Boffo!

Last year and this, Le Grand Pressigny hosted un grand spectacle de magie, a magic show, absolutely free and gratis. You might think this would consist of old uncle Louis in a shiny tail coat doing card tricks that fool nobody, but no! The magicians concerned were both extremely professional, with the "how did they do that" coefficient at 10 out of 10.It's all what Terry Pratchett refers to as "boffo" - showmanship and misdirection - but boy were they good at it.

Nothing up my sleeve

This year the hall was packed for the featured magician, "Max". Just "Max"! Yes, there were a couple of card tricks, but how did he get four complete strangers from the audience to pick the four cards that were written on a piece of wallpaper inside a sealed roll? Time and again he produced a flock of paper butterflies from variously shredded paper, only to reveal the paper whole again. He showed a small audience member three methods of tying knots in a rope without letting go of it, allowing him to win two candy bars by getting it right the first time and then again, then to win back the candy bars with a trick knot, twice carefully showing him how to tie it from no more than a yard away! The lad then regained the candy bars by tying two knots simultaneously, one with each hand. The long rope Max cut, knotted, untied, moved the knot, untied it again, yes two pieces of rope but not the same length, tied again, moved the knot again .... The flying table, no strings attached... And where did the live canary go?

The audience loved it. It was great to see so many children, most of whom were right at the front and eager to join in. Many of them were rewarded with balloon animals, including a bouncy scarlet octopus. During the interval, soft drinks, cakes and crêpes were served as somewhat sticky finger food, and I suspect that sugary smears will continue to turn up on the Salle des Fêtes stacking chairs in months to come.

Watch him kids! Did you see how it's done?

Our neighbour told us that Max is presently the acknowledged best magician in France. He told us to look out for him on Le Plus Grand Cabaret du Monde on the Reveillon edition. Not bad for a village in La France Profonde!

You've sung the song, now eat the reindeer

Today in Intermarché we were brought up short by a refrigerated display of exotic meats. You could choose a lump of meat from antelope to zebra, via kangaroo, wapiti (a sort of small kangaroo according to the butcher... actually American Elk #), élan (European Elk... or Moose), camel, bison, llama, and to remind us that it's Christmas, reindeer (renne). I know that reindeer meat is a dietary staple in Lapland, and a very healthy meat it is too being low in fat, and I still recall the lovely reindeer pelt on the Finnish stall at Saltaire European market, but eating Rudolph at Christmas seems somewhat heartless...

There's still plenty left, especially at those prices!

Question: what sort of wine should you have with zebra?
Answer: any good stripy wine will do!
(adapted from an elephant joke, circa 1964).

No elephant or bear though. At least three of the animal species featured here also appeared on the menu of the Café Voisin on Christmas Day 1870 during the Siege of Paris by the Prussians when the chef served specimens from the zoo. Surely it hasn't come to that yet! I wonder what panda tastes like?


# American Elk... a Red Deer [Cervus canadensis]

Betty... not sweet!

A Betty doesn't have to be a pudding... yesterday, I made a savoury Betty using fresh veg and a few leftovers....

Savoury Betty

The leftovers were some boiled Charlotte spuds and some steamed cauliflower... the fresh veg were broccoli [an unknown, locally bought plant], Cylindra beetroot, Flakki carrots, Hercules onions and Germidor garlic. As some were leftovers, I steamed the beetroot, broccoli and carrots until "al's dentist" and fried the garlic and onions and allowed all to cool.

This gave me green broccoli florets, white cauliflower, diced beetroot, sliced spuds, sliced carrots and fried sliced garlicised onions.

From the freezer I took a block of Canadian, 30 month matured cheddar and some streaky bacon and two handfuls of frozen PeeWee petit pois ... I grated half the cheddar whilst it was frozen [about three ounces], thawed the bacon and cut all but one slice into thirds. The PeeWee were left frozen. The remains of the block of cheddar went back in the freezer.

Now for the Betty topping... this is a savoury Betty, so no sugar.
You need the three or four ounces of three-day old bread, crumbed as for the sweet Betty but you don't add the suet yet... instead, add the salt and pepper to taste... I used a teaspoon of each of Sel de Guerand and cracked black pepper.
Toss well to evenly spread the spices. Now you add the suet and cheese and mix again...
as cheese is a source of fat, I used only one ounce of suet and two ounces of cheddar....
you will realize that this doesn't give you as much topping as the sweet Betty...
no matter, the method of setting the ingredients up is different.

Then comes assembly...

