Fred's newsletter: 10.11.20
Good morning,
A year ago this weekend we welcomed Albert Roux to l’escargot bleu along with some famous names from the hospitality sector. I cannot tell you how stressful this was, and it took a few sleepless nights for me to come up with a menu that would not only please, but be realistic to produce. I ended up cooking a very simple menu and it all went very well - the man was smiling and was extremely thankful!
When I was a young boy growing up in France, Sunday was often the day when my dad cooked beef. He, along with uncles and grandfathers, would start cooking early in the day enjoying some oysters and a few small (morning!) glasses of white wine.
It was what we call nowadays a simple cuisine; you know, the cuisine that some say shouldn’t be served in a restaurant! A cut of beef like featherblade, cheek, neck or even shin would be seared slowly in a cast-iron pan, along with onions, carrots, thyme or some winter root vegetables and then left to simmer on the stove for a few hours. The aromas of the onions, sautéed meat, wine and spices made the house alive. Then it was time for the apéro - a ritual that combines drinks, food, friends and family - until the beef was tender enough to be consumed.
Simple food is, no matter what the pretentious foodies (and you know I don’t like the word foodie) will tell you, a very hard thing to achieve and needs to be very carefully executed.
Firstly, you need to buy some proper quality meat with good provenance; that in itself is a task today. And that meat, trust me, will not be found in a supermarket. After this you need some quality vegetables; vegetables that have grown in a good organic soil with enough time to grow healthy. Then you will need time to spend in your kitchen to create the dish. That simplicity, you will soon realise, is indeed hard to achieve.
Have we somehow forgotten the meaning, the role of a restaurant? I have often heard people say: “I wouldn’t buy in a restaurant what I cannot make at home”, “why?” I ask. Is the restaurant not, first and foremost, a place to socialise? A place to catch up with family, friends, or work colleagues.
I walked home on Friday night after doing the deliveries with Carole holding a tub of leftover crab bisque, a wee container of rouille and a baguette. It was probably the most basic and simple meal I’d eaten in a while but my goodness it was healthy and tasty. I must not forgot to mention that I also enjoyed a glass or two of Oppidum, a chardonnay-sauvignon from Chateau de Millet that I often drink in the early evening when I get home, along with some leftovers that I find in the fridge, just like apéro in France. This week you’ll find a fabulous apéro sharing platter on the menu that includes a bottle of Oppidum so you can savour the anticipation of the food the come.
The crab bisque was so good, that I’ve decided it will replace the fish soup on the menu for a while as velvet crabs are plenty in early winter. Also on the starters is a buckwheat flour crêpe filled with spinach and Morbier cheese, a top find for winter. And a classic at bleu: salted cod brandade made with fresh cod, potatoes from Carroll’s Heritage, some olive oil, a good pinch of garlic.
Talking of simplicity, we also have leeks boiled in a court-bouillon served with duck egg, shallots and coarse grain mustard, to be served warm or at room temperature, and our made-in-house black pudding. Classic simplicity :)
Have you heard of a young, male turkey known as dindonneau? We eat it all year round in France in many forms - roasted, as escalope or steak – and we have some for you this week. it’s a fabulous pink meat when young and not at all dry. It will be boned out completely and rolled with a mushroom duxelles, served as a roulade. The bones will be used for a strong turkey jus. Think of it as a pre-Christmas treat.
For the beef dish this week, I have chosen shin as it’s the closest thing to remind me of those long-gone Sundays with the family as a youngster. I will cook it the in simplest way, with carrots. But, as you now know, it is not so simple my dear foodies!
A Boreray hogget came in yesterday from my friend Jack at Ardoch Farm, remember he wrote a few words in previous newsletter. This is a Boreray by breed, not from Boreray the place this time (as these are so rare it’s a once-a-year treat). It will be prepared in the form of choux-farci: a whole Savoy cabbage stuffed with the minced meat, seasoning, lots of sweated onions then braised in stock for a wee while. It’s very tasty.
We took delivery of a few French organic farmed rabbits and they hopped into a red wine marinade yesterday to be cooked tomorrow. They will be served with lardons, glazed onions and mushrooms - a classic that never goes out of fashion.
The final main on the menu is fresh cod, steamed and served with fresh Shetland mussels and a fresh mussel sauce. Fresh and simple! Fresh, fresh, fresh!
For desserts, the île flottante is back, in a pool of crème anglaise; and tarte au chocolat is making its debut on the take away menu. It’s a melt-in-the-mouth old classic at l’escargot. And because I love the brioche and butter pudding so much (no matter what Richard Bath said in Scottish Field!), it is staying on. Pear and almond clafoutis is also back this week as pears are at their best just now.
This week I would like to introduce another of our suppliers, and a good friend of l’escargot: Sascha of Grierson Organic. Sascha and her husband Hugh are doing a fabulous job breeding some of the finest beef in Scotland, but also great poultry, lambs and pigs. In the past we used to buy up to four carcasses of beef a year from them, along with other products. If you come across her products at the farmers’ markets or elsewhere, have a wee taste, it is worth every penny. Or of course you can order the beef or turkey casseroles from us this week – both use their wonderful produce.
My last word today, and I will not go on for another 900 words, is from the news yesterday: vaccine. This vaccine will supposedly sort our issue. I say eat and eat well. Good food is a good place to start and worth any vaccine in the world.
I am off to cook now. Have a great week and many thanks again to all of you for the ongoing support, for ordering from us and dining with us.
À bientôt,
Fred and family.