Southern Fried French

A Very un-French Pie from a Bygone Era

When I was 25 years old, I made an eggnog pie.  Now we won’t talk about how long ago THAT was.  Let’s just call it another era. 

The pie, which is what one used to call an icebox pie, was so good I remember it still.  The recipe is long lost and I haven’t made it since, because I confess I have a little bit of a gelatin phobia (especially since it only comes in thin little sheets, here in France).  But I decided to conquer my fear and make a pie.

In particular I want to make it for Thanksgiving.  Since Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday,  the Europeans are curious about it, so I always go all out.  

The French don’t know eggnog, so I thought it would be a good foodie adventure.  Of course I can’t buy eggnog here, but this recipe doesn’t call for prepared eggnog--you basically make a homemade eggnog, and put it in a pie.  With that tricky gelatin.

So, you don’t mind if I do a little Thanksgiving practice run with you, do you?  I made it last night, and I have to say it’s just as good as I remembered, and dead easy.  Make it for Thanksgiving if you wish, and if you have to make an extra pie or two to perfect your technique, well, c’est la vie.

 

RECIPE: Rich and Retro Bourbon Eggnog Pie 

I found a recipe that was sort of close at Taste of Home, but I’ve tweaked it.  And it must go in a chocolate crust.  If you’re a southerner you can probably do that in your sleep.   After all, when things get tough in the South, we Make a Pie.  

 First make and bake the chocolate cookie pie crust.  I made the one at Chow, but instead of 4 tablespoons of butter, I used 3, plus 1 tablespoon of bourbon.

 

Then make the pie: 

• 1 ½ teaspoons unflavored gelatin (or 2 ½ sheets of 3 x 5.5” , or 8x13 cm, sheets of gelatin. Order them here  if you want to try them. They're said to dissolve better.)
• 1/4 cup cold water, if using powdered gelatin
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• ⅔ cup milk
• 3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons bourbon
• 1-1/2 cups whipping cream, whipped
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg, divided

In a small bowl, soften powdered gelatin in the ¼ cup cold water; set aside for about 5 to 10 minutes. (If using sheets, put them in 3 cups cold water to soften. To use, fish them out, shake water off, and add to recipe, discarding water).

In a large saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Gradually stir in milk until smooth. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to med-high and cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir a small amount of hot mixture into egg yolks to warm them, and add them to the pan. Bring to a gentle boil, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat; stir in softened gelatin, vanilla, bourbon, and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg. 

Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Fold in whipped cream. Pour into pie shell. Sprinkle with remaining nutmeg. Refrigerate until set, about 2 hours.  Serves 8.

(A thought: I didn’t try it, but I’m guessing you could lighten this up by cutting the cream to a cup and beating up a couple of those egg whites separately, and folding it all together. That’s typically how homemade eggnog is made). 

In the COMMENTS:  Anita of the It's a Funderful World blog is a happy Alliance Française member as is Julie, and Libbie has taken their classes in Paris.  Rachel of And Then Make Soup says, no AF in your city?  Start your own meet-up group!  Suzanne in Louisville says there is such a group there called The French Connection.  Natalia keeps up with her French through Yabla.  If you haven't tried this, it's a most interesting and unique way to learn, on the web. 

My condolences to anyone who is suffering through the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.  I was in Charleston for Hugo and my house was trashed, so I feel your pain.  Bon courage to all.

For Francophiles: A Meet & Greet Spot, and More

Photo:  Day dreaming of France?  The AF is the next best thing to being there.

So, you're a hopeless francophile.  Then I hope you are a member of the Alliance Française.  If not, read on!  And even if you are---you might not know all these facts about this wonderful organization devoted to promoting French all around the globe.

The AF was created in Paris in 1883, by several notable men of the day, including Louis Pasteur and Jules Verne.  Their goal:  to spread the culture and language of France around the planet.

A big focus of the group is language learning---the AF has nearly half a million students, world-wide.  But that’s not all!  It’s a social and cultural group too.  And there is very likely an AF group near you.

Before moving to France, we were enthusiastic Alliance members in Charleston.   The group, with 70-ish members, was about three quarters francophiles and one French expats, and it was held at  a member’s homeeach month.  We celebrated the major French holidays, with a summer Bastille Day pique nique and a winter Fête des Rois, with a galette.   There was a French film festival each year, and one of the French members did a cooking class from time to time.  When we had it at our home one month, we fêted a visiting French ballet group that was performing at the Spoleto festival.  The AF was a fabulous way to stay connected to France.  Cartoon by Tom Vieth of A Small Village in France.

We also joined an AF French conversation group in Charleston, hosted by a French expat couple.  If you’re looking for French language lessons, there’s no better place to start than your local AF group.  Photo, below:  Paris has a big AF center with a comprehensive language school.

To find an AF group in the states, click here.   And if you’re planning a prolonged stay in France, you’ll also find that it’s a great way to study French in France as well.  Find info on AF groups abroad here, and for Paris, click here.

I know we have lots of AF readers.  Please share your AF experiences with us!

 

Favorite Reads: My British friend Dee can't stop talking about the book How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran, which she says is hilarious.  She's promised to loan it to me, I can't wait.  And it's not for girls only, even her husband loved it.   Says one review: “A spirited memoir/manifesto….With equal amounts snarky brio and righteous anger….That such an important topic is couched in ribald humor makes reading about Moran’s journey hilarious as well as provocative….Rapturously irreverent, this book should kick-start plenty of useful discussions.”  Guys, read it if you've got the, ahem, courage.

In the COMMENTS: don't miss the good ideas about 'les restes' this week.  Michelle, Martin and other readers suggested a good vegetable stock, maybe with chicken bones thrown in.  Julie of the Traveling Through blog makes a stir fry, super idea.  Marilyn (who makes beautiful art with salvaged materials, how appropriate for our post), you are lucky to be part of a CSA group!  Linda has a yummy recipe for pears, and Suzanne has roasting ideas.  Kristin of French Word a Day plans to barter with neighbors when the veggies overflow from her new garden. Carrie (of Season It Already!), they don't seem to use much balsamic in dressings here, maybe it's just an Italian thing.  Bonnie, you make a good point about the difference in French shopping habits--it's a system designed to avoid waste.

‘Les Restes’: What to Do with Those Pesky Veggies

The French call them les restes, we call them leftovers.  Recently I was appalled to read an article that revealed a dirty little foodie secret:  in the states we tend to get carried away and fill our market basket with fresh vegetables.  Then we get busy, or don’t know exactly what to do with our bounty, and we throw a large proportion of them smack dab into the poubelle.  Who would do such a thing! Then I realized:  souvent, c’est moi!

A new study says, in fact, that we throw away 40% of our food (see Tara Parker-Pope's excellent article From Farm to Fridge to Garbage Can in the NY Times). You know how it goes.  Your fridge is overflowing with good intentions.  The beautiful veggies beam expectantly.  You really meant to get out your recipe books and whip up some fabulous concoctions.  But life intervenes--you went out to dinner, or you were in a hurry, or you grabbed a sandwich--and there you are, with WAY too much produce on your hands, all headed south.

 I took a cue from frugal French cooks, and I now have a system.  Here in southern Burgundy, market day is every Saturday in Cluny.  So mid-week or at least by Friday, I clean out the vegetable drawer and put it all out on the counter, and I make something. 

And here are my rules:  I try to use everything, it has to be fast and quick, and it can’t require a recipe.  I often end up with several days of lunches or side dishes, all ready to go, or cooked veggies ready to add to another dish.  Brilliant!  And with the money I’ve saved, I can go shopping for something really important, like shoes.

Details on my seat-of-the-pants method is below.  Now how about y'all, how about giving up some of your tricks?

 

RECIPE IDEAS:  Clean out the Fridge Day

Option 1:   Cheerful Chopped Salads

Take most any fresh vegetable Including:

tomatoes, cucumbers, scallions, green beans, onions (red, white, sweet or scallions), zucchini, yellow squash, artichokes, avocados, peppers of any sort, corn, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, fennel, celery, radishes. 

Chop them up, steam them lightly if needed, depending on the type.  You can stop here and dress the salad, or continue:

Add one of the following, cooked and cooled:  rice , small cooked pasta, bulgur wheat, quinoa, or chopped potatoes.   OR go Italian and add white beans, or go Mexican with black beans.

And/Or toss them with:  fresh greens, such as arugula or baby spinach. 

ADD as desired:  fresh herbs, nuts, seeds, chopped cheese, croutons. 

Toss the salad with French dressing #1 (you do keep a jar of this on hand, don’t you?)  or your favorite salad dressing.  Photo:  A white bean and whatever salad.

Option 2:   A One-dish Meal

Make Pasta Primavera: steam or sauté a combo of veggies and dish them out over pasta, dressed with some butter or olive oil, and top with parmesan cheese.

OR serve sautéed vegetables over grits or grains.  If you want to add meat , throw in some cooked bacon, sausage, leftover chicken, etc.  Photo:  sauteed veggies for pasta or to start a soup.

Option 3: Roasting for Richness

Roasted veggies are supremely versatile, and delish. Some that take well to roasting are:  tomatoes, squashes of all types, peppers, mushrooms, turnips, carrots, pumpkin, cauliflower, fennel, potatoes, onions.

To roast, toss with a bit of olive oil, sea salt and pepper; roast at 400F  (200C) until done.  A jelly roll pan works well, and don't crowd them (some veggies, like tomatos, do better in a slow oven with a longer cooking time).

SERVE them as a side dish, or re-heat and serve them over hot pasta, grits, polenta, rice, or grains.  Photo:  sweet potato slices, tossed in a little maple syrup and roasted.

Option 4:  Make soup!

Just invent a new recipe with what you have on hand.  Your really can’t mess this up.  Soup is Good.

 

 In the COMMENTS:  Frank, I got a kick out your adventure with pears.  Kelley is roasting pears in Paris---Kelley, will you be blogging about your Paris experiment? Christine who blogs at Pen at the Ready has a travel tip in her comment.  If you're young at heart, please do go to the link that Paula suggests, a youtube children's book about a French monsieur with perfect pears, The Beast of Monsieur Racine.  It's great fun, I sent it to my grandkids.  Mariella's cooking with pears in Australia, Michelle in New England, and Dee, our pear cake recipe author, suggests a new twist.

Favorite Reads:  OK ladies, speaking of shoe shopping, here's a book on how to get that elusive Paris style, even if you go to Paris only in your dreams.  Check out Lessons from Madame Chic: 20 Stylish Secrets I Learned While Living in Paris.

 

French Pears: Over the Moon with a Spoon

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To be orchard-less in the Burgundy countryside would be a crime.  Most everyone has a pear, a plum, an apple, a peach tree.  Even in my friend Ellen’s formal garden there is a pear tree espaliered along one of her pretty parterres.

In the autumn markets pears have turned up in all their colorful glory: rosy and glowing, golden yellow or earthy green.  A big basket of them adorning the kitchen table promises good things to come.  So what to do with this bounty?

I’ve been cooking a bit with pears this week, and experimenting with roasting them.  Roasting softens the pear and releases its juices.  And that latter part is the most interesting--the juice that comes from a roasted pear has an intense flavor that will put you right over the moon. 

In most any recipe where you need a cooked pear, you can roast them.  I made a version of my friend Dee’s fabulous Apple Cake, from our November 2011 post, but with roasted pears.  Some of the concentrated roasting juices went right into the cake batter, for a more intense pear flavor.

My favorite use for that scrumptious roasted jus de poire it to incorporate it in a homemade caramel sauce.

Ellen, who made poached pears with some of her harvest, gave me a jar of the leftover poaching liquid to sweeten my tea.  I like it in my espresso, too.  Now that’s a creative idea worth stealing! 

All the recipes are below, and they’re my new favorite fall desserts du jour.

 

RECIPES:  Roasted Pear Sundaes with Rum Raisin Ice Cream and Pear-Caramel Sauce

Dee’s Apple Roasted Pear Cake

Ellen’s Pear Tea

To roast pears, cut  2 lbs. (900 gr) firm pears into thick slices.   Toss them in a bowl with the juice of a lemon and a tablespoon of sugar. Spread them out on a jelly-roll pan lined with a Silpat. Roast in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, until they’re tender and give off their juices.   Drain juices and reserve; cool pears. I got a half cup liquid, but it may depend on the type of pear.

For the Pear Sundaes, I used the Better Homes & Gardens easy Caramel Sauce recipe, but I subsitututed  the roasted pear juices for the water (I also used light cream instead of heavy, which worked fine).  I served the roasted pears over rum raisin ice cream (use vanilla or caramel ice cream if you prefer), and topped it with the pears and the caramel sauce, plus pecans. 

For Dee’s Apple Pear Cake, make her recipe as  directed except:  roast 2 lb. (900 gr) of pears, as above. When making batter, add a couple of tablespoons of roasted pear syrup to batter. Pour half the batter in the pan, top with half the pear slices, spread remaining batter over.  Arrange remaining pear slices around top and sprinkle with a tablespoon of sugar.  Make caramel sauce recipe as above, if desired, with remaining reserved pear juices. 

For Ellen's Pear Tea or espresso, use the roasted pear juices to sweeten your tea/coffee. Or do as she did and make poached pears and then use the syrup (it makes a much larger quantity of syrup):  In a saucepan just large enough for 4 pears, put a bottle of white or red wine, a cup of sugar, ½ cup juice, ½ cup water, cinnamon sticks, a couple of whole cloves, and an orange or lemon peel (you can substitute more water/juice for the wine if you prefer). Bring to a boil.  Add 4 peeled, whole pears, stems left on, and simmer for 20 minutes.  Cool and chill overnight, leaving pears to marinate in liquid.  To serve, remove pears and reduce liquid by a third or more until it thickens a bit, 10-15 minutes.  Serve pears with ice cream, drizzled with a little syrup.  Save remaining syrup and add a sweet spoonful to your afternoon tea. 

 

In the COMMENTS:  Ken from NC, welcome, even if you're from the wrong side of that Carolina border. But use polenta for grits, never!  I make my friends bring grits over when they come. (Ken blogs at Living the Life in Saint-Aignan, check out his Savarin cake). Sue and Linda have great pesto tips. Natalia, we have family in Phoenix, can't believe Camelback Road was ever dirt!

Our Reader's Blogs:  Over at A Small Village in France, Tom Vieth has new paintings posted for sale.  If you want affordable, whimsical art that evokes the French countryside, you'll want to take a look at his work (he's even got some tea towels printed with his paintings, which would be great framed!).  And if you happen to live in the northeast area of the US, he's got several shows coming up, check the schedule here.

 

Our Naked, Steamy Neighbors

One thing I’ve learned about Europeans since moving here is that many of them like to take their clothes off outside and 'get nekkid', as we would say in the South.  That is to say, they are great fans of the outdoor shower.  Our Dutch/French neighbors Marion and Jean-Marie are huge proponets of this.  They shower outside all year at their other home in Holland.  Marion (above) claims they are healthy as a result, never getting the flu or even a head cold.

Since they now spend more of their time in France than Holland, Marion recently asked Jean-Marie to install an outdoor shower here as well.  Picture this: their house is on one of the main village roads, and they have a small walled courtyard at the entrance.  Lacking a better space, they put the shower just inside the wall along the road, enclosed with an old wooden door.  They dash out of the front door, in sun or snow, and into the shower. Marion says no one can see inside, though I think some of the tall grape harvesting trucks that go by have gotten an eyeful.

