Les Poissonchats

And so autumn has come. I hear the wind rustling through the foliage outside as I write, it may grow and become fierce and fiery over the next days. The garden sits still, ready for the cold months to come, with big heaps of branches and leaves for the little animals to crawl into and build a home to bring them into spring.

We’ve begun works again in the inside of the castle, starting with the restorations of Lars future office. The awful work of taking the old ceiling down is done and the old not old fireplace is out, so we’re getting started now on the beams, scraping off wallpaper and patching up broken plasterwork.

We made a weekend of it with a dear friend and I cooked duck breast with peppered figs, the how to for the duck breast sits in the blog archives, seems I love to cook this around this time of the year, haha, and the recipe for the peppered figs I’ve written it down for you at the end of this blog. I got a beautiful crate from our neighbour, a really kind guy, and I also put some in the freezer as I’m quite possibly going to make peppered figs for Christmas. We had mushrooms with cream and poached egg for starters, and a little foie gras with tipsy cherries (recipe in my cookbook) as an opening. I was really looking forward to this dinner as I had a very special bottle of wine in mind and wow such a bombshell! Dessert was Mont d`Or cheese and nougat glacé to round it off, I’d say we’ve done great.

The other day we’ve been down to Burgundy and besides having a stroll around Beaune, we visited a couple of our very favourite vintners. The most special one is Julien Petitjean from Domaine de la Roseraie in Couches, we’ve tasted the latest 2023 vintages and I can’t wait for them to be ready for the table.

It was a glorious day in Burgundy and marked somewhat the end of the golden autumn days. We have enjoyed those very much and got out and about whenever possible. A couple of weeks ago we spent a day in and around Luxeuil les Bains, running errands but mostly following the traces of an Irish monk by the name of Saint Columban who in the 6th founded the abbey in the town. Incidentally, he then moved on, forced by circumstances (apparently he picked a fight with the Burgundy king, which probably was not such brilliant an idea), to the shores of a large lake. He converted the heathen sinners and then went on into the into the wilderness along a happy little stream, to find a place where he could be with God. He didn’t find it, but one of his disciples did (because health issues and a bear). Saint Columban went on down South to Italy, but the other monk stayed and built a shelter to live there (with the bear), which would later become the legendary abbey and bustling town named after him Saint Gall, where, incidentally again, I went to school at. So we visited a chapel at the foothills of the Vosges mountains, where Saint Columban, was said to have retreated whenever he had enough of the brouhaha of abbey life. I was very much surprised to find, in this very remote place, a marvelous ginger tabby crouching in the brambles, remarkably well fed and quite content, undoubtedly he’s the reincarnation of the Saint, anticipating that as a cat most probably people would neither ask for his advice nor a heavenly blessing ever more, in short, he was finally left in peace.

I for my part try to escape to the wilderness too, whenever I can, not to be left in peace in particular, although this may a pleasant side effect at times, but still foraging for mushrooms. It’s gotten cold now and very rainy, mornings are chill and the fog hovers a long way over the many courses of the river. I light a fire in the stove first thing in the morning, before I sit down with a cup of peppermint tea. Right before the weather turned I cut the last roses from the garden and made a giant beautiful pink bouquet I sat on the secretary in my study. It releases a subtle scent of late summer, a little bit nostalgic.

What you’ll need

• A crate of plump overripe juicy big fat figs
• A bit of duck fat (preferentially) or olive oil
• Fleur de sel
• Loads of ground black pepper
• Runny honey

How you cook it

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Clean the figs and cut them in half. Grease a shallow ovenproof dish and place the figs with the cut side facing upwards, add a little fat on each. Sprinkle with the tiniest bit of fleur de sel, then season with black pepper from the peppermill, at least two turns per half. Let a spoon full of honey run over the figs and bake for 15 minutes. If you have a grill function, put it on for the last couple of minutes. You may have to adjust baking time as ovens are surprisingly different plus baking time depends largely on the size and ripeness of your figs.

How you eat it

Peppered figs are perfect to accompany duck breast. But then I sometimes bake a tray we eat with fresh vanilla ice cream from the farm, steaming hot from the oven. It’s a delight too. Enjoy!