Monday 17 August 2009

Sunday lunch in the garden / le diner de dimanche au jardin

For the past few weeks it’s been too hot to do much work in the garden, just watering (a lot), tying up the tomato plants and harvesting the produce. In a couple of weeks’ time we’ll have to start sowing the autumn and winter vegetables – lettuce, turnips, carrots – but it’s too hot now.

Depuis quelques semaines il fait trop chaud pour faire beaucoup de travail au jardin – on ne fait que l’arrosage (beaucoup) et la récolte de légumes. Dans deux ou trois semaines on commencera à semer les légumes d'automne et d'hiver – les salades, les carrots, les navets – mais en ce moment il fait trop chaud.

The garden is still a good place to entertain friends for a meal, though, as we did yesterday. / Le jardin est toujours un bon endroit pour inviter des amis pour manger, comme on a fait hier.

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plenty of shade and a paddling pool borrowed from a neighbour / beaucoup d’ombre et une piscine qu’un voisin nous a preté.

We started the meal with prawns and aioli (I posted the recipe for this when I made it last summer – here). The only difference is that now I make it with an electric whisk – much easier!

Nous avons commencé par des crevettes accompagnées d’un aioli – voir la recette ici.

Grilled quail / les cailles grillées

For the main course we cooked something I’ve wanted to try for a long time: quails wrapped in vine leaves and cooked on the barbecue.

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I put a garlic clove and a sprig of time inside each one, rolled them in olive oil, salt and pepper, wrapped them in vine leaves and tied the parcels with thread. Lo Jardinièr cooked them for about 20 minutes over a wood and charcoal fire. The vine leaves blackened, as you can see, but inside the quail were tender and delicious.

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With the quail we had baked vegetables – aubergines, courgettes, peppers, onions and tomatoes – garnished with basil and a squeeze of lemon juice and served cold, and Marseillette rice with coriander, cumin, onion, raisins and pine nuts.

We had a Roquefort and St Nectaire cheese and then a mirabelle (small plum) tart made with our neighbours’ fruit and recipe. The recipe will be on the Mediterranean cuisine blog.

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At the end of the afternoon, after a long lunch, we visited our friends’ garden where there is a beautiful old mill building which has been converted into a garden shed. And back in our garden to clear up, I noticed this butterfly on the dahlia. Another perfect Sunday!

6 comments:

Michelle said...

It does sound like a perfect Sunday! Good food, good friends and a beautiful setting, what more could you want?

Jan said...

Those recipes sound good, as always!

Carol said...

You are such artist with food... delightful to see your posts!

Weeping Sore said...

I always leave your blog hungry. I've learned to eat lunch first, then visit you. So today, I actually enjoyed your post without that grumble in my tummy. Not sure about the squabs though. Too much work for not much meat?

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

This is a delicious Sunday lunch, just reading about it makes me hungry! I am wondering what sort of barbecue you use? I need a new one and want something easy and efficient. We had a Mirabelle tree in Switzerland; mmh...still remember the sweetness. The rice sounds good too I have to try this version. Thanks for the recipes. It is dry here, the forecast is very dry.. bush fires, we have to be prepared.

HappyMouffetard said...

What a lovely Sunday. The mirabelle tart looks mouthwatering.