bleudauvergne

Last night at about 3am I began coughing and it has gone downhill steadily since. Right now I am feeling pretty crummy. Chills but not delerious fever, runny nose but not completely plugged up, and a voilent horrible cough. Enough to send me home from work. I couldn't remember whether I was supposed to feed a cold and starve a fever or starve a cold and feed a fever but I have been really hungry, so I'm assuming I should be listening to my body. My body is telling me to heat up beer in the microwave and drink it warm. Should I listen? I need radical teatment here. Infusions?

Poulet Roti. After checking the bird over, I smear it with melted butter and cover it with a liberal amount of Paprika, pinch of Cayenne, Herbes de Provence, Salt, and Pepper. Sometimes I let it sit like that for awhile. I then put 6 or 8 whole cloves of garlic, unpeeled, in the cavity cook it on the spit (the oven rotisserie), 45 minutes, with a pan underneath. When it’s done, I take the drippings which have fallen into the pan, squeeze the roasted garlic cloves into that, mash it up, add a reduced stock, and add butter over low heat to and make a sauce. I add fresh herbs according to season. Always served with a liberal serving of vegtable in season. We like chicken a lot but its really expensive here, so we don’t get it as often as we like, it’s more like Sunday dinner fare. Poulet de Bresse (Bresse is an hour by car from us) costs even more but it’s worth it. Farm raised is the only one available at the butcher. My butcher refuses to buy industrial meats, which can be annoying when you must have something that is not generally available due to season (like a thanksgiving turkey). But the chicken and everything else he gets for me is very favorful. I recently discovered, since the broth that comes only from leftover chicken just isn't the same for us, and we cannot afford to whole chicken all the time that the “carcasses” he can get are simply laden with meat. Although I know he would prefer that I buy whole chickens, I have begun to ask him to bring me a couple of carcasses back from his Monday run. I know that the whole carcass thing is generally discouraged in the eG stock class, but we make very good broth which is used throughout the week with them. - Lucy

Yes

I would like to add that I never got a taste. Mamy stashed them away without even opening them.

It was 6 weeks ago, but I remember it as if it was yesterday. I had had a long hard day, and it was time to get Mamy Durandeau's truffles off my list. Bernachon was a nightmare! First, there was a line out the door. And it was going slow. There was a desperate aura over the group. Everyone was staring longingly at the cases where there were very tasteful white packages with dark brown fabric ribbon. Quite Hermes looking. The people in line were keeping tabs on everyone around them, the lot of which were shifting, shuffling, sidling, poking, interfereing and waging mini space battles between themselves while at the same time waiting in a velvet roped line. The wait was 45 minutes. Once we got to the case, we had to decide what we wanted immediately. Fast talking impatient frowning girls in ponytails were barking at the customers. I made it simple: truffles only, wrapped in white paper like in the case. - No, can't have that. That's not the packaging you get with truffles. - I don't understand, if I am paying nearly 30 Euros for 250 grams of truffles, I want white paper, I said in a very American way. I imagined the Christmas gifts at Mamy's. A muddled looking pyramid of small packages wrapped in non-descript, mass produced christmas paper waiting to be sorted by the santon display. And lo and behold, who could be responsible for this? A box from Bernachon! Tastefully adorned in simple white, glowing like the Christmas star atop of the sapin de noel. My husband's face began to redden. - Do you want truffles or not? barked the girl. - I want truffles, in white paper, I responded. The girl became very still. The other customers began to huff and sigh and make blathering blubbery noises. She went back to the women furiously wrapping boxes in cheesy looking patterned Christmas paper, and announced what I was demanding. The wrappers stopped and looked at me for a second. Then continued wrapping. A manager intervened. -Madame, what do you want?! She impatiently spat at me. People were murmuring. I restated my desire, clearly and distinctly. I was beginning to feel like poor little old Oliver with his soup bowl. The manager simply stared, right through me, it seemed, and gave a twitch, a kind of half nod, and briskly walked away. My husband had suddenly taken a great interest in something down at the other end of the counter. The girl, having been given the cue, sullenly tore a piece of white paper and wrapped the box. The wrapping ladies would not be contaminated with a task so inherently corrupt. This whole situation was beginning to freak me out. She displayed the package to me. It had a smear of chocolate on it. I dared not complain. I accepted the package. They marked something on a tag and attached it to the bag. (it said 250g. truffles - pk. speciale) We paid the cashier who made no effort to hide an open hostile stare and we left. I was furious. Along Cours Vitton, along the walk with the with symettrical trees all lit and pretty, cheerful Christmas lights twinkling in the cold december evening, I was begging my husband for an explanation - why why why? My feet were killing me. It's supposed to be special, it's supposed to be happy, it's supposed to be good! They spoiled it! For goodness' sake, what's the big deal about white paper? I didn't like the other paper! They shouldn't display tasteful white packaging unless they plan to give it! When my husband responded, well, my dear, it looks like you managed to get the paper usually reserved for pre-wrapped boxes of mixed chocolates wrapped around your truffles. REVOLUTION! I yelled, laughing. We acted normal for the remainder of the walk to the Metro. - Lucy

