The Sandwich

One of my favourite things in London and is to this day the first thing that I look for upon returning to London is a crayfish and rocket sandwich from Pret a Manger. More commonly refered to as "Pret".

On one occaision while browsing the wonderous aisles at La Fayette Gourmet I found Crayfish... so you might imagine I was immediately inspired to try to recreate my favourite London lunch break!

  

And it was such a fulfilling experience, however not the same as the real thing!

  

Someday soon I will make it back to the UK. Upon writing this entry, I did notice that Pret has been exported to the states, or at least to NYC. Unfortunately with the name like Pret, and being based on a rather french idea of lunch, (meaning the fresh sandwich thing is pretty much everywhere here) I don't think it'll be rocking Paris anytime soon. For the time being, I'll have to stick to the DIY crayfish and rocket sandwich. 

Not too shabby, but definitely not the same!

The Visit from Caroline

A very good friend from University, Caroline, came to Paris on her way to do a pilgrimage through Spain (I might clarify that she's not in the least bit religious, but was following her mother's advice for an incredible adventure). As such her first day here we bought lunch and ate it by the canal. 

 

 

Caroline's stay most unfortunately fell in the middle or my first round of exams. Although thankfully it was after the bulk of the significant exams, so I had a bit of time to relax, and needed it!

 

While enjoying our lunch, or more specifically while digesting a bit and trying to clean ourselves up after our lunch (lebanese wraps are very juicy!) the adjacent bridge began to open. While I have watched many locks and a lift bridge here and there in operation (thanks to my father's insistance), I had never seen a swing bridge open.

 

Apparently, it was therefore very important to document it in photographs. Unfortunately just after I took this photo, my camera's battery died. So for further documentation, one would have to refer to Caroline's photos! 

The Surprise Flowers

Well the time has flown and since my last post, (The Groundwork had been written in May I just forgot to hit post) many things have happened. Many things of which I had meant to post however circumstances did not permit and my patience and attention for the most part was elsewhere. 


Beginning with the second round of exams and following through my visit home to Canada. In any case, I will now attempt to catch up to myself!


When we arrived in the appartement there were a few random things left on the balcony. Among these forelorn objects were some rusty bits of oranmental metal, a couple of old pots, a 1/4 of a bag of clay balls meant to cover the soil in your pots for added moisture containment and some very dead stocks in a pot. Having arrived in August I didn't attack the balconies directly as it was too late to do any serious gardening, and my resources felt a little stretched already with the move and all the other expenses that go along with a new appartement. 

In any case, a few months later, in the moderate climate that stuck around until about october last year, the dead stocks turned green and the leaves started to grow. 

This spring I was extremely excited to see a bud pushing itself up. It's perhaps a little hard to see here, but there's a little nubbin coming up through the v of the leaves.

 

I might add, I still wasn't sure, what, exactly was going to come out of these buds. My original thought was that it was an iris, but I had no real idea. It was a mystery plant, and any flowers at all were a lovely surprise.

 

 

Unfortunately I didn't get to appreciate the flowers all that much as the blinds are most often closed on that balcony, and studying for exams did not permit much quiet reflection out the window.

It was still very exciting that the surprise plant that we inherited came back so completely!

The Groundwork

The Preparation of Lyaz's Dinner started with the julienning, the chopping and the cutting of various ingredients. I forgot to take photos of it all, but here's what I did record. First of all, I have to say that the garlic was fresh.

  

It was the freshest garlic I have ever seen, it was so moist. I'm thinking of putting the rest of it in the oven one evening to bake.  I'll have to make sure I don't have anywhere to go in the morning, and also find a REALLY fantstic loaf of bread.

 

Not only did I julienne a number of carrots, green onions, but also half a celery root and zested 3 lemons. Lucky I have a mandolin, or else the julienning would have taken me the entire night!

 

The filling of the fish was julienned green onions and lemon zest. I rubbed the cavity with salt, and freshly ground black pepper then a handful of dried thyme. Unfortunately although I had bought fresh thyme it never made it into my bag, so I had to resort to the dried thyme in the cupboard.

 

this is the stuffed fish, before I tied it up and placed it on a bed of carrot and celery lightly sautéed with butter and garlic. How can you go wrong with a base of butter and garlic?