Sunday Lunch at la Durantie – Part 1

Kristoph and I enjoyed Sunday lunch this weekend with the Comtesse de la Tour and the visiting Good Doctor. They’re taking care of Chateau la Durantie this week, the home of some close friends of ours, and their three dogs.

There are plenty of vegetables and herbs growing in the grounds of Durantie, and literally thousands of apples, pears and quinces falling from the trees in the orchard.

The Good Doctor and Kirstoph agreed some time ago to a competitive “chicken stuff-off,” however Kristoph’s recent thumb injury, means his thumb is encased in plastic and not at its best for chicken stuffing. Consequently, the Good Doctor took the lead in chicken stuffing, with Kristoph offering comments, commentary and general moral support.

I prepared a fig and chevre starter, with figs foraged from a neighbour’s tree, and an apple and raspberry crumble using fruits from Durantie, for dessert. I’ve blogged about crumbles quite extensively, and so in this post have focused on the fig and goats cheese starter. Part 2 of this post focuses on the Good Doctor’s stuffed chicken and roasted autumn vegetables.  

It’s hard to beat the silky sweet taste of figs picked directly from the tree. Figs are extremely perishable, because the best tasting figs are plump and mushy. So if you have a fig tree near you, I suggest keeping a close eye on it. When the fruit are ripe, spend a few minutes enjoying figs directly from the tree. Perhaps ponder the words of "each man under his own vine and fig tree" (1 Kings 4:25), which have been used to denote peace and prosperity.   

Baked figs are simple to prepare. Here’s my version of baked fig and goats cheese.

Recipe

10 figs

1 small disc of full flavoured medium-hard goats cheese

Honey

Ground black pepper

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 180C. Slice the figs in half and arrange on a baking tray.

Step 2: Chop the goats cheese in small cubes. Place one cube in the small hole inside the small depression in each fig.

Step 3: Drizzle the honey over each fig, and then grind pepper over the figs.

Step 4: Bake for 15 minutes until the figs begin to caramelize and the goats cheese is melted.

If you are lucky enough to have an open fire, I recommend eating these as finger food in front of the fire with a glass of Cote du Rhone.Enjoy!!

Hawthorn berry syrup

It’s the time of year when Hawthorn trees are laden with bright red berries. It’s only autumn but the bright red berries against the backdrop of brilliant green, remind one of Christmas!

The berries of the Hawthorn tree have been used for thousands of years in the Greek culture to treat a variety of health issues.  In China, the berries are made into a tea, which is drunk to promote the health of the circulatory system, treat angina, high blood pressure, as well as stomach problems.

I used the hawthorn berries we collected in Devon over the weekend, to make a honey infused syrup. We served it today on pancakes with mixed autumn berries. Here’s the recipe.

Recipe

Two cups hawthorn berries

One jar of honey (200mL)

Muslin cloth (to strain berries)

Bring two cups of hawthorn berries to the boil in two cups of water. Once boiling simmer the berries for 20 minutes. The water will reduce the liquid should become a brownish/red colour as the juice leaches from the berries.

Strain the berries, retaining the water. Once the berries have cooled slightly, strain through a muslin bag, squeezing out the remaining liquid into the berry stained water.

Return the liquid to the stove top. On a low heat, simmer the hawthorn berry juice together with the honey. Stir slowly until the honey has melted fully into the berry juice. Remove from heat and leave to cool. Once cooled, pour into a glass jar, or bottle and leave to set overnight in the fridge.

Serve the hawthorn berry syrup with pancakes, or use as a sweetener for tea. It tastes delicious, is very healthy, and should keep for 3-4 months in the fridge. Enjoy!!

Spare pears

A friend of mine mentioned recently she had loads of pears rotting her garden, as they dropped from the tree. Super keen foragers, Chris and I, traipsed up to Jen’s with our big African basket. We arrived to find it wasn’t actually Jen’s tree, but a neighbours.

After collecting all the dropped pears with cooking potential, we picked a few more from the reachable braches and headed home with our loot. We’ve enjoyed sliced pear and cheese, and pear and blue cheese salad over the last few days. The Italian proverb “al contadino non far sapere quanto è buono il formaggio con le pere” (don't let the peasant know how good cheese is with pears) springs to mind.

Lastly, we also enjoyed pear and almond crumble (pictured below). Here’s the recipe:

Recipe

5 large pears, peeled and sliced

A handful of ground almond

A handful of sliced almonds

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup plain flour

50 grams butter

Mascarpone and honey (to serve)

Simmer the sliced pears for 5 minutes. In the meantime, mix the flour, ground almond, sugar and butter together. Use your finger tips to work the mixture until you get the consistency of bread crumbs. Once you’ve achieved this drop in the sliced almonds. Once the pears are cooked, drain and arrange in a baking dish. Place the crumble mixture over the top, spreading evenly and covering completely. Cook at 180 degrees for around 20mins, or until the crumble is browned.

Serve hot, with mascarpone mixed with honey.       

Thanks to Asheline Appleton for the excellent photo, berries and dinner!