Recipes from French Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Guess what, another island where they eat a lot of fish. Yay.
Eh, it was actually pretty good. But these islands, you know, they really need to try chicken now and then.
Located 12 miles off the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland, Canada, French Saint Pierre and Miquelon is an archipelago consisting of eight islands, two of which have actual people living on them. These islands are the last crumbs of New France, the former colonial empire that once stretched from the gulf of Mexico to the northern tip of Newfoundland. Poor France.
St. Pierre. Photo Credit: Gord McKenna. |
Anyway as I mentioned earlier, they eat a lot of fish on Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Cod is fished in the region and is heavily eaten there, along with lobster, snow crab and mussels. So my menu is very seafood-based, and came entirely from French-language sources because that's literally all there was.
Here are the recipes:
Cod Fillet with Cream
(From Recital Culinaire)
- 4 fresh cod fillets (or cod)
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1/2 lemon
- 2 tbsp chopped chives, tarragon and parsley
- 3 tbsp butter
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
Salad with Crab, Apples and Oranges
(From The Workshop of Boljo)
For the salad:
- 2 cups baby spinach leaves
- 2 tomatoes
- 1/4 red onion, chopped
- 1 orange, peeled and diced
- 1 apple, peeled and diced
- about 1 1/2 cups cooked crab meat
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp cold water
- 1 1-inch piece ginger, grated
- Salt and pepper to taste
And for dessert:
Date Squares
(From Recital Culinaire)
- 1 3/4 cup rolled oats
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup soft butter
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 18 oz pitted dates
- water
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour with the baking soda, brown sugar and rolled oats.
Meanwhile, mix the herbs with the softened butter, a little bit of lemon juice and some salt and pepper.
Add the butter and herb mixture and the cream, whisking constantly. Bring to a simmer for 1 or 2 minutes. Pour over fish fillets and serve.
Line the bottom of a salad bowl with the spinach. Then add a layer of tomatoes, red onion, orange pieces and apple pieces.
The fish was good, too. Basic, but good. The original recipe said to serve it with fries, which honestly probably would have been a better fit than the salad since it was a pretty rich dish. But I'm trying to cut some calories out of my diet so I'm glad I went with the salad, though it was a bit of an odd combo.
The date squares were fabulous. So good in fact that I gave half the pan away because I was afraid that I would eat them all. Martin was quite angry with me actually. He went away on a business trip and when he came home the date squares were all gone. But yeah, they were yummy.
So that's another seafood meal done. Now it's on to … another seafood meal. Jeez.
Next week: French Wallis and Futuna
For printable versions of this week's recipes: