Traditional Oxtail Soup

It's not easy to get your hands on an oxtail these days! I had to give the butcher a week's notice and he said that the usual wait was a month! I am tempted to walk around the fields with a sharp knife and help my self to the next clean heffer's tail I see! Reminds me of a story my Grandad told me. He had gone to the cattle market to buy a cow. He was an acomplished dairy farmer who had been instrumental in getting the Agricultural Credit Bank off the ground. He must have been thinking of high finance when he bought that cow because when he got home, he found that the tail had fallen off! Apparently the seller had glued it on! Now you don't have to be a vet or a Bank Director to know that a cow with no tail, is of absolutely no use to anyone. The tail is critical for a cow to keep cool, balanced and free of buzzing flies! I can't remember what happened to that poor cow but I can tell you that oxtail soup is one of the best soups on earth and it is worth going the extra mile to get your hands on a tail!

Here is a great recipe which never fails to impress. You will need:

* 2 lbs. oxtail - the good sized rings;
* plain flour (about a cup will do)
* 2 oz. beef dripping (beef fat) or lard
* 2 medium onions, chopped finely
* 4 pints hot beef stock
* 2 tablespoons tomato puree
* Fresh bunch of thyme
* sea salt and black pepper
* A bay leaf or two
* 3 cloves, 1 garlic and a splash of tobasco
* A small bunch of parsley
* 2 medium sized carrots, diced small
* 1 stalk celery, chopped up small
* A little port or sherry

Method:

Trim the meat of excess fat and cut it up into chunks. Coat the meat in the flour. In a frying pan, heat up the beef dripping (or lard/goose fat). Brown the meat very quickly in batches over a high heat. Remove from the fat and drain on kitchen paper. Turn the heat down to low/moderate. Add the onions and garlic and fry gently until golden (about 8-10 minutes). Sprinkle in the 2 tbsp. flour. Mix well and brown lightly. Slowly add the beef stock and mix in thoroughly. The soup should start to thicken. Stir in the tomato puree. Add the thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. A splash of tobasco really helps and a little port or sherry. Add the bay leaf, cloves and parsley (it's best to tie them up in a piece of muslin cloth so it's easier to remove them later). Return the meat to the pot, cover and simmer for 3 hours until the meat is really tender and falling off the bone. Let it cool a bit and remove the bay leaf, cloves and parsley. Separate the meat from the bones cut in bite-size pieces and return to the pot. Add the carrots and celery. Cover and simmer for another 20 minutes. It's ready to serve now but I prefer to let the soup go cold, refrigerate overnight and remove the solid fat from the top, and serve next day with warm bread rolls and a glass of full bodied red wine. Oh and it always helps if you have a good tale to tell!!

What will you have with your French Cuisine?

As an international cooking school we naturally receive enquiries from all over the world. Most of our students are simply seeking to improve their cooking skills and expand upon their culinary repetoire. Our students come from everywhere and the most popular destinations so far are Germany, Australia, China and the USA. Most of our students are professional woman but there are a growing number of men also seeking to develop their culinary instincts. The majority of our clients find us on the internet and it is not therefore surprising that email is usually the initial form of contact. We do get some unusual requests like the military General from Pakistan who wanted to send his son for four years "culinary punishment" and a lady from Brazil who wanted to learn "how to cook with ice"!

We also get requests from students who wish to do more than simply cook all day. They want to combine their week's cooking with more holiday like pursuits such as visiting places of interest. This is why we have a break in our daily cooking schedule allowing students a few hours off each day to explore food markets (the Rennes food market, marché des Lices,is one of the best in France!). We also recommend a number of beautiful local medieval towns to visit such as Dinan or Josselin. The beautiful seaside walled town of St Malo or the amazing abbey of Le Mont Saint-Michel are very popular.

Some students seek to combine their cooking course with wine appreciation classes, the French language, painting, astronomy, yoga, or simply cycling and walking. The area around Kerrouet is within The Mene, an area of outstanding natural beauty and unspoilt countryside. We keep cycles for our students and there are some beautiful walks we do recommend. We have professional sommeliers who give wine lectures and tastings and we are not far from the wonderful vinyards of the Loire Valley.

We are working on the provision of French language courses. However yoga, painting and astronomy (we are in one of the few places in Europe where the sky at night is not hindered by urban lighting!)will have to be offered by others. Our main preoccupation and expertise and love will always be French and modern European cuisine and we seek to do this exceedingly well in an intimate and memorable way.
If we take on too many additional pursuits we risk damaging the wonderful thing we are doing now - simply training others how to create great food in a unique, friendly and professional way. Bon Appétit.

Gourmet World Cookbook Awards 2011

The Gourmet World Cookbook Awards will take place in Paris at the Cookbook Fair from 3 - 6 March 2011. Thousands of cookbooks are published every year in France not all written by chefs or professional culinary bodies. An increasing number of cookbooks are now written by complete amatures who combine a love of great food with an interest in regional cuisine and travel generally. You don't have to be a qualified chef to be a great cook and a good writer could be hopeless in the kitchen. But when the two elements come together there is fusion which gives rise to some great culinary writing. I am thinking of authors like Kimberley Lovato with "Walnut Wine and Truffle Groves - Culinary Adventures in the Dordogne" or "So French" by Dany Chouet and Patricia Hobbs in Australia.

