Chicken dinner

Roast chicken dinner.  The best free range stuff  France has to offer.  With crispy Jerusalem artichokes, Jerusalem artichoke puree, onion puree, crispy sage leaves in the cave.  With celeriac, fennel and tarragon remoulade.  Utterly delicious.  Crispy flatbreads for texture.  Yum. 

 

My sourdough.....

I'm perfecting my loaf.  It's a gorgeous loaf. A beautiful crumb with an amazing crispy base and that crust is unreal.  By putting the pot on top in the oven I get time to score and I'm starting to enjoy my scoring.  Personally I don't think the "ears" are worth it.  They aren't great to eat.  I like to use T110 flour for my starter and 25% T110 in the actual dough, with 75% T55 making up the rest.  It's not a high hydration recipe as I've done in the past.  I've learnt now what we enjoy eating with bread and this is pretty much it.  It's consistant.  It's delicious and it has incredible textures.   

  

Our first dinner in the cave 2022....

Andy went down in the morning to clean it out and get it sorted.  There were a couple of wee Nudgie's playmates to be taken care of.  He's not a great hunter so we don't have many problems.  He's so cute. 

We ate pie. Specifically wild pork pie.  And that wild pork is such a treat.  It is sweet.  Not gamey.  It is tender and melting.  The best best thing to do for the environment is to eat locally killed meat which is otherwise a problem to other wild life and plants.  They breed prolifically. They are killers and can take over the natural environment.  Here, the hunting season started earlier in the past couple of years despite COVID for this very reason.  

Anyway, first dinner of the year in the cave, 2022.....

I brought up a bottle of Chablis for our wedding anniversary.  It's got a bit of wax on it from candles, but should be a good drop.  

Then we sat outside with a fire, it was an unusually warm night of 3 degrees.  No wind.  Very very pleasant indeed. With music.

 

My sourdough

I've changed my cooking method, which gives me time to score before popping it in the oven. So, I'm now going back to preheating the oven and popping it on a flat tray with a hot shot of water underneath.  I also have changed my ratios and it's not as wet.  I understand 100% hydration and I can do it, and having done it many times I've decided it's not for me. We like bread. To eat. And this is bread To Eat. (With proper French salted butter)

 

Our take on Thai jungle curry

It's a curry we absolutely adore.  And to get the wild boar. OMG, I think Dominique would  be sweating it if she knew we'd tuned it into a Thai curry.   Northern Thailand have these amazing curries.  No coconut, just loads of flavour and usually with wild pig.  So, today, in France, we ate Jungle curry with our wild boar.  The meat was meltingly tender, sweet and delicious.  With Thai curry paste, jasmine rice, a Thai dipping sauce but with our charred breads that aren't Thai but we love them.  If only we had access to fresh holy basil and coriander.  

My sourdough

I've been cooking my sourdough differently of late.  So, instead of using a pot, lid on for the steam when it's really difficult to score inside that deep pot.  I've been using the basic method of popping it in the oven and shoving boiling water in the bottom of the oven to create the steam.  The steam is necessary to allow the bread to rise before the crust becomes firm in order to get that gorgeous springy crumb and amazing crust.  The thing about this basic method is that I have the time to score my bread before it goes in the oven.  A very different technique and one I've had fun with. Andy made me a new lame.  He's so clever.

 

 

Our little cat....

His morning routine.  And it's the same every single day.  He says hello to Andy whilst I'm getting our cocoa and as soon as I'm back in bed he just cuddles up and snuggles into my arm.  He even drags my hand under him.  It's a very very cute routine.  Every single morning.