Potato Salads

I love potato salad. I love potatoes. In all ways - baked, boiled, fried, mashed, roasted - and in all potato dishes - potato salad (as mentioned), gratin dauphinois, rosti, potato cheese soup, double-baked potatoes, potato cutlets, etc, etc, etc. I'm lucky that Albrecht buys me 10-kg bags of potatoes from a nearby farm. When I'm feeling too lazy to cook a proper meal, I sometimes just have boiled potatoes with some olive oil (or butter) and crushed garlic. One of my staples is potato wedges roasted with seasoned salt, dried mixed herbs and chili flakes. I make it so much that Shank has adopted it too as his signature dish; it's always asked for at potlucks.

The best potato I've ever had is the Jersey Royal. They're so good, I can eat them plain. They have a buttery, nutty taste, and a very thin skin. Boiled, some butter and salt, and I'm in potato heaven.

There are so many versions of potato salads. With eggs, without eggs, with onions, without onions, with mustard, without mustard, with mayonnaise, or sour cream, or yoghurt... The very first potato salad I learnt from my mum contained potatoes, chopped hard-boiled eggs, canned pineapple, spring onions, bacon bits and mayonnaise. I still make it now and then, but somehow it tasted better in my memories.. Does that happen to you too with your childhood foods? Our tastebuds develop and change as we grow older and some foods that we simply adored as kids are now simply... bof. (Of course, the converse is also true, I hated aubergine when I was small, but now it's on my fav list.) Since my first potato salad, I've tried so many recipes. I've experimented with warm potato salads with olive oil dressings, mashed potato salads, hot cheesy potato salads, and I loved them all.

Minty potato and green bean salad
from BBC Good Food magazine

500 g new potatoes
200 g green beans
2 shallots
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 handful mint leaves, chopped

Boil the potatoes for 15 minutes or until tender. When the potatoes have 5 minutes cooking time left, tip the beans into the boiling water. Drain and cool under cold running water.

Meanwhile, finely slice the shallots. Place in a bowl and sprinkle with the vinegar and oil then leave for 5 minutes. Toss potatoes and beans in with the shallots and sprinkle with the mint.

Creamy potatoes with peas and pesto
from BBC Good Food magazine

500 g new potatoes
100 g peas
1/2 pot creme fraiche
3 tablespoons pesto

Cut potatoes into thick slices, then boil for 10 minutes. Tip peas into the boiling water for the final 2 minutes of cooking. Drain the potatoes and peas together in a colander and set aside to cool for a few minutes.

Spoon creme fraiche into a large bowl, season to taste, then gently fold in the sliced potatoes. Swirl over the pesto just before serving.

Our Chateau Weekend

Might I interrupt my recipe repertoire to describe our pre-honeymoon honeymoon. We didn't have time for a proper honeymoon as the school year started almost immediately and we had to go back to work. So we took a weekend trip in October to the Perigord region where we stayed in a castle.

We arrived in the evening. After exploring the castle a bit, we had dinner in the large dining room. There was soothing Mozart playing as we entered. The dining room was nicely decorated with an old chandelier, long tables and there was a large fireplace at one end. We started with a homemade walnut aperitif which was very good. Walnuts are one of Perigord's specialities. We were the only guests in the castle that night and sat at the large table in front of the fireplace. We felt like a king and queen as dinner was served. Dinner started with a salade landaise which is a green salad with smoked duck breast, gizzards and croutons. The gizzards in this particular salad were deglazed with balsamic vinegar which gave it a caramalised touch, very different from the other salades landaises that we've tried. For the main course, we had magret de canard served with peas, carrots and bacon, and a potato gratin. Duck is another Perigord speciality and this magret the canard was by far the best we'd ever had. It was very succulent and gamey, not like the vacuum-packed duck we buy in supermarkets. Dinner was accompanied by good Bergerac wine. Dessert was tarte tatin with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Mmmm... Need I say more?

After a restful sleep in our beautiful room overlooking the woods, we had a big breakfast with croissants, toast, butter, homemade strawberry and plum jams, honey, orange juice and hot chocolate. We then went for a tour around the castle with the owner, Etienne. The castle was built in the 16th century and was located on top of a hill overlooking a wooded forest. Although it had a fortress-like architecture, it served no military function. The castle had 4 levels. In addition to the dining room and kitchen, there was a large main room on the groundfloor. The two upper floors contained a dozen bedrooms. The cellar and old kitchen were below. There were 4 towers at the corners of the castle. We climbed the towers and walked along the covered walkway all around the castle. There was also a chapel which was built much later, in the 19th century. Imagine all that, just for us that weekend. It was a perfect romantic getaway.

