Christmas Day 2024

We had done our pressies on Christmas eve so on Christmas day it was just dinner to have.  We had bought a huge Turkey leg.  Andy made a sauce from the juices.  Roasted veg etc with an entree of blinis, hung yoghurt, caramalised onion and charred salmon.  We had it outside because it was a lovely day with no wind and enjoyed a nice bottle of Bourgogne wine.  I'd randomly bought Andy a Ninja ice cream maker so we played around making a version of ice cream.   It's really yum actually and had only greek yoghurt, berries and sweetner.  You'd never guess, smooth, creamy and delicious.  Nudge got nadda because he gets aged Gouda every day so every day is Christmas day for him in my opinion!  I think he'd be confused by normal cheese.  He'd look at me with a look of "WTF?"

Christmas Eve 2024

 We did our main celebration on Christmas Eve this year.  We went to Chaumont on the 23rd and bought some delicious things as per normal but in addition we bought a côte de boeuf and some Belon oysters (highly prized flat oysters).  We opened pressies with Champagne and had those amazing oysters which Andy shucked with Champagne, fresh sourdough and butter.  Jeez they're yum.  We'll definitely get those little beauties if we see them again.  Then reverse cooked côte de boeuf (cooked slow to 53 degrees then rested and hard seared) with hasselback parsnips cooked in duck fat, roast onions, red wine sauce, celeriac & onion puree ... yummy scrum.  

Little Nudge slept amongst the Christmas pressies all day.  He's so funny.  We used the huge very ancient cast iron pan Philippe gave us to sear the beef.  It did an epic job too.  It's well seasoned so completely non stick.  It weights a ton.  Bizzarely I bought Andy a Ninja Creami ice cream maker.  So we'll have icecream for dessert on Christmas day.  

It's so cute here with all the Christmas lights even down our tiny road and the train on the way to Chaumont is the highlight.  There's a Christmas light train on the aqueduct bridge in Andelot which is as cute as a button. 

Reversed cooked tandoori lamb shoulder

 We've been using this technique for a while now on rib eye and lamb leg/shoulder and similar.

It works best on large cuts of meat. We salt the meat, put in in a low oven of about 55deg and let it cook slowly for a few hours until it reaches around 53 or so degrees.  Turning it over half way through, salting it again.  This way the meat is seasoned throughout, the slow cooking process means the salty juices season the inside.  We turn the oven off and let it sit until we're ready to give it a smokey low bbq.  The result is outstanding.  Meltingly tender meat, sweet smokey flavour, beautifully seasoned and absolutely sensational.  For this one, during the bbqing we initially brushed it with a spiced oil to help with the smoke and give more flavour, then once it had a nice smokey crust we brushed it with tandoori paste mix.

Our bbq.  Andy uses different heights and covers to get different results depending on what we're cooking.

Andy doing some watering after dinner

I'm proud of the lawns because I've been mowing them!

The garden

 This year there's been so much rain.  It's unlike any summer we've experienced here before.  We even have to mow the lawns every week when usually from May to the end of August, early September there's no need because it's dry and crunchy.  The lavenders haven't loved the rain at all, neither has the rose but the hydrangeas on the other hand adore it and have grown as tall as trees.  We'll have to give them a good chop back.

I love the view of Montot but that's an aside!

Sourdough for the neighbours

 Freshly baked this morning.  I'll pop it in on the way to our walk.

Pig hearts

 I dunno why but I'd never tried pigs hearts before but I hadn't.  I saw them at the supermarket and read up on them.  So you either cook them long and slow or flash cook them.  I decided to cook them whole, long and slow by braising them, then we finished them off on a smokey bbq with spiced oil.  I injected them with soy sauce after the initial braise which is a great technique.

Yum!  They look like large bullocks but they really are delicious.  Not a hint of offal flavour, just a rich sweet deliciousness.  Sort of a cross between beef and pork I guess.  

And they're so damn cheap!  I'm surprised here actually that they're so cheap because the French love stuff like this.  For example ox tongue is expensive.  I mean really really expensive.

Served with a spiced lentil salad, raita, fresh herb chutney and spiced apricot chutney, lettuce from Dominiques garden and flatbreads.  Scrum.

A few more from NZ that Joey took (hence why she's not in them!)

Preparing some of the delicious Jerusalem artichokes from the garden 

Juanitz, Katya and Soph

The sofas at Joey and dad's place in Whitianga are SOOOO comfy!