Thursday 8 September 2016

Cordon Noir.



I've mentioned previously that our oven has a mind of it's own.

We had guests two nights ago, and I'd decided to cook a dozen Quails which were to be served with a mix of roasted Potatoes and Red Peppers. But things don't always go according to plan.

I put the Potatoes in to roast half an hour before I was to begin roasting the Quails. When the half hour was up, I found that I couldn't open the oven door. It was closed tight, and smoke was issuing from all quarters.

I turned the oven off, and wondered what the hell I was going to do.

Lady Magnon saved the day by suggesting that we used the big fancy oven up at the barn, and she rushed up with the Quails.

Anyway, we spent a leisurely forty minutes over our charcuterie course, before retrieving the birds, which were cooked perfectly. Miraculously it all turned out fine, and we later finished the evening with a breaded and fried Camembert.

Above are the 'well roasted' Potatoes that I later retrieved from the wretched oven. I shall be giving it a damned good thrashing later.  

N.B. It seems as if the oven had gone into 'cleaning' mode. It probably thought it needed it.



40 comments:

  1. I am glad I haven't got one of those type of ovens. Do you think you activated it and need to go to Specsavers?

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    Replies
    1. That's what Lady M has claimed; I know otherwise.

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  2. Were your guests aware of the crisis or did you stay perfectly calm and composed?

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  3. And I thought it was only me that could achieve such culinary disasters.

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    Replies
    1. The Blackened Potato Club. 2 members already.

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  4. At least the rest of the meal went well, and you had a spare oven. My oven is supposed to have a self cleaning facility but I don't know where it is.....perhaps I ought to find out!

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  5. Years ago we had an oven clock that decided when it was going to switch the oven on or off. We once had to take our dinner guests out to a restaurant because the oven refused to switch on.

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    Replies
    1. Ours has turned itself on in the middle of the night. MAD!

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  6. Ours has a "Disaster" facility...
    I have studiously avoided using it, prefering to give the oven a wipe-down the next morning before herself has stirred.
    It is also, happily, one twist anti-clockers on the knob...
    all the main oven settings are clockers....
    all too complex...
    far too complex!!
    Moi? I prefer the Citroën 2CV type of apparatus.... "Simples"!

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    Replies
    1. You can't buy a machine like that nowadays. On/Off, Cook/Don't cook, temperature (aprox), Open/Close. Far too simple. Everything has to have some bloody 'chip'.

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  7. I can just see you…in the style of Basil Fawlty, thrashing your oven with an armful of branches!!

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  8. IT'S RAINING HERE..... BLOODY MIRACLE.

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  9. Never having seen one, for a moment I thought they were the quails.

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  10. Glad you and the guests saw the humor in this situation. Grant makes a mean breaded Camembert.

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    Replies
    1. I fry mine in a very small non-stick pan; does Greg do that too? Most people put them in the oven, frying them takes 5 mins.

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  11. Same thing happened to a friend who was baking pizzas at high temperatures. The door shut fast and pizza crozzled.
    He solved the problem by turning off the electricity supply and was able to open the door when the oven cooled down a bit. Too late to rescue the pizza though.
    Gizzmos, more trouble than they're worth!

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    Replies
    1. That's pretty much what happened here, we turned off the power and were able to open the oven about 5 hours later. Good thing I hadn't put the Quails in to roast.

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  12. You were lucky to have an alternative! Those burnt offerings don't look took too tasty. Could you BBQ a quail?

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    Replies
    1. The dog ate one, but refused a second. I suppose if they were spatchcocked they would have been OK on the BBQ, unfortunately there were a dozen of them, and my BBQ is very small.

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  13. They look like they would make good missiles.

    Jean

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  14. At first glance I thought maybe you had covered dried apricots in chocolate.

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  15. With the smell of the burnt potatoes in the house, I assume you ate outside.

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    Replies
    1. We haven't eaten indoors for over 3 months.

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    2. Reason#2 for loving summer. Sometimes, though, the bugs make us move inside.

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    3. No nasty evening bugs here, thank goodness.

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  16. These new fangled things with ovens etc makes me crazy. They make everything so complicated. I cant get my parents microwave to work, its like flying the starship Enterprise. I like mine, a dial with the time on. Heat, cook and defrost. twiddle the dial all sorted.

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    Replies
    1. Our Microwave is very simple. I've worked out how to use the washing machine, but the washing-up machine is crazy; I'm not even trying to understand how it works.

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  17. Oooops !!! .... it happens to the best of chef's !
    My friend had an Aga and her potatoes in their jackets were like cannon ball's only because she always forgot about them .... they could have been used in warfare
    !! You don't get that problem with salad !! XXXX

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    Replies
    1. Yes, no timer on an Aga; at least there wasn't on ours. Most, nowadays, have them for kudos, and probably never use them.

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