02 January 2015

Black-eyed pea “cassoulet” and « pain au maïs »

I call this bread Pain au maïs (bread with corn meal in it) and not Pain de maïs (cornbread) because it contains equal quantities of wheat flour and corn meal. It makes a nice compact and dense bread that is good for slicing and toasting. The recipe is below — I adapted it from the recipe for rye bread that Walt had made a few days before.


We had the bread with our New Year's Day lunch of black-eyed peas, sausages, pork, and slow-cooked duck (confit de canard). That's a kind of cassoulet, which in southwestern France is normally made with white beans like cannellini, called haricots lingots here. I included Toulouse sausages, fresh pork, and duck legs — cuisses de canard confites — the way they do in SW France. Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is supposed to bring you good luck for the rest of the year.


Since black-eyed peas are African in origin, I also poached, separately, some North African merguez sausages, which are made with lamb and beef, to have with it. That way the dish spanned the Mediterranean Sea. I spiced up the whole dish with hot paprika and smoked paprika. Walt and I had already made the wheat flour and corn meal bread to go with it:

Pain au maïs

200 g fine corn meal
200 g wheat flour
1 packet dried yeast
½ tsp. fine salt
1 Tbsp. honey or cassonade sugar
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil or melted butter
1 egg


Mix together the the flour, meal, yeast, and salt in a big mixing bowl. Mix the honey or sugar with 240 ml warm water and add the oil. Pour the liquid into the bowl mixer with the dry ingredients, add the egg, and mix to make a dough. If the dough looks too dry add a little more warm water. (I used a stand mixer.)

Knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Put the dough in a well-oiled bowl (or just leave it in the mixer bowl), cover the bowl and leave the dough to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours, or until roughly doubled in size.

Punch the dough down and knead it again briefly to eliminate air bubbles. Shape into a smooth oval loaf and put it in the pan, or into two short baguette-shaped loaves. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and leave the loaves to rise in a warm place for a further 60 to 90 minutes, or until again doubled in size.

Heat the oven to 200ºC (bottom heat with fan). Remove the plastic wrap and dust the surface of the bread dough with corn meal. Slash a few incisions in the top of the loaf or loaves at an angle then bake them for 30 minutes until lightly browned all over and hollow-sounding when tapped. Transfer to a cooling rack and leave to cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving.

20 comments:

  1. I like the idea of the black-eyed peas. I occasionay bought a tinned cassoulet which substituted lentils for haricot beans - I actually preferred that version to the beans.

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    1. Mike, happy new year to you, G., and M. We're envious of your summer weather right now, of course. I like lentils too, and black-eyed peas are more like lentils than like white beans in flavor. I do like a good traditional cassoulet too, though.

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  2. Happy new year, Ken and Walt, and I hope the black-eye peas bring you an excellent year. Where I grew up the traditional meal for New Year's Day is pork and sauerkraut. I never heard that this combination brings luck, but we like it.

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    1. I have some sauerkraut — choucroute crue — that I'll be cooking in January. That'll mean more pork, mostly of the smoked variety. Or maybe a smoked chicken. If you've eaten choucroute garnie in France, I'd be curious to know if it's very different from what get there in Penna.

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  3. I think I will try the corn baguette in my bread maker. It looks beautiful and must taste a bit like a corn muffin. You dinner looks like the right way to begin 2015.

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    1. That dinner of beans and meats wasn't exactly the lightest, most delicate fare, but hey, we need sustenance for all our walks with Callie in this cold and now damp weather.

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  4. Oh, that bread just looks like it would be sooooo delicious toasted, with a smear of butter melting on it--yumm :) And, your Cassoulet looks like a wonderful way to bring in the new year. Best 2015 wishes :)

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    1. I started making cassoulet on New Year's Day a while back. It's my way of getting my lucky black-eyed peas.

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  5. I am going to try your recipe in my breadmaker this afternoon!

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    1. ok, I had to adjust the ingredients slightly for my breadmaker. but I have a loaf in process and it should be finished by 6p our time.

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    2. I hope the bread was good, A M. It's a fairly dense loaf, or at least the one I made was. Good in slices toasted and served with foie gras!

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  6. Thank you for the bread recipe, Ken...
    looks wonderfully golden...
    needed on a day like today!!

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  7. Bonjour Ken

    Nos meilleurs voeux pour une année 2015 pleine de bonheur , santé et prospérité.
    Y & N

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    1. Bonjour Beav, à notre tour nous vous envoyons tous nos bons voeux pour une heureuse année 2015. Ken (& Walt)

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  8. When I was growing up we always had black-eyed peas on New Years Day, along with cornbread and turnip greens, which my parents preferred over collard greens. Black-eyed peas are not available here in Canada, either canned or dried. I made a type of dried bean called "little white beans" which I think are what we call navy beans. I made them just like I would have made black-eyed peas (sausage, bacon, onion, garlic, celery, spices) but with a Texas twist - a chipotle pepper in adobo sauce and a bit of cayenne pepper. Instead of collard or turnip greens I chopped up some kale. The dish was an adaptation of a recipe from a blog I read called The Homesick Texan. They turned out pretty good! Happy new year!

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    1. Happy New Year, Margaret. My grandmother, who lived next door to Saint-Egbert's catholic church on Evans Street, also liked to cook and eat turnip greens. My mother always cooked collards. I'm surprised you can't find black-eyed peas where you are. Maybe you could order some on line? I like the Texas twist on cooking beans.

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  9. We are able to find "pain au mais" in a number of specialized bakeries around here now. It is nothing like corn bread, but is an interesting take on French-style bread.

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    1. A couple of the boulangeries around here make similar "cornbreads" too. We had some of our sliced and toasted with the last of our holiday foie gras yesterday. Very good.

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  10. I wouldn't be too envious Ken, days in the high 30s with ridiculous humidity are a stretch for us right now. A few chilly nights would be perfect!

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  11. Hi Mike, news stories about the fires around Adelaide have been running on French TV for a few days now. I didn't realize you had humidity like that in Sydney. Did you ever go to the U.S. Southeast in summertime?

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