06 January 2019

L'art de la desserte

I seem to have been doing a series of posts lately about being creative with leftovers. In French, that's called l'art d'accommoder les restes. The 1967 Larousse Gastronomique food and cooking encyclopedia even devotes an article to it (under restes). « L'art d'accommoder les restes passe, le plus souvent, pour le summum de la science culinaire. » — "The art of making good use of leftovers often passes for the highest form of culinary skill."

The author of the article points out that cooks certainly need to be careful that the reason why they have a lot of leftovers is not just that they aren't managing their kitchen properly, or that the people they are serving just don't like the way the food was prepared. If the cook intentionally cooks more food than can be consumed in one sitting, what is left over is not called restes but « la desserte ». I'm going to claim that I'm that kind of cook. Besides, nowadays we have freezers...



Anyway, when I cooked black-eyed peas for our January 1 lunch, I decided to cook a whole kilo bag of dried peas. That makes for enough cooked black-eyes pour un régiment, as they say in France, or "enough to feed Coxey's army," as my mother used to say. You'll have to look that up.

On the right are two pieces of duck confit that I bought at the supermarket.


My original idea was to eat the black-eyed peas not only with the "side meat" (smoked pork belly) that cooked with them and a couple of saucisses de Toulouse, but also with a couple of slow-cooked duck legs, or cuisses de canard confites. On the actual day, that seemed like overdoing it, so I saved the duck idea for later. Later was yesterday.




So first I browned the duck legs in a baking pan in a hot oven, alongside the dish of beans that needed re-heating. When the beans were hot and the duck legs were lightly browned, I put the meat on top of the beans, along with some of the fat they had released, and browned everything for a little bit longer (as you see above). Voilà ! Un cassoulet de haricots cornille... Black-eyed pea cassoulet. I had made a salad of escarole and beets as an accompaniment.




Earlier in the week, I had used some of the black-eyed peas as part of a filling, with some smoked meat, rice, and hot sauce, for a batch of Mexican-style enchiladas that Walt wrapped up and we baked. Of course, I still have some of the rice and bean filling left over. Tex-Mex-style burritos are on the menu for the coming week.

12 comments:

  1. I like to think I'm a la desserte kinda cook too :-) On the menu for today: Brined pork chops from a batch I brined a week ago and froze the extras, some broccoli that needs eating up and mash that I made in a big batch and froze the extra in serving sized lots. Plus galette des rois of course.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We had Walt's galette des rois at lunch today too, after spaghetti and meatballs.

      Delete
  2. all right I could go for black eyed peas in enchiladas!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What if I added chopped collard greens to the beans and rice filling? ; ^ )

      Delete
    2. Sounds very good to me!

      Delete
  3. This distinction between accidental and deliberate leftovers is very interesting. I always cook more than I need when I cook and freeze the "desserte".
    But often I am only cooking for myself.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a good idea to use black eyed peas as a filler in enchiladas! I've never seen that before, even though it should be an obvious use in the south! Your enchiladas look great. Wondering what kind of cheese you put on top.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a "mature" cheddar — sharp, I guess — that I got at the SuperU supermarket.

      Delete
    2. I've confirmed it: cheddar is either mild, sharp, or extra-sharp, according to how mature (aged) it is. It's the same with Cantal cheese in France, which may well be the cheese that was adapted in England to become cheddar. Cantal was "discovered" by the Romans when they arrived in Gaul, and took the method to the British Isles. Cantal, made in the mountains of the Auvergne, is either jeune, entre-deux, or vieux, depending on how long it is aged.

      Delete
  5. I like Susan's idea of freezing up mashed potatoes. It hadn't occurred to me.
    And those enchiladas look delish.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish there was room in our freezers for everything I'd like to store in them! Maybe I'll have to buy another one (we have two, a chest freezer and an upright — I like the upright better). We keep vowing to "eat out of the freezer" so that neither of them is too packed full, but it's a losing battle. For example, I bought a 7 lb. capon (chicken) and a 7 lb. turkey between Christmas and New Year's Day because they were on special. Both had to go into the freezer. They take a lot of room. I plan to make a honey-glazed turkey or capon one day next week.

      Delete

What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?