Day 22: Lockdown in France - Collier du Boeuf

Tuesday  7 April 2020

Sunday was Dining Alone in Lockdown... well ...
I do it every day and have done it alone for countless years.
Good tobe independent.
Saturday 4th April:  This is how I prepped  meat purchased from the village butchery van which arrives on Thursday. mornings.

BEEF CASSEROLE
PART ONE

1.200g portion collar of beef butterflied, stuffed with garlic, herbs of garden sage, garden basil, coriander, using old herbs) tied with string, seared on outside with onions. 

2. 250g beef collar in strips sautéed in olive oil high heat onions + diced turnips behind.

3. carrots, leeks, fennel bulb, moroccan lemons, tomato purée,

balsamic, olive oil, white wine, stock, Italian parsley, garlic, then the meat, cumin, ginger, 

marmalade jar scrapings instead of sugar. 

The pot at the back is circa 1970 a wedding gift and that at the front belongs to DW who bought it from the first independent second hand but not antique shop before charity charity shops were born.
in Beccles, where we used to live,
I never knew this, but both are made by Pearsons of Chesterfield est. 1810.
The second is dishwasher and microave proof... 

 PART TWO

Sunday 5th April evening at 7h30: I dined al fresco in France in my courtyard shade.. temperature 21C fallen from about 25C . Earlier, I had played my accordion in the courtyard as so cold indoors.

 The meat was very good and shredded, not keen on turnips, veg were too mushy apart from carrots.
The jacket potato variety melted in the mouth with the butter. A nice meal; worth the effort.

Tuesday 7th April ventured forth from my cocoon home to buy good bread, take prescription to pharmacy,  fish and wine from suoermarket.  I was very very lucky to find hardly any people and I managed to get the quiet slots in each shop!  I wore the mask for a prolonged period and discover I cannot breathe easily with it... too many layers of cotton perhaps?
Also: who can hear me speak?????
It was out my home zone but permissable for three categpries: food, pharmacy, exercise and mental  health.
I met a friend and we kept a big distance as we walked along the track into the woodland, sat on tree trunks and chatted.  On the way there I heard the cuckoo once and on the return journey the nightingales were singing but stopped as we approached where they were. Lots of butterflies , yellow and speckled browns, masses of bees around the yellow rapeseed.
It was a joy to be out, to have distant contact with a friend and to be able to wander in the supermarket with few people mid afternoon!
Lucky me!