Dave Hatfield

Much talk, no recipies other than Paula's. I've also noticed that there doesn't seem to be a recipe for Lamb Shanks in Recipe Gullet. I was going to post there, but it seems I can only put up one picture so I'm going to do it here & then on my blog. This is a recipe for braised Lamb Shanks. According to everything I've read it really is a daube by definition. No matter, I don't want to get into the semantics. I'm also not going to get into what kind of pot to cook it in or whether oven or stovetop is better. Suffice it to say that if the dish is slowly & carefully cooked with love & respect it is going to be delicious. The rest is nuance. Here goes: Ingredients: (to serve two people.) 2 Lamb Shanks 2-3 yellow onions 3-4 carrots 2-3 stalk of celery 5-8 cloves of garlic Lots of fresh rosemary Lots of fresh thyme. A few bay leaves Hearty red wine Good lamb stock Salt & pepper. The Lamb Shanks. Choose nice meaty ones & do NOT trim. Method: 1) Put a small amount of fat into your pot. (duck is best, but others will do) Heat this up & then put the shanks in and brown turning frequently. 2) Meanwhile be chopping up the Onion, carrot, celery mixtrue. (How finely you chop depends upon how you plan to finish the dish. More on this later. The pictures show a rough chop suitable for a more 'stewlike' version. The roughly chopped mirapoix. 3) Peel & roughly chop the garlic 4) When the shanks are nicely browned remove them from the pot & set aside. Put the vegetable mixture along with the garlic & bay leaves into the pot, turn down the heat to low, cover the pot & sweat the mixture for at least 20 minutes. Lamb Shanks browning. Veggies sweating. 5) Rub your rosemany & thyme as you strip the leaves from the stalks. Not really necessary as you know what herbs look like, but I like the picture. 6) Put the lamb shanks back into the pot. Add the herbs. Add the wine & stock to just cover. (I like to use about 50% wine, 50% stock. Give everything a light seasoning. 7) Bring to the boil then back down to a simmer. Cover & simmer slowly for at least 3 hours. Check & stir occasionally. Start of cooking. 8) At the end of this first cooking take the shanks out & put them in the fridge separately from the vegatables & sauce. 9) Next day bring everything back up to room temperature having skimmed off any fat from the sauce. (there normaly won't be much if any.) Now its decision time. How to finish the dish as there are lots of variations. A) my favorite 'classic' version. for this one I would have chopped the veggies much more finely. I would now add some crushed juniper berries and about 3 oz of tomato puree. Everything back into the pot for at least 2 hours covered. Shanks out. Veggies & stock through a strainer or food mill then back into the pot for a final reduction. Add some butter just before serving to give a nice finish. Serve over potatoes, rice or other root vegetables. B) An Italian, "ossa bucco" slant. AS in A, but no juniper. Add oregano & fennel seeds, the tomato puree & a can of italian plum tomatoes. Cook as before except stir more often to crush the plum tomatoes. Serve over pasta, polenta or rice. C) The 'stew' version. This is the one I've shown with roughly chopped veggies. I now for the second cooking add green lentils (about 4 oz per person) or white beans which have been soaked & pre-cooked. Everything together & cook for closer to 3 hours than 2. Serve as is. Lamb shank 'stew or Daube de jarret d'agneau. Enjoy. This is both easy & delicious.

Had Cassoulet for lunch yesterday at a local restaurant. The menu was: Homemade vegetable soup seved family style. A Green salad with local dry ham & Emental cheese chunks. The Cassoulet A choice of desserts. I had a big piece of pear tart. 1/4 liter wine Coffee. The Cassoulet was a relatively simple one, but each person had a large piece of Toulouse sausage & a cuisse de confit de Camard. The beans were just right & laced with slivers of pork, a bit of tomato, lots of garlic & herbs. Not a to die for Cassoulet, but very good as restaurant cassoulets go. Prix fixe 11 Euros about $15.00.

Had another frustrating conversation with madame at Limogne market. (see June,2006 blog post for background.) This time she had a little chevre that looked really old. It was about 2 inches in diameter & 1/2 inch thick. Orange with 'spots'; price 78 centimes. I couldn't resist. The conversation: (such as it was) Me: is that a chevre? Her: Yes Me: is it old? Her: yes Me: how old? Her: very. Me: How did you age it? Her: slowly. Me: Does it have a strong taste? Her: try it. I give up. I've noticed that she doesn't seem to say much to her French customers either so I don't feel too bad. Anyway, the cheese was strong & hard. The sort of chevre that you take a small morsel of & let it slowly dissolve in your mouth. Super. I must see if I can find the old man who sells even harder chevres at Villefranche market. I'll take a picture next time even though the cheese isn't very pretty.

