06 May 2020

Hey, a food post!

Well, sort of. Let's call it a "food porn" post. The thing that's really on my mind right now is this year's vegetable garden. Because of steady winter and spring rains, for a long time the ground was just too soggy for me to work it with the rototiller. Then when it dried out in April, weeds had completely taken over the part of the plot that was not covered with a tarp. The dry ground was like concrete. So I kept putting off working out there.

This is a duck burger made with a duck breast filet that we thawed, skinned, and then ran through the meat grinder.

Now the time has come. We lucked out with the weather over the past week. Fairly heavy rains were predicted, but they didn't materialize. We had showers, including one or two hard ones, but mostly we had very light drizzle for a few days. I'm optimistic that the ground is just damp enough to be softened up and tillable. And I'm glad to say that the roots and stems of the kale plants I harvested in mid-March have sent up new leaves that I'll be able to harvest today.

These are toasted ham, cheese, and Red Russian Kale sandwiches. Eat with knife and fork...

I think it might be more important than ever to have a good vegetable garden this year. I really don't see myself going shopping in open-air markets or supermarkets on any regular basis any time soon. If there is a second wave of Covid19 infections as France starts to gradually lift the confinement ("stay-at-home") order, I don't want to become a victim. I'll be staying in a lot and going out very little this summer, I believe.

How about some deep-fried zucchini fritters (grated zukes from freezer) and pulled pork barbecue?

I don't like the prospect of having to have supermarket employees pick out my produce for me. I don't know when open-air markets in our part of the country will start operating again. I'm afraid that any market that does re-open will be mobbed because there is so much pent-up desire to return to an existence that was considered normal before the pandemic shut everything down.

Duck confit from a big tin, with dried haricots beurre (pink beans) imported from Portugal and cooked overnight in the slow-cooker

Luckily, the weather is supposed to be dry today (Wednesday) through Friday. Luckily, I feel pretty good physically. I'm optimistic I'll be able to handle the heavy rototiller and get the job done. We shall see. The photos here show some of our recent "confinement cuisine" — we've been emptying our freezers, our pantry, and our kitchen cabinets over the past 6 or 7 weeks, that's for sure. I guess that's a good thing.

Another gratin de pommes de terre made with sautéed potatoes, Brie cheese, onions, and smoked pork belly lardons

19 comments:

  1. Delicious! You seem to have been eating very very well. As always.

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    1. It's good to be using and enjoying the dried beans, pasta, and other staples we happened to have in the pantry, as well as some of the meats and vegetables we had in the freezers. We both still go for good walks with the dog every day, so we can eat to our heart's content.

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  2. All this is good news. These lunches look very appetizing.

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    1. I meant to answer your second comment yesterday. Those speckled, pale pink roses grow in our back yard. They are very pretty. I'm going to cut some of them and bring them in the house this morning.

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    2. I thought that haricots beurre were some kind of green beans but yellow instead of green. These look more like red beans!g

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    3. They are labeled as haricots beurre. And they are pink, a brownish pink, not red. They don't have the kidney bean shape.

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    4. As you say, they might be the mature form of the haricot beurre. I have never seen them before. I heve no idea where the name haricot beurre comes from. May be because of it's color?

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    5. No, it's the smooth, tender texture of the cooked beans. Like butter.

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  3. Here are the haricots beurre I bought and cooked. Could they be the mature form of the haricots beurre rather than the immature string bean type? Or maybe haricot beurre is just a word for word translation from the Portuguese.

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  4. Oh, my goodness... my goodness! Such fabullous-looking food! You guys really do it up right. Yumm!

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  5. It all looks delicious.

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  6. You're killing me with this post. All this gorgeous food, as I get ready to microwave my oatmeal! Duck burger looks awesome; don;t even know if we could find it here. Maybe frozen.

    Our farmer's markets are open, but one way in, one way out, with gloves and mask required even outside. Only letting in a few people at a time.

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  7. I’ll have one of each, please!

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    1. I'd say come on over, but it would probably be impossible to get a flight right now.

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  8. I could quarantine with you guys every day! The news here is the hamburger chains can't get any hamburger due to the meat processors that had to close. Your duck burgers are so creative! Even those zucchini fritters and the pommes de terre gratin are like looking at a fabulous cookbook! Well done, Ken! And who needs a market when you guys always grow such superb vegies! Who can complain? I do! If one could taste pictures over the internet...

    Mary in Oregon

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    1. Hi Mary, I just came in from running the rototiller over half of our big garden plot. It's exhausting work, but now the first pass on the first half is done. Oh, by the way, we got eggs yesterday! So far we've had no big problems getting beef or pork.

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  9. I absolutely adore brie cheese but living here in a small rural town central Illinois, just can't ever find it in stores..after seeing a couple of your luscious food posts using brie, I ordered a large wedge of brie online...it arrived about 4 wks. ago.."heaven"! I used the very last bit of it last evening for dinner: 1 chicken breast seasoned with taco seasoning, covered with some diced green pepper, tomatoes, shallots and topped with jarred salsa and a dash of spicy Bloody Mary (the bottle kind)....baked in the oven about 25 min. then the glorious brie placed to melt like silk on top.........OH MY....so good! So now I can see I must place another order online :)

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    1. I think a good amount of Brie is made next door in Wisconsin, isn't it? Do you have a Whole Foods grocery near you? They have, or at least used to have, a lot of French cheeses.

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  10. Sadly, the closest Whole Foods is 100 miles from me....I found Murrays's Cheese located in Greenwich Village, NY and they served me well ...in fact, I just placed another order with them today for brie...it will be here in about a week.....can't wait...I have a "scalloped potato casserole, topped with brie" planned for sure! :) Love following your blog! Love all your travel writings because then I travel along! :)

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