Food and Drink - Changing the season with a fresh outlook

Autumn may be on its way but we don’t have to give up on brightly coloured food and zesty flavours.

www.goujounac.com

John and Sim are the latest owners of the historic Hostellerie de Goujounac. With over two decades of experience in high-end restaurants, hotels and private yachts between them, they are well equipped to welcome guests into this charming establishment. Fresh, seasonal ingredients inspire the menu, with an emphasis on using local produce to create unusual dishes from scratch.

Salmon Gravlax with Avocado & Pickled Lemon

www.goujounac.com

Salmon Gravlax with Avocado & Pickled Lemon

(Serves 8)

1.2kg Salmon fillet - skin on

1kg Coarse rock salt

330g Sugar

10g Coriander seeds

6 Black peppercorns

10g Fennel seeds

10g Cumin seeds For the pickle:

4 Lemons, sliced paper-thin

100g Sugar

300g Water

100g White vinegar

50g Tarragon vinegar

50g Rice wine vinegar

4 Cloves

5g Coriander seeds

4 Black peppercorns

Garnish: 4 ripe avocados, sliced

Salmon:

Blend all ingredients for 30-40 seconds or crush spices by hand in a pestle and mortar, mix into the sugar and salt.

Lay 1/3 of the mixture on a shallow tray, place salmon on top, skin-side down. Pour the rest of the mixture onto the salmon and rub in gently, covering the entire salmon. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Wash off mixture, pat dry with paper towel and slice at an angle against the grain of the fish.

Pickle:

Slice the lemons paper thin and place in a kilner jar. Bring other ingredients to the boil, pour over lemons and refrigerate overnight.

Arrange salmon on a plate, followed by thinly sliced avocado and top with lemon and a grind of black pepper.

Roast Vegetable Salad with Goat Cheese

(Serves 6)

500g Beetroot (boiled & peeled or store-bought, precooked sous-vide)

1 Large red onion, thinly sliced

1 Large butternut squash

1 Celeriac

200g Feta

6 Cabécou (we use organic from our local farmer)

125g Baby spinach

125g Rocket Honey Balsamic reduction

1 Sprig thyme

Peel and cube the celeriac and butternut. Place the seeds in a bowl with a few tsps of salt for 30 mins. Wash off the salt, dry with a paper towel and roast at 180°C for 8-10 mins until slightly golden. Slice the beetroot into six discs large enough to hold the Cabécou, dice the rest. Mix the diced vegetables and beetroot with a glug of olive oil, salt and pepper, roast at 180°C for 15-20 mins until soft. Pan-fry the onion with the thyme over medium heat until lightly coloured, add two tbs each of balsamic reduction and water, stir until the liquid reaches a syrupy

consistency. In a large bowl, mix the vegetables with the onion and crumble in the Feta. Set each of the cabécou on a disc of beetroot and roast at 180°C for 3-4 mins. To serve, mix the rocket and baby spinach with the vegetables and place on plates, top with the beetroot and Cabécou stacks. Drizzle with honey and balsamic reduction and sprinkle with seeds.

Serve immediately.

Coconut Panna Cotta with Mango Purée

(Serves 8)

1 480g Tin coconut milk

250g Milk

125g Sugar

5 2/3 Leaves gelatine

1 Stick lemongrass, split down the middle

Garnish:

4 Ripe mangos, puréed

Diced pineapple

Coriander leaves

Soak gelatine in tepid water until soft. Simmer the other ingredients for 2 mins, add gelatine and stir until dissolved. Pass through a sieve and pour into glasses or moulds. Set in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours, turn out, garnish with mango, pineapple and coriander.

John’s Pick of Autumn Whites from Lot

John Gilchrist is a former UK Sommelier of the Year and winner of the Mondavi award for the best wine list in the world. A seeker of unknown wine gems, he now runs Les Caulins, a gîte and cookery school in SW France, with his wife (and chef) Emma. They have won many awards including the 50 best destination restaurants in the UK and Wine Pub of the Year.

www.lescaulins.com

Although it’s nearly game season we still have beautiful fresh fruit, salads and flat fish, especially Halibut (Flétan) and Turbot which are at their best. The much anticipated scallop season is about to start so I’m not ready to give up on white wines just yet. I look for bigger body and texture, round, soft fruit, less acidity, a little punchier and maybe aromatic.

Well worth seeking out in the southern Lot is the young vigneron, Fabien Jouves, at Mas del Périé in Trespoux-Rassiels. Both traditional and modern natural wines are crafted here including a beaut of a 100% Chenin Blanc Orange Voilée (veiled orange). Aged for one year on grape pomace in 800L amphora’s (which is how wine was first produced and is now very trendy) it has a nose of apple blossom and yellow pears with heady melon and the sweetness and acidity of lemon cured. Perfect with fish. www.masdelperie.com

Overlooking the Lot River in the commune of Albas is Didier Pelvillain and the beautiful Inspiration blanc sec made with Gros Mensang. A juicy, well balanced wine perfect with early season game birds and figs or pears with blue cheese. Aromas of tropical and candied fruit, with a delicious quince, peach and honeyed palate and finished with the merest zing of lime. www.vignoblespelvillain.wine

In the Eastern Lot is Domaine Cause producing Mariandine 100% Viognier, the perfect white to take you into winter with scallops and shellfish. The mouth feel is stunning; the juiciness of mango, perfumed honeysuckle and a tangerine acidity, with lasting flavours of roasted nuts, vanilla and ripe pineapple. www.domainedecause.fr

