Oh, what a boar

More wind and rain today, with further boat cancellations. The power was off in the night. I was still awake at 03:17, listening to the house being pounded by the wind. It was not comfortable in bed – overly warm with the southerly gale and a dog to contend with (Nell was a bit of a wimp about the wind whistling around the eaves and jumped into bed with us for security). I closed my eyes once more to try and sleep and the next time that I opened them the radio clock was darkened, the emergency light in the hall providing a dim light under the door.

Mr L got up to try and shut the computers down and was able so to do. When he came back to bed we both dropped off – it must have been around 4 am. When I next woke, at 05:58, the clock was lit again. So, no disruption to breakfast or shower routines today, happily. In fact, though not the case with the entire island, our power has been on all day.

After breakfast we dashed out to Lady, to the Community Shop, to see what we might add to our Anniversary feast tomorrow. There was a flood warning in place from 12:15, with high tide due a little before 2pm. We wanted to be home safely before the sea began to encroach on the road. It was already spraying when we left…

In Lady we managed to fill two shopping bags and spend in excess of £70. I had just four items on my list when I left home, and three of those I failed to find. We may have gone just a little bit silly today.

The sea was a little more insistent on our way home and the car had several dousings.

We had coffee and Stollen and then turned our minds to cooking the ragu for tomorrow, pausing only to look out and see that there was water pouring down the drive already at 12:15 (spot on with that warning, SEPA)

Diced wild boar

Fried in oil until brown all over

Smoked streaky bacon

Fried until crisp and golden

Chopped onion

Fried to soften

Add garlic, sliced black olives, and crushed juniper berries

Deglaze the frying pan with a deal of red wine, add stock, canned tomatoes, tomato puree, sugar and herbs

Once the ragu was assembled and coming up to a simmer we went out to see what was happening in the wild world outside. We were surprised and pleased to see that the steady pouring of the sea into the garden had turned to a mere trickle. Although we had reached high water the wind was less vigorous and we ended up with far less water ingress than had looked to be the case an hour or more earlier.

When we came back in, the ragu was smelling magnificent. I popped it in to a warm oven and left it to cook very slowly. It has just come out and been tasted. WOW! That’s a big hearty flavour going on there – and it should be even better reheated tomorrow.

We shall have the ragu served up on plates of Pappardelle pasta, which I made this afternoon. I have left it drying in the utility room, festooned about the pasta tree.

The full menu for tomorrow, now that we have been shopping and moderated our expectations, is:

• Chicken Liver Pate, melba toast, chutney
• Wild Boar with Pappardelle, a salad of courgette ribbons, fennel, black olives and artichoke hearts on the side, maybe some crusty bread.
• Panna Cotta, pears and lemon crisp biscuits. The Panna Cottta is to be flavoured with a Panettone essence. Will it work with the pears? Not as well as if I  had found some good fresh citrus fruits to poach. There are no Food Police round here and as they say back in Wet Yorkshire: it all goes down’t same road
• Cheese: Parke and Truffler

We are sticking to one wine throughout, as we had a magnum bottle of Appassimento to hand –  500 ml of which went into the boar ragu. Red wine: pate (fine) Red wine: posh spag bol (excellent) Red wine: cheese (ob)

One of the many naughty things that we succumbed to today was a bottle of Limoncello (made in Scotland!) That ought to round the pudding off nicely. I think we may have to do cheese before pudding, as the continentals do… Red wine: panna cotta (I.don’t.think.so.)