Behind the French Menu

Chouchen the Drink of the Druids. Drinking Like a Druid in Bretagne, Brittany.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Chouchen

Chouchen and the Druids.

Originally only drunk by the Celtic priests, the Druids, Chouchen is an alcoholic mead made with fermented honey, a hydromel. The recipe was brought from Britain by the British Celts who crossed the English Channel to the most westerly part of mainland France, along with their priests over a period of over 900 years.

The Celts had left Britain in waves to escape the invading Romans who had arrived in 50 BCE followed by the Germanic tribes of Angles and Saxons who came when the Romans left around 410 CE; that gave the inhabitants of Britain the name Anglo-Saxon, Then in 793 CE came the Vikings followed by the arrival of William the Conqueror, himself a descendant of the Vikings, in 1066. The Celts meanwhile had claimed a large part of modern France’s Atlantic coast and called their new home Bretagne (Britain) I can imagine that they also enjoyed a glass or two of their Chouchen to brighten their first evening in a foreign land.

Plymouth, Great Britain to Roscoff. Brittany.

Approximately 215 km (134 miles)

Photograph courtesy of Google Maps.

Dining when Chouchen is on the menu:

Crepe aux Pommes Arrosées de Chouchen - A crepe, with apples sprinkled and flavored with Chouchen

Loup de Mer Rôti, Aromatisé à la Moutarde de Truffe, Crème au Chouchen - Roasted sea bass, flavored with mustard accented truffles and a Chouchen cream sauce.

Chouchen and Brittany Cider.

Photograph courtesy of Martin Burns

www.flickr.com/photos/martinb/809288820/

Noix de Pétoncle en Coquille, Gratinées au Chouchen – The meat of the queen scallop (queenies) served on the half shell lightly browned and flavored with chouchen.

Onglet de Veau au Pralin de Chouchen à l'Échalotes – A veal flank steak prepared with a pralin like preparation made from caramelized almonds or hazelnuts flavored with Chouchen and shallots.

Druid Festival - SAMAÏN FEST

Photograph courtesy of T.Mogal

www.flickr.com/photos/21753643@N08/6319144863/

Suprême de Pintade au Miel et Chouchen – Breast of Guinea fowl prepared with honey and chouchen.

The different varieties of Chouchen.

The wine shops of today’s Brittany offer Chouchen in a wide variety of flavors. The original differences were explained by the different honeys used and those are still available today; however, some versions are flavored with fruit juices and or wines. Whatever the style that is being offered Chouchen may be on your menu as an apéritif when it is best when served chilled or part of a sauce or flavoring on the entrée, the French first course, through the dessert. The original fermented honey had, at most, 8% alcohol today’s higher level is arrived at through distillation usually with apple juice and sold with 14% to 16.5% alcohol,

Among the locals, Chouchen is no longer as popular as Brittany’s famous ciders, probably because it is more expensive. Nevertheless, Chouchen will be in many local recipes, old and new, and it will be in all the wine shops.

The Bollée

Chouchen was traditionally served in a small cup with a handle; that cup is called a Bollée and it looks something like a small teacup. Today, in the café or restaurant you visit that cup may well have been replaced by a regular glass. Nevertheless, if you are visiting a cafe or restaurant where they keep to the old traditions do not be surprised when a small cup, that holds around 200ml of Chouchen, is placed on your table. That is a Chouchen Bollée and you will know what it is for.

In Brittany celebrations will have oysters at the center

They will be accompanied by cidre bouché, or chouchen, not champagne.

Photograph courtesy of Baie de Morlaix Tourisme.

Mid-Summer Night with the Druids

The good citizens of Bretagne are proud of their Celtic and Druid heritage and on the 21st of June every year, mid-summer night, the summer solstice, and the day before, and sometimes for a few days after many communities will be celebrating their Druid ancestry; visitors welcome.

The celebrations include many local variations along with a great deal of food, cider, lambig, their apple brandy, and, of course, chouchen. Call the nearest French Government Tourism Office and you may experience a mid-summer day and night very different to Shakespeare's Mid-Summer Night’s Dream. The English website for the Brittany Tourism office is:

http://www.brittanytourism.com.

Before Bretagne the area was Amor

And then the Romans came.

As you drive around Bretagne you will see many place names and business names that include the words Amor, Amorica, Armorique and similar; this is all part of Bretagne's history. Amor was the ancient name for Bretagne before the British Celts came; then came the Romans under Julius Caesar and he changed the name to Amorica. The largest national park in Bretagne is called the Parc Naturel Régional d'Armorique, the natural regional Park of Armorique.

Amor and Amorica have nothing to do with America. America's two continents are named after Amerigo Vespucci (1454 – February 22, 1512) the Italian explorer who was the first to show that the two American continents were not part of Columbus’s India. Though he never made it to North America his name is still honored on both continents.

