Blog
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – warm smoked chicken salad with roasted summer vegetables
This is an unusual smoked chicken salad that can be adapted to use whatever vegetables are in season. Yesterday I used red peppers, sweet potato, aubergine, fennel, red onion and asparagus as they are all looking fantastic at the moment.
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Loire valley vineyard update 4 June 2018 – Flowering
Both the Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc are flowering here at Le Tasting Room. Here in Anjou we are always a little behind the vineyards further east where many vines have finished flowering and the fruit has set.
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What are we drinking this week? L’Envolée 2011 from Gérald Vallée
As it’s been warm enough to eat outside this week we enjoyed a simple dinner of home made burgers, roasted garlicky plum tomatoes and a fresh green salad. L’Envolée from Gérald Vallée was our wine of choice.
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – confit of duck the easy way
Many of you will have enjoyed confit of duck here at le tasting room. The ultimate comfort food, tender duck with super crispy skin, served either on a bed of duck fat roasted potatoes and rosemary or with lentils and smoky bacon.
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Technical wine and vineyard vocabulary demystified – ébourgeonnage, épamprage
At this time of year growers make a second pass through the vineyard to remove excess buds or shoots from the vines. This process is called ébourgeonnage in French and consists of removing excess shoots from the growing vines.
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – pastry for quiches and savoury dishes
You can buy pastry in any French supermarket and I certainly don’t judge anyone for using it as it saves time, comes rolled and is ready to slide into a tin. But, it’s not quite as good as homemade. Probably because when I make my own I use rather large quantities of really good fresh butter
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What are we drinking this week? L’Enthousiasme 2014 from Domaine Ogereau
We have a really soft spot for the appellation of Savennières. Home to fine white Chenin Blanc wines, full of character and minerality from impossibly shallow top soils sitting above the schist and slate of the Massif Amoricain.
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – Puy lentils with lardons and thyme
We often serve these lentils as a side to duck confit, roasted Toulouse sausages or griddled salmon. As time has gone by I have modified the recipe to make it easier and less time consuming. You can make them the day before and reheat gently when serving so they are great to do when you have people over.
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Les Grandes Tablées du Saumur Champigny 1 & 2 August 2018
For two nights in August, the centre of Saumur becomes the biggest restaurant in the world as thousands gather for the annual celebration of Saumur Champigny and its wines over a delightful open air dinner on the banks of the river Loire.
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What’s going on in the Loire valley vineyards in May?
Growers have been under time pressure to tie down the vines that were left upright in many appellations in an attempt to avoid frost. Normally this is done by mid April but no chances were taken this year.
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Recipes from le tasting room’s kitchen – Clafoutis
Clafoutis is a classic French dessert and one that I cook on a regular basis throughout the summer. I have various versions but this one is a particular favourite as it contains ground almonds in the recipe and can very easily be multiplied up or halved to make large or smaller quantities without compromising the final result.
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Loire valley vineyard update 14 May 2018
Well, it seems like we made it past the frost saints (11th, 12th and 13th May) so growers are beginning to relax as we approach the second half of May. We had one or two nights in the past couple of weeks when temperatures dropped dangerously close to zero but it seems that we are out of the major danger zone.