Repeating ourselves... the French word is radotage. It means endlessly repeating the same things. Je radote, tu radotes, nous radotons... Words, usually, but it's food in this case. Repeating ourselves in the kitchen... Radotage culinaire.
Turkey, stuffing, squash, and sprouts... again?!?!
I guess we all do it at holiday time. How many times can you eat the same Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey? Well, an endless number, I guess, until the end of (your) time on Earth. Looking back at the blogs, I see that we made pretty much the same foods for our Christmas dinner in 2014 as in 2015. As an appetizer, we had foie gras and figs as our first course last year and again this year. With the turkey, we had — guess what — Brussels sprouts and winter squash. Usually, we try to vary the menus more than that.
Même les haricots blancs radotent cette année.
And it will happen again at the end of this week. For New Year's Eve, it'll be oysters. Just as it was last year. For New Year's Day, it'll be cassoulet with canard confit — slow-cooked duck, just as it was last year. My only variation this year will be to use French white beans — haricots lingots blancs — instead of black-eyed peas. It'll be good. But it will be déjà vu all over again.
I'm in a funny mood today. Maybe I've just been blogging too long. Or maybe I've just been cooking too long. We'll be making a turkey pot pie for lunch. That's original, isn't it? Well, isn't it?
To the left is one of my favorite cartoons ever. I've probably told you that before.
Thanks to Gary Larsen.
Thanks to Gary Larsen.
HA! I love the cartoon. Not sure if we've seen it before. Great one :)
ReplyDeleteThe figs you had with the foie gras... they were yours that you macerated (was that what you did to them?)?
Yes, they were those ripe green figs that I simmered in sugar to make them into figues confites. When we prepared them for eating with foie gras, Walt made a sugar + balsamic vinegar reduction and heated the "candied" figs up in that just a little. The vinegar adds the flavor contrast that the foie gras needs.
DeleteAh! Gary Larsen!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Larsen is still active, or if he has retired.
DeleteI've found an online source of tarbais beans which are grown in the Napa Valley from seed stock
ReplyDeleteoriginally imported from France. So delicious....make wonderful creamy soup too.
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Give us the link to the online vendor, please. The tarbais (or lingot) beans are so good.
DeleteThe "beanery" is ranchogordo.com. They are referred to as Cassoulet Beans out of respect,
Deletethey say, for the French growers who developed these delicious beans. RG didn't feel that
they had the right to use the Tarbais name...sort of an AOC thing I guess. Their current
supply is this summer's crop. As usual they had sold out, so one had to wait for the harvest. All their beans are $5.95 per pound. This year due to popular request they are
selling black-eyed peas, you might be interested to know.
The haricots lingots cassoulet beans were €1.33 per pound (500 grams). As for black-eyed peas, their flavor is distinctive and their texture is very tender. It's good that people are discovering them.
DeleteHi Ken, loved your Christmas posts so much that I have promoted viewing my recent blogpost. Hope that is OK with you. Phil Lowe. http://mugofstrongtea.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/a-fascinating-foodie-christmas-in.html
ReplyDeleteThanks Philip. Happy New Year to you.
DeleteIt's hard for me to change things this time of year, so I get really ready for the new year to get here. Those haricot blanc look just plain wrong lol. Your leftovers look good to me, plus the turkey pie- miam, miam. The cartoon is funny- our ancestors didn't worry about repetitions...
ReplyDeleteI hope the absence pf black-eyed peas on the NYD menu won't jinx us. Maybe I'll have just a spoonful of peas to ward off the plague.
DeleteLove the cartoon. Yes we are doing the Christmas turkey in daily reiterations as well. Scarlet, our cat, enjoys the dark meat and we are happy to share with her. She had a go at a pumpkin pie slice yesterday before I caught her.
ReplyDeleteWe share with Callie and Bertie too, but I don't see the cat having a taste for pumpkin pie. Callie will eat the pie crust gladly, though.
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