Concatenations of memory and expectation
... in which we disentangle the words of Christmas - sugar plums and plum pudding with hard sauce and discover le Réveillon in the oyster soup.
"
One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the
sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant
speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that
I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights
when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve
nights when I was six.
All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a
cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street;
and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged fish-freezing waves, and
I plunge my hands in the snow and bring out whatever I can find. In
goes my hand into that wool-white bell-tongued ball of holidays
resting at the rim of the carol-singing sea,"
...
- Dylan Thomas, A Child's Christmas in Wales
The Christmas holidays bring forth such
concatenations of memory and expectation that the holiday itself is a
layered mix of the imaginary and the real, the anticipated and the
sumptuous.
Disentangling the words of Christmas - in the 1911 Grocer's Encyclopedia sugar plums are "various forms of candy, especially those of small size and oval or round shape" - yields real but long past memories - plum pudding with hard sauce.
And the holiday itself blends the dark and light of winter - solstice
and snow with holiday festivals and the candlelit interiors of midnight
mass.
This year - with the kids pushing past that age when
magic is the natural outcome of Christmas - we are seeking new ways to
blend the gifts of the holiday with understanding. For years now we
have had oyster soup on Christmas eve - a soup some are not so fond of
- which we have discovered is a traditional French celebration - le Réveillon and that in turn reminded us of that one Christmas so long ago in Paris...
Plum Pudding
Traditionally puddings were made on or immediately after the Sunday
"next before Advent", i.e. four to five weeks before Christmas. The
Collect for that Sunday in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of
England, as it was used from the sixteenth century (and still is in
traditional churches), reads:
"Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by
thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen"
The
day became known as "Stir-up Sunday". Traditionally everyone in the
household, or at least every child, gave the mixture a stir, and made a
wish while doing so.
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup milk*
2 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup molasses
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons
1 1/2 cups raisins, finely chopped
1 cup dates, chopped
1/2 cup nuts, chopped
3 tablespoons candied orange or lemon citron, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups chopped apples
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Boiling Water
Nutmeg Sauce
* 1/2 cup fruit juice and 1/2 cup brandy may be substituted for the milk if desired.
Grease two 2-pound coffee cans, two 2-quart pudding molds, or two 2-quart oven-proof deep dishes.
In
a large bowl, combine sugar, butter, milk, eggs, molasses, salt, baking
soda, baking powder, and flour; add raisins, dates, nuts, candied
orange or lemon citron, apples, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.
Fill
each greased pan 1/2 full of batter. Cover tops of pans with lids or 2
layers of aluminum foil. In a large pot or roaster, place molds on
trivets or a rack and add boiling water 2/3 up the side of the mold;
bring rapidly to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover pot or
roaster, and boil gently 4 to 4 1/2 hours (add more boiling water as
necessary) or until fork comes out clean when put into center of
pudding.
Remove from heat and cool. Store in refrigerator, covered, until time to serve. NOTE: These also freeze well.
To serve, steam for 1 hour before serving to heat thoroughly. Unmold and serve hot with Nutmeg Sauce.
Yields two puddings.
le Réveillon
After
Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve (which is attended by fewer and fewer
nowadays) people gather at home or in a restaurant for a feast called
le réveillon.
This usually consists of oysters, les huîtres,
snails, les escargots, seafood, les fruits de mer, smoked salmon,
saumon fumé or le caviar as a starter, followed by goose, l'oie, or
some other roasted bird for the main course, all washed down with wine,
le vin or le champagne.
OYSTERS
Refusing an oyster on the grounds that it’s alive and looks like mucus
is the French equivalent of refusing Christmas pudding because it’s
dead and looks like landfill. Distinctly non-festive.
shellfish
man Jean-Pierre Molina will tell you oysters don’t need sprinkling with
lemon juice or vinegar. If they’ve got their own water, they’re good
enough to eat straight. Grab a glass of local Picpoul de Pinet white,
some rye bread, an oyster and. . . “Don’t gulp it down!” he cries.
People who gulp are afraid of oysters. Chew it.”
FOIE GRAS
In
Britain, admitting a taste for foie gras lumps you in with the
snuff-movie fraternity. The French couldn’t care less. It’s their
second Christmas course.
CHEESE
Roquefort is obligatory
on the festive French cheeseboard. It’s rich, therefore Christmassy,
but also sharp, so cuts through gluttony to the essential. The
necessary sheep graze on the arid limestone plateaux at the southern
end of the Massif Central. Below run the gorges of the Tarn, Jonte and
Dourbie. The milk is made into cheese, which is then taken to the
village of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon (pop: 800), near Millau. Both
tradition and law require that roquefort be matured in the labyrinth of
caverns that honeycombs the rock. Natural fissures ensure the right
temperature and humidity to perfect the blue-green speckling.
