Week Four: The second act

How do you follow up a recipe like Carrot cake? The following selection has the unfortunate task of playing second fiddle to a recipe that I know sent the vast majority of you running off to the store to buy pineapples, coconut and carrots. But these recipes are not to be dismissed. Weekend dinner guests? Any of these recipes would be an excellent prelude to a moist delicious carrot-y dessert.

In addition, for any American readers, who following Tuesday’s results, are suddenly quite eager to brush up on their high school French in view of upcoming visa applications to Canada, the “Rôti de porc pommes boulangère” and the “Cabillaud gratiné à la crème” would make excellent conversation topics with your assigned visa officer.

Kartoffel-Möhren Gratin (Potato-Carrot gratin)

This is something of the German version of Tartiflette: a bit lighter on the cream and with the secret ingredient of the German kitchen playing a leading role. It was also quite fast and easy to throw together since the potatoes and carrots do not have to be cooked beforehand. Like Tartiflette the cream transforms what are otherwise rather somber vegetables into a worthy and delicious side dish.

The recipe comes from the Dr. Oetker Schulkochbuch, a sort of German version of Betty Crocker, only of course the Germans would leave a subject as important as the preparation of their national dishes to a doctor, not a Betty.

Garlic, 1 clove

Potatoes, 1 lb (500 g)

Carrots, ½ lb (300 g)

Milk, ½ cup (125 ml)

Cream, ½ cup (125 g)

Salt and pepper

Nutmeg (In America, my German husband was disturbed to discover, nutmeg is relegated to Eggnog and Christmas cookies. In Germany it is the spice of the hour. Jan was taught at a young and impressionable age to add nutmeg to any recipe that includes eggs or cream, and the lesson stuck. The good news is, nutmeg is deserving of this added attention. It really does do a great job under eggy, creamy circumstances. So pull it out of the box of Christmas decorations and put it in the front row of your spice cupboard.)

Thyme

Parmesan cheese, grated, 2 Tbsp.

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (180°C).
2. Butter a casserole dish. Peel and slice in half the garlic clove. Rub the clove all over the buttered dish. (This step seemed a little bit superstitious. I did it out of fear and respect for the German cooking spirits but to be quite frank, I’m not convinced it added much to the dish.)

3. Peel and thinly slice the potatoes and the carrots.
4. Outdo yourself by carefully and meticulously laying the slices into an intricate and impossible-to-replicate design in an effort to make your dish look like the picture in the cookbook. If after hours of focused concentration and hard labor, your slices are not all uniform size and thickness and your design looks like your toddler made it, get over it and move on to the next step.

5. Salt, pepper and nutmeg your work of art.
6. Mix together the cream and milk. Kick yourself if you bought skim milk again and just use straight cream instead.
7. Pour the milk-cream on top and sprinkle with thyme and the grated Parmesan cheese.
8. Bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown. 

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Rôti de porc pommes boulangère (Pork roast with potatoes)

A recipe for potato connoisseurs of all ages. The cookbook, Mille et une recettes maison, advertises Rôti de porc pommes boulangère as the “simplicity of the country kitchen”. And it’s right. All out of monkfish at your local supermarket? Pick up a pork roast instead. Feeling proletariat? Rôti de porc pommes boulangère is your answer!

The “rôti de porc” part is easy enough, after all your French is improving thanks to your weekly commitment to reading chez-maureen.com but what exactly are these “pommes boulangère”? According to Merriam-Webster the direct translation of boulangère is “cooked with sliced onions in a casserole”. Couldn’t have put it better myself. Pork roast with potatoes cooked with sliced onions in a casserole. It seems nearly redundant at this point to even bother spelling out the recipe.

Pork roast, roughly 2 lbs (1 kg)

Potatoes, roughly 2 lbs (1 kg)

Onions, 2

Butter, 5 Tbsp (75 g)

Salt and pepper

White wine (this is optional but it will give the dish that je-ne-sais-quoi you’ve been looking for)

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
2. Peel the potatoes and cut them into very thin slices. If you have a fancy slicing machine proudly employ its services, otherwise careful of your fingertips!

3. Chop the onions. Mix together with the potatoes and salt and pepper to taste.
4. Salt and pepper the pork roast and place it in a buttered roasting pan.
5. Arrange the potato-onion mix around the roast and pour ¼ cup of white wine (or water, if you have unwisely discarded my advice).
6. Divide the butter into small pieces and place these on top of the potato-onion-wine moat.

7. Roast 1 hour 15 minutes, turning the potatoes from time to time. I highly advise using a meat thermometer to ensure that you don’t overcook the roast.
8. Serve the roast sliced and crowned with the delicious simplicity of the country kitchen.

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Warning! The following recipe does not include potatoes, carrots or apples.

I’m including it in my survival guide because a) it would go really well with a carrot entrée, a side of mashed potatoes and apple crumble for dessert; and b) I was pleasantly surprised by what a nice dish it was.

I also understand that there are readers who are struggling to track down the elusive monkfish so I offer this is a consolation prize: a much more humble fish but prepared in an unusual manner that will surely surprise and delight even the most jaded cod eaters.

Cabillaud gratiné à la créme (Cod Gratin)

Adapted from the cookbook Mille et une recettes maison, where they ostentatiously claim that there are a 1,001 ways to prepare cod. They only go on to list 4, but they are French so I’m convinced.

Cod, 4 pieces, 5 oz. (150 g) apiece

Butter, 3-½ Tbsp (50 g)

Onions, 2

Garlic, 1 clove

Eggs, 2

Cream, 7 oz. (20 cl)

Nutmeg (I told you to leave it in the front row of your spice shelf…)

Salt and pepper

Gouda (optional), 3 oz. (80 g)

1. Preheat the oven to 410°F (210°C).
2. Rinse and dry the cod filets. Finely chop the onions and the garlic.
3. Heat half the butter in a frying pan. Cook the cod filets for 2 minutes on each side.
4. Remove filets and place in a casserole dish. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.
5. Sprinkle the chopped onion and garlic over the seasoned filets.
6. Beat the eggs together with the cream.
7. Pour over the fish. If you’d like, you can now sprinkle the Gouda cheese on top. The cookbook notes that it is important to use a cheese (like Gouda) that does not negate the flavor of the fish and is not stringy.

8. Bake 20 minutes.

This is really a light main dish (high in protein but low in potato) so be sure to prepare an accompanying side. I quickly stir-fried some tomato slices in olive oil. But you could be more adventurous. Maybe some Ginger-glazed carrots? Or a Versunkener Apfelkuchen for dessert?

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Please share your recipe ideas, suggestions and photos of carrot cake below!

Coming up next week are four tried, tested, and, more-often-than-not, failed ways to serve potatoes to a skeptical toddler:

1) What’s that hiding under the peas and cheese? (Potato, Leek and Cheese Bake)

2) Mickey Mouse Potato pancakes!

3) Who doesn’t like Mashed Potatoes?

4) Potato salad Surprise, or I’ll just pick out the cranberries and you eat the rest Mama.

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