I’d want to be at my parents’ house in Charentes, near Poitiers, in France. I visit lots – it’s where we’ve had all the major family gatherings in recent years. This would be no exception.
They live in an old farmhouse on the edge of a tiny hamlet. It’s very rural, with beautiful, rolling fields surrounding the house – either wheat or sunflowers or corn.
From April to October, the weather is usually good. In the summer especially, the kids love it there because there’s a swimming pool. I’m at home, but on holiday there. They’ve a huge farmer’s kitchen, very comfortable, and it makes cooking a joy. There’s a chateau in the distance, the turrets poking up through the woodland. It’s quite magical really.
It would be early September and autumnal produce would abound – game, truffle and mushrooms starting to come in, as well as late summer fruits – blackcurrants, blackberries, raspberries. The squashes, too, are starting to be ready.
There’s still a butcher and a baker in every village over there. And it’s only 1½ hours from La Rochelle, so you can get really good seafood. My parent’s neighbour rears capons and chickens and my parents have chickens for fresh eggs. They also have all sorts of fruit trees in their garden – nectarines, walnuts ...
For this meal, we’d start with pizza at 7. For me, pizza is perfect: bread, cheese, tomatoes and cured meat, my four favourite foods on Earth. When it’s good, the perfect sourdough crust, the best fresh tomatoes for the sauce, fresh buffalo mozza, beautiful cured meats: there’s nothing nicer to eat. I’d build an oven of bricks in the garden, and start the pizza dough the day before the meal. We’d also have a glass of very cold Limoux.
The local game is excellent, so for the main I’d stew a big cut of venison, shoulder or leg. Sear the outside, make a veg base with onions, garlic, celery and carrots; and put it all in a huge Le Creuset, then braise for 7-8 hours at 80C.
With that I’d make a dauphinois with my dad’s potatoes – skins on, sliced with a knife. I’d boil up cream and nutmeg, garlic and salt, then pour that over the potatoes and bake at 120C for a couple of hours, until the potatoes are cooked and soft, but golden on top.
We’d wash this all down with gallons of wine from Dad’s cellar – south-western reds. I love wine: I enjoy it in all its forms.
For the cheese course I’d have at least 20 cheeses – a Tunworth, a Rocquefort, some dolce latte, a pecorino, some Old Winchester, a Rosary goat’s cheese, and loads more as well. I’m coeliac, so I can’t eat bread, but as this would be my final meal, I would have some local walnut bread.
I’m not all that bothered generally about dessert, I don’t have a very sweet tooth, but I do love a really good tiramisu. Often it’s just an unsightly mess on a plate, but when made well and structured properly, it’s a really beautiful thing. Homemade savoy biscuits, just the right amount of sugar, coffee and booze, perfect mascarpone … I knock together a pretty good one.
I’d follow that with a coffee and a digestif: an espresso longo, made with really good coffee, and a glass of cognac made by a producer local to my parents, Michel Forgeron. It’s lovely stuff.
There’d be lots of the music I grew up with – Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Paul Simon’s Graceland, Judy Collins singing Both Sides Now and Ruby Tuesday. That music has so much sentimental value for me.
Mary Ellen McTague is a regular Guardian contributor and chef-patron of Aumbry in Manchester. She recently announced the closure of the much-loved Prestwich restaurant and the opening of a new venue in central Manchester.
