After a couple of years suspended from gatherings and dinners with friends, we decided to host a Christmas lunch with some friends while seizing on the opportunity to catch up on some pending issues at hand...
After having thought of the recent adventures in France, I was inspired to go a bit more "natural" with the menu...
A more simple setting with a wreath as a decor element was chosen...
Comfort food - velouté de légumes served with a dollop of sour cream. To obtain a flavourful broth. the vegetables (red bell peppers, onions, pumpkin, potatoes) must be pre-baked in an oven with a drizzle of olive oil and then cooked in a chicken broth with a bouquet garni.
Boiled artichoke with a soft-boiled egg, sauce Béarnaise.
Chicken baked with rosemary, garlic and butter. Served with potato puree, red wine sauce and poached vegetables.
To make the puree: 1 kg potatoes (soft meat type like Chat or Ratte which has a nice texture), 350g (facultative) of French butter, 2 cups full cream, pinch of salt.
Boil the potatoes and pass them through a riser. Fold in all the butter and then the cream. To obtain an onctueuse puree, it could be passed through a fine sieve using a soft spatula.
A soft truffle-infused cheese from Bourgogne: le Crémeux de Bourgogne.
A fruitcake inspired by the city of Angers - orange flavoured with Cointreau (instead of using orange peels)
Ingredients: 1.5 cup of flour, 1 cup of almond powder, 4 eggs, 1 cup vanilla scented sugar, 250g French butter, a pinch of salt, selection of dried fruits (cranberries, black raisins, diced apricots, ginger confit, black cherry)
Soak the dried fruit mixture overnight with a cup of any brandy (Hennessy or Martell) and half a cup of Cointreau. Line a baking tray with butter and flour and the base with a piece of baking paper. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter with the sugar, splashing a teaspoon of vanilla extract to help with the emulsification. Slowly fold in the eggs and half a cup of Cointreau into the mixture. Next fold in the sifted flour with 2 teaspoon of baking powder and a pinch of salt and later the almond powder. Lastly fold in the soaked dried fruits. Bake at high heat for the first half an hour and medium heat for another 30 - 35 minutes until done.
In a separate bowl, squeeze and filter the juice of 10 - 12 oranges. Cook this juice with a cup of fine sugar until syrupy. Add half a cup to 1 cup of Cointreau to the mixture. Once the cake had cooled off overnight, slowly drizzle the syrup over the cake until it has saturated. Keep in an airtight container to mature for at least a month before consuming.
and for the little sweet something at the end, a specialty from Angers - the Quernon d'ardoise, which is a slaty blue chocolate with nougatine centre - made to imitate the bluish slate roof tiles of the region as a hommage to the slate quarry workers ... https://quernon.fr/la-maison-du-quernon/
They have a stand in the Christmas market in the city centre of Angers (starting 01 Dec 2022 for Christmas sales)
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