Stop the gachis! Eat some hachis!

My dear, poor, non French people,

I'm so sorry. Désolée, vraiment. But once again, I have to tell you that we French people are superior... You know me, I don't like to brag... It's not my fault if French people always know better! 
Take recycling for example. I find it funny to see all the media attention nowadays on waste and how to not put everything in the garbage bin. Rien de nouveau sous le soleil! (Nothing's new under the sun):  French cooks have been doing it for ages.

My grand-mother Georgine (84 going on 85 and still cooking) is the perfect example. When you've been a farmer all your life, you know how precious a "fruit of the earth" is: you don't throw easily a vegetable you gave time and sweat to make it grow... Especially when you get the miserable wages a retiree farmers' widdow get in France.
"Je jette rien", she always says...  From the water to the leftovers, she never throws anything. I guess she would be very proud of this recipe: stop the gâchis (the waste), eat some Hachis!

Le Hachis Parmentier

Ingrédients

2 pounds Meat
2 pounds Potatoes
1 cup milk
4,5 oz of butter
A pinch of grated cheese
Salt, pepper, and Nutmeg




 




Many French delicacies are actually re-use from leftovers. Hachis Parmentier is one of them: for this one I used the Boeuf Bourguignon leftover I had from last video recipe. But you can also use ground beef meet, or duck confit for example...

This recipe bears the name Parmentier in honour of a great French man: Antoine-Augustin Parmentier.
Right before the French Revolution, this pharmacist discovered the way to prevent the numerous famines that were so recurringly happening in the country: to grow and eat potatoes.

At that time, people were totally disgusted with this strange root that was only fed to the pigs. It was even forbidden to grow any at some point, because it was believed potatoes could cause leprosy!
But Antoine-Augustin Parmentier discovered that it was of a great help to fight disentry, and went on a fight to make it legal and developped all over France.
After many years of lobbying, he managed to convince Louis the XVIth (yes, the one we beheaded, but that's another story). 

But nobody wanted to eat potatoes.
Food for pigs? Non merci!
So they changed its name into "Pomme de terre" : apple of the earth, so romantic!
But non. 
Toujours non... 
So they asked the king to set up a new "potato trend", by wearing a potato flower "à sa boutonnière", at his buttonhole.
So if the King said it, did the French follow? 
Non non non!
They had rather die of hunger than eat it..

And that's when Parmentier showed that he had genius.
He asked the King for a small piece of land North of Paris. He grew potatoes there, and surrounded the field by armed guards, as if what they were protecting was very valuable... 
Parisians grew suddenly very interested in this precious plant, and started to steal it at night when the guards were not looking...

Et voilà!

That's how the love between France and Potato started, and how French Fries were born...

La recette

Preheat the oven at 350°F
Grind the leftover meat of the bourguignon
Boil the potatoes for at least 20 minutes, then peel them and mash them with milk and butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Spread a layer of potato purée in a large casserole dish, then spread the meat
Then spread the rest of the purée on the meat. Add some grated cheese, and hop, au four! To the oven.
Cook for at least 45 minutes.
Et voila!

Now have a piece of this delicious French comfort food... Isn't it great to recycle? Merci encore Mr Parmentier!



Bon appétit les amis!


Cécile



PS: 
If you happen to go to Paris, you should visit the Pere Lachaise cemetery. Not because you're a strange and morbid Goth, or a big Jim Morisson fan (Yes, he is buried there, even if some pretend that the casket was smaller than he was): but to go to Mister Parmentier's tomb. 
Notice the wild flowers all around. The gardeners of the cemetery never touch them: they are potato flowers planted by fans all over the world who want to pay him an hommage.

Cook Faisan like a real peasant (Pheasant au vin)

My dear, poor, non French people,

Let me tell you: it's never funny to be the turkey of the stuffing. 

I guess that would be the litteral translation of "Etre le dindon de la farce", a popular French saying that means "being the laughing stock". 

Why do American people are so concerned about it ? The stuffing I mean. That what amazed me most last month as I was enjoying my first real Thanksgiving. Even a gourmet like me had never seen people fight over what should or should not be put inside an animal...Très très bizarre!