Seared Encrusted Carpaccio of Beef

A classic carpaccio is composed of thin slices of raw beef served with an olive oil-lemon juice dressing. I like this seared version with its crispy bits in contrast to the meltingly tender very rare beef. This is one dish that I've made many times, and have tweaked the original recipe by adding my own herb and garlic dressing. It can keep for 3 days in the fridge, just make sure to cover the beef slices completely with olive oil. Leftovers are very yummy in a sandwich.

I first made this dish when I was cooking lunch for my lab mates. For six months, I supplied a 2-course meal (main dish and dessert) everyday. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I could try out my ever-growing list of recipes on my willing guinea pigs. That totals up to 120 recipes. And I still have more!!

This dish is very versatile. Add different herbs like rosemary or basil, olives, parmesan, etc. Slice the beef into thin strips and add them to a salad. I also found another version in the same cookbook with chili, ginger, radish and soy.

Seared encrusted carpaccio of beef
adapted from The Return of the Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver

1 kg approx. fillet of beef
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch chives
2 garlic cloves
1/2 bottle olive oil (exact amount will depend on depth of dish)

Season the meat well with salt and pepper, making sure as much of the black pepper sticks to the meat as possible. In a very hot oiled pan, sear the meat for around 5 minutes until brown and crisp on all sides. Remove from the pan and allow to cool. The meat will be easier to slice when it's cold.

Finely chop the parsley, chives and garlic. Slice the fillet of beef as thinly as possible. Lay out the beef slices on a dish, sprinkle over the herbs and garlic and top with olive oil. The olive oil must completely cover the beef. Give the whole thing a stir and leave to marinate overnight in the fridge.

Salsa Verde

Salsa verde goes wonderfully with grilled meats. We had it with our BBQ beef, I want to try it next with lamb. Jamie Oliver recommends chopping all the ingredients by hand, but seriously, with all that mountain of cooking we had to do, I just used a food processor, and it still turned out great. But shhhh...

Salsa verde
from The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver

1.5 to 2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 small handful capers
1 small handful pickled gherkins (the ones in sweet vinegar)
6 anchovy fillets
2 large handfuls flat-leaf parsley
1 bunch basil leaves
1 handful fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Finely chop all the ingredients that can be chopped. Put this mixture into a bowl and add the mustard and vinegar. Slowly stir in the olive oil until you achieve the consistency you are looking for and balance the flavors with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and if necessary, more red wine vinegar.

Shallot Confit with Spiced Red Wine

There're always shallots in my kitchen. Shallots here are much longer than the small pungent bulbs we find back home. I put them in almost everything. A simple green salad with vinaigrette is so much better with some minced raw shallots. I also love a good steak topped with a pat of butter and sliced raw shallots as how it is served at Le Palatium, our favourite brasserie in Bordeaux. I love them cooked too, nicely caramelised. I found this recipe in a duck cookbook.

There's quite a funny story behind this cookbook. Shank had been raving about a cookbook on duck (his fav) that he chanced on at Virgin Megastore in Bordeaux. Since Christmas was coming, I thought I'd get him that book. I had no idea what the book looked like, who was the author, etc, I only knew it was a book on duck. So I searched all the bookstores in Amiens, but no luck. We were spending Christmas in Bordeaux that year. I went down only 3 days before Christmas - just 3 days to go and I didn't have a Christmas present yet. What if I didn't find the duck cookbook?! I rushed to Virgin, there was only one single duck cookbook in sight, so I decided that must have been it. I was so happy with my purchase (not to mention relieved)!

The funny part starts when we both put our presents under the Christmas tree. Hmmm, both presents had the same dimensions, same weight, same feel... We both had the same idea! What a laugh we had! We ended up with two copies of Le Canard de Julie. Shank admitted too that in addition to his duck passion, Julie was very pretty. I admit it's true. He has good taste. :) So what were we to do with 2 identical cookbooks? Shank wanted to keep both, but the practical side of me persuaded him to exchange one of them to another cookbook. But now, the romantic side of me is regretting that move. But then again, we wouldn't have had the Délicieuses Tartes Sucrées et Salées to make the wonderful tarts we made for our wedding.

