I ran in and got the camera and took a few photos.  I thought nothing of it until I get a phone call the next morning.  ”Joan,  venez voir ce que j’ai dans ma cour!”.  My farmer friend had offered his stables and courtyard to les Haras nationaux, an equestrian company who were supplying the carriages for an historical event in Gourgé.

I was round there like a shot.  The carriages had been unloaded and were getting ready to be hooked up to 4 wonderful horses.

The carriages would be driven down to our local town, Gourgé, where they would pick up the mayor and a few others and take them just outside the town to meet up with a coach full of people from the Ardennes region (more on that later).  The two gentlemen from the equestrian company,  changed into costume, ready for the event.

My farmer friend then said something that completely made my day – would I like to ride in the carriage down to the town?  Stupid question !  I got to ride  - on top – of the carriage. Absolutely fantastic !  I couldn’t stop grinning – like a complete idiot – I was having such a wonderful time.

When we arrived in Gourgé, I got down and let the mayor and his entourage climb aboard the buggy and the carriage.

Now for the historical bit …

On June 8, 1940, 120 refugees from Ardennes, all from the town of Houldizy in the region of Charleville-Mezieres, crossed the Roman bridge over the Thouet to reach their refuge in Gourgé.   In case of evacuation, there was a plan  that the Ardennes took refuge in the Vendee and Deux-Sevres. They were fleeing from the advancing German troops.  The conditions were terrible and people had to leave their relatives who died on the way.   Since then the two towns have been twinned.

Three people who were only children back then returned to re-enact their journey across the Roman bridge.  Along with them were 22 others, all relatives of people who had walked this journey, all dressed in clothing from that period, carrying suitcases or backpacks.

When they reached Le Pont they met up with the Gourgé group and together crossed over the bridge.  The large stones, which normally restrict traffic crossing the bridge, had been removed for the occasion.   The horses and carriages crossed over, as they did, all those years ago.  Their journey ended in the town.

I was so lucky to have been able to experience this little slice of life and history.  It wasn’t advertised, only to those involved with the story.  It was wonderful to see the old outfits and to get a feel for how they must have looked walking down the hill, over the bridge and to their safety, all those years ago.

My story doesn’t end there – I got to ride back again to Bellebouche alongside my chauffeur – with another stupid grin on my face !!

The whole photo set can be found here.

Below you will find a quick recap of some of the events that happened in 2012 …

Maybe

What started as a favour for a couple of close friends resulted in our family growing by one …

Maybe joined us in January after initially staying with us while her family went away for a while to visit family and friends in Australia.  She is an absolute delight and has settled in well with Pompy.  Every day she brings a smile to my face and is just so adorable.

Home Renovations

French Windows

An old rotten window was removed and replaced with a pair of french windows.  The room at the back of the house, which is currently used as a bedroom, will eventually become a sun room where we can enjoy the garden without being out in the full heat of the day.

Electrickery

Adrian and my father spent a good few days wiring the upstairs of the house and the atteliers with power.  The house is over 150 years old and has never seen power or electric lighting upstairs !  It just looks stunning up there when lit up.

New Fire

We have eventually got a footed fire for our lounge fireplace.  The old insert, which was placed on the hearth, for the past 6 or 7 years, is now in the garage awaiting a new home in either the dining room or one of the barns.

Livestock & Garden

Plenty of chickens hatched throughout the year and we had 4 goslings hatch too.

There were 4 – 1 was just camera shy !  - Blog post here – http://bellebouche.com/blog/?p=2289

When the day came, after many months, to say goodbye – they were taken to a nearby abattoir.  It was a hard decision to make but as we found in previous years, they just take too long to process and having 4 instead of our normal two would have taken us even longer.

Our old Brahma cockerel unfortunately died – he had been a constant companion to the ladies and even though he was half blind, was such a friendly and funny character to have around the place.   We managed to source another pure bred Brahma cockerel who has settled well into the flock.  He doesn’t have the personality of the old boy but he’s doing his business !

