lerusticana

No more England or France but at least we have Spain vs Portugal on the big screen

Full menu available all starters 5 € all mains 10 €

You’ll be in the competition to win free bar tabs at Le Rusticana this season

Ask at the bar for a sticker & put a picture of it in a cool place on t’facebook
facebook page

Get your stickers from the bar, stick ‘em somewhere funny & take a photo. Then upload the photo to our special facebook page to be in with a chance of winning.

This is the current favourite….

Friday night apres ski juggernaut james plus evening session with full Juggernauts band

Le Rusticana is opening the restaurant on Saturday 10th December 2011

also… @the bar from Friday 9th Dec
Snack + Pitcher of beer or carafe of wine deal for only EUR 10!

Apres-ski happy hour in argentiere for seasonaires…
join us for Happy Hour 5-6pm & Happy Hour 10:30pm – 11:30pm
Happy Hour prices are as low as an emo’s trousers

There is a new winter menu including some old Rusty favourites like fish and chips with the return of some requested old classsics plus a host of new dishes created by Master chef Caine and his trusty sidekick Ian….

Oh yeh, and if you’re the first person to mention to the bar staff that you saw this evening advertised on the interweb, then you’ll win a free demi.

info and reservations (+33) 4 50 55 88 28 or (+33) 6 70 16 53 39
www.lerusticana.com – info@lerusticana.com
 

New Years Eve at Le Rusticana, Argentiere this year.

Duck and chicken liver parfait served with a beetroot
and walnut salad

9pm-3am

Expect all your normal NYE classics, sexy cocktails, shooters, and of course ‘that guy’ we all know as Sven.

The Live DJRusty will be dropping all the NYE classics along with mixing some seriously Funky House and Deep House music.

Live DJ signed to Front Of House Events

For bookings and more info
Tel: 0450 55 88 28
or email us

Food at the Rusticana got off to a great start with Head Chef Caine’s Fish & Chip night.

Thanks to all the wonderful Argentiere crowd and even a few from Chamonix who dropped by to empty our kitchen of Fish and chips, sauce tatare et petis pois.

Everyone looks forward to Caine & his lovely assistant  (the boy Budd) knocking up lots more delicious food this winter.

In other news, the venerable Mr No Legs was also celebrating his 65th birthday, so there was a good excuse to get started on the big bottle of Chivas Regal

7:30pm

There’s live music from Doug tonight at the Rusticana in Argentiere.

There’s also a BBQ, cheffed by Ian, which includes a choice of steak, chicken or salmon with 3 sides salad for around €14.

For those who need to know who Doug is….. we found out. He’s Doug the guitar/singer geezer who lives with the lovely hairdresser lady with the dog.

There are even rumours of people coming all the way from Chamonix to see Paul play and eat BBQ. Well… what else you gonna do tonight?

Read reviews of the Le Rusticana on yodl.co

Sage is, perhaps, the most British of herbs (even though it’s Mediterranean in origin), which may explain why Elizabeth David hated it so. But what did she know?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jul/01/sage-recipes-hugh-fearnley-whittingstall

With its alluring, downy, grey-green leaves and lingering depth of flavour, it’s hard to resist the pungent appeal of sage. Along with parsley, it’s perhaps the herb we’ve leant on most heavily in English cookery to give a savoury punch to stews, sausages and stuffings. Long before our dalliance with basil, coriander and chervil, sage stole our hearts and starred in some of our favourite dishes.

Or did it? Elizabeth David is pretty damning in Summer Cooking: “Of that very English herb sage I have very little to say except that… it seems to me to be altogether too blatant, and used far too much; its all-pervading presence in stuffings and sausages is perhaps responsible for the distaste for herbs which many English people feel.” She liked the dried stuff even less: “It deadens the food with its musty, dried blood scent.” Oh dear. That qualifies as a rant, doesn’t it?

If ED’s main problem was the dried packet mix for sage and onion stuffing – already ubiquitous by the 1960s, I suspect – then I’m with her. But I hope that in the 50-odd years since she wrote Summer Cooking, we’ve shrugged off any “distaste for herbs” in general and sage in particular. Certainly, it’s famously good with pork, but it’s very good with other rich meats, too, such as goose and duck, because its astringent oils help to cut through the fat.

Personally, though, I always think of it as the offal herb. There are few better ways of cooking thin slices of lamb’s or pig’s liver than dusting them in flour seasoned with plenty of finely chopped sage, salt and pepper, then frying them quickly so the outside is seared and the middle pink, creamy and delicious. And there’s my old favourite, brains with sage and caper butter (I’ll let you off the brains and give you a lovely pasta dish instead). Sage adds savour to potatoes and doughy dishes, too – potato cakes, bready stuffings, dumplings and today’s cheese scones.

The more delicate pineapple and blackcurrant sages are aptly named – they really do carry the scent of those fruits. They’re good with robust fish such as bream, bass and gurnard, and their flowers look and taste very good in salads of either the savoury and/or citrussy kind. They’re also a tasty addition to fruity jams and jellies, and you can simply infuse a small handful of flowers and leaves in boiling water for an invigorating tea.

The sages are a more sober, savoury, punchy branch of the mint family, and native to the Mediterranean. The name comes from the Latinsalvere, to be in good health, and it has certainly had all kinds of miraculous properties ascribed to it over the centuries – it was said to mend everything from arthritis to sore throats and poor memory. In its oldest sense, to be “sage” is to have the knowledge or power of healing.

The Romans considered it sacred and gathered it with no small amount of ceremony, and everyone from Celtic druids to Native Americans has burned it in mystical purifying ceremonies. From medieval times in England, we sipped sage tea and brewed sage ale, used it to flavour cheeses and meats (its antibacterial properties were used to help preserve meat in pre-refrigeration days). By the 17th century, so widespread was its appeal that Dutch traders exchanged the precious herb with Chinese merchants in the ratio of a pound of sage to three pounds of tea.

In the garden, sage is a pretty undemanding perennial herb. It’s hardy in all but the worst of winters, and will grow up to about 80cm tall. Plant it in well-drained soil in a sunny spot or in a large pot, keep chopping away at it for the kitchen and cut it back after flowering to encourage tender young leaf growth (they’re a bit less pungent). Even with regular cutting back, sage can become woody after a while, so needs replacing every four to five years. Many varieties grow easily from seed, or take softwood cuttings in late spring/early summer from strong new growth. Failing that, replacement plants in small pots are inexpensive and easy to find in almost any garden centre.

Common sage, Salvia officinalis, is the type I use most often, but you’ll find dozens of others in any nursery that’s long on herbs. Some look so wonderful, it would be a shame not to grow them for that reason alone. The purple and variegated ones (S. tricolore, with cream edges and pink-tinged leaves, and S. icterina, with lime-green and gold leaves) are milder and slightly more tender than S. officinalis. Frankly, any sage you like the look and smell of is worth a go in the garden.

So, grow some, chop some, cook some, eat some – I hope you’ll do all you can to increase their pervading presence. Don’t let Elizabeth David talk you out of it.

Green beans with sage and pancetta

Sage is a great companion to pancetta, bacon and pretty much anything porky. Serves four as a side dish.

400g green beans, tailed
20g butter
200g pancetta, cut into small cubes
20 sage leaves, 8 finely shredded, 12 left whole
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp olive oil (or rapeseed oil)

Bring a pan of salted water to a boil. Cook the beans until just al dente, about four minutes, then drain.

While the beans are cooking, warm the butter in a large frying pan and sauté the pancetta until it begins to take on some colour. Add the shredded sage leaves and fry for another minute. Tip in the beans, season, and give everything a good stir. Keep warm.

In a small frying pan, warm the oil over a medium-high heat. Sauté the whole sage leaves for a few seconds until crisp, scatter over the beans and pancetta, and serve.

Pasta with brown butter, sage and capers

A great quick supper. You can make this with dried pasta, but I think it works better with fresh. Frying the flowerbuds, too, adds even more flavour and texture. Serves four.

500g fresh egg pasta
80g butter
10-12 sage leaves, plus any small flower buds, if possible
2 tbsp capers, rinsed
Juice of ½ lemon
30g grated parmesan, plus more for serving
Freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large frying pan (ideally not one with a dark interior) and cook until it turns a rich, golden brown and begins to smell nutty and sweet. Add the sage leaves – and buds, if you have them – and capers, and remove from heat. Stir in the lemon juice. Drain the pasta, reserving some cooking water. Tip the pasta into the butter pan, along with a splash of the cooking liquid, and return to the heat. Add the cheese and a few grinds of pepper, toss to coat and serve at once.

Sage and cheddar scones

These are quick to throw together for a tasty, savoury treat at teatime. Makes about eight scones.

300g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp English mustard powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
Freshly ground black pepper
110g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
3 tbsp finely shredded sage
120g strong cheddar, plus 30g more for the top, coarsely grated
200ml buttermilk, well shaken, plus a little more for brushing

Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Sift the flour, baking powder, mustard powder, salt, sugar and five or six grinds of black pepper into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and, using your fingertips, rub it into the flour until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs (or just dump the whole lot into a food processor and pulse to combine).

Tip in the sage and grated cheddar, and stir in well. Using a knife, stir in the buttermilk until you have a slightly sticky, rough mass of dough. You may not need all the buttermilk, or you may need a tablespoon more.

Turn out the dough on to a lightly floured work surface and press it gently into a round about 2cm thick. Dip a 5-6cm pastry cutter in flour and use this to cut out as many scones from the dough round as possible. Gather up all the dough trimmings, gently press them together, then flatten into another 2cm-thick round and cut out more scones. Repeat until you have used up all the dough.

Sprinkle a nonstick baking sheet with flour and arrange the scones on it. Brush the tops with buttermilk, scatter on the remaining grated cheese and bake until golden and puffed up – about 12-15 minutes. Serve warm, split, with plenty of butter.

• Learn new skills on River Cottage’s four-day cookery courses; go to rivercottage.net for details.

It’s haggis time again.

The rusty will once again be gay gordoning on tuesday 25th jan starting around 8 pm.

Full  burns supper  .  25 €

still a few places left contact 0670165339