We are staying at the Manoir au quat’saison…it is very very very nice !
Check the website www.manoir.com
The garden is lovely and the service impeccable , Manu is having a massage in the bedroom and I am having a glass of red wine in one of the lounges.
I can’t wait for evening dinner !!
We went to Port Leucate for a kite Surfing Weekend with the boys…excellent weekend !
A lot of action, food and drinks, simply perfect.
First try at kitesurfing…success !!! We loved it and we are going to do more of it, now just have to wait for the nice weather to come back.
France in November was very nice…
Last weekend we had dinner at Tramshed in Central London. We had very nice food, but we had even better company with our long time friends Daniel, Gabriela and their kids.
We had so much to catch-up on that a single evening is simply too short.
So much has happened in each other’s lives that we had to pace ourselves to squeeze in some of the nice steak in our stomachs.
We also re-collected how “Michel” our common boss of 15 years ago, still inspires us in our everyday life as managers of teams.
Good health to these life long friends !!
I went to the London 2012 3D Print show this weekend, mind blowing stuff, with very nice atmosphere and a lot of open minded people. Although there is a lot of unjustified hype about the technology it will certainly change the world…
I even met Bre Pettis and was allowed to talk to him! (CEO of Makerbot).
The guys from Econolyst did a good job articulating the size of the market, the opportunities and key players. http://www.econolyst.co.uk/
We had a fantastic evening with Daniel Galmiche and our closest friends.
Below a few pictures of how to serve and then eat a beautiful piece of beef….then you must say thank you to the Michelin starred chef Daniel Galmiche : Link
This is a very nice dish from Lyon, France. It is a bit tricky to prepare the first time, but once you have done a few, it becomes second nature and can be prepared quickly. The secret in this recipe is to make sure that you “dry” the “panade” as much as possible. This will allow for Quenelles that will keep their shape in the boiling water and will also puff nicely if you cook them in the oven afterwards with sauces….Yummm….You can also cook in “hot” water rather than boiling water, it actually changes a little the texture which is very nice. As long as the water is above 67 degres, the eggs will cook.
Ingredients (for basic quenelles):
250ml Milk, 50g Butter (demi-sel),
10g of fleur de sel and teaspoon of pepper, nutmeg
100g Flour, 50g Fine semolina, 3 eggs.
To prepare the panade, put the butter and spices in a saucepan, once butter fully melted, take off the heat and put all the flour in one go. Mix quickly with a spoon or spatula.
Put the saucepan back on the heat. Here is the trick, mix continuously until the pastry comes off the saucepan as a ball of pastry. Then add the semolina, continue to mix until you get a ball.
Put the saucepan off the heat, add the eggs one by one, mixing well in between each egg.
Once the mixture is nice and smooth, put in a separate container with cling film and in the fridge for a couple of hours.
To cook the Quennelles, take out of the fridge and make small quenelles with 2 tablespoons. Like in this video. Drop in boiling or fairly hot water for 5 minutes. I like to use a chicken stock water to give a bit of taste already to the quenelles “Nature”.
In the picture above, I serve the quenelle with a very light soup, the kids love it.
You can also prepare the quenelle in the oven (after cooking in the water). My preferred one is sauce Nantua.
Enjoy…
’The nicest thing about NOT planning ahead is that business failure comes as a complete surprise, and is not preceded by a period of worry and depression!”.
Return trip from south of France, incredibly nice road for 900+km. One of the highlights of this road is the Viaduc of Millau. Definitely a marvel of engineering.
My friend “Antoine” at his house, relaxing in the south of France thinking only about our next tennis games our next beer or the next trip to the beach with the kids…
On my way to the annual Senior Management Meeting. Waiting for the plane to go to Orlando, Gatwick airport full of kids and 2 hours delay on the clock, this is a bad start to my day…
Done but of shopping, now officially bored.
Trying to stay away from my work computer, might have to clear my inbox just to occupy my mind.
