As I wrote yesterday, for some reason I nearly completely stopped posting about food and cooking over the past year — at least as compared to all the food posts I used to do. Easing my way back into that habit, today I'm posting some photos of foods and dishes we've cooked since the beginning of January.
For example, here's a Thai curry made with red curry paste, onions, garlic, bell pepper, chicken, and broccoli. It was spicy hot and temperature hot, which is the kind of food you need and want when it's cold and damp outside. We ate it over Asian wheat noodles.
Another good wintertime dish to make and eat is called a tartiflette. It originated in the Savoy area of the French Alps, and is made with potatoes and a local cheese called Reblochon. Pre-cook the potatoes in a steamer, cut them into cubes or slices, and lightly brown them in a little bit of butter. Arrange them in a baking dish with some smoked bacon lardons, spoon on some cream (crème fraîche in France), and pour on some white wine. Cut the Reblochon cheese into two disks and lay those cut-side down (crust side up) on top of the potatoes. Bake it in a hot oven until browned. Don't let it dry out.
A French/North African dish for winter is called couscous. (It's also good in summer because it's so spicy.) I know a lot of Americans who eat couscous "grain" as a breakfast cereal — it's not actually a grain but a form of micro-pasta. The best way to serve and eat couscous is with a spicy broth in which you cook vegetables — green beans, carrots, eggplant, zucchini, turnips, onions, tomatoes, etc. — and meats including chicken, lamb, and spicy merguez beef and lamb sausages.
Hard to tell which I'll order first. Probably choucroute because of my Alsatian ancestry. But all the others come close seconds. And all look appetizing and delicious thanks to the great photos.
ReplyDeleteThe little Sony camera takes really good pictures of this kind.
DeleteMiam, miam! Tartiflette is my first choice, followed by the seafood, then any of the others will be fine. We needed the trip photos to help our wanderlust durning the pandemic. Thank you for it all.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to see the choucroute under the fish, shrimp, and potatoes, but it was there, and good.
DeleteOh, those all look so delicious!
ReplyDeleteDo you remember eating couscous or sauerkraut when we were all in Paris in the early '80s? I learned to really enjoy choucroute when I spent a year (1979-80) teaching in Metz, in the Lorraine. I definitely remember couscous from a little restaurant over near Montparnasse in the late 70s and early 80s.
DeleteThank you. I needed to renew my menus and I count on you.
ReplyDeleteThe pressure is on! Thanks for telling me.
DeleteI'm guessing fresh choucroute has less of that pickled taste that comes with the jar. I've always loved it, even as a child. It all looks good!
ReplyDeleteThe fresh choucroute doesn't have the musty, musky smell of sauerkraut out of cans or jars. I'm luky to be able to buy it here for about 1 euro per kilo.
DeleteEverything looks delicious! I think I just gained five pounds reading this post.
ReplyDeleteBoil leeks in water and just drink the broth. A French woman wrote a book about how that diet kept her from gaining weight.
DeleteWhat a great post. Everything looks delicious and is so beautifully presented here.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mitch. It's home cooking...
DeleteChoucroute - I love it! And I cooked some apple sausage a couple of days ago with cooked potatoes and asparagus. I was thinking I should buy some cabbage (special prices just before St. Patrick's Day!) to have with my leftover sausage next week! From your photos, I will cook some carrots along side it! When do you add the carrots, Ken?
ReplyDeleteI haven't repeated am African Couscous recipe with chicken that I took to one of my french class's soirées! I will need to find that recipe!
Merci pour les suggestions!
Mary, there's at least one recipe for North African couscous on my blog — here's a link. It's not my recipe, but one that a friend brought back from Algeria when she spent a summer there in the 1970s. Her Algerian friend's mother taught her how to make couscous.
DeleteI put the carrot or carrots in the sauerkraut at the beginning. If they look like they're getting too cooked, I take them out and then re-heat them in the 'kraut just before serving.
DeleteOh - My grandmother's family was from Alsace!
ReplyDeleteOh the food, the good french food.
ReplyDeleteI hope by summer we can travel freely again.
Paris on my list.
I hope so too. I miss my annual trips to the U.S., not to mention our road trips around different parts of France.
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