June 2025 – oystersandchampagne

We were having friends over for dinner, ex Belgium, current Belgium and us ( also ex Belgium) so a mini gathering of friends who had all lived in Belgium. Everything was planned, except, Himself went into hospital. Ok it was a planned intervention and he insisted that it would be OK even though it was an overnighter! I was sceptical, willowy brunette was sceptical, but himself not so!

Consequently when he had not been discharged by 4 pm on the Sunday afternoon , dinner finally had to be cancelled. Of course everything had already been done, food already to go and table set. Hence, we have been eating said food this week, or what could be frozen, went into the freezer.

So what were we going to eat. Starters was Asparagus, English of course . There is always a buzz around the English Asparagus season, which traditionally runs from St. George’s day ( patron saint of England) April 23 rd to the Summer Solstice, June 21 st. Other countries also have their own traditional regarding Asparagus, for example in Southern Germany, it is white asparagus that is very popular ( the season ends on June 24 th) and in many restaurants, they insist that every dish on the menu comes with Asparagus . Belgium and Holland also have a long history of a love affair with white asparagus, but for the English it has to be green.

I decided to keep the menu fairly simple so the Asparagus was going to be served “Au Mimosa“, which is very simply, steamed asparagus with eggs and oil. I used soft boiled eggs cut into quarters and / chopped soft boiled eggs, after all mimosas are small yellow flowers. I also used some Yuzu, as garnish and some pomegranate dressing on top of the oil ( I used avocado oil) . I also steamed my asparagus in the microwave, using the Lekué container. It only took 2 1/2 minutes on high to steam my bunch of asparagus.

The main course was Bourride, which is one of the great dishes of Provence.There are of course many ways of serving it and as it is traditionally from Provence it has to be Fish, though I have made it with Chicken which works just as well, and always finished with wonderful Aioli ( basically garlic mayonnaise). The recipe for both versions will be on the next blog ( I have already frozen it).

For dessert I made a Fool! This is a very English dessert and normally made with custard ( for me that is too close for comfort to Trifle). I made mine with Rhubarb, Mascarpone and thick cream. This can be started ahead of time as the rhubarb has to cook and then cool.

To make enough for 6

About a kilo of rhubarb, preferably thinner stalks and the redder the better.
Zest of 2 oranges and also their juice
40z of caster sugar
A sprinkle of Star Anise powder ( optional)
250 grm mascarpone at room temperature
300 mls thick cream
Tabspoon caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

Heat the oven to 170C ( fan).

Cut the rhubarb into chunks and put onto a baking tray, along with the orange zest, orange juice, sugar and star anise. Bake for about 30 minutes until the rhubarb is soft. Remove from oven and leave to cool.

Whip the cream ( do not make too stiff) , stir in the mascarpone, sugar and vanilla.

When the rhubarb is cooled stir it into the cream mixture, and let it break up into the cream, stir so that it is evenly distributed.

Put into some sort of serving dishes ( I used brandy glasses) and garnish as you like. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I went into one of our local Indian grocery stores the other day and found some dried orange zest always useful as it could be used on this dish or soaked to make it soft. Other goodies included ready made dried Fried Onions and Bombay Mix.

And finally, as I had a slight excess of asparagus, I made a quiche and an omelette, for both one can be creative. For the quiche I add cooked stem broccoli and defrosted frozen peas and then used the same extras for the omelette.

For the last few weeks at least there has not been much cooking, though some cooking, of course, some experimentation , some almost disaster, and some eating, but good and very special eating.

We decamped to Normandy for a long weekend. Left London at 5 am, Mr.Waze directed us down through south London ( normally to be avoided because of congestion but at 5 am, a breeze!) onto Le Shuttle ( aka the Channel Tunnel). We both asked the question “ How many times have we crossed this bit of water”? I wish we could back calculate, 50 plus years! For me it started during college days, working for the RAC ( a members club which supported their members driving to what we called The Continent) I went to France every day, meeted and greeted the members, bought my French bread and returned! What an easy job that was !

However, Himself thought it a good idea to have a little Jolly in Normandy, where we once lived ( a lifetime ago). He booked it all including a Michelin starred restaurant and also at the oldest restaurant in France, La Couronne, founded in 1345! It overlooks la Place du Vieux Marché , which is where Joan of Arc was executed in 1431, in Rouen.