Ron was walking by their house the other morning and he saw steam rising from behind the wall.  What, he inquired of Marion, is the proper etiquette for greeting a naked woman who is showering?  She was inches away on the other side of the wall, so it seemed rude not to speak, but still….Oh la la!

I can never hope to keep up with the hearty Dutch, but I decided to see what the fuss was all about.  On a warm sunny day, bien sûr.  I peeked out of our gate to be sure the coast was clear, then toddled over in robe and slippers, towel and razor in hand.  But then of course the village school class suddenly rounded the corner, on some sort of outing--so much for discretion.

It was quite pleasant showering en plein air, with the sun above and a trumpet vine creeping over the wall and tumbling into la douche.  I could see the church steeple, and was serended by the birds.  A nice moment with nature.  When it’s 70 degrees, that is.  In the buff, I'm defintitely the fair-weather type.

Our English friends Tony and Narissa, who live in a more isolated spot outside of the village, have an outdoor shower of a more rustic variety.  It’s out on the lawn in the front yard, simply a hose thrown over a tree limb, with a nozzle attached and the shampoo sittiing on a nearby tree trunk. This is full exposure to nature in its purest form.  There’s normally no one around, but Tony says Madame la factrice, our round, cheerful, and somewhat frumpy postwoman, has encountered the full monty so many times that it hardly shocks her anymore. But wait-- she has just retired, and has been replaced by a hot young blond who is quite the French babe.  Stay tuned to see how the towel story unfolds.

Photos:  Above, the shower, au naturel, of Tony and Narissa.  Both of them declined to be photographed for this story--chickens!  At left:  Be forewarned that you may not always have an appreciative audience while showering en plein air.  Tony's cat Cléau looks on, and though Tony's quite the hunk, she does not look particulary impressed.

 

Meanwhile, all this fresh air has made us hungry.  Here is the simplest of  salads for the last gasp of summer, a two-bean affair I whipped up the other day, with ingredients  from the market and garden.

 

 

 RECIPE: Salade Deux Haricots with Pesto

What makes this salad special is the fresh pesto, with basil straight from the garden. I used the fat white onions that are in the market now, but you could use red onions, sweet onions or chopped scallions as well.  Don't hesitate to throw in some other raw veggies:  a little shaved fennel perhaps, or thinly sliced yellow squash. This is better if made a few hours ahead.

•  about a pound (450gr)  of haricots verts (thin green beans)
• 1 large can white beans, drained
• as many grape tomatos as you like, cut in half if large
• 1 white or other mild onion, chopped fine
•  freshly made pesto

(I used the pesto recipe here; you'll need only half of it, so cut it in half, or freeze the rest for a winter day). 

Steam beans until tender-crunchy (start checking after about 3 minutes). Drain and cool, then cut into bite-sized pieces, about an inch long. 

Rinse and drain white beans.  Mix vegetables and beans in a large bowl and toss with pesto.  Add sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.  Cover tightly and chill until ready to serve.

 

In the COMMENTS:  In regards to Heather and Kent's 'vacation lifestyle', several folks inquired about health insurance when living abroad, so be sure to check out Heather's response in the Comments section. Sam of My Carolina Kitchen tells about her own vacation lifestyle in the Bahamas.  Fun but 'not for sissies', well put!  And Page reminds us about the 6 degrees of separation.

Favorite Reads/TV Series:  OK I admit it, I'm a hopeless fan of that high-brow English soap, Downton Abbey. and here in France it's back, fraught with the usual crises and hand-wringing. Will Matthew and Mary really tie the knot?  Will the Abbey be a victim of hard ecnomic times?  To see Series 3 in the states you'll have to wait until January, so if you want to re-visit Series 2 to get ready, get it here: Masterpiece Classic: Downton Abbey Season 2 (Original U.K. Edition).