We have a lot of fruit in the orchard and it’s been a bumper year for figs.
– melt some butter in a small pan and skim off the white impurities that come to the surface, these are the bits that can burn. The result is “clarified butter” but you can also use Ghee from India, which is the same thing.
– Mix the melted clarified butter with some honey and baste a guinea fowl all over. Season well. Place is a roasting pan. You can also use a small chicken.
– Cook in the oven at 180°. For a guinea fowl the total cooking time will be about 45 minutes, you will need longer for a chicken.
– 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time add the following mixture to the pan:
      – peeled and chopped pears
      – peeled and chopped apples
      – roughly chopped walnuts
      – quartered fresh figs
      – some raisons and sultanas
– the bird should be golden brown when ready, with delicious crispy skin. You can serve as is, or carve the meat and serve with the fruit and couscous (photo right)

It’s that time of year again. There are plenty more in the garden and we’ve got a bumper crop of figs this year.

Moules marinières (mussels in creamy sauce)
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Traditional Flemish Carbonnade
(Marinated beef cooked in Belgian beer)

Apsaragus
Glazed carrots
Chips
(as many fried potatoes as you can eat
– served with mayonnaise – all home-made)

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Desserts with Belgian chocolate
and speculos

Bortsch
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Pirojkis (top right)
Stuffed with carrots/cabbage
and mushrooms/anchivies

Red cabbage salad
Sour cream
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Beef Stroganoff (bottom right)

with
Potato and dill mash
Mustard sour cream
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Blinis

with
Compote of apple and red fruit and Lemon mousse
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Entertainment by aZey the Magician

– Tofu and black mushroom soup
•••••
– Peking duck with pancakes and Hoisin sauce
•••••
– Sweet and sour pork
– Chicken with cashew nuts
– Stir fried vegetables with noodles
– Rice
•••••
– Coconut flan with lychees and mango syrup
– Sesamé crackers and fortune cookies
•••••
– Chinese tea, Tsingtao

– use a back of salmon, extract all the bones
– make a light béchamel sauce using half-milk half-water
– season the sauce with nutmeg
– cut the salmon into thin slices crosswise, add a lot of pepper
– make layers of salmon, fresh spinach leaves, béchamel sauce and lasagne
– I also add some chopped chives
– make three of four layers and finish with some grated parmesan
– bake in a hot oven for 25 minutes

I know I promised the blanquette de veau recipe accompanied by mixed roast vegetables but first I must divulge this wonderful polenta invention.

method:
– cook some polenta
– mix it (use a fork) with some chopped sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil and spices (cumin, chilli, coriander, cinnamon, etc. etc. – whatever takes your fancy)
– place in an overproof dish and grill in a hot oven until cooked through and lightly browned on top

Blanquette de Veau method:
– fry some chopped onions in a little oil
– add bite sized chunks of veal and brown
– add chopped carrots, garlic and a little flour
– add white wine (or dry cider) and stock to cover, salt, pepper
– place in a casserole dish and cook in a cool oven (160 degrees) for a couple of hours until the meat is tender and the sauce thick.
– Serve with slices of grilled polenta (see above)

And a fantastic pizza dough slinging show by Mario
and Luigi.

Well this is turning into a real Mushroom Month.

We went for a lovely dinner with our friends Alan Cook (ex-manager of the famous GothRock band “Sauerkraut” as featured elsewhere on this website, click here for more details if you are really interested) and Elisabeth Guinness.

Elisabeth runs the Guinness Gallery in Dublin and she is an excellent cook.

The spicy pork stew was fantastic but it was the starter of raw mushrooms and prawns which inspired me for this recipe. I have only slightly modified Elisabeth’s original recipe by adding some spinach leaves and a slightly sweeter dressing to counteract their bitterness.

