Week 15: A week for the books

I had intended to lead this posting with a debunking of myths surrounding full-time parenting and maintaining an online surplus survival guide. But then the French went on strike, and that’s way more interesting.  True, various factions of workers tend to strike fairly regularly. But this week promises to be the armegeddon of French striking, a week for the books (which could turn into 2 or 3 weeks, conditions permitting).

First, if you keep yourself regularly informed of the French political environment or if you have found yourself sitting in a ridiculously long line at a French gas station recently, you may already know that the oil refineries have been blocked for about a week and a half. That means no more gas (petrol) being produced, oil transporters lined up outside the ports and, for the rest of us, effectively, no more gas available at the majority of gas stations. (Lights were still on in the attached convenience stores, so, luckily, Slurpie access was not affected.)

That’s a bit the prelude. Now this week: Tuesday, 7 pm, the mid- and long-distance trains will strike for an unlimited amount of time. (In France, that doesn’t mean a 30 minute-gotcha!, it will be days…) Then, Thursday June 2, the Parisian metro and regional train network will strike, again unlimited. (Thursday is also “National strike day” so feel free to join in!) Friday, the airports will steal the headlines with a 3-day strike. In the planning is another strike of the metro for June 10 (on the occasion of the opening of the Euro soccer championship, hosted this year by France) and a follow-up “National strike day” on June 14. If you’re more of a night owl, head to Place de la Republique where every evening since March 31, an all-night protest has taken place.

So what’s up France’s bustle? A new labor law that removes some dearly-held worker protections and attempts to ease the hiring-firing processes for French companies. But I think the weather is actually to blame. If it was sunny and warm, instead of grey and raining, we would all be sitting along Canal Saint-Martin sipping pastis and leaving the strikes until the rentrée in September.

Interesting cultural note: You might be thinking, but aren’t the French (those not blocking the oil refineries or hanging out every night at Place de la Republique) getting fed up with all these strikes? There, my friend, you have underestimated the national virtue of “solidarité”. (French readers, correct me if I’m wrong) My understanding is that even if you don’t agree with the protesters, even if you’ve just spent 3 hours waiting to fill up your gas tank, even if you are standing in the pouring rain waiting for another cancelled train to not show up, there is an overarching sense of sympathetic solidarity with the plight of those who strike: a bit the “this could be me one day” approach. It might not be only the French who react this way but I find the sentiment to be particularly strong here. (The why and how we shall discuss later over a pastis.)

In solidarity with their brethren, the apples have also gone on strike this week. But we’ve improvised: four delicious potato recipes to help clear out your surplus (though it strikes me that if this keeps up, our surplus will be the envy of the neighborhood)!

Shepherd’s pie

Süßer Kartoffelauflauf (Sweet, potato casserole)

Tortilla de patatas and Frittata di patate (Potato omelet, Spanish and Italian)

Salmon and potato pie

Shepherd’s pie

Inter-cultural relations warning: the following recipe may be considered offensive by certain purebred readers hailing from those big islands in the north that portend to be the birthplace of the original dish bearing this name. On the other hand you have to give the South Africans credit for spicing things up a bit. Karoo shepherds do not seem to be cut from the same cloth as yours.

To start with, the Karoo recipe calls for ostrich mince. I couldn’t get my hands on any but my understanding is that ostrich farms are totally in vogue. If you have one within a reasonable driving distance from your homestead, I would 100% encourage you to put some of your monthly food budget toward ostrich meat. It’s delicious. Ostrich burgers? Yum! Ostrich roast? We happened upon one at our supermarket a few months back and it made a fantastic main course for our Easter lunch. The meat is juicy and tender in the vein of a good steak while having the nutritional makeup of poultry. Shepherd’s pie made with ostrich mince?—I can only imagine!

As if that weren’t enough, the mince is topped with potatoes mashed together with steamed broccoli. (Who would have come up with that?) And not only does it render an impressive shade of green, it’s also good!

From a purely aesthetic point of view, I’ll admit that I found the green purée set atop the deep red of the mince a little bit jarring, like the color scheme of a kitchen from the 1970s. If you’re worried your dinner guests will be going on looks alone, stick with the traditional potatoes-only topping and use the time you spared not steaming broccoli, touching up your make-up and wiping breakfast off your toddler’s face. (You should probably also find some new friends.)

The Karoo cookbook is fully to blame for this adulteration of an honored favorite.

Mince, 2 lbs (1 kg) (ostrich, beef, sausage, veal, lamb, turkey, whatever you’ve got. I used 1 lb (500 g) of sausage mince and 1 lb (500 g) of beef)

Butter, 6 Tbsp (90 g)

Carrot, peeled and grated, 1

Tomato paste, 2-4 Tbsp (30-60 ml)

Tomato sauce, 2 Tbsp (30 ml)

Red wine, 6 Tbsp (90 ml)

Garlic, 2 cloves, chopped

Cumin, ground, 2 tsp

Chutney, 3 Tbsp (Here I used my apple-ginger jam. The recipe doesn’t specify anything beyond “chutney” so go wild.)