A market is still held there but under the overhangs of the ( to my mind at least, ugly) Joan of Arc church, which takes up the whole square.

We ate in a very small Michelin starred restaurant, called L’Odas, it had maybe only 18 covers inside ( a few more out but of course weather dependent). All of the tables had a view of the kitchen and apart from deciding between 3,5,or7 courses, that was it, the kitchen decided on the menu and so we sat there and were fed! We chose the 7 course but not with Lobster, as himself is less than keen! The ingredients for our dinner were as far as possible locally sourced, I will included some photos, as it was a beautiful dinner both in appearance and in taste.

Starters and homemade bread ( and butter)

On the right a Devine dessert, grapefruit and kumquat mousse in a brandy snap and nutty base

After this wonderful dinner, where they even gave me a birthday dessert and candle , we spent the following day wandering around the Normand countryside, ( always beautiful in the sunshine ) .

We found where we had lived , the hotel owned by the refinery ( now a Best Western) the refinery which is now huge, and the car ferry across the Seine, still running , so of course we had to go on it! We wandered over to Pont Audemer a small town I went to every Friday, Market day ! Nothing has changed, some of the shops, one could be forgiven that we were still in the 1950’s! Fashionista’s certainly not !

Back to Rouen for dinner. We arrived on time and Madam who must have been close to 100, in her Chanel-esq baby blue mini skirt suit along with the 6 “ stilettos, tottered up the rickety stairs in front of us! I commented that she got plenty of exercise with those stairs, her snooty reply was “ Moi, je ne suis Jamais allé à une sale de sport! “ ( she has never been to a gym!)

Our dinner was nice, for me the best part was the Fois Gras, it was yummy indeed, but the Riz de veau was interesting but not as described on the menu. The real interesting part was the couple on the adjacent table ordering the specialty of the house and with the English translation was The Genuine Squized Duck ( and not that is not a spelling mistake)

In fact it is a Pressed Duck, but is often done table side and became very popular in the UK during the Edwardian era. The duck is partly cooked, the breasts served and then the rest of it is put into a Duck Press to extract all of the blood and juices from the carcass. Then all of that is combined with various other ingredients including Cognac ( or Calvados) and Madeira to make a rich sauce. I am sure it is lovely but I was not tempted to try it! Very elaborate and a lot of it! The most interesting part though is the Duck Press! I DONT HAVE ONE!

Meanwhile back at base I made a spinach Swiss Roll, I had been wanting to make this for a long time and as we were having guests for dinner decided that now was the time.

It looks amazing and is very easy to make and the bonus is it can be made head of time and frozen ! What’s not to like?

A packet fresh cleaned spinach (+/-250 grams
5O grams herbs, such as basil, dill coriander
Pinch salt
4 large eggs, separated
40 grams plain flour
Tsp baking powder
200 grams of fish, maybe hot smoked salmon, trout, mackerel, or just smoked salmon.
250 grams full fat cream cheese
2 tsp of rose harissa ( optional)
Heat the oven to 170 fan/ 180
Pop the spinach still in the bag onto a microwave and cook on high for about 3 minutes. Chop the herbs. Empty the spinach into a colander and press out the liquid, add the herbs and mix. Line a baking tray with either greaseproof paper. Or oven proof cling film ( I use cling film as it is easy to mould into the pan).
When the spinach has cooled put into a blender along with the egg yolks, salt, herbs, flour and baking powder. Process until it is smooth.
Meanwhile whisk the egg whites until very stiff and fold them into the spinach mixture. Tip this into the tin and spread out gently to cover the whole pan.Bake for about 10-12 minutes.
In the meantime put your filling ingredients into a blender along with the cream cheese. Mix well, taste add some salt and maybe a drop or two of lemon juice and the rose harissa if using.
Tip the CAKE out carefully onto a cooling tray/ rack. When cool spread the filling over the sponge and roll it up starting at one of the short ends, so that you have what looks like a green Swiss Roll !
Now if you want to, wrap it in cling film and a polythene bag and freeze. I wouldn’t freeze it long term but good for a week or two.
To serve, cut into slices, garnish and I made a horseradish cream by adding a tsp of white wine, a tsp of Dijon mustard, a dollop of cream and some lemon juice to 3 tablespoons of creamed horseradish. Of course you could just use creamed horseradish straight from a jar!