Sunday Night's Dinner - Quail

On Sunday, I surprised Nigel with a meal that is not very common in our household and it was soooooo delicious!!   Sometime ago, I saw quail on special offer in a local supermarket, so I bought some and threw them in the freezer; four of them to be exact!  Last Sunday morning, I thought I would get them out and unfreeze them, then decide what I was going to do with them.  I had a look on the internet and found so many similar recipes, that I decided to get a hint from each one and then do my own thing!

Ready to go in the oven when covered.

Serves 2

4 quails
2 tablespoon quince jelly, but I guess you could use any jelly
100 gr (3½ ozs) lardons or chopped thick bacon
20 pitted prunes
brandy (about 2 liqueur glasses full)
4 shallots chopped chunky
chicken stock cube
water
1 tablespoon thyme (dried)
olive oil
2 tablespoons parsley (dried)
garlic salt
freshly ground pepper.

I put the prunes in a small dish, covered them with the brandy and left them there most of the afternoon to absorb as much as possible.

I cleaned and washed each bird removing the few feathers that were still attached and then sprinkled them with freshly ground pepper and some garlic salt.  I browned them in a non-stick frying pan in a little oil, turning so all sides were lightly browned, I then added the lardons and sprinkled it all with the thyme, I cooked it all for a couple of minutes. I then lined the birds up in a pyrex dish and spooned over the lardons and the thyme. (Keep the pan for later). I popped them into the oven, covered, at 220C (428F) for 15 mins then took them out and let them stand for a couple of hours not removing the lid.  (This step may not be necessary, but I wanted to eat later and I did not want to mess around at the last minute. I suspect though this may have been what made them so tender!)

Just before serving I put the dish back in the oven at 160C (320F) to heat the birds through, while I made the sauce in the non-stick pan.  To do this, heat the pan, add the shallots, fry lightly until glassy in appearance.  Pour over the prunes and the remains of the brandy and flame, lighting carefully with a match.  Add the quince jelly, the chicken stock cube, parsley and a little water  until you have a good sauce consistency, allow to reduce a little.

Remove the quails from the oven, put 2 on a plate and pour the sauce (10 prunes for each person!) over the birds. Serve with vegetables of choice. 

My vegetable selection maybe a bit odd, but I was using up what was plentiful in the garden!  Chard stalks pre-boiled until just soft, then put in the oven with parmesan and pepper sprinkled between each layer with a small drop of red wine, cooked at 180C (356F) until slightly brown. I left them in there when the quail went back in to heat up at 160C.   

The green from the chard was wilted in boiling water, then drained and chopped.  Meanwhile I made a white sauce, added Dijon mustard and freshly ground black pepper to taste,  before I mixed in the chopped chard.  

Chard Stalks

The third vegetable was a very large green tomato that I peeled with a potato peeler. It was firm enough to do this.  I sliced it, and as I layered it in the dish I sprinkled it with pepper and parmesan. It went in the oven, in a separate dish, covered, with the chard stalks and cooked for the same time.

It was very tasty and the quail were remarkably tender.  I was pleasantly surprised that we both felt quite full afterwards.

 

See also - My Life Before Charente Updated 28/10/12

The Greenhouse

This post has been a long time in coming!  Not just the post, but the greenhouse as well!  We bought it  in kit form almost two years ago, while we were both in the UK   and it was delivered to our house  over there.  

The boxes were very heavy,  some very long and there was also, of course, the glass!  Despite me having a large Ford Mondeo Estate, there was no way that I was going to get all the boxes in the car.  The car had been used to transport railway sleepers, so that gives one an idea of its size. One of the biggest UK  "station wagons" on the market.

By April 2011, we had we managed to arrange with a "man and  van" to collect the greenhouse boxes, and fill his van with a whole lot more of our boxes (and more railway sleepers) for delivery to France. All the glass had to be wrapped in cardboard to protect it as far as possible!  

 When the van arrived in France, I was lucky enough to have the help of my friend Jean-Paul to help me unload.  He is quite small, but incredibly strong and I caught him taking off  with a railway sleeper on his own!!  JP has become a good friend following his work on renewing our roof.  He arrived at our house last Sunday evening with a whole tray of cepe mushrooms that he had gathered that day in the woods; his wife said there were too many for her to deal with!  Yum yum, we had cepes on toast, cepe lasagne and cepe soup!!!

Oops I digress, this is about the greenhouse.  Nigel came over in the July  and we thought we we would quickly put the greenhouse up; two days at the most!!  I am sure most of you have tried following DIY instructions (these were a small book!) and generally they were not that simple.  I think these were harder than most and only clear if you had built one before!  We assembled sides and ends and tried to bolt them  together; they didn't look right, so we took them apart and tried again!

Finally we carried the various bits to the barn, where they stayed until we eventually moved here at the end of the year!!  Further work had to wait until March this year, as the weather was too cold and we were blanketed in snow for several weeks.

With further head scratching and spanner work, the structure  slowly, very slowly, began to take shape and it was positioned on the paving Nigel had put down over a year earlier!

We then had a weather delay - endless rain, but the glass fitting and shelf installation went quite quickly, until at last in May, the job was done!!

Hopefully by early spring next year, the seedlings will have got away earlier than usual.  We have not got heating in it, so I will still have to use protection, but I am looking forward to putting it in use!!

 

See also - My Life Before Charente updated  21 October 2012 

Le Hameau de Pirelonge

Last month we went on a coach ride, organised by our leisure group, to  Le Hameau (hamlet) de Pirelonge in Charente-Maritime, about 2 hours drive away towards the coast. The hamlet is owned by the Brillouet family and an appointment is necessary to visit, as they give you a guided tour, of which more later! They have a  winery, perfumery, a printing museum, some craft work,  a shop and a restaurant.  This post is longer than my usual ones, but I did not feel that splitting it into two was a good idea!

We were so looking forward to the trip, but sadly there was much of Pirelonge that we did not get to see and we spent many hours sitting on hard wooden benches, listening to French commentary that we found almost impossible to follow. Not only a foreign language for us, but the speech was much too fast.  It appeared that much of it was about tracing the history of the hameau over the centuries and how the place worked.  They showed us the beautiful cognac stills and explained (in French of course) how the distillery operates.  The son, Jean-Marc did speak English well, but there was so much to get through that we did not  have the opportunity to talk to him, and he seemed to be speaking extra-fast to cram in everything he wanted to say!  There were only 4 English speaking people on the coach and although 2 of them speak reasonable French, the lengthy monologues were even too fast for them! Nevertheless, we did take many photos and I think they are worthy of going into this post.

Above and below - the old shop and sign where the barrels used to be made

Above and below, some of their products for sale in the shop, pineau, cognac and lavender bags.

Jean-Marc gave us all a tasting of each of his 5 pineau vintages, of which he is rightly very proud! Not good for the head at 11 in the morning!

In 1987, he planted lavender, and 1989, he organized his first Festival with the stills and old crafts. 

Jean-Marc talking about some of the stills that you can see behind him.

There were barns and barns of different types of stills, all museum pieces, but I need to limit the amount of photos I took to a few interesting ones. These mobile stills below were pulled around to the various vineyards, where alcohol would be brewed on the spot from the farmer's own grapes!!

This was obviously not part of the museum pieces, but I was fascinated by the fact it was partly hidden under a pile of empty boxes! For you car fans, this French classic  appears to be a Rosengart LR4 N2, manufactured I think in the 30's  by French engineer Lucien Rosengart. The marque ceased production during WW2 due to the Nazi invasion of France, and post-war models failed to sell, leading to its demise. There are better preserved examples in car museums around France and elsewhere!

Then there was a break in the talking for lunch, where of course, language did not deter us from enjoying the event, and event it was!  In a large barn converted to a restaurant is a stunning stained glass window, the work of a cousin Brillouet, master glassmaker.

I managed to catch this photo first, before it was taken over by the hungry crowd!

