Fred's newsletter 13.4.21

Last week’s lamb terrine.

Bonjour mes amis,

Another busy week last week. I was surprised to see just how busy it was given that Easter was just the week before. I thought it would quieten down a bit, but que-nenni (as we say at home). It didn’t, so I am expecting and hoping for another busy week.

You might remember a few blogs back that I mentioned Le Nemrod restaurant and talked a bit about my experiences there. There’s no doubt that I learned a lot, good and bad. The latter is always a good lesson to help inform your own behaviors and choices. That’s why I suggest people have the odd meal at McDonalds, but that’s for another blog.

Le Nemrod’s owner Turmeau was a keen gardener. In fact, he was keen on nature and would use it as a guide to source seasonally. Almost all produce was very local; there was no option in those days to buy tomato paste or sausage casings from China, or dried mushrooms from Eastern Europe, and even less chance to buy in ready-made stock of any kind.

In the late 70s and the 80s, Les Routiers restaurants were famous for generous, earthy food. Most were cooking with fresh, local produce with many presenting starters on a tray that was moved from table to table. Crudités variées is a prime example - healthy energising food that’s good for the mind and soul. Those serving dishes for the hors d’oeuvres were known as raviers, and for Turmeau, that was the only way to do it.

Every day we picked vegetables from the garden to be washed and peeled for the raviers selection. The classics were cucumber à la crème, red cabbage in vinaigrette, shredded carrots with lemon and shallots, a fine julienne of celeriac with a strong Dijon mustard mayonnaise, Parisian button mushrooms cooked Greek-style (with coriander and tomato pulp), warm leeks with walnut oil, and lots more besides. A few meat dishes joined the raviers too with sliced museau (pig snout) vinaigrette, or beef tongue, veal tongue or pig tongue, and garlic sausages with gherkins. Those were the days! Everything was fresh and seasonal with provenance of a 5 or 10 mile radius.

I cannot remember the price for the set menu but I am guessing 50 Francs, the equivalent of about £22 today. At the time there was no need for the mention of home-made on the menu; just by eating the food you knew the freshness and quality of what was going down to your stomach.

This was food for working people. At Les Routiers restaurants you would see all these starters flying around the tables, and then you had a choice of a main course, usually a choice of three, with a fish option or two on a Friday. Friday was also the day everyone would have an aperitif before the meal to celebrate the end of the week. To accompany the aperitif, we would make chips (or crisps as you call them here) with potatoes straight from the ground and into the fryer.

So, I am adding a crudités variées to the menu this week as a trip down memory lane and I hope you will enjoy. It might sound very simple, but I can assure you that it’s not.

Sourcing good vinegar, oil, mustard or even fresh cream is not straight forward. Vinegar is a prime example. Where do you go to buy a proper, organic vinegar? It’s not available from a supermarket, neither is a good vegetable oil. I mean 100% organic from a traceable source. It’s hard. Why are these previously easy and accessible (well in France anyway) now so difficult to come by? The supermarket versions are made from highly-processed ingredients that bear very little resemblance to the natural product. Next time you walk in a supermarket, please be cautious and have a wee read of the label. That should be enough to put you off buying.

In other words, making dressings for a simple starter becomes a real battle. And don’t get me started on the mayonnaise. For that you also need to find some proper mustard and eggs. Good luck! I’m obsessed with provenance and how things are made because I want to eat well, and I’m becoming more and more conscious of how difficult it is to buy food like it used to be. I’m sure you realise by now that for me, walking into a supermarket is a big no-no!

We have some great dishes on the menu, and this week there’s something particularly special: Manx Loaghtan lamb. It’s a very hardy rare breed, organically-reared by Bob and Jane of Downfield Farm in Fife, who were first attracted to them in 2017 because they produce linoleic acid which is good not only for curing the meat, but also for adding extra flavour. They keep 40 ewes which lamb each year, and the farm has its own abattoir, meaning less stress and contributing to good animal welfare. This is a first on the l'escargot menu, and I’m looking forward to you tasting it. I will cook the shoulder and leg Provençal-style with tomatoes and olives, keeping the loin for a later date.

Also on the menu we have crab bisque, scallops from Orkney, a ham cake with olives and Marechal cheese, and snails cooked in a sauce made with Pinot Noir, caramelised onions, lardons, mushrooms and croutons.

Not to forget the nibbles, saucisse sèche makes a comeback, there’s a choice of wild rabbit or duck rillettes, and my favourites, artisinal olives.

The Bourguignon of Aberdeen Angus beef cheeks in red wine sauce with the ‘grandmother’ garniture is very slowly cooked, getting two sessions of cooking: both a few hours each. This style of preparation is called à l’anciènne. Remember the days when grandma or mother was cooking a stew then re-heating it? Tastier the second time wasn’t it.

I’m awaiting the arrival of duck legs that will be cooked in a cognac and green peppercorn sauce, finished with a little cream; and this week I’m hoping for some mackerel as we approach the start of season. As they are not caught yet, it’s impossible to guarantee one hundred percent – but that is how it goes when you buy fresh and in season. If they do arrive, I will cook them escabeche-style with white wine, onions and tomatoes.

For sides, we have a creamy potato gratin with no less than five cheeses, Swiss chard with Mornay sauce, fresh vegetables with garlic, and of course a green salad. Looking at the sun this morning, I’m hoping for a salad picking trip to Newton Garden this week that’s as fruitful as last week’s.

Desserts are a rhubarb crumble, a dried moscatel clafoutis with a rhum crème anglaise, a Cointreau and orange petit pot with biscuits, and our classic tarte au chocolat. Irresistible.

That’s it for the news mes amis. More to come next week, and hopefully a more precise update from us on our opening plans.

I’ll leave you with Emma of Fidra Gin, who has kindly written an interesting story for us. Thank you.

Be safe and gourmand.

À bientôt,

Fred