5 new birds joined our clan – 4 ladies and 1 fella – quails.  We are keeping them mainly for their eggs but who knows we may try a few in the incubator !

The garden produced bumper crops again this year – the usual tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers and fruits.  A surprise bumper harvest were the pears – the first time we have actually harvested them and bottled them.

Peaches, cherries and plums were miserable – a late frost killed off the blossom so no fruit off those trees.  The flower beds are getting well established now and are a wondrous sight when in full bloom.

Big Brew Day

Adrian hosted the annual Big Brew Day – this year an old school northern english brown ale.  A dozen or so people attended and we managed to have a bbq and spend most of the day in the garden until the heavens opened later in the afternoon.

French Festivals

Fête Des Nationalites

Actually got to blog this one – see here :-

http://bellebouche.com/blog/?p=2274

Fête du Pain

Every year we try to attend this wonderful day.  A small hamlet in the Gourgé commune holds a festival of bread.  The commune has 3 large bread ovens which are all fired up. Bread is cooked and sold at the little brocante /market they host in the hamlet.

Dough proving in the sunshine !

Mille et Une Scenes – Oiron

Every year we enjoy going to this festival at a nearby chateau.  The dance, music and ambiance is just fantastic.

This is 2011 blog post - http://bellebouche.com/blog/?p=2143

 Main Square Festival – Arras

Another trip to this wonderful music festival – this time with a friend and her son.  Had 2 tents which became the centre of the huge campsite – met some wonderful people and had such a great time.  The bands were superb and the weather was almost perfect all the time – just a little downpour before Pearl Jam.

Bands included – Pearl Jam, Simple Minds, Garbage, The XX, Florence & The Machine, Metronomy, Everything Everything – to name but a few.

Festival de Peinture et Sculpture, St. Loup

This wonderful 2 day festival brings together both professional and amateur artistes.  Paintings, sculptures, shoe makers, hat makers and more.  It is a delight to find such wonders in a small village.

Here is a blog post from 2011 - http://bellebouche.com/blog/?p=2158

We also visited the Magné Arts Festival in the Marais Poitevin.  The town was full of painters painting, along the riverbanks, streets, alleyways etc.

Festival of Games

Another festival we try to visit every year – with friends or family who are visiting at the time.  See the blog post - http://bellebouche.com/blog/?p=2355

Cognac Festival

Camping and spending the days wandering around Cognac, trying various Cognac cocktails and watching barrels being made.

Then spending the evening having a wonderful meal by the waterfront and watching the Stranglers do a hit list including their Peaches.

Other Stuff

We went to Chatellerault to watch a band who played Buena Vista Social Club tunes.  They were brilliant.

We also had a great day at Futuroscope.  We were both surprised at how informative and fun it was for all ages.   See the blog page - http://bellebouche.com/blog/?p=2322

Came across a bumper crop of hops by the river – one plant with huge hop flowers which have an amazing aroma of pear, spice, blackcurrant and a little touch of mint.

Needless to say Adrian made a special Gourgé beer with it !

 And Now …

2013 – is going to be a busy year.  We have some major works going on with our out buildings.  Some work has started inside the house and for fun …

It is going to be a year of  Frippery!

I will try to keep you updated, even if it’s  in short bursts – watch this space !

BIG Meaty ones. What can it mean? It’s a sign!

One made a break for it then stopped to munch some lichen…

I’m going all Heston on these boys.  I am following Heston’s recipe for snail porridge one of the signature dishes from his Michelin three star restaurant in the UK.

One of the greatest living Englishmen in his double-awesome ‘Fat Duck Cookbook‘ devotes 7 pages to this dish.

I’ve read it plenty of times and figure that whilst it’s challenging (on all levels) I’m going to man up and have a go at a spot of Michelin 3* cooking!

