L'histoire des hot-dogs

So we had bought a package of saucisses de Strasbourg, which are very similar to saucisses de Francfort. The Strasbourg sausages are always served as part of a choucroute garnie, with other meats and sausages, and pommes de terre à l'anglaise. When something is cooked à l'anglaise, that means it's boiled or steamed. The saucisses de Strasbourg are poached.

We didn't eat all the saucisses de Strasbourg with the sauerkraut, and we thought we might like to make hotdogs one day soon. We had four different kinds of pickles in the fridge — two kinds that we made and two that we bought at the supermarket. I thought it would be good to have U.S.-style pickle relish with the dogs. So I set about making pickle relish. You can't buy it here.

You just have to chop up some pickles and onion very finely, and optionally some red bell pepper. Then make a vinegar sauce to complete the relish. I read a recipe on the web that said the thing to do is to boil some vinegar down with spices like coriander seeds, mustard seeds, and dill. Well, I had plenty of seasoned vinegar right in the pickle jars in the fridge, so I boiled down a cup or so of that until the liquid started to get a little syrupy. I strained it as I poured it over the chopped pickles.

Then we needed buns, and we didn't have any. So you just make some. We've made hamburger and hotdog buns before, because we think the ones we make are a lot better than the ones you can buy at the supermarket. We have a really good recipe that we found on the Internet. If you are in the U.S., you probably won't ever make your own hamburger or hotdog buns, but I'll give you the recipe anyway. See below.

We ate our hotdogs with pickle relish, Dijon mustard, and ketchup. I also like them with mayonnaise and pickle relish, so I dressed one of mine that way. I think Walt just had relish and mustard on his, sans ketchup. We were pleased with the result. We each ate two hotdogs, with French fries.

Do you know the French word for 'hotdog'? It's hot-dog. It sounds more like [uht-duhg] that it does like the U.S. pronunciation. French has no pronounced H sound, for one thing, and the O vowel is different. The initial H of hot-dog is treated as an H aspiré, which means that in the plural, des hot-dog(s) — the final S is optional and silent — the S of des is not pronounced either. It's [day-uht-duhg]. That's the American [uh] sound, not the British, by the way.

Un hot-dog (don't pronounce the N) in France is often served with melted Swiss cheese on it. It's good, but not the same thing as an American hotdog with relish and mustard. One of the best hotdogs I ever had was in 1970 in Aix-en-Provence, though, when I was a starving student. It was a saucisse de Francfort served on a piece of tender baguette with melted butter. Nothing else. I bought it from a street vendor at the market and I still remember how good and minimalistic it was.

Hamburger or Hotdog Buns
Makes 6 burger or 8 hotdog buns

½ cup (120 ml) milk
¼ cup (60 ml) water
1 oz. (28 g) butter
2½ cups all-purpose flour (or more)
5 g yeast
1 Tbsp. white sugar
¾ tsp. salt
1 oz. beaten egg

In a small saucepan, heat milk, water and butter until very warm, 120ºF (50ºC).

In a large bowl, mix together 1 scant cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Mix milk mixture into flour mixture, and then mix in the egg. Stir in the remaining flour, half a cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

For hamburgers, divide dough into 6 equal pieces. Shape into smooth balls, and place on an oiled baking sheet (or silpat, or parchment paper). Flatten slightly. Cover, and let rise for 30 to 35 minutes.

Bake at 400ºF (200ºC) for 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown.

For hotdog buns, shape each piece into a 6x4 inch rectangle. Starting with the longer side, roll up tightly, and pinch edges and ends to seal. Let rise about 20 to 25 minutes. Bake as above. These buns are pretty big. I usually make 8 instead of 6.

La potée

Winter squash, choucroute, and now collard greens and kale. Oh, not to mention pumpkin cakes and apple tarts. It's definitely autumn. I started harvesting greens yesterday, cutting about two pounds of the nicest leaves but leaving the plants in the ground for now. Most years, collards and kale can over-winter in the garden here in the Saint-Aignan area.

Kale on the right, collard greens on the left, from our autumn vegetable garden

Today I'm going to make a potée, after my own fashion. The Robert-Collins dictionary says that's called a "hotpot (of pork and cabbage)" in English. In my American dialect, we don't have that term, as far as I know. It's probably where "hodgepodge" came from. Just put everything in the pot and cook it.