People used to learn to cook from their parents. The cooking school will always be the next best alternative to learn such skills today but there will always be a place for the good cookbook. One can become familiar with the methodology of the cuisine and the recipes can be a joy to follow particularly if you have the basic skills to manage the knowledge learned. Add a sense of humour and up to date travel information and you can have a great book. The first famous French cookbook was Le Guide Culinaire by Auguste Escoffier published in 1903. It is still the bible of French cuisine today. If you are planning to be in Paris for the bookfair in March, do look out for chefs including Alain Dutournier from Carré des Feuillants (http://www.carredesfeuillants.fr) and Alain Ducasse (http://www.alain-ducasse.com/fr) who are likely to be out and about. Or just browse the numerous book aisles and find yourself a real culinary bargain in the process.

Andalusian Cooking School

 

We have been spending the last few weeks searching for a winter retreat for our cooking school and this may well fit the bill. It is an old water tower built to look like a gothic castle. It has wonderful views of the Med as well as snow capped mountains and comes with an enormous amount of space! We may well need to open a brewery or enter the Guinness book of records for having the largest private wine cellar on earth! Either way we came a step closer today to finding our new place in the sunshine! It is a ruin at the moment but one which could be transformed into a beautiful cooking school one day!

Tapas in Cadiz

We set off yesterday on a round tour of western Andalusia heading down through Marbella, Algeciras (bypassing Gibraltar), over even more mountain roads (Los Barrios) and up the coast arriving in Cadiz just in time for lunch. Cadiz is an amazing old city port, one of the oldest cities in Europe actually, resting at the edge of a thin peninsular with a lot of character and very friendly locals. Cadizians, if you can call them that, descend from an amazing mixture of previous folk including the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Visigoths, the Romans, the Moors as well as the current Andalusian Spanish. The city may be old but it is also very clean unlike some new cities I have visited recently!! We were blown away by the old harbour walls built in the 15th century. The cut stones contained fossils of a previous era which were truly amazing.

We had lunch at La Cepa Gallega, one of the most famous tapas wine bars in Cadiz if not the modern world! It has been labeled a wine museum and a ship's stores but one thing is certain, Félix Fernández Verdejo and his son give you a right warm welcome on arrival and recommend some great wines, hams, fishes and cheeses to the hungry and curious visitor. We settled for the Coto de Imaz 2007 which was delightful particularly with the Manchego Cheese served simply on paper. There are no pretension here simply great food and wine served simply and with pleasure! Lunch for two was only 12 euros! Sadly we had to take our leave after lunch but we both agreed we would be back in Cadiz soon to explore this beautiful city in much more detail. We headed off up the coast towards Jerez de la Frontera (the home of sherry - another visit pending) and on to Rhonda (another amazing historical city built on top of a mountain ridge!) and finally over snow clad mountains (Sierra de la Nieves) and home to Fuengirola for a cold pint!!!

Almond trees blossom in Andalusia

With the cooking school closed until the spring we find ourselves exploring the beautiful countryside and mountain villages of Andalusia again. The almond trees are already in blossom which proves that this year has started off much warmer than last year. Today we took a trip deep into the hinterland behind Marbella through the Rio Grande valley and up to the ruins of a 6th century Arab castle at Cartama. From the top of the castle mount you can see why the Moors chose this spot to monitor and control all movement north and south of their empire.

Today the plains are white with almond blossoms against a green carpet of lush rich grass and tiny rustic fincas. Flocks of parrots and herds of red goats are to be seen but otherwise the locals are all enjoying their siestas. We came across a simple bar earlier in the day though which was lively enough to attract our attention. The tapas on offer included a delicious Jamón serrano (literally mountain ham; a type of jamón (dry-cured Spanish ham), which is generally served raw in thin slices with fresh baked bread and olives and goes very well with a nice glass of rioja.

January - time to detox

January is the time when we review our health and try to reduce the intake of sugar, coffee, fats, alcohol and toxins. It is also a time to review exercise routines and diets. Being mid winter it is not a good time to restrict essential warm foods or to starve the body. However most people in the west eat far too much so I do recommend a review and if you have been guilty of over indulgence over the festive season here is a simple detox diet for an average healthy person to follow for three days:

Upon rising

• 1/2 lemon squeezed into a glass of warm water

• 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds in a glass of water

Breakfast

• breakfast smoothie made with pear, rice milk and rice protein powder

Snacks

• apple juice diluted with water

• water

• vegetable broth

• celery sticks and hummus

Lunch

• chunky vegetable soup made with vegetable stock and your choice of vegetables

• steamed broccoli with sesame seeds and beets sprinkled with lemon juice on brown rice

• apple sauce

Snacks

• carrot sticks with hummus dip

• water

Dinner

• curried lentils on quinoa

• salad with mixed greens, red peppers, artichokes and sprouts drizzled with salad dressing of garlic, lemon juice and olive oil

• vegetable broth

Before bed

• 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds in a glass of water

Don't forget to drink at least 2 litres of water and enjoy 30 minutes of active exercise every day!