Apples and cream are a quintessentially Norman flavor combination. This is a festive dish made on Sundays and holidays.
In Normandy, they would traditionally drink it with dry cider or Pommeau, but a fruity white wine such as a Riesling goes well, or even dry white Burgundies. If you prefer red, try a light one, such as Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil or another Loire red.
The French might claim pot-au-feu as their invention, but my guess is wherever there has been a pan or a pot, humans have made variations of it. Classical pot-au-feu, also known as petite marmite, is nothing more than beef and/or chicken and vegetables cooked in consommé with a marrow bone, with the chicken giblets thrown in at the end. There are regional variations, of course, some with veal or pork, and occasionally even mutton. Traditionally, carrots, turnips, leeks, pearl onions, celery and cabbage are used. These are added to the consommé along with the marrow bone and brought to a boil, then simmered gently for four hours.
The soup, vegetables and meat are then served in a bowl with toasted bread, the meat sometimes eaten on the side and sometimes in the bowl. Traditional garnishes include mustard, pickles and coarse salt. It is normally paired with red wine.
We didn’t starve, but we didn’t eat chicken unless we were sick, or the chicken was.–Bernard Malamud (1914-1986)
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Bernard Malamud is considered one of the most prominent figures in Jewish-American literature, a movement that originated in the 1930s and is known for its tragicomic elements. Malamud’s stories and novels, in which reality and fantasy are frequently interlaced, have been compared to parables, myths, and allegories, and often illustrate the importance of moral obligation. Along with Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, he was one of the great American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His 1966 novel The Fixer, about anti-Semitism in Tsarist Russia, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.