I've almost recovered...

After the best party I've been to in a long time thrown be the hostess with the mostest, who guarantees me side splitting laughter (thanks again Suzanne), and syled so stunningly by her oh so enviable friend Trudy who looks unashamedly gorgeous after 3 hours sleep and a hangover, I am writing hastily (while I can still remember) to give Trudy an old treasure of a recipe for melt-in-the-mouth lamb.

Traditional dish from Périgord called 'Gigot d'Agneau à la Couronne d'Ail' (to us, a leg of lamb with a ridiculous amount of garlic...) which renders the lamb into a state that can only be compared to confit of duck - falling away from the bone and so unbelievably rich that you need little more than a salad to go with it. I love it, but it gives me chronic indegestion, have your Rennies at the ready just in case.

Leg of Lamb with a Crazy Amount of Garlic

2kg leg of lamb
2 tbsp goose fat
50-60 cloves garlic, peeled
3 tbsp brandy
300ml Sauternes (or similar)
large sprig rosemary
salt, pepper

Find yourself a deep pan or pot preferably with a lid, flameproof for the top of the stove - I use a fish steamer I've got as it's perfect for a leg. Brown the leg all over in the goose fat then add the garlic around it. Heat the brandy in a ladle, set alight and pour over the lamb (Alfie will like to watch this..) add wine, rosemary and seasoning and bring to a simmer. Cover tightly and cook at the lowest heat for 5 hours, turn it every so often, maybe every 45 minutes or so. It is now done. Skim excess fat from the surface of the sauce, check seasoning, garlic will turn to purée on your tongue, lamb will be so so tender. You will have bad breath for a week - only joking.

Look forward to seeing you all again soon, best weekend I've had in a long time. And it sure did beat Christmas and New Year by a mile.

made to make your mouth water

Continuing with fruit - following my earlier preoccupation with fish and fish soup - I wanted to brighten up the blog with a helping of citrus flavours and colours. Fantastic flavour bursts to excite the palette for us poor folks in the N hemisphere who have exhausted their winter apple and pear repertoires. Also good to eat after fish or fish soup..

So, keeping it very short as usual, as I have little or no time to dedicate to this or many other of the things I love, I shall proceed with an exceedingly good recipe suggestion, light and tangy, lovely and luscious...

Lemon and Lime Soufflé with Orange Custard

60g butter
125g caster sugar
grated zest/juice 2 lemons
grated zest/juice 1 lime
4 egg yolks
5 egg whites

for the orange sauce:
250ml fresh orange juice
50g sugar
2 -3 egg yolks

Butter 6 individual ramekins and dust them with sugar so that the sides are coated. Discard excess sugar. This coating will prevent the soufflé from sticking to the ramekin. Pre heat the oven to 180°C

Whisk half sugar & yolks, add zest & juice, whisk over bain marie until it begins to thicken then add butter in dice a little at a time and continue to whisk until you have a delicious lemon and lime curd. Remove from the bain marie and allow to cool slightly as you whisk together the egg whites until they thicken - now add the rest of the sugar to the egg whites and whisk again until you have fluffy white peaks of meringue. Fold the lemon and lime curd into the egg whites carefully so as not to lose too much of the precious air.

Fill the ramekins with soufflé mix and scrape the surface flat with a palette knife (or not if you like them irregular) and sit on a tray. Transfer to the oven for 8-12 minutes or until beautifully risen and golden.

While the exciting stuff goes on in the oven, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy, add the orange juice and whisk that in, then transfer to a saucepan and cook over a low heat, stirring continuously until the custard thicken. Don't overcook or the yolks will curdle.

The custard should be ready to greet the soufflé. As you take the ramekins from the oven, break the soufflé crust and pour some orange custard into the depths (this will cause the soufflé to float upwards and look even more impressive). Dust with icing sugar to make it look devastatingly good and run for the table - you have only seconds before it begins to collapse.

Thankfully it still tastes fantastic even if it does collapse...

All Gone Perfectly Pear Shaped...

I really don't get around to doing this as often as I'd like, and the words of encouragement from so many of you who've stumbled across this modest blog have made me feel that I just have to make more effort. It is just so lovely to receive positive remarks from all of you, and very humbling when I see what marvelous blogs many of you are managing to maintain. On Haalo's blog I've also spotted the most brilliant photographs of raw ingredients which will, over time, provide me with endless inspiration for my own little illustrations.

So, now that I've sung a few praises, but not nearly enough, I'd like to praise the pear. Still very good here, as are our apples, and in the season of spice they do enjoy the company of cinnamon, cloves, mace, etc etc. I thought it fitting to try uplifting the pear tart into a more seasonal incarnation and have come up with poaching pears in spiced white wine before laying them on walnut pastry, saving the spiced wine to reduce to a spicy syrup to then fold into crème fraiche to serve with the galette. Sounds good? You bet it is.

And 2 out of 3 of the ingredients feature in the 'Out of the Bag' January challenge on A Slice of Cherry Pie blog so I guess I almost qualify to take part (assuming my illustrations can count as a picture of the dish?). All the best to you and all the others participating...

