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Ptipois

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  1. Ptipois

    The Terrine Topic

    Sorry that you got no reply in more than a year, but here’s an attempt. From reading the recipe I think there may be something wrong with it. Evidently the preparation lacked body. Moisture is usually not an issue with mushrooms unless you soak them in water. The way with cèpes and shiitake (oyster mushrooms rarely need cleaning) is using a damp paintbrush and/or damp tissue paper. But if cèpes were picked in rainy weather they can contain plenty of water. However I doubt that’s the real problem there, I’d suspect the forcemeat (pork + breadcrumbs) wasn’t firm enough. Normally it shouldn’t need one extra egg. Would it be possible to have a picture of the recipe in French?
  2. This description looks very much like Chez Frézet, 181 rue Ordener, near rue Vauvenargues and close to the Guy-Môquet métro station. A little less than a year ago, it was purchased by Julien Duboué (A.Noste) and converted into a bakery + buffet restaurant.
  3. You are very likely to find some at that time. They are late season peaches.
  4. Just say "je voudrais faire un coq au vin, qu'est-ce que vous me conseillez ?" The butcher or stall holder will then automatically direct you towards the most suitable fowl. Either a large, mature chicken with legs that prove that the bird has had some chance to run during its lifetime, or a rooster if he happens to have some handy. He will also offer to cut it up for you. I have noticed that large butcher shops or market stalls are more likely to have rooster available than regular neighborhood butchers. But you can perfectly order rooster from any butcher shop, counting a few days for the sourcing. Koen: indeed "coq" is rooster, but "poulet" is chicken and "poule" is hen.
  5. Coq au vin was created as a stewed dish because rooster is tough. From there it is easy to figure out the main guideline. You need a stewing fowl that is both plump and fleshy like our farm roosters, but tough enough not to disintegrate after an hour of cooking — as I have seen American chickens do in most stewed dishes I used them in. So either you find a real rooster from a farm or you get the oldest farm chicken you can put your hands on, with well-developed legbones. No soft bones: bone hardness is a sure sign that you will get a good stewed chicken dish. It should be cut in rather small pieces (thigh and drumstick both cut in two parts, for instance), for it is important that the sauce penetrates the flesh properly during the cooking. First stew the legs, wings, backs, etc., for the required time, but cut out the breast meat from the bone and set it aside, rubbing it with a little red wine or brandy. 15 minutes before your coq au vin is ready, add the breast meat and simmer until cooked through - do not boil.
  6. If you want the original version of the pressed duck dish, go to Rouen or Duclair, 100 miles Northwest of Paris (1 hour and 10 minutes by train), where the recipe originated. Best places in Rouen for canard à la rouennaise (a.k.a. à la presse) are La Couronne and L'Hôtel de Dieppe (facing the train station). La Tour d'Argent has only been serving the dish continuously since the days when canard à la rouennaise was famous in Paris (other places served it, then it fell out of fashion), but it does not serve the ultimate version of it.
  7. If you ever want to sample real Norman butter (which will change your idea of butter forever), drop by the Fromagerie François Olivier, 40 rue de l'Hôpital (near the rue Beauvoisine/rue des Carmes corner).
  8. Though mild, they are tasty, somewhere between raw green peas and fresh almonds. I tried them for the first time in August, in Zhejiang, and they are peeled before eating. Very delicate and delicious.
  9. I'd start the guinea-hen in the oven with a few quartered onions and garlic, roast it as any normal fowl, then add the choucroute in the pan about 1/2 hour before the bird is ready, basting frequently, adding a little white wine or beer. Or braise everything (choucroute, bird) in a Dutch oven with some white wine, beer and onions. Aside from the Monet house and gardens, there is a good American art museum in Giverny. But the gardens will be very bare in December. I suspect there will be far more to see in Rouen in Winter than in Giverny. La Couronne and L'Hôtel de Dieppe are two landmark restaurants serving the famous Canard à la Rouennaise (the original version of the Tour d'Argent duck), or you may try more contemporary places like Le P'tit Bec, L'Espiguette or Origines.
  10. Guinea hens are awesome when you choose the farm-raised ones. They can be fatty enough, it all depends on the way they were raised, but they're never as fatty as a fat chicken can be. It is also better to choose rather large birds than small ones. Try roasting one over a bed of choucroute. Sauerkraut that you buy at the charcuterie stalls on markets is generally very good.
  11. Yes, I do think you chose your location well. Val-de-Grâce is an extremely pleasant area of Paris and nicely located, too. Technically you're touching the Montparnasse area and there's a few interesting restaurants around there. But you're also close to the Censier/Monge/Mouffetard area where I live, and you only need to walk along the boulevard Saint-Michel to the river to get to the actual center of the city. (Indeed I am the one who wrote about the chickens. I love roast chicken.) Now I feel a little guilty about telling you to dump your choices. These restaurants are not bad but it is my opinion that many other places are worth exploring these days. Passage 53 is expensive (for what it is) and the seats are incredibly uncomfortable. L'Epi Dupin suffers from a lack of taste balance (think I, but I am not the only one who reported in these terms) and I find L'Agapé Substance, for all its technical brilliance, dull and show-offy and not very delicious. The places I recommend are all yummy. Roller bags are not expensive, get a cheap one when you get here. Don't bother with flying one overseas... Temperature in late December