Pizza Adventures

Posted on December 17, 2010 by caelycate

I got into making  pizzas while staying at my parents house just before my return to France. They love to barbecue exorbitant amounts of vegetables and tofu, as it’s one of the few things that my Dad is comfortable executing in the kitchen (or on the patio I should say). Being a little extreme, my Dad never fails to barbecue roughly the amount of vegetables required to feed a small village for 1 week. So, this has led to some creative approaches to leftovers, as you can only eat vegetables with tofu and rice so many times before you want to just scream out loud and devour a massive piece of fatty meat. One of the favorite ways to use up all the leftover veggies has become piling them all onto a pizza crust and throwing the whole thing in the oven.

It started with store-bought pizza dough (God, how I miss Trader Joe’s!) and progressed to homemade dough, because it was only a matter of time before baking the pizza wasn’t enough for me: I actually had to make the whole thing from scratch. I used a recipe from an old Sunset pizza cookbook, and was pleased with how fast and easy the whole process was.

So, faced with a busy schedule at work this week, a pending voyage back to the United States, and a hungry boyfriend staying chez moi, I thought of pizzas. They’re quick and easy, and they hold well in the fridge (and even taste great cold).

My favorite pizza has always been mushroom pizza, and as the markets here have beautiful wild mushrooms right now, it wasn’t difficult deciding what flavor pizza I would be making. I spent a small fortune on the mushrooms, but it was so worth it…

I used a pizza dough recipe from bread authority Peter Reinhart:  http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001199.html

I let the dough rise for about a day before dividing it up and putting it in the fridge. When I woke up the morning after I made it, it had actually spilt over the massive bowl it was in, and looked like some sort of blob-thing from a horror film, trying to eat up everything in its sight.

I rolled out the dough in small batches with a flour-dusted wine bottle: living in a tiny apartment with a tiny kitchen has led to some intensely creative cooking scenarios. It was after the dough had all been rolled out, and I was going to put them onto plates and cover them in mushroomy goodness that I realized that the corn meal I had bought to sprinkle over the baking sheets to keep the dough from sticking was actually corn starch. Whoops! I should have known it was too good to be true that my little French supermarket would carry corn meal. So, I improvised and used some raw quinoa, which actually gave the pizza a nice, hearty crunch in the end.

To prepare the mushrooms, I sautéed them in olive oil and butter with some sliced onions and a generous heap of fresh thyme. Before piling them onto the pizza dough, I spread on a thin layer of olive oil and grated Emmenthal cheese. Then went on the mushrooms, and then some hearty chunks of roasted garlic and some freshly shelled walnuts from my boyfriend’s tree. Magnifique! I also cracked an egg over one of the pizzas. Adding eggs never hurts…

I also made a simple tomato sauce pizza, with the same ingredients as the mushroom pizza minus the mushrooms obviously, and plus the tomato sauce (I’ll be posting my recipe for homemade pizza sauce very soon as my next installment will be about my mushroom lasagne).

I served the pizzas with simple sautéed brussels sprouts and carrots. It was quick, easy, delicious and fun (I ceded my usual iron-grip of kitchen dominance and actually let my boyfriend do some of the cooking this time…). It fed us for several days, and I still have a few balls of dough in my freezer for later use. I’ll be doing this a lot in the future; a little taste of Italy in France never hurt anyone…

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Le Marché de Noël

Posted on December 6, 2010 by caelycate

France loves Christmas (or Noël, as they say here). A lot. Every main street in every city is strung with lights. Every self-respecting shop keeper’s window looks like Father Christmas threw up in it. In between the decorations and the cold, snow-bitten air even the Grinch couldn’t help but be in the Christmas spirit. But nothing makes France more magical during the holidays than the Marchés de Noël (Christmas Markets).

Needless to say, I was a very happy camper when I left my apartment early one morning for work, and saw that they had erected the skeleton of a Marché de Noël in the square right around the corner! The empty booths were just waiting to be filled with holiday goodness. I was so excited at the prospect of it all that I actually jumped in the air and did a weird little maneuver which I couldn’t describe if I tried, but which no doubt amused the early morning commuters sitting idle in their cars.

I experienced my first Marché de Noël when I visited Belgium while studying abroad (4 years ago now, how time flies!). In essence, a Marché de Noël is a street fair, but it usually lasts at least 2 weeks. What the vendors sell varies from region to region, however the goods usually fall into one of two categories: 1.overpriced artsy things that can be given as holiday gifts and 2. food and drinks that will warm the soul. Guess which category I am more interested in?

