Talking of dinner, I managed to cook a very pleasant if slightly scruffy chicken and leek pie tonight, pastry not being my forte (this is my first pie since the age of 12 - my wife is good with pastry and always manages these things).
That looks excellent to me @Ancient_Mariner - and expanding your skill set is a fun thing to do
Also on the topic of dinner and of getting distracted as @JaneJones did - We had eaten our excellent starter and main course yesterday evening and my partner had made a blackberry and apple clafouti (a real favourite) when I looked up from my book and noticed a) that heād disappeared and b) that there was a worrying burning smell. Heād just nipped of while waiting for the last few minutes of cooking in order to send a āquickā emailā¦
(In the end, parts of it were still delicious so not a complete loss but if I hadnāt got such a sensitive sense of smell - the only sense that age has left me with - it would have charred to a cinderā¦ )
I bet it smelled a lot better than the smell of burning thermal packs
Oooh, yum. I think thatās about the only thing we have as a culinary claim to fame here in the limousin, oh and PĆ¢tĆ© aux pommes de terre. We may have all the cows but seemingly we donāt do anything interesting culinarily with them I should do one research and try find some more local dishes.
I love clafoutis! I know the original was a cherry version and Iād always thought about making that as my partner loves cherries but everything Iād read about it said it was heavy and a waste of cherries so I never made any sort until a couple of years back. I can only assume that someone said this once and it got repeated without anyone ever checking
My second batch of English bacon was ready this morning. Had bacon butties for lunch. I think Iāve cracked it as it was delicious
The secret was the right cut of pork along with the addition of Prague Powder to the mix. Before anyone mentions it, I know whatās in it and I know that itās no longer commercially used in France for cured (but not dried) pork products like bacon.
Hereās a picture
In Herault black berries are smal lwizened things. One of the few things that I miss of England is Blackberry and apple pie.
How wise of God to have arranged for them to ripen together.
Drool
Todayās cheerful news is that weāve finally jumped through all the hurdles and got the keys to a room generously provided by the Mairie for the first proper meeting of our Association
OK, there were only 6 of us but we couldnāt publicise it until we were sure of the room and timings etc. Next stop a notice in Ouest-France newspaperā¦ my goodness this is useful for learning about how things work
Well done !
Thank you @Stella - I even got a friendly response from the dragon on the desk at the Mairie when we took the keys back this afternoon. Hope that lastsā¦
If you remember to leave the room tidy, switch off the lights (and the heating if appropriate), lock up and give back the key promptlyā¦ the dragon will gradually come to hold you in high esteemā¦ and might even smile
Iāve only just recovered from drooling over that bacon.
Donāt do it to me with apple & blackberry pie as well.
One thing Iāve learned from my local Leclerc is a few cassis (if you can find them) go excellently into an open-type apple pie as well.
You can grow cassis easily, you donāt get as many as you do on a redcurrant or white currant bush, but enough.
You could just stick a bit of good crĆØme de cassis in with the apples. Worth trying anyway
Hmm itās actually the cassis skins that make up a lot of the flavour scattered through the pie with the caramelised apple slicesā¦ I might look into growing some. Would have to be well away from other bushes thoughā¦ a number of other small round black berries are poisonous
Distinctive leafā¦.should be able to tell the difference!
We grow casseille now - a cross between cassis and gooseberry that is positively perfumed and crops heavily.
I had a bush of those, my hens LOVED them so we got almost none, but it was worth it seeing the hens feasting on them and clearly enjoying them.
We have blueberry bushes and get almost none of the fruit. the blackbirds adore them. I brought a bush in its pot up onto our terrace in the vain hope we might deter the blackbirds - not a chance, they are practically at our feet! In the sentiment of this thread - nothing negative - I will add it is lovely to have the blackbirds so close.
I keep intending to net my blueberries as I do with redcurrants but somehow the blackbird usually beat me to it
I have a new casseille bush - never seen them before - and am looking forward to seeing what the fruit is like!