Toast and beef dripping- v posh restaurant in Pimlico charges £12 a slice (on 'rustic ' bread (no, we didn't eat there, just browsing menu en passant)
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Local peasant food gone 'posh'
(78 Posts)Always makes me laugh when traditional local recipes, which used to be the stapple diet of ordinary 'man' or even the 'poor' - go all posh with ridiculous prices.
Recently talked about 'raclette' a dish served in all posh ski resorts at exhorbitant prices, in another thread. In the old days, actually well into the 20C- farmers from the Alps would be up in the mountains year round- and perhaps only come down to the market in the valley once or twice a year. They would be stuck up there al winter- without availability of fresh food- hence all the pickling of veg, gherkins, onions, etc, grown during the Summer, bottling and also pickling of cabbage (sauerkraut) and salting, smoking or drying of meat- and the storing of cheese and lots of potatoes, and of course local white wine. Meals in winter consisted of an endless combination of the above- with 3 main favourites, raclette, fondue and tartiflette. Really poor man's fare, and must have been so boring after a while. Now all 3 dishes are expensive mainstays of ski resorts menus- and I always find it funny- as few of the tourists are aware of the history and tradition behind them.
'racler' means to scrape- and any noun with 'ette' at the end means 'a little version of' (like maison for house, and maisonette for a hut)- so raclette means a 'little scrape'. Potatoes would be boiled, and the cheese placed on a stone by the fire, and when hot scraped onto the potatoes, and served with any pickled veg.
Tartiflette is a dish made of boiled potates mixed with 'lard' = fat smoked bacon, onions, and a bit of cream (cream was of course not a posh ingredient on a farm). Most of the cattle would be slaughtered in the autumn, as it was impossible to keep them in winter, no space and not enough fodder- and just a few kept to keep them in milk in winter and start again in Spring- one cow was kept with its calf tied up in a corner of the barn- close enough that she could smell it and hear it- but not close enough for it to suckle- so she would continue to produce milk (a cruel necessity)- and the cattle would be kept below the main châlet to insulate from the cold!
Ooops, sorry, it turned out longer than intended.
Your local stories about local 'peasant' food would be interesting, thanks.
Mind you my now 30 year old daughter delights in telling me she's made pea and ham hock soup in her slow cooker....as if she's invented it!
Jacket potatoes- used to roast in embers under Parkray, wonderful flavour so different from those done in oven, with salt and butter. [drooling]
Now available with toppings never dreamt about years ago!
I must say that I have been delighted to note that over the last 5 years most of the gastro-pubs in our area (and every village has one) have moved from small portions of overcomplicated multiple flavoured food back to what is rightly described here as good peasant food and decent portions.
I have always bought and casseroled and stewed the cheaper cuts of meat in preference to more expensive cuts, not for reasons of economy, although the saving helped but because that is the food I have always preferred.
We arrived in France this morning and went out for lunch and I tucked into a delicious and warming sauerkraut. Just right for a really cold day in a really cold house that hasn't yet warmed up,
What about ox heart, wonderful beefy flavour and I much prefer it's texture, and lambs heart stuffed with sage and onion, mmmm.
Yep, real choucroute weather now- where abouts are you FlicketyB?
Manche, Lower Normandy. We ate out at the Bistro in the centre of Coutances.
i was brought up with baked potatoes, but somewhere along the line they've become jacket potato. When did that happen?
Ham hock soup, made with red lentils, yellow split peas and root veg has always been a winter staple in our house, though sometimes it's a struggle to find a ham hock these days. When grocers used to bone out their bacon sides, you could buy the bones - they were quite meaty and made excellent soup. When my older sister was extremely ill and would not eat anything, I made some ham hock soup - a great favourite of hers - in the hope that she would have some. She couldn't manage to eat it, but she said, "just hold the bowl where I can smell it, that will be enough." I went downstairs and cried buckets.
LOL never associated 'choucroute' with Normandy, but more Alsace, The Vosges and Jura.
I used to get a turkey leg for 99p......
pasties haven't become posh yet.
AlieOxon: Oh yes, I'd forgotten about turkey legs They were another great way of feeding a growing family of four.
I have always paid high prices in Germany for neck of lamb, and am lucky even to see it at the butchers. It all goes into the lamb sausages eaten by the muslim population- We always had Yorkshire Pudding on Sundays and you got them straight from the oven with the meat. Originally the downstairs staff ate it with gravy instead of the meat. I'm a Yorkshire lass and do them if we have a joint or beefstew.
German peasant food has never gone out of fashion and apart from in the USA its still cheap to buy and make. I am not a fan of raclette but it is so popular here on New Year's Eve as it takes up so much time messing about with the little potatoes and bits of cheese that the children are busy and it passes the time till midnight.
Sauerkraut is not pickled but soured with salt. Its pressed layer for layer in a wooden cask and left over the winter. It kept the whole of Central Europe healthy in winter with its vitamin C together with the bottled plums they all ate. I have not seen bottled plums offered in posh restaurants yet but no doubt some chef will rediscover them.
gj I make bobotie too, it sounds revolting what with the egg custard and all, but it is so tasty. I serve it with "Funeral Rice":
www.food.com/recipe/funeral-rice-11409
www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Yellow-Rice-231246
Wow- I've got my mil's recipes for bobotie and yellow rice- handwritten by her- which we love to keep as she passed away quite some time away. She always called it yellow rice, not Funeral! Will make some tomorrow.
She always put a bit of desicated coconut in it too. I remember the first time she showed me, being quite shocked as she bit the cardamon pods to open them up and then threw them in the pot.
My husbands family were a mix of British, Cape Malays, African and Dutch! Not easy when it came to apartheid- to say the least.
Testicles! Now ris de veau! (And very expensive, if you can get them)
Back in the 80's when our shetland pony was castrated the vet offered me the testicls. he said all the farmers loved them. I told him I couldn't possibly deprive him of the pleasure
GJ I remember you saying about your in-laws. How lovely to have that recipe handwritten by your late MIL. When I come across my mother's handwriting it always startles me momentarily, it is so personal. She passed away 20 years ago this year.
I once ordered ris de veau in a French restaurant. I didn't read the menu carefully enough and confused ris with riz. Now I like offal; kidney, liver and heart but ris de veau, for me, was a step too far and I now read menus more carefully!
'Ris de veau'! Will get that firmly embedded in my head as one to avoid!
What was it like Flickety?
DH ordered "tete de veau" in France - he is an adventurous eater - I stuck to the melon. He made me promise never to let him order it again. It was a plate covered in thick slices of jellied meat/gristle/fat and looked (and he said tasted)most unappetising. Apparently it President Chirac's favourite. There were some unidentifiable bits too which we decided could be brains or tongue or even ears. Not nice!
not envy, green just thinking about it!
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