So, the market opened about a week ago, and I’ve been almost everyday. And here’s the lowdown on what the  Marché de Noël de Rennes has to offer…

It has the usual artsy stuff like glass ware, jewelry and scarves and hats, etc. But there are a few surprise contenders at this particular market, such as the African doll booth (thoroughly freaky) and the man who sells air plants (thoroughly amazing).

I had been looking for a plant that I would have trouble killing, and one that doesn’t require soil and hardly needs watering seemed like a good bet, so for the first time ever I bought something at a Christmas Market that isn’t edible! And now my happy plant (who I named Georges, pronounced in the French style of course) lives on my bedside table.

And now for the food….

There are booths that are chock full of the tastiest (and most costly) saucisson sec and foie gras and fromage you’ve ever encountered.

Then there are the prepared foods. My personal favorite is the tartine man. A tartine is a thick slice of toasted bread that has some sort of yummy topping on it (usually a combination of cheese and meat). These are truly artisanal tartines, made with high-quality ingredients and a lot of TLC. The friendly vendor toasts every tartine individually to order, and the happy customer can choose from about a million different cheeses: Munster, Emmenthal, Chèvre, St Nectaire, etc. And of course, he sells vin chaud (mulled wine) as well…

And then there is the tartiflette man. Holy hell. Nothing warms you up on a freezing winter night like tartiflette: an unctuous combination of potatoes, lardons, onions, white wine, and a whole lot of cheese. I can assure you that I will be making tartiflette chez moi very, very soon!

Of course there is the galette vendor, who sells all the traditional Breton specialties such as tartine à rillette and bolée du cidre. I haven’t visited him yet as I can get all that stuff any old time (lucky me, I know).


And for the sweet tooth, there are several options. First there are the churros. These aren’t like the churros we get in California: they are coated in sugar, but not cinnamon. However, they do serve them with nutella. Personally, I am not too fussed about a lack of cinnamon when there is nutella involved. And even better than the churro is the cornet de chichi. Chichi are miniature churros, served in a paper cone, that are incidentally the perfect size for dipping into nutella…

And for those looking for somethings less fried, and vaguely healthy, I present the chocolate covered fruit booth.

I brought home a gorgeous specimen from that booth for dessert tonight: a crisp pear covered in dark chocolate and rolled in candied almonds. Magnifique! Here is it in all its splendor (you can also see Georges in the photo if you look closely).

If I described all the vendors and the splendors of the market, we’d both be here for ages. So I’ll just leave you with some last images to sum up the vibrancy and the warmth of the Marché de Noël…

Joyeuses fêtes de Noël!

Posted in Culture, Food | 5 Comments

Thanksgiving, Franglish-style

Posted on November 30, 2010 by caelycate

Warning: This is a long blog post. Be prepared before you commit to reading it.

Okay, I’ve been in France for Thanksgiving once before when I studied abroad in Paris. In a sad attempt at defiance, my fellow American -in-Paris and I decided to be super untraditional and have sushi. The result was disappointing (sushi in France is never the greatest idea, unless you’re willing to cough up quite a few euros), and we were both nostalgic for turkey, cranberry sauce, dressing, potatoes and all the trappings of a traditional Thanksgiving. So, there was no messing around this year: I messaged all of my fellow American friends here in Rennes before Halloween, a whole month in advance. I offered to host, and we rallied together to figure out who was going to make what. I assigned myself to the turkey and gravy, and I didn’t waste any time starting the research. I know that the French aren’t big on turkey, and that it would therefore be difficult to find une dinde entière (a whole turkey).

I figured the best place to start was the marchée de plein air (open-air market), where there are always hordes of bouchers (butchers) touting their wares. I managed to find someone who has a farm right outside Rennes with turkeys that are élevé en plein air (the French equivalent of grass-fed and finished). The quoted price was no laughing matter (13 euro per kg!),  but beggars can’t be choosers, and I loved the idea of a happy turkey!

We had decided to celebrate Thanksgiving the Saturday after, as we all had to work on Thursday and Friday: being a Francophile demands sacrifice sometimes!  On Friday, I found my boucher at the market (conveniently located in my school’s parking lot) and he proudly pointed to the giant bird he had set aside for me. Quelle beauté! A whopping 5 kilograms with a price tag of 70 euros! He informed me that he had killed the bird himself that morning (and indeed, it still had feathers on it), and inquired whether I would like the head left on. I said no, and then whack, his giant butcher’s knife removed the offending specimen. He packed the giblets inside for me, gave me a giant chunk of his specialty pâté, on the house, and wished me bonne chance!

