Ransom wars

I think it is finally spring. Or at least, a few errant days of faux spring before real spring arrives. There will be all sorts of my favourite things available, and we can all finally bid a slightly jaded farewell to the parsnip and the jerusalem artichoke (and all their rooty friends). 

Wild garlic leaf season is definitely one of my most eagerly anticipated delights, in good company with English asparagus season and Piedmont porcini-and-truffle o' clock. I was finally rewarded last week and promptly over-ordered with glee, especially as I'd been discussing how soon they would arrive with my friend Oliver at Konstam, and knew he'd have to wait longer to get some from within Greater London, whereas I could cheat and accept those from anywhere nearish. (Although I wasn't in the lead for long as a professional London forager turned up at Konstam with a big sack of them yesterday).

Obviously, I've been slinging them in everything willy nilly all week, (Chicken, salsify and w.g.l. pie... smoked haddock, gruyere and w.g.l tart...) but my favourite new usage has been wild garlic leaf aioli, which today is befriending some confit pig cheeks, chicory and croutons in a nice fatty spring salad.

Wild garlic leaf aioli:

5 egg yolks

1 crushed clove garlic

1 pint mildly flavoured oil 

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

juice of half a lemon

sea salt

2 generous handfuls ransom leaves, shredded

Add the milder oil to the egg yolks and crushed garlic drop by drop to form a smooth emulsion, whisking constantly - you can start to add it in a steady stream about half way through - when you've added all of this oil continue with the extra virgin oil, fold in the shredded leaves, crushing them as you go, then finally add the lemon juice and salt to taste.

Eat with most things... toast... fish... potatoes... eggs... etc

Ripailles at the Charles Lamb...

Sanchia and I are going all out Breton tomorrow for a pork and cider feast (feast = ripailles).

The main event is the Kig ha Farz, a breton version of the classic pot-au-feu. It involves shin of beef, ox cheeks, ham hocks and marrow bones with a tasty stock which you poach your buckwheat flour dumpling wrapped in linen along with cabbage, turnips, carrots.... Cider is being served throughout the 3 courses of course! We will take lots of pictures, I thinks there will be several recipe blogs, including a first tryout on my apple and boudin noir tarte tatin!

Watch this space...

And the pig jelly...

Forgot to mention, Camille saw a pig shaped jelly mould and thought of me. So I made pig shaped ham and parsley terrine, ( a process involving 8 pig's trotters and numerous other bits of pig) which was to my eyes an aesthetic wonder. Splendid.

Day of the egg

On Thursday we over ordered eggs. Happily, I like making egg based sauces. First some saffron aioli (I'm sure I've mentioned this before, so I'll be brief... 2 cloves of garlic per yolk this time). Then tarragon mayonnaise, then some celeriac remoulade, and finally, a delicious Gribiche which adorned in this case slices of ox tongue, but has previously on our menu been a charming bed-fellow to purple sprouting broccoli, baby leeks, asparagus (soon, soon...), globe artichokes, assorted cold meats, and one hungry morning, a solitary but satisfactory breakfast involving a ramekin and a teaspoon.

Sauce Gribiche:

10 hard boiled eggs
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
2 tablespoons oil (rapeseed is lovely, but Olive oil does pretty well too)
Tablespoon white wine vinegar
half bunch chopped chervil
half bunch chopped parsley
smaller amount chopped chives
Handful rinsed salted capers, chopped a little
Sea salt and black pepper

Remove the yolks from the eggs and mash with a fork. Combine with the vinegar and mustard. Slowly incorporate the oil ( you don't have to be as careful as with mayonnaise). Fold in the herbs and capers, and season to taste.

Seasoning pork mince...

You could stuff beef tomatoes (tomate farci),large spanish onions (oignon farci)or bell peppers, make scotch eggs or stuff Squid tubes, mussel shells or large clam shells.... a speciality of Setes , a large fishing port in South West France.

1 kilo of Minced pork shoulder will go along way (3 kilos stuffed 10 large squid tubes and made 16 scotch quails eggs for me today!) 

 3 chopped shallots

 4 cloves chopped garlic

chopped sage, tarragon, parsley and thyme

 breadcrumbs

1 egg

pinch of sea salt ground pepper ... also try fennel seeds if stuffing squid, mussels or fishy stuff ... coriander seeds for tomatoes ... celery salt for scotch eggs..

Above you can see me stuffing some rather large squid tubes ... we ordered small ones, however you can't guarantee what you get when you at the mercy of deliveries! Sanchia made a simple tomato sauce with plenty garlic , shallots etc in it  which got blizted by the hand blender then poured over the stuffed "encornet" covered the tray with foil and in the oven for about 45 mins at medium heat. 

 To serve we made some saffron pilaf rice and we scored the squid  pouring the tomato sauce at the side. 

 I think scotch eggs will have to be another post....

Charles lamb Menu

   

It occured to me today that we have never posted a menu for the Charles Lamb Pub on the blog ... so here is a  menu that I was inspired to take a photo of as it had  all my favourites (apart from cassoulet) on it!

We change the menu everyday and usually between lunch and dinner too. Its short and sweet and we tend not to waste ... there are usually backup dishes to move onto the menu if its a particularly busy session.

Cassoulet in Castelnaudary...

The birth place of Cassoulet ... it was only a 2 and a half hour drive from where we were sampling wines so I thought it'd be rude not to! Teamed with a night in Carcassone it was hard for my better half to say no too. The Cardogan Guide to the south of France declared this "the best gourmet restaurant in town". Perhaps it was... 20 years ago! The decor was incredibly OTT and out of date but this was more amusing than off putting. It was cold and raining outside and we were pleased we'd made it in time for lunch sessions last orders (2pm!)

There were many pre fixe menus ranging from €13 through to €45 ... not wanting to go crazy for lunch we picked a 4 course affair at €20. 

Foie  Gras wrapped in sausage meat then a thin rolling of lard covered in trotter jelly galore!

as you can see from the photo, the late seventies decor also made it onto my plate along with tasteless tomatoes and olives(?!)

The Cassoulet came with 2 thin chipolata  sized sausage, a piece of pork knuckle and a slice of pork belly along with a  piece of goose which i couldn't work out where on the goose it was from as it was so small and dry! The beans were plentiful of course and delicious too I just thought the whole dish (which was for both of us to share!) was very mean on the meat. 

After the cassoulet arrived "faisselle de fromage blanc" which was homemade fromage frais swimming in cream sprinkled with white sugar which took me straight back to my childhood.

Finally we got creme caramel with a generous amount of liquor. We had this with a lovely bottle of corbieres.

Here is the Chef ... Monsieur Francois Gibassier ... He probably thought I was some guide book critic! We had a lovely lunch and for the price it wasn't bad. I have a theory that if you are known for one thing, and its as much as a faff as cassoulet you're going to get a bit lazy and cut a few corners after doing the same dish day in day out for 20 odd years ... so Castelnaudary may be the birth place of cassoulet and you may be able to get it in every hotel, restaurant, cafe, bar and bistro in town but it may not be the best you'll ever have!