The whole ceremony is actually very exotic for a poor French girl like me. I guess I felt the same thing as an American girl in front of the Eiffel Tower: I thought I was in a movie! Loved it.
I tried to think of a similar celebration back in France, and it suddenly reminded me of family fall tradition. Le déjeuner de la chasse, chez tatate Giselle. And faisan.

Le faisan au vin

Ingrédients

1 pheasant

1 bottle of red wine

1 onion or 2 shalots

3 cloves

4 carrots

1 pound brussel sprouts

1/2 pound mushrooms

It's every 3rd sunday of September. And always at my grand-aunt's farm.

The opening day of the hunt lunch is never to be missed in my family.

Tatate Giselle is still hosting it every year, even is she's more than 80 years old now. Et le menu? Still the same..

Crudités first, with the incredible mayonnaise de tatate Giselle (made from scratch with fresh eggs from the farm, a creamy, thick, golden mayonnaise I still dream of). 

Then Bouchées à la Reine (savoury Vol au vent with sweetbread, please remind me to cook and write the recipe very soon!) 

And a game meat dish: hoar, doe, or pheasant.

And who has the more make up on? The male, on the right!

Pheasant is really a natural part of the diet in the area of France I come from.
There are plenty of woods and forests in Sologne, and they are rich in wild animals.
As it's only 100 miles south of Paris, the area has always been a holiday destination for kings, princes, and then rich families who came for a good hunt.
But the French Revolution changed it all by allowing peasants like my ancestors to also hunt, in communal woods, and I guess that's what my family celebrate every year.
The guys (and some girls of my generation, but not me, I had rather read!) would go hunting in the morning and try to come back with some trophy (they would tease each other all year long about it... but my mom always said that it was more a walk in the woods...)

This bird has nothing to do with lazy farm raised animals like hens, gooses... or turkey. It's most of the time in the wilderness, and is therefore less fatty and more muscular. It can be very dry if not prepared well, that's why I like better to have it marinate in wine 24 hours. 

La recette

Peel an onion and put 4 cloves in it

Peel the carrots and cut them in two

Put the onion, carrots and pheasant in a large bowl and pour the bottle of wine


Add salt, pepper, and some laurel and let marinate for at least 24 hours.





Then heat a cast iron pan, or just a regular cooking pot.



Brown the bird in a little bit of olive oil.



Add the marinated wine and carrots, and maybe some other herbs like thyme.

Put to a boil and then set down to low or sim, and let it slowly bubble its way, something like 2 or 3 hours.




Add the trimmed Brussel sprouts and the mushrooms 20 minutes before serving.





Et voilà!

As you can see, this recipe is very similar to the very traditional Coq au vin.
Strangely I find it easier to find a pheasant here in LA than a rooster ( at the 3rd and Fairfax Farmer's Market), but you can do exactly the same recipe with a male chicken...

Bon appétit les amis!

Be a good poire ! Teach your pears how to swim in wine!

My dear, poor, non-French people,

Let me be a good pear today, or "Une bonne poire":  this is how my French friends call someone who’s always helping everybody, even if people are taking advantage of it. 
It’s nice, at least it’s much better than being “une vraie dinde”, “a real turkey”, which is how we call people who are stupid and brainfree, I would say…

Anyway, after all your stomach has suffered last Thursday, I’m sure you’ll love this delicious and healthy dessert.

Les poires au vin

Ingrédients

4 pears

1 bottle of red wine

3 tbsp honey

1 tbsp vanilla seeds

3 Cloves, Anise, Pepper

This recipe is actually very similar to the strawberry wine soup I wrote about this summer. Let’s say it’s the autumn, warm, version of it. 
It’s the perfect way to end a good meal : no need for another big fluffy pie that will only stay on your hips and not on your palate as a souvenir…

I love doing it too because it reminds me of winter time and skiing vacation: you actually cook the fruits in something that is very similar to vin chaud, mulled wine.  

The best after a day of slaloms in poudreuse, powdery snow. (Or, after visiting half a dozen fromageries for the best Tomme de Savoie: why ski when you can prepare a Raclette or a Fondue?).

Poires are such great autumn fruits! 