DESSERT
In
Provence, they’ll try to foist upon you their famous collection of 13
Christmas desserts. Resist. They’re less festive than muesli. More
mainstream French tradition requires a Christmas log: rolled sponge,
flavoured with vanilla, praline, coffee, Grand Marnier or similar,
covered with chocolate and decorated perhaps with elves.
Relentless
research hasn’t turned up a headline region for this item. In any case,
the best French housewives (eg, mine) make their own. If you don’t have
a French wife, find the leading patisserie wherever you happen to be,
and buy your bûche there. Drink champagne: demi-sec if you want to
complement the pud’s sweetness, brut if you care more about the
champagne than the log.
The Thirteen Desserts of A Provencal Christmas
The desserts are part of a Christmas eve,
pre-Midnight Mass gros souper at a table set with three tableclothes
and three candlesticks. The starting courses of the meal include a
bagna cauda (a kind of fondue), cardoons (a kind of artichoke), and a
fish soup.
The first four desserts are the mendiants,
representing orders of monks and the colors of their habits: hazelnuts
(Augustinians), almonds (Carmelites), raisins (Dominicans), and dried
figs (Franciscans). As someone who was taught by Franciscans, I have no
comment on that pairing.
Next comes walnuts and another dried
fruit, followed by either a quince paste or candied fruit. Then there's
three fresh fruits, usually apples, pears, and one of grapes,
tangerines, melon, or oranges. This brings us up to ten. (So far, this
is sounding like a deconstructed fruit cake.)
Two nougats, soft
white and hard black, make it twelve. The final dessert is a cake,
pompe de Noël à l'huile d'olive, made with yeast, egg, sugar, and
citron flavors, pulled apart and not sliced. This may be served with a
vin cuit -- a sweet wine -- or a Carthagène, a combo of spirits and
grape must.
All in all, they sound fairly simple to gather, except for the cake, and here's a recipe for that.
Orange and chocolate mendicants
Originally, mendiants are a specialty from the South of France, as one
of the thirteen desserts found on Christmas Eve tables in Provence. The
set of dried fruit includes almonds, figs, hazelnuts and raisins. It
was believed that the color of each dried fruit symbolized the
different robes which monks from the Order of the Mendiants used to
wear, hence the name of this sweet food. Nowadays, Mendiants are
commonly made with Chocolate, presented in small chocolate rounds
topped with dried fruit and nuts.
Orangettes
You need:
* Orange peels
* Sugar, same weight as the orange peels
* Water, same weight as the orange peels
* Dark chocolate, 70 % cocoa
Steps:
* Peel the oranges and cut the peels in sticks, 0.2Åçwide.
* Blanch them 3 times in boiling water, for 3 mns each time (change the water each time).
* In a small pot, mix the sugar and water to make a syrup, and bring
to a small boil. Add the orange peels and simmer on low heat for 30 mns.
* Strain and place them on a cooling rack to dry (overnight).
* Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and dip the orange peels in it, using a fork.
* Strain them and place them on a Silpat or special chocolate sheet (acetate sheet) to cool. Store in a metallic box.
Note: Blanching the orange peels helps for the candying process as the orange peels soak more sugar in.
Dark and White Chocolate Mendiants
You need:
* White chocolate
* Dark Chocolate 70% cocoa
* Nuts of all sorts such as walnuts, pecans, pistachios, pine nuts
* Dried fruit such candied orange peels, dried apricots and cranberries sliced
Steps:
* Melt the chocolate using a double-boiler.
* Take a small spoon and form small rounds of chocolate on a silpat.
When still warm, top with dried fruits and nuts, as you like.
* Let cool and detach from the silpat when hard.
Christmas in the City of Lights
‘Vive le Vent’ - 'Jingle Bells'
Vive le vent, vive le vent, vive le vent d'hiver
Qui s'en va, sifflant, soufflant
Dans les grands sapins verts, Oh !
Vive le temps, vive le temps, vive le temps d'hiver
Qui rappelle aux vieux enfants
Leurs souvenirs d'hier !
Sur le long chemin
Tout blanc de neige blanche
Un vieux monsieur s'avance
Avec sa canne dans la main
Et tout là-haut le vent
Qui siffle dans les branches
Lui souffle la romance qu'il chantait petit enfant
Joyeux Noel
M.F.K. Fisher's Wartime Classic - How to Cook a Wolf is an excellent
place to begin thinking about roast beef. How to Cook a Wolf was
printed in 1942 when wartime shortages were at their worst. The wolf in
the title is the one who at the time was at the door. 
