Week 28- Chateau Virant- cooking with wine

My summer in Provence continues- with more food and wine than you can imagine possible- and many delectable combinations of the two. Only fair to share with you.

At Christmas, my Provencal Pere Noel gave me a cookery book called 'Chateau Virant- Saveurs Provencales'- recipes using produce (wine, olive oil, mustard, honey, jams etc) from the local vineyard, just outside Salon-de-Provence. I took the book out with me this summer as I wanted  to try out some of the recipes - using the local wine itself.

First, of course, I had to go to the domaine and sample the wine.

Rosy cheeked at the degustation

Climbing at Chateau Virant

Other family members had other plans- as Chateau Virant has rocky outcrops much favoured by climbers. If you want to read more about these escapades - look at www.colinsclimbing.blogspot.co.uk

Suitably refreshed, I planned the menu: a courgette salad for entree, pork escalopes with red wine rice for main course and a fruit salad petillant for dessert.

These recipes use the Chateau Virant white wine, red and sparkling in that order. Plus of course olive oil and mustard.


For the starter- dice 4 courgettes and soften them with a clove of garlic in some olive oil. Cover with a glassful of white wine and simmer until all the liquid has been absorbed. Strain over a bowl and leave to cool. When cold, mix any juices from the bowl with olive oil, mustard and the juice of 1/2 lemon, along with some chopped mint.
Season well and serve- either as part of a mixed hors d'oeuvre- or on it's own with some salad leaves and bread.

Courgette salad

A similar process is used for the red wine rice which accompanies the main course. Allow 60g of rice per person. Soften an onion and some garlic in olive oil and add the rice, stirring util it becomes translucent.
Add a glassful of red wine per person and bring to the boil. As the liquid evaporates, add more water until the rice is tender. Cover with a lid and allow to steam for 10 minutes or so.

Red wine rice

When ready to serve, stir through some grated gruyere cheese.
I served this with pork escalopes- thin slices of pork coated with flour, egg and breadcrumbs and fried until golden and cooked through.

An accompaniment for pork escalopes

For dessert, I made a fruit salad with seasonal fruit- melon, raspberries and peach. I added a little mango (or orange) juice. Spoon into champagne flutes. Just before serving, pour over some sparkling wine or champagne. I served it here with watermelon sorbet.

Sparkling fruit salad with watermelon sorbet

You may need to sober up a bit before using up the leftovers- but there are plenty of uses for them.

Courgette and coconut soup

Coeur de boeuf tomatoes at the market

The courgettes can be pureed with some coconut milk for a scrumptious soup; the rice makes a savoury stuffing for the huge coeur de boeuf tomatoes which are in season here; and the fruit goes well in a jug for cocktails.

Stuffed tomatoes with rice and cheese

Cheers!

Week 27- To market..to market..

Provencal markets

In many ways, the markets of Provence are the inspiration for this year's blog challenge: everything in abundance, everything seasonal, fresh and inexpensive.

It's summer again and I'm back in the land of plenty- between Aix and Avignon- enjoying the wonderful markets and cooking up delicious fresh dishes.






There is so much fresh produce to choose from- and when I cycled home from the market laden with tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, fish, fruit and eggs- I found my neighbour had brought me a basket of bounty from her garden too:

From the land of plenty..

So, what should I cook with all these bountiful things? Well, I opted for a starter of gazpacho soup with bruschetta of caviare d'aubergine. Main course was swordfish cooked on the barbecue. Pudding was fresh fruit three ways.

For the soup, I covered a kilo of ripe tomatoes in a bowl with some boiling water. In another bowl I soaked two slices of white bread (no crusts- save them for croutons) in some water. In a pan I softened 3 cloves of garlic (minced) with 2 shallots, 1 red and 1 green pepper. Slip the skins from the tomatoes, slice them into quarters and take out the seeds and the pulp. Stand those in a sieve over a bowl and press hard to extract all the juice form the pulp. Squeeze the liquid from the bread and then put it, along with the tomato flesh, the garlic, shallots, peppers and a diced cucumber into a blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into a large jug or bowl and season with a tablespoon of red wine vinegar, 2 teaspoons of sugar, a glug of olive oil and lots of salt and pepper. Serve chilled and garnished with ice cubes, some chopped cucumber and some more minced garlic and olive oil.

For the toasts, halve some petits pains, rub them with a clove of garlic and a little olive oil and bake in a moderate oven (170 degrees) for 10 minutes. The caviare d'aubergine is made from aubergines baked whole (again at 170 degrees for 25 minutes or so until tender). Scoop out the flesh, blend it with lemon juice, minced garlic to taste and salt and pepper. Yummy!

Gazpacho Shots with Aubergine toasts

The fish from the fish market is fresh and tasty- if a little expensive. Nevertheless, we went mad and bought swordfish steaks. On the recommendation of the fishmonger, we marinaded them in a little pastis (Pernod) and olive oil before barbecuing.

Swordfish on the stall

On the barbecue

And on the plate!

