Dave Hatfield

Question? What does/would one call Thanksgiving in French? The literal translation doesn't do much for me. I thought of this this morning as I was ordering bread for the meal tomorrow & the boulanger's wife & I had a conversation about the holiday. Explaining the meaning isn't too difficult, but a word or a phrase would be nice. Any suggestions? Meanwhile our menu has changed. We're now having turkey stock/ leek soup with parmasian followed by an avacado/ lettice heart/ salsa salad. Dessert has changed because the pumpkin tasted awful, must have been the wrong kind. Linda is making a trifle instead which will please the English contingent, but is hardly traditional. The turkey is beautiful, 7 kg at 9 euros per with a free bottle of wine thrown in. Buying from a vinyard has its advantages. He's (she's?) now deconstructed & deboned where needed & quietly awaiting roasting tomorrow.

There is a whole topic here devoted to the sweet component of vinaigrette right here. ← A thing I've recently learned is to use WHITE balsamic vinegar. The regular balsamic is too sweet for me & putting sugar in just goes against my predjucies. The white balsamic seems to just take the edge off with a hint of sweetness. Sherry vinegar is still my favorite, but Linda finds it a bit to harsh for her taste.

We do a sort of mixed bag so to speak. The guests are a melange of French, British, one New Zealander & me the lone American. We'll start this year with some home made nibbles & drinks. Think I'll skip soup & just serve the foie gras I'm doing tomorrow as the only entree. We'll have the 4 legged deconstructed turkey. (He's coming from the vineyard & will be about 7 kilos. He meets his doom on Tuesday & I pick him up on Wednesday.) Plus we'll have a baked ham. ( brine this & do it 'english' style. Gammon the Brits call it) Baked eggplant & baked yams + a couple of kinds of stuffing go to fill the plates. Light salad. Cheese ( specially ripened brie being the centerpiece.). Deserts will be pumpkin pie with a toasted walnut top, tarte tatin & lemon brulee. As I said a mixed bag. We'll be 19.

If I've done it right here is the link to Andy's course. Scroll down within the post for the Lamb recipe. Or go back up this thread to page 2 or 3 where I paraphrase his technique. Good luck!

Wonderful. I don't often laugh out loud at something I read, but I did over this. Given the quality of the posts to date concerning meals with Gully I have to believe that in addition to his other well know talents he's the ultimate literary muse. Congratulations all & particularly to you Simon. Great stuff!

no, you aren't. You are the sum of your genetic heritage + all of have learned so far in your life and not just what you've learned in cooking school. I agree with whoever it was who posted the reply since deleted probably for being too to the point. What are we talking about here? Cooking pasta al dente? Well so? Define al dente please. Not exactly a new topic to most of the eGullet community. A 'secret' way to do something with tomatoes? Well great, but if its a secret why mention it in the first place? Makes me mad to see that. Either keep shut about whatever OR reveal the secret. Don't do this silly dance. If you would really like some help from the incredibly generorus eGulley community then give us something more to work with. On the basis of your post I just don't know how to be of a positive influence. Sorry if this is too strong & harsh, but I can't see any other way of getting my point across. I've mentored an awful lot of young careers in my time & have never found that being 'nice' as opposed to honest worked.

I guess that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery because I'm going to be tasting the "Gaillac Nouveau" today. Until we moved down here I hardly knew that anybody even attempted to emulate the Beaujolais silliness. ( I remember what a big deal it was in England during the 70's with races in outlandish modes of transport to see who could reach London with the first bottles.) Don't know how long they've been doing Gaillac Nouveau, but not for long I suspect. The Nouveau had been about on a par tastewise with the Beaujolais over the past few years. Lousy in other words. There was a recent year 2002? 2003? Can't remember where the Beaujolias was actually pretty drinkable. It sold out quickly. We'll see this year with the Gaillac. Can't resist a story. In the mid-80's I used to go to Chez Panisse in Berkley a lot, upstairs for lunch & less frequently downstairs for dinner. When I reserved dinner one time I was told that that was the "nouveau zifandel" dinner. A nice menu built around the new vintage zifandel. (fortunately in this case I can't remember who made the wine.) Well, I have to say that the "nouveau zifandel' was perfectly awful. Undrinkable. I got the waiter over & asked for the wine list & ordered something else. Great fuss ensued. I explained that I wasn't sending the zif back as it wasn't spoiled or anything, but that I just didn't like it & wasn't going to drink it, but that as I had ordered it I was going to pay for it the fault being mine not the restaurant's. Being the class act they always were Chez Panisse refused to let me pay for the "nouveau zifandel".

Susan - Great looking pot! Got to believe that any daube (or cassoulete for that matter) cooked in that pot is going to be delicious. Bonne manger!

Being a violent sort I just give it a few good whacks with a sharp cleaver, then trim it up a bit. The backbone's a good addition to your stock.

Julia Child has a great recipe for 'deconstructed turkey' in her The way to Cook Book. Essentially you chop out the back bone, remove the leg/ thighs then cook separately. Bone the leg/thighs & stuff them. Cook separately. The body with brests can be pretty much stuffed in the normal way. You can even sort of put the turkey back together for a nice presentation. PS: We have lots of dark meat lovers so I normally do a 4 legged turkey. edited to add the PS.

Got it to work, but with some difficulty. It ONLY workd on a PC with Explorer. No MAC & No Firefox. I guess it would be OK IF you have very high speed connections. The video I downloaded (#4 Le Violin d'Ingres) was 38.8 MB and took nearly 8 minutes to download over my 1mb connection. Not really worth it IMHO. Lots of out of focus shots & close ups. Lots of repitition. The food did look good, but didn't look worth over 250 euros to me.

However, a dark roux for a gumbo is a big time commitment, with no potty breaks, so I can see a definite advantage to making a mess of it ahead of time... ← At my age I understand about potty breaks, but.. Even a dark roux isn't THAT long. Is it?

Wow! Paul what a great response. I'll be doing something very close to what you have suggested. May play around a bit, but your techniques seem spot on to me. budrichard, thanks. I agree on the flavour & leaness. This is definitly wild as Jacques claims he got it by running into it with his van. I believe him. He, Jacques, reckons that cooking in wine is very traditional in these parts. I'm more inclined to Paul's suggestions. Have some time to think about it as its in the freezer & given other priorities like Thanksgiving it will be a couple of weeks before I can get to cooking it. I'll be thinking about it in the back of my mimd all the time.

Why bother to make & store something that you can make from scratch in a couple of minutes? Just can't see the logic or advantage of making & storing roux. Sorry, am I mossing something here?

I agree with Paul. Way too much sugar & salt. Sure you're not dealing with a typo? Like there should have been a decimal place? 40.0 g sugar & 60.0 g of salt. that would make a nice light brine. If not too late have you tried putting the brined meat in a pot with water bringing up to the boil, let rest then pour off the water? You may have to do this several times, but it should leach out the salt. OOPS - now see that you've already roasted. try tip if this ever happens again.

A few more words. Some of these may be slightly off as they pertain to game & wild things. Antilope = antelope Argus =pheasant Becasseau = young of woodcock's Cane = female duck Chevrotin = Fawn, roe deer calf chipeau = Gadwell wild duck Ganga = pintailed or Pyrenean grouse (also Gelinotte) Gibier = wild game in general Gigue = haunch of venison Grive= thrush Hure = pig or boars head Isard = Pynerean wild goat Jars = male goose Lagopede = White Pyrenean grouse Merle = blackbird Mouflon = wild sheep Outard = bustard game bird Palombe = wood pigeon (in SW France) Rable = Saddle of hare or rabbit Sarcelle = teal Tetras = Grouse (again), also called coq de Bruyere A great exercise in vocabulary for me. Now, if I could only retain all of these and the other words I picked up on the process.

This is from the post I did on the French forum. By also posting here I'm hoping to get a wide variety of suggestions. Should this go into the daube cookoff, perhaps? You tell me. I've just been given a lovely frozen shoulder of chevreuil ( roe deer in English as best we can tell.) Not quite the same as biche or cerf I'm told by Jacques who gave it too me. He says that it will be far more tender than either of those. Anyway, he's aged it well before freezing it and I'm looking for advice on the best way to cook it. I'm thinking that a daube type preparation might do well, but.... - marinate in wine first? If so, just wine or wine & ?? - Herbs? juniper? thyme? what? - mirapoix base? - what should I serve with it? I've never cooked this before, in fact have hardly ever cooked any game so I'm really open to any & all suggestions. Thanks in advance.

