Adventures in Alsatian Cooking: The Flammekueche (Plus Random Adventures)

Ruins of the Schlossberg in Forbach

As I'm a huge fan of cooking (and eating!), I've decided that there's no better time to channel my inner Julia Child and whip up some French cuisine than while living in France.  With a gamut of "exotic" French ingredients readily available at the local supermarket, strolling the aisles and picking something new to try is always an adventure.  Recently, I've cooked up confit de canard (duck thighs preserved in duck fat and then roasted in the oven - my favorite!), crêpes, coq au vin (chicken simmered with mushrooms, carrots and onions in a delectable red wine sauce), boudin (blood sausage) with balsamic-glazed apples...the list goes on! And a few nights ago, Meike and I decided to cook something which is more of a regional specialty: flammekueche. 

The Alsace-Lorraine region of France

Though this dish is technically from our neighboring French region of Alsace (we live in Lorraine), our two regions are often lumped together in terms of cuisine and tourism and collectively known as Alsace-Lorraine (close enough!).

What is a flammekueche, you ask? Also known as a tarte flambée, or more simply a flamm, it's essentially a thin-crust pizza traditionally baked in a wood-burning oven.  Comprised of very thin dough covered with crème fraîche (similar to sour cream), Bibeleskäse (fresh cheese with a yogurt-like consistency), or some combination of the two, the flamm is topped with a dash of salt, pepper & nutmeg and then sprinkled with thin-sliced onions and chunks of French smoked bacon - what's not to love? Throw a little grated Gruyère cheese on top and you've got yourself a flamm gratinée.  Swap out the cheese for mushrooms, et voilà, a flamm forestière is born. The possibilities are endless!

At a restaurant, you usually eat your flamm right off a wooden pizza peel!

With humble rural origins, the flammekueche is traditionally served as an appetizer and paired with a chilled glass of crisp Alsatian wine like Riesling, Gewürztraminer or Pinot Gris. Since the 1960's, their popularity has grown and now many restaurants serve flamms as a main course as well, just as you'd order a personal pizza in the US.  Originally a meal for the working-class, farmers would use them to celebrate their bread-baking day (which occurred only once every 2 to 3 weeks) by saving a bit of their bread dough and turning it into this sumptuous, bubbly treat.  Flamms would be popped into the oven while it was heating up to cook the bread, and the workers would all gather around the oven to warm up and hopefully grab the first one to come off the fire.

We've enjoyed numerous flamms at local restaurants, so Meike and I decided we'd take a shot at making our own!

Before baking...

Here's the recipe we used (although the variations on the crust recipe are infinite!)...

Flammekueche for 4 people

Oven: as hot as it will go

Ingredients for the crust:

- 250 grams flour (2 cups)

- 50 mL vegetable oil (1/4 cup)

- 1 pinch of salt

- 1 glass of lukewarm water (very specific, I know...I just added enough until I had a pizza dough consistency)

- no leavening agents

Mix the flour with the salt and then add the water and knead well until you obtain something that feels like pizza dough. Form it into a rectangle on a cookie sheet and try to make it as thin as possible without tearing.

Topping:

- 20 cl of thick crème fraîche (a little less than a cup)

- 100g fromage blanc (about 1/2 cup of farm fresh cheese - plain yogurt might be the closest substitute?)

- 3 onions

- smoked bacon cut into matchsticks

- salt & pepper to taste

- dash of grated nutmeg

- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1. Preheat the oven as hot as it will go without using the broiler. (You want the heat to come from the bottom of the oven just like for pizzas).

2. Mix the crème fraîche and the fromage blanc in a bowl. Add the oil, and then season with salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. (If you're using particularly salty bacon, go easy on the salt!)

3. Thinly slice the onions (preferably on a mandolin) so they'll be able to cook quickly in the oven.

4. Spread the cream/cheese mixture on the crust, but be sure to leave a border around the edge of about 1 cm. Top with bacon and onions, but don't overdo it - remember: this is supposed to be a light pizza. Add additional toppings (like grated cheese or mushrooms) if desired.

5. Pop the flamm into the oven, but keep an eye on it.  Cook for between 8 and 12 minutes - the crust should start to become golden and the onions should look cooked. Slice it up and serve hot!

**We ended up needing to double the dough recipe - as we don't own a real rolling pin, stretching the dough extra thin was quite difficult. The amount of toppings was perfect though!

After baking!

Although a bit labor-intensive, the end result was pretty tasty! If you're ever passing through Alsace-Lorraine, make sure you try one of these French "pizzas" - you won't be disappointed!

And as for my recent adventures outside the French culinary sphere...

At the Phoenix concert in Paris (check out the awesome Hall of Mirrors background from Versailles!)

I spent a weekend in Paris with Kasey at the beginning of the month - we had tickets to see the French rock/electronic band Phoenix live in concert at the Palais des Sports.  (They're from Versailles, just outside of Paris, but sing in English - the lead singer's actually married to American director Sofia Coppola. While not hugely popular in the US, they do get some airtime on the radio - check out a video from the concert below!) The sold-out concert was absolutely spectacular and we had a fun weekend full of late-night/early-morning debauchery as well...

And then Meike and I spent the next weekend back at her house in Germany with her family.  Her oma (grandma) turned 80 and there was a party for her at a restaurant on Sunday to which I was invited , but we got some relaxing and sight-seeing in as well.  We went for a dip at the local pool, checked out the architecture at the cloistered Schöntal Abbey (founded by the Cistercians in the 12th century), and did important things like catch up on DSDS (the German version of American Idol - has the same intro music and all, but no Ryan Seacrest...) and Der Bachelor (you guessed it, The Bachelor - equally superficial and ditzy here too!).  It was great to spend a weekend away from Forbach with some familiar faces in a family setting, and I'm hoping to squeeze in one last visit before I return to the US!

