Hello everyone
Just wondering what you all like to eat when it’s cold outside. For me I love a comforting beef stew with dumplings, a hearty homemade soup and anything with good homemade chips. Chips are probably my ultimate comfort food but they must be homemade.
What about you?
A homemade vegetable stew (the one thing I do well) piping hot and served with a bread crouton loaded with cheese that then melts and makes a mess but is fun to eat ! Mum will sometimes make herself dumplings for the stew, but I don’t like them.
Would love one of my grandmothers bacon and herb steamed puddings about now 
That sounds delicious. Making me hungry.
Steak and mushroom pie made with some guiness.
Roast pheasant with lots of vegetables including spring greens and runner beans.
Pea and ham soup.
French onion soup.
Yummy. Had pheasant once in Scotland, cooked by someone else, and it was delicious. Always been afraid to attempt it myself. Is it easily available in France?
Mandy… we used to have them wandering across the lawn back in UK… but only see them from time to time here in France… too many hunters I guess.
Pheasant and partridge are a couple of winter dishes that I miss as we used to have them several times a year in the UK. A brace would feed the six of us then, now the boys would eat one each!
I’m not sure they breed pheasants and partridges universally here which is perhaps why you don’t see that many, most of the chasse seem to go after deer and wild boar.
well I was given one by a friend in the village…came with feathers and inners.
Hard work.
Not the cooking…slowly roasted for about 20 mins.
Nice gravy made from stock.
Will make pea and ham soup when I make chicken stock.
I always put a chunk of smoked bacon in the soup pot as it simmers slowly.
I used to skin and gut the pheasants and roast the whole bird but usually just used the breasts of the partridges (or pigeons).
Venison stew was another favourite for this time of year oh and sloe gin which we make here.
I did many things with venison saddle fillet with a port and juniper sauce
Daube of venison with baby onions and a little smoked bacon again.
POT roast of shoulder of lamb with swede and carrot…plenty of garlic and a hint
of lavender.
Tartiflette or Bourguignon - not keen on game even though we get given loads of it by the hunt but I’m just too polite to refuse 
Edit! - followed by just about any Haagen Dazs ice cream - heaven.
we used to see red-leggeds in the fields around our house and we left a large area of back garden to run wild…especially for the wildlife… that was our excuse anyway. 
My Dad (normally a keen and tidy gardner) gave me the nod… mentioning one time how good it was to let stinging nettles thrive… for the butterflies… 
Tartiflette would be at the top of my list too.
Timothy… I still have some sloe gin from 1998… and sloe brandy too. Brought ours from UK.used to make it every autumn… have you made some here in France??
Yep, new batch every other year. Normally make six bottles at a time which lasts two years, always tastes better the longer you leave it. I drive about a lot so make a mental note of where the sloe bushes are, same with Rosehips.
Never eaten tartiflette… or so I thought. It seems that it’s similar to my “cheese, onion, potato and bacon pie” just without the wine or the Reblochon (in the UK I used strong cheddar and here a mix of Cantal and Parmesan). Love this in the winter. Good choice.
Cottage Pie! Nothing better after a day’s work in winter coming home to cottage pie. Filling, warming, and comforting. And a glass of wine with it doesn’t go amiss!
does this mean my 20 year-old stuff will be dynamite? or not, as it is bottles, rather than fruit and all in the demijohns… ???
We had roast toulouse sausages with baked potatoes, spiced red cabbage, broccoli and creamy onion sauce.
