Colours in the Garden!

You tend to think at this time of year that there's not much colour in the garden, but I looked out my bedroom window this morning and saw the almond blossom! Perfect! I then looked across to the pool area and saw the kumquat and the mimosa, and the rosemary we planted a couple of years ago look as if they are going to take over the garden! So it's not even spring yet, but we have all this spectacular colour at Domaine La Veronique!! Wonderful! 

  

   

CASSOULET WEATHER

Last night when I walked Caline last thing, the skies were incredibly clear, and the stars were magnificent. This morning we woke to blue skies and a hard frost. Beautiful!! So I'll be outside today, catching up on a bit of gardening at Domaine La Veronique. So for this evenings meal Peter has decided to make Cassoulet, a wonderful warming dish for a cold winters day!! How lucky I am to have a gourmet chef as a husband!! Here's his recipe!

Peter's Cassoulet Recipe

Cassoulet is a traditional peasant dish originating in the south of France (supposedly Castelnaudry, but some say Carcassonne or Toulouse). The dish is named after its traditional cooking vessel, the cassole, which is a large earthenware dish. There are many variations, but all contain beans and meat, most commonly duck or goose and sausages. Here is Peter’s modern take on the Cassoulet recipe, which is less fatty than some of the traditional recipes.

Ingredients

500g dried lingot beans

3 confit of duck legs

200g Confit of Pork or smoked bacon, cut in to lardoons (small cubes)

50g duck/goose fat

Gesiers of duck

300g Toulouse sausage

2 onions sliced and chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

800g tomatoes, peeled, seeded and finely chopped (canned plum tomatoes are better than under ripe fresh ones)

1 tbsp tomato purée

1 tbsp Harisa

1 dsp Fresh thyme (chopped) 

60g dried breadcrumbs

25g Chopped parsley

100ml white wine

100ml chicken stock

Salt and pepper

Method

1)      Soak beans overnight in cold water.

2)      Put beans in to a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Add salt, and continue to cook for another hour until “al dente”.

3)      Cut sausage in to 20 mm pieces, place in a frying pan with the pork (or bacon) and the duck fat. Fry until nicely browned. Set aside the meat.

4)      In the same frying pan, sweat the garlic and onion in the residue fat.

5)      Gently heat the confit and the gesiers in the oven for 15 minutes. Poor off the fat and remove skin and bones. Set aside.

6)      Place tomatoes, onions, garlic, tomato purée, Harisa (chilli purée), thyme, stock and white wine in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes.

7)      Drain the beans and place in a large dish. Add all other ingredients, except breadcrumbs and parsley and stir well. Adjust seasoning to taste. Place the mixture in a large earthenware dish, or smaller individual dishes.

8)      Mix breadcrumbs and parsley, and sprinkle over the top. Bake for 30 minutes until bubbling and crispy on top.

Walking at Gruissan

We've not had many sunny days over the last couple of months. Some rain... but can't complain when you hear about the floods in England. So when the sun does come out we try to get out in the fresh air and enjoy it!! Through a friend we've been introduced to walking along the beach at Gruissan (about 40 minutes drive from Domaine La Veronique) and grabbing a lunch of oysters, crab and prawns at La Perle Gruissanaise. We park the car up by the houses on stilts (the small wooden chalets made famous in the film Betty Bleu), then walk out across the wonderful expanse of sand. La Perle is a producer of oysters, and the hangar-like building sticks out on a promenade in to the sea. You can sit outside looking out over the sea with the back-drop of the Pyrenees whilst eating your lunch. The set-up is very basic. You go in and order your fish platter, and then collect your plates and glasses, bread and carafe of wine. There are buckets for the debris and water bowls for doggies!! If you're really organised you can take your own salads, coffee and dessert along, and nobody minds!! It's a wonderful way to spend a few hours, and it feels really quite special at a time of year when you tend to be stuck indoors! Caline really enjoyed it when we went with some of her friends!! Caline loves the beach, but is still not sure about the sea!! .... but her friends love it!!

 

Goodbye to Christmas!!

It happened to be 'Blue Monday" on 6th January this year, when all the Christmas decorations are taken down. According to the news it was the worst day of the year for people being depressed!! How they work these things out I don't know. I can't say I felt that blue! It was the first rehearsal of the year for my choir... so I was happy to see everyone again.... although not everyone was there!! Still away enjoying themselves!! But there was something sad about packing away all the pretty things we have out at Christmas, and putting them in the loft until next years celebrations!! So I said a little 'Bye-bye' to Christmas!!.... for another year!!... with a tear in my eye... and then got on with the day! Can't feel blue for too long!!