  

The church at Schöntal Abbey

Impressive baroque decor inside the church

Meike and her brother Stefan at Schöntal Abbey

I'm just wrapping up 8 weeks of continuous teaching (a whopping total of 96 hours of work!) since the last break and am looking forward to having the next two weeks off - my parents get to Paris on Sunday morning and then it's time to do some travelling together!  Stay tuned for news from my coming adventures!

Mon 24e Anniversaire à Paris!

The Big 24!!

January 26 marked the 24th anniversary of my entry into this world - and what better place to spend it in than Paris?!  Ever eager to head back to the big city, I took a train on the evening of Friday, January 24 and headed up to Paris where my parents had booked a hotel room for Meike, Kasey and I for the weekend.  (Sadly, Meike's grandfather had passed away earlier during the week, so she had to head home for services during the weekend instead of celebrating with us - but she was there in spirit!) 

As I didn't arrive in the city til late Friday night, Kasey and I decided to lay low and save our energy for Saturday night instead.  On Saturday, we each did our own thing for most of the day - I had some errands I wanted to run and Kasey had a meeting and some paperwork to get done.  Paris is a very flat city (with the exception of Montmartre) so it's ideal for strolling around and people watching, conveniently two of my favorite activities!

Just passing by the French Senate building in the Jardin du Luxembourg - can't wait until it's springtime and this park is in full bloom again!

After grabbing a ham, egg and cheese crêpe from my favorite little hole-in-the-wall in the St-Michel neighborhood, I munched and shopped on the rive gauche for a while.  January is famous for les soldes (the huge annual sale events in most stores) and consequently wherever you decide to shop, from little boutiques to huge department stores, is jam-packed with people who are sifting through every last item, hoping to snag that one item whose price is too-good-to-be-true.  [But putting up with the crowds can be worth it - I happened to snag a pair of boots that started at 80€ for under 35€ in Metz a few weeks prior!]  Prices are slashed up to 80% in some places, so you can really score some good deals if you have the patience to pick through the store displays that have been literally turned upside down by all the other bargain-hunters.  I actually felt bad for the poor employees who had the arduous task of re-folding all of the clothes that had been rifled through, what a thankless and never-ending job!

I had also read online that there was a Breaking Bad expo taking place at the Fnac (similar to Best Buy) inside Forum des Halles, a large underground mall in the heart of Paris.  Being such a fan of the show, there was no way I was going to miss it - even if it meant battling the crowds inside the mall to get to it!

Tada!

While the expo was a bit smaller than I was expecting, there was still a neat collection of costumes and props from the show on display. I had to chuckle at some of the awkwardly translated signs that explained the contents of the case in French, but nonetheless I was impressed.

A fry batter bucket and other props from Los Pollos Hermanos

One of Jesse Pinkman's typical thug outfits - although I was disappointed Aaron Paul wasn't there to live-model them!

A "White Family Photo" and Skyler's mug from Ted Beneke's office

Jesse's license plate!

After my shopping spree was over (not that I bought anything worth mentioning) & I had gotten my Breaking Bad fix, I headed over to the 20th arrondissement to visit my former host parents, Béatrix & Quentin.  We had a great time swapping stories for a couple hours and popping a bottle of birthday champagne - they really are the sweetest, most welcoming people you could know and I always feel like I'm going back "home" whenever I swing by to say bonjour!  It's so comforting to have familiar faces who are so happy to see you when you find yourself in a land thousands of miles from your real home.

Notre-Dame, still sporting her Christmas tree

Swinging back to our hotel in the 10th arrondissement, it was time to don my party dress and get ready for an evening of celebrating! After getting all pretty, Kasey and I jetted over to the infamous Rue de Lappe in the Bastille neighborhood for a delicious dinner of traditional French fare.  My confit de canard (duck which has been preserved in its own fat and then tenderly roasted until the meat gracefully falls off the bone) was cooked to perfection, and some home-made mousse au chocolat, along with a bottle of my favorite Côtes du Rhône wine rounded out my meal.  In typical French fashion, we took our time eating and didn't leave the restaurant til nearly 11pm!

Keeping it classy in black and hot pink - ready to hit the town!

Next stop, house party!  We had been invited to a party at one of Kasey's friend's houses just on the edge of the city, and after a ride on the metro involving some sketchy characters, we arrived just in time to see the clock tick midnight - the official start to my birthday!  The evening was fun and relatively low-key, but if my headache the next morning was any indication, I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

Sacré-Coeur

Before taking the train back to Forbach, I took a birthday stroll in one of my favorite Parisian neighborhoods.  Ambling along with the crowds of tourists (I was told school break in Italy was taking place while I was there, so there were tons of Italians vacationing in Paris at this moment!), I didn't fail to once again become captivated by the beauty of Sacré-Coeur basilica, crowning the butte of Montmartre.  And even though it was a foggy day, the view of the city from the top of all those stairs you climb to gain access to the church was (and always is) worth the effort.  

Upon arriving back in Forbach, I was greeted by Meike and a spread of birthday gifts from her and her family - even a chocolate-covered birthday cake!  We had some cake, I opened my presents, and it was a nice quiet evening to finish off my birthday extravaganza weekend.  

My birthday cake and German-imported presents :)

What's on tap next? This coming weekend, I'll once again be headed back to Paris to stay with Kasey and then see a concert by the French band Phoenix on Saturday night. The following weekend, Meike and I will head back to her house in Öhringen.  And a month from today, my parents will be touching down in Paris to spend a 10-day whirlwind adventure with me, with stops in Marrakech and Madrid along the way!  I had such a great time showing them around France when they came to visit me two years ago, and I can't wait to explore some new places with them this time!

My parents and I at the Louvre in 2011