I had found my turkey recipe through my favorite food podcast, Splendid Table (if you don’t listen to this, then you should: Lynne Rossetto Kasper is a culinary goddess, who I am convinced knows everything). I chose a simple, straightforward recipe, as this was my first time cooking a giant bird solo. I got started on the recipe the night before by making giblet broth for the graving, and stuffing the turkey cavity  and skin full of lemon and bunches of fresh herbs. I went to sleep that night with the smell of the broth encompassing me, making me hungry for a dinner that wasn’t to arrive until the next night.

On Saturday, we were all running around all day. Everyone had trouble locating certain ingredients (brown sugar, cranberries, etc.) and we were all shuttling ovens and supplies back in forth from one apartment to the next. Finally, the real cooking started chez Seth, my one friend here who has an oven big enough to fit the turkey. The cooking involved vodka, whiskey, and a lot of laughing. Needless to say, things ran a little bit behind schedule….But, the bird was finally underway, and after seeing it through its most difficult stages, I was off to chez moi to play hostess…

Finally, at about 8:30 I got home to my house to set up, and welcome arriving guests (most of whom needed to use my oven as few of us here are lucky enough to have one). This resulted in some cramped and comical cooking conditions. We had to get creative….

At around 9:30, the aperitifs and hors d’oeurves portion of the night was well under way, my gravy was reducing, and everything was getting reheated (somehow). No one was too worried about when all of the food would be ready as we had heaps of bread, cheese, and pâté to keep us occupied. Comme fromage,  we had morbier, that beautiful specimen of a cheese that is distinguished by the line of ash that runs through the middle. Our friend Amelia explained to us that night that the ash marks the break between the morning and afternoon milkings. We also had brie covered in fig jam wrapped lovingly in puff pastry by my friend Emma.

And, bien sur, there was plenty of wine to keep us company as we waited…

The cooked turkey arrived (after having been carried across centre-ville by Seth and my friend Carolyn). The guest of honor was placed on my bedside table, as there wasn’t room anywhere else in my tiny apartment what with the 11 bodies and the massive quantity of food and wine.

As the time to dig in got nearer, we began prepping the turkey for it’s doom: Seth retrieved the stuffing (can you believe this was the first time I experienced the wonders of wet stuffing!)

Two brave souls, Lauren and Caitlin tried their hand at carving…

Finalement, it all came together: the turkey was carved, we said bon appétit and we tucked in. Voici, the spread…

And the finished product…

The plates were emptied at the speed of light, and then there were seconds all around. I also collected “donations” for the turkey fund, as our beautiful little bird was not cheap.

After a gargantuan amount of food, and a long break, we bravely tackled dessert...

And then it was time for a nap…

And that brings us to the end of the story of a fabulous Thanksgiving, where Franglish was the official language, and food was the chosen religion.

Stay tuned for news of the Marché de Noël that has just opened up in the square by my apartment…

Posted in Food | 11 Comments

Kouign-amann

Posted on November 23, 2010 by caelycate

It’s officially winter. The weather forecast is predicting snow for Thursday (though I have heard from several sources that it rarely snows in Rennes, so we’ll see about that. I tend to completely distrust weather forecasts anyways…). The Christmas lights have been strung up all over town (but as of yet have not been turned on). The Marche de Noël (Christmas market) has been propped up in the square by my apartment and the empty stalls are waiting patiently to be filled with galette and cidre vendors. The stores are all boasting their holiday wares.  But beneath the excitement and anticipation of the holidays, there is the ever-present cold. It seeps in past even my most valiant efforts at layering. But, without cold we’d have no reason to seek warmth, and I cannot think of a better way to warm up on a cold winter afternoon in Brittany than with a chocolat chaud and a thick slice of kouign-amann.

I had heard talk of this elusive kouign-amann (pronounced, as far as I can tell, queen-ah-mon)  from many of my fellow teaching assistants who have lived in Rennes previously. It’s buttery and rich and amazing they say. It’s the specialty of Brittany they say. It’s sooooooooo delicious they say. So why did I wait 2 months to try it? I couldn’t tell you. What I can tell you is that I want those 2 months back, and I want them to be filled with kouign-amann!