Aha! This explains the kool-aid laced with cleaning product flavor that seemed to be coming up. Ok, I'll remember that. -Lucy

100 each, I hope!!

I'm going to try that! My potstickers sometimes seem rather rubbery at the end. This must be the reason. Thanks for the tip! Thats some pretty big dumplings you're planning there. Mine usually are about 2 inches in diameter, remember that the dough can stretch. There would be more nooks and crannies to hold the juice! Mmmm! When you're using fresh ingredients it should not be necessary. Something I've thought of though, is that if you plan to make big dumplings (the further south you go the smaller people like to fold 'em - sizes vary all over china, they get nice and big in Beijing!) you might do some testing with the water temp to make sure they get cooked in the middle. Thank you for the tips! -Lucy edited for spelling

Walnuts are local here. I'm going to try that. What time of the year does green walnut time roll around? (spring, summer...)? Thanks so much we may find a niche in the family bottle exchange after all! -Lucy

Toliver- Okra's easy. It's from Africa. There are multiple sources here, Fresh. As far as the French acceptance of Southern food, they like it, for the most part. Okra's not a big hit unless it is well incorporated into a gumbo. I like to set it in the spotlight, but I don't try and challenge my friends too much with that! I always try to keep things light, I usually introduce one dish in the midst of a meal that seems more French. For example, I like to serve corn bread with winter soups. It's a novelty. Then we talk about it. That got some getting used to. In France they talk a whole lot about what's being served. I had to get used to it and not take it as a deconstruction of my efforts. Anyway, I'm realizing that there's a huge french influence on southern food in general, not just LA fare. Many southern favs have actually migrated north from LA, and the African connection is instrinsic. One big challenge when we first arrived was locating my sources. First new year and I was panicked in my search for blackeyed peas, stupidly not realizing I had to go to Africa for that. Once I made the connection in my mind things have been easy to find. - Lucy Edited to add that house guests have arrived so I will not be able to post until tomorrow!