Vegan Revolution

Natalie Lynch is the chef at Le Cheval Blanc in St Antonin. Apart from vegan and vegetarian table d’hôte, she offers workshops, catering for events and occasional supper clubs.

www.lechevalblanc.net

VEGAN “RICOTTA” CIGARS

This recipe uses blitzed cashews instead of ricotta cheese. It may not taste the same but it’s delicious and can be used in place of dairy cream cheese in most recipes. Brik is widely available in French supermarkets and is almost always vegan (although it’s wise to check the ingredients). Adding to the cheesiness of this dish, Nutritional Yeast is a kind of flaky powder available in health food shops, gives dishes a more satisfying flavour, and contains loads of vitamins and micronutrients. (Makes 24)

200g Raw cashews soaked overnight 20ml Water 1 tbs Nutritional yeast 1 tsp Dijon mustard 1 tsp Garlic powder 1 tbs Lemon juice Handful of fresh mint Handful of raisins 1 Packet of Brik (or Filo)

Blend the cashews until smooth and creamy, pour them into a bowl and mix with the other ingredients.

Cut each Brik circle into quarters. Have the straight edge facing you and add around a tablespoon of the mixture to form a thick worm shape along that edge, leaving a cm clear each side. Fold the left and right edges over the paste and roll into a cigar. Brush with oil and sprinkle the top with nigella seeds or cumin (optional). Place in the oven at 180°C for 20 minutes or until golden.

www.lechevalblanc.net

Chocolate Aquafaba Mousse (for 4-6)

Aquafaba, a French classic, is a good substitute for egg whites and, incredibly, is the water from a jar of chick peas. It whips up just like an egg white (it contains similar long protein molecules), but the resulting mousse has a better texture plus flavour, is cheaper, easier to use, and removes the risks of using raw eggs. There's no taste of chick peas. Once mixed it needs to have roughly the consistency of egg whites. It can be diluted or reduced down if necessary, but most can be used directly from the can.

240ml Aquafaba 200g Cooking chocolate (50%)

Begin by melting the chocolate in a bain marie. While the chocolate is melting whip the Aquafaba until it forms soft peaks. To stop the mousse becoming grainy place two large dollops of Aquafaba into the melted chocolate and mix thoroughly. Gently fold in the rest of the Aquafaba then pour into individual glasses and refrigerate for at least one hour.

They can be eaten as they are but I think berries are the perfect accompaniment for this decadent vegan mousse. www.lechevalblanc.net You can see another recipe from Natalie, this time for Buffalo Cauliflower Wings, online under Articles/Guest Chef at www.thelocalbuzzmag.com

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Spooky tricks and treats

Cobwebs and spiders,ghouls and ghosts plus all that fake blood and gore! Yes it’s coming up to Halloween and we can’t wait!

Halloween is becoming more and more popular in France with many shops offering scary costumes and accessories for trick-or-treating. As is the tradition, the plentiful pumpkins are carved into spooky jack-o’-lantern caricatures, and the apples are toffee coated or placed in a barrel of water and bobbed for. We thought we would have a look around for some more unusual food and drink ideas to make a party spectacularly spookilicious. We admit it – some of them are bizarre! Beware!

Heart-stopping food

Place a slice of radish, bordered by a thin red line at one end and shaped to resemble a nail at the other, on the end of a finger-shaped nem or cheese stick for a spooky touch to aperos.

Or how about this for a step in the Halloween direction: fish or liver pâté shaped into a pair of feet, ready for people to dip into with bat or ghost shaped toasts.

Carve a wide-open, jagged mouth out of a water melon and have a fruit salad spilling out of it. You could do the same with salsa and/or guacamole “gushing” out of a carved pumpkin.

A plastic skeleton, laid on the table and filled with charcuterie, is a true out-of body experience. As is a skull placed at the end of a tray filled with “entrails” of ribs and sausages too.

Wrap a meatloaf or roast joint in ham or bacon in the shape of a mummy or bandages and make sure to brown them before serving it whole, ready for carving with a redtipped knife.

Meringues are an obvious choice for a ghostly or mummified dessert but what about a white chocolate “brownie” in a ghoulish shape?

Eerie thirst quenchers

Packet sweets come in all shapes and sizes, even worms, and are great for decorating children’s drinks and adult cocktails. Or simply float plastic spiders.

You could also freeze coloured water in the shapes of bats or ghosts.

Why not make a non-alcoholic cocktail base and serve with a syringe of red-coloured water or “spirit” of choice to cause a stir.

A frozen hand in a bowl of punch can set the pulse racing, if only for a second, and is easily achieved by freezing a plastic glove filled with water, flat in the freezer.

Rim your glasses with coloured salt or sugar strands and use unusual shapes for your glassware.

You could also make a thick red sugar syrup and have it drizzling down the sides of the glasses. Once set it will look like Draculous!

Lastly, for the Baristas amongst us, start practicing your fabulous Halloween cappuccino froth techniques!

Just Kitchens

Michael Staines began installing kitchens in the UK in 1990. He opened his first showroom in Mielan, France in 2008 and in 2013, a second showroom in Marciac.

With many years of experience, Mike and his son, Tim, can offer you a complete design and installation service, taking your initial ideas through to the reality of a beautiful and functional fitted kitchen.

Email: justkitchens.fr@gmail.com