Practicality wins?

Shallot confit with spiced red wine
from Le Canard de Julie by Julie Andrieu

2 tablespoons olive oil
500 g shallots
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 bottle red wine
3 star anise
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 stick cinammon
10 grains black pepper
4 cloves

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat and add the shallots to brown. Add the sugar and caramelise the onions for 5 minutes. Add the salt, wine, and the rest of the ingredients. Bring the mixture to boil and simmer for 30 minutes on low heat. Serve at room temperature.

Vodka-marinated Steak

Hmmm... Why did I have a feeling this would be so good? *grin* Many people tell me they hate vodka, I tell them they haven't tasted real vodka. Forget Smirnoff or Absolut. An evening of vodka-tasting between a few friends and a few bottles of Russian, Ukranian and Polish vodka unanimously concluded that the Russian vodka was the best. So get the original stuff. This is supposedly a Scandinavian recipe. I'd never made this before, ok, i think this is a confession post, I'd never made 99% of the recipes before. My experiments* turned out rather well I'd say. But back to the vodka-marinated steak, maybe it was the vodka, maybe it was Nigella Lawson, I just knew it'll taste good. *double grin*

Vodka-marinated steak
from Feast by Nigella Lawson

700 g approx. piece of rump steak (I used filet steak)
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons black peppercorns, crushed
3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped thyme
3 cloves garlic, crushed
80 ml vodka
60 ml olive oil

Combine all of the marinade ingredients and put into a freezer bag with the meat. Smear the contents around to get the beef evenly coated in the salt, pepper and herbs. Leave for two or three days in the fridge. If you can't find the time, the leave the steak to marinate for a good 3 hours at room temperature.

Bring the beef in its marinade to room temperature. Take the steak out of the marinade, but reserve the marinade itself. Heat some vegetable oil in a large frying pan, and sear the beef on all sides over a high flame until it colours. (If you like your beef rare like me, take it out of the pan at this point. But if you like your meat well-cooked, cover the pan and turn down the heat to low and cook longer.)

Wrap the meat in foil to rest for a good 15 minutes while making the sauce.

Strain the marinade into a measuring jug and then make the liquid contents up to 150 ml with beef stock. Pour into the frying pan to deglaze, adding any resting juices that the beef has made. When the sauce is sizzling, whisk in a pat of butter.

Carve the meat into thin diagonal slices, arrange on a plate, then pour over the sauce.


*Afterthought: I am in research. :P

Tarts

Savoury tarts. I've finished with the desserts and shall now start on the main dishes. One regret I have is not taking pictures of every single food item we made. Such a pity. Especially since Aunty Lina made a very nice pattern on the smoked salmon and dill tarts. Many people also liked the goat's cheese and leek tart with walnuts. All these tarts are easy to make. The quantities given also can make 6 small tartlets for an elegant first course. They also look so cute. Don't you love miniatures?

Goat's cheese and leek tart with walnuts
from Délicieuses Tartes Sucrées et Salées by Maxine Clark

250 g puff pastry
50 g butter
4 small leeks, minced
200 g goat's cheese, sliced
125 g walnuts
3 garlic cloves, crushed
6 tablespoons walnut oil
3 tablespoons fresh parsley
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200 °C.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan and add the leeks. Add a few tablespoons of water and a teaspoon of salt. Give the leeks a stir and cover. Cook the leeks on low heat for about 20 minutes until they are very soft. At the end of cooking time, take off the cover to allow the excess moisture to evaporate. Let the mixture cool.

To prepare the walnut paste, process the walnuts and garlic in a food processor with 2 tablespoons of water. Add the walnut oil and parsley and process again.

To assemble the tart, line a 28-cm tart tin with the puff pastry and spread out the leeks in a single layer. Cover with the slices of goat's cheese and top it all with the wanut paste. Salt and pepper and finish off with a filet of olive oil.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until the cheese is golden.

Onion and rosemary tart
from Délicieuses Tartes Sucrées et Salées by Maxine Clark

200g shortcrust pastry
75 g butter
600 g onions, minced
30 cl crème fraîche
2 stalks rosemary
6 large garlic cloves
olive oil
4 egg yolks
grated nutmeg
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
30 black olives for decoration

Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Line a tart tin with the shortcrust pastry and line with a round of greasproof paper and a layer of baking beans. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the paper and beans and return to the oven for about 5 minutes, until golden. Take out the crust from the oven and let cool.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan and add the onions. Add a few tablespoons of water and a teaspoon of salt. Give the onions a stir and cover. Cook the onions on very low heat for about 30 minutes to 1 houe until they are very soft, almost like a paste. Leave the onions to cool.