The process of prepping them takes a couple of weeks. They’ve been washed, purged and  fed up on a diet of  sweet lettuce, cabbage, carrot peelings and onion and fronds of dill.

They’re then weaned off any vegetable matter and have been on a sprinkling of fine ground polenta for about 12  days.

There’s no delicate way to put this but…

…they were all now doing ‘white’ poops! Ready to cook.

They have had nothing to eat for the last three days. This morning, washed and rinsed for the final time and into a pan with a little salt and some fresh bay leaves.

All done. I kept waiting for them to start wriggling again… a sad fact is that once you snuff out the life in them they’re never coming back… they’ve moved on to fulfill a higher destiny… my Sunday  supper!

Yeah. Big job. I had 62 to remove from their shells.  I only needed a dozen this evening for this dish… the rest of the shells have been rinsed, boiled again in salted water, rinsed again and dried in a low oven.

I’ll make a classic Bourgogne Escargot dish with them.

All naked and keeping their curls.

Ok. The initial cooking process is just enough to liberate the snails from their shells.  This stage transforms the texture and flavour.

Three hours @120c for the braising. The stock is made from an onion, halved and studded with cloves, chopped carrot and celery, bunch of rosemary, bunch of thyme, stalks from a bunch of parsley.  Added 250ml of Muscadet and 100 ml of water. Covered with a little baking paper and braised in a low oven.

The residual stock? I’ll be making soup with that!

So – some more on this ingredient. The Blumenthal recipe calls for a salt cured and air dried duck breast. It takes (minimum) 20 days to make that and adds a layer of savoury flavour to the butter.

I had some home air dried beef on hand ( I make Biltong every summer – a hangover from time in Africa) – when it’s shaved like that in the foreground it is pure essence of Umami on the tongue.

I would *never* have put it in a herb butter. Genius.

Take-away-trick. Sauteé the garlic until lightly golden before blending.  This was 85 g of garlic in 50g of butter. Transforms the harsh garlic edge away before adding to the base butter mix.

Blended 200g of butter with 200g of parsley. The shallots were cooked gently until translucent.  The mushrooms zapped until caremelised.

The Blumthenal recipe called for ceps – none in the supermarché so I used normal champignon de paris. Caramelising the mushroom like that gave them the same great flavour you get from the mushrooms in a classic English fryup. YES!

Vinaigrette to dress the fennel topping. 140g rapeseed oil, 10g dijon, 50g of walnut infused white wine vinegar. I tasted that and thought it a bit one dimensional!

Heston might disapprove but I added two big pinches of sugar and a slug of fine ground white pepper. When he comes to my house and pays me £180 for his supper *then* he can complain!

Tiny amount of stock (40ml) and 20g of sifted porridge oats – enough to just hydrate the cereal and then blob in the herb butter.

Now to plate up :-

Porridge is made.

A layer of chiffonade ham.


The snails have been sauteéd in a little foaming butter and then given a final seasoning with fresh pepper. A handful on each portion does the trick.

Finally, dress with the fennel shavings in their walnut vinaigrette.

A very long walk but what a journey. It was good!

The layers and complexity were all there…

Oats tasted of oats.
The butter to envelop the oats was multidimensional – savoury, herbal, very little hint of garlic… astonishing.
The ham was… ham. Salty and textured as it’d been well cured.
The snails? Herbal, meaty.. some were quite soft.. like a just-cooked foie-gras… rich and fatty.
The fennel, fresh, anis flavour… the bite of the vinaigrette dressing and the aroma of the nuts coming through.

Hats off to Heston. He da man.

12 days prep, one day pre-prep and about 7 man hours of my own time all in. The luxury of time is the key ingredient in all of this but the complexity and layering of flavours was something else.

My attempt was an approximation of the Blumenthal dish because whilst I had all the ingredients… he has the tools! I’m just never going to cough €4000 for a Pacojet.

Still, gave a good account of myself and will undoubtedly do it again. No question.