Happy New Year!!

We had a very traditional Christmas Day meal this year. Turkey and all the trimmings! Peter ordered a turkey from his butcher who managed to source a 9kg turkey!! That is unheard of in France, and the butcher couldn't believe we would be happy with a bird that size!! It was very expensive, but it was a beautiful free range turkey, tender, moist and tasty. Sally cooked the whole meal, although left Peter in charge of the gravy!! Of course there was far too much food over Christmas and we are still enjoying the Christmas Pudding, Christmas cake and mince pies. Sally made the mincemeat from a Constance Spry recipe as it's hard to source mincemeat in France. She also made a gingerbread house, a tradition in her family, which was demolished and eaten within seconds!!

We had a very quiet New Years Eve (just Peter, Sally and Joy), but of course Peter wanted to do a special meal, so off he went to the butchers again to buy a duck. It came with head and all... which Peter doesn't have a problem with, but some of us do!!! 

After the antics.... Peter roasted the duck, and served with roast potatoes, vegetables and a lovely orange sauce. It was yummy!! It's now time for the diet!!

Mid September and second crop of Figs!

The figs this year have been amazing!. The first crop was over very quickly, but they were large and thousands of them appeared very quickly. So much so that we couldn't get rid of them all, however many we tried to give away!!! So I ended up making jelly! Yes.... jelly not jam. I'm not a great lover of the seeds in figs, so I wanted a jam with just the flavours of the fig! I looked up various recipes, and decided to use Constance Spry's recipe ... the method 1 where no water is used. 'This is more extravagant but results in a better and finer jelly', she says, and as we had so many figs we decided to do just that!!

Method 1. For this the fruit is put in to a vessel and this is then set in a pan of water. The surrounding water is allowed to boil and the warmth causes the fruit in the inner vessel to render its juice. The fruit should be mashed a little from time to time. It is turned in to a jelly bag and allowed to drain overnight.

We then discussed why we had to use sugar.... and again as we had so many figs we decided to experiment..... and amazingly made a great jelly (not overly firm) without using sugar. We left the figs over night in the jelly bag, and the juice that came out was actually solidifying before we did anything else to it. We heated the juice for a few minutes, and had varying degrees of success. Some became jelly, but the juice that didn't really set became a wonderful coulis to drizzle over ice-cream and various desserts. Yum!!

So we're just about to attack the second crop of figs, before Caline (the labrador) eats them all!! They are smaller, but still plenty of them, and then we'll be deciding what to do with the plethora of almonds, and then perhaps harvest the olives unless we decide to leave them for oil this year!! It's a busy life at Domaine La Veronique!!   

Well I'm still humming (see my last post!!) and I'm still talking about the weather....as are the majority of people!! The lady in the papeterie on Sunday was joking with me that it was like English weather, and the guy in the boulangerie was complaining it was too damp for his dough to rise!! That was probably just an excuse for his bread being under-cooked this week, but never mind!!We'd hoped that this last weekend our Diners Club guests could have eaten outside for a change. But no... we lit the fire to keep everything cosy and warm. We had some American agents for lunch on Saturday.... and it rained and rained!! They still seemed to like La Véronique, so hopefully will send many guests our way... so 'hey ho'!! Someday soon the sun will arrive and stay for a while. And in the meantime we'll think about food!!

We launched a 'members only' Diners Club at the end of January and it seems to have become very popular. We're fully booked for this weekend and we have several other bookings for future weeks. That's before we even publish the menu!! I don't know why I'm surprised really. Peter is such a good chef and Domaine La Véronique is such a special place people are bound to like it!! I hope it continues. Here's the menu we served this last weekend. Let's think about asparagus and Spring!!

Amuse Bouche

***

Asparagus with Foaming Hollandaise, Quail Egg and Parmesan Crisp

OR

Smoked Trout & Beetroot ‘Trifle' with Avocado Custard

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Escalope of Veal with a Tagliatelle of Carrot and Courgette

With a Muscat and Veal Sauce

OR

Confit of Guinea Fowl on a bed of De Puy Lentils and Sautéed Potatoes

***

A Selection of Three Cheeses

***

Crème de Müre Jelly with Blackberry Ice-cream

OR

Bitter Chocolate Mousse with Ginger Crunch and Cappuccino Foam

***

Coffee/Tea and Chocolates