Place the crème fraîche and rosemary stalks into a saucepan and heat until nearly boiling point. Remove from heat and leave to infuse for as long as possible.

Cover the garlic in olive oil in a small saucepan and cook over very low heat for about 4o minutes until the garlic is golden and soft.

Put the crème fraîche in a food processor with the garlic (reserve oil for another use. eg. salad dressing) and egg yolks. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and process until a smooth paste is obtained. Add in the chopped rosemary.

Spread the onions on the bottom of the crust and cover with the crème fraîche mixture. Bake for 20 minutes until golden. Decorate the tart with olives before serving.

Smoked salmon and dill tart
from BBC Good Food magazine

200 g shortcrust pastry
200 g smoked salmon
2 eggs
2 tablespoons chopped dill
280 ml single cream

Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Line a tart tin with the shortcrust pastry and line with a round of greasproof paper and a layer of baking beans. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the paper and beans and return to the oven for about 5 minutes, until golden. Take out the crust from the oven and let cool.

Cut the smoked salmon into strips and spread evenly over the bottom of the crust. Whisk the eggs, cream and dill and pour over the smoked salmon.

Bake for 20 minutes until the filling has set and the top is golden.

Easy Almond Cake

The reason why Aunty Lina was so happy was that the cake rose despite batter mishandling. We had poured the batter into the pan and were ready to put it into the oven when we realised that we forgot the baking powder! So we had to turn the batter out, fold in the baking powder c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y, and then put it all in the tin again. We all crossed our fingers and hoped for the best!

In fact, self-raising flour is used in the recipe. But we bought plain flour instead, and so had to add the baking powder. Is self-raising flour available in France?

Easy almond cake
from How To Be A Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

250 g softened unsalted butter
250 g softened marzipan
150 g castor sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond essence
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 large eggs
150 g self-raising flour

Preheat oven to 170 °C. Chop the butter and marzipan to make them easier to break down, and put them in the bowl of the food processor, fitted with the double-bladded knife, with the sugar. Process until combined and pretty well smooth.

Add almond essence and vanilla extract, process again, then break the eggs one at a time through the funnel, processing again each time.

Tip the flour down the funnel, processing yet again, and then pour the mixture into a buttered and floured 25-cm Springform pan, scraping the sides and bottom with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 50 minutes, but check from 40. Then, when the cake looks golden and cooked and a cake-tester or fine skewer comes out cleanish, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin before turning out.

Layered Raspberry Mousse

This was so light and refreshing, it was one of the favourites after the heavy BBQ dinner we had. It's also one of my favourite things to make as it's easy and the result looks stunning. It's a wonderful dessert on its own and marries well with other sweet elements too for a more special dessert. I've served this with a mascarpone hazelnut millefeuille at Easter two years ago and it was a big hit, but that's another recipe.

Layered raspberry mousse
from BBC Good Food magazine (September 2001)

4 x 125 g punnets of raspberries
3 tablespoons Kirsch or raspberry liqueur
1 tablespoon icing sugar
2.5 leaves gelatine
50 g castor sugar
150 ml double cream
fresh mint sprigs, to decorate

Put 1.5 punnets of raspberries into a bowl, pour in the liqueur and icing sugar, then gently stir until the icing sugar has dissolved. Leave to macerate while making the mousse.

Put the gelatine in a bowl of cold water to soften. Set aside 4 raspberries for decoration. Whizz the rest in a food processor, then put into a saucepan with the castor sugar and gently heat until the castor sugar has dissolved. While the raspberries are still hot, lightly squeeze the water out of the gelatine and stir the gelatine into the raspberries. Transfer the mixture into a bowl and leave to cool.

Whip the cream to soft peaks. When the raspberry mixture is cold and starting to set, carefully fold it into the whipped cream.

Spoon have of the liqueur raspberries in the bottom of the serving bowl or individual glasses, then half of the cream mixture. Repeat the layers and chill until set. Decorate with reserved raspberries and sprigs of mint.

