We accepted a delivery

He was at lunch in Joinville when it arrived so we accepted delivery of it.  An art piece of around euro god knows how many euros..... ( it cost him 2,500 for delivery... a huge truck for a single piece).   

Philippe came to look at it at 5pm when he arrived from his lazy lunch with his male friends. 

Anyway, that aside... tonight we have an art work worth god nows how much, but at least the price of small new car in our barn.  

 

Red cabbage risotto.....

With red cabbage pesto on top.  Underneath was caramalised miso celeriac puree with aged Morbier cut into little bits so it melted when the hot celeriac puree was placed on top.  Then we had red cabbage risotto with parmesan.  A red cabbage pesto for freshness on top.  I know.  Sounds weird.  But with crispy charred flatbread for crunch.  Lettuce cups for crunch.  Fresh parmesan shavings on the table.  And that celeriac and cheese in the bottom of the bowl bringing everything together when you drag your spoon through.  Yum.  Seriously delicious. Simple and cheap (if you live in France) a dish, with these cheeses would cost a fortune anywhere else.  It wasn't a pretty dish.  But it tasted bloody amazing.  

 

Turkey Osso Bucco,Tandoori style....

We did turkey, osso bucco cut, but tandoori style.

  

OMFG, it was unreal.  The turkey was incredible.  Andy's tandoori mix is incredible and we're lucky enough to get cuts of meat here we'd never ever get anywhere else. 

 One of the stars was the chickpea with spinach, pea, ginger and fresh chilli.  It was simply spiced with cumin, coriander seed, a touch of cinnamon , finished off with freshlly ground garam masala and fresh red chilli.  The whole meal was utterly delicious.

We had so many indian vege side dishes, it'd be good without the turkey but that turkey was sublime.  Geez, I'd not be a happy vego.  

 

Andy being silly.  

 

The chicken risotto....

 It might look odd in the photo, but it tasted unreal. In reality it looked beautiful with the colours and textures.  

Cabbage pesto is something I've made for ages now.  It's way back from a Jun Tanaka recipe.  This is the first time I've used red cabbage (I still think cabbage needs a rebrand with the name.  It just sounds so cabbagey for such an amazing veg).

Quickly cooked cabbage is sweet (whether red or white).  Parmesan is salty sweet and sour.  The two work together absolutely beautifully.

We had pavé d'affinois on the bottom of the bowls with little bits of left over chicken.  

With this incredible risotto with dried black trumpet mushrooms (trompette)  Topped off with the cabbage pesto.  Def wouldn't sell itself in a restaurant because, once again, cabbage needs rebranding.  It tasted de-fucking-licious.  

We like crispy bits with our risotto so we had crispy bread, lettuce cups, things to make it fun to eat rather than just wolf the whole thing down with a spoon in a nano second.  We like to take time to eat.  YUM.

I'm now wondering, what's for dinner?

Chicken risotto with red cabbage pesto

New years eve dinns 2021

The thing is, we were invited to the Chateau Orqueveaux  for dinner.  But it was cancelled due to COVID.  It was only going to be a small get together, but we were hesitant given the increasing numbers.  Bhulah and Ziggy were wise to cancel.  

We had a glorious day this neck of the woods.  The warmest we can remember for this time of year.  

We had wine out on our terrace with an outside fire before coming in for an early dinns.

Dinner was serious.  Not traditional for this region.  AT ALL. We had 6 different varieties of vegetarian Indian side dishes, with an incredible farm raise French chicken done in the not so French tradition of Tandoor style, with flat breads, raita, and basmati rice. We couldn't fit it all on the table so I popped a little bit of a few things on our plates.   So we basically had vegetarian   -  with chicken.  Andy had chicken  - with a touch of vegetarian.  

We had spiced red cabbage with beetroot, turnip and tomato curry (a revelation), celeriac spiced remoulade, potato and tomato curry, spinach pea and chickpea curry, fresh raw lentil salad for freshness.  An absolute knockout with fresh fennel, lime juice and zest, toasted mustard seed.  

This meal had everything.  Richness from the tandoori chicken, underlying notes from the various vegetables, acidity from the chutneys, pickles and raita. And lettuce cups.  Yum.  

That tandoori chicken was unreal.  Whatever Andy put on it, it worked.  The chicken itself was beautiful but that marinade.  Yum.  He added a bit of smoked paprika I think.  Fresh ginger, garlic, spices.  Not sure but it was the best chicken tandoor I've eaten.   I might be slightly biased.  But Andy knows his f...ing spice.   

Below, a salad of raw soaked red lentils, lime zest and juice, tempered mustard seeds, finely chopped fresh fennel, lime juice, salt and fresh chilli.  A beautiful fresh addition to any Indian meal.  However, tempered fresh curry leaves and fresh coriander finishes this off.   I don't have access to fresh curry leaf or fresh coriander here.  But..... it's delicious anyway.  

French prawns, bisque, fresh pasta and prawn heads

The Christmas celebrations which we sort of couldn’t attend this year ended out being delivered by the mayor because Andy is over 65 as per my post earlier in December.  Everything was delicious.  But.  The thing we were the most intrigued was a single prawn.  It was fully seasoned throughout.  We saw them yesterday in Chaumont and decided to give them a go, thinking they might be the same.  I’ve rarely, if ever bought precooked prawns. 

 

These really are a revelation.  Fresh as fresh (same day fresh) and I think cooked on the boat in sea water then brought in and distributed.

 

So, yes.  Our Chaumont prawns were unreal.  I mean can the French seriously get everything right with food?  It appears so.

 

Anyway.  We took off the heads, made a bisque.  Prawn heads, white wine, shallots, fresh tomato, fennel, pernod, saffron.  Then crushed it down, took out the heads and put them on oiled baking paper to cook off again separately to make them crispy (waste not)….

 

Andy rolled out the pasta, cut it and floured it.

 

We sweated down shallots, fennel and tomato very finely diced and added it to the bisque.

 

We grilled the prawns under a hot grill very quickly. 

 

We added the drained pasta after just 30 seconds in boiling water to the bisque sauce.  With plenty of cooking liquor to give viscosity to the sauce. 

 

With extra pernod, lemon zest, parmesan shavings, fleur de sel and lemon juice. Prawns on top of the pasta. A little fresh shaved fennel for freshness. With those crispy prawn heads and parmesan on the table.....

 

Yum.  YUM