I’ve eaten food of this calibre a few times before and the combination of ingredients and techniques that are in play brings the dish to a whole ‘nother level.

Nothing for me to add, Heston says it all.

Except of course if you’d like to take me to dinner I’d quite like the tasting menu, please.

3.5 hrs worth of eating? £180!

Each year, over the fortnight, it draws thousands of people – young and old – into the town of Parthenay, to enjoy and partake in game playing.  I have blogged this festival before in 2006 and not much has changed since then.

Father and daughter (?) playing a board game in the streets.  It is so lovely to see all generations of people just stopping their day to day rush and spending time playing and being with each other.

Over the years we have had a go at some of the circus school games but this year we decided to just sit back, with a Belgian beer, and watch the children doing it with ease and laughter.

When the rain did come, it didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits.  Numerous marquees around the town were filled with people hiding from the rain – but – still playing games!  The rain passed quickly and everyone poured back out into the streets again.

Inside the Palais du Congress were all the video games and interactive games for young and old alike.  It was funny to watch young girls playing a dance game, holding handsets to record their moves and scoring points for every correct move they copied from the animated dancers.  They did it so seriously.

All the young boys were on the racing car and shoot-em up games.  If not shooting or racing, other males were on the 1st floor of the building partaking in the Rubiks cube tournament.  Some were so good they weren’t even looking at the cube while they completed it and others only used one hand.  I personally have never been able to do a rubiks cube without taking it apart!

Face painting was very popular this year. It seemed to be, wherever you looked, children and adults alike were painted with patterns and bright vivid colours.

And the new hit game of the year – there didn’t seem to be one – unlike one previous year where everyone was playing Blokus.  We played it too and loved it so much we bought it.

Trends for 2012 – well – you can’t escape them – only a head shot will do …

Zombies !!

Well today we got to see it from the ground and not the sky!  Futoroscope.

One of my lady friends had 2 tickets which she couldn’t use, due to back problems, so offered them to me.  I took them, not sure what I was letting myself into.  The expiry date was quite short on the tickets so after a quick check on the weather website, we decided to go on the only overcast day between days of constant rain and thunderstorms.

We arrived at the gates at 10.30 – not too busy and walked straight in – no major queues. Stopped off at the information desk and picked up a translation device and some headphones (this is a must for anyone who is not fluent in French) and proceeded into the park.

All around Futuroscope are wondrous works of art, placed on benches, grass banks, lakes etc.

A little risqué but fun. Remind you of anyone?

Whoa boy !

A place to sit and reflect.  Made from washers and very tactile.

The park consists of over 25 different rides or experiences.  These are mostly in the form of giant cinema screens which offer 3D or 4D adventures.  For the younger at heart there are plenty of outside water rides and fountains to get soaked  in and body driers nearby to dry you out again!

We decided we would go to the far end of the park and work our way back, missing any major queues.  The first show was inside a building shaped like a giant ball inside a metal square.

An Imax theatre showing a film about our Blue Planet.  The images had been filmed by astronauts on the ISS  and takes you on a voyage from the Amazon Rainforests to the Serengeti.  It was truly an awe inspiring movie,  if not a little bit preachy.

Next was a 4D ride called Arthur based on a part animated/part action movie.  For those of you, like me, who have never heard of this character before – check out this link – Arthur and the Invisibles.

This ride runs continuously all day, so we were not sure how long the queue would be.  At peak times there is a major crowd management maze of barriers outside, but we waltzed right through.  Only to find an ingenious hidden internal queue management system!  Approx 800 people infront of us inside a network of corridors decorated like Viet Cong tunnels.

Unusual lighting effect !

These tunnels are lit by furry gonks hanging from the ceiling, interspersed with giant spiders. You obviously need to know the movie to understand this.  When we got to the ride itself, we were sat in a large beetle which proceeded to throw us around a 3D fairyland. Air blown in our faces and spider’s webs falling on our heads – it was all great fun and over far too quickly.

