It is always rewarding to prepare a success guaranteed meal for a
large group, so we invited all people present at LeTravers at the
moment (12) for a sanglier-party on wednesday-evening.
Not
that there is so much reason to party given the outcome of the
US-elections. It is an insult to the rest of the world that a creature
who should be handed over and convicted by the International Criminal
Court for starting an illegal war can get himself re-elected. The
arrogance of an empire in decline…
It was another dry
but heavily clouded day and I spend most of it inside cooking. Perhaps
the last chance for cycling because today (thursday) it is raining
continuously. At the moment there is even thurder and lightning which
can be fairly impressive in mountanous regions. When it comes a bit
nearer all electricity will shut itself off automatically. Even with
this kind of weather the hunters go about their bizness, I just saw
one of them running with his gun on the road below (just 10 meters
away).
On a day like today there's not much to do but to sit by the
fireplace and read. I finished “Antwerp” by Nicholas
Royle. The book contains plenty of very detailed information on
Antwerp streets, building etc. which is all the more surprising as teh
author lives in Manchester. In the opening chapters he mentions two
watertowers near a railroad-bridge that I must have passed a 100 times
without noticing and only saw after reading the book… For these
details I did like the book, but I didn't get into the main plot
of the story much, so I'll give it a – in the sidebar when I get
back. At the moment I'm reading PD James' “The Murder
Room” which seems to take forever to get to the strating point
of the story, but who cares with this weather ?
But back to preparing sanglier and a few modifications to the
recipe I posted before. This time I marinated the meat for 24 hrs. in
half water/half wine, onions, garlic, carrots and herbs (oregano and
thyme). Afterwards I dried the meat and collected the juice and
vegetables in a saucepan and let it cook for 10 minutes and pulled the
mixer through it. Then I baked the wild boar in butter and garlic
until all pieces were nicely brown, poured red wine on it and the
mixed marinade. Then I let it stew for 2.5 hrs and 15 minutes before
serving I added mushrooms and a bit later some cream. The only thing I
regretted afterwards was overdoing the cream a bit, but nobody else
seemed to mind this too much.
<
Monday morning 7 am : the first gunshots can be heard in the
distance. As the morning progresses they come closer and one can hear
the hunting dogs clearly. A bit later four or five white mini-vans
race up the road and turn to get to the ridge of the mountain, each
having one or more dogs inside. Fifteen minutes later, we have
eyesight contact with “les chasseurs” and the gunshots are
so nearby that one might consider taking cover … A typical
sunday in l'Ardeche-Cevenolle (I know, it is monday but yesterday
the weather was just too bad and luckily for them it's a holiday
today). 