Winter Pot (Potee Auvergnate) - My French Kitchen (Recipe Review)

This recipe from My French Kitchen by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde was a joy to make. It is a perfect comfort food that provides you a nice helping of protein and veggies. I have recently had a fascination with French food because hubby and I have a vacