21 June 2020

Food or landmarks?

This morning I've been looking back to some photos I took in 2009 in the Cantal department, in the Auvergne region, of central France. But I also have some photos of food from yesterdays lunch. 'What to post? What a dilemma!


I guess I'll go with food. CHM says I always fall back on cooking and food when I'm not sure what to post. Yesterday morning, on the spur of the moment, I decided to make a gratin dauphinois — scalloped potatoes in cream in the style of the Grenoble area. Well, maybe not exactly, because I put some grated cheese in it. We ate it with steaks that Walt bought at the market earlier in the morning and cooked on the grill. That's them above — the cut is called bavette and is similar to skirt or flank steak.


What you do is cut some potatoes into thin slices. Boil some milk or a mix of milk and cream seasoned with salt and pepper, garlic, and bay leaves. When the potatoes are partially cooked, put half of them into a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle on some grated cheese — I had grated Edam from the Netherlands and grated ewe's milk cheese called Osso-Iraty from Basque country. White cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese would be good. One top of the cheese layer, spoon in the rest of the partially cooked potatoes and then sprinkle more cheese on top. Pour the hot milk/cream into the dish until the potatoes are just barely covered with liquid. Set the pan in the oven and let the melted cheese turn golden brown as the milk evaporates until the potatoes are tender. Serve in the baking dish. Voilà.

To round it all out, we had a few florets of steamed broccoli as a side dish.












Oh, and as a first course we ate some radishes dipped in a little salt that you sprinkle on your and served with French bread and butter. That's a classic French appetizer. When we get radishes that come with fresh, unblemished leaves, like these, we use the leaves to make pesto the way you would make pesto with basil. Delicious.

18 comments:

  1. Ken you need your own cooking show on PBS. This food all looks great...and those radishes are so photogenic!

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    1. I think I missed my calling. But if I cooked for a living, I'd probably be tired of it by now. I just love being in France because this is where I learned to cook — from women I've known, from cookbooks, and from cooking shows on television.

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    2. I second what D... said. I'd add, your a talented cook and writer!

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    3. Nothing would have to change, Ken! Look up some of the you-tube videos. I watch a few when I'm interested in new techniques for different inking properties for papermaking. You could do it for a lark - just because! Think about it! I would certainly enjoy a cooking video with all of your hints and input about what you were preparing! Even now, there is no rifraff - everything you print is concise and easy to follow. And then there are those great photos of the food you have presented after having lovingly been prepared! Diogenes and CHM are right and I want join them on that bandwagon! A new career choice (not really, just something you do anyway with your blog!) and something to keep you up at night while you are contemplating the next week's menus!!!

      Mary in Oregon

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    4. Thanks M., D., and CHM, but it's a little late in life for me to start a new career. Making videos would introduce a lot of complications into the process. I'll just stick to still photos and slide shows.

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  2. O/T - Re: Covid-19. I am still completely asymptomatic and in isolation. I should be tested again in a week or so. It seems to me there are a lot of unknowns (known unknowns?) concerning this pandemic. I'm afraid it is only the begining. Unfortunately, Clown XLV keeps his immense knowledge to himself!

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  3. When you put cheese in a potato gratin, doesn't it become a gratin savoyard?

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    1. I've heard that said, but the best known gratin savoyard now is called tartiflette, which is supposed to be made with Reblochon cheese (and lardons fumés).

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    2. Tartiflette is restricted to Reblochon. What do you call a gratin made with Beaufort cheese? A Beauflette? Gratin savoyard can be made with <_>any kind of cheese from Savoie, n'est-ce-pas?

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    3. Many people say that a true gratin savoyard doesn't contain any milk or cream. It's made with potatoes, cheeese, and beef bouillon.

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  4. The steaks looks great; they definitely look like what we call skirt steaks in the US. As to the radishes, they're French Breakfast Radishes in the US. I assume in France they're simply called Radis. Or is there a modifier attached to that?

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    1. Bob, they're often called radis roses.

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  5. I'm glad you went with cooking for today's post...My mil used to eat the black radishes that way, with salt and butter. I'm interested in making pesto with the leaves. You live well, indeed.

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  6. It all looks delicious!

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  7. Scalloped potatoes, flank/skirt steak and broccoli, one of my favorite meals! I always use one of your variations on gratins for potatoes and/or cauliflower and they’re always delicious. Radishes have disappeared from our local grocery stores, I have been looking for them for at least two months. I’ve been wanting to have them with good bread and butter. I think I will have to lick your post off my computer screen today!

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  8. I had been searching the radishes in my grocery stores for some really fresh greens after Walt had posted about making radish pesto - but I finally succumbed last week and just bought ones that looked the freshest. They are still in my refrigerator (the greens) but I just couldn't imagine making pesto when the greens weren't really fresh. I'll keep looking, it doesn't take long for me to go through a bunch of radishes. Maybe I'll be lucky next week!

    Mary in Oregon

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  9. Now I'm hungry again, after looking at those delicious pictures.
    A few days (week?) back, you posted about making a round loaf of bread, using parchment paper. Do you leave the paper in the baking pan while it cooks, or do you whisk it out at the last moment? I'd have asked earlier, but the internets have decided I can't post to your blog from my MacBook. Who knows why.

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    1. I leave the paper in the pot while the bread bakes. I've learned that if the oven is too hot the paper can stick to the bottom of the loaf, so I won't turn the temperature up so high next time — 450ºF at the most. I think I had the oven on 475ºF last time.

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