With that duck confit I just happened to whip up this afternoon? Actually the big problem with the cassoulet idea is that our oven, she's a dead. Kaput. New range is on order; but, won't be delivered until Nov 24. Until then, everything is cooked on top of the range (or in the microwave or rice cooker). Which is why the Daube, or Daube inspired stew with beans, lamb, and smoked pork, was so timely. ← I understand & agree. No oven's a serious bummer, but.... Think of it as a challenge. Despite what the purists say I would contend that you CAN make a perfectly decent cassoulete on the stove top. Be bold, be inventive, be contentedly full of stove top cassoulete. (you'll have to be quick too. Only 12 cooking days until RAD (Range Arrivial Day))

I agree with Ptipois. Her geography is spot on & her advice about finding the more modest places is very sound. Asking the locals is a great opition, but ask them one at a time. Fist fights have been known to break out as a result of asking a group where to get the best cassoulete. I had cassoulete twice this week. Once in a small local restaurant (11 Euro four course meal with wine & coffee.) Modest resaurant, modest cassoulete; nice ham laced beans with a piece of confit & Toulouse sausage on each plate. Today I had cassoulete at the restaurant in the exhibition hall where we went to the Wine & food festival in Toulouse. Not an ideal location, but the cassoulete wasn't bad. (14 Euros) Lots of confit & two kinds of sausage. Neither are at the apex of cassouletedom. I seriously doubt that you'll get a bad cassoulete anywhere in the towns Ptipois mentioned. You could come to my house, but I guess I don't qualify as authentc. Yankoulete?

I am a frustrated Yank! I went to the Food & wine Expo in Toulouse today with some friends. Lots of wines & food to die for, one particular stand had easily over 20 varieties of artisanal cheeses. (Maroyn de Bartassac, 33720 Landiras. "fromages de gascogne & guyenne." )They are a family run firm. The samples I tasted were fantastic. I chose a vache, a chevre & a brebis to bring home. The frustration? Linda is off on a photography course & has taken all of our cameras with her. So, can't take pictures which means I can't eat these cheeses until she gets back. (well maybe a little nibble.)

Chufi - great idea. Don't be afraid to ask for money, up front, you're worth it! Here's a link to a website set up especially for expats by expats: Paguro You may find it useful & you can advertise on it. Even though its not specificly food oriented reading through it may give you ideas on other services you could offer to newcomers wjo don't speak Dutch. Good luck from one expat to another.

For me its taste that grabs me first. That perfect first bite of the quintessional apple. A sip of 100 year old vintage port. A wonderful steak. And on and on and on. When I first learned to cook my goal was to duplicate the taste of my Mother's food. Not that she was such a great cook, but her cooking was what I knew & liked. As I got into my teens I started trying to emulate the tastes from my friend's Mother's cooking; in my case this was primarily Southern Italian & Mandarin Chinese. I can still remember clearly the taste of a soft polenta with bolognase sauce & parmisian dish that my friend Roger's Mom made. I've never quite been able to duplicate it. Later I was fortunate enough to travel Europe & many other parts of the world for many years on an expense account. Although I rarely went beserk I did eat well and as my friends in the various countries learned that I loved good food & cooking I was introduced to restaurants well off the tourist track. My then newly married wife, Linda, was shocked when I came home & announced that we were changing our vacation plans so we could go to dinner at Girondet in Switzerland. My favorite ever restaurant. So it was a drive across France & over the Jura to Lausanne instead of the ferry to Spain & the wine country. After the dinner she agreed that it was the right choice. I would come home & try my darndest to replicate the taste of something I'd eaten during my travels. I slowly got to where I could come close. I still have fun trying. As I got older & more experienced as a cook I started to have more & more of my own ideas of what food combinations might work. (anaheim chilies sliced lengthways, deseeded, grilled, flipped & filled with ripe brie then grilled until the brie melts was an early simple idea.) These days I fool around a lot & try things. Linda is my taster & severist critic, think she only puts up with me because of the very occasional success. I love doing it & in the main our friends seem to enjoy eating it. So, for me its all about taste. I admire beautiful looking food, but can't really do it. I admire the adventurous cooks, but get upset with novelty for its own sake. The tastes have to work. The ingredient too far syndrome is far to common. To paraphrase the old cliche: "where's the taste?" Thanks to Paul for starting this thread so eloquently and providing me a platform for this rant. Peace to all.

