It's the holidaze! So what are we eating?
Tis the season for metric conversions, melted cheese, and a craving for home.
It’s officially the Christmas season in France and everything smells like truffles and melted cheese, a good or bad thing depending on how you feel about it. I am not a fan of either. Despite that, I really love this time of year and have been leaning into the cold, the food, and the gift buying.
Speaking of, I found this funny and so on point gift guide made by a fellow American-in-France and Substacker that is, well, for us. If you have 3-4 minutes and need a laugh, check it out. I have personally felt the pain (yes, literal pain) of ordering and describing a real American/British style martini only to be served the sugary nonsense that is Martini Rossi. And I guess also literal pain from the OTC meds situation here.
By the time you’re all reading this, we’ll be in Nashville for a second to visit, eat, give gifts, spend time with friends and family, and yes, to throw back a few real cocktails. I, for one, will be promptly reporting to the Dulles Capital One Lounge within 5 minutes of exiting customs for a dirty martini, please and thank you.
As alluded to, we’ve started the seasonal festivities with Thanksgiving in France with a blended group of American and French friends, and hence more baking and more eating of “traditional” American foods than we’re used to. I’m not one of those people when it comes to pumpkin-spice everything, but pumpkin is in basically nothing here, so I have missed it and have been on a pumpkin baking kick for the last month.
I’ve made pumpkin bread, the cake-like variety, and found myself in the store inevitably getting lectured by a (well-meaning) Frenchman on the valors of the various yeast strains. Consider his mind blown when I told him what I was making.
A speechless French person is not something you see too often.
Pumpkin Cheesecake using David Lebovitz’s recipe was a huge hit at Thanksgiving. I used some substitutes, like Biscoff cookies instead of graham crackers, and it still hit. Thank god my measuring cups have multiple units and my kitchen scale is decent, because here everything is in grams so it’s been a little interesting shopping, prepping, and baking—my grocery list last week looked like 6th grade math homework with all the unit conversions and notes like “dutch processed chocolate = alkaline, get baking powder; natural cocoa = acidic, get baking soda”. See here for the difference between Dutch-processed chocolate versus not and how it can wreck your baked goods. I had no idea until like last week.
I love David’s recipes for many reasons, but also because he’s lived in Paris for a long time and puts both cups and grams on his ingredients lists. Bless.
The other really homey thing we’ve had a lot of lately is real Southern cornbread, baked in a cast iron skillet with cornmeal brought over from the States. We had this on Thanksgiving night and again with pozole this weekend, a Mexican soup/stew my mom used to make, and now a dish I’ve been making for a few years. It’s such a good wintertime meal, so easy, and so warming. Ours is green, not red. I have no photos, but I do have a recipe. It’s below, it’s mine (although not to be confused with unique) and this is my nudge for you to try it.
Pozole
3-4 lbs bone-in pork loin or skinless chicken breast plus a bone
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, smashed
5-6 cups of chicken broth or water with chicken bouillon
~10 fresh tomatillos or 2 large cans, depending on what you can find
1 large can hominy
Spices: cumin, paprika, salt, pepper
Optional additions: limes, jalapeños, radishes, salsa, cilantro
Make your spice blend of about (according to taste) 1 tsp each of the spices. If you like more, add more. This is your meal. Rub that all over the meat. Brown meat of choice on all sides in a bit of oil in a large dutch oven over med-high, usually about 10 minutes but don’t let it burn. Remove the meat for a sec. Add the onions and garlic to the pan and brown. Put the meat back in the pan. Add the broth/water+bouillon mix to just cover the meat. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to med-low (you want a super light simmer so set your stove to whatever gets you to that point), taste the broth to make sure it’s what you want and adjust seasoning if needed, cover it completely, and cook for about 4-5 hours. If using canned tomatillos, add them at about an hour before serving. If using fresh, slice them in chunks and add them before letting it cook all afternoon. Add the hominy about an hour before serving. If you’ve opted for jalapeños, add them with the hominy or with serving depending on spice level you want (cooking them will make everyone’s spicy). Once the meat is fork tender, shred it with forks (if you can’t do this, it needs to cook more). After the meat is shredded and the tomatillos are falling apart, it’s ready to serve. Add any optional limes, crunchy radishes, cilantro and/or salsa to your bowl at time of serving.
Notes: This is so good served with buttery cornbread. You can also do this in a crock pot by adding in all the things in the morning (brown the meat first!) and then leaving it on low all day.
If you try it let me know what you think.
As it’s finally turned really cold, the mountains also quickly transformed from a prolonged autumnal orangey-brown to fully snow-covered. We haven’t been in person yet, but we’ll be back in France for Christmas and will be skiing in Tignes-Val d’Isère. If you need a virtual wintry escape, their instagram account will do the trick. This will be the 4th ski station we’ll have skied in France in the last year, so I’m excited to check it out and compare to the others. It’s also only about 2 1/2 hours from our house, which is one of the reasons we chose Lyon—proximity to the Alps and regular skiing.
With more baking has come the purchase of sugar, which I hadn’t bought until recently. It turns out that the main brand of sugar here is called “Daddy”, something that has made me laugh out loud in public on more than one occasion. There’s even an online store, called La Boutique Daddy. How any native English speakers take this seriously, I don’t know, but I’m not one of them. It’s a great example of slang being lost in translation, and I’m totally here for it.
Lastly, here’s a picture of our snack a couple of evenings ago. This is saucisson brioché, and the best way I can describe it is an adult pigs in a blanket. Chef’s kiss.
Happy Holidays and eat well!