Un jour...

One of my current colleagues apparently has 3 interests outside of work: Wine, women and tennis.

Recently I asked him for some recommendations for wines and he gave me a list of 5 wines currently available at Systembolaget. He was almost apologetic about the fact that there were no Italian wines on his list - but there simply weren't any available that were good value for the price.

One of his recommendations was "Un Jour..." 2011 from Le Clos d'un Jour in Cahors, France. I forgot to mention to my colleague that Cahors is one of the most well-known French wine districts in Denmark. Why? You might ask.. Because the husband of the Danish queen is from Cahors.

The wine was quite good, very easy to drink. When I first poured it I noticed immediately how dark it was - more purple than red.

Ch'ti

On a recent trip to France, I finally had an occasion to try Ch'ti Blonde - something I've been wanting to ever since I saw the French comedy Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis. Once again a French beer brewed quite close to the border with Belgium..

It was a quite pleasant experience on the whole. Very drinkable - the 6.4% ABV are well-masked.

Ratatué

Yes, I know it's conventionally spelled 'ratatouille' - but I have my reasons for spelling it as I do. Other than the spelling, I guess the most important difference is that I like it spicy.

Ingredients:
- olive oil
- 2 onions, coarsely chopped
- 1 red bell pepper
- 2 green bell peppers
- 1 zucchini
- 1 yellow squash
- 1 eggplant
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 orange habanero chilli
- 800 g (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
- concentrated tomato paste
- 400 mL (1 ²/₃ cup) water
- ^[1]
- salt and pepper


In a large pot, the coarsely chopped onions were sautéed in olive oil till translucent, then added diced bell peppers. The zucchini, the yellow squash and the eggplant were each quartered along their longer axis and then cut in roughly 1 cm (¹/₂ inch) thick slices and added to the pot. The seeds and stems were removed from the habanero chilli and it was chopped finely before adding to the pot together with crushed garlic. At last the crushed tomatoes and the tomato concentrate was added together with water. The pot was brought to a boil before reducing the heat and letting it simmer for 50 minutes. At last seasoned to taste with salt and black pepper.

Served with bread.

^[1] If none of those about to eat this dish object to celery, this can be added as well.

Bière du Leman

On a recent trip to the Haute-Savoie region I saw these at a Sunday market and was quite intrigued. So I decided to bring home a couple and see how I liked them.

Unfortunately they are not very interesting. IMHO the blanche was better than the blonde, but I wouldn't go through a lot of trouble to get either of them again.

In the end, I guess there's a reason Évian-les-Bains isn't famous for it's beer so much as for other liquids...

French Beer - Part II (Bière Georges)

Not forgetting my positive attitude towards a specific French beer, my previous post on the subject did betray my prejudice against French beer in general. In all fairness I should add that on that same trip to Lyon my horizons were broadened a bit.

For lunch one day we went to Brasserie Georges as it had been recommended by our friendly hotel staff. Until this day I had always figured that the French word 'brasserie' was most appropriately translated into 'restaurant' (which is certainly how it is sometimes used), but as I found out 'brasserie' can equally well (if not better) be translated into 'brewery' (indeed now that I sit down and consult my dictionary it suggests 'brewery' as the primary translation). And so it was with - perhaps unjustified - surprise I learned that Brasserie Georges served their own beer. I happily ordered first the paler one, then the amber beer. I was also quite happy to note that both beers were in fact quite good (the amber was the better one).

So, apart from learning more about a French word, I also learned that one can in fact find nice breweries in France - also in places that aren't just across the border from Belgium...

Sausage and Lentil Stew

While this isn't an authentic French recipe (so far as I know) it IS heavily inspired by dishes I had in Lyon when I went there recently. Yes, both the sausage and the wine are Swiss, but I'm sure proper French substitutes could be found.

Ingredients:
- 100 g (3.5 oz) smoked bacon, diced
- 6 small onions, quartered
- 2 smoked sausages ("Freiburger bauernwurst")
- 500 g (about 1 lb) green lentils
- 3 dL (about 1 cup) red wine (Dôle Romaine, Martigny, Switzerland)
- 1 L (about 4 cups) vegetable bouillon
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- fresh thyme
- 6 bay leaves
- 6 peppercorns

In a large pot the bacon was browned, then the onions were added and sautéed for 5 minutes before adding the lentils and the sausages cut in large pieces. The wine was added, and the pt was left on medium-high heat until the volume of liquid was nearly gone. Then the vegetable bouillon was added together with garlic, fresh thyme, bay leaves, and peppercorns. The heat was reduced a little and the stew was allowed to simmer for 20 minutes (uncovered).

The stew was served with thick slices of bread and a glass of the red wine - a nice wine from the Swiss canton of Valais.

French Beer - Part I (Pelforth)

Beer probably isn't the first thing you think of when you think of France, and in my opinion the likes of Kronenbourg does nothing good for the reputation of French beer.

