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Showing posts with label le. Show all posts
Showing posts with label le. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

LE GIGOT DAGNEAU PASCAL LAMB PASCAL

As we were flying home from France on Easter Sunday we were unable to have a proper roast lunch. My husband Pascal was most put out as it is tradition in France to have "Lamb Pascal" -  a simple roast leg of lamb with herbs. We ended up having it today as a belated Easter lunch - I am just gutted we have no Easter eggs left for pudding!

Cooking times totally depend on the size of your leg of lamb - ours was 1.940 kg and took 1 hour 35 minutes - it will say on the packet instructions.

Ingredients for 5-6 people:

Leg of lamb (around 2kg)
5 cloves of garlic
Salt and Pepper
A good glug of olive oil
A few sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 tbsp "herbes de Provence" (a mixture of savoury, thyme, lavender and other herbs)



If you can try to remember to take the lamb out of the fridge two hours before cooking so the meat is not too cold.

Preheat the oven to 190 C / 170 C fan / gas mark 5.

Run the lamb under cold water to remove any stickiness of the meat and dry it well with paper towels. Removing all the excess moisture will make for outside crispier when cooking.



Cut the garlic into small slithers and then cut holes/pockets into the lamb with a sharp knife and stuff the garlic in.



Add a glug of olive oil (not too much as lamb already has lots of natural fat) and generously season with salt and pepper and the "herbes de Provence". Next dress with some rosemary.



Put the lamb in the oven and roast for the correct time. Once it is ready, take it out of the oven, cover in foil and rest for another 10 minutes so the juices flow back into the meat.



Pascal doesnt like sauce so we didnt make any however you can put your roasting tin on the hob over a low heat (if the tin allows that) and add a large glass of chicken stock or red wine and deglaze the pan by scrapping all the good bits from the bottom. Reduce, season and then serve as a nice simple sauce. As I said we didnt do this, however I think it is a good idea.

Finally carve the lamb and serve with a vegetable of your choice. We chose the Mallorcan dish Tumbet (recipe to follow) however it would have been more traditional to do small roast potatoes and green beans.






This was so simple and easy but really delicious - a favourite of Pascals. Personally I prefer something with a bit more "sauce" but it was nice to eat something more rustic for a change. It went wonderfully with the aubergine, pepper, onion, potato and tomato of the tumbet - not very French but still Mediterranean - especially when I added a dollop of hummus on the side :-)

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Friday, March 4, 2016

LE CEPE MERIBEL

Over the years I have had some amazing Valentines suppers and also some very very bad ones. One of my best was the first one Pascal and I ever had together - he proposed and we went to the restaurant where we first met and had an entire menu based on truffles. The second valentines we spent together couldnt have been more different - he rowed all day with his ex wife, I rowed all day with him and then we ended up in the same restaurant as her!! Not fun!!

This year I was very happy to spend the day in France with Pascal especially as we havent seen each other for nearly a month. Unfortunately after not being ill for over a year, I came down with a bug on Saturday evening - non stop shivering or sweating, nauseous, headache - I was still determined to go out though.

Pascal had booked Le Cepe which is a relatively new restaurant in Meribel - it is beautifully decorated with lots of greys, hearts and woods, rustic and cosy. Service was quick, friendly and efficient and we were immediately seated and given menus and an amuse bouche. Why oh why did I feel so ill as the menu was right up my street - a combination of typical french and local savoyarde dishes and plenty of seafood. If I was feeling normal I would have had the goats cheese or foie gras poele to start followed by the tartiflette or risotto with scallops. Plus there were plenty of delicious cep inspired dishes!

Instead I had vegetable soup…



I dont think I have ever ordered soup in a restaurant before and despite feeling violently ill, it was very nice and I loved the mini side of cheese to sprinkle on top (Pascal and I both realised how ill I was when I couldnt even eat that)! It made me realise how rubbish some of the soups I eat at home are.

Pascal had a veloute with snails, crusty croutons, garlic and parsley. It looked and apparently tasted delicious - it would definitely be something I would want!


Then for mains he had sole meuniere with vegetables and potatoes. I was thinking Pascal might be coming down with something as he never orders fish! I unfortunately couldnt taste it but according to him it was amazing.


We were straight home after that and I was in bed by 9.15 - so not the romantic valentines day I had envisaged but Pascal got an A for effort for booking such a fantastic restaurant and we will definitely be back again….I just need to be able to eat properly next time! The restaurant also has a separate kids menu and does take away.

Le Cepe
Route D Plateau
73550
Meribel
Les Allues
Tel: +33 479 224 608 
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