Le Boucher

My fear of the fromagerie extends to the boucher as well.  Not only is it visually unappealing - ummm, chickens with their still heads attached anyone? - but I also have NO FREAKING IDEA how to order there.

um, one tongue s'il vous plait?

A slice of that...thing...merci.

I've been carefully observing My Very Parisian Friend when she orders from the boucher, but so far I've only learned this:

1. The boucher does not wash his hands between handling your money and handling the meat.

2. MVPF's husband eats 300 grams of steak haché (hamburger meat). 

3. Apparently, that is a lot for one person.

Copain and I have been discussing going to the boucher recently, mainly because he's not allowed to heat up lunch food at his fancy office in the 8th arrondissement. We thought that some cold roast beef or pork roast would be nice instead of your run of the mill sandwich and salad everyday.

On Saturday, we decided that we would attempt to purchase something - but what? I couldn't even count on my Frenchie to help me out with this one, he had no idea either! So, we went with a roti de porc (pork roast).  We figured we wouldn't have to give any additional indications except "enough for four people" s'il vous plait. For future reference, "enough for four people" is about 1 kilo according to our local butcher. Good to know, right?

Another fun fact - 1 kilo of roti de porc at our boucher costs 12 euros. Not bad either!

We hiked up the 5 flights of stairs to our apartment, beaming with pride. We had a roti de porc! From the boucher! As we opened the door, basking in our glory, an unexpected nasty smell wafted into my nostrils....

Copain, did you...?

No, I didn't! I swear! 

Yes you did! It stinks in here! Dude! 

I'm serious! It's not me! ....Could it be the meat? 

I looked down into our plastic bag and saw what could only be the outline of a small chicken wrapped in aluminum foil. It was still warm to the touch. Zut! Of course this would happen on our first attempt  to conquer the boucher. The ol' plastic bag switcharoo.

We hiked back down the stairs and over to the boucher. They had been expecting us and were happy to get their chicken back and give us our roti de porc instead. 

Then I had to figure out how the heck to cook this thing.

a big hunk of meat. (1 kilo, to be exact)

Thankfully, with a little help from Jamie Oliver and some random French website, I was able to mix and match recipes and deliver something edible in just over an hour. 

The beginning of my roti de porc mastery!

We were so excited by our roti, that I forgot to take a photo of the final product, but I can tell you that I got the Copain Approval on the first bite.  Ouf.

Also - very important addition to this blog post - I noticed that my boucher has a dedicated caissière, who only handles money and NEVER touches the meat. Glorious.

I heart my boucher.

Stay tuned for the roti de boeuf, which is next on our list...

Le Gigot d'Agneau

Yesterday I got a scary text from Copain:

Copain: I'll be your top chef tonight. I'll send you the menu later.

I responded: Haha ok (not to doubt his cooking skills, buuuuut, remember the calamari and spinach hot pocket?)

10 minutes later...

Copain: I'm going to get filets de Dorade and gigot d'agneau for tonight.

Worried that I was going to end up with a surf and turf disaster, I answered: Or maybe just one or the other?

Sure enough, Copain came home from Picard with Dorado filets, a bag of frozen broccoli and a gigantic gigot d'agneau.

Then, in true form, he cooked the fish and the broccoli for dinner (because cooking fish and broccoli isn't rocket science!) and declared me the cooker of the gigot d'agneau. 

Like I've ever cooked a gigot d'agneau.

ps - what the hell is a gigot d'agneau?

At lunch I told my colleagues that I would be cooking a gigantic gigot tonight - Copain's idea. One of them jokingly asked me if it would fit in my oven.  I laughed and told him of course it would, but what I didn't think about was the Pyrex dish:

This is one enormous gigot. I had to put the dish on a cookie sheet to catch any fat that may drip off the end. I obviously have no idea what I'm doing.

I decided to bust out the cookbook from Belle Mère to help me in my gigot feat. I had most of the ingredients, so I went with this option:

The gigantic gigot is now in the oven and Copain and I are noshing on olives while the darn thing cooks - for over an HOUR.  

This is so not a weekday dinner. 

Stay tuned - in an hour I'll put this thing out of the oven and cross my fingers that it's edible.

Cannes Cannes Curiosity - Coconut Oil?

I was catching up on blogs earlier this week and found a very cool recipe for holiday spice cookies using coconut oil instead of butter from Alt-Mama.  Just like my search for molasses, I was determined to find coconut oil in France and the organic grocery store biocoop did not disappoint!

Check it out:

Cuisine de Cannes Cannes - Pumpkin Muffins

I've been in love with baking muffins ever since it started getting cold in Paris. Basically, I make a muffin batter base, and then I add whatever sounds good in the moment (or whatever I have in the cupboard!): apples, figs, raisins, cranberries, bananas. One thing never changes: cinnamon is always included in my recipes; it's my absolute favorite spice.

My newest creation - pumpkin muffins!  I take one to work with me every morning for breakfast and enjoy it with a cup of steaming hot coffee.  It's my morning happiness and is delicious after my Velib adventure. 

My solution to American pumpkin in a can - Merci Picard!

Ingredients:

1/2 box of frozen purée de potiron from Picard (if you double the recipe, you will use the entire box)

2 cups flour 

1/2 tsp  salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder (if you use self-rising flour (farine pour des gateaux), then you can leave this ingredient out)

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (or more if you are like me and LOVE cinnamon!)

1 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp allspice

4 tbsp softened unsalted butter

3-4 tbsp granulated sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1/ cup milk

1 tbsp vanilla extract

raisins, walnuts or dried oats are optional - I think this would also taste amazing with apples or dried cranberries!

My cookbook (and pumpkin in a bag :-)

Directions: (I've simplified here :-)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Cream together butter and sugars, then add the egg, pumpkin, vanilla and milk.  Mix well.  Add dry ingredients, saving the flour for last.  Don't over-mix the batter.  If you are using a silicon cupcake mold or cupcake paper cups, then there is no need to grease the pan.  However, if you are using a regular cupcake tin, use butter to grease before putting batter into the tin.  Bake 20-25 minutes.  Yields 6 huge muffins (FCC style!) or 8 to 10 smaller muffins. 

After 7 years in France, I still can't cook using the metric measurements! I have cups! If you'd like to switch to metric just go to this conversion chart.

All ready for the oven...

Bon Appétit!