Everyone knows Bordeaux is all about the wine which is nice but I’m really happy there’s a lot of food involved as well. Our Bordeaux meal was pleasant and nice, not as heavy as Normandie which is a good thing! I was doing the meat dish with Barbara and Daniel and It was my first time cooking a pigeon. The pictures of cleaning the pigeons are not easy for a person with a weak heart so avoid in that case.
There are also white wines of Bordeaux. This one was very dry and a bit acid.
Fricassèe de cépes à la bordelaise
Déclinaison de couteaux, tartare de concombre
The red to accompany the fish, Graves
Pavé de cabillaud à la bordalaise
A stronger aged wine for the meat dish
Palombe rotie en salmis frites de polenta
Sorbet au Lillet, Cannelés
Fricassèe de cépes à la bordelaise – Crisp toast triangles, porcchini mushrooms cooked in duck fat – Rob and Claire
Slicing the bread, very very fine. Then cutting to triangles and crisping in the oven.
The mushrooms after a whole night soaking and slowly confite in duck fat
The duck fat strained and re-used for pretty much everything
Plating
Come on people, we are hungry!!
Lunch seems to begin at last
A nice starter, wanted more sauce but it's called "Amuse bouche" for a reason
3D dishes are always better
Déclinaison de couteaux, tartare de concombre – Razor clams three ways: wrapped in smoked bacon, breaded and with a tartar of clams and cucumber. Olive, Ericka, Andreea, Adrian
Separating the clams after cooked in wine
Shells
Smoked bacon sliced very fine
Most of the clam is thrown away, they kept just the yellow thing that wrap it
Razor clams, without the head part, pulled out of their shells while still alive
Some are breaded like shnitzel
Why not actually?
Some wrapped in bacon and fried
Oh dear this smells like Saturday morning
Coolest plating, over a see through slices of cucumber and a glass transparent square
The tartar served inside the razor clam shell and decorated with fish eggs and edible oyster flower
A ring of lime
Was really great, my favorite dish.
Every part alone was delicious and everything together was good as well
The lime was necessary here
Of course I also ate the cucumber decorations. Which is an Israeli cucumber and tasted very good and sweet.
Why you have to be over soon? 🙁
Pavé de cabillaud à la bordalaise – Code with a red wine sauce, bacon, button champignons, mini onions – Ihsuan
Shane helping Ihsuan with cleaning a bunch of champignons
So small, so cute
Something between a garlic and shallot. Supposed to have a very strong flavor
Used for the sauce? I'm not sure
Wow it was great. Because: 1. Cod is a tasty fish. 2. This sauce works with absolutely everything. 3. I love mini onions and mushrooms. 4. Why not throw in some bacon as well?
Yum
Palombe rotie en salmis frites de polenta – Braised pigeon breast, Celeriac cream, crispy polenta chip, pigeon leg confite with reduction of veal stock and jus of pigeon legs – Barbara, Daniel, Me.
Got the pigeon, wild free birds, shot down. This is considered as "game meat" because it was hunted (legally) and not raised in a farm.
Had to pluck out the feathers. Could make a pillow from all of it if it wasn't so bloody and sticky
"Alexander" is half way done
The wings were the hardest to plunck
Barbara with Goerge. He was killed while eating.
First step done, look how red is the meat!
Flambe the feathers left over an open flame
Cut limbs to use for the sauce
Limbs and head off
You can see the main artery, and the bullet hole
Now the best and last part is gutting. Again, the meat is so redcompared to a farm poultry
The sauce: colored legs of pigeon with garnish, flambe with cognac then stock is added bit by bit and cooked for a long time
The veal stock
Legs cooking in stock
After a long time
Helping us cook, a pigeon's feet
Straining the sauce
Kept warm
All the leg meat separated, used for the leg confite
not much meat on these small legs
Celery root is cut to rectangles
Cooked in milk and then reheated in a steam oven
All the rest of the celery root is cooked in milk and cream and pureed to a creamy texture, then strained
Making the polenta. Boiling a liter of milk with salt pepper and muscade. Then adding 250gr of corn flour, a handful of grated parmesan
Transferred to a rectangular plaque
Pushed down and chilled fast
Cut to rectangles when set
Fried in some duck fat
Colored 4 sides
The pigeon braised in... Duck fat
Sat down, waiting for its turn to be carved
Carved breasts re-heated in the pan for a minute
The sauce was reduced even more, adding pig's blood and chunks of cold butter.
Plating
Plates reheated in the salamander to keep very warm when serving
Sauce and breast is placed
Daniel plating the last two plates
The result was very impressive!
I liked it so much. The meat was red, moist, not overcooked (even undercooked) and the sauce was intense in flavor. Polenta and celery cream were great accompany to the meat.
The leg confite was even better then the meat itself, because it was easier to eat and full of sauce.
The only problem I had, and you know I try to be very honest with my critics, is that this dish requires a good carving knife. It was served with the fish silverware and I feel it damaged the experience of enjoying this dish because the meat is not easy to carve. It was like drinking a 50 euro wine bottle in a plastic cup.
Sorbet au Lillet, Cannelés – Shane
These are two specialties of Bordeaux. Lillet is a wine liqueur with a secrete herbs and fruits flavoring combination. The Cannelé is a dessert made from pancake batter, traditionally baked in copper mold to get crispy outside and soft inside. Sometimes made with honey. Shane made the simple type. It was very good but the first batch was burnt a bit.
The batter poured in the molds
Ready for the oven
First batch
Second batch
The sorbet was very strong and I liked the liqueur flavor, it was like a very good cocktail drink. I prefer it less sweet though.
The good batch was a very nice finishing to this lunch, not too heavy, nice texture, makes you want to eat more and more
Good with an espresso
An inside view
Good job Anglo A!!
Why didn’t Shane fill the Cannelé mold all the way to the top?
אז לא מגישים את היונה עם הראש שמוט כמו שהיו מגישים בעיר העתיקה בירושלים לפני 30 שנה….
כל אחד עם הסגנון שלו
חלק מהתמונות עם היונים נראות יותר כמו שיעור ביולוגיה 🙂
האוכל נראה מדהים, וזאת רק אני או שהתמונות של ההגשה יותר מקצועיות?
אני כרגע מתעדכנת על כל הפוסטים שהפסדתי שהייתי בתאילנד… יאמ!
מה יותר מקצועי, התמונות או הצילחות?
)עשיתי תיקון צבע וקונטרסט בעריכה, בגלל זה אולי (וכל השאר מן הסתם
Great meal!
I could never prepare a pigeon, but it looks very special..
And the razor clams dish looks amazing!
[…] many things for the first time this year. First time I separated the heads off live lobsters, plucked a pigeon, peeled a whole bag of tiny baby shrimps, first time I baked a baguette, had wine and oysters for […]