San's Spiced Pear and Walnut Galettes
for the pears:
3 large pears
1 vanilla pod/1 cinnamon stick/ 2 cloves
150g caster sugar
white wine, to cover

for the pastry:
120 g walnut pieces
60 g plain flour
60 g caster sugar
60 g unsalted butter
pinch of salt

6 dessert spoons of crème fraiche

for the poached pears:
Peel the pears, halve them and remove the core and woody stem with a small, sharp knife. Place the sugar, white wine and the cinnamon stick, cloves and vanilla pod split lengthways into a shallow pan and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Reduce to a simmer and add the pear halves, cook until tender – turning half way through with a palette knife. Remove from syrup and dry on kitchen paper. Put the syrup back over the heat and reduce to very little then strain and allow to cool before folding in to the crème fraiche.

for the walnut pastry:
Preheat the oven to 180ºC
Place the walnut pieces in a processor and reduce to fine crumbs. Add the butter, sugar, flour and salt and pulse together. Remove and press into a ball and leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour before using.

Roll between 2 sheets of cling film – the pastry is very fragile and this is an excellent way of dealing with it – to a thickness of 5 mm then remove the top layer of film and use a pastry cutter to cut 6 discs 8 cm in diameter. Move them to a baking sheet, buttered if necessary.Bake for 7-10 minutes until firm – do not overcook as the walnut becomes bitter to the taste. Place a disc of walnut pastry on the plate, with a small sharp knife slice the pear half several times to within a cm of the top of the pear and fan it across the biscuit, serve with a dollop of spiced crème fraiche.

I'm feeling just a little jaded after having friends around for dinner last night - haven't done it for a long while and am wondering why. Great company, a lovely easy menu that required not too much fancy footwork in the kitchen, and plenty of delicious red wine to keep the cook happy. A tad too happy perhaps, but hey, once in a while it's good to stay up way too late, indulge way too much, and remind yourself of how very much you like your mates.

And what has this to do with writing about stock? Absolutely nothing, except that if I wasn't a little jaded I'd probably be doing something much more productive (and boring) around the house rather than sitting here.

And so to stock, the simplest of things to make and one of the most satisfying, the cornerstone of many recipes and the ingredient on which some dishes are made or broken on - and yet few home cooks can be bothered to go to the trouble of making it. Well shame on you, because those horrible cubes are no substitute for the real thing. For the greatest ease use a small whole chicken, add to it a couple of peeled carrots, a large trimmed leek, one hefty onion (skin left on for glorious golden colour), a couple of sticks of celery, a few pepper corns, some mushroom stalks (or even better a small handful of dried porcini for even more depth of colour and a fantastic flavour) and any other flavours you might fancy (fennel bulb perhaps, or a bundle of herbs). Cover all in a large stock pot with water, do not add salt, (you may at a later stage want to reduce the stock for a sauce and it would then be rendered over salty), bring to the boil and simmer for an hour or more - depending on the size of the chicken. Done! Lift out he poached chicken, remove the flabby skin and serve warm with aioli, discard the stock vegetables and strain the golden liquor through several sheets of kitchen paper to remove both fat and stray particles, do it again through more paper if necessary, and there you have it. Smells good, tastes better, and your risotto is crying out for it.

Zest for Life...

This one is for Zlamushka's Spicy Kitchen - a small contribution to her Spoonful of Christmas for which Zuzana is asking for recipes and food ideas for things to be given as gifts at Christmas - a fine and fun notion. I covet a recipe I have from a Swedish friend Lisalotte for gingerbread to construct a gingerbread house; I guard my Christmas pudding recipe (5 already made and stored in a cool dark place); yearn for the perfect Stollen recipe; and happily part with this recipe for Spiced Oranges...

To be made at least six weeks before using if you want the flavours to mellow properly and best shown off in a goldfish bowl jar with perfect slices of orange pressed against the glass, suspended in delicious spiced syrup. These are to be given with love to those who will appreciate thier sweet sour flavours with game dishes or served beside cold meats on Christmas Eve. Most perfect with duck or guinea fowl, or as a glorious top to a terrine of lamb's sweetbreads.

Slice 20 small oranges thinly, discarding leathery tops and tails and pips, place in a humongously large pan and poach in simmering water for half an hur until their peel is tender - but don't reduce to mush, please! Drain them and spread out carefully across a deep ovenproof tray. Make a syrup by dissolving 1.25kg of sugar with 600ml of white wine vinegar over a gentle heat, throw in 2 cinnamon sticks, 10 blades of mace and a teaspoon of cloves, then bring to the boil and cook for 4 minutes. Pour the syrup over the awaiting orange slices, cover tightly with foil and cook for an hour in a low oven, 140°C. Cool and then get your fingers sticky because the only way to pack them beautifully is to use your hands. finally pour in the spiced syrup, seal and store in a cool dark place until Christmas. Makes enough for 8-10 special friends.