I grew up in a deep southern household located in central New York. We looked normal on the outside but saw the world through a completely different lens. Meal time was a chance for the family to discuss the ins and outs of the new culture where we had been transplanted to. My parents also took the opportunity to question us about what the yankees were teaching us in school about history, etc. After adjustment on many levels, and as my siblings and I grew up, meal time was time to talk, a slow time, no one was excused unless there was a really good reason. My father who was in the advertising industry, taught us lessons about the power of advertising and its goals at the dinner table. We talked about how sometimes products are created from marketing ideas. He would bring co-workers to eat from time to time. We we also discussed and methods of creative problem solving at the dinner table, which turn out to apply to much more than advertising. My father always openly thanked my mother for all the work she put into the meals. I have memories of being profoundly thankful for her cooking as well. As a child, I had very few friends over to my house to eat. Of the ones that did come, some were amazed and enchanted, and some were freaked out. The ones who could appreciate the food at my house eventually became my lifelong friends. The way some things were cooked was important, and they were not discussed much. However I learned the meaning of the common recipe terms "until it looks right", "a few times", "until done", "enough", "knead three times", and "ready" in the process of helping. Our battery of pots and pans were different from my friends' families. We had one sharp knife in the house. "Go get the sharp knife" My father would say when carving meats at the table. I can still audibly remember that phrase and his voice. It was simply not allowed. We did not wait to see what the penalties were. My mother, and my grandmother, when she was with us. My father had his signature dishes, a stuffed squid, frog legs, and veal tongue stewed in brine, all of which I loved, and all of which we would have been burned at the steak for eating if we told any of our friends. He also smoked meats and fish for special occasions. My father was the egg poacher and the breakfast meats master. My mother made the biscuits, rolls, and corn bread, okra, and pretty much everything else. I have very few memories of eating in restaurants. When we did eat out, it was Ethnic. There were only a few restaurants that were worth the money, in my father's opinion. We drove long distances to get there, and the owners knew my father, and they sometimes came and joined us at the table. It was then that they would talk about food. When I turned 16, my father took me out to dinner in a fancy restaurant. It was during that meal that one on one, he corrected any problems that had gone unnoticed in my table manners. Which implements to use and when, where to put things you weren't using, what to do when you leave the table, etc. Never. We were expected to be seen. By the time I left home at 17, I knew it was important to a good meal, although we weren't regularly allowed to have it. As a freshman in college, and I went to a liquor/wine store. The drinking age at that time was 19, on it's way up to 21. It was the first time I was going to cook a meal for someone and I wanted to do it like a special occasion, with wine. The proprietor sized me up and quizzed me long and hard about what I was planning to cook, I think just as much to see if I was serious about wanting a good wine as to see if I was an undercover cop. He sold me a 1983 medoc. The price was 8 dollars. I every once in a while, when I was cooking for friends, I went back to buy another bottle of the same. His supply slowly dwindled over about 2 years. One day I went back and he told me there would be no more 1983 medoc. My conversation with him that day had a profound effect on my understanding of wine. He planted a seed what would flower much later. Yes. But I always thought that "let us thank Him for our food" was actually, "lettuce - thank Him for our food" and would often think of different varieties of lettuce. It's strange but true. No, and yes. My mother had her phases, and in between them we got the old staples. Not much, except that I think that growing up in a transplanted family made me open to being a foreigner and curious about other places. It may or may not be connected to the reason I have travelled and lived abroad for 8 of the last 10 years. I have finally settled in France and have been in Lyon for the past 3 years. I still consider southern food comfort food, although I have never lived futher south than Chapel Hill North Carolina (that was not considered The South to my parents for some reason, nor was the entire state of Florida - very strange!). I have of course visited with extended family in the South and traveled there on my own. Culturually speaking, there are many non-food related things that been replicated, but that would be off topic. Thank you for asking those questions, it's nice to read about other members and watch this thread. Cool! - Lucy

I gave my husband the equipment to cork and seal bottles this year for his birthday. My mother in law does a vin d'orange every year that she distributes for gifts. Are there others who wouldn't mind sharing their recipes and tips for other home prepared gift wines? We can't really make this and give it since there's already bottles of it coming from her house. We thought we'd do something like use nuts or some other fruit. Any ideas? Here's the recipe that is attributed to my husband's grandmother, Mireille Durandeau, of Toulon, France please give her credit if you share it. Edit: to clarify that you let this macerate for one month in a glass or ceramic container and then filter before bottling. Happy Wednesday! - Lucy

If you want to be authentic to the region, choose really fresh ingredients, and maybe make quenelles, they are a labor of love and local. You can make them with fish or chicken. Another choice might be to serve sausages, although that might put you both to sleep!! Hope your dinner is just wonderful. - Lucy

