To make the boiled dinner called une potée yesterday, I did a couple of things I'd never done before. For example, I cooked turnips, parsnips, and a rutabaga separately in a steamer pot rather than cooking them in the potée broth with the meat, onions, carrots, herbs, cabbage, and spices. Some vegetables just don't stand up well to long slow cooking. It turned out that the rutabaga needed to cook a lot longer than the turnips and parsnips, so I could have cooked it in the broth... oh well. Anyway, I poured the liquid left in the bottom of the steamer into the stock pot so those flavors were not lost but were included in the broth. And I re-heated the pre-cooked vegetables in the broth just before serving them.
The meats I used for this potée were two pieces of cured pork shoulder called palette de porc. One was salt-cured (demi-sel) and the other was smoked (fumé). About 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time, I also put in two saucisses de Toulouse, which are made with fresh, not cured, pork. They don't need long cooking. About 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time, I also added some cubes of pumpkin — it cooks fast, and can fall apart fast. One vegetable you don't see here is celery, which I had and put in at the beginning of the cooking time. It gives good flavor to the broth.
Speaking of flavors, I put spices and herbs including allspice berries, cloves (clous de girofle) black peppercorns, red pepper flakes, thyme, bay leaves, leek tops, and garlic clove in a big spice ball so that they could cook and enrich the broth but be easy to remove before serving. I also cooked potatoes separately in the steamer pot while the broth was on the stove. That way, again, the potatoes were done the way I wanted them and didn't get too mushy. I started the two pieces of cured pork in cold water with the carrots, onions, cabbage, etc. and since the pork was salty I didn't add any salt to the pot until the end of the cooking time, after tasting it. The cooking time was 1½ to 2 hours on low heat.
This interesting post made me look for French potée's recipes. It confirmed what I had noticed before that in any French recipe there are fewer different spices than in their American counterparts. I wonder why this is so and what could be the origin. Is it British or German?
ReplyDeleteHere, at the rehab facility the food is generally terrible. Either it has no taste or the flavor, chocolate, lemon, strawberry, vanilla, cinnamon, is overpowering!
I think it's British.
DeleteIn a perfect world, Ken could overnight his wonderful cooking to the rehab facility and it would still be warm! I suspect the flavors of tomorrow will be sweet everywhere.
DeleteD, I do hope so. Keeping my fingers crossed
DeleteThe potée looks delicious! I hope it will freeze well.
ReplyDeletewe're going to be eating the vegetables for a few days... They're good though. I'll dice them up some and make soup in a day or two.
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