So, here’s the story of how I finally experienced this culinary wonder: I spent last weekend in the countryside (again) in a tiny village called Guémené sur Scorff. While walking through centre-ville I noticed a boulangerie with a sign out front that boasted that kouign-amann is the spécialité de la maison (house specialty). The store was closed as it was Sunday (everything is closed here on Sunday, except the churches, of course). So I made it a priority to return the next day. All in the name of research of course…

Monday morning found me dragging my boyfriend into the pâtisserie, and about 8 euros later, I left the shop with my frisbee-sized cake, and we went straight back to the house to sample the goods. Holy hell. This is why I moved to Brittany. I present to you kouign-amann.

This little (or big, in most cases) gem is a specialty cake native to Brittany, which was invented accidentally in 1860. What a brilliant accident; I’d like to kiss that clumsy baker. According to Wikipedia it’s a cake, but that really isn’t a sufficient word. It doesn’t fit into any traditional dessert classification such as tart, cake or cookie, but rather is its own unique genre of wonderfullness. It is made with layers of puff pastry stacked one on top of the other. A mélange of salted butter and sugar is then poured over the puff pastry, and then the whole thing is baked. Et voila! The result is buttery, salty, caramely deliciousness.

My kouign-amann was so substantial in size and richness, that I stretched it out into 3 meals: First, my boyfriend and I enjoyed a hearty slice each as breakfast yesterday. Then I had some for dessert that night. Et finalement, I polished it off with several friends this afternoon accompanied with some chocolat chaud.

I won’t try to bake kouign-amann. At least, not while I am living here and can get it from the pros. That being said, I am already hooked, so I’m sure I will be tying it one day when I am no longer lucky enough to be surrounded by Breton pâtisseries. If you are brave enough to take a stab at making kouign-amann chez vous, I would recommend trying this recipe by David Lebovitz as he is an authority on French cuisine and has put much research into creating the perfect kouign-amann. If you do try the recipe, please tell me how it turned out. Et bon appétit!

And, coming up next, 10 other Americans (and the odd Canadian, Brit and Guatemalan) join me (in my tiny apartment) in an attempt to make a traditional American Thanksgiving meal in France…

Posted in Culture, Food, Recipes | 4 Comments

Chicken Saltim-Sort-Of

Posted on November 22, 2010 by caelycate

This happy accident of a recipe was born last Friday night when I set out to make Giada di Laurentis’s Chicken Saltimbocca. I had made the dish a couple of times before, and always enjoyed it. Though, ( surprise, surprise) I had never followed the recipe perfectly. This time was no exception; I had begun my prep-work and was re-reading the recipe when I realized that I didn’t have any toothpicks or skewers, and therefore no way to roll up the chicken and pin it into neat little wheels. So, I adapted the recipe, et voila! Chicken Saltim-Sort-Of was born. And to be honest, (no offence Giada, ‘cause we go way back girl…) I prefer it this way!

Chicken Saltim-Sort-Of                                                                                         

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 4-6 ounces each)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
280 grams (10 ounces) frozen spinach, thoroughly defrosted
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6-paper thin slices prosciutto
50 grams (¼ cup) grated parmesan cheese (can be substituted with emmental, gruyère or comté)
3 cloves garlic, minced
120 ml (½ cup) cider, white wine, or other cooking alcohol (chicken stock may be substituted for the alcohol)
Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Place the chicken breasts on the work surface, and pound them out until they are relatively even. Season with salt and pepper on each side.

Press the water out of the spinach. Add the lemon zest to the spinach and season with salt and pepper.

Over medium/high heat, drizzle the olive oil in the bottom of the saucepan or Dutch oven. Once olive oil is sizzling, place each chicken breast in the pan. Cook about 2 minutes or until the chicken is browned, and then flip the chicken over using the thongs and cook a further 2 minutes. Remove chicken and set aside. Place each strip of prosciutto in the saucepan, and cook about 30 seconds on each side, or until prosciutto begins to crisp up and bubble.

Once each slice of prosciutto has been browned on both sides remove them from pan and put the chicken back in. Place a strip of prosciutto on top of each chicken breast. Drizzle the cheese over the prosciutto, followed by the minced garlic, and then place a heap of spinach atop each piece of chicken breast.

