Fred's newsletter 30.3.21

Missing the days when I was washing glasses.

Good morning,

We are on to another week of our restaurant at home service and another bizarre Easter weekend under lockdown; the second one, let’s hope it’s the last one under these conditions.

I don’t know about you, but I refrain from making anything out of the news. I don’t think it’s down to my lack of interest, but rather to relax my brain and make sure I don’t suffer from over-excitement followed by a heavy disappointment. My health, both mental and physical, needs to be protected and preserved, so I only absorb a little of the nonsense at a time, taking the news in small doses. In order to achieve positive health, I concentrate on food. That alone takes a fair bit of time, but gives immediate rewards and helps my brain and body to function properly.

Moving on: we sold out of truffled brie last week. Did you enjoy it? I certainly did. This week there are a few new nibbles for you to enjoy. I ordered Perail, a creamy ewe’s milk cheese from the South West of France, it’s very tasty. Also humous made with Italian chickpeas and olive oil. And we still offer our selection of artisan olives, and baguettes from Company Bakery. Don’t forget the butter!

This week sees some classics on the menu, like our black pudding. As I don’t keep secrets, I will share the recipe: roughly 3 kilos of finely chopped onions and 3 kilos of finely chopped lardo de Collonnatta (or hard back fat) are sweated very slowly with a couple of bay leaves and 5 or 6 garlic cloves. This will take a good couple of hours. Meanwhile, a pig’s head is cooked for a few hours in a rich stock of finely-diced vegetables. When everything is cooked, we add 4 litres of fresh room-temperature blood and mix it all together with 14g of fine salt, 2g of ground white pepper, and 2g of chili per kilo of mix. This is poured into the natural sausage casing and cooked at 82 degrees for 20 minutes, then allowed to rest and cool down to be re-heated when required. As easy as that. I am often told that the old French style of cuisine is so easy and lacks of creativity! I will challenge any chef today to come up with, and do a black pudding like we do. [Enough ranting Fred…]

There is delicious starter of velvet crab soup with rouilles and croutons, and grated cheese – just like the fish soup; and a countryside pork terrine with white wine and Armagnac, served with pickles and a butternut squash jam. Also, tasty fresh crab meat with mayonnaise. Anyone needing a recipe? We also make our own mayonnaise to add to this ‘lack of creativity’ dish. [Come on, stop it Fred!]

Two salads again this week, a chicory endive salad with honey, blue cheese, walnuts and an almond oil dressing, as well as asparagus with cured ham from The Alps, Fumaison (a smoked ewe’s milk cheese from Auvergne) and an anchovy dressing. Both a treat for the tastebuds.

Finally we have the often-left-behind chicken oyster – the bits on the back of the chicken, called sot l’y laisse in French. These will be served alongside a chicken quenelle, mushrooms and Comté cheese. Simple, classic and tasty!

For mains, Easter is all about lamb, and we have milk lambs from Errington Farm a few miles South of us in Edinburgh (the Erringtons are very famous for their cheese in Scotland). Milk lamb is something I buy only once in a while; I love it, but I believe everyone deserves a life. There are 2 casserole dishes to choose from: one a stuffed roulade, slowly baked overnight; the other a navarin. You choose, or have both!

Also on offer are roe deer and pigeon caillettes with liver, rolled in pig caul and cooked in game sauce; Linda Dick’s chickens, boned out and rolled with crevettes and served with sauce Armoricaine; and the beef Bourguignon is made with organic beef from Grierson Organic in Perthshire. Finally, the fish will be with choucroute, others call it sauerkraut. We will use fresh and smoked haddock.

On the side we have purple sweet potatoes, vegetables as usual, gratin Dauphinois and a green salad (with a few leaves from Newton Garden).

Dessert fans will be pleased to see a pear and almond tarte with crème anglaise that serves 2 to 3, or one very hungry person! The numbers are limited for this so don’t delay if you want one. The chocolate nemesis is back, great for the gluten-free, and the lemon pot and biscuits for those who fancy a refreshing dessert. From our classics list we have apple and rhubarb crumble, mousse au chocolat, griottines and Armagnac prunes. The prunes were soaked in Armagnac in December 2019, making them just over a year old and perfect to eat. I am doubtful that we will be able to get Armagnac or prunes in the quantities we need to make them again soon, all for obvious reasons which I will not elaborate on.

I am actually writing this newsletter on Sunday as I have a long day tomorrow. Last night I enjoyed the jambon persillé from last week’s menu. I mean I really enjoyed it. I also loved the rabbit terrine, thought the veal was outstanding and that the beef à la bière was exquisite. I am half way through the brie aux truffes, having finished the brioche and butter pudding this morning. Betty and I had the choux-farci on Friday evening. “Whoa!” she said. While this may be simple food for some, I loved every bit of it. And I have probably forgotten something…

A year into lockdown, I want to give a shout out to all the producers, farmers and wholesalers who have helped and supported us. It’s not been easy and so many of them where there for me when I called for help.

