Rose Hip Honey

If you still see any rose hips in the hedgerows you may be tempted to collect them and make this delicious healthy preserve. They are so easy to collect and following the early frosts are now ready to utilise.

You will need:

1 kg of rose hips
1kg of cooking apples
1 kg of sugar
Half litre of fresh  fruit juice.

Method

Boil the hips in water until tender. Strain through jelly bag overnight. Pulp the cooking apples in a little water and add the rose hip juice. Return to pan and add the sugar with the fruit juice. Cook until it sets when tested. Put into hot jars and seal until ready for use.

Pumpkin and Leek Risotto

Given the number of pumpkins around at present, it is useful to have various menus on hand which are both seasonal and delicious. One recipe I particularly enjoy doing is pumpkin and leek risotto which never fails to please. It is also really simple to prepare.

You will need:
60g butter
1 handful sage leaves, torn
500g diced pumpkin
2 litres light vegetable or chicken stock
1 leek, rinsed and sliced
2 bay leaves
350g risotto rice
salt
4 tbsp soy sauce, plus extra for seasoning
50g Parmesan, grated
100g mascarpone

Method 
Cook half the butter until it turns golden brown. Add the sage leaves and cook until they wilt, then add the pumpkin and cook over a moderate heat for a minute, stirring frequently to coat the pumpkin with butter.
Add 250ml of the stock and cook over a high heat with a lid on until the squash is almost cooked through, stirring occasionally. Once it's ready, mash about a quarter of it in the pot and keep warm. Bring the rest of the stock to a simmer.
Meanwhile, in a larger pot heat up the remaining butter and when it begins to sizzle add the leek and bay leaves and cook until the leek has completely softened. Add rice and a little salt and cook over medium-high heat for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Stir in enough stock to cover the rice by 2cm, then turn the heat down to a rapid simmer. Leave it to gently cook until most of the liquid is absorbed. Stir in another 250ml of stock, then leave until it is nearly absorbed. The rice must be covered with stock at all times – even if just by a few millimetres.
Keep cooking this way and after 12 minutes the rice should be al dente, softening on the outside and a little firm in the centre. At this point, stir in the pumpkin mixture and soy sauce and continue cooking until the rice is just cooked.
Put a lid on the pot, turn the heat off and leave to rest for a couple of minutes.
Stir in the Parmesan and mascarpone (if using) and taste for seasoning, adding extra soy or salt to taste, and serve immediately.

A Food Poem from 12th Century Ireland

Wheatlet, son of Milklet,

Son of juicy Bacon,

Is mine own name.

Honeyed Butter-roll

Is the man’s name

That bears my bag.

Haunch of Mutton

Is my dog’s name,

Of lovely leaps.

Lard, my wife,

Sweetly smiles

Across the kale-top.

Cheese-curds, my daughter,

Goes round the spit,

Fair is her fame.

Corned Beef, my son,

Whose mantle shines

Over a big tail.

by Aislinge Meic Con Glinne (translated from Irish).

The Amerigo Vespucci

It is not generally known in the English speaking world that it was an Italian navigator who gave his name to America!  That is one of the interesting facts I learned when I had the pleasure of going on board the Tall Ship Amerigo Vespucci which arrived in Dublin last month (having sailed from St Malo). Those Italian sailors certainly know how to lay on a party.  We had an extraordinary night with wonderful food and wines served by some of the friendliest naval personnel I have ever met! The dessert too was as tasty as it was grand but

 it didn't  take long before it was completely demolished by Officers and Crew in the meleé which followed! Thank you Captain for a wonderful evening.

May the Best House Win!

Last weekend was rather hectic as we had the  ITV Production team here all the way from the South Bank in London filming us for their October release of "May the Best House in France Win! Four very different homes were chosen and the pressure was on as we were the first house to be filmed. It is not just the design of the house or the character of the interior/exterior - the house owners too comes under heavy interrogation under the spotlights of the cameras. Well we did our best under the most trying of circumstances given that we had just completed two exhausting weeks of cooking school and a very late night party the night before the film crew arrived. Yes there are some very funny moments and we had a wonderful time with the other competitors. The crew were lovely too and it was nice to hear the Italian director say it was the best tiramisu she ever had!!! It was also good to hear we had won the competition but you will have to wait till October to see the broadcast on ITV. I will be letting you know the date of that in due course.

World's first nano jacket for chefs tested in our kitchen

 Kerrouet House may be 400 years old but we are always ready to try out new ideas in our kitchen! So when the opportunity arose to be the first chefs in the world to try out the nano anti microbe jacket in the kitchen we thought why not! That was yesterday during a cooking course with students from the UK and Australia present. I first decided to spill red wine on it; then coffee; then some  chocolate sauce on the external  surface of the jacket but the unique properties of the nano particles within the fabric reacted by refusing to let the ingredients stick. They simply ran off the fabric which was amazing to see causing a mess on my nice clean tiled floor (which is not  yet treated with nano fluid)!  The jacket does allow breathing from within however so chefs stay nice and cool while they work. However the amazing property of this jacket is that it kills all microbes and bacteria on impact at the nano level. So it never needs to be washed! I still have difficulty with this however as it seems to go against the grain at the personal hygiene level but I will leave the scientists to argue that one with you. My chef likes the qualities and properties of the jacket but refused to wear it saying it was not sexy enough. I think he has a point there but one day in the near future all chefs will wear a nano fabric jacket in their kitchen and we will have a blue plaque outside our 16th century house confirming we were the first  kitchen in the world to do so! Imagine Heston not thinking of that! Now back to my Béarnaise sauce.




Further info on nano products may be found at http://www.nanolandglobal.com/ and http://www.vestagen.com/

Festive Cooking Course 2012

French Dining School are planning a festive cooking course this December. Students are invited to attend the five day course arriving on the 27 December 2012  for an introductory dinner and starting the course on the following day. The course includes lunch and dinner with a special New Year's banquet candle-lit Dinner on the 31st which  includes oysters, lobsters, beef wellington, champagne, fine wines and a host of special festive gastronomic delights. The course also includes evening dinner on New Year's Day.

The price of the course is 975 Euros per person and accommodation in private gites locally for six nights is 245  Euros. You can see what was on last New Year's dinner by going on the following link: http://kerrouet.blogspot.fr/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2011-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=50

Places are limited to 12 so book early to guarantee a place!