Gently pour in the cooking alcohol (or chicken broth) without disrupting the spinach on top of the chicken. Drizzle lemon juice over the chicken. Cover and cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, or until chicken is thoroughly cooked through

Posted in Food, Recipes | 1 Comment

Boeuf Bourguignon a la Julia Child

Posted on November 15, 2010 by caelycate

I have to admit it: this recipe intimidated me. As anyone who is familiar with my cooking will attest, I am not a fan of recipes, and this is a rather intricate one that requires patience and forethought: neither of which are my fortés. And in general, I am just not a fan of recipes. They are often poorly written, convoluted, and they never include enough garlic! I often find a recipe, and set out with a whole-hearted intention to follow it perfectly, but I always end up taking my own path. However, the boeuf bourguignon de Julia Child seemed as if it had to be respected, and since I am not very used to making stews or cooking beef, I thought it best to follow the recipe for once. And I did! Possibly for the first time in my life, I actually followed a recipe step for step (okay, okay, I did add 2 more cloves of garlic than the recipe called for, but other than that…)

The setting was perfect: I was visiting my boyfriend in the Breton countryside, in a tiny, quaint little village called Guémené. The rain was pouring down, and the house was creaking under the force of the wind. What better way to warm up on a cold winter’s night in France than with a bowl of rice and boeuf bourguignon enjoyed in front of a blazing fire? So, without further ado….

I found the recipe straightforward and easy to follow. My only problem was that the man at the market was a little too haphazard with the consistency and size of the beef when he cut it, and I didn’t have decent enough knifes to remedy the situation. So next time, I will make sure the meat is cut in even 2 inch squares, because some of the pieces were so large they didn’t cook long enough to break down, and were a bit chewy. But besides that little hiccough, I was very satisfied with the end result!

I served the boeuf bourguignon with brown rice that I cooked with homemade vegetable stock and sautéed onions. As a vegetable side, I did brussell sprouts cooked with sautéed onions and a bit of red wine. The rice and the brussell sprouts worked very well with the stew, and all in all it was a pretty perfect meal, and one that I will definitely be adding to my repertoire.

I have to thank my very patient boyfriend who after 3+ hours of waiting in anticipation for this meal, with all sorts of wonderful aromas dancing around our noses, indulged me by holding the boeuf bourguignon at just the right angle under the light so I could photograph it. It probably took me about 10 minutes to finish puttering around setting up the table and getting the photographs I wanted! But finally, the moment arrived and we said “bon appetit” and tucked in.

As a side note, I used Côte du Rhône, as that is what I found suggested in a French translation of the Julia Child recipe, and it is cheap and plentiful in this region. I also had a glass with dinner, which complimented it perfectly! And I am sure you all know better than to do this, but I will throw it out there anyways. Never use a wine in cooking that you wouldn’t drink. In other words, no ‘two-buck chuck’ in your boeuf bourguignon please!

If anyone tries this recipe chez vous, please leave a comment and let us know how it went!

Here is the link to the recipe in English and in French.

Bon appetit!

Posted in Food, Recipes | 2 Comments

Pizza at La Casa Pépé

Posted on November 12, 2010 by caelycate

I remember when I was a little girl visiting France for the first time (at the ripe age of 12), we stayed on a tiny little island off the coast of Provence called Île des Embiez. This island was magical to me: it was a tiny little paradise where I could skip pebbles in the little coves, and frolic on an empty beach in the beautiful, clear waters of the Mediterranean. And most importantly, the island was so small and restaurants on it were so scarce, that I was allowed to have pizza everyday! I’m not kidding when I say that I think pizza was one of my first words as an infant, right Mom?! Anyways, there was this little pizza shop on the island that I became rather obsessed with. That one pizza shop shaped my taste and preference in pizza to this day: the crust was wafer-thin and crisp, and the cheese was not a giant glob of tasteless mozzarella, but rather a cheese with (what a concept!) flavor and grace.

Pizza can be equally amazing in parts of France as it is in Italy, especially in the South of France. Nice, which is right on the border of Northern Italy boasts my favorite style of pizza: a very, very thin crust baked for 2-3 minutes at an extremely high temperature, with rather simple toppings. None of those pizzas piled with mystery meats and everything-but-the-kitchen-sink that we find in scary places like Domino’s.

So, for my first pizza adventure in Rennes I went to a restaurant called La Casa Pépé. My friend Emma, who lived here once before as a student, had sung its praises to me the very first night I met her (and many times since), and as she is just as excited and passionate about food as I am (which is a difficult feat to accomplish, by the way) I knew it was going to be good. I was not disappointed.

I was happy to see upon arrival that the pizza was in the Northern Italian style; they even had the spicy chili oil that you find in Italy and Nice. In those regions, it is practically obligatory to douse your pizza with that spicy wonderfullness. And I happily obliged. So, here it is, the pizza and the (giant) salads of La Casa Pépé. And, a shout out to my tiny friend Jackie, who rather impressively polished off a giant salad, piled hight with meat and cheese, in a remarkably short amount of time.

