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Cat

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Posts posted by Cat

    Re: Cooking duck breasts

    in French Food and Wine

    Posted

    Oh dear Jon, I didn't mean to upset you.   I'm sure your cooking is fab.

    My brother in law (it's not his recipe by the way) is also an award winning chef, listed as one of les meilleures adresses in northern France.

    Surprisingly, I did already know where jus comes from and how to deglaze a pan, but it was very kind of you to take the time to explain it to us all.

    Re: Cooking duck breasts

    in French Food and Wine

    Posted

    I now cook mine like this, it's fool-proof and Mr Cat (who is French) says it's as good as anything you'd eat in a restaurant...

    Remove the duck breasts from the fridge an hour before you cook them.

    Put a heavy frying pan on a medium heat to warm up, and also turn the oven on to a very low heat.

    Score the breast fat deeply with a sharp knife, grate a little pepper over the meat side, and sprinkle with a tiny bit of rosemary.

    When the pan is good and hot, add the breasts, fat-side down.  The pan should be hot enough to sizzle, but not so hot that fat spits everywhere 

    Leave to cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the fat has melted down by about half, and is well browned,(you should tip the molten fat from the pan several times during the cooking).

    Turn the breasts over in the pan, smear a little honey over the fat-side, and leave to cook for about 3 minutes.

    Remove breasts from pan, wrap with tin-foil, put in oven to keep warm, and turn the oven off.

    De-glaze the frying pan with some port, then add a little more honey and stir until liquid.

    Remove the breasts from the oven, open the foil and add any juices to the pan.

    Slice breasts thinly and top with the port and honey sauce.

     

     

    mandate delegation?

    in Finding/Owning French Property

    Posted

    When someone puts their house up for sale, they sign a mandat de vente with the agency/notaire selling the house.  If the mandat is exclusif, then only that agency/notaire has the right to sell the house.  If it is not exclusive then the seller may offer the house to other parties to sell (signing a mandat de vente with each party).

    A délegation de mandat is, as Judie says, when one agency offers another agency the right to market the property.

    If you google  délegation de mandat de vente you'll find plenty of references.

    Filter problem?

    in Swimming Pools in France

    Posted

    Thanks for the offer Chris.

    It looks like those pesky oak catkins were to blame, I've just emptied about 2 kilos of oak catkins out of the skimmer baskets, they were completely full and I only emptied them a week ago! I then emptied a few stray catkin bits out of the pre-filter leaf-basket, and bled the air out of the sand filter.

    Sorted [:D]

    I don't know what it is this year, but those catkin things are every frippin' where [:@]

    Filter problem?

    in Swimming Pools in France

    Posted

    This morning I nipped out to uncover the pool, and switched on the pump briefly while the roller shutter opened (in order to suck all of the pesky oak catkin things, that had landed on the cover overnight, through the skimmers to be caught in the leaf basket).  I noticed that the sand filter had very little water in it (I couldn't even gauge the actual amount as the water wasn't up to the viewing level).  I switched off the pump straight away, and went back in to have breakfast and get dressed, as I didn't fancy mucking about and cursing on an empty stomach in my dressing gown.

    I'm now about to go out and investigate further, but does anyone have any idea why the filter water level might have dropped?  I'm going to try emptying the leaf filter and topping up the pool level a bit, and also bleeding the air out of the sand filter, but it's never done this before and I'm a bit stumped.

    Immersion heater element

    in House Renovations

    Posted

    Just a thought (and I apologise in advance if this is so obvious that you have already tried it) but, does the water heater usually heat at night, during the cheap period?  It may be worth checking that the automatic switch that clicks on for cheap rate is switching properly.  In newer electrical installations it can be found at the fuseboard/consumer unit, and has 3 positions - On, Off and Auto.  Try switching it to the On position.

    PEACH TREES

    in Gardening

    Posted

    I think I'm going to give up on peach trees. 

    We have 3, all bought nearly 3 years ago, and last year we sprayed, but they got the "clop" anyway (not that it made much difference anyway as the late frosts killed any hope of fruit). 

    This year we sprayed twice, in early spring, but nevertheless they are beginning to show signs of leaf-curl [:@]

     

     

    Online order not delivered

    in French Legal Issues

    Posted

    It's unfortunately too late for the OP, but whenever I order anything online in France I always check for customer reviews of their delivery and customer service performance.

    Site such as kelkoo.fr or ciao.fr are good starting points, sorted by date if possible to give the most recent reviews.  Or simply type the words avis Darty (or whatever the company name that you want to check) into Google.

    Even for the OP, this may give some information as to the trading status of the company, and clues to what action any other dissatisfied customers are taking.

    What is the name of this city ?

    in Travelling to/from France

    Posted

    Looking at the 3rd photo again, it is definitely Cordes.  If you click to the right of the original photo to enlarge it you can see that the building on the RHS with the red sign is the glass blower in the Rue St Michel.

     

    Compare this (the original photo)

     

    with this one from the Cordes sur Ciel website.  The red sign on the LHS, with the street light above, match up nicely.

     

     

    haut_rue_st_michel_2

    SWINE FLUE

    in The Complete France Post Bag

    Posted

    [quote user="Sprogster"]

    Cat, in 1918 the Flu mutation caused an over stimulus of the immune system, where young adults were especially vunerable and many young victims drowned in their own lung secretions.

    [/quote]

    The over-reacting immune system theory allows that severe immune reactions caused damage to the lining of the lungs, resulting in secondary bacterial infections.  Research published last year showed that most deaths occurred one to two weeks after the initial symptoms, typical of bacterial pneumonia infection.

    One theory as to why young adults were more susceptible to the virus is that they had not been exposed (and so did not have immunity) to a similar epidemic in 1889.

    I'm no expert, just recycling what I have read elsewhere.

     

    SWINE FLUE

    in The Complete France Post Bag

    Posted

     I caught an interesting interview on TV last night, with a French pneumonologist (sp???).  Among the things that he said was that we should not really be calling it Swine flu or gripe porcine, as the virus does not affect pigs.  It's a virus carried by birds, pigs and humans, but is transmitted between humans. 

    He also said that in over 40 years as a pneumonologist, he had never known anyone to die from flu.  Fatalities are due to secondary infections, such as pneumonia.  In the 1918 outbreak of Spanish flu, antibiotics to combat secondary infections were not available, nor were antivirals, such as Tamiflu.

    His view was that, if a pandemic should occur, those in developed countries would not be in great danger, but that (as with AIDS) it would be those living in 3rd world countries that would suffer the greatest losses. 

    Having said that, if I had a trip to Mexico booked I would probably cancel it, but when they start reducing pork in supermarkets due to a decline in sales, I shall be stocking up the freezer.

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