Abra

The calm before the storm. When next you see this table the festivities will have begun. We're off to fetch the wizard.

Thanks, jackal. We had it at 95 C for 12 hours, which is as the recipe prescribes. But we put it back in at 175 C for a couple of hours, and soon we'll have another look. Of course we can still let it cook all day, but we're hoping not to have to, as we want to gather up Bleu, go out to lunch, then apply ourselves to the poule au pot and the quince tart. And I have to add that Bleudauvergne is the only person I know who makes a list, and puts "list" on the list, so she can check it off!

7:00 a.m. found us skulking around the kitchen in our jammies, sniffing the air. We were thinking that the smell of the tripe and trotters would be really intense after the 12 hours of cooking, but only a subtle perfume pervaded the air. The great unwrapping ceremony was met with a certain measure of disappointment: not done was the verdict. As we struggled with the sticky, not yet gelatinous trotters, Chufi was heard to mutter "this is the weirdest thing I've ever done before breakfast!" So back into the oven with the trotters and tripe, into the shower with the humans, and over to the bakery for a more normal start to our morning. Back in a bit.

Daniel, how nice to see you! so, I just took the bread and butter pudding out of the oven. It doesn't look right to me so I'm a bit worried. The first night I was here, I was in charge of cooking the red cabbage and I burned it, so maybe I'm on a bad cooking streak, please all of you keep your fingers crossed that Abra's chocolate-loving husband will like my chocolate bread and butter pudding....

I forgot to add the photo credits. Except for pictures of the two of us, which were taken by my husband, all the pictures so far have been Chufi's. She and I have almost exactly the same camera, and we'll take the exact same shots, and her pictures will look lots better than mine do. So, maybe she'll teach me a thing or two about photography, and I'll teach her the glories of gelatinous food. So, off to open a nice bottle of wine, set the tripe in the oven as soon as the bread pudding comes out, and rummage in the fridge for leftovers for supper. A toute à l'heure and tot later!

Let's get one thing clear at the outset: we love animals. We're the most tender-hearted pair you could imagine. See what I mean? But still, if you're going to make a dish of cow stomach and pig feet, not to mention entire chicken body, you have to, er, get really familiar with the animals in question. The pigs feet are rather disconcertingly like our hands. And if you've seen the Basque ham that lives with us, you'll be happy to see that he now has company. The tripe is easy, surprisingly so in fact. It's utterly gorgeous. We're making the recipe for tripe and pig's feet stew from The Cooking of SouthWest France, just in case you want to follow along. Before we got to the step about boiling the tripe, we received this email from bleudauvergne, who's lived in France for a long time: "I looked at the recipe - it looks great. However one thing about the tripes & pigs feet here in France, because of the way that the butchers pre-treat their product here, step 2 would be a waste of time and would overprocess the tripes. That is, if the tripes are beigy white to white in color, it's been already pre-soaked and boiled - an it is ready for slicing and starting with step 3. The pigs feet should be already scrubbed clean and maybe parboiled by the butcher. They just need a good rinse before their day in the herb and salt. If you already have the pigs feet, no bother, but normally for a recipe like this I would have them cut in half by the butcher, lengthwise, which makes them easier to bone when the ragout is done." Now, as you know, it was too late to have the pigs feet split. But look at this tripe. It's clearly been pre-treated by the butcher and is ready to go. In fact, it looks and smells so good already that it's almost a shame to cook it. Almost. Even Beppo agrees that it's ready to eat. The chicken was much more challenging. She lost her life on Friday, and has been aging gracefully in the fridge ever since. Maybe a little too gracefully for comfort. She's a real beauty, and destined for Poule au Pot, another delicious-looking recipe from CSWF. She even has "innard beauty." Chufi's in the kitchen simmering quince, her fruit specialty, in preparation for tomorrow's tart of quince and pruneaux d'Agen. Or maybe she's just in the kitchen sniffing the stock for the poule au pot, which smells better than Thanksgiving as it bubbles quietly on the stove. In fact, it's made from the turkey carcass and a pile of duck bones, and probably has a lot in common with Thanksgiving. Amazingly enough, we still have to eat tonight, and since the tripe and pigs feet will be cooking from about 7:00 tonight (or 19:00 as we'd say here) we'll probably be having leftovers for dinner. However, Chufi promises to make us bread and butter pudding, for which we've been stockpiling bread for a couple of days, so I don't think you need to feel sorry for us.

