Fred's newsletter 26.1.21

That was a fine pâté en croûte.

Good morning les amis,

What a beautiful sunny weekend we had. Cold I admit, but an enjoyable cold with blue skies and a full sun. The days are getting longer and I sense a slow start at Newton Garden - it might be time for me to start organising the seeds and create a calendar for sowing.

I went to enjoy a cup of tea with dear Mary at Newton on Sunday. A socially-distanced tea of course. We had a lovely chat and then went for a walk around the garden. It is beautiful in the snow and there were lots of birds around. As we walked we chatted: “maybe we will put the beetroots there this year and the salad in there; yes, the potatoes will go on that side.” Within 20 minutes we had decided the layout of the garden and our share of plots agreed.

I’ve not done much at Newton over the winter and there’s not much there to eat. There are a few leeks standing proud, fighting the cold. The broccoli is starting to grow, ready for spring, and there’s some mustard, mizuna and chervil that we planted in late summer. There will probably be some harvesting to do in March. I’m quite excited for the season to start - a positive thing to look forward to.

I spoke to my snail man yesterday, Gerard MacDonald. Well, we exchanged few emails and I asked him to send a few words from the Isle of Barra – read them here. You will know that I get snails from Barra whenever possible. Illico presto the words arrived, and hopefully we will get snails again as soon as they come out of hibernation - maybe sometime in April.

I also received a nice wee write up from Philou and Julie describing their experience with us. They are very loyal costumers, going back to our Petit Paris days – some tens of years ago! Your words and comments are very encouraging and full of warmth. They give us motivation to carry on during this terrible time. I’ll not go there! Just to say to Philou and Julie, thank you both for your ongoing custom, your support, your kindness and your friendship. We wish you well.

As you know, I cook every week from early morning to late afternoon. I buy the food, I write the menus and the newsletter (someone checks the spelling mistakes), I serve and I do most of the deliveries. I also do some gardening, and I answer all emails sent to me. This takes considerable time, and I am proud of every dish that leaves my kitchen.

This week’s menu starts with the return of velvet crab bisque. The boats are back out so fresh crab is available again. We also have a two-ham quiche with grated cheese made of Comté, emmenthal, marechal and gruyère cheese. No less than four. And there’s a chicory salad with pears, black chick peas, walnuts, yellow beetroots and Persillé du Beaujolais blue cheese. Snails from Burgundy will be served with sassaermeat from Shetland in a garlic and parsley butter. Sassaermeat is very tasty and goes very well with snails. Have you tried some? The terrine of the week is veal with morel mushrooms, onions, apple marmalade and pickles.

Also available is steak tartare, hand-cut for you and served with all the condiments including an egg yolk. This is a great starter but will also do as a main course as there’s 120g of prime meat per portion. Look at our cooking instructions for more details. If you prefer, the steak tartare once mixed can also be cooked. Just pan-fry it very quickly on both sides and enjoy straight away.

For main courses, there’s a pork and veal pot au feu, all organic meat from Peelham Farm and cooked in a bouillon (clear stock) with winter vegetables that will be served a ravigotte sauce on the side. Very warm and earthy for a cold winter’s day. We also have a shredded duck confit Parmentier under a thick coat of buttery mashed potato, ready for you to reheat. The beef cheek Bourguignon is making a comeback. This is very popular, and I will make sure not to run out this time - come in numbers for it! And some roe deer legs jumped into a red wine marinade on Friday, ready for a slow-cook to become tender in a rich, red wine sauce. This will be accompanied by a game meat Toulouse-style sausage and pruneaux a l’armagnac for a sweet bite. This week’s fish is a seabass fillet with a cream of lentils and bacon lardons, as well as crispy bacon.

We have some great side dishes this week. Fresh organic mushrooms with garlic and parsley in cream fraîche; pumpkin and sweet potato with Morbier cheese; and fresh, seasonal vegetables with garlic butter; plus a lovely potato and cheese gratin, which I am sure you will love.

For dessert there’s an apple tarte Normande with Calvados for two this week. These for desserts a deux are very popular, so order early as we are limited on the number we can make. We also have a pear and almond clafoutis with chocolate sauce and a duck egg iles flottante with duck egg crème anglaise – tasty! Vanilla, vanilla - remember what I said about vanilla, you can never have enough and I only ever use the real thing - NO SUBSTITUTE! The rich chocolate tarte is making a comeback, again with crème anglaise, and our praline and chocolate brioche butter pudding is growing in sales and becoming extremely popular. I feel a classic is being born with our l’escargot at home menu. We won’t be able to take it off the menu.

For those not wanting desserts, we have created a few boxes of chocolates to enjoy while reading a book or watching a movie. We’ve sourced excellent chocolates from the Belgium/France border (the French side of course). And you will notice I have added freshly-baked baguettes (baked a few hours before reaching us) if you fancy one with your meal. These are from Company Bakery, a fabulous bunch of bakers, doing a wonderful job. Hopefully next week we will have a few words from them telling us more about what they do. Maybe next week Ben?

That’s it for this week. I am working on the Valentine's menu, don't worry! I am very happy that the email option for ordering is working well, just don’t forget to put your phone number in the email and your WHOLE order!! I’m sure this is helping take away some of the frustration of ordering. Here’s the email address: contact@lescargotbleu.co.uk

Oh, and remember we have a wine list with some great, friendly-priced wines. Check them out.

Please keep your emails, comments and pictures coming. Our customers are our main reason to keep going as we enter the second phase of a terrible situation. I mean, we are in 2021 and can see no end to the trouble. We have seen many restaurants closing, and also many stopping their take-aways.

Just a last word, an appeal to bloggers and writers: if you have a story to tell, a food one even better, please come forward. I love the idea of people joining us on the newsletter. Please do not be shy.

Lots of love and à bientôt,

Fred