Fred's Newsletter: 5.1.21
Hogmanay queue.
Bonjour tout le monde,
The picture above is impressive, what a queue we had for the collection on the 31st of December. Thank you so much, and thank you all for being so patient. We know some of you waited up to two hours to collect your New Year’s Eve meal. I am so sorry we couldn’t satisfy the demand, we ended up being so busy!
Here we are in 2021 and our first menu of the year is live. We (I mean Sophie) will be taking your orders today from 10am and we will deliver your food on Friday.
What do we have this week. The crab bisque is back with us, buckwheat crêpes with spinach, terrine of the day made with venison, and escargots à la vigneronne - cooked with a red wine sauce, but still with garlic.
The raclette cheese party is a great winter dish that can be enjoyed as a meal, or as a hearty starter. All you have to do is put the gratin in the oven, open a bottle of wine, unwrap the cured meats then enjoy! Did you know that raclette was voted the most-loved meal by the French this year. Voila.
I’ve also added a duck confit Parmentier topped with a sweet potato mash and a Parmesan cream. It’s earthy, healthy, tasty and filling. A dish that will freeze very well if you want to stock your freezer.
For mains, you’ll notice some l’escargot classics reappearing with coq au vin, but with beer. I’ll be cooking the chicken in Innis and Gunn. There’s a Peelham Farm veal blanquette – as I’ve mentioned before, this would be my last meal and I haven’t changed my mind. The Hebridean mutton navarin is back, cooked overnight in a tomato sauce, as is the petit salé cooked with blonde lentils from St Flour in Auvergne (much tastier than Le Puy I think ) and with our own Toulouse sausage, cured pork belly and pig cheeks. Don’t forget the Dijon mustard to enjoy this dish to the full (we’ll give you some). Then, as fish supply is limited just now, salted cod is a must, seasoned with olive oil and garlic. Such an easy dish for you to enjoy at home.
The desserts are our most popular ones but with the added treat of a traditional galette des rois (also known as the Epiphany cake) consisting of a puff pastry galette filled with almond cream, delicious. There’s also brioche and butter pudding with chocolate, and the rich crème caramel stays on.
We’re welcoming 2021 with a great opportunity for you to stay positive. We have partnered with Robin and Sarah of Dam View Glamping at Gartmorn Farm in Alloa to offer a weekend for up to six guests (from one family) in their beautiful Ivy Lodge. This is a fabulous prize. All you have to do is share the news with your friends and family, then enter on our website (more info here). Easy, and you may be in for a treat.
Dam View is a very relaxing, highly comfortable place to unwind for a weekend. The prize weekend is in May, so good weather should also be joining you at your rendez vous. Remember I stayed there with my family for my 50th birthday back in September. We loved it. Robin and Sarah, thank you for working with us.
In the last newsletter I mentioned that we would start delivering a bit further than our regular two miles. So give us a ring and tell us your postcode and we will try to accommodate. Also remember that all our meals can be freezer friendly, bear this in mind when ordering. And do not hesitate to order for someone who cannot go out, we will deliver to them.
Of course, we all thought this shoubamangacrazything would be over by now, and that after a good sleep on Hogmanay the nightmare would be over! But no, it’s still here, and for a while I think. Let’s stay positive and eat good, healthy food to help keep our mood on the up. To help with this, I am adding to this week’s take-away a limited number of ribeye steaks that have been maturing slowly since the last week of November. These are for you to cook at home, 250g and £15.00 each. They will come with gratin Dauphinois and red wine sauce. This is a way for me to check that you all read the full newsletter as these will not be advertised on the menu! Numbers are very limited so don’t hesitate if your mouth is watering. For your info, the steaks are from the winner of the MacDuff beef auction in November. That alone says a lot about its provenance.
I’ll leave you with the great Patricia who wrote a few words for us. Patricia is the woman behind Phantassie Organic based in East Lothian. We buy most of our vegetables from her. She is the brain and the thinker of the business, as well as a highly-respected and passionate vegetable grower. Thank you Patricia for all the support during 2020.
I shall also take this opportunity to thank you all for all your emails of support during 2020. Let’s try to make 2021 as positive as possible.
A bientôt
Fred