2023 Tour de France - Stage 9: Saint Léonard de Noblat to Puy de Dôme.
Today is my 500th post and the last day of the first set of consecutive stages for the Tour. Tomorrow will bring a break for the riders, as well as my entries. I love rest days! Of course, I’ll probably be cooking something up for the upcoming culinary ridealong posts, but a break from blogging/social media is always welcome on the first day of a work week. Much like my first post, Vegetable Soup au Pistou, I bring you another soup; this time, from this central mass region. I’m not sure the riders would’ve appreciated a bowl of hot soup after a grueling mountainous stage in near 100 degrees temps, but this was good. Save it for the fall!
Bréjaude
from French Regional Food, Joël Robuchon
1.25 lbs uncured pork belly
Green cabbage, small, quartered and cored
2 leeks, trimmed and cleaned, coarsely chopped
Small turnip, peeled and diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
3 large potatoes, peeled and diced
Day old French country loaf (or fresh and toasted lightly in the oven)
Place the meat on its rind and slice diagonally in ~2 inch intervals in a crosshatch pattern. Cut through the meat and fat, stopping at the rind.
Place the pork, fat side down, in a large Dutch oven and cover with 14 cups of water. Bring the water to a boil, then lower and simmer slowly for an hour, uncovered.
While the meat cooks, prepare the vegetables, except for the potatoes.
After the meat has cooked for an hour, remove it from the pot. Salt the meat heavily with Kosher salt and pull it apart from the rind, breaking the meat into morsels.
Add everything back to the pot, including the bare pork belly rind, along with all of the non-potato veggies. Season the broth with salt and pepper and simmer for 30 minutes. Then, add in the potatoes and cook for another 20 minutes, or until they are tender.
To serve, place a sliced piece of bread into a bowl. Ladle some broth over the bread allowing it to soften slightly, then place one of the cabbage quarters on top of the bread and spoon in more of the broth and vegetables. Season with some flaky sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
______________________________ Copyright 2023, Brendan McCann, All Rights Reserved.
Comments