I have done this too. Tips: 1. Choose a low work surface to be able to get your weight involved. 2. Even if it seems wicked hard, try to use as little water as you can get away with because once it's ready, it'll suddenly "relax". 3. You'll have to plan to knead vigorously for about 30 minutes. Last time I did it (but I'm really out of shape), my arm and hand were shaking for a full day afterward. So prepare for some serious muscle fatigue or get friends involved to knead on shifts. 4. When it's ready it will suddenly become a whole lot easier to work. You'll be able to tell. It will be as if it is melting a little bit although temp has absolutely nothing to do with the process. It's the gluten which is finally breaking down and stretching out. You'll see it when it happens. It's almost impossible to overwork the dough when doing it by hand, so keep going until you observe this phenomenon. 5. Divide the dough into parts about the size of baseballs when you're ready to make the skins and roll that into a snake. use your cleaver to slice the snake into managable bits to roll each one into a circle. 6. When rolling, Although not absolutely necessary, it's nice to try to keep the skin thicker in the center, it makes for a nicer bite to the dumpling. Do a few while experimenting on varying the thickness of the skin and you'll see what I mean. 7. When boiling, take them out the minute they rise to the top, since you're working with fresh ingredients. The age old technique of adding a bowl of cold water to the water to cool it down again and letting it come to the boil again before removing the dumplings applies to frozen dumplings only. The meat grinder sounds neat. Chopping your meat on a board is also a possibility. I've seen it done. Chop chop chop, spread flat with cleaver, chop chop chop. Photos this weekend. -Lucy

Bickery, My mother gave me her two volumes of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking when I was your age. I found that although I wasn't cooking from them every night, they're a good reference for technique, braising vegetables, making your different kinds of pate, mayos and other sauces (I think that if I had met a man who habitually whipped up home-made mayonnaise when I was 21 I would have fallen in love with him so please be responsible in your sauce making), choosing ingredients, etc. Once you have technique down you never look at recipes the same way again, they simplify in your mind. This is a good thing to check out from the library and learn from. I was also read McGee's On Food and Cooking as a bedtime story at the age of 12 by my big sister, and we still refer to it now (I stole the family copy but have made up for it by buying new copies for my siblings and parents). My husband who is a physicist is also obscessed with it and loved the tinkering in the kitchen it inspires. The principles in this book, memorized over the years, are helpful in avoiding panic when I am making something new or delicate. For Chinese cooking, you must start with Chinese Gastronomy (Hsiang-Ju Lin, Tsuifeng Lin), before you approach any other Chinese recipe books because it really guides you in the aesthetic approach and history to Chinese cooking, in addition to having a collection of the most authentic basic recipes I have found. Because of this book, now when I look at a Chinese recipe I can get a good idea of what technique, region, or custom inspired it. I often pick up "Best American Recipes" (it's a series which comes out each year, edited Fran McCullough and Molly Stevens) they are a really wonderful collection and it's clear that they put a lot of work into selecting their recipes. I have never failed with any of them, in fact I'm using one of the recipes for a dinner party I'm giving in a couple of days (Robert Redford's Lamb Chili with Black beans and mint). I only have the 1999 version but I'm reading it all the time and have asked my mother to get them for me and save them for when I next go home. Lots of new ideas. Hope that helps. I second the idea of going to the library. Also hit the used book shops whenever you can. - Lucy edited to highlight recipe titles

Salad plates at the canteen - one containing a sardine, half a tomato and 1/2 a boiled egg on a bed of lettuce, and the other with deviled eggs. A plain yogurt and a clementine.