I started by lining the bottom of the dish with half the sliced potatoes and added on top all the beetroot and half the fried onions...

then came two thirds of the broccoli and half the carrots...

and another layer using the remaining spuds...
and some salt and pepper....

.... then half the bacon and the remaining onions...

...followed by the remaining carrots and broccoli...
all the peas...
and finally, the cauliflower neatly arranged on top...

...now you will notice that everything is now rather too close to the top....
I can't go back...
so I pressed it down and layered all but the uncut slice of bacon over the top.

At this point I made up a stock [about 300ml] in the onion pan with the condensate water from the steamer and a Knorr Garlic and Herb cube and poured it over the contents.

Now turn the oven on at 180°C [175°C for a fan oven]

Now for the topping... yes, I didn't make a mistake during that assembly...
the middle layer of potatoes replaces the crumb mix at the half full stage for a savoury Betty...
the crumb mix doesn't work!!. It comes out like soggy stuffing!

Put the topping in place and shape carefully into a slight dome... slice the remaining bacon into short pieces... ie; across the slice... and arrange around the topping... now sprinkle the last ounce of cheese on top and put the dish in the oven when up to temperature. Set timer for 45 minutes... but check after 40mins for a crispy bacon, golden topping.

The last of the cheese is not on in this picture

If the stock is boiling well, the peas should be just done.
Take it out if the topping is as you like it... or leave it the last five!
Serve...

First serving done, now for the second!!

We finished the meal with a new discovery "la fermière" créme gourmand...
chocolate and hazelnut flavour...

very, very nice and you get left with a useful terracotta pot for future puddings...
or sauces, souffles, etc.

Really creamy!

An Ingredient list:

A mix of veg and meat[s] to almost fill a large ovenproof deep dish... the one above is 24cm diameter.
300ml of suitable stock
one ounce of grated cheese
and...
The topping

• 3 to 4 ounces of breadcrumbs
• one ounce of shredded suet
• 2 ounces of grated cheese

Cooking Elizabeth...

I had to try and stop the Rhubarb growing this week... the weather has caused lots of new growth and we will be moving it and the others to a set of "triangles" this winter. It yielded about half a pound of usable stalk... but what to do with it.

Well, yesterday was a horrible grey day so warming comfort food was called for...
I decided to make a Betty...

Betty... the overview.

Now, to do a good one, you need about one and a half pounds of fruit, so what to add... a couple of Granny Smith apples and three Clementines seemed to suit.

If you've not come across a Betty before, it is one of the easiest puddings to make... apart from the fruit you need:
Three to four ounces of two/three day old Stale Bread... it MUST still be moist!
Three ounces of Suet
Three ounces of Demerara sugar
Seasoning  of choice.... for this I used the finely grated zest of the Clementines... for a completely rhubarb based one I usually use some powdered ginger.
Some butter.

Firstly, blitz the bread in a food processor until you have some nice breadcrumb... no need to remove crusts for this.
Put the breadcrumb into a bowl with the suet and sugar.
Mix well and add the seasoning, mix again.

You've already got the prepared fruit... up to you what size you cut it up to... raspberries don't need any... rhubarb can be cut into one inch lengths... apple in bite sized chunks... plums halved... etc.
For the apples and clementines, I matched the size of the rhubarb with the apples and just segmented the clems. On this occasion I mixed them up... but you can just as easily layer the ingredients to type!
It is entirely up to you and what you want it to look like in the bowl.

Turn on the oven... set it for 180 Centipedes... or the equivalent. [175 C for fan ovens]

Take an deep ovenproof container, it doesn't need to be glass... the one shown here is one of three Duralex ones we've accumulated... and add half the fruit.

Over this layer half the crumb mixture....
Now spread over the remaining fruit....
and top it off with the remaining crumb mixture...
and now comes the really difficult bit...
dot the top with butter.

This is the Betty on the plate... ready for cream, créme fraiche.... or...

When the oven has reached temperature, pop the pudding in the oven and set a timer for 45 minutes...
and wait.
The pudding will come out golden brown with crispy bits on the top... that is one good reason not to remove the crust on blitzing.

It is much lighter than a crumble... but just as rich! So be warned...

We ate ours with real "Créme Anglaise".... Bird's Custard!

... Bird's Custard.

As an aside... Bird's Custard now looks like créme anglaise... the egg-yolk yellow colouring has been removed... but it hasn't altered the flavour!!

The Valderance ciders are very good... they use some very good cider apples and a healthy tannin backnote is present... I'll blog about these later.