Next up – a charming adventure of The Little Prince.  In the story we flew with him from planet to planet in search of the Rose.  It is all in 3D with a vibrating platform, wind,water and bubbles.  Simply lovely.

Next stop – Dancing with Robots.  Another long queue, although the side attractions while waiting are interesting.  Robots over the decades from the 1950s onwards,  in film, at work and in the home.  It is funny to watch some of the Japanese videos of humanoid robots trying to mimic the way we walk and move, cute robot dogs playing with toys and robot housemaids.

All too soon we were at the ride.  10  robot arms, 7 metres tall waiting for us to take our seat.  Each arm has 2 seats, we sat down.  The harness came down and locked in place for me … but … not for Adrian.  The assistant came over and jumped up and down on the harness to make it click and lock in place but it just wasn’t happening.  Adrian was too tall for the ride – obviously not made for real English men !

So, I went on it alone.  There is a choice of levels – 1 being whimp and 3 being superhero.  I chose 3 – OMG !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbUN2w1Oxfs

I may have screamed a little – but mostly laughed like a maniac!

After that we stopped for a sandwich and a beer by some playful fountains.  There are plenty of eateries around the park which are good value for money.  It was funny watching the kids run under the water arches before they collapsed.  A few not making it !

We saw so much in the afternoon – I forget which order we did them but hey ho – here’s what we saw …

The Gyrotour is 45 metres high and offers a 360 degree view of the park.  Everyone has a window seat and as the platform raises up into the sky it rotates to give you a full view over all of Futoroscope.  It is a wondrous sight to see all the rides in context to the park – some truly futuristic buildings!

This  Imax theatre is probably the most iconic of them all – it changed dramatically through the day as the sky and the light morphed each facet. The movie inside is called Everest and tells the story of the tragedy and euphoria of a team of mountaineers who risked their lives on the long climb to the top of Mount Everest.

All rides highlighted in red on the map are indicated as “attractions you won’t want to miss” – so we visited the Imagic theatre.  The outside of the theatre is covered in 11,500 tremulous metal plates which undulate and ripple in the wind.  I loved this as it is totally mesmerising.

Inside the magician and his assistants play to the crowd and get them fired up.  The French love this kind of thing.  I found it entertaining to watch the children’s faces and reactions to the tricks and illusions more than the illusions themselves.

Another 3D Imax movie – Cyberworld.  An impish guide, Miss Phig , escorts you on a tour of a make believe world.  But, 3 hungry bugs are eating their way through the computer circuits so Miss Phig has to save  her virtual world.  Outstanding graphics and 3D imagery.

I have never been to a planetarium so the Cosmic Collisions attraction was a must.  With six 6,500-lumen projectors, the digital equipment used in this attraction optimises the image quality to create the illusion of 3D. The images are shown at a resolution of 1,400 x 1,050 pixels, giving viewers the powerful impression that they are immersed in the images.  Just one word – Fantastic !

Futuroscope is in the Vienne department so we just had to go on the Dynamic Vienne ride. As the Vienne river gave its name to the département, architect Denis Laming gave the theatre a 2,194 m wall of water running down the large, rectangular sheets of glass that make up the front wall, which includes a trough to symbolise a flowing river. Unfortunately we were stood in the crowd management system so didn’t get a chance to take a photo.

The story is based on a bridegroom trying to get to his wedding on time.  He rushes through the Vienne with the help of Guerliguet, an organic character cut from the bark of a solid oak. Once strapped into the dynamic seats we felt the speed, water, wind and more on this ride. I giggled like a child – loved it.

Our final ride was another Imax 3D movie – Sea Monsters.  Sea Monsters is shot using a 70 mm film instead of  conventional 35 mm film and we watched it wearing liquid crystal glasses. The story is about the life of a gigantic sea creature 82 million years ago.  Again the 3D effects and quality of the film are stunning.