Sumac! I grew up in central new york and it grew all over the neighborhood. There were a couple of mothers (mine included) who pointed their fingers at the Dr. Seuss looking bushes with the bunches of red furry berries and said they were ripe. They decided to harvest it. All the kids in the neighborhood gathered it, and these mothers did what they knew best with it, made jelly. They also made drinks out of it. It was great! My next brush with "sumac" was when I got this mix of stuff from what I think was a lebanese deli with an epicerie section. It came in a bag without much of a label. It was green, not red like the sumac I knew. It had a wonderful enigmatic taste and I assumed it was a mix of many things. The flavor could be best describes as a little lemony, but with this kind of basic quality (basic as opposed to acidic). Like oseille. The ingredient list said: sumac. What was that? Was it green colored sumac? I just loved to sprinkle it on smoked sheeps cheese toast. There was a shop that had this cheese and I happened across the mixture. Delicious. -Lucy

Last time I was at back in the states I picked up a 4.4 lb bag 2 kilos of "MASECA Masa instantenea de maiz Para Hacer: Tortillas, Tamales, Enchiladas, Pupusas, Atoles, y Otros Platillos Mexicanos, Centro y Sur Americanos. " From Azteca Milling L.P. It has directions in English but the directions make far more than I ever could imagine being able to eat nor have freezer space for (I live in the city) so I have adapted it and created my own little recettes for small quantities. I mean do mexican moms make 400 tamales at a time or do they make enough for the family fresh each time? Is that one an OK brand? The results so far with it have been just fine by my standards, but then again, I'm judging from the memory from 17 years ago, one sultry summer afternoon outside Boston somewhere. After a long day of biking, these boys came to meet us in the park with these wonderful fabulous tamales in their backbpack they were wrapped in foil... As far as finding sources in Lyon, I have to do more checking. There may be channels I am not aware of. I am a weekend tamale maker. But I suspect, due to the complete void of all mexican products in any and all venues I have been here, (I've scrounged just about everywhere within the city itself and taken notes on various ethnic products from many cultures here) anyone preparing to set up a real authentic Mexican kitchen may have to consider preparing a container shipment every couple of months, I think. The peppers here are hard to translate from recipes, many varieties of peppers but none really matching what I've learned from american sources, but I have found a nice selection of different peppers coming from Marocco and Africa in general that do alright but I suppose not exactly the right thing. I really do need to take a pepper course. A serious pepper course where I can see the peppers and know what they're used for in order to use them judiciously and with skill. It's mostly a shot in the dark each time for me. Sorry, off topic. I will report on the strange tamales I'm mixing up over here soon -Lucy