Where I come from, in the Center of France, they are deeply used. 
You can find "poires tapées" (beaten pears): pears that are pealed and dried during three days in special wood ovens, and then "beaten" with a special instrument and laid in a traditional basket. 

But my favorite is la poire my grand father used to make with the fruits left at the end of the season: a pear brandy he would always serve to his good friends at the end of a great meal. 

Adults would sip a glass of this gorgeously perfumed "eau de vie" (litteraly "water of life") while we kids would try not to be seen trying to soak a sugar cube in their glass: it's called "un canard", a duck, and it's a little piece of drunken sweet heaven...

"Eau de vie"... almost like water, makes you really feel you're alive!

La recette

Put the red wine to a boil

Add the spices: the cloves, the star anis, the vanilla, and a little bit of pepper
 
Melt the honey in it

Peal the pears, leaving the stem and gently plundge them in the wine

Put on sim and Cook for 25 minutes

You can eat them warm, but I prefer them cold, they can be kept in the fridge for days.

Bon appétit les amis!

Chicken Tagine les amis !

My poor non French people,

It’s hard to admit for a French and perfect patriot like me, but I owe you to tell  the vérité, the entire vérité, and just the vérité…
Ok...

Sometimes the best French food is not French.

Well… It’s French… In the way that millions of Français cook it on a regular basis and consider it part of their cultural heritage. 

But it wasn’t developed in the strict Hexagon formed by our borders.

Like Tagine for exemple.

Tagine de poulet

Ingrédients

4 chicken breast or thighs or mixed. 
(Or half a cut chicken) 
1 diced Onion 
1 diced garlic clove 
1 tbsp diced fresh ginger

2 tbsp Ras el Hanout
1 cup chicken broth
3 Carrots
2 Zucchinis
1 eggplant

Tajine or Tagine, is a North African tradition, but it’s on the top list of French people favorite dishes. Pourquoi ? Well because a huge part of our population comes from Maghreb. 

There are second, third generation of families who immigrated in France when there was a lack of hands to work in the factories (Yes, I’m told that such a time has really existed, as incroyable as it now seems). 

There are also descendants of French people who lived in North Africa before the independence. They're called the pieds noirs, litteraly black feet. Don't ask me why, I've got one at home and I can guarantee he has nice and clean (and white) feet.

Tagine is also the name of the pot in which you cook it.

This one belongs to my friend Gaelle.

She’s French, and lives in LA like me, but her mom was born in Morocco. 

When she came to visit her daughter a few months ago, the first thing she did was to cook this dish and invite all her friends to taste it.

Miam miam !


Dice the onion, let it sweat in olive oil in a cast iron pan (or a tagine if you have one)

Add the chicken, make sure the skin slowly changes color, and then add the sliced vegetables. 

There are many combinations you can use (small peas and artichoke, preserved lemon and olives, almonds and prunes, dates...). 

But there's only one ingredient wich will always make the difference:

it's the magical 
Ras el Hanout.




This is one of my most precious secret weapon. 

Whenever I go to France, I always come back with this very special blend I buy at the market in Capbreton, where my brother lives. 

This is the yellow one, with cilantro, turmeric, caraway seed, fennel, red hot chili peppers, cumin, garlic.


Ras el Hanout means "top of the shelf", because it's the best spices you can find in a grocery store. If you can't find any in your poor, non French supermarket, I guess you can try and make your own blend, like any north african housewife does at home...

Spray the magic and take a good breath. 

I'm sure if you close well your eyes, you can walk straight in the narrow streets of the Kasbah of Algiers. 

Or heading to a Shishah bar in the Goutte d'or in Paris.

Add enough chicken broth to cover the vegetables. Cover the pot.
Set to low, or even sim, for 1 hour.

Now, pour yourself a thé à la menthe or an Orangina,  
You have 60 minutes to listen to Enrico Macias and pretend you're a pied noir nostalgic of Constantine...

Or imagine you're a young beur (a French guy whose parents were immigrants...) who doesn't want to leave his projects apartment for the summer and go to the traditional holidays with his family in Algeria, like this song from parisian band 113...

Lé le la!

And when you're ready,

Serve with some couscous you will cook with the broth remaining in the tagine.


Voilà!

Bon appétit les amis!!!