We then went off to one of the restaurants for a meal before the final spectacle.  The Blue Note Mystery had both of us dumbstruck and watching with open mouthed wonderment. Lasers, giant images on water screens, and jets of flame and light are interwoven into a story involving real and imaginary characters.

Incredible and undoubtedly the best show of the day – a must to anyone visiting – wait for this spectacle before heading off home.

Giant lady metal statue waving goodbye as we departed

Overall a wonderful day.  It wasn’t too crowded and the weather wasn’t too hot – I can imagine it can be a little overwhelming at peak times and in the heat of a summers day. There are some height restrictions on certain shows – minimum (and maximum too!). Very good facilities for disabled and people in wheelchairs and plenty of places to just sit and watch the world go by.

My only criticisms are :-

-  the sound through the headsets on some of the spectacles is distorted and sometimes hard to hear the commentary

-  no indication as to how long a wait for each ride – I can imagine this would be a nightmare at the height of the season and at peak times

-  the exit management of the park is a little chaotic – returning headsets, paying for parking and too many people trying to exit too few entrances. 

Would I recommend Futuroscope to others?  Definitely, it was an informative, enjoyable and fun day.

(thanks to Jane for the tickets!) 

Last year we decided to refresh the strawberry patch.  We dug up the old plants and prepared a new bed in a different part of the potager.  Three different varieties were chosen to give us a long season of wonderful sweet red fruit.  The plants were left to grow and any flowers picked off to make the plants stronger for the following year.

Fast forward to 2012.  On the first passing – 3kgs were picked.

Fresh strawberries with creme fraiche, strawberry coulis with home-made pancakes, fresh fruit salad with strawberries, 5 pots of strawberry jam …

erm …

Homemade fruity strawberry milkshake.  Delicious for breakfast and a favourite of one of our younger house guests this year.

Another 6 kgs picked …. that makes 9 kgs in total …. and counting.   This doesn’t include the garden snacking whilst working in the potager and the hundreds of partially slug eaten or rotten ones we have given to the chickens.

So now – we are running out of things to do with them – we have given 1 kg to friends – there can be only one option left …

What could this possibly be ….

A strawberry daiquiri – for the lady – of course !

On returning home, the large eggs fitted snugly in the incubator and all seemed well …. until we received a letter from the local electricity company a few days later … informing us they were turning the power off for most of one day while they connected up some new cables.

We had plenty of time to arrange a system of keeping the eggs warm in that period.  An old, small chest freezer – Adrian uses for keeping fermenting beer at a constant temperature – was filled with large flagons of hot water and when the time came the incubator was placed in the freezer.  We checked the temperature every half an hour or so to make sure it didn’t fluctuate too much.  So far so good …

Seven days after being in the incubator and we candled all 9 eggs.

7 look ok with one being a maybe and one being a dud.  So 7 goslings on their way – this could be fun !

Hatching day arrives – 4 pop out with no problems.  The fifth takes a little more time but is duly plonked under the heater just after hatching and  just before we nip out for coffee at friends – mistake number 1.

We return back after about and hour only to find the poor bird had died – it had got too hot under the lamp and wasn’t quite able to move away.  We should have left him in the incubator – oh well – that’s something we will remember next time.

We discovered that one chick died in the shell after about 25 days.

Egg number six had pipped but seemed to be taking ages to hatch.  We normally don’t interfere but I felt it had been taking far too long and the bird was getting weaker and weaker in the shell.  I made the decision to try to help him along – mistake number 2.

I took off too much shell and left the membrane attached – which duly shrank and hardened around the chick in the shell.  After much damping down and fingers crossed the poor little bird was free of the shell.  We left it in the incubator to dry out and after 24 hours it started to look OK.  It was put into the box with the others and slowly picked up.

We had decided to keep the geese in a large cardboard box, lined with paper and a heated lamp hung across the top.  This seemed to work fine until we noticed that two of the goslings legs were splayed apart and they couldn’t stand up properly – mistake number 3.