Remember, it was the British Celts through their various immigrations that founded Brittany and so if you want really good British food and drink go to Brittany! In 1532 Bretagne, Brittany became part of France.

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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

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Chou - Cabbage. Cabbage in a French Restaurant?

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Cabbage is very important in French Cuisine.

White Cabbage.

Photograph by courtesy of F Delventhal.

www.flickr.com/photos/krossbow/5159259763/

Chou - Cabbage.

Chou, Chou Blanc, Chou Vert, Chou Pommé – Cabbage, white cabbage, green cabbage (The plural of chou is spelled choux and pronounced chou, just ignore the x at the end). The French name for cabbage, chou, originates from an old French word for head, that is rather obvious if we look at the shape of any normal white cabbage.

Red cabbage and Brussel sprouts are included in the last part of this post. Savoy cabbage is another close relative. Cabbage’s ancestor is kale and so it is also the great, great grandfather to bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, kohlrabi, radicchios, and their relatives. Kale and these relatives have their own post.

A Savoy cabbage.

Photograph courtesy of iheartubuntu

www.flickr.com/photos/iheartubuntu/5502027398/

No French restaurant, from the smallest to the largest, will have excluded the cabbage from one or more of the dishes they serve daily; even if the cabbage is just flavoring a soup. In France, cabbage are starring in the kitchen of the restaurant on the corner and in every three-star Michelin Guide restaurant kitchen as well.

Seed catalog 1904

Photograph courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library

www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/16776552392/

Cabbage and the Romans and the Greeks.

You may not like cabbage, and you may blame the Romans for bringing to France aqueducts, roads, amphitheaters, apricots, peaches, cherries, prunes, almonds, snail farming, foie gras, and more, but the Greeks cultivated kale, cabbage's ancestor, before the Romans. The Greeks undoubtedly brought the first cabbages when they occupied southern France in 600 BCE, that's 550 years before the Romans came. At that time the Greeks built their port of Massalía, now called Marseilles. Somewhere around the same time in another continent, the Chinese were developing a wide variety of excellent Asian cabbages and other kale offspring.

Soupe aux choux.

Cabbage soup served in a loaf of bread

Photograph courtesy of grego1402

www.flickr.com/photos/grego1402/20333209378/

Cabbage on French menus:

Chou Blanc en Blanquette – A Provencal cabbage stew made with veal, lamb or goat. Here white cabbage is layered between lightly fried, but quite garlicky meats that are then baked slowly with white wine until all the flavors are shared.

Choux Farci au Bœuf Haché, Riz, Herbes et Tomates – Cabbage stuffed with chopped meat, rice, herbs, and tomatoes.

Chou Farci aux Langoustines sur Son Beurre Blanc - Cabbage stuffed with Dublin Bay Prawns, the real scampi, and served with a beurre blanc sauce. A dish like this with meat or pork would seem to suggest an Austrian-Hungarian or East-European origin rather than French and many stuffed cabbage recipes do have that history. Napoleon I and his armies went nearly everywhere in Europe and Eastern Europe, and he and his Generals traveled with their own cooks who added herbs, spices, and recipes from everywhere.

Stuffed cabbage with a tomato sauce

Photograph courtesy of stu_spivack

www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/4315706480/

Choucroute – This is the Alsatian recipe of sauerkraut, pickled cabbage. Choucroute is served both as a garnish, a side dish, and as a central part of the dish called choucroute garnie, often served as a humongous celebratory dish of pickled cabbage laden with pork, boudin blanc and boudin noir sausages, bacon, and more.

A choucroute garnie for twelve, ready for serving.

Photograph courtesy of Pierre LANNES.

www.flickr.com/photos/titounet/8727500919/

Embeurré de Choux - Sliced boiled cabbage fried with butter, and then before serving more butter is added. This is one of France’s favorite garnishes with some chefs adding small amounts of carrots and onions while others will add lardons, bacon pieces.

Embeurré de Choux – Cabbage fried in butter

Photograph courtesy of Cuisine Actuelle.

Potée Lorraine - A cabbage and meat stew made with smoked pork, pork loin, other pork cuts, as well as bacon and ham, and loads of different vegetables. The region of the Lorraine, together with the Alsace and the Champagne Ardennes in 1-1-2016 were joined together as the new super region of the Grand Est in France’s northeast. Variations of Potées and similar stews will be on menus all over France many under the name Pot-au-Feu or Pot Bouilli; Lorraine's neighbor the Alsace has its own Pot-au-Feu called a Baeckeoffe. Even if many of these other Potée variations are beef and or pork-centric they will all contain cabbage. (BTW Lorraine’s most famous culinary export is the Quiche Lorraine which has no cabbage).

