Cynthia D. Bertelsen's Gherkins & Tomatoes
A Writer's Musings on Nature and Culture, Since 2008
Fried dough, a universal love. Grease, sugar, what more could you dream of? In the south of France, when you want fried dough, you'll get oreillettes. As with any traditional holiday dish, each cook has his or her version. The signature taste with these oreillettes is the orange flower water. In New Orleans, oreillettes come…
Continue reading ➞ Oreillettes, A Part of Provence’s Thirteen Desserts
In France, you'll find sablés, buttery cookies that originated in Normandy. (You know they had all that butter to get rid of there.) Most sablés are sweet. But in Provence, for the famous Thirteen Desserts of Christmas Eve, cooks prefer savory little disks perfumed with fennel and cumin. Cumin? How did cumin get into mix?…
Continue reading ➞ The Provençal Thirteen: Fennel- and Cumin-Scented Sablés
A Provençal gros souper (Christmas Eve dinner) would not be correct without some nougat noir to challenge the skill of your dentist and possibly lay waste to your dental work. In other words, nougat noir can be a bête [bite!] noire*, if you're not careful. For nougat noir is a hard candy, not the pillowy stuff…
Continue reading ➞ Nougat Noir, or Black Nougat, Another of the Thirteen Desserts
Gorgeous, huh? Yummy? You bet! And the best part is that, with a quick flick of a switch and your wrist, you too can make these beauties, part of the Thirteen Desserts of a Provençal Christmas. Mendiants au Chocolat Noir ou Blanc Makes about 75 - 100 candies, depending on size of circles 1 pound…
The truth is, the dishes associated with Provence's Thirteen Desserts abound with religious symbolism. Take the Four Beggars, or Les Quatre Mendiants, which symbolize something that we in the secular West have basically lost, a sense of awe and fear about the natural world and all that is in it. The Thirteen Desserts likely represented…
[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]
The color certainly captures your attention, doesn't it? Such a glossy --- almost neon --- orange. When I was a kid, I always wondered if anyone else ever got a wrinkly tangerine bumping around in their Christmas stocking. At some point along the way, I found out that the Victorians were big on citrus fruit…
Continue reading ➞ One of the Thirteen, the Tangerine
Ugh. Citron. I’ll bet that’s what you’re thinking. I know, because that’s what I thought when it dawned on me that citron (Citrus medica) really counted as one of the Thirteen Desserts of Provence. You’ve no doubt seen (and eaten) the chewy, rock-like squares of “citron” sold in your local grocery store, there to be…
Continue reading ➞ Citron* (Cédrat), Jewel-Like Morsel of Provence’s Thirteen Christmas Desserts
I love culinary traditions ... and usually I don't mind cooking all the foods associated with upholding those traditions. Like Thanksgiving dinner, for example. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole (from scratch, mind you), pumpkin pie with whipped cream (crust handmade just prior to baking), and sweet potato casserole (no marshmallows).…
Continue reading ➞ No Partridges, Just Thirteen Desserts: French Christmas Culinary Traditions
