Wedding bells

The biggest day of a girl's life is surely her wedding day. The fairy tale dress, a sunshine day.
Anything less is unimaginable.  This wedding has been in the making for over a year, & finally on Wednesday THE day arrived. The bride looked amazing I think you will agree, & the dress wow so beautiful, & after a week of horrendous weather yes even the sunshine arrived right on time for the photographs.

Helen

Helen our bride rode for France on Miss Amblan in cross country eventing, & the current owner surprised her by bringing her along for the photos. Helen & many of her family cannot eat wheat or gluten so a very special cake was made & you can see how gorgeous it looked, the taste was even better, I swear you would never of known it wasn't a typical made wedding cake.

Miss Amblan

So now the excitement & the nerves, & the tears of joy have been replaced with silence & tranquility, once again Chateau Perroterie was proud to be part of a family celebration & I believe the energies of our "place with space" helped make the whole day a day to remember.

Rhubarb vodka jellies

Rhubarb vodka jellies!

Half way through May already, wow!, where does the time go? This year our weather is very changeable, one minute hot next minute heavy rain, our global climate is definitely all over the place. The upside (& lets face it its important to look for the positive!) is our beautiful roses are late blooming & the smell is intoxicating, fingers crossed they will be a stunning backdrop for the wedding on Wednesday.

Our neighbours very kindly gave us some of their new season's rhubarb, because its not forced, the colour is green unlike shop bought. I am not the biggest fan of this fruit (vegetable?) but John loves it. I thought about how I could come up with something different, and oooh! was I delighted with the result. So here is what I did......

I lightly poached a few sticks of chopped rhubarb in 400ml of water & 2 heaped tablespoons of sugar, then strain the fruit & ,set aside, let the fruit infused syrup cool. Meanwhile I soaked 4 gelatin leaves in water 5-7 mins. When its gone all floppy, squeeze out excess water, pop into the cooled syrup along with 3 tablespoons of Vodka, gently heat till the gelatin has dissolved. Pour into 4 pretty wine glasses, chill overnight in the fridge, perfect as a dinner party dessert. it has a lovely sexy wobble. Just before serving top with a dollop of creme fraiche & a couple of pieces of the poached rhubarb. Don't worry I didn't waste the surplus poached fruit, it went into a dish with some crumble mix & voila John had his favourite crumble the next day, how versatile is that!

Asparagus season

France has been gripped by election fever, & we now have a new leader, Monsieur Hollande has deposed Sarkozy, my French neighbours assure me that nothing will change they are both useless! so back to the more important business of food & drink

France is a country which prides itself on eating seasonal foods. Each new fruit vegetable meat fish etc is eagerly anticipated. The asparagus season is all too short & probably the most popular vegetable with the French. Every cook has their preferences white or green, the white being much bigger & probably the most popular. Cooks have their favourite recipes, from steamed with butter, to hollandaise, quiches, wrapped with smoked salmon or Jambon sec, vinaigrette dressings, & on & on. the recipes are endless.

 I needed a really quick supper dish, I bought a bundle of asparagus from the market at St Foy la Grande, I lightly poached the asparagus in water with a spoonful of salt & sugar, (sugar is a must), meanwhile I grilled some bacon, sautéed mushrooms in a little butter,  I poached 2 eggs & then its a simple case of placing everything on a hot plate, make sure the egg sits on top of the asparagus so the yolk acts like a sauce. Simple but oh so yummy.

1893 wedding

2009 wedding

History lesson

In 1835 the Coustou family arrived at La Perroterie they were a very important family in the area. Monsieur Coustou was the Pastor of Duras for more than 40 years. In the 1850's his wife Elise was responsible for introducing into our region the American grapevine root stock, after the infestation of the disease Phylloxera which destroyed 90% of the European grapevines, this would prove to be a hugely significant exercise as it literally resurrected the production of wine throughout Europe. Elise became the chef de region pour de vin, which was no mean feat for a woman, in fact it would be quite a thing if a woman had this title in 2012!!


In 1893 the granddaughter of Elise was married in Duras & the wedding was celebrated at Chateau Perroterie & here is the official photograph. In 2009 we had a local family wedding, & a photo was taken in the same place. Next week we are fortunate to be hosting once again a local wedding. So fingers crossed the weather is perfect & love will once again be in the air at Chateau Perroterie.


I wanted to share this cocktail with you as it is a particular favorite with French weddings.It's a very pretty & popular wedding drink. You need a chilled Rose wine, pour 1/3 into a large wine glass, then fresh grapefruit again 1/3 juice, top up with sparkling water. Add crushed ice if your liquids aren't chilled.

For weddings its lovely to add rose petals into ice cube trays & freeze, they look amazing floating in punch bowls or in large wine glasses. 

Wedding cocktail