francofiled

Speaking engagement.  Talk prepared, car loaded and off to the meeting; brilliant, I'd left plenty of time to find a parking space at the venue and more than enough to offload the selection of French wine and cheeses that were intended for une dégustation that evening. Things don't always go as planned and when I arrived most of the parking spaces were occupied by a single van! There was one space that just might work so if I could just quickly unload the "stuff" for the talk I could squeeze in. Seemed a good idea up to the point when the sickening sound of scraping metal told me it wasn't! ... Thoughts of an expensive evening crossed my mind as I headed to a public carpark about 5 minutes away. There was still just enough time, if I hurried. Got a space okay and opened the back door to retrieve my laptop from the back seat. SMASH! Not the laptop, fortunately, but a bottle of wine I had chosen to accompany one of the cheeses for the tasting. Wine on ...

What strikes me when reading through internet recipes for salade niçoise is the sheer variation of ingredients.  Everyone it seems has a preference. This one prepared by ma conjointe certainly hits the spot. By the time I got around to taking the picture I had already devoured the luscious black olives but still on the plate are the French beans, tomato quarters, potatoes and anchovies.  A lovely vinaigrette was served alongside. Notice too those quarters of hard-boiled egg.  Egg features a lot on those internet recipes but not in my go-to source of French Cookery - Louis Saulnier's Le Répertoire de la Cuisine .   Saulnier had the famous Auguste Escoffier as his mentor and the Répertoire is a quick reference guide to the master's cookery. Interestingly, the Répertoire does not include tuna either although many recipes do. One that I have to hand even states that Escoffier - there's Saulnier's mentor again - calls for tunny fish in oil to be added. It se...

As was promised in my last post on Cases of Cognac to Belfast available here  I added some cognac to a Belfast Crystal glass and paid a silent toast to those mentioned in the post.... Admittedly it was with a VSOP rather than a 3* but then it is whatever's to hand. Right?