Think the oysters have it. Here's the exact entry from my A-Z of French Food: " Sol-l'y-laisse: A morsel from just above the inside rump of poultry, considered a great delicacy. Sometimes described in English as "chicken's Oyster", its Franch name translated roughtly, "(only)-a- fool-would-leave-it". A fool & his oyster are soon parted, but mine never make it to table. Carvers treat.

Who else is brave enought to "come out"? If John & Margaret can do it so can you. I'm tempted to post over on the wine forum & get the 'serious' winos in a tizzy, but won't.

As promised here's a brief write up on our visit. For full details go to my blog below. The location is simply stunning. The mhors & the loch are fantastic, we had the advantage of good weather & fall colours. Our room was great! Very luxurious, a sort of demi-suite. L fell in love with the bathroom. The food was outstanding. We had dinner both nights and were very happy diners. At home in France this would be one, probably two Michelin stars, but more reasonably priced. The wine list although not extensive was very well chosen & priced. (we hear that a large cellar is in the works so the list can expand.) Go if you get half a chance. We'll definitly return.

Ah! Boxes. I'll open up for some derision as well. In many of the small wineries around here you can buy exactly the same wine in a bottle, in a box or in your own bidon. All that varies is the price. I once recently embarassed my wife by buying a box of St Emillion in St Emillion. If you think about it, at the low prices many of these wineries charge the cost of packaging become signifigent. 6 bottles , 6 corks & 6 seals are a lot more expensive than a 5 liter box. In fact at one local winery the price for their everyday red is X Euros per litre. You buy the box (5,10 or 20 litres) separately. A bottle of the same stuff is more expensive. Boxes are not to be recommended for 'serious' wine, stuff for laying down and so forth, but for everyday table wines they're great. As John says the wine keeps & tastes fine. I only ask that you don't knock it until you've tried it.

I was. Won't get into the wine controversy other than to say that in France as elsewhere you need to seek to find. Whether that be direct from the producer or from a trusted shop. As to food; I've had fewer bad meals in France than in any other country. That doesn't say zero. In fact we had an awful meal in Le Vigan just this summer at a place where we least expected it. And, yes, retired living in France is a dream. Edited to add this PS. PS: Can't resist a little tweak. Last week I was wandering the Hyper Market wine secion while my wife & her friend looked at women's things. Spotted a bottle of Corbiers. A favorite & besides my wife's going down there next week on a photography course. So I bought a bottle. Next day my friend Rob was over butchering some whole pork loins for me. So I opened this wine & gave both he & Linda a glass. Yummy they said this is drinkable. Rod said "what is it"; Linda said " It's a corbiers, but not one we normally have." Where, but in France could I have stumbled onto a palatable wine for $1.00 a bottle? ( 83 centimes to be exact.) Seek & yee shall find.

Going back to the original topic of this thread. Yes, France has some bad restaurants. Yes, there is bad French wine. Doesn't everywhere? My contention might be that the incidence of either in France is likely to be smaller than in most other countries. The French cultural heritage is such that the locals won't tolerate bad food & bad wine, places that serve either do not tend to stay in business very long. Unless, they happen to have a sure fire location with lots of traffic & lots of non-local patronage. As with anywhere we've ever been you have to do your homework, ask the locals and be prepared for a learning curve as you enter new places. Don't want to incur the ire of John so will simply end by saying that I've lived all over the world enjoyed all of my travels yet CHOSE to retire in France.

, but it cost a whopping 85 euros! Wow! How big was it? If I recall correctly ours was about 8 Euros per kilo last year. This year I've ordered from some acquaintences who have a commercial vineyard, but their children raise a couple of dozen turkeys for sale to make money for Christmas. The turkeys run free in the vineyard during the day. I have great visions of grape fed turkey which is self basting. I'll report later. . Can anyone recommend a market ( I just buy Yams from the local market. They'te not quite the same, but baked & served with butter they're pretty close. The othe substitute is baked pumpkin/ orange squash. This cubed & baked with butter & brown sugar is delicious if not as traditional. Issue #3: Has anyone seen cranberry juice in Paris? Sorry, can't help. Out here in the hinterlands I even have trouble getting frozen cranberries. Finally, I'll share a turkey trick I use. Firstly, I use Julia Child's deconstructed method of roasting my turkey. In our house there is never enough dark meat so I cook a 4 legged turkey. As you know you can buy turkey leg-thigh pieces very cheaply here. I bone a pair of these as well as the original two from the bird, stuff them with one of my stuffings, sew them up & bake. If after some resting you pull out the large tendons they carve beautifully. Gobble, gobble!

So I guess I shall keep an eye peeled! ← No question that Blue Wensleydale is a superb blue cheese, but I'm not sure I'd rate it any higher than a top notch Stilton (raw milk, properly aged.) As for France probably the closest in taste is a St. Augur which is also a terrific blue even if it is a 'modern' cheese. I used to love Blue de Bresse, but its been totally ruined by commercialization & now tastes like bad soap.

Great thread. I've lurked, listened, read & enjoyed. NowI just have to put my 2 cents in. I agree with most of what's been said & I like Lori's approach. I definitly agree that it needs to be a cheese board/platter not individual servings. You do need to tell everyone what each cheese is. (You can actually buy little ceramic notice boards that you can write & erase on if you want to get fancy about it.) In the UK they normally serve various dry crackers with cheese. In France they serve bread. Both countries normally offer butter with the cheese course as well; one of the few times you see butter on the table in France. You can either use the crackers/bread to place the cheese on or with hard cheeses go directly to the mouth with your fingers or slightly more politely, use a fork. Traditional accompaniments are sliced apples or pears, some times fresh figs, grapes, celery, radishes. Very young goats cheeses can be served with a confiture of some type or another nice trick with chevre is to serve with roasted cumin seeds. Wine is usually red as delicate whites won't stand up. Which red is relatively unimportant so long as its a good one. A special pairing in the Uk is stilton cheese & port. Its one of those combinations born in heaven. We like to serve a very simple salad afrer the main course & follow that with our cheeses, then dessert. Selection? Everybody to their own taste I say. What looked good? interesting? when you were buying? Was there a brie at its peak? An exceptional looking cheddar from Vermont? Yes, something soft, something hard, something cow, something sheep, something goat, something yellow, something blue is a good rule, but meant to be broken. 4-6 types are plently for the average dinner unless you have lots of people or a really stong interest in cheeses. The cheese boards of France never cease to amaze & delight me even after all these years. I still remember going to an Anan Ducasse restaurant where they brought out over 15 cheeses. All from within 25 miles of the restaurant.

Rachel beat me to it. I was just looking to see if "The Cook's Book" was available in the states before posting this. I recently bought this book on a trip to the UK. What a bargain! 6 pounds at WH Smith. This is for a hardbound 847 page book which is lavishly illustrated. As Rachel says each section is written by a well known chef and is really a tutorial on that particular aspect of cooking. For example Charile Trotter does the vegatable section which runs to over 40 pages. There is a heavy empathisis on technique. This is NOT a recipe book. There are, of course, recipies & some very nice ones too, but the stress is on technique & how to. Its well illustrated. I haven't had it long enough to have used it a lot, but what I have used it for has turned out well. Reading through it I get the impression that there isn't much of anything left out. Best learning book I've ever seen.

Coquus - Good looking kitchen; bet it works well. You must have saved a ton by doing it yourself. Where did you get your cabinets? O liked the dod as well.

Good thought!

I've wrapped mine individually as instructed & they've turned out fine. Think its the individual steaming that's wanted. Let us know how the other method turns out. ← I think you're right. There was a bit of caramelization on one of the two pieces I made. That's why I thought I'd give it a shot of heat uncovered at the end if I make them in a gratin dish. It'll be a while til I do this again as there are so many other dishes I want to try. I'm looking around for something different for T-day sides ← Not sure, but I'll look forward to hearing the results. As you know although these eggplants taste great Its not the prettiest dish on the block. To help I sauteed some red bell peppers julienned lengthways. Sliced the eggplant lengthways into 6ths then sort of wove the two together over a bit of salad & sprinkled over the pan juices from the peppers. Looked a lot better & the flavours complimented well. Still wouldn't win any beauty contests, but c'est le vie.

Anne limits the number to 6 which is very comfortable. I think that 8 would still work well in space terms. Anne feels she can't give the individual attention she wants to more than six.

A great report! As I said in my earlier post it brings back many fond memories of my early trips to France. Your energy & enthousiasm are captivating. Thank you for sharing with us. Dave PS: You can get coka light everywhere in France, but who wants to?

Here we are, another kitchen. We went over to our friend Anne Dyson's in Ambyrac yesterday for lunch and to photograph her new kitchen. The fact that I'm giving you Anne's name & location which I didn't do with my other kitchen posts deserves an explanation. But first - an aperitif! This is France after all. A nice dry palomino sherry. The reason why Anne is mentioned by name is that she runs a cooking school so wants people to know her name & where she is. The name of her school is Greedygoose. And you will find her website at: this location Here is THE Greedygoose! Anne is English, has lived in France for many years is a retired school headmistress and a superb cook & teacher. In addition to the school you can stay in one of Anne's bedrooms on a B&B basis or rent a lovely apartment or rent the separate gite. For details of these accomodations go to her other website. Given that background let's have a look at the kitchen Anne had purpose built for her cookery school. As you enter the kitchen from the patio the cookbook library is immediately to your left. Haven't counted them, but its a pretty good selection. Also to your left & ahead is the secondary cooking station with cooktop, sink & dishwasher. (NOTE: If things seem a bit cluttered its because Anne was cooking lunch while we taking the pictures; more fun that way. ) Here's that dishwasher I mentioned. Catch the vertical storage to the right. Door leads to big larder/ laundry room. As you turn right & look down the kitchen you see the huge long table down the center which serves for studying & note taking. Prep work, lounging and of course eating your results. I wasn't able to get all of the table in. On the left of the long side are the fridge, wall ovens & main sink plus a second dishwasher. Another view of the fridge & wall ovens. You probably can't read the name, but these are both Meile full size ovens. You know what's coming next, don't you? Yep another of those killer French stoves. A La Canche is this time. This one has an induction hob. (Anne couldn't get gas into the house.) 6 plates & 2 more ovens. The big sink & main prep area. All in all this is a terrific kitchen & is admirably designed to teaching. I've talked to a number of students who raved about the kitchen & we're even happier what what they had learned. Finally, when it all gets a bit too hectic you walk out the door to this Oh! can't finish without telling what we had for lunch. We started with various nibbles the most interesting of which was hard boiled quails eggs with roasted cumin & salt to dip them in. Our entree was homemade ravioli stuffed with spinich & riccotta served with a wild mushroom sauce. The plat was baked tenderloin of pork stuffed with Agen prunes & small baked potatoes that had been rubbed with foie gras oil. (butter?) Our salad had a light vinagrette dressing with endive, lettuce & orange slices. A nice selection of cheeses. There was a bouchon de Chevre that was especially nice. Dessert was individual lemon tartes (the pastry was superb) and, if you had room panacotta. Its wonderful to have friends like this!

I've wrapped mine individually as instructed & they've turned out fine. Think its the individual steaming that's wanted. Let us know how the other method turns out.

Lucy - What kind of soup is it? Looks good. Potiron?

I gotta ask, What is the appliance on the right on the wall? Its got me stuped. World's lagest pressure cooker?

It was Green's Farm. suppodedly raw milk & aged for two years. I say supposedly because I'm not sure I totally trust the person who sold it to me in a speciality shop in Market Draton. In any case it was great; very sharp & very much what I like a cheddar to be. I also bought a few small Dorset 'drums' to bring home. Two types bith farmhouse made. Haven't tasted them yet. Nice shop in Harrogate called Wheaton's where I bought them. All kinds of farm produce. Worth a visit if you're in the area.

Wow! Great write up, but I don't know how you do it. I couldn't stand the pace & would have dropped out & fasted for a while after the 2ond or 3rd day. Guess I'll just never make it as a true gulleteer. There was an interesting TV program in the UK about Le Timbre and it's english owner/chef. All about how difficult it was to run a small business in France given the employment laws. He'd just lost his waitress & really couldn't afford another what with social taxes, 35 hour week and so on. The program ended with hid accountant telling him the only way to survive was to expand further. Unfortunately the TV program left it sort of dangling with no resolution. Glad to hear he's still going. Come a bit North, not much, when you're in the Langueoc and we'll show you the nicest part of France.

More on our English cheese experience. As mentioned before we filled up on lots of old favorites and ebjoyed doing that. I wanted, however, to try some new things. On a Saturday we went to Ludlow where I found a branch of "The Mousetrap Cheese Shop" Small shop, big wonderfull selection of cheeses. What to buy? Lots of favorites, lots of new (to me) cheeses. The modern English cheesemakers seem to have a penchant for adding things to their cheeses so you get all kinds of combinations. I'm sure they're nice, but being a bit of a purist I wanted plain cheese. So, I swallowed my manly machismo and asked. My question to the owner was; " If you love cheeses, know all of the English classics and live in France with easy access to their best; what three cheeses would you buy?" Here's a picture of the answer: Counterclockwise from the top. Farmhouse cheddar - I put that on as I couldn't resist. The recommendations were: MONKTON - Semi-hard cows milk. Very tangy & slightly sharp. A very nice cheese . CELTIC PROMISE - Creamy unpasteurised cows milk. From West Wales, very close to Ludlow. Soaked in cider which gives it a unique flavor. Blue Wensleydale - Turns out that this is a very old cheese dating back to the 1300 hundreds & made by monks who emigrated from the Roquefort region of France. It nearly went out of production in favor of white wensleydale until recently. Wonderful flavour, nutty smooth & very creamy. Not nearly as sharp as Roquefort. Wish we'd had more time to sample more types, but given lots of family in the Uk we'll be back.