Project - I find that home made wrappers are easier than store bought wappers, which have been coated with this wierd stuff to keep them from sticking together in the pack! They are so so easy to make - if you have a powerful food processor with a dough paddle. Practically impossible to mess up with a machine, though. Really. You start with 5 parts flour type 45 to 1 part water. Start with about 2.5 cups flour in your machine. Add 1/2 cup water and whir it until its completely incorporated. Open up and mush the meal with your fingers. Does it stick together? if yes, pack it into a ball and put it back in to whir as a whole. If not, add 2TB water and incorporate. Open. Does it stick? and so on. Once it's in a ball you beat it as one big lump in the machine with the paddle. It'll look like it's going to destroy the machine but it will not. let it run for 5 minutes. You'll have to watch the machine because it might start moving. I have made jiaozi about 30 times in my 700W moulinex over the past three years. I will do it and take pics for you. Yes, it must be done. It must be worked like hell until it's limp with fatigue. But that's easy with the machine! Takes about 5 minutes. Then you have to let it rest for 30 mins. in a bowl covered with a damp cloth. Store gound pork is fine. But it must be fatty. In fact, add fat if possible. The lower the fat content, the more your dumpling is going to be dry and hard. You want a hot juicy dumpling just bursting at the seams and ready to explode with flavor in your mouth. Not a piece of cud - Fat is good! If I don't have lard on hand, I use any fat on hand except milk based ones. Duck and goose fat works. Last time I made them I had the meat ground at the butcher and it was too lean so I told him to add 1/3 of the weight in salt pork. This done, I simply reduced my salt and it was simply mouth wateringly delicious, just exactly like the ones I used to eat in Beijing. Both work. But in my method both are parboiled, and then drained and squeezed in a clean dish cloth. This is a must to avoid - 1) GAS in the people who eat them and 2) unwanted undercooked chou with an overcooked meat. I slice it up thin with a cleaver, parboil the lot for a minute (till it turns bright in color) (usually the weigh equivalent of your pork for either type cabbage) The regular cabbage has to be slivered more thin than the napa cabbage, it's more dense. You'll get the hang of it. But of course! But add a few other things. The common crescent dumpling shape is formed by - OK Start at 8oclock. Gather little 30 minute increments in a counter-clockwise motion from 8 oclock to midnight while sticking them down past 8 in a clockwise direction till you get toll strikes midnight. aw heck I'll just take a pic. Use a spoon! Don't be silly and use chopsticks like that demonstration at epicurious. The other fabulous wonderful thing about home mixed dough is that they stretccchh out if you've got too much and close without complications. Try that with a store bought dumpling skin. You don't need to do it if you make your own dough. I hope that pic works, it's the first time I've tried to put one up. It's a pic with the ingredients. t = teaspoon T = Tablespoon spice = msg - I did that to avoid freaking out anyone who might be browzing through one of my books. Don't use it if you don't like it. It is definitely not necessary. Frozen with raw. Cooking them first will just make an enormous slimy sticky mess that will not thaw out properly and be goopy when you cook it. Freezing tips: line up your dumplings on tray lined with parchment or waxed paper, not touching each other. You can get tons on one tray. Make a tray to fit with cardboard if you don't have a tray that fits in your freezer. Freeze like that, and once they're frozen solid, you can put them together in bags without them sticking together. Voila. Project, I will make dumplings and share with you the pics. I have a dinner party on thursday and I'm on a schedule. so I won't be able to make them for you until Friday. I hope this works out for you! I'm sure it will. -lucy

Cusina - you are genius! I was in this quandry about my real preference for the classic pimento stuffed olive in a martini and all this talk about good olives - once it's pitted it doesn't last long, almost impossible to find a good pimento stuffed olive in my neck of the woods. So now I can do it myself and even stuff olives with all kinds of lovely things to serve with my aperetif! I'm making a list right now. Thanks - - Lucy

While dining at my husband's aunt's place one sunny summer afternoon, she served Americanos in a big glass pitcher full of ice with bitter oranges floating on top. She served them in whiskey glasses with a spoon which was for crushing the orange. She gave me the recipe, and this was what was in them. 2 parts Martini Rosso 2 parts dry white vermouth 1/2 part campari 1/2 part gin That lunch is on my list as one of the highlights of my summer! Since then, I have taken to judging an Italian restaurant what they bring me when I order an Americano. It really differs from place to place. Sometimes it comes tasting like a syrupy glass of cough syrup, or even like cherry kool-aid laced with some kind of cleaning product. Only one or two places that I've been to actually seemed to be serving a real one (or what's real in my book). I mixed up a batch of my auntie's recipe to some French guests once and they left their glasses making rings on their coasters after the first sip. It got me to wondering if the recipe I have is the real Americano. Is it? - Lucy

sauce

I think what Adam is trying to define here is the difference between what is institutionally recognized as craft and art. -Lucy

Thank you thank you! Theabroma! The chard idea sounds very nice since this is something all over the market right now. I hope this is what the French call bettes (some people say Blettes but it's not lyonnais). A large white stemmed veggie with big green leaves. What would be a nice way to tie if I used the bettes? What other leaves might be used? I love this idea and am going to try it tomorrow for Thursday. I think my Africa man also has bananna leaves, I'll have to look closer next time. He's only at St. Antoine on the weekends, however. If anyone opened a good mexican restaurant here in Lyon France they'd get rich, by the way. Point taken about the duck fat, I thought of that myself, and will adjust accordingly. I'll let you know how this turns out. Thanks to all. - Lucy

I will think about that and respond tomorrow, it's time for bed in france - Goodnight! Lucy