I ordered a pizza Marco, which boasted tomato, chèvre (goat cheese: my favorite cheese EVER), crema, and oreagano. It was perfect in its simplicity. Several of my friends ordered salads, which were beautifully massive. One person got a chèvre chaud (pictured above, it is the salad in the top right corner), which I am sure I will do a post on in the future as it is one of my very favorite dishes from the south of France.

And, because friends make everything taste so much better….

Next up, news of the boeuf bourguignon de Julia Child that I will be attempting tonight. Stay tuned…..

Posted in Food, Restaurants | 2 Comments

Vegetarian, French-style

Posted on November 12, 2010 by caelycate

In general, the French aren’t big on vegetarianism (and neither am I: I love seafood too damn much). They love their meat, and their philosophy is waste not, want not. They eat the brains, the tongue, the feet, the blood. Instead of chucking most of the animal into the bin as we Americans do, they turn it all into sausage, pâté, and all other sorts of lovely, rustic dishes. In my opinion, this is how it should be. It seems cavalier to take the life of another animal and unabashedly throw most of it out. Disrespectful, even.

However, as illogical and paradoxical as it may seem, there is a growing movement in France towards vegetarianism. I know, I know: it seems absurd to picture a French person without the inevitable sandwich au jambon beurre in their hand. However, proof of this phenomenon is right around the corner from my apartment in the form of the restaurant St.Germain des Champs.

This restaurant is one of the rare vegetarian restaurants in Rennes.  In addition to being vegetarian, it is also completely bio (short for biologique, the French word for organic). I’ve walked past the restaurant many times and my eye was always drawn by the bright sign and the cheery Tibetan-esque (yes, I’m making up words) decor. I finally tried it recently with several friends, and the food is just as colorful as the interior decorations, I’m happy to report. I ordered the flan au ricotta et chevre which was served with braised fennel, purple cauliflower, a galette, roasted parsnips and carrot and a raw salad (which included watermelon radish, to my delight: see picture below).

I felt very full and very healthy afterwards, and was happy to know that all the ingredients used were local and in season: my favorite things.  I would say I’ll go back soon, but there are just too many amazing-looking restaurants here to try.

Coming soon, a pizza dinner with friends, and the first tale of adventures in my own kitchen:  my attempt at boeuf bourguinon……

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Girl et Galette

Posted on November 3, 2010 by caelycate

Bonjour tout le monde, et bienvenue à Girl et Galette, a blog about life and (mostly) food in France. I’ve recently moved to Brittany to teach English in a primary school, but my main job so far has been grazing on amazing French food from one corner of Rennes (the capital of Brittany) to the next.

I’ve resisted starting a blog before because in between Facebook and Flickr and all that tomfoolery, I just felt too voyeuristic and narcissistic to justify it. However, it must be said that there is no better way to share my culinary and cultural experience here (which can best be described as food porn).

Alors, before we get started on the food, I must explain that I am a bit of a Francophone (that’s an understatement). The fascination may have started with the chef in The Little Mermaid who repeated “les poissons” in his stereotypical accent, while laughing like an absolute creep. I always had more of a crush on him than on the “prince charming”. Or, it may have started with our family trip to France when I was 12, when a wide-eyed little girl saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time, all lit up at night (that was before the creepy blinking business it does now). But probably it’s the food. Once I became obsessed with Food Network, it was only a matter of time before I became obsessed with France, a country that takes its cuisine very seriously indeed.

So, here it is, the first installment of food porn. I present, for your viewing pleasure la galette complète….


A galette is a crêpe made of buckwheat, so it is heartier and more savory than the traditional crepe that we Americans think of. Galettes are the staple cuisine of Brittany, and the Bretons eat them like they are going out of style. They come in all variations and flavors, however the galette complète is without a doubt the most popular and venerated. It includes ham, cheese (usually gruyère or comté), and an egg (which is cooked on the galette, not separately, and is then smeared lovingly around by the galette eater). Sometimes you will see complète salade, which is simply a complète with salad on top (as pictured above).

To make a galette complète chez vous, follow this link to a recipe I found on one of my favorite food blogs. The recipe is for a galette de sarrasin (a simple buckwheat galette), so you’d just need to add a tranche of ham, some cheese, and an egg, et voilà! And of course, don’ forget to enjoy your galette as any self-respecting Breton would: with a bolée du cidre!

More to come soon. À très bientôt!

Posted in Food | 3 Comments