Saucisse de Chou - Pork sausages made with cabbage. Many parts of France have unique sausage recipes made with added cabbage and the old region of the Auvergne claim theirs are the best. (The region of the Auvergne since 1-1-2016 is part of the new super region of the Auvergne- Rhône-Alpes). If you want the very best, then look out for La Saucisse de Choux d'Arconsat, the cabbage sausage from the village of Arconsat, in the department of Puy de Dôme in the region of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

Arriving in Arconsat the capital of the pork and cabbage sausage.

Photograph courtesy of FranceVogage,com

Quintal d'Alsace

This is a true cabbage, and in the Alsace, in North Eastern France, where these cabbages grow, they can reach 8 kilos (18 lbs) or more; quite a surprise when you first see one. Possibly not too surprising is the signature dish of the Alsace choucroute, pickled cabbage, and so one large cabbage may be a money saver. Unfortunately, most of these cabbages reach the market when they are small, a miserly 4 or 5 kilos (9 -11 lbs). (The Alsace has since 1-1-2019, together with the Lorraine and the Champagne Ardennes been part of the new super region of the Grand Est).

Quintal d'Alsace

Photograph Graines Bauxmaux

Chou Rouge – Red Cabbage

The red cabbage is a brother, or sister of the white cabbage though most are usually more purple than red with variations that come from the acidity of the soil. When cooked, red cabbage needs the addition of vinegar or acidic fruits to retain its color.

Red cabbage salad

Photograph courtesy of Deb Nystrom

www.flickr.com/photos/stella12/7187749569/

Red Cabbage on French Menus:

Escalope de Magret de Canard avec Chou Rouge Braisé au Vinaigre de Xérès – A filet of duck breast and red cabbage braised with sherry vinegar.

Filet de Sanglier aux Airelles, Chou Rouge et Spaetzle Maison – A slice of wild boar prepared with cranberries accompanied by red cabbage and the house’s version of spaetzlie. Spaetzlie are long bumpy dumplings associated with the Alsace where they often replace rice and potatoes.

The inside of a red cabbage

Chou Rouge

Photograph courtesy of dollen

www.flickr.com/photos/dollen/8378715930/

Choux de Bruxelles – Brussels sprouts

Tiny green cabbages that come in sizes from 1.5cm (0.60”) to 4cm (1.5”) in diameter. No one is quite sure when they were first cultivated, but the Encyclopedia Britannica has them possibly being grown as early as the 1200s with written Belgian descriptions beginning in 1587. Brussels is the capital of Belgium, and so they are honored with the name. The good news for those who need a reason to eat Brussels sprouts is that they contain lots of fiber, protein, potassium, and vitamins A, C, and K.

Brussels sprouts with a mustard glaze

Photograph courtesy of Amy Stephenson

www.flickr.com/photos/24013072@N05/4199092754/

Brussels’ sprouts on French Menus:

Paleron de Boeuf, Purée et Choux de Bruxelles- A beef stew from a tasty shoulder cut (the same cut is often used for Provencal Daubs) accompanied by pureed Brussels sprouts.

Suprême de Volaille Fumé et Choux de Bruxelles Braisés – Smoked chicken breast accompanied by braised Brussels sprouts.

Most of us are amazed when we first see Brussels sprouts growing on a central stem. Rather than small individual cabbages growing out of the ground anywhere from 30 to 50 or more sprouts grown on a single stalk that may weigh over 1.5 kilos (3.30 lbs). Their cultivator was a smart man or woman, fifty in one go.

Brussels sprouts grow on a central stem

This plant is growing through the snow.

Photograph courtesy of the Massachusetts Office Of Travel & Tourism

www.flickr.com/photos/masstravel/14582565159/

Cabbages in the languages of France’s mainland neighbors:

(Catalan - col), (Dutch - witte kool), (German – kohl,kraut, weisskohl, weisskraut), (Italian – col, cavolo cappuccio), (Provencal – caulet), (Spanish - repollo blanco).

Red cabbage in the languages of France’s mainland neighbors:

(Catalan - col llombarda), (Dutch - rode kool), (German - rotkohl), (Italian - cavolo rosso), (Spanish - col lombarda), (Latin - brassica oleracea var. capitata f. rubra),

Cabbage in other languages:

(Arabic - ملفوف ), (Chinese -捲心菜), (Dutch – wittekool, sla), (Filipino- repolyo)

(Greek – Λάχανο), (Hebrew – croov, כרוב (Japanese – kyabetsu - キャベツ),

(Rumanian), (Russian- kапуста), (Turkish – lahana), (Ukranian – капуста), (Latin - brassica oleracea).

Brussels sprouts in the languages of France neighbors:

(Catalan - col de Brussel·les), (Dutch - spruitjes), (Germany - rosenkohl, Brüsseler kohl), (Italy - cavoletti di Bruxelles, (Spanish - coles de Bruselas), (Latin - brassica oleracea).

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