The current view from our living room

A potée is a boiled dinner including salt-cured or smoked pork and sausages, cabbage, carrots, onions, leeks, and potatoes. The ingredient list is not written in stone. I'm going to use all of the above, but collard greens and kale instead of cabbage. I'll use that nice chicken broth I made a few days ago, when I poached a chicken, as the cooking liquid.

Collard green leaves (feuilles de chou cavalier)

Many French regions, including Burgundy and Champagne, have their own special recipe for potée. Here's a link to a recipe and some nice photos of a potée auvergnate — l'Auvergne is in the central French mountains. In other regions — la Lorraine in the east, for example — people put white beans in their potée. Turnips, rutabagas, and celery, stalks or root, often show up too.

Maple trees putting on their autumn show off the front terrace

My potée today will be an américano-tourangelle version I guess, with American greens grown in my garden here in Touraine. Walt just got up and he said that when he pulled up the blinds on the Velux skylight windows upstairs, there was ice on them. It's a good day for a big hot pot of comforting potée, for sure.

Tajine de potiron, courge, ou patate douce

I posted about this a while back, but I had modified the recipe significantly. I made this tajine just with winter squash, onions, raisins, and spices, with a touch of honey (optional). The recipe comes from a little book called simply Tajines, published by Hachette in 2005 and written by Ghislaine Danan-Bénady.

We have had a huge harvest of winter squashes this fall. For this recipe, I used a 'buttercup' squash, but a butternut would be similar, or some pumpkin, or even sweet potatoes.The hardest part of preparing the tajine is cutting up and peeling the vegetables. A tajine is a kind of Moroccan curry, by the way.

Here's the recipe, in my translation:

Tajine of pumpkin with onions and raisins

2 lbs. of pumpkin (or butternut-type squash)

½ cup golden raisins

2 medium onions

1 tsp. turmeric

1 tsp. ginger (dried or fresh grated)

½ tsp. cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp. honey

Olive oil for cooking the onion

Salt and pepper to taste

Put the raisins to soak in just enough cold water to cover them for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, peel and chop the onions.

In a tablepoon or two of olive oil in a pan, put the onions on low heat to slowly cook and melt down with the spices and the honey. Cover the pan and leave it on very low heat for 15 to 20 minutes.

Cut up and peel the pumpkin, squash, or sweet potato. Cut everything into 1-inch cubes. Put the pumpkin cubes into the pan with the onions and add the raisins and the soaking water. Add more water as necessary. Stir everything together and set the pan on medium heat, covered, for 20 to 30 minutes, until the pumpkin cubes are tender and cooked through. Serve.

To go with the pumpkin tajine yesterday, I cooked a whole chicken. I poached it, which is a very nice way to prepare a chicken (or any poultry) so that the meat is tender and juicy. Put the chicken into a large pot of simmering water or broth and let it cook at a low simmer for an hour. I stuffed some garlic cloves and celery leaves into this one, and I added salt and black peppercorns to the poaching liquid.

When the chicken was cooked, I took it out of the liquid (which is now a nice chicken broth) and set it in a roasting dish to brown it in the oven. I sprinkled red tandoori curry powder over it, along with salt and pepper, and then browned it in a hot oven for about 20 minutes. Deliciously tender inside and nicely crispy on the outside, it was really good.

Red berries

The light was really yellow at sunrise Monday morning. All my photos glow with a golden color. That wasn't the case yesterday, when gray skies had returned.

In this season, I see these red berries (photos above and below) growing in the woods all all around the vineyard. Before they ripen and turn red, they look like green grapes, and they grow on vines. They're harder to the touch, though. If you know what they are, please tell me.

Yesterday we had a good shopping expedition. The south suburbs of Blois, 40 km / 25 mi. north, are our closest major shopping area, with a few dozen large stores, including an Auchan hypermarché (superstore) and a Grand Frais supermarket as well as a range of hardware, appliance, housewares, and sporting goods stores. When it comes to shopping, the immediate Saint-Aignan area doesn't have a lot to offer.

Vineyard sunrise in November

The best part of the day was that we discovered a wine co-op that we hadn't known about before. It's the Cave Coopérative des Vignerons de Mont-près-Chambord, not far from the famous château. They make and sell a wide selection of wines from the Cheverny and Cour-Cheverny appellations. You can buy bottles, fontaines à vin (bag-in-box packaging), or bulk wine (you take in your own containers and they fill them by pumping the wine out of big stainless steel storage vats).