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!!

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7 Responses to Menu regional: Bordeaux

  1. Nachman says:

    Why didn’t Shane fill the Cannelé mold all the way to the top?

  2. Ema Irit says:

    אז לא מגישים את היונה עם הראש שמוט כמו שהיו מגישים בעיר העתיקה בירושלים לפני 30 שנה….

  3. תמר says:

    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!

    • Mashav says:

      מה יותר מקצועי, התמונות או הצילחות?
      )עשיתי תיקון צבע וקונטרסט בעריכה, בגלל זה אולי (וכל השאר מן הסתם

  4. Sharin says:

    Great meal!
    I could never prepare a pigeon, but it looks very special..
    And the razor clams dish looks amazing!

  5. […] 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 […]

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