Lamb Stew

Apologies for the absence of recipes over the past two weeks, I’ve been super busy.

I went to France for work for a few days, which also gave me the opportunity to bring back Biloute (my cat) with me in our Cheshire house.

When I travelled back to the UK a few weeks ago, Biloute has been stopped at the Customs, as there were some problems with his passport. Lots of tears that day! But he spent the following three weeks at my parents were my mum treated him like a KING!

So anyway, Biloute is now a « British » Citizen and he seems to enjoy it, well except when I leave the house to go to work. He doesn’t like that part of the day! So the morning and evening cuddles in bed are back, the begging for tuna or milk when I open the fridge is in full swing and that’s probably why I love that little dude!

We went out for a meal with some friends on Friday night, it was brilliant to see the gang again! I didn’t see some of them for a year so it was a night of catching up, good food, a few bottles of wine and Armagnac… There is still a few friends that I haven’t seen since I’ve been back to the UK but fingers crossed it will be soon!

If you are in Cheshire, check out this pub: The Yew Tree Inn in Bunbury. Great food, lovely place and they also are in the Good food guide 2013: Always a good sign!

So the following recipe is what I made yesterday for Sunday lunch, a lamb stew, my way! Get ready:

   

Ingredients

·      1 kg of lamb, diced

·      2 leeks, finely chopped

·      3 tbsp of olive oil

·      2 tbsp of flour

·      35cl of stock (cold)

·      15cl of white wine

·      5 carrots

·      120gr button mushrooms

·      Butter

·      Double cream

·      Salt and Pepper

Method

Heat a casserole (one like Le Creuset always does a good job) with the olive oil. Cook the diced lamb on each side. Add the leeks and cook for a few minutes until they are slightly golden. Dust the lamb with the flour. Stir.

Pour the stock and white wine in the casserole, season to taste and put the lid on. Cook on slow heat for about 40min. Don’t forget to stir every once in a while.

While it’s cooking, peel the carrots and cut them in sticks of the same size.

After 40 minutes, add the carrots and mushrooms (whole), stir and leave it to cook for another 40 minutes.

When it’s ready to be served, add a knob of butter and a splash of double cream, stir and springle some parsley before serving with white rice.

Note: You can actually leave this dish cooking for hours on slow heat, it will be tastier and you don’t really have to worry about cooking times!

Ta-Dah!

Rose Petal Wine

I wanted another recipe for my first blog entry. However, due to my terrible wonderful planning skills and stubbiness... here I am! The reason why I’m such in a rush with this recipe is that because Mister Lapin is coming next week and then we will go away at my sister in the Loire Valley for a few weeks. The problem being with the rose petal wine is that it takes time to make and the rose’s season will be over when we get back!

At my house in France, there are a lot of roses, everywhere in fact! The name of the place is actually La Roseraie. I think it’s clear: It would be a sacrilege not to make the most of it. There are plenty of different varieties, colours, smells and every morning when I go in the garden for my breakfast (some raspberries and cherries right from the tree) I look at those roses, checking on their progress.

Roses are great, you can eat them, you can offer them, and it can bring some joy in your living room… The only thing I don’t like about the roses is taking care of the bushes! It’s seems complicated and I’m never sure if I do it right.

Anyway, here is my rose petals wine recipe:

Ingredients

- 60 petals of red roses

- 60gr of sugar

- 1 litre of pink wine

Method 

Take off the white bits from the petals. Wash them and scatter them on a dry tea towel. Leave to dry for about a week (I left them in the drying room to make it quicker). 

Once the petals are dry, put them in a jar, add sugar and then wine and put the lid on. 

Leave it to macerate for 20 days (more or less).

When the maceration is done, filter the mixture into a mull and transfer the wine into bottle. Leave it to rest for a minimum of 3 weeks before enjoying it.

Ta-Dah!