Fred's newsletter 9.2.21

Serving the food of love this week.

Good morning,

Something to look forward to this weekend, St Valentin it is chaps, just to remind you.

We added the menu for online orders last week and it seems the baguettes, olives and saucisses seches are winning you over, by their flavour I should hope. Flavour and taste is a genius marketing strategy. I have used it for many years and still believe in it today!

We’ve already received a huge amount of orders for this weekend, and whilst Valentine’s is on Sunday, I would recommend that you all enjoy your food as fresh as possible - especially the seafood as the fresher the better. Perhaps better as a Saturday treat, rather than on Sunday?

This week’s menu features some fresh crab with mayonnaise, our Armagnac-smoked salmon (a recipe we developed with the help and support of Welch Fishmongers), crevettes roses, and a lobster bisque that will be cooked on Thursday. The scallops will reach you ready to bake. The goose terrine will have matured for one week and at the peak of flavour. I was lucky enough to have access to geese after Christmas, usually they are all eaten by then! And our winter salad will have no less than three type of goat cheeses to satisfy the taste buds.

Today is a big day at l’escargot bleu as we await the arrival of a whole pig from Herb Majesty in Perthshire. It’s a cross breed that’s has been fed only on grass, so no added substitutes or grains. I’m very excited. The legs will be turned into a blanquette for this week’s menu and I hope you recognise the very special flavour when eating it, it should be treat. Herb Majesty’s owner Charlotte has shared a few words with us about her philosophy. Thank you Charlotte.

Also this week, we are cooking feather blade à la Vigneronne, sourced by McCaskies Butchers, no doubt through the Macduff network. It’s the same process as a Bourguignon but with very little beef stock added. So it's mostly wine that goes into the sauce that cooks for 24 hours before caramelised baby onions, lardons and mushrooms are added.

Speaking of sauce. I love Armoricaine, and it will be served with the cod. This sauce has disappeared from the modern menu and it’s such a shame as it’s something that helped make French cooking so popular. It’s often served with monkfish, especially in Brittany, whose residents pretend that this recipe was born on the Cotes d’Armor. Sadly, it’s also a sauce that's often cooked with shortcuts in restaurants by unscrupulous chefs trying to increase their GPs using cheap replacements instead of fresh lobster or velvet crab shells.

The sauce was created in the late 1800s in Paris by chef Pierre Fraisse who had spent many years working in America, hence being called Americaine. The first recorded recipes list ingredients of crustacean, tomatoes, garlic and white wine, and say that it can be served with chicken, quenelles, eggs, steaks and more. Ours will be made using velvet crab and lobster.

Our duck leg confit is served with gratin Dauphinois, simple and rewarding taste-wise. This must be a best-seller in every French restaurant in the UK. I remember selling huge numbers on my first job at L’escargot Doré off the Kensington High Street in the late 80s. We were making them almost daily. Today it’s still very popular, and I understand why.

I have also added pheasant to the menu as it was the last week of shooting (last week when I ordered it) and I thought you would enjoy. I am trying to order more wild rabbit to put on the menu in the next few weeks as I was extremely satisfied by the quality last week. I hope you were too.

We’re offering a good selection of classic desserts this week as well as our ‘serves 2-4’ tarte aux poires. We’ll keep making those until the pear season is over, so treat yourself.

Our online sales last week were rocket fuelled with orders coming in quickly, so we are seriously thinking of making it a permanent feature, but we will need a little more time to get it just right. Leave it with us. We might do it that way every week as we get a better system in place. We shall keep the phone lines open though for those wishing to speak to us (I mean Sophie or Betty).

It goes without saying that everything is freshly made in house, and that no shortcuts are taken when we cook. Fresh lobsters, whole geese and a whole pig have come in this week for the menu. From the pig last week we’re making ham to use next week. The goats were all butchered by us last week and we used most of them, what is left we will use to make paté en croute in the next week or so.

Before I go, I would like to give a special mention to Deirdre Wakefield, aka Dee, from London who we have been corresponding with on email. If you are reading this Dee, I want to personally thank you for the support and the lovely, friendly emails you have sent us. They warm our hearts and help us keep us smiling. I am very glad that you enjoy our chocolates as much as you do, we shall get more in just for you! I’ve shared a few extracts in the Feedback section below…

Voilà. I wish you all a pleasant week and a marvellous St Valentin celebration. Keep the emails coming!

A bientôt,

Fred

As promised, here are a few extracts from Dee's emails:

Dear Fred,

May I congratulate you because - as a person who has eaten in your restaurant many times during the Edinburgh Festival - you have done an exemplary venture of cooking each day!  Your newsletters are fabulous.

I have always wanted to support you, being a Londoner, and if perchance you can send me two boxes of chocolates, that would be great.  Let me know the cost including post and packaging and I shall send you a bank transfer before receipt.

Many thanks indeed for your endeavours which are much appreciated, especially as I hope to come up for the Edinburgh Festival, and look forward to eating once again in “L’escargot bleu”!

Best regards,

Dee

…

Dear Betty,

The chocolates arrived and they were expensive; however, worth every penny in that they were unique (as Fred promised) and utterly delicious!

Warmest from Dee (in London) 😊

…

Dear Betty Scotland,

I need one more box (the size you sent me before) of the chocolates.  I work this out to be £18 plus postage and packaging at about £2 = £20.00; so sorry to worry you with this small job, but my friend, David, deserves a real treat on his Birthday, being a chocolate lover!

Absolutely not!  I am just about to eat (in a few minutes) the last chocolate from the second box, so all is ended regarding the two boxes you sent moi.  And no doubt you are putting on weight, as I am, through just ‘talking about les chocolats’!

Warmest and bestest to you and Fred from Dee 😊