Fun and Food!

First, here's a shameless plug for my other blog - with a link to a post about what we've been up to. Go to View From The Teapot to read about our two days in Paris, seeing Elbow. One thing I forgot to mention over in the Teapot is that we were really lucky to see the band in such a small venue. In the UK now they are Big, and play Big Venues, like arenas, and 50,000 seaters (well, maybe that's an exaggeration, I don't know...) but we saw them in a small intimate club, with about 1,500 people. It was great. Happy, happy smile. Read more about it over in the Teapot.

Here I think I shall give you a recipe for something delicious. This is Axoa, a Basque dish, in the recipe given to me by one of my students. Translation in italics; comments thus:

AXOA

Ingrédients pour 4 personnes (ingredients for 4 people) :

-         1 kg d’épaule de veau désossée (shoulder of veal, boned.*  )

-         2 oignons (onions)

-         1 gros poivron rouge (big red pepper)

-         8 piments verts doux (green chillies. This was quite a lot. I think I used 4)

-         2 gousses d’ail (cloves of garlic)

-         2 feuilles de laurier (bay leaves)

-         piment d’espelette en poudre (cayenne pepper.  Piment d'Espelette comes from a particular area of the Basque region. But any old bog-standard Cayenne pepper would do. Use as much as you wish)

-         ¼ de litre de fond brun de veau lié (veal stock. Or equivalent)

-         1 dl d’huile d’olive (olive oil)

-         sel (salt)

1)      Tailler l’épaule de veau en cube de 1cm sur 1 cm ainsi que les oignons, le poivron rouge et les piments (cut the veal into cubes. And the onions, pepper and chillies)

2)      Faire revenir le veau à la poêle avec un peu d’huile d’olive jusqu’à l’évaporation de l’eau. Dans une cocotte, faire suer les oignons, le poivron, le laurier, les piments, l’al avec un peu de graisse (Cook the veal in the pan with a bit of olive oil until the water has evaporated.  This confused me...especially as the verb is "put back" - I'd not taken the veal out of the pan. But I browned it anyway, and then carried on. It tasted OK! I wonder if Angelique missed out an instruction about sweating the onions and garlic, as that isn't included in the recipe she gave me. Do as you think fit - you're a grown up and can make your own decisions!!!)

3)      Mélanger la viande dans la cocotte avec la garniture en assaisonnant avec le piment en poudre et du sel. Faire caraméliser le tout. (Mix the meat in a stove-top casserole dish, with the herbs and salt. Brown it all)

4)      Ajouter le fond brun (add the stock)

5)      Laisser cuire 40 minutes. (Cook for 40 minutes. Lowish heat was suggested)

6)      Servir avec des pommes de terre bouillies (serve with boiled potatoes)

* If veal offends your sensibilities, you could use pork, but I think veal in the UK , at least, is now seen as ethical (at least for carnivores!) as the standards of rearing are so much better. No more veal crates.)

I hope you enjoy it!