It's been a while... It has felt like a true holiday in many ways - not least because the children are off for NINE weeks (!!!!) here in Belgium over the summer. Every year the summer holidays start on the last school day in June at 12.30 and it lasts until the 1st of September (or the first school day thereafter). At least we know where we are at and - IF we wanted to - we could plan years ahead.........
Soooooo...we seriously had to break up the 9 weeks to stay sane. One week at home. Two weeks in the UK and Ireland. Two weeks at home again. Two weeks in France and two last weeks at home again with summer camps for the kids (horse riding and hockey) planned. Survived pretty well although I think that by last week we were all ready for a more structured life to start again!
Lovely to have such beautiful weather at the end of the summer by the way! I must say, we haven't had much to complain about this summer anyway because for some bizarre reason the weather was good most of the time - wherever we went. Felt like being in the right place at the right time.
This has probably led to me being absolutely ready for a new season. I have always loved seasonal changes anyway. The change of colours, smells, food, decorations in the house, clothes. And for Autumn especially, the 'drawing in' feeling, lighting candles in the evening, lighting the fire, curling up on the sofa with a good book or watching a good TV programme or a film....it all has its charm!
But before I dive into all that cosiness (is that a word....?!), I would like to reflect on the summer and share a few photos and experiences with you!
In the garden
In my last blog I shared with you the broad beans we picked and the risotto we made with it. Funny coincidence actually that we are having that again tonight (full summer circle!). I had put the leftover broad beans in the freezer and I think that they should be eaten before the real hearty food starts to appear on the menu.
Since early summer we have picked more beetroots and carrots (for roasting with honey, lemon, olive oil and cumin seeds this time) AND we have harvested our first parsnips! First time I ever sowed them (straight into the ground) and they have done amazingly well!! I was very proud I have to admit. They were HUGE!Then there's of course the Dahlias which have gone completely bonkers in terms of the number of flowers they have been producing. There's absolutely no end to it. And when I watched Gardener's World last Friday I found out that the more you cut them....exactly! The more flowers will come back!
I feel that they are such almost 'old fashioned' flowers. Vintage-y. That's why I like them so much. Gorgeous.
Three varieties of the 5 I had put into the ground have done really well: Red Manhattan Island, Dutch Explosion, Creme de Cassis. I will include a couple of pictures of the first two.
Other developments have of course been our tomatoes! I have two varieties this year: Lilly of the Valley and San Marzano. Both are doing very well. I am picking a bowl full every other day - at least. They are colouring nicely and the taste is good! Not a lot of damage on them at all so we've been pretty lucky there!
My husband made a beautiful salad with them this weekend when we had a (probably our last of the season) BBQ. Pretty meticulous I have to say......! I was a very proud wife! Think I will ask him for help in the kitchen a bit more often :-)! It was a very simple salad, just with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, red onion and several fresh herbs from the garden (this time: chives, oregano, marjoram and tarragon). I guess that it just tastes extra delicious when you've grown it all yourself. This is what it looked like anyway:
Bread
My sourdough starter has been on holiday too - in the fridge! Quite amazing what it does when you give it a break and then revive it again, which is what I have been doing since I took it out 2 weeks ago. Most of the existing mixture went down the drain and I completely refreshed it with new rye flour and water.
Last weekend I baked the first loaves from it and I must say that the starter has got very active again and has produced a few good loaves of bread. One of them I baked in the 'La Cloche' (from www.bakerybits.co.uk) and came out well (after having kept the loaf in the oven a bit longer without the cloche to make sure the bottom was crusty too). As a first, I tried the Toasted Sesame Sourdough Cob, which is a recipe from the leaflet that comes with the cloche. This is it:
The other three loaves (for which I still use Daniel Stevens' - previously River Cottage - sourdough recipe form his book 'Bread'; River Cottage Handbook No. 3) have come out well in terms of flavour and inside structure but they went quite flat in shape when I put them in the oven. As soon as I slashed them with the razor blade knife (called a 'grignette') it collapsed a bit. Got to work on that!
So...we have a reasonable supply of bread again and I will hopefully be baking every other Saturday again from now on. Loving it! Keeps me sane. So rewarding too. Will keep you posted.
Restaurants
Over the last part of the summer I went to a few restaurants. Not so much in France, interestingly enough. I went to 2 restaurants in Maastricht, where my friend Carina lives. I lived in Maastricht for 11 years (university & work after that) and it is a lovely old town with so many bars and restaurants you wouldn't know what to choose! But...Carina and I had very good memories (that always does it, doesn't it?) of a restaurant called 'Au Coin Des Bons Enfants' - these days a one Michelin star restaurant. So we went back.
Well...that was a big mistake! It was bad. On all fronts. Carina had a vegetarian menu and I decided to stick with fish. The fish menu was so same-ish in terms of colour, taste and texture that it reminded me of hospital food... Not over exaggerating! All the amuses arrived at the same time. There was a VERY young, arrogant/snotty waiter. A lot of things arrived late, if not too late. And last but NOT least, they had RED loo paper in the loos..... I ask you!? Red loo paper!!?? In a Michelin star restaurant! They seemed to have completely lost it there. What a shame. And what a thoroughly disappointing evening. Not that Carina and I didn't have any fun together however ;-)!!
Howeverrrrrrrr, the next day Carina and Henry invited Sammy and I for supper in Chateau Neercanne (also one Michelin star). You will not believe the difference with the night before! The service was immaculate, yet not over the top. We all had a vegetarian meal and it was a-ma-zing!!! We literally felt kings and queens in that beautiful castle with magnificent views over the hills. Taken care of very well and served the most delicious, creative and beautiful dishes. A picture of the chateau:
Here are a few food pictures of that wonderful night (thanks so much again Henry & Carina!):
Starter with beetroot, pickled radishes, dried/crumbed black olive, lime mousse, quinoa, tomato crackers (like prawn crackers!), soy jelly, watercress puree. Sensational!!
With a wink to the Autumn already, a mousseline of mushrooms (not visible under the foam), fresh wild mushrooms and that foam. Simply delish.
Ravioli filled with aubergine, think it was spinach underneath, and a very special little Swiss cheese that went over the top of it, grated at the table. Sorry, forgotten the very difficult name of that cheese.
We had been eyeing the cheese trolley for a while during our meal and it felt like a MUST to have a few slivers (...!). Kept very simple - not too many cheeses to choose from. All in top condition.
My cheese plate, with nuts, dried cranberries and a sliver of panforte. Toppie!
Last Saturday my husband and I went out for supper at Petit Cuistot, a restaurant here in Lier where we live. A success too! A very young guy named Willem van den Broeck became Belgian sommelier of the year in 2010 - he owns this restaurant. Great! Because this means that he offers a menu, in which the wines form the starting point and not the food. They build the menu around 5 different chosen wines. This changes every two weeks I think. I simply didn't have time to take pictures of the food as it was all so good - I was just enjoying it! What I will do is give you a list of the wines and a quick mention of the key ingredient of what we ate with it.
- Tenuta Giuliano 2010, Terre di Chieti, Abruzzo, Italie (with raw tartare of beef, gurkin puree, bell caper, crunchy soy)
- Domaine Zacharioudakis 2011, Crete, Greece (with dorade, tomato, fennel)
- Rosu de Petravaselo 2011, Recas, Romania (with pigeon, pumpkin, black garlic puree, pommes dauphin)
- Domain Massandra 'Pinot Gris' (rose!!!), Ekim Kara, Ukraine (with Italian Lombard cheese and very strong Belgian blue cheese) THIS WAS THE STAR WINE!!!
- Jean-Paul Thevenet, 'On pete la soif', Fleurie (red cold sparkly!!), Beaujolais, France (with melon and citrus dessert)
- Moscato d'Asti (with blueberry cheese cake)
Lovely evening (we went by bicycle!). Great new wines to taste. Very good food to match it - creativity, flavours, textures. Great chat with Willem van de Broeck who had just simplified his concept to move away from all the Michelin 'stuff' hanging over him. Clearly a good move. As far as we are concerned. Lovely people at neighbouring table too, whom we had an extra glass of that AMAZING Pinot Gris from the Ukraine with...! We all loved it so much!
Looking forward
Right...................bit of a biggie this post! Bit like a summer holiday card x 100.....
Hope you're all still with me ;-)!
As I said earlier, I do look forward to a new season with everything it has to offer. Soups, stews, crumbles, cakes. This weekend my sister and her lovely new 'constructed' family are coming over and we will be with 10 around the dinner table - now we're talking!!!! Always dreamed of that! So I will be in the kitchen quite a bit before the weekend. Big pot of my mum's tomato soup I think. Cakes. Blueberry muffins. Since there 6 kids we will probably do roast chicken and uncle Duncan's home made chips...! Rhubarb (form garden) and apple crumble... Simple. Delicious. Cosy. Fun for 10! We are all massively looking forward to it!
We are getting quite a few people over from England as well this Autumn (hurray!!!!) so I look forward to making something special of all those occasions too. Bring on the Autumn! Bring on 'gezelligheid'! A Dutch word for which there is NO other word in ANY other language as far as I'm concerned. 'Cosiness' comes closest I think - if that exists at all.... Brrrrrrrring on the cosiness!
Much love to you all - keep cooking!
X Bee
