Farm to table comfort food

I spend a good bit of time looking for French comfort food recipes that can come from a small farm and find a place on the table near the fireplace. This is one such dish, Boudin noir. Traditionally, boudin noir (blood sausage) is served warm with sautéed or roasted apples. Happily, we have a number of apple trees on the farm to help us bring this dish to the table. I owe the presentation of this “boudin pie” to Bruno Albouze, a talented chef you can find on YouTube whom I highly recommend.

Leftovers – the gift that keeps on giving.

Why this dish now? Well, chef Albouze had just recently published his “Blood Sausage Roasted Apple Pie” (Ça va, chef, si je traduis le titre en français?), so it was on my mind. Then “low and behold”, I opened our fridge and, to my surprise, we had almost everything on hand ready to go for this recipe. I had some unused pie crust in the freezer, some leftover caramelized onions from a hamburger party, a few Granny Smith apples that were part of a cole slaw recipe and three pears . Oh, “what’s that in the back of the fridge?” Boudin noir? Where did that come from? Not sure. But I knew I had to ask permission to use it from this family’s true chef, my wife. Permission granted. So I got busy.

What do to?

1. Pie crust – Made. I needed to thaw it, shape it in the pan, put it back in the freezer for a few minutes, then bake it (blind bake, 20 minutes, then uncovered 10 minutes at 350 F).
2. Caramalized onions – Made. Just pull from the fridge.
3. Compote- Oops, chef! I did not have enough apples for the apple compote AND the apples on top of the pie. Sooooooo, I made a pear compote instead “because they were there” and because I was convinced that the Poire-Williams Eau de vie in the cupboard would bring a flavor that would marry well with this complex set of flavors and textures – and I was right!
4. Potato prep – As directed by Chef Albouze and recommended by the late Joël Robuchon, I boiled them with skin on beginning in cold, salted water. Peel. Slice. Done.
5. Sautéed apples – peel, core, slice (6 per apple), sauter in duck fat. Oh. I failed to mention that I had some duck fat on hand too. Sorry, it almost feels like cheating. What to do if you don’t have or can’t find duck fat? Not sure. I am inclined to say “sauter in clarified butter”. I did so for a Christmas meal – and it was very, very yum.
6. Gastric sauce — a finishing touch that has a great effect on this dish. Please watch the Albouze video for that one.

A few pictures of the process follow…