A Szechwan inspired meal made by Ian and Jacquie

Ian and Jacquie took me on a morning field trip to
Tulle to pick up some coffee and wine while Swisher
and Lilli lolled about doing who knows what. One of
Ian's tame merchants is Patrick Courtois at the Probus
wine shop. We had an amusing half-hour jawing about
beverages; the guy is a good salesman and sold Ian a
bottle of Fleurie for a meal out at a friend's house
later and me a bottle of Sel. Peuchet Bas-Armagnac 88
for a house gift for La Souvigne, partially in atonement
for my drinking them out of Doorly's.

Another lazeabout day, with Ian mostly refusing my aid as
he made a Chinese-inspired supper for us.

Mid-afternoon they came knocking at the door offering a
treat - red pimentos de padron to do an experiment with,
the condition being that I experiment in the little kitchen
in a regular pot, because both the woks (and, relevantly,
the wok burner) were in use. So I used a big whatever the
French equivalent of Revereware is, some basil-scented oil,
and the puny stove. The product was not as good as the first
time with the green ones (tttt, I'd never seen a red one
before) - whether it was the insufficient heat or the large
amount of sugar in the red flesh, this batch didn't work out
as nicely, the surface getting black before properly
blistering. Everyone else thought they were okay, but I
wouldn't do this particular experiment again.

Ian's menu focused on Szechwan as interpreted by the
redoubtable Fuchsia Dunlop, augmented by leftover mapo tofu
and dry-sauteed green beans.

There was red-cooked pork made out of the belly got
at Tulle the other day, quite heavy on the spices, with
what I thought maybe a little too much star anise, which
I prefer as a whisper but others revel in. If the pork
had been of the right unctuousness, maybe the balance
would have been better, but unfortunately the meat was
way too lean, sort of the other white meatish.

Sauteed shiitake and oyster mushrooms was a Dunlop
inspiration, and it was fine - could have been anybody's
mixed mushrooms with a dash of soy sauce added, though.

Fried rice with ham, shrimp, sausage (French bulk, not
Chinese), and peas was good and a good way to use up the rice
from the other day (overage basmati that somehow had turned
into broken rice).

Veggies included Chinese cabbage with dried shrimp and bacon
fat, these last making the dish, which otherwise wasn't too
interesting, the cabbage a little overage and bitter, and
broccoli with bacon, ditto - the last of the tender-stem from
the garden. Neither of these seemed particularly Chinese, but
to be fair, many interior parts of China prize dried or cured
and smoked meat, so the bacony things were right in character.

Again, jasmine tea for those who wanted it,

Coteaux de Glanes rouge 2009 was again lightish and went okay
with the meal theme. It is or used to be the house wine here,
and this leftover bottle showed pretty well, given that it was
9 years old and was meant to be drunk on purchase.

For pud we had a wild blueberry tart, which was quite nice.
I reemphasize that Jacquie is quite a superb pastry cook.

The Armagnac was complex and interesting, with citrus, floral,
nutty, and vanilla flavors on a smoky grape background. Not sure
if it's $96 interesting, but as I noted above the guy was a good
salesman.
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