Sacre Bleu!

As I posted (nearly a year ago), I took myself on a trip to France in February of '09. One of my teammates from Australia got herself a gig playing in a little town called Challes Les Eaux in Savoie in the Rhone-Alpes (the French Alps). It wasn't a long trip but I managed to eat more bread than I'd eaten all year, make a couple of decent dinners and take barely ANY pictures of the food. Let's hear it for my priorities--woot, woot! So, to ameliorate (I recently rocked the GRE verbal section) the lack of food pictures, I'll post some travel ones instead.

Carly and Me with a view of Chambery and the French Alps

I spent most of my time in Chambery and Challes, but I did make it over to Lyon for a solo day trip and Paris for a weekend with what amounted to be 2/3 of the Opals squad (that's the Australian Women's National Basketball Team for any sub-rock readers). Anyway, the trip was less about food and more about me travelling on my own and blowing seven years of dust off of my french skills. Because of that, I took pictures of food that more or less represented my being there and didn't focus as much on getting shots for the blog. My bad.

I did manage to get a picture of the first thing I ate in France at the world renowned culinary mecca known as Charles De Gaulle Airport.

Quiche avec des epinards et des tomates (Spinach and Tomato Quiche)

Truthfully, my first meal in France did not taste good. This was partially my fault as I failed to notice the microwave sitting next to the napkin/utensil station--so I ate it cold like the stupid American neanderthal the French expected me to be. Secondly, airport food is airport food no matter where you go. I'm sure you're wondering why I couldn't wait to get to my final destination to tuck into a hearty bowl of cassoulet or a plate of steak frites at the very least. Well, long story short, my connecting flight to Lyon was delayed six different times over the course of five hours and finally cancelled (each of these transactions occuring ONLY in french, mind you). So, I not only purchased this lovely quiche, but I also got a manicure, a pedicure and a head massage. Finally, Air France put us all on a TGV train to Lyon and I got in about nine hours late. It was awesome. Anyway, your first bite in a country is your first bite in a country, right or wrong, good or bad--it needs to be documented.

I spent the next couple of days around Challes recouperating from jetlag (Europe always messes me up; Australia never did). During that time I got some shots from Carly's apartment and I got to go to one of her games and watch her ballin' French style.

View #1 from Carly's balcony

View #2 from Carly's balcony

View #3 from Carly's balcony

Carly ballin'

After a couple days of recouperation, I was able to pull myself together to cook a proper french meal for my gracious host. I decided to do a surf and turf inspired meal with moules mariniere and steak with a shallot pan gravy. I threw a quick salad together and made sure we had plenty of bread for dipping while Carly opened one of her many bottles of red from the Savoie wineries. The highlight of the meal? We ate in our PJs.

Recipe for Moules Mariniere below


My gracious host

After seeing the sites of Chambery (If you really want all of my photos, go to my Facebook page) I decided that it was time for me to head over to Lyon, France's Second City. I had no plans and no direction--I merely had a bus and train schedule and my camera. It was my first time out in a big foreign city completely alone and it was AMAZING. What I learned, however, is that the Lyonnaise do not like people taking pictures of their food. I was told off more than once for pulling out my camera to take pictures of storefronts and even my own plate of food that I had paid for. Alas, most of the pictures from my day in Lyon are architectural in nature. At least I got a picture of my breakfast.

Breakfast and entertainment for the train ride to Lyon (saucisson de la rosette)

Now, I'm not a big fan of cured meat outside of bacon--I know take my foodie card away. I just don't like an excess of fat or salt on my meat. However, the cured meats that you find in France are unlike anything you can find in the US. I ate more salamis and sausages during my day in Lyon than I care to admit. I also had more than one crepe while walking around. Banana and Nutella? Yes please! Creme Fraiche, Smoked Salmon and Dill? Don't mind if I do! It was so much fun using my French and being on my own out there--but it was nearly impossible to walk, eat and take pictures of what I was eating; and it was winter, people. No people watching at outdoor cafes for this girl. I had to keep moving. Anyway, here's the obilgatory Lyon picture.

There are better pictures, but none are quite as direct.

Just before I left for Lyon, Carly and I decided that we would go to Paris to meet up with the other Aussie girls who had contracts in France. It was perfect since the league had the weekend off and my flight departed from Paris. While we were in Paris, however, I must admit that I broke the cardinal rule of international travellers. I ate at McDonald's. Hear me out--I was with five Australians who were homesick beyond belief and wanted nothing more than a familiar lunch while we covered the entirety of La Rive Droite on foot. I was outnumbered, so I relented and got the least American thing I could find on the menu.