Gartmorn Farm, Sea Magee, Caroll's Heritage Potatoes, Ham and Cheese, IJ Mellis, The Free Company, MacDuff Beef, Peelham Farm, Phantassie Organic, Uradale Farm, Ardoch Hebridean Sheep, The Company Bakery, Grierson Organic, Herb Majesty, Richard Briggs Shetland Lamb, Linda Dick, The Brand Family Farm, l’Art du Vin, Mons Cheese UK, Campbell’s Prime Meat, Welsh Fishmongers, Ochil Foods, Burnside Farm Foods, McCaskie’s Butcher, St Bride's Poultry.

Thank you, and also to all who have helped with the weekly newsletter (even the cheeky one!). Lots of love your way.

Finally, do not hesitate to send your order by email using lescargotbleurestaurant@gmail.com including your telephone number and Sophie or Betty will get back to you.

Again, thank you all for your support and your ongoing custom and I wish you a very pleasant and spoiled Easter weekend.

A bientôt,

Fred

TAKING STOCK!

Let’s go for another recipe, this time for a beef stock. Take 20 kilos of veal bones, some beef cheeks, 2 beef tails and a couple of veal trotters, 5/6 onions unpeeled and halved, 10 peeled carrots, a couple of fennel bulbs, a whole celery, 2 heads of garlic, bay leaves, large bouquet garnis, tomato paste (or fresh tomatoes) and some black peppercorns.

Divide between 2 pots, cover with water, bring to the boil, skim then simmer from Friday evening until Tuesday morning. On Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning, take the cheeks and the tails out and set aside to use for a meal.

On Tuesday, take the bones out, pass the stock through a coarse sieve, then a second time through a fine sieve, then place on the heat to reduce until you achieve a satisfying flavour. This is called a demi-glace. We start this every Friday to end up with 16 litres of natural stock for use in our take-away menu every Tuesday. Watch it bubbling here.

1985 (continued)

Back to my story. The first week at La Rotisserie Tourangelle went very well. As previously mentioned, I was asked if I could do simple tasks like make mayonnaise or a shortcrust, and I did so with ease. I was then asked to get organised to make puff pastry - this was slightly more complicated, as it takes a little know-how. I was shown, then managed on my own quite easily. Puff pastry is made of flour, a large quantity of butter, a little water and egg yolks folded in such a way that the pastry is made of hundreds of layers when it rises in the oven. You cannot beat a home-made puff pastry - nowadays very rare in restaurants, even in the Michelin-starred ones as its much easier (and quicker) to buy it in ready-made, already thinned down. [Stop it Fred…] Of course these ready-made rolls have poor quality butter and flour, that could never produce a tasty and healthy pastry. [Time to stop, Fred!]

I was proud of my puff pastry, and I was told by Jacques (the head chef) that I was doing well generally. I was coming home happy in the evening, telling all to my dad in an effort to reconnect with him and encourage him to rebuild his faith in me.

It was early days though, and I wasn’t allowed to dress the plates yet - that would take a bit longer than a week - but, as I had previously used a knife or two, I was trusted to do vegetable preparations and also a bit of butchery, and I was asked to cook meals for the team. We had lunch every day at 11.30am. Well, I mean we had to have lunch ready for that time. Three set tables: one for the directors (the boss, his wife and head chef Jacques); the waiting staff; and the kitchen staff. The kitchen staff ate lunch very quickly (in the kitchen) as we were always behind for service. The others enjoyed lunch in the main dining room.

I was enjoying this new adventure; we were a good handful of apprentices, 4 or 5 of us if my memory serves me well, and I was making friends. There was generally a good ambiance between us all. I forgot to mention that there was also a good handful of apprentices front of house, totalling 10 or more, all of them aged between 15 and 18. As you can imagine, it was not always an easy task to control, teach and maintain discipline with so many youngsters.

I loved it, and was moved fairly quickly from the starters and desserts section to the fish and meat section with Chef Jacques. I was warned by others that I would have to be cautious as Jacques could lose his temper within a couple of seconds should things not progress the way he wanted. He was a young chef, very ambitious and had a hard job of driving the team forward whilst maintaining high standards. It wasn’t long before I experienced the first of many bollockings from him! But after that, I knew the score.

One evening after service I was asked to pass the duck stock through the course sieve, then the fine one (like the stock recipe above). Easy. Then I was asked to fill the food prep sink with water and ice cubes. Easy. Then I was asked to put the stock in it. Not so easy. Can you guess what I did? Jacques went absolutely mad, calling me all sorts of names. I had yet to experience the archaic chill-blaster: the ancient method of filling a sink or large vessel with cold water and ice cubes for the purpose of cooling down a hot pot/pan as quickly as possible. Not many youngsters today would have experienced this as we now have expensive blast-chillers in our kitchens (well except at l’escargot!). I shall tell you more soon…