Torta alla Gianduia

I love Nutella. I love it so much I eat it directly from the jar with a tablespoon. When I first saw this recipe, my first thought was, "What a waste of good Nutella!". The whole jar that goes into this cake would have given me many many spoonfuls of pure gourmandise. I don't think I was ever such a Nutella fanatic until I came to France. It's on crêpes, waffles, donuts, chichis, not to mention it goes wonderfully with brioche, this stuff is addictive. Nutella cake was too tempting to resist.

Torta alla gianduia
from How To Be A Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

For the cake:
6 large eggs, separated
pinch of salt
125 g soft unsalted butter
400 g Nutella
1 tablespoon Frangelico, rum or water
100 g ground hazelnuts
100 g dark chocolate, melted

For the icing:
100 g hazelnuts (peeled weight)
125 ml double cream
1 tablespoon Frangelico, rum or water
125 g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180 °C.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff but not dry. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and Nutella together, and then add the Frangelico, egg yolks and ground hazelnuts. Fold in the cooled, melted chocolate, then lighten the mixture with a large dollop of egg white, which you can beat in as roughly as you want, before gently folding the rest of them in a third at a time. Pour into a 23 cm greased and lined Springform tin and cook for 40 minutes or until the cake's beginning to come away at the sides, then let cool on a rack.

Toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan until the aroma wafts upwards and the nuts are golden-brown in parts: keep shaking the pan so that they don't burn on one side and stay too pallid on others. Transfer to a plate and let cool. This is imperative: if they go on the ganache while hot, it'll turn oily.

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the cream, liquer and chopped chocolate, and heat gently. Once the chocolate's melted, take the pan off the heat and whisk until it reaches the right consistency to ice the top of the cake. Unmould the cooled cake carefully, ice the top with the chocolate icing, and dot thickly with the whole toasted hazelnuts.

Diamants au Citron

These little "lemon diamonds" are real gems! The rich pastry is like a shortbread, good enough to eat on its own. In fact, while we were baking the pastry shells, some got slightly burnt, still edible, but not exactly presentable for a wedding buffet. So of course, we wolfed them down. They were so good that we kept asking Aunty Lina to burn more pastry!

Diamants au citron
from Grand Livre de Cuisine d'Alain Ducasse by Alain Ducasse

Pastry shells:
600 g plain flour, sifted
400 g softened butter
200 g icing sugar
2 egg yolks
granulated sugar

Lemon curd:
50 cl lemon juice
100 g castor sugar
400 g butter
zest of 6 lemons
600 g eggs
150 g castor sugar

For the pastry, mix all the ingredients together except granulated sugar. Roll the pastry into a long cylinder about 1.5 cm in diameter. Let the pastry rest in the fridge for 1 hour.

Brush the pastry cylinder with a beaten egg, and roll it in the granulated sugar to coat. Cut the roll into 1 cm-thick coins and place them onto a cookie sheet. Press the centre of each "coin" with your thumb to make a little well for the lemon curd. Let the pastry rest in the fridge again for 30 minutes.

Bake the pastry at 180 °C until golden, and cool.

For the lemon curd, mix the lemon juice, castor sugar, butter and lemon zest in a bowl and heat over a bain-marie.

Beat the eggs and castor sugar together until pale. Add to the lemon mixture and heat this mixture to 85 °C. Seive and refrigerate.

To assemble these "lemon diamonds", put the lemon curd into a pastry bag and dollop a dome of lemon curd into each pastry shell.

They may be decorated with a sprinkling of lime zest.

Snow-topped Spice Cake

This is almost like a gingerbread, but much more airy and the spices more subtle. The batter smelt heavenly! Joanne and Aunty Lina insisted on adding more orange zest than the recipe required, I'm personally not a fan of orange-flavoured desserts, but it was two against one... In the end, everyone loved this cake so I guess it was a good thing. We decorated our cake with orange segments coated lightly in a spice syrup.

Snow-topped spice cake
from Feast by Nigella Lawson

4 large eggs, separated, plus 2 extra large egg whites
125 ml vegetable oil
125 ml water
2 tablespoons runny honey
200 g dark muscovado sugar
75 g ground almonds
150 g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon all-spice powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
zest of 1/2 an orange
100 g castor sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 °C.

Whisk together the yolks and oil, then add the water, honey and dark muscovado sugar. Add the almonds, flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt, spices and zest, folding in gently.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form and then gradually add the caster sugar. Fold the egg whites into the cake mixture, and pour into a 25-cm well-buttered Bundt tin.

Cook for 45 minutes, or until the cake is springy on top and beginning to shrink away from the edges. Let the cake cool in its tin on a rack for 25 minutes before turning it out.