Spring onions, optional

Potatoes, large, 6, peeled and cubed

Broccoli, cut into florets (the recipe suggests 4 heads but depending on how much fertilizer your broccoli has been given, 4 heads can be a hell of a lot of broccoli. My take is that broccoli grows small down there in the semi-arid Karoo. Your call on how many heads to use.)

Salt + pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

(If you’re multi-talented and/or the children are asleep, complete steps 2 and 4 simultaneously.)

2. Heat 2 Tbsp (30 g) of butter in a sauce pan. Add and brown the mince. Add in the grated carrot, the tomato sauce and paste and the wine. Season with chili if you’d like. Cook on high for 2-4 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, chutney and spring onion. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes
3. Place mince into a casserole dish.

4. Boil potatoes for 6-8 minutes. Add in broccoli florets and boil until tender. Drain and mash all together. Stir in the butter and season with salt and pepper.
5. Place potato-broccoli purée on top of the mince mixture.

6. Bake 20-25 minutes. Garnish with parsley, as if it’s not green enough already.

top

Süßer Kartoffelauflauf (Sweet, potato casserole)

Just when you thought regular old white potatoes were only good for savory dishes!  Another treasure from my new Landfrauenverein Buchenberg Kartoffel (Country women’s club of Buchenberg potato) cookbook. I immediately bookmarked all of the sweet recipes with the intent of plumping up my list of potato desserts (the adverse effect of plumping up our waistlines as well, to be temporarily ignored). The sad news is I’m not sure our stock will make it through all of them. And some of them sound interesting enough that I might actually find myself purchasing extra spuds at the supermarket (imagine that!). It’s really impressive what you can do with a potato once you let it at the sugar bowl. Listen to this one: Marillenknödel—fresh apricots filled with sugar then wrapped in potato dough, boiled then pan-fried and served dusted with powdered sugar. There’s a recipe for potato cookies (Kartoffel-Quarkplätzchen) and two versions of potato waffels (Kartoffelwaffeln). And finally, featured here, a sweet, potato casserole (Süßer Kartoffelauflauf).

I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I set out to make the casserole. I’m not sure it’s always the most brilliant idea to prepare a dish for the first time when guests are coming. It seems like I am often saying, as I set out some odd concoction before curious eyes, “I’m not really sure how this will taste, but I hope it’s good.” Doesn’t inspire much confidence, but fortunately most of the time things have turned out well. If not, we’re always sure to offer a few digestifs (after-dinner drinks) so that the memory of some not-so-edible dish becomes a bit blurry.

In this case, there was no need for concern. The sweet, potato casserole is really tasty. It is a very close cousin of a sponge cake or angel food cake, only with the mashed potatoes standing in for the flour. We served it with a Coulis de fruits rouges (Red berry sauce).

Again, the cookbook may not be so easy to come by (unless you find yourself in the giftshop of the Kellerwald-Edersee Nationalpark) but I’d be happy to send the original to any interested parties.

Potatoes, cooked, 12 oz (350 g) (The recipe suggests that it would be best to use a somewhat-floury potato. Now I haven’t given any space here to a discussion of types of potatoes, for the very logical reason that we have only one. However, it is worth noting that the different potato varieties are more or less suited to different recipes. Our potatoes, I’m pretty sure they are “Charlotte”, are great for baked dishes or sautées but not the best for purées. That obviously hasn’t stopped me, but sometimes I must add a bit more liquid than what is suggested in a recipe to achieve a purée worthy of the name.)

Eggs, 8, divided

Sugar, 2 cups (375 g)

Ground almonds, 5 oz (125 g)

Lemon zest, from 1 lemon

Potato starch, 2 Tbsp

Powdered sugar

Butter

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter a casserole dish.
2. Cook your potatoes, peel and finely shred them. (I used our potato ricer with ease and confidence.)
3. Beat together the 8 egg yolks with 1 cup (200 g) sugar until foamy. Add in, a bit at a time, the ground almonds and the lemon zest. Mix in with the shredded or riced potatoes.

4. Beat the 8 egg whites together until they are stiff. Slowly add in the remaining sugar (or whatever portion of it you feel good about adding).
5. First stir just 4 Tbsp of the egg whites into the potato-yolk mix. Then pour the rest of the whites on top of the potatoes, sprinkle with the potato starch and use a whisk to gently combine together.

6. Place everything together into the casserole dish.

7. Bake approximately 60 minutes. (If you undersized your casserole dish, like I did, spend the first 30 minutes anxiously checking to see if the potato filling is pouring over the sides and burning onto the bottom of the oven. Luckily the filling is heavy enough that this isn’t likely. It will rise like a soufflé but chances are good it will stay inside the dish.)

8. Dust with powdered sugar if you like and serve with red fruit sauce.

top

When potato week continues, (if the union approves, of course):

Tortilla de patatas and Frittata di patate (Potato omelet, Spanish and Italian)

Salmon and potato bake

Dying to know who will strike next? Sign up to receive the next post straight to your inbox. Send us your thoughts and solidarity below.