a few more summer dishes from Luxembourg

A few more dishes that I cooked during the summer holidays.

First up a piece of glazed eel with courgettes.

In September, the first game birds arrived, and this wild duck with cepes and Brussels sprouts was rather tasty.

Seeing that Breton lobster is at its best during the summer months, I played around with these beauties a little, and this dish featured roasted lobster with artichokes and chives. A rich lobster jus finished the thing off.

At some point I got my hands on some beautiful squid, simply pan-fried with romaine lettuce and confit shallots they were a delight.

The next time I’m in Luxembourg, it’ll be time for things such as hare, truffles and a few other goodies. Let’s see what we can get…

Late-summer night’s dreams, Luxembourg

Summer is coming to an end. With it’s end are coming a great deal of superb  products. Take for instance the great cepes, freshly picked from the Cevennes. I just sliced them and served them with carabineros from off the Majorcan coast and a bit of toasted bread. Simple it was, but oh so good!

 

Mind you the pic above is the raw product, simply sliced with a bit of cepe, Roscoff onion and burned bread it was simply a glorious match with the Selosse Rose.

Following this, I served the same carabineros simply roasted in their shells with roasted cepes, and aubergines. The jus was spiced with vanilla and Piment d’Espelette. It was a simple dish again, but a very successful one.

On a different occasion, I served the same prawns with a 1987 Puligny villages, which was great. Pure, fruity, fresh and vibrant, the wine was the perfect match for the food. Simply steamed with ginger, the carabineros were a good partner with the aubergine compote and consomme.

As mentioned above, we drank a Selosse Rose with the previous dishes. It was tight and thin at first, but opened up beautifully after a little while. Quite rich, dense at full of flavour it was one of the better roses I have had in my life. Still, I am no fan of rose, but this was one to make me think. Very good indeed.

The latter dish was eaten with the Leflaive. Whilst the wine was still vibrant and fresh, it was a bit thin, something that is quite common, since Anne Claude Leflaive produces a lot of her wines with rendements close to the legal maximum. This being said, it was a fine wine, and matched the broth beautifully.

Home cooking, spring

Here are a few pictures of dishes I’ve cooked over the last few weeks. Spring is after the colder part of the year my favourite season of the year, as you have a bunch of tasty stuff coming during it.

First up, simple oysters, marinated in a Japanese vinaigrette, served with a pea soup. We drank a fantastic 1996 Macon Chaintre from Valette with this.

Also served on that day was a roasted lobster tail, with a vanilla jus and morels, roasted in butter (infused with the stems, garlic and a few dried morels). It was simply, but I really enjoyed it. With this we drank a V.O. from Selosse, which was stunning, to say the least.

Here the wine, which I absolutely adore.

Before the afore-pictured lobster, the dinner started with an asparagus soup, asparagus and lobster mitts, cooked in orange oil. It was tasty, simple and just the kind of food I enjoy. Wine-wise, a white ’04 Chateau Fonsalette was a more than worthy partner for this starter.

The main was a take on Gert’s outrageously good ox tail, morel and potato dish. I braised the ox tail with a fair amount of wine, and other good things for  a night, pulled it off the bone, and prepared a compote with it. A very buttery potato puree, and a few pan-fried morels on top, and a glass of ’59 Smith Haut Lafite made this a match made in heaven!

Here a pic of the wines of the night:

After going to China in a week’s time, I’ll  be back in Luxembourg, where a lot of good wines, and great summery products will await me: Lobsters from Brittany, langoustines, maybe a few decent tomatoes,…

Cuisine menagere

L’ete nous apporte des produits d’exception. Les cartes des restaurants regorgent d’homards bretons, ecrevisses, legumes, peches, figues, veau et d’autres belles choses. Voici quelques photos de plats faits lors des derniers mois.

des cepes en persillade...

Noix de boeuf, artichauts, courgettes et un us corse

Ravioli di coda di manzo ed olive nere

Grosses ecrevisses pattes rouges, cebettes, girolles

veloute de cepes, des cepes rotis/crus, jambon de porc noir basque

The joys of summer

 

homard breton

Summer does have some advanteages. In terms of products, one of my favourite things to eat, blue lobster from Brittany, has its high season. During these months, it is not only reasonably cheap, but also has the best flesh in terms of taste and texture. A few days ago, I just prepared it with a few different salad leaves, avocado cream, almonds and a vinaigrette, which was enriched with some lobster jus. This was simple, yet tasty and I particularly enjoyed the fact that the lobster wasn’t overcooked. This is often a case in restaurants, but I prefer it to be just undercooked, as it retains much more textural interest.

 

Another thing I tried were some very large Danish langoustines, which I pan-fried and marinated (to have two different ideas on one plate) and paired with two fennel preparations and spring onions. A simple langoustine bouillon with piment d’Espelette finished the dish off beautifully. Such products are so good, that one hardly needs to touch them. They would have sufficed with a little lemon juice and Armando Manni olive oil.

 

langoustine

Some foie gras poached in red wine, then cooled again was simply served with red and yellow pepper cream, which was a beautiful, if not outstanding. The idea of poaching foie in red wine was interesting, and more successful, when left warm, as the corners turned a little dry after the cooling process.

 

foie

As lobsters were so « cheap » these days, I also did another lobster dish, in two parts at another dinner. The first serving contained the mitts with quinoa, parsley and lobster oil. This was simple, but effective (at least in my humble opinion).

 

homard, quinoa

 

 

 

 

The tail was served with grelot onions, small girolles and an almond/milk/thyme paste. This was very good as far as I can say, as this combination always works with lobster, or indeed most things.

 

lobster / girolles

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer cooking – I

Here are a few dishes I cooked last week during a dinner I gave for a few friends. Some are more successful than others as all of them are spontaneous creations.

To start, I had made a bavarois of peas, which was served with raw foie gras, « Purple Haze » carrots, dried breadcrumbs and golden beetroot.

 

foie, petit pois, carrotes,...

A piece of roasted foie gras from the Landes was paired with a cream made out of sweet onions and spring onions cooked with a little cinnamon and piment d’Espelette.

 

foie roti

Also served was foie gras poached in red wine and a flat peach marmalade. This way of cooking brings the foie a whole new lighter feeling, which is particularly enjoyable in these summer days.

 

foie poche

A seafood salad with Borlotti beans was based on the version Franck Cerutti serves at the Louis XV, with some alterations.

 

salade de coquillages et crustaces

To finish the day, I had  made a dessert featuring peach marmalade, peach gelee, poached peaches, amaretto granite and almond foam.

 

dessert