Southern Fried French

Between “Joyeux Noel” & “Bonne Année”: What to Cook

Good morning! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas/Happy Holiday!

So now we are in that limbo week, between Christmas and New Year's Day. Perhaps you still have family and friends happily gathered around, and perhaps you are still spending a lot of time in the kitchen. Wondering what to do with those last sad leftovers, and starting to lust after something different to eat, maybe unable to  face once again that sweet potato casserole that has been cycled through the microwave one too many times.

So today, a solution to both problems.

Let’s begin with finishing off those leftovers. I went to a divine Christmas tea at my dear friend Sandi’s house, and the most popular of all the lovely little nibbles on offer was one that you can whip up out of those leftovers! They looked pretty and holiday-ish, too. Let’s call them Spicy Turkey Cranberry Rounds.

No recipe needed, just do this: Take a round cookie cutter and make some circles out of soft white or wheat bread. Top them with your leftover cranberry sauce (you do make your own, don’t you? It takes 5 minutes! I've used this recipe for years). But first spike the sauce with a little chopped jalapeno, to give it some kick. Spread it on the bread, top with a turkey slice, a tiny dollop more of sauce, and a green leafy thing (arugula, parsley, cilantro, or microgreens). Voila! Surprise your crowd with these at happy hour, or make them a light lunch.

Now it’s time to make dinner, and we are ready to take a path far from the leftover turkey and ham, without wallowing in the kitchen. For this I recommend one of my very favorite dishes. It’s indulgent, simple, and tastes of the sea.

I always order this when we visit Nice, as it’s a specialty there. Which means they probably nicked it from the (nearby) Italians, who call it Spaghetti con Cozze e Gamberetti. No matter what you call it, it’s delicious! 

 

 RECIPE: Pâtes aux Fruits de Mer

Use a hot or mild chili of your choice here. In France we would use piment from a jar; or you could use dried red pepper flakes to add heat. You can throw in any shellfish you like to the mix, but the briny taste of mussels is pretty essential. If you add some baby clams, that would make it even better. (photo above, a home-cooked version, and at left, from a fancy restaurant in Nice).

 

 

 

 

 

Serves 4

1 pound (500g) grams spaghetti
1 pound (500g) mussels
1/2 pound (250g) shrimp
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
a small red chili, seeded and diced (or piment, or red pepper flakes to taste)
1/4 cup (50 ml) white wine
juice of a lemon
small bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped
freshly grated parmesan

Cook the spaghetti according to package directions. Meanwhile, clean mussels (tap any that remain open; if they don’t close up, pitch them). Peel shrimp. Leave tails on as the French would or off like the Americans, up to you.

Heat the oil in a large skillet and sautée the garlic and chili for about 2 minutes. Add mussels and wine and cover. Cook just a few minutes, until mussels are open, checking frequently. Discard any unopened mussels.

Add shrimp, cook 3 to 5 minutes more, turning them, until fully pink. Add the lemon juice. Remove from heat, add salt and pepper to taste, and stir in parsley. Add hot, drained pasta to the pan, toss well and serve. Pass the parmesan cheese, and toast the new year.

The basic recipe is by Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo.

 

In the COMMENTS:  Well, several southerners checked in on the muscadine wine post, bless your hearts.  Vicky is encouraging y'all to embrace muscadines.  As I said, love 'em or hate 'em.  Suzanne, we grew up thinking just like your Tennessee daddy! (and I had a Tennessee daddy too, by the way).

A very happy new year to all!

 

A Winery with a Chicken Coop, and a Tea Chaser

 

 You know how it works: you live in a place forever, and it’s not until guests come and have their own ideas about seeing the place, that you learn something truly new.

Last year when we were in Charleston, a place I’ve lived for 30 plus years before moving to France, Ron’s brother and his wife joined us for a week. They came armed with a fun list: all the “Diners, Drivie-ins & Dives” that have been featured in Charleston. And so we were off to dives like The Tattooed Moose and the Dixie Supply Bakery and Café (5 tables, and attached to a 7-11), and did some mighty fine eatin’, in places we might never have discovered.

This year on our Charleston visit, our old and dear  friends Audrey and Bob came down from Ohio. They wanted to tour the Charleston Tea Planation (knew about it, never been) and the Deep Water Vineyard (what, Charleston has a vineyard?), both on nearby Wadmalaw Island.

First, the tea. It turns out that this is the only tea in the world made from 100% American grown tea. There are acres of tea plants, and you cruise around in a shuttle to see them. Along the way you learn how tea is grown and made. Did you know: that tea is made from a plant in the camellia family? That the first tea bushes were brought over from China to Charleston in the 1700's? That decaf tea is full of chemicals, but you can make your own natural decaf tea, from regular tea?

Then we had a tea tasting at the gift shop: hot and iced tea in many flavors, all delicious. We bought some fun teas for Charleston-ophile friends.

The winery was another matter altogether. On the way over, I told Ron and our guests, “the only grape I know that will grow in this climate is a muscadine and their cousin, scuppernongs. And they are about the nastiest thing you will ever taste!” Surely they weren’t growing those.

Muscadines have a strong, unusual taste and you either love it or hate it, kind of like okra. My mom, for example, who is from south Georgia, loves them. Most folks I know can’t be in the same room with them.

The winery turned out to be about as far from a fancy French winery as you could possibly get, but still fun. Set in the deep woods, there was a big chicken coop by the dirt parking lot. A rustic building with picnic tables outside for sipping served as the tasting room. Sure nuff, they were selling muscadine and scuppernong  wine! And as our tasting revealed, they had embraced the full flavor of the grapes.  They also make something called Firefly Moonshine, which tastes pretty much like its name.

So, if you’re looking for a true southern experience, and we are talking deep south here, head for Deep Water Vineyards. Otherwise, I recommend a very civilized cup of Charleston Tea.

Below: fields of tea plants growing under the live oaks at the Charleston Tea Plantation.

 

You can scoot around the plantation on a shuttle bus tour.

 

Workers clearing the banks around an irrigation pond for the tea plants.  They have to be careful not to dip their toes in the water; the pond is home to a number of alligators.

 

At Deepwater Vineyards, they sell southern "moonshine".  Love this:

 

Favorite Reads, from our readers: Meredith recommends WTF?!: What the French, by the very witty Olivier Magny, who is always a fun read (see my interview with Olivier in this 2013 post.)  Julie recommends Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort.  Julie says,  "She was one of the few Americans who had permission to travel freely in war zones, so she went with a group to visit with and document the lives of soldiers in the field. She was close enough to look the enemy in the eye across forest lines. It's a unique piece of reporting." Thank you, ladies, for some interesting recommendations.

 

Opening up the French Experience

So many things contribute to the tapestry of the French experience. The lilting French language that is the background noise of life here. The loamy smell of the terroir in wine country. The familiar church bells, or the unexpected clip-clop of horses passing though our village on a lazy afternoon.

And then there are the visuals:  those weathered, quirky,  French doors and windows, each different, wearing the mark of time or the touch of a casual, inadvertently stylish hand.

 I can't help but collect photos of them, to remember and treasure. I'm always sorry if I take a walk in France without my camera at the ready.

This week, a collection of doors.  Another day,  we'll take a peek through some French windows. And I'm betting, dear readers who know this country, that you've snapped one or two in your travels as well.

 

 

 

 

 

The mystery and romance of Old French lace

 

A cheerful barn door, with les fleurs

 

Can you guess where this door leads?

 

Perfect patina

 

Nobody home?

A Parisian classic

 

 

The soft blue of Provence

 

The kitchen door of our friends Pete and Dee's house in Burgundy

 

...and Dee's sister Maggie's pretty rendition of it.

 

In the COMMENTS: Paul, I understand! this is not a political blog, and I did some soul-searching before I waded in last week (and in this post before the election). But in a week like no other, I just couldn't bring myself to write a perky French post and not mention a thing about the seismic shift in my own country. My conscience wouldn't let me. But now, back to all thing French and southern.

I really appreciated all of the thoughtful comments, including dissenting ones, thank you all so much for weighing in. They are interesting and worth a read for all. And those of you who speak French, pay close attention to Nicole's comment and her funny and deliberate misspelling: Il est important de ne pas se trumper...

RE our Burgundy overview, if you want an excellent little Burgundy vacation by means of a great video, check out this link, which David Watson, a fellow Burgundy expat, sent us by way of Facebook. An aerial view of Burgundy wine country, It really captures the beauty of the place.