There was more to my vacation after Le Doyenné, notably a long awaited visit to Copenhagen. As a Tasmanian, I have wanted to visit since the girl who lived around the corner from me in Hobart moved to Denmark and married a man who just happened to be the future King of Denmark. And on January 14th this year, the girl from down the road became a queen. I couldn’t help but watch the ceremony, pondering about life and how our paths can take such radically different directions based on the flip of a coin or a chance encounter in a bar. I jokingly say that I ended up working for a Royal family and she married into one! But the Denmark trip deserves its own newsletter so for now I will just let you know that I did have one very Danish experience - taking a dip in the icy waters of the North Sea. It wasn’t so bad, a mere brisk and bracing 14 degrees. Modestly attired in swimmers and a bathrobe, my stylish host Hanna and I set off to the harbour at around 6h30, cheerily greeting the early morning crowd. Then I realised that modesty had no place here and I decided to get my Danish on and climbed into the water in the all together. It was such an unexpected, liberating and egalitarian experience! I went back the next day, a happy bunny paddling around to my heart’s content, with the dawning realisation that the Danes were onto something. It is surely a bracing, invigorating experience. The word alive comes to mind. If only the Seine was as clean. Rumour has it that Anne Hidalgo (the Mayor of Paris) will be swimming in the river soon, to prove that it is clean enough to swim in during the Olympics. I politely wish her luck!
Coming back to Paris was an exercise in reality shock (or shocking reality?). In my absence, and with the Olympics around the corner, event after event had been added to the calendar, all of which needed attention. But the tower was there in all its glory and its familiarity, as well as the busy Olympics schedule were, in weird way, comforting. I realised that I was happy to be home. Waking up on the first morning back, I pulled back the curtains to see the most glorious of sunrises, a show like no other that Paris turns on every now and again. As I reached for my phone to take a photo, I realised that the Olympic rings were up on the tower. It really is happening!
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With dawn came the somewhat alarming realisation that the Governor General of Australia (Australia’s head of state) was arriving the next day. He was here to represent Australia at the 80th anniversary of D Day and I had three events in a row: two cocktail parties and a dinner. I had, as the French say, bread on the cutting board (du pain sur la planche = my work cut out for me).
The brief was for mostly gluten free food. I have had some experience of gluten free cooking but not a lot. However, thanks to (yet again!) the therealemilyinparis giving me her tips over the past year, I have been more creative and have started to see that there are so many canapés in the old repertoire that have always been gluten free. It isn’t an exercise in reinventing the wheel, rather being aware of what is possible and what should be left behind. So with the menu written, Tuesday arrived and fortunately for me I had Tim in my corner and we got to work. Five fifteen arrived and the guests rolled in. And they brought their kids, so many kids. Before I knew it, there was a coterie of children at the kitchen door all wanting to help. Now as much as I enjoy professional service, sometimes you have to give over and embrace the enthusiasm of the kiddies. The first round of canapes ended up in the middle of the floor, kids cross-legged in a circle throwing their own spontaneous picnic. How could one not be charmed? Word spread amongst them and before I knew it, I had seven new waiters, all helping each other and finally realising that the food was not just for them but for the other guests as well. Parents, only slightly concerned, came to check that all was in order but secretly loving that they could enjoy some adult conversations and meet the Governor General. For me it was the perfect family event and the kids and I finished up on the roof, picking strawberries and nasturtium flowers.
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We rolled onto the next event and finally the dinner for the Governor General, which arrived much faster than the team and I thought. I had barely enough time to get the lamb in the oven before the course was called, it had just enough time to rest before I served it with peas, chamomile oil and a small fresh salad of shaved radish and fava beans. Dessert was vanilla creme, lovely fat deep burgundy coloured cherries, shiso and salted coconut sorbet. All gluten free!
And so in the spirit of that, I wanted to share with you a few gluten free things that I made and that were new to the repertoire. Firstly oat crackers. So what I have learnt from Emily, is that not all oats are gluten free but some are, so check the labelling when purchasing the oats that they are indeed, gf.
Oat crackers :
200g of gluten free oats
2 tsp. nutritional yeast
1 TBSP of onion powder
1 tsp. sea salt
½ tsp. baking powder
115g water
¼ tsp. apple cider vinegar
25g of olive oil
Method :
Preheat the oven to 200C. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, nutritional yeast salt and baking powder. Add the cider vinegar and and oil and water and mix until a dough begins to form. You can also do this in a stand mixer.
Knead well until a dense dough forms but it should also be smooth. Add another tablespoon of water if the dough is too dry. Let the dough rest in the fridge for one hour.
Take the dough out of the fridge and cut the dough into four equal pieces. Taking one ball at at time, roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment paper or two silpats, if you have access to those. The dough should be thin (around 3mm thick) but not so thin that it breaks. Then, using a knife or a pizza wheel cut into your desired shape. I cut mine into a 2cm square. Perfect size for duck rillette with apple jelly ( that’s what I popped on mine). Place the crackers on a silpat lined tray and pop into the oven and bake until golden brown - this should take around 8-10 minutes. Take out of the oven and cool until ready to use.
NB. I didn’t have enough oat flour so I ground up 30% of the required weight from oats that I had to hand. It didn’t affect the overall result.
Set the table
I love chickens ( yes it’s a thing !) and I love popping them on a table, especially a breakfast table. These gorgeous ones came from La Tuile a Loup, a wonderful ceramic shop in Paris that celebrates French artisan ceramists.
Fun things seen in Paris :
I have walked past this lovely magasin (shop) opposite Luxembourg Gardens and wondered what on earth a Poupee is . It’s a doll so this is a doll’s house shop - one that sells doll houses and dolls. Love that these shops still are in Paris
See you all soon and have a happy week everyone.
Kath x
Love those chicken egg holders. 🐓💖