and utterly delicious. We happened to talk to Fanny today on our way home from our afternoon walk.  She will happily eat this type of meat even though she's vegetarian for animal and environmental reasons.  They are shot, prepared and distributed to the village.  Nothing gets better than that because they are a huge nuisance here. They even opened the hunting season early to try and reduce the number of wild boar in this part of France.  I love Fanny's look on vegetarianism.  She is vegetarian for the planet.  That's cool.  

 

Spiced raw lentils .... and a beautiful sunrise in the winter

We had a beautiful morning.  A really pretty day in winter.

We did our day.  

Then cooked an unreal meal.  Of:

Spiced raw lentils (orange lentils soaked then added tempered mustard seeds, fresh red chilli, fresh ginger and finely grated celeriac (a brilliant combination which would be amazing with crisp skinned sea bass or bream. 

Andy did a potoato dish.  It was subtle and beguiling.  It had to be tasted to understand.  He cooked off onion, added precooked potato and toasted off an amazing spice mix.  A little tomato kechup and yoghurt.  OMG.  Delicious.  

We cooked red cabbage, simply with onion, cumin and gochujang.  Yep, that Korean chilli paste which is utterly addictive.  And it works with cumin so damn well.

With roasted turkey leg, cooked in spice but not tandoori style, just cooked in spices.  Very simply cooked.  

Chutney, raita, rice, charred flatbread.

One of the best 'Indian' meals we've cooked.  It's not authentic but it tasted amazing.

W

 

Veal stew....

Veal is good here..... very very very good.  It's expensive but we when we get it half price we nab it.  

It's milky veal.  Sorry little baby milk fed calves who live in dark sheds.  But we know that these wee things are treated really well during their short lives.  And they really do taste beautiful.  We made a veal stew.  Very simple.  Veal (tossed in flour and browned), with onion, diced celeriac, chicken stock, dijon and seeded mustards, a touch of vinegar, white wine, potato and loads of herb from the garden.  We served it with celeriac puree at the bottom of the bowls and then helped ourselves to the veal stew, with parmesan shavings on the table, lettuce cups, extra dijon mustard ... seriously delicious.  The subtle taste of the veal with those clean flavours....  And that meat was like butter.  It was unreal.  Yum.

 

Roasted cauliflour risotto with crispy sage and lots of cheese

We are so interested in where you can take risotto at the mo.  Tonight we did a cauliflower risotto, with little tiny shaved pieces of cauliflower added in the last few minutes.  Finished off with parmesan and very well aged gouda.  A parmesan and sage tuille. (This is the first time I've done that and it worked really well).  With a butter roasted piece of cauliflower.  Underneath the risotto was an extremely serious camembert topped with miso roasted cauliflower puree.  So, the camembert with all it's funky flavours melted.  Then you sort of drag that through to eat the the caramalised puree, risotto, crispy sage and parmesan tuille.  Freshness of baby gem lettuce and crispy bread.  Yum.  The photo doesn't do it justice.  At All.  

 

A serious celeriac risotto

I kid you not.  And vegetarian.  I shoved a huge piece of St Agur on the bottom of warmed bowels.  

St Agur is a beautiful sweet blue cheese.  I made a celeriac puree. So .... on warmed bowls was St Agur cheese,  then celeriac puree, then celeriac risotto, with a parmesan tulle and crispy celeriac.  Yum yum yum.  Khalas.

Celeriac risotto

We finished off our evening outside. With a fire.  Unreal.

 

Tandoori Turkey Pie....

Umm, yummmm

 

Tandoori turkey pie.  

Perfect flakey pastry.

Made by Andy.

Khalas.