La P'tit Moutarde

It wasn't even that french. Just a cheeseburger on ciabatta with grainy dijon mustard on it. It was actually kind of gross--almost as gross as the thought of drinking a beer with McDonald's food. Anyway, like I said--Paris wasn't about food this time. It was about being in freaking PARIS!

Le Tour Eiffel and my loser mittens.

The entire weekend in Paris crew

So, that's my brief (sort of) food related (sort of) rundown of my time in France. I'm glad I went, but I feel like I've got one more trip left in me, and when I get there for the third time I'm eating my way out.

Moules Mariniere

3lbs mussels, rinsed and bearded
3/4 cup dry white wine
3 small shallots minced
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped
1/2 cup tomatos finely diced

PREPARATION

1. Place wine 1/2 cup of wine in a large pot over medium-high heat
2. Add shallots and garlic to a low boil
3. Once boiling add mussels
4. Place lid over pot and press lid down to keep steam from escaping ocassionally shaking pan until all mussels have opened. (5-7 min)
5. Remove mussels from steaming liquid and place in a large bowl. Discard any mussels that are still closed.
6. With steaming liquid over medium-low heat, whisk in butter and add the remainder of wine. Let simmer for 1-2 min.
7. Pour butter sauce over mussels in bowl
8. Garnish with chopped parsley and tomatoes

**Serve with crusty bread for dipping.

Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel

So, lets go back in time about ten months to December of '08. It was Christmas Eve and per the Cargle tradition my family got together and made non-traditional finger foods for dinner. Last year it was mini corned beef sandwiches, this year it was homemade pizzas. I, however, wanted to do something that was both traditional and non-traditional. So I decided to make potato latkes, (or potato pancakes for those of you living under a rock) since it's a traditional winter holiday meal for someone's family--just not mine.

Now, it's no secret I'm a big freakin shiksa (that's a non-Jewish woman for my rock dwelling friends) and though I've had many a latke in my life, they were all so different that I had no idea where to start. All I knew is that I wanted them to be dense yet tender in the middle, crispy around the edges and just a little bit sweet. So, to the internet I went to find the recipe that would get me those results. I found recipes telling me to use everything from parsnips to pre-shredded hashbrowns (No dice, Sandra Lee). So, I decided to go simple and look at the common denominators. Potatoes, onion, egg, oil. They came out alright. I mean, how does one screw up fried potato and onion. It's pretty damned impossible. They were missing something, though. They lacked the soulfulness and comfort you get when you eat a perfect latke at a Jewish deli. So, I think I'll leave this dish to the experts.

Potato Latkes

1 pound potatoes

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 3/4 cup olive oil

PREPARATION

1. Preheat oven to 250°F.
2. Peel potatoes and coarsely grate by hand, transferring to a large bowl of cold water as grated. Soak potatoes 1 to 2 minutes after last batch is added to water, then drain well in a colander.
3. Spread grated potatoes and onion on a kitchen towel and roll up like a jelly-roll. Twist towel and wring out as much liquid as possible.
4. Transfer potato mixture to a bowl and stir in egg and salt
5. Heat 1/4 cup oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking.
6. Spoon 2 tablespoons of mixture into the oil in batches of 4, flatten with fork.
7. Reduce to moderate heat until undersides are browned (5 min or so)
8. Turn and cook for another 5 min
9. Transfer to paper towel to drain and season with salt and place in the oven to keep warm.

**You may need to add more oil as you go--eyeball it.

Oh, I also decided to make the traditional garnish of applesauce and sour cream. Okay, I didn't make the sour cream and I actually used creme fraiche, but I definitely made the applesauce from scratch.

Ashly's Homemade Applesauce

2 lbs of Fuji apples peeled, cored and quartered
2 cups of water
2 cups of apple cider
4 tbs butter
3 tbs brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves

PREPARATION

1. Bring water and apple cider to a rolling boil in a large pot
2. Add apple sections and boil until fork tender (about 10min)
3. Strain apples through colander and place in bowl
4. Use potato masher or fork to coarsely mash apples
5. Incorporate butter and sugar until completely melted
6. Stir in cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves

**I usually leave lumps in the applesauce and serve it warm. It should be served room temperature at the least or the butter will start to congeal.

Retroactive Hiatus Announcement

Okay, so it has been a million months since my last post. Life got busy--really busy. Not so busy that I didn't have time to cook, but busy enough that I barely had time to eat what I cooked, much less write about it. I did manage to take some photos (crappy as they may be) of the bright spots over the last several months, however. So, I will post the pics individually instead of dumping them all into this post. With the fall season upon us, my cooking jones is back and I've been playing with the idea of roasted pumpkin ravioli with a pork, apple, pine nut and sage ragout. We'll see if that happens.

Anyway, on to the next post.