– thinly slice some mushrooms
– place on a bed of baby spinach leaves
– add some peeled prawns
– make a dressing with honey, lime juice, olive oil, oregano, salt and mild red paprika powder
– drizzle dressing on the salad

The second of our Special Around The World Cuisine theme evenings

This month: Texan menu

– Southern cocktail with nachos and salsa

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– Halloween pumpkin soup
with cream and smoky bacon

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– Barbecued spare ribs
Marinated ribs cooked in the wood stove and served with an authentic American barbecue sauce (26 ingredients)

– Served with potato and sweet potato fries, bean and corn salad and extra barbecue sauce

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– Selection of American desserts
Lemon cheesecake, brownie, iced carrot cake, blueberry sauce

It’s that time of year when we have mushrooms in abundance. The “cepe” mushrooms are the most sought after and people can actually be seen fighting in the woods to defend their “patch”.

A few years ago someone set up a mushroom canning business in a camper van parked in the woods herby. They were actually sterilizing and preserving the ceps in cans and jars on site and then selling them for a fortune in the city. A pitch battle broke out between these “intruders” and a gang of locals and the police had to intervene. Sadly no-one had really broken any laws, so they all got off with the most expensive illegal parking fine the police could conjure up.

As I have said here in the past, we love the black trompette mushrooms. I made a pizza with them.

– Make a pizza base, let it rest for a while to make it elastic
– Roll out the dough very thin
– Put on some tomato sauce (home-made of course)
– Put of some mozzarella cheese (buffalo of course)
– Put on three rashers of bacon (smoky of course)
– Put on some “trompette” Horn of Plenty mushrooms (fresh of course, if you are using dried ones, which is okay, first let them soak for a while in warm water)
– Cook in a hot oven until ready

I’m cooking in Bruno’s Restaurant once a month for Special Around The World Cuisine evenings

This month: Thai/Indonesian menu:

– Sweet and Sour Soup with shrimp, lemon grass and coriander

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– Kaeng Khieu Wan Kai (Green Curry)
Chicken and vegetables cooked in coconut milk with Thai spices, served with basil

– Satay Babi Manis (Pork Satay)
Pork fillet marinated in lime and fish sauce served with peanut sauce

– Gado Gado
Cucumber and vegetable salad with spicy peanut dressing

– Fried banana
– Thai rice
– Fresh chutneys and hot sauce

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Banana cake, passion fruit ice-cream and mango coulis

We have a very strange fig tree. It gives bland, tasteless figs in the early summer and delicious fruit in October. Maybe it’s something to do with it growing on top of the filter bed for the septic tank, it must be well fed.

Anyway, we have figs coming out of our ears.

Most of them get made into jam but here are some of the other things I have done with them this week:
– chopped and cooked in the pan with duck breast. Put them in the pan when the duck is nearly cooked, add a little madeira (or similar), and finish cooking until there is a thick sauce.
– in a tart, with some ground almonds.
– with a little cheese on toast, see photo with camembert.
– for breakfast with yoghurt, or even better, fromage blanc made from goats milk.

All credit has to go to Jamie Oliver for this recipe. It’s not so much Jamies recipes in themselves, but the methods he sometimes uses are inventive and time-saving.
In this easy recipe, you toss a chicken breast in spices and fry it until it’s dark and crispy on the outside and soft in the centre. For the spice mixture and coating I used ground coriander, chilli powder, turmeric and polenta (for added crispiness). Before frying, toss the chicken in this mixture, cover with greaseproof paper or aluminum foil and bash flat with a rolling pin so that the spices and polenta penetrate the chicken.

Once cooked, slice the chicken breast and serve on a bed of salad. I use mâche (corn leaf salad, Valerianella locust), Italian red chicory (Trevise), and celery. Served with a wrap or tortilla.
There are endless variations of this method, use your imagination.

I have already posted my signature dish of chicken rolls stuffed with black Horn of Plenty mushrooms. You can find the recipe here.
These little black mushrooms are plentiful in our part of the world in the Autumn and they dry out very easily and can be kept all year. In French we call them “Trompettes de la Mort” which literally translates as “deathly trumpets”
I usually serve these chicken rolls with a blueberry and Madeira sauce.
In this photo I have accompanied the chicken with:
– a stuffed garlic mushroom: fry some chopped bacon and the mushroom stalks, mix with some garlic and parsley, stuff your mushrooms and top with breadcrumbs, bake in a hot oven until browned on top
– mashed vegetables: the purple colored mash is from our homegrown black potatoes, also shown is yellow turnip mash and carrot/cumin mash.