There’s been stops and starts… and now it’s all GO to get the grapes in.
We’re harvesting three weeks later than previous years, but it’s shaping up to be a pretty good ‘recolte’ … there’s a charged atmosphere and smiles all round.
I’ll fill you in on this harvest over a few posts, but here’s a selection of pics from today, in and out of our village.
(you may note some ‘fx’ in the images – my dear old camera is on the blink so what you see are the results of lumping around with a clunky electronic rectangle)
woke to to the noise of the harvester outside the kitchen windowtent-pickingchecking out the noise… a tractor cruising down the driveway
here comes the sun
house on the prairie
Meanwhile, back in the village…
clearing out remains of the ‘pressoir’ (press)
the Vigneron having a spray…and the ladies are still out checking the ‘raisins’
LOVED this dish tonight! I know I’ve put this recipe up earlier this year, but had to share it again… with the “NEW”photos!
The nights are cooler, Benji is now in harvest swing and it’s time to cook up some warm, slow-cooked meals… Bon app.
delicious ‘Porc au Lait’
I was on the phone to Mum and Dad last week and mentioned that I’d just cooked up some Milk Pork – ‘Porc au Lait’ – for the next day’s dinner. It’s funny, these conversations about food are always totally out of whack with our time zones. It was 11pm my time and 8.30am the following morning, their time. Normally it’s me cleaning up the breakfast dishes as Dad explains with excitement what he’s got on the stove for dinner.
I’ve never served them Porc au Lait but I know they’d love it. It ticks all our family’s favourite food boxes: MEAT, lots of sauce, herbs, garlic and the required ‘three veg’ – and it is easy to prepare. It’s one of those old-fashioned French dishes that is simply delicious comfort food. My husband and mother-in-law showed me how to cook this years ago and I can’t count how many times I’ve prepared it since. We had the poker men for dinner + a few UK visitors and it went down a treat with the new ‘Boulevard Napoleon‘ wines – white and red.
the empties: the Boulevard Napoleon Grenache Gris white and a few reds…had to show you these beautifully coloured carrots – they actually gave the milk sauce an almost mauve tint by the endAfter the meat has been cooking for awhile in the milk, drop the vegies and parsley inamples of milk sauce……to serve with this incredibly juicy meat. The butcher told me the pork roll was ‘parsleyed’ (‘persille’) – I thought he meant stuffed with parsley, but he laughed and corrected me – it actually refers the lines of fat running through the piece , ‘marbled’ as we might say. Even the Vigneron hadn’t heard of this term, so I was proud to bestow some francais on him.
1.5kg roll of roasting pork – preferably of shoulder (fillet is drier and less fat, don’t want that)
1 litre full cream milk
2 large onions, sliced
6 carrots, cut into in large chunks
8 potatoes, as above
8 small turnips, as above
4-5 cloves of garlic
2 sprigs fresh thyme
bunch fresh sage (about 10-12 leaves)
2 sprigs rosemary
oil, butter
salt, pepper
method:
Fry up the onions in heavy cast iron pot with a big chunk of butter (30-40g) and a little olive oil, until golden.
Add the roll of pork and brown on each side over medium -high heat.
When the meat is almost all browned, add the garlic and salt, pepper to taste. I find garlic burns very easily, so I add it near the end of the browning.
Pour over the milk (meat should be 3/4 covered, if not add more ) and add the herbs.
Cover with lid and let simmer for an hour.
Add the carrots and turnips and keep simmering for another hour.
Add potatoes and keep simmering until they are tender.
Serve with lashings of dijon mustard on the side and a big white or red wine!
N.B. If this is prepared the night before eating, I don’t add any of the vegetables until the next day.
And. I cook this for a few hours, the longer the better. I like it when the meat falls apart. A lot of recipes cook it for less though, and you keep the form of the pork roll and then slice it. As the French would say, ‘as you want’…
Lilas and her pickings …not quite the ripe grapes papa is hoping for, but they taste just as good
A little mini update from the vineyards…
‘Les Vendanges’ (harvest) will begin remarkably late for us this year, with picking beginning as late as one week from now. Yes we’re enjoying beautiful sunny days in these first few days of September, but the grapes are having a hard time ripening due to 2013’s fairly cool Spring and late Summer. Waiting waiting waiting. Benji’s getting those annual, pre-mens vendanges nerves and I’m keeping food on the table…
But even if the grapes aren’t all sweet and ripe for the picking, there is some ripe fruit to be had… After an evening’s inspection of the vignes (vines), we’ve been tucking into the wild mures (blackberries) out the back!…
“My illustrious career with the bottle began with the person my mother used to refer to somewhat hopefully as ‘your naughty friend’, Lisa Jenkins, implying that without Lisa’s influence I would probably have spent my downtime cross-stitching and nursing sick orphans”… – Marieke Hardy, ‘You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Dead’
And she is so hellishly cheeky. I loved this book. It’s beautiful, funny, poignant, sexy, delirious, profound – and so, so WRONG.
READ HER!
Marieke Hardy at a book signing for “You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Dead”, Mosman Library, N.S.W., Monday 19 September (photo courtesy of the Mosman Library)
Meanwhile, back in the village…
The Vigneron's Wife 