Pages

Saturday, March 22, 2014

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

Here at Chateau Perroterie spring has well and truly sprung, in the 8 years we have lived here, I have never known such a mild winter, ok yes a wet one too, but nature has been awake for more than a month. The bees and butterflies are prolific, and to oblige them, plants and herbs especially the rosemary has flowered early, the noise underneath the plum trees is frantic with happy bees. 
Angel wings 1st rose of 2014

So in the kitchen I have thrown off the shackles of heavier dishes like roasts and casseroles in favour of lighter crunchy meals. I made my favourite salad yesterday its called Perigordian salad and is so delicious and very satisfying. Typically it has a base of green salad leaves, tossed in a walnut and honey dressing, I lightly sauté smoked lardons then I remove them and scatter them on top of the salad, next the duck geziers, add to the same pan to absorb the lovely smokey juices and oils from the bacon, add some garlic to taste (I like a lot) and a little olive oil, sauté for 5 minutes, theses too get tossed onto the salad, along with walnuts or pine nuts which ever you have to hand. I add thinly sliced red onion, little canapé toasts with foie gras for decadence. This pretty much is the lot, but I had some left over roasted chicken and some jambon sec in the fridge so I added them to, I have in the past added thin batons of a crunchy apple for sweetness, its one of those salads which you can have fun with. Final tip use chicken livers if you can't get geziers. 
Perigordian salad

Enjoy the lovely spring weather, next weekend the clocks "spring" forward and we have longer days, make life lighter in your kitchens and and look forward to wonderful vegetables like asparagus which are about to come onto our supermarket shelves.

No comments:

Post a Comment