Rain hadn't been predicted, so I was surprised when I went outdoors with Tasha at 4:30 this morning. The rain was really more drizzle than downpour, so we were able to wander around the yard for a few minutes. Her "official" morning walk, a longer outing, will happen in about 90 minutes, after the sun comes up.
Beef, shallots, garlic, carrots, thyme, and mushrooms cooked in red wine
We changed our clocks overnight, so now in addition to jet lag I have to deal with another time adjustment. Actually, the jet lag is nearly over, and we stayed up "late" last night, not turning in until 10 p.m. Well, actually, that was just 9 p.m. on today's winter-time clock, if you see what I mean — falling back and all. To cope, I made Bœuf bourguignon (above) on Friday, and we are having it for a second time at lunch today. It's comfort food for this dark and damp season. (Here's an unconventional take on Bourguignon, with boulettes de viande — Meatballs Burgundy.)
Since butter is scarce in France according to press reports, I bought a 250 gram block of lard (saindoux, pur porc) yesterday and for lunch we made a tamale pie with masa harina, lard, chicken broth, corn, and some chicken chili con carne from the freezer. Over the past few days, I've done shopping in our two main supermarkets, Intermarché and
SuperU, but both times I forgot to look around in the dairy department to see
how much butter there actually was or wasn't on the shelves. We have five 250 gram blocks of butter in the freezer anyway. That will last us for a while.
Where did you get the masa harina? I've found corn meal several times in France, but never masa harina.
ReplyDeleteI brought it back from the U.S. a few years ago. It had been hiding in the freezer ever since.
DeleteI looked at Amazon.fr to see if I could buy masa harina on-line here in France. It seems impossible, because the products Amazon.fr sells are so poorly named and described. You can't tell if you're buying corn meal (farine de maïs) or masa harina (farine pour tortillas), and they are totally different things. Back to the drawing board...
DeleteWhat you want for making tamales and tortillas is farine de maïs nixtamalisée, a.k.a. tortilla flour. Here's a source: Aztek Comptoir Méxicain
Pretty expensive, however.
Oh dear, tamale pie, a Texas classic, along with Frito pie. ;-)
ReplyDeletePass the Bœuf bourguignon and fill my glass with red wine.
The tamale pie was good, but the Bœuf bourguignon is excellent. Almost lunchtime...
DeleteD., you mentioned lardons in relation to blettes (chard). I didn't put any in the greens, but I did put lardons in the Bœuf bourguignon and forgot to list them as an ingredient.
DeleteSo, so French, to stock up! We, too, have a stock of butter and have found no shortage in the little supermarkets that do not belong to the hypermarket chains. That means Franprix has butter, but Carrefour Market was out. And there's still butter at the dairy booth at the town market. This whole scarcity thing is merely because the big distributors are locked into a contract until the end of the year and do not want to absorb the price increases the dairy producers are dealing with. So the producers are selling, at better prices, to the US and China (among others) and delivering only minimum requirements to the hypermarkets.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty much what I read in that article in Le Monde. It's an artificial crisis, in some ways. One thing is for sure: butter prices will go up significantly.
DeletePerhaps the EU Butter Mountain should have been saved for the bleak times ahead. God forbid that the Wine Lake is no longer there.
ReplyDeleteThey are just selling the butter to the highest bidders, who happen to be American, Canadian, and Chinese. Wine is probably the same story, though I think Americans prefer American (California) wine.
DeleteMy grandfather was a chef and he made Tamale pies. When I was too young to appreciate them. I might have to learn how to do it myself :)
ReplyDeleteMake tamale pie using meatless chili with beans and maybe bell peppers or diced zucchini and corn. That would be good.
DeleteI've never made tamale pies, and never have really made Boeuf Bourguignon, though I did make your Boulettes Bourguignonnes once, and it was tasty, tasty, tasty.
ReplyDeleteI have to make those boulettes again. They were good.
DeleteKen that beautiful tamale pie has me thinking of another southern comfort food: pickle pie. There is a savory version with meat and cheese and a dessert version. We used to see these a lot as kids. Don't know if you saw this in NC?
ReplyDeleteNo, I've never heard of pickle pie before, but I see info about the expression on the web, some of it pretty racy. I did have a delicious salad in a restaurant in N.C. made with lettuce (iceberg, I think), tomato, onion, pickle, chicken, and bacon, all chopped very fine, with blue cheese dressing. It sounds strange but was very good. With it I had an enormous glass of Pinot Grigio which was filled to the brim -- it must have been a half bottle of (good) wine and cost $5.50.
ReplyDelete