First were the starters, to which we helped ourselves

Once these were cleared away, through a curtained opening in one of the walls, a selection of our French male friends appeared, all dressed in frilly can-can clothes, carrying a pig on a large platter, shoulder-high.  The beast had been cooking all morning on a spit in the hallway.  There was much laughter and camera flashing, as they walked the full circuit of the room.  Sadly most of my photos were not good, but here is one of their entry, lit by a spotlight.

and another, having placed it on the table for flaming with cognac and carving

the mandatory cheese course followed and then this delicious apple tart

   

Then one of the family members arrived to play us some tunes on her accordion and the result you can see here went down well, especially after the earlier pineau tasting and limitless wine with the meal!

After the meal there was yet another long talk on the making of  perfume from the lavender; we skipped this one, as we felt that we could not take in any more high-speed French in one day!  Needless to say, we did join up again with the group to attend the printing lecture (more sitting on benches!); this museum had many interesting presses, and I gather that most of the wine labels used to be printed here, as well many historic articles on both wine and viticulture.

For the cat lovers out there, and I know there are many of you, we saw the many farm cats  being fed

It was then back home again on the coach, and I thought that these two photos taken from the window were worth adding to the post.

Vineyards at Jarnac

and last, but not least, the Charente River at Jarnac which I have now also put as my header photo for the next month.

 

See also - My Life Before Charente updated  14 October 2012 

The Promised Renovation Update

When we bought our house in 2005 there was much we wanted to do, but due to various circumstances (the economy being one!), renovation has taken rather longer than we hoped or intended!  The final phase of work was to make 3 rooms upstairs in the grenier (attic) of the barn, and last year I helped a friend put the ceiling into this area, with  insulation above. The latter is 300 millimetres (one foot) thick - the current recommended standard! - see here.

The kitchen and lounge renovation, if you are interested in going back, is here.

The very dark earth- floored barn at the other end of the house, which became our bedroom, is here.

Finally, what has been keeping us in complete chaos for the past few weeks, is HERE.  I have put these photos as a stand alone page for my convenience and I am hoping that this does not deter you from viewing them.

Meanwhile, autumn has well and truly arrived here, and the temperatures are on their way down, with possible frosts early next week, so the forecast says at the moment!

Our oak tree is dropping acorns everywhere, but sadly we have no pigs around here who might benefit!

These pumpkins  will have to be brought in this week, before the cold arrives

This is a whopper of a butternut; it's not really ready to come in, but it cannot survive a frost either!

The chard looks great and this is a fantastic survivor in cold weather.

and last but not least, the butterflies are still fluttering around. 

Small Copper - Lycaena phlaeas.

Thanks Noushka

 

See also - My Life Before Charente updated  7 October 2012 

Cape Brandy Pudding/Tart

We had friends around for dinner on Friday and I decided to make a dish that we have not had for sometime.  I cannot imagine why I have not made it recently, as it is delicious, and I thought that I should share it with you.  If you don't touch alcohol, it's time to stop reading right here!!!!

I have been using this recipe for donkey's years and I have no idea where it came from originally, but I first published it some years ago on my own website.  

http://www.recipe.nidi.org.uk/

Cape Brandy Pudding/Tart

250gr (8.8oz) dates stoned
1 teasp bicarb
1 cup boiling water
115 gr (4 oz) butter
200 gr (7 oz) sugar
2 eggs beaten
240 gr (8.5 oz) flour
1 teasp baking powder
½ teasp salt
1 cup chopped walnuts

For the syrup

250 gr  (8.8 oz) sugar
15 gr (½ oz)  butter
¾ cup water
1 teasp vanilla
Pinch salt
½ cup brandy

Chop the dates and divide into 2 equal portions. Add the bicarb to one half and pour the cup of boiling water over. Stir to mix and leave to cool. Cream together the butter and the sugar, add the beaten eggs and mix well. Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt and fold into the butter mixture. Add the second portion of dates together with the nuts. Stir in the dates and bicarb mixture and mix thoroughly.

Turn mixture into a large oven proof dish.   Bake for 40 – 50 mins at 180ºC (350F).

Meanwhile, make the syrup. Heat the sugar, butter and water together for 5 mins. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla essence, salt and brandy. Pour the syrup over the hot tart when it is taken from the oven and allow it all to soak in.

Serve hot or cold with crème fraiche, cream or custard.

ENJOY!

Sorry this was all that was left when I remembered to take a photo!!!

 

See also - My Life Before Charente updated  1 October 2012