I can only echo Lucy's comments. Your food looked faboulus. I was particularly struck by the braised lamb shanks having just posted a recipe for them in the cooking forum. Yours put mine to shame. I'll definitly steal some of your technique if I may. After you've visited Lyon you might want to head West. we've plenty of space.

On marinating the meat. I think the tough beef cuts (oxtail, for instance) benifit from the marination. Lamb, pork or veal won't be hurt by marinating, but they really don't need it. The wine will have a drying tendency with the meat especially beef. This will be overcome by the long slow repeated cooking. Cooking of the alcohol first is a good idea & does help combat the dryness. I'm not too fond of adding orange or lemon, but that's just my personal taste. Juniper is a favorite herb for almost any lamb or beef dish. eje - you're half way to a cassoulete. Add confit & keep going. I will, by request, post the Lamb Shank recipe in Recipe Gullet as well as posting a fully annotated version on my blog below. May take a couple of days before I get it done.

Braised Lamb Shanks/ daube de jarret d"agneau Serves 2 as Side. I've noticed that there doesn't seem to be a recipe for Lamb Shanks in Recipe Gullet. So, here it is. It's also posted in the Cooking forum in the thread Daube- cook off. There it has pictures. The fullest annotated version is on by blog.click. This is a recipe for braised Lamb Shanks. According to everything I've read it really is a daube by definition. No matter, I don't want to get into the semantics. I'm also not going to get into what kind of pot to cook it in or whether oven or stovetop is better. Suffice it to say that if the dish is slowly & carefully cooked with love & respect it is going to be delicious. The rest is nuance. Here goes: 2 Lamb Shanks 2 yellow onions 3 carrots 2 stalk of celery 5 cloves of garlic Lots of fresh rosemary Lots of fresh thyme. A few bay leaves Hearty red wine Good lamb stock Salt & pepper. 1) Put a small amount of fat into your pot. (duck is best, but others will do) Heat this up & then put the shanks in and brown turning frequently. 2) Meanwhile be chopping up the Onion, carrot, celery mixtrue. (How finely you chop depends upon how you plan to finish the dish. More on this later. 3) Peel & roughly chop the garlic 4) When the shanks are nicely browned remove them from the pot & set aside. Put the vegetable mixture along with the garlic & bay leaves into the pot, turn down the heat to low, cover the pot & sweat the mixture for at least 20 minutes. 5) Rub your rosemany & thyme as you strip the leaves from the stalks. 6) Put the lamb shanks back into the pot with the sweated veggies. Add the herbs. Add the wine & stock to just cover. (I like to use about 50% wine, 50% stock.) Give everything a light seasoning. 7) Bring to the boil then back down to a simmer. Cover & simmer slowly for at least 3 hours. Check & stir occasionally. 8) At the end of this first cooking take the shanks out & put them in the fridge separately from the vegetables & sauce. 9) Next day bring everything back up to room temperature having skimmed off any fat from the sauce. (there normaly won't be much if any.) Now its decision time. How to finish the dish as there are lots of variations. A) my favorite 'classic' version. for this one I would have chopped the veggies much more finely. I would now add some crushed juniper berries and about 3 oz of tomato puree. Everything back into the pot for at least 2 hours covered. Shanks out. Veggies & stock through a strainer or food mill then back into the pot for a final reduction. Add some butter just before serving to give a nice finish. Serve over potatoes, rice or other root vegetables. B) An Italian, "osso bucco" slant. As in A, but no juniper. Add oregano & fennel seeds, the tomato puree & a can of italian plum tomatoes, drained. Cook as before except stir more often to crush the plum tomatoes. Serve over pasta, polenta or rice. C) The 'stew' version. This is the one I've shown with roughly chopped veggies. I now, for the second cooking, add green lentils (about 4 oz per person) or white beans which have been soaked & pre-cooked. Everything together & cook for closer to 3 hours than 2. Serve as is. There are about as many variations upon this basic recipe as there are cooks. Keywords: Main Dish, French, Lamb, Easy, Dinner ( RG1864 )