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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2010 22:01:37 GMT
Some of us are experiencing winter at the moment, and it is well known that certain dishes are more appealing when the weather is cold in our various countries.
What hits the spot where you are when the temperature drops?
In France, I would say that the main cold weather dishes would be:
Cassoulet Sauerkraut (with sausages and potatoes) Couscous (the stew, not the semolina) Soup of all kinds (obviously) Brandade de morue (a cod and mashed potato speciality) Pasta Fondue Hachis parmentier (shepherd's pie) Raclette (a cheese melt put on boiled potatoes and varied meats)
I've probably forgotten some...
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2010 22:48:31 GMT
This is the time of year when up North we would pull out any number of smoked meats and fishes.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2010 22:54:30 GMT
But would they be made in to hot dishes?
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Post by existentialcrisis on Jan 9, 2010 23:25:14 GMT
I'm thinking stews and pea soup. Fish and potatoes...
K2... any way you can elaborate somewhere on the Brandade de morue and Raclette?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2010 0:20:14 GMT
But would they be made in to hot dishes? Sometimes yes,Sunday evening was a traditional supper meal with smoked sausages and potato pancakes. The smoked eels and perch were served room temperature at lunches and sometimes even breakfast. Here etouffes are more popular in the cold weather. I guess would fall under soups
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Post by lagatta on Jan 10, 2010 4:54:40 GMT
What cold weather?
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Post by fumobici on Jan 10, 2010 6:19:37 GMT
I had ginger mackerel, lumpia and pork adobo all expertly done Filipino style this afternoon and it seemed every bit as appropriate for Winter here as it would between the tropics.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2010 7:23:32 GMT
EC, I'll try to dig up some recipes, but here is a photo of brandade: And here is what raclette looks like:
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2010 9:00:19 GMT
Cold for us is indeed very temperate for y' all. Todays 12F wind chill more than qualifies.
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Post by auntieannie on Jan 10, 2010 10:57:24 GMT
K2, K2, K2! This isn't a picture of REAL ORIGINAL raclette.... will try and find a pic.
We're having tartiflette today.... can't wait!
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Post by Don Cuevas on Jan 10, 2010 14:58:39 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2010 16:05:50 GMT
K2, K2, K2! This isn't a picture of REAL ORIGINAL raclette.... will try and find a pic. We're having tartiflette today.... can't wait! I know that that is not the picturesque raclette of Helveto-French folklore, but the photo looked a lot more authentic in terms of the sort of mess that real people would make at home, which is why I chose it. I certainly was not going to post the picture on the box of a Téfal raclette set.
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Post by bjd on Jan 10, 2010 16:22:49 GMT
Yesterday we had cassoulet for lunch and today we had gratin dauphinois with veal cutlets. Soup in the evenings. Tis the season...
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2010 16:50:38 GMT
Absolute winter fare!
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Post by auntieannie on Jan 10, 2010 16:59:35 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2010 17:03:26 GMT
Ha! As though most people had an enormous half wheel of raclette cheese to use at home. (Maybe the Swiss do, but the French sure as hell don't.) Yes, I would love it if raclette looked like that all the time.
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Post by fumobici on Jan 10, 2010 21:38:07 GMT
From the linked wiki article:
Seafood? Seafood with raclette?!?
No.
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Post by traveler63 on Jan 10, 2010 21:46:17 GMT
Last night we attended the monthly wine party. The theme; comfort food. There was a lot of mac and cheese, one killer lasagna. I prepared pasta with home made Bolognese sauce which I combined two recipes to use and cooked the sauce for 6 hours. There were no stores that carry Tagliatelle so I substituted Rigatoni, any other suggestions? I read somewhere that Tagliatelle is traditional, true? There was a winter sausage dish, a beef stew, a pork posole dish. I was really interested in the comfort food called pigs in a blanket and the pb& j sandwiches on plain white bread. Comfort food to me is a hearty dish, soup, stews etc. There also were several appetizers which were good, but I don't think any of them in my opinion qualified as comfort food, but we all ate them!!!!There were 20 - 25 bottles of wine. All good, passable drinkers, but nothing outstanding. All in all, the food was very good and there sure was plenty of it. I had plenty of my dish left over and I had made extra sauce, so tonight it is a repeat with garlic bread and some more vino. (the tradition is if not all of the wine is drunk then it stays at the host/hostess's house).
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Post by existentialcrisis on Jan 10, 2010 21:48:19 GMT
Darn. Finding raclette cheese is most likely impossible here. I wonder what would be a good substitute for a half-assed Canadian version....?
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 10, 2010 23:26:53 GMT
Wow, T63 -- sounds like you all could get through the winter just on what was served last night. I have to agree with you on some of the participants' interpretation of "comfort food", especially since it was being served to others. One of my comfort foods is watery seashell pasta with olive oil and grated Romano, but I'd never take that to a potluck.