But, unsurprisingly, there is also good beer to be had in France - very good beer in fact. Take, for example Pelforth Brune, which I had my first taste of a few years ago in the US. When I recently went to Lyon I was suddenly faced with that option again. Not to be missed on my part - a delicious, dark, strong beer.

Of course, one could argue that this is cheating - that Pelforth is made so close to the border that one might as well consider it a Belgian beer...

Lapin au Vin

This week rabbit was on sale at the supermarket so we decided to have our hand at cooking it. Having no experience with this particular meat I sought inspiration in Tyler Florence's Eat This Book, although my approach was somewhat cruder.

Ingredients:
- ca. 650 g (1.5 lb) rabbit (4 pieces)
- 1/2 bottle of red wine
- flour
- salt
- pepper
- oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp honey
- Italian herb blend
- 0.5 L (2 cups) chicken broth

Side:
- 6 potatoes
- 1/2 celery root
- 2 beet roots
- 2 small onions

Salad:
- romaine lettuce
- capers
- sun dried tomatoes

The rabbit pieces were wetted in the red wine, then coated with a mixture of flour, salt, and pepper. The rabbit pieces were then browned in batches in oil in a large pot (turning them over with tongs). While browning the rabbit, crushed garlic, honey and Italian herb blend was added to the wine. After browning all the rabbit pieces (and all removed from the pot) the wine was added to the pot, brought to a boil while making sure to stir up any flour left in the pot from the browning of the rabbit. To this was added the chicken broth, and the rabbit pieces were put back. The pot was covered and allowed to simmer for about one and half hours.

While the rabbit was simmered, a mixture of crudely cut potatoes, beet roots, celery root, and onions (drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper) was baked in the oven at 225 C (450 F) - beet and celery roots require longer time than potatoes to become tender.

This left plenty of time for a quick salad: romaine lettuce, capers, and sun dried tomatoes were mixed in a bowl.

The rabbit was very tender; the meat was practically falling off of the bones. The texture and taste was somewhat reminiscent of chicken, although more 'game'. Overall it became a fall/winter style dish which fitted well with the pouring rain outside. With dinner we drank the other half of the bottle of wine.

Horse Steak

I was always aware that horse was edible, but in Denmark where I grew up it was somehow considered inferior meat that most people did not want. It did not figure prominently in the meat section of the supermarkets I frequented in California either. But now that I live close to France it is quite easy to come by. Several options exist in the supermarket, and I have on several occasions seen local restaurants advertise horse steak as special of the day.

Of course I had to try it. As you can see in the picture (click to enlarge) it is easy to recognise it at the store - even if one happens not to be familiar with the French, German, or Italian words for horse. Actually, the taste is strikingly similar to beef - I guess this is mainly surprising to me based on people's reluctance to eat it where I come from.

Ingredients:
- horse steaks
- salt & pepper
- oil from sun dried tomatoes
- 1 medium red onion
- 200 g (7 oz) mushrooms
- 2 tsp capers
- 3 tbsp sour cream
quinoa:
- 2.5 dL (1 cup) quinoa
- 5 dL (2 cups) water
- salt
- fresh mint and basil

Quinoa (which I've mentioned briefly before here) was prepared simply by bringing water to a boil, then adding half the volume quinoa and salt, turning the heat down and letting stand till the water was absorbed (about 15-20 minutes), then freshly chopped mint and basil was stirred in.

In a large pan I heated up oil (leftover from a glass of sun dried tomatoes) and when warm I put in the steaks seasoned only with salt and pepper. The horse steaks I bought were rather thinly sliced and required only a few minutes of cooking, after which I removed them from the pan and added onion rings. After a few minutes this was followed by sliced mushrooms and a few minutes still later capers and sour cream - was covered and let stand for a few minutes.

Served with a quick salad (lettuce & cucumber) and dressing like the one I mentioned here.

Onion Soup

Some time ago we started talking about wanting to try making onion soup, but nothing happened for a while, then we found this recipe, and for a while still nothing happened. We have to admit we weren't familiar with the consommé the recipe calls for, but we ended up assuming that the idea was to have something a little more intensely beefy than ordinary beef broth. Looking at the available options at the local market we decided to try adding Better Than Bouillon to beef it up..

Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 kg (2 lb) yellow onion
- 4 cans (14 oz each) beef broth
- 1 tbsp Better Than Bouillon beef base
- 1/2 cup grated pecorino cheese
- salt & pepper
- bread (to serve)

The onions were cut in boats and sautéed in melted butter in a large heavy-bottomed pot till they were soft and golden. Then the beef broth together with the Better Than Bouillon base was added and the pot was allowed to simmer for 10 minutes. Finally the grated cheese was stirred in and the soup was seasoned with salt and pepper.
Was served immediately with a slice of toasted multi-grain bread.

The Better Than Bouillon mixed in with the broth certainly worked nicely for the effect we were going for.