The paper was too slippy for the goslings and their muscles too weak to hold them up properly.  If this wasn’t fixed quickly they would never be able to walk properly.  So we improvised and made hobbles with a couple of hair bands.

It seems harsh but the soft cotton protected their tender legs and allowed them to walk and develop enough muscle strength to look after themselves.  The hobbles were removed after about 4 days and we couldn’t recognise which had been hobbled and which hadn’t.

As soon as the weather turned brighter we let them out in the garden during the day – bringing them back under the lamp of a night time.  Here’s a little video of them all enjoying the garden.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U6kMCB_2iY&feature=results_main

The goslings were growing at a heck of a rate – except gosling number 6 who was still quite small.  With no major signs of anything really wrong we found the little gosling dead one morning.  Poor thing – oh well.

So we now have 4 healthy goslings – twice as many as last year !

One was camera shy.

Of course, drinking from your drinking bowl is so passé. All the cool kids swim in theirs!

And now …

Take a gaggle of geese. Add to small paddling pool. Stand back as the craziness unfolds!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52EZjhYpn7s&feature=plcp

It’s a wonderful experience to introduce a water bird to water for the first time. They have no idea what it is but they just know that unending joyous playtime awaits once they get past the terror of being surrounded by water.

We took this about a fortnight or so ago – no problems getting into or out of their splashpool now.  They are now starting to get their true feathers and at the moment look a little scruffy.

We have put them in the courtyard rather than leaving them to have the run of the garden – you cannot imagine the amount of mess 4 birds make!  They are enjoying the buttercups, vine and nut tree leaves in there.

Raising water birds is far more difficult than chickens but is more rewarding and fun !

The first soiree held was three years ago and was an introduction to all the varied cultures.

The drinks and meal were all Dutch based.

Last year was the turn of the Mexicans.  There was a slide show highlighting the  country,  culture and  famous sights.  Margaritas,  Mezcal and a traditional Mexican honey based drink – Xtabentún – were served as pre drinks.  The meal consisted of Quesadillas,  Tortillas, Mole, Frijoles and other spicy delicacies.  All enjoyed to the sounds of Samba and a little bossanova !  After the meal some individuals gave a little turn by singing a song or doing a little dance.  At this point we left but were later informed the evening didn’t really finish until 0430!

Now to 2012 – the turn of the English !

Adrian volunteered to do a presentation on the history of British beer, brewing, pubs and he made a selection of traditional beers for sampling.

The car was loaded up with beer, a projection screen, laptops, various malts, hops and various other beery paraphernalia.

We had a selection of malts on hand for the show’n'tell.

An old gentleman came up and after asking a few questions about the different malts, he recounted his story of wartime occupied France when there was no coffee available – he told us how they used to roast malted barley at home to make a powder to make a coffee substitute.

He had slightly moist eyes at the end of the tale – quite lovely.

Adrian brought hops from New Zealand, Slovenia and… Blighty!

All quite different and one of them was outrageously skunky.

On the small screens we had a little running gallery of beer related pictures.

Ancient pubs, drayhorses, beer engines for hand pulled pints. It was suprisingly popular.

A little selection of brewing and beer history books and an introduction to the best drinking vessel in the world. A 568ml dimpled pot! Enough to make a grown man cry.

All the tasters laid out.  In this shot… from the back… our Timothy Taylor clone, an ancient 1750′s London porter, 1840′s IPA and a contemporary recreation of an oatmeal stout clone from Samuel Smiths in Tadcaster.

The  Oatmeal stout … a big surprise for everyone that tasted it.  Adrian had also germinated some barley to show where the sugars originated from and where his photo publishing debut was inspired from !

Adrian’s IPA.  There were a few ‘WOW’s and a few people who have no doubt never had anything that bitter in their mouths before!

