Saturday 1st October. 2011
29°C outside.
The children have gone off to Château Ex and I have the weekend ahead of me to read, write and play.
But first, here’s a round-up of the week’s mundane-ités.
The chicken soup (photo) was eeked out until last Saturday night, helping my poorly children feel better and the Sunday market (see previous, er, Feeding my world ‘post’) shop doubly welcome as I knew all that green would soon replenish their energy. With the addition of 1kg of blanquette veal from the freezer, about 50 pints of fresh milk, storecupboard quinoa and spaghetti, 3 fresh baguettes and a celebratory pizza delivery on Wednesday night, that shop fed us really well all week, including lunches for the boys at home (with their friends) and two ‘pique niques’ at school for Victoire.
The luxury bread (12 €!) was a complete delight. We enjoyed it, like cake, until about Wednesday, fabulously moist and crunchy with seeds. And once toasted? Filthy.
The salad was immune to recuscitation stints in the salad spinner by Thursday, but the fresh corn, kept fat inside its bristly leaves, was gorgeous with the raw salted butter from my Nomandy Market Stall Of Everything. (More on this magical place tomorrow)
Veal with carrots and bay
For 8, (or 1 x 6 + 1 x 4 = 10 in this case) 1hr30
1.5kg veal shoulder, about 8 carrots peeled and sliced, couple of bayleaves, 2 onions chopped roughly, 1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped, some oil to start it all off.
Heat the oil in a heavy based pan, add the carrots onions and garlic and give them all a swirl before dropping the meat in too. Stir from time to time, letting the meat get nice and brown, but not burning the vegetables (ahem). Add a little water to deglaze, scraping the bottom of the pan for all the tasty bits. Fill with water to about 2/3s up the sides of the meat, bring to the boil then reduce heat, season lighlty and leave to simmer for about an hour and 15 minutes or until tender. Season properly and serve as it is or add carbs or green beans or perhaps just a spoon for the light cooking juices.
Veal doesn’t take as long to cook as many cuts for beef stew and I often make this, sometimes adding olives and tomatoes, for mid-week winter lunches when the boys need something warm and substantial in the middle of the day. The veal was 19 euros. But we had not cooked meat that Sunday and I used the abundant sauce, reduced, in pasta (I was dying for crushed, boiled potatoes, naturally) for our evening meal with green salad the next day.