I think of winter food as heavier food, but it doesn't have to be stodgy. Butternut squash stuffed with ground meat would be great winter fare, as would cassoulet, chili, thick stews with root vegetables, and certainly sausages, especially with potatoes and cabbage dishes.
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Post by fumobici on Jan 10, 2010 23:34:08 GMT
Darn. Finding raclette cheese is most likely impossible here. I wonder what would be a good substitute for a half-assed Canadian version....? I've faked it with Emmenthaler, Gruyere or even Jarlsburg(!). Not authentic but all palatable.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 11, 2010 1:05:59 GMT
Well, I'd say raclette, because we makea version of it here in Québec. Even a non-standard but yummy goat's milk version. You might be able to find it in Alberta.
Bixa, I really try to find hearty foods incorporating vegetables, and now I'm working on a fish stew. Sure it is frigid, but I work in front of a computer all day. I don't need to eat like a logger or peasant woman getting up at dawn to do the chores before I tend to my 12 children and cook supper on the wood stove. (Hubby is away at the logging camp).
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Post by cristina on Jan 11, 2010 1:32:58 GMT
Last night we attended the monthly wine party. The theme; comfort food. There was a lot of mac and cheese, one killer lasagna. I prepared pasta with home made Bolognese sauce which I combined two recipes to use and cooked the sauce for 6 hours. There were no stores that carry Tagliatelle so I substituted Rigatoni, any other suggestions? I read somewhere that Tagliatelle is traditional, true? There was a winter sausage dish, a beef stew, a pork posole dish. I was really interested in the comfort food called pigs in a blanket and the pb& j sandwiches on plain white bread. Comfort food to me is a hearty dish, soup, stews etc. There also were several appetizers which were good, but I don't think any of them in my opinion qualified as comfort food, but we all ate them!!!!There were 20 - 25 bottles of wine. All good, passable drinkers, but nothing outstanding. All in all, the food was very good and there sure was plenty of it. I had plenty of my dish left over and I had made extra sauce, so tonight it is a repeat with garlic bread and some more vino. (the tradition is if not all of the wine is drunk then it stays at the host/hostess's house). T63, your dinner sounded great, whether or not everything qualified officially as comfort food. FYI, I was in AJ's today (which is regrettably, far too close to my home - not sure how far it is from your house) and they have tagliatelle...and papparadelle too, which I think might make a decent substitute. I love bolognese sauce and am fortunate to have a wonderful local dive that makes absolutely the best I have ever had. I bought carry-out pasta bolognese on Friday (I think they might have used fettucine, though.)
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Post by fumobici on Jan 11, 2010 3:00:52 GMT
I'm not sure how one would go about making ragù bolognese with the relatively coarsely ground meat that seems to be all I see here in North America. The stuff I had in or around Bologna was made with a much finer grind and had a texture you couldn't hope to approximate with courser ground meat.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2010 6:16:43 GMT
Darn. Finding raclette cheese is most likely impossible here. I wonder what would be a good substitute for a half-assed Canadian version....? In an emergency, any cheese that melts well will do. I am not recommending Kraft singles, however.
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 11, 2010 9:03:52 GMT
I miss this on a cold day: But then I miss cold days too. No idea what kind of kale it is in English, it's only eaten in northern Germany, south of the Main river they consider it cattle fodder. The Poles don't eat it, no idea if the Danes or the Dutch have it. Classically it's served with a smoked pork sausage, smoked or fresh pork belly and boiled potatoes. The beer and the Schnaps on the first pic are optional but always welcome! It's so good I'll post another pic
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Post by Don Cuevas on Jan 11, 2010 12:13:09 GMT
Mmm. I like the look of that plate of food above this post.
Breakfast: large white beans (alubias), chorizo Español and cornbread. It's ready.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2010 12:32:55 GMT
And I see the sort of mustard that many of us like also.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 11, 2010 14:15:49 GMT
That kale - boerenkool in Dutch - does Grünkohl refer to other types of kale as well in German? is a mainstay in admittedly not terribly varied traditional Dutch cookery as well as northern German. I like it very much, though I add onions, leek and garlic to the kale-potato mix. The dish is called stampot in Dutch. Kale is a super-nutritious food. In Dutch supermarkets - even small ones - you find kale precut for stampot and also frozen. Unlike some vegetables, freezing actually improves the texture and flavour. Saveurs du monde has a simple recipe in French: www.saveursdumonde.net/recettes/chou-paysbas/ and in English: www.theworldwidegourmet.com/recipes/cabbage-netherlands/ but the illustration is an ordinary round-headed cabbage, not kale (which is a bunch of dark-green curly leaves). They use Polish kielbasa, similar to but not exactly the same as the smoked sausage the Dutch and North Germans use. And nowadays lots of people in the Netherlands like a bit of Indonesian sambal...
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Post by traveler63 on Jan 11, 2010 14:29:07 GMT
I had the butcher fine grind the hamburger meat for me. We have only one honest to God butcher on the east side of Tucson, not inexpensive but I use him a lot for anything that I am fixing for guests and for the wine party.
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