Crowds take their places for supper.  Starter – Mulligatawny soup.  Main – Hot pot, potatoes and carrots with swede.  Desert – Trifle, Victoria Sponge Cake or Banoffee Pie.  Cheese – Jacobs Crackers with  4 different cheeses including Cheddar and Wensleydale. Tea or Coffee.

A lot of elderly people in the village turned out. They didn’t stay for the singing and the dancing.  We left around 0130 as the night was winding down.

Other presentations were of the Royal Family past and present with wedding memorabilia from the  most recent royal wedding. A bowler and top hat adorned one table and I had created a slide show of all things British projected onto the screen throughout the evening.  From red telephone boxes to cornish pasties, The Angel of the North to full english breakfasts, Wimbledon to Churchill and many many more.

All in all a very enjoyable evening and hopefully a little eye opener for our French friends and hosts.

Next year – the nationality will be  …. French – not sure what to expect !!

Ready for action :-

Chocolate

Butter

Moulds

Elephant sedation device !

You need ALL the pots.  Lots of washing up for your Valentine.

Oh the romance !

First step :-

Molten white chocolate randomly dobbed into the mould.

While the white chocolate is in the fridge setting I made a ganache for the filling.

Molten chocolate, tablespoon of cream, knob of butter and the booze of your choice.

Here I went with home made creme de cassis.  Blackcurrant.

Next up.  Melt the dark chocolate.

Steady does it.  If you over melt it, it will go grainy.  This is bad but it can be re-tempered by “setting” with cooler fresh chocolate  to reseed the finer crystals in it.

The art of the chocolatiere is not to balls it up in the first place!

Line the mould with the molten chocolate – just enough to form a shell.  Then, tap gently to release any air bubbles and then back in the fridge to set.

Next, inject the creamy/boozy/fruity ganache into the shells.  Back into the fridge to set for an hour and then …

smear a sealing coat of chocolate on the bottom to “close” the chocolate and encase the ganache.

Turn ‘em out!

We’re not done yet …

We need a frou-frou matching purpley lady box!

Job done !

I never get tired of receiving a Valentines.

What else are you going to make when it is -5 at mid-day!

The recipe and method were borrowed from Mr Blumenthal.

1 litre of milk

180g of egg yolks

90g of cane sugar

4 vanilla pods

5 coffee beans

The secret ingredient …

Some actual snow !

Ice Ice-cream step one …

Whizz up the yolks and sugar to a fluffy thick airy egg syrup.

Ice Ice-cream step two …

Boil the milk, coffee beans, the stripped out seeds and husks of the vanilla pods and then cool in the snow to 60C.

If you have no snow, you can sit your pan in an ice bath.

Ice Ice-cream step three …

Mixed the cool (60C) infused milk with the whisked up eggs.  This will partly cook the egg and you will end up with a well set custard.

Heat to 70C for five minutes to pasturise the egg …

then rapidly chill again out in the snow and leave at fridge temperature for 24 hours to allow the flavours to develop.

Ice Ice-cream step four …

Put the mixture into an ice-cream maker for as long as it takes to churn it all down into fluffy light -5 pillowy, wallowing icecreamy deliciousness.

Then properly freeze at -18C for a while before tasting.

Ice Ice-cream step five …

The tasting.

It comes out of the freezer quite hard but after 5 minutes at room temperature it is quite malleable like plasticine.

It is not sticky sweet like many icecreams and is much lower in fat.  This is all about the texture and flavour.  It melts … just vanishes on the tongue … much like a sorbet but the texture is silky smooth.

As it warms in the mouth you get a huge vanilla hit and then the back flavour is all about the coffee.  I was stunned at how dominant that was, given that there was just a few beans in it.  Amazing.

I have never used this technique before and it is knockout.  Hats off to Heston … the world’s best chef and if you are half minded to buy an amazing cook book then “The Fat Duck Cook-Book” is highly recommended.

We have plenty of visitors booked for this year and I can see that I will be making lots of this.