When it's completely cold, spread the top of the cake with royal icing. To make royal icing, beat one egg white until just frothy, then gradually add icing sugar, beating continuously until a thick icing is formed. Blend in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Usually, for 1 egg white, 1.5 to 2 cups of icing sugar are needed.

Chocolate fondant with Griottines

Many of you asked for my recipes, so I'm putting them up here. I'll start with the desserts since these were the most requested...

Chocolate fondant with Griottines
from Larousse du Chocolat by Pierre Hermé

150 g dark chocolate 70%
4 egg yolks
150 g castor sugar
200 g soft butter
100 g cocoa powder
30 cl cream
150 g Griottines, plus some for decoration

Break the dark chocolate into little pieces and melt over a bain-marie. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until pale. Then beat the egg-sugar mixture into the chocolate.

Sift the cocoa powder. Beat the cocoa powder with the butter. Mix into the chocolate mixture.

Whip the cream until stiff. Fold into the chocolate mixture, and then fold in the drained Griottines.

Line a loaf tin with clingfilm. Pour the mixture into the tin, cover with more clingfilm, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

To serve, turn out the fondant onto a serving plate and decorate with more Griottines.

NB: Griottines are cherries macerated in a syrup of alcohol and Kirsch.

Our wedding

An invitation...

Our wedding was held at Bidache in France. It is a small Basque village in the Pyrenées-Atlantiques. We had the good fortune of organising the wedding in a large 18th-century country house belonging to Amelie's family. It certainly added to the charm of our small Basque wedding.

Our invitation cards were designed by Trixie and put together by Joanne, the Photoshop expert. The photo was taken by Joanne in Paris last summer, can't remember the exact location but it was not too far from the Eiffel Tower.

We arrived at Bidache on Tuesday night. After that was 3 full days of cooking! Yes, we decided to cater for the wedding ourselves. It took Trixie one whole week to pore through all her cookbooks (and she has a ton of them!) and to decide on the menu. An enormous feat, we were exhausted every night, but we made it thanks to everyone who chipped in - our parents, Joanne, Joel and especially the head-chef, Aunty Lina. Our dear friends, Astrid, Lenka, Marianne, Philippe and Xavier, came on Friday to help out too. They were exceedingly efficient! After this experience, they were speaking of starting up a company specialising in organising weddings, so to those getting married soon, remember their names!

The menu:

Starters: Bacon-wrapped sausages, prunes stuffed with foie gras wrapped with thin slices of dried duck magret, yogurt balls rolled in a mix of coarsely ground red, green and black peppercorns, smoked salmon and radish canapes, grilled peppers and feta canapes, foie gras and apple-raisin compote canapes, roquefort and walnut canapes, grilled aubergine-mozarella-basil roll-ups, melon and mint wrapped in Serrano ham, anchoide with figs, spiced chickpeas, zucchini dip, blackened aubergine dip, parmesan puffs, sausage rolls, mini chorizo and tomato frittatas, roasted cashew nuts with rosemary, almonds with cocao powder and Espelette chili, pastry parcels filled with tomato and olives, sausagemeat and applesauce, goat's cheese and pesto.

Mains: Goat's cheese, leek and walnut tart, onion and rosemary tart, smoked salmon and dill tart, vodka-marinated steak, seared encrusted carpaccio of beef, zucchini salad, spicy roasted pumpkin, beet salad with balsamic dressing, minted potato and green bean salad, potato and pea salad with pesto, barbequed meats - sausages, duck magret, beef, pork ribs. To accompany the barbequed meats, there were shallot and mustard butters, shallot and spiced red wine confit, and salsa verde. Salsa verde goes especially well with grilled beef.

Desserts: Almond cake, snow-topped spice cake, torta alla gianduia (Nutella cake), chocolate fondant with liquered cherries, lemon tartlets, raspberry mousse.

We had lots of fun in the kitchen!

Everything was DIY. Wedding souvenirs for the guests were hand-made by Joanne and us. With these personalised wine glass tags, our 80 guests would recognise their glasses easily.

Mass booklets were printed and tied.

Our wedding day started bright and early. After a good breakfast, we started assembling the canapes for the party. Everyone helped out and the few hundred canapes were done in a flash.

In the meantime, the tables were set, candles were put out, etc. More and more people arrived, and the house was getting lively. Philippe went to pick up the flowers. Bao had a knack for making bridal bouquets.

