Le Couvent Diary

Our first team of volunteers has arrived and we're into our second day of work. Our time is divided betwen Le Couvent, where we've started working on the garden, pruning, weeding, clearing and tidying - and Chateau Malaudos where we've been today.

Our wonderful team of Jane, Marianne, Douggie, Caroline,  Chris, Sue, Sharon, Paula - along with Ali and I - chew up the work so fast I'm hoping there will be enough work for our next team which arrives next week. 

 

 

The volunteers also take turns to prepare breakfast and supper  and they are going to contribute to this blog and the one for Chateau Malaudos. We hope you enjoy following their progress.

 

 

 I had to make a quick trip to Suffolk last week. I'd planned three days for a family visit and was due back on Monday. On Sunday night the snow fell thick and fast knocking plans of a 7am flight from Stansted firmly on the head. I booked a further flight for the same evening hoping it would clear. It didn't, Stansted remained steadfastly closed. The next available flight was on Wednesday, so I booked it there and then paying £59 for my ticket.

London and the east remained snow-locked for yet another day and I spent a couple of lovely days with my Mum & John. Tens of thousands were stuck at various airports, leading me to wonder how much RyanAir would charge for my flight were I to book it 24 hours after I had secured my seat. I checked online. The price had leapt to a staggering £229 - RyanAir at it's most cynical.

I'm not a fan of RyanAir. My latest reason, as if there weren't plenty already, for hating them is their decision to play a particularly annoying version of Chopsticks repeatedly on the plane whilst people are scrabbling for seats and elbowing their way to find  the last gap in an overhead locker. After twenty minutes of that I was practising my best deep breathing to avoid a 'scene'.

We've spent the last two days getting ready for our volunteers who start arriving this afternoon. All the tools are sorted, sharpened, oiled and mended ready for two weeks of work on Le Couvent and in the vineyards at Chateau Malaudos. We have a list to last a month, there's far too much to cover in a fortnight, but, as one volunteer wrote on her application form 'I'm fit and bloody fast' so we have to be prepared for that.

The meals are planned, prodigious quantities of food and wine have been bought (we will be at least 16 for dinner each evening). Debbi's busy making gallons of soup for lunchtimes in the vines and we have nearly as many local volunteers as those coming to stay.

Now all we need is for the snow and RyanAir to allow our lovely volunteers to leave  England.

Keep an eye on this and the Chateau Malaudos blog if you'd like to know how the work is going.

Despite the wild boar gouging big holes in our vineyard, we haven't killed them, so this recipe uses pork. It's going to sound like a lot of faffing about, but it really is worth it.

I used two rolled loins of pork for 11 people.  We only got through one at lunch, but that was because several of the guests were French (extras showed up). If we'd all been English we'd have scoffed the lot.

Ingredients - for about 8 people

2 kg pork loin, rolled and tied
1 bottle chunky Languedoc red wine (at least)
1 glass armagnac or cognac
1.5 cups olive oil
10 juniper berries
10 peppercorns
2  sprigs fresh thyme
5 cloves
1 bay leaf
4 good pinches salt
6 onions
2 shallots
Flour
Butter

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

Squeeze the pork into a non-metallic container small enough to get in your fridge. Pour over enough red wine and armagnac to cover the pork.  Add 1 cup of olive oil, juniper berries, cloves, bay leaf, thyme, peppercorns and salt. Turn the pork. Leave it in the fridge for three days, turning the pork two or three times a day.

At the end of three days it should look like one of these:

 

Take the pork out and dry it with some kitchen towel. Save the marinade. Put half a cup of olive oil and some butter in a roasting pan. Put the pan on the top of your cooker and sear the pork on all sides to seal the meat. Don't burn it.

Remove the pork, pour the fat only from the pan (leaving the bits). Put the onions and shallots in the bottom of the pan then replace the pork on top. Strain the marinade reserving the juice and ditching the rest. Pour a cup of the marinade over the pork and put it in the oven for about an hour and a half. Baste the pork every 30 minutes, using more of the reserved marinade if necessary so the pork is never dry.

Just before the pork is ready put the remaining marinade in a separate saucepan. Boil it until it has reduced by half. Take the pork and onions from the oven and put on a hot dish, covered, to rest while you make the sauce. To the roasting pan chuck in 50 grams-ish of butter and a soup spoon of flour. Mix it well while adding the reduced marinade. Scrape all the delicious bits off the bottom of the pan so they integrate with the sauce. Cook the sauce for about three minutes then strain it into a jug.

We served the pork with braised celery, roast potatoes and sweet potatoes, carrots and spinach. It was succulent, tender and delicious and worth a bit of forward-planning.

 

 

The sun's shining, the wind's dropped, my sickly hens are looking better, we're off to prune vines this afternoon and all's well.

Over breakfast this morning Ali and I were discussing the terrible exchange rates and decided we'd do our bit for your holiday plans by reducing the room prices for next year.

So for 2009, a double room is now reduced to 90 euros per night and a single room 80 euros per night. Of course this includes a luscious breakfast, a bottle of delicious Le Couvent wine, free wireless internet, use of the bikes, freedom to swim, read or sleep all day long, aperitifs and assorted other treats as they come to mind.

Have a very merry Christmas and a healthy, happy 2009.

Lizzie & Ali xx 

In an idle moment yesterday I was meandering through Youtube videos and came across this one. The chap's name is Michael Schulte. I like it a lot. Click on the big arrow, sit back with a coffee and think happy thoughts.

 

 

Ali and I wish you a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful, healthy and happy 2009. We hope to see lots of you next summer.

Bisous à tous de Lizzie et Ali du Couvent, Roujan.