WHAT TO EAT IN FRANCE: POT-AU-FEU
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.
See also FRENCH RECIPES: POT-AU-FEU OR PETITE MARMITE for Escoffier’s recipe.
Jonell Galloway grew up on Wendell Berry and food straight from a backyard Kentucky garden. She is a freelance writer. She attended Le Cordon Bleu and La Varenne cooking schools in Paris and the Académie du Vin, worked for the GaultMillau restaurant guide and CityGuides in France and Paris and for Gannett Company in the U.S., and collaborated on Le tour du monde en 80 pains / Around the World with 80 Breads with Jean-Philippe de Tonnac in France; André Raboud, Sculptures 2002-2009 in Switzerland; Ma Cuisine Méditerranéenne with Christophe Certain in France, At the Table: Food and Family around the World with Ken Albala, and a biography of French chef Pierre Gagnaire. She ran a cooking school in France, and owned a farm-to-table restaurant, The Three Sisters’ Café, with her two sisters in the U.S. She organizes the Taste Unlocked bespoke food and wine tasting awareness workshops with James Flewellen, is an active member of Slow Food, and runs the food writing website The Rambling Epicure. Her work has been published in numerous international publications and she has been interviewed on international public radio in France, Switzerland, and the U.S. She has just signed on at In Search of Taste, a British print publication, and is now working on two books, What to Eat in France and What to Eat in Venice.
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