Good morning, world. We all slept in this morning, sorry 'bout that. Coffee, breakfast, offal, and shopping soon to follow.

Although I'm officially sleeping, actually the excitement of having Chufi here and a fridge full of animal parts is keeping me awake. But not awake enough to retell the whole story of how I came to be in France, alas. Despair not, however, those of you who want to chase that rainbow can read all about it here.

I made my first Thanksgiving in France this year, and I used this recipe for Brussels sprouts. I like them anyway, but these were some of the best I've ever made.

I'm drowning in duck right now. I really recommend the Duck Casserole with Potatoes from Bigorre in Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of Southwest France. Those of you that prefer duck without a sweet sauce, and who like it rare, will love this one.

The kuri, being a dry nutty squash, is excellent roasted, the blue hubbard contains a lot more water and is good for sautés or for soup, and the delicata want roasting as well. Is that enough to get you started, or do you need more details?

A couple of nights ago I had a chocolate soup at La Bastide de Mamette that was flavored with curry. There was a star anise on the side, which I didn't taste, but the flavor of the curry and chocolate together, contrary to my expectations, was absolutely wonderful.

We'll be in Paris all day tomorrow (and Monday), and in looking for places to dine I notice that most of the Sunday topics are getting pretty old. As an update to those older suggestions, of which there are alarmingy few anyway, where should we go tomorrow?

Thanks, gfron1. Is that a press-in or a roll-out dough? I'm worried about whether the chestnut flour will make for a sticky dough.

Does anyone have a recipe for a savory tart shell that uses chestnut flour? I'm unsure about proportions and would rather not wing it if there's a good recipe out there. Google hasn't helped a bit on this one.

karenm, does your turkey look like this? The spottiness of mine is weird, but I don't think it's directly related to quills. I've brined tor so many years that it seems weird not to, but I think this time I'm going to use a ton of herb butter, and/or maybe lay some bacon strips over the breast. My turkey seems to have very little fat as well, although the breast feels tender and nice.

Make cassoulet! Either use it to line your cassole pot, or cut it into small cubes and let it melt into the sauce. It's delicious! You can see one I did recently here. The pork skin is a key element for a smooth and melting texture.

I make it according to this wonderful method from our own jackal10. It works perfectly. Now that I'm living in France where quinces are so plentiful, I'll be making it several times this year.

I've never had the packaged stuff, but I put my homemade membrillo in the fridge, wrapped in waxed paper. It keeps for up to a year that way.

Wow, Divina, that looks delicious! I'll be making it soon.

Thanks for the reminder about that all-chocolate day, Ludja. Although it seems impossible, I'd entirely forgotten about it. Does anyone have the Bittersweet book? Willing to post that chicken liver recipe I used in the all-chocolate thread? i don't have the book with me here in France and it would make a great Thanksgiving starter. In the Basque country a few weeks ago I had wild doves in a deep, dark sauce that included chocolate. If you can get your hands on any doves, look for a salmis de palombes recipe - yum!

Too funny! I just bought a piece of paleron today, not knowing exactly what it was, but planning to use it with a long slow bean roast. And now here it is again. If anyone knows something better for me to do with it, I'm all ears.

A fabulous place to stay in the Pays Basque is Domaine Xixtaberri near Cambo-les-Bains. We spent 5 nights there last month and I wanted to stay forever. The hosts, Laurence and Nöel, are awesomely gracious and interesting, they'll feed you very well, and it's in a beautiful mountaintop location.

I've been staying out of this thread since while I'm in France I don't really have a way to make charcuterie, not to mention the coals to Newcastle element. But I know you guys, of all eGers, will appreciate seeing this ham.

Not being a pro, let me say that for home quantities of baking I'd always use Valrhona over Callebaut, and really notice the difference. I haven't had Cluizel, so I can't tell if the added cost would pay off in flavor, but the jump from Callebaut to Valrhona sure does.