The wedding was at 3pm. We got into our wedding gear. After 3 days of non-stop running around, it was show time!

The church was beautifully decorated by Sharon and Hoon Yung the day before. Christine and Albrecht brought the barley stalks for the pew decorations. The delightful church music was played by Jennah on the flute and Leigh on the piano. They were very accomodating to our demands (Leigh was ready to strangle us during the rehearsal 3 days before). Felix was our lead singer and Jennah sang the lovely Salve Regina.


The bride arrived at the church at about 3.15pm. She was accompanied by Joanne, Aunty Lina and parents.




The bridal entrace was Bach's Cantata 208. Trixie and her father were preceded by Camilla, the flower girl and Erik, the page boy.


The mass began. It was carried out in english and french, as our families spoke no french and the priest, Père Dunate, spoke no english. The mass booklet (produced again with Joanne's expert Photoshop skills) was thus prepared in both languages. Despite not speaking a word of english, Père Dunate was very kind and accomodating, putting the non-french speakers at ease during mass. Sharon read the first reading in english, Christine read the psalm in french, and Joanne read the intercessory prayers in english.

Ginny, Tony, Sharon and Leigh were our witnesses. We're very touched they came all the way from Singapore and Jersey to share this day with us.

Erik did a wonderful job as our ring bearer. The pretty pillow was made by Alice who also did a great job on Trixie's dress.

We exchanged rings....


signed the register...

And now as Mr and Mrs Shankar Sachidhanandam, we debarked on our journey together.

We exited the church under a shower of bubbles. It was so pretty. Bubble-blowing continued outside the church. We had our unanticipated share of rice and confetti too.

After the church ceremony, we all walked back to the house through the picturesque main street. Bidache had its typical Basque red and green windows. It was a beautiful day and the bubbles, laughs and fun continued all the way.

The party at the house was kicked off with champagne, along with the starters, while Blue Perspective (our very own special guests from Jersey) got their gear hooked up for the music. In no time, we were entertained with classy jazz music, whipped up by five very talented young musicians - Jennah, Anthony, George, Henry and Thomas.

The traditional "bouquet throwing act", well executed by Trixie, resulted in Jennah being the next in line to be married, according to tradition... Unfortunately, we were unable to get away from the typical "Yam Seng", which was faithfully initiated by Leigh.

Throughout the evening, food and drink flowed, accompanied by fantastic music. Blue Perspective was accompanied at several occasions by Peter and Leigh. Felix and Joel joined in too. Everyone was so impressed with the band. We were certainly very lucky to have them play at our wedding. Unable to resist the catchy music, dancing followed.

While the majority of us were too busy eating and drinking, a determined "BBQ crew" was out digging a pit and getting the fire going, in preparation for the great cookout to come. Succulent duck and beef was soon to follow, along with juicy sausages, to be washed down by dark Bordeaux reds. A slab of pork ribs topped up the meat platter. This was by far the best BBQ we've ever had. The meats were grilled to perfection under the expert hands of Marianne and Nico. By the way, Marianne is from Argentina and has BBQ in her blood. By the time we had the cheese and desserts, we were so stuffed!

The party wound down at about 2 am, but a small group of us stayed up talking, drinking and laughing all the way to 5 am. Many of our guests brought sleeping bags to stay overnight, some even camped in tents in the garden. The next morning we had a good breakfast/brunch with the leftovers. We had originally planned scrambled eggs and sausages but didn't in the end as there was just too much food left. Nico commented that we had catered for 200 instead of just 80. (In fact, we were eating leftovers for 3 weeks after the wedding!) At mid-morning, people started leaving as some had come a long way. Our families stayed with us for 3 more days, enjoying the Basque countryside. And we had a BBQ dinner every night!

We left Bidache on Wednesday, after the week-long wedding celebration, preparations included. We had the time of our lives, and we hope that our guests did too. We're very touched that they made the journey from Singapore, Australia, USA, UK, Germany, Amiens, Grenoble and Bordeaux. We're also eternally grateful to the people who helped out during the wedding, our dear families and friends who cooked, served, cleaned, and made sure everything went smoothly, leaving us, the newly-wedded couple, to fully enjoy every second of our special day. Of course, we cannot forget our photographers, Igor and Joel, who gave us such beautiful souvenirs. Lots more photos can be found on http://www.flickr.com/photos/trixshank. Enjoy!