is not very predictable. Paris has a damp, cool climate in Winter that may occasionally turn to dry and very cold, but around Christmas you never know. Big waves of cold weather usually arrive in January-February. Seasonal ingredients in early Winter: yes, the pears will be there, I recommend the Comice variety. Apples as well, and all sorts of citrus. A good period for pork, fish, shellfish and root vegetables. Rouen is interesting and really the market is gorgeous (apples, pears, farm chickens, fresh vegetables, boudins, pâtés, and genuine Neuchâtel cheeses right from the producer). Nothing about WWII there (except the fact that most of the ancient part of the city was destroyed by bombs, however there's still a lot of it left), for that you need to go to the Calvados coast, beyond Caen and Bayeux. Rouen is closer, only 125 km West of Paris. Same direction as Giverny, going towards the sea. Vietnamese restaurants: try Pho Mui on avenue de Choisy, Pho Bida Vietnam on rue Nationale. The lower part of avenue de Choisy is more Cambodian. As for Laotian food, think Isaan food from Northeastern Thailand. They are identical. Actually many (if not all) restaurants claiming to be "Thai" in Paris are actually run by Lao people. My favorites are Lao Thai, rue de Tolbiac, and Lao Viet, boulevard Massena. Yes, it would be a good idea to try a tour of Rungis. There are guided tours available but I don't know exactly how many people they include or how much they cost. If I find a link I'll post it here. All I know is that they're scheduled very early in the morning. I am clueless about the bread thing. I'll give it some thinking.
  12. Now for the restaurant recommendations: You can do far better than your current selection. You can dump all of them except La Régalade (not the Saint-Honoré, but rather the original location on avenue Jean-Moulin) and, perhaps, L'As du Falafel where I haven't been (I prefer Mi Va Mi, just across the street). Here's a selection in Paris right now, forgetting a few, and there's certainly a lot more interesting places that I can't recommend because I haven't been there: Left bank: Le Pré Verre (after morning shopping at the Maubert market), Dans les Landes (lunch preferably, and book your table), Terroir Parisien, Les Papilles, Christophe, Café de la Nouvelle Mairie, Sola, Semilla, La Rotonde (had a very nice meal there recently), L'Auberge du 15, Afaria, Le Grand Pan, Le Casse-Noix, La Cantine du Troquet (2 locations), Le Severo and Le Bis (du Severo), Les Petits Plats, Au Dernier Métro... Right bank: Spring, Septime, Saturne, Yam t'cha (if you can book), Les Jalles, Claude Colliot, Alain Milliat, Chez l'Ami Jean, Les Canailles, Albion, Cartouche Café, Vivant, Youpi et Voilà !, Le Châteaubriand, Pierre-Sang Boyer, Jeanne A, Les Tablettes, Le Bouchon et l'Assiette, Caïus and Zinc Caïus, Le Galvacher (for steak), Le Grand 8, le Bal Café... We've also got a few good Chinese and Laotian places. Ask if you want a list.
  13. 1) Being on rue du Val-de-Grâce, the only market that's really close is Port-Royal. I mean within walking distance with bags and baskets to carry. A little more remote: marché place Monge (Wed., Fri., Sun.), place Maubert, Blanqui, Raspail. Mouffetard is not a market (it is a "market street" but it has lost much of its interest during the last 20 years). 2) Fresh truffles are not particularly found at markets, trust the specialized stores. Some butchers carry truffles in December for the holiday season. Make sure you buy Tuber melanosporum, not Tuber brumale which is also a Winter truffle. Your sense of smell should guide you. An exception: I've known truffles to be available at the Batignolles market (17th). 3) You won't have "French food fatigue" if you're staying 2 weeks. Ramen is not really interesting in Paris. But if you do get weary, try what Paris does best: the real Vietnamese (not Hmong) pho soups in the 13th arrondissement or the couscous restaurants (Chez Hamadi being the textbook hole in the wall serving scrumptious Tunisian couscous). 4. If you like markets, a day trip to Rouen would be a good idea. The Clos-Saint-Marc a.k.a. "Le Clos" (in the East side of the city) is one of the most beautiful markets within a 2-hour drive from Paris. Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, 6am-6pm, and Sunday, 6am-1:30pm.The city is beautiful too. I would recommend the Marché de Lices in Rennes, but that's a little far for a day trip. Non-market trips: Fontainebleau, Chantilly, Versailles, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Compiègne, Senlis... Chambord is stunning but there's the château and that's it. 5. Christmas markets are not a Parisian thing though in recent years some have appeared, but there's nothing thrilling about them. The Alsatian Christmas market in front of the gare de l'Est has some really good products. Flea markets: try Vanves and Montreuil during the weekend, right on the Eastern outskirts of Paris. And place d'Aligre every morning.
  14. Ventrèche just means "belly" in Southern French, with a nuance of fattiness. Hence pork belly and tuna belly both bear that name in the South. Ventrèche de porc (or de cochon) can be raw or cured, but the term is not used for smoked pork belly since pork is generally not smoked in the South and Southwest. A ventrèche de porc to be cut thin on a deli slicer should be very dry. Indeed a very dry cured pancetta would do the job.
  15. That can no longer be called "à la parisienne". It can be called otherwise. Could be great, but it will be something entirely different. The roux-based sauce of the original recipe is not "heavier than it has to be" since it has to be the way the recipe originally intended. If you still want to call it a parisienne, that is. Do whatever you wish to classic preparations, that's perfectly OK, but do not believe that they are "not the way they have to be" because they've been waiting all along for the lights of modernity, or rather modernistity, to shine on them at last. It's not a matter of what should be done and what should not, it is only a matter of terminology.
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