Category: Sausages

5th March 2018

Mounjetado/Mongetado – cassoulet in Ariège

There are a lot of recipes for cassoulet here in the southwest of France. Castelnaudary, Carcassonne or Toulouse fight for the crown of the best recipe or the most original one. Cassoulet is a hearty dish and meant for winter, but restaurants here serve it to tourists in the summer when a lighter diet may be called for. The origin of the dish goes far […]

Cabbage Fish Sausages

21st October 2016

Cod, cabbage and chorizo

Although I now live in a small village near the Pyrenees mountains, I can get good fish at a fishmonger in Mirepoix. The cod filet looked too great to resist. Cod can be bland and I usually spice it up a bit. I had some chorizo left that I had bought at butcher’s who said he made them himself. The cabbage came from the fresh […]

Cabbage Main dish Potatoes Sausages Soup

13th January 2016

Portuguese cabbage soup Caldo Verde

Many national dishes have humble origins and are unlikely to grace any fancy recipe book next to gastronomic courses with noble products. With water, potato and this cabbage the northern Portuguese made Caldo Verde, green broth, and Portuguese all over the world still eat it with pleasure and as an antidote against homesickness. Most people are poor and have been poor over the centuries and […]

Cheese Pasta Sausages

21st June 2013

Pasta, pesto and sausage for the Sopranos

The death in Rome of James Gandolfini, the American actor who played a leading role in the Sopranos series, gave me pause to think. At just 51, his demise was a reminder that a heart attack can strike anytime. Especially if you do not exercise regularly and do indulge in the pleasures of life. It also reminded me of the scenes in Mafia movies where […]

Main dish Offal Sausages

27th February 2013

Blood sausage with apple and onion

There are people who do not like to eat offal and they would find the idea of eating blood disgusting. I would say they are missing out on something. Blood used to symbolise vigour and, according to some books about these periods as they did not keep records themselves at the time, warriors in long-flown times used to drink the blood of beaten rivals. Blood […]

Beans Sausages

14th December 2012

A bowl of beans

The winter season is a good period for hearty bean dishes and European culture counts a number of such traditional recipes. I often go to the south-west of France and have come to know quite a bit about the local ‘cassoulet’ with several towns still fighting over the “real” recipe. Cassoulet, like sauerkraut, was a poor peasant’s dish that has been elevated to nobility. After […]