Barbecued swordfish steaks

Finally, for dessert I used the fruit in 3 different ways. My dinner guest brought melon en brochettes (watermelon and Cavaillon melons on skewers with a sprinkling of verveine- verbena- which set the flavours off beautifully):

Melons en brochettes

I also made fresh fruit jellies with Muscat: bring a glass of Muscat to the boil and then dissolve either some lemon jelly crystals and water or some gelatine and fruit juice in the wine to make it up to 500 ml. Pour into wine glasses and drop in some soft fruit: I used blackberries and raspberries from my neighbour's garden. Allow to cool and then place to set for 4 hours in the fridge:

Muscat jelly with fruit

Finally, a fresh fruit salad with the remaining fruit, flavoured with mint:

Fresh fruit salad with mint

As for the leftovers, the caviare d'aubergine is lovely stirred through pasta with a little grated cheese. I'm also bottling some in sterilized jars to take home.

Caviare d'aubergine

The gazpacho soup makes a great sauce for fish:

Salmon carrozza with gazpacho dip

And finally- even though it's the 9th of August and not the 25th November (official gazpacho soup day for Red Dwarf fans)- we had it piping hot for lunch, served with baguette and Brie!

Hot Gazpacho a l'Arnold Rimmer!

Week 21- Healthy Take on the Takeaway

In the UK we do love a takeaway meal.

26% of the population eat one at least once a week- and an astonishing 1 in 10 people eat one more than twice a week.

Although, 'can't be bothered to cook' is the most often cited reason for this- there are other reasons too. The food is tasty, often can be delivered to your home when you're tired or unwell, and the people in the small shops and restaurants work hard and long for their profits.

The problem is that the 'tastiness' comes from that hit of fat, salt, sugar and flavour enhancers which ultimately is not good for your health. The food is often deep fried, and the provenance and usage of the oil is outside of your control too.

So, this week I am preparing a menu of favourite takeaway-style Oriental food- to show that it can be very healthy and very easy to prepare.



Starter is miso soup with 'pot sticker' dim sum, followed by yasai yaki soba ( a vegetable stir fry with buckwheat noodles) and crispy chilli beef (yes- deep fried, it is supposed to be a treat- but you can control the amount and type of oil) and followed with an exotic fruit salad with ice cream and toasted coconut.

For the pot stickers, I am using minced turkey, which is low in fat, for the filling. Mix the meat together with some soy sauce, finely chopped spring onion, a little garlic and a few breadcrumbs to make a burger-like consistency. (Indeed you can keep any unused mixture and make it into burgers in a bun for tomorrow night's meal). Form into small sausages and leave to chill in the fridge.

Defrost 2 spring roll wrappers (or filo sheets) and keep covered with a damp tea towel whilst you work. Place the 'sausage' in on half of the square, brush the edges of the wrapper with a 'glue' of cornflour and water and then fold and seal a bit like a pasty.

Brush the 'pasties' with a little oil on either side and then fry them gently in a frying pan. When lightly brown on each side, turn off the heat, put on a tight fitting lid and leave to steam for 5 minutes to cook the filling through.

Serve with miso soup: you can buy jars of miso paste in most supermarkets. A jar will last for ages in the fridge, once opened. Put one heaped dessertspoon of the paste per person into 500ml of boiling water, add some chopped spring onion and a handful of beansprouts and serve immediately.

Miso soup with dim sum

The noodles are quick and simple to prepare too- just boil them for a couple of minutes in a pan (no need for salt), drain and refresh with cold water in a colander. Meanwhile, stir fry peppers, beansprouts and spring onions in a wok, add 1 beaten egg mixed with a tablespoon of soy sauce and stir until the egg is cooked and evenly distributed. Mix in the drained noodles and add a dressing of your choice: soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, peanut butter (for a satay style sauce) etc Decorate with crispy onions and sesame seeds.

Yasai yaki soba

For the crispy chilli beef- cut one sandwich or flash fry steak into very thin strips. Marinade these for a short while in soy sauce, then toss in cornflour until coated. Heat an inch of vegetable oil in a wok until smoking and then add the beef piece by piece and fry quickly ( a very few minutes ) until golden and crisp. Lift out the pieces and drain them thoroughly on kitchen paper. Heat your favourite chilli (or black bean or hoi sin sauce) in a pan and coat the beef with sauce.

Crispy chilli beef

Exotic fruit salad

For dessert, a fruit salad is a refreshing choice. I prowl around the aisles of the supermarket looking for fruit which is reduced as it is a bit bruised or overripe- today's haul brought me kiwis, pineapple and mango- which I added to grapes, mandarins and strawberries. Topped with vanilla ice cream and a spoonful of toasted coconut- ( dessicated coconut dry-fried for 1 minute in a pan, stirring all the time, until it starts to brown lightly then removed immediately from the heat.)

Quite a feast- I hope you agree. If I had bought this from my local takeaway (not counting pudding which isn't available)  it would have cost : £12.50. If I had eaten in at Wagamamas, it would have been around £35 for two.

Making it myself cost: just under £7 for two. Plus, there is leftover stir fry to make noodle soup tomorrow, leftover fruit salad for my lunchbox and another meal of turkey burgers for tomorrow night.

If you would like to see more takeaway-style recipes, I have begun pinning them on my pinterest boards at http://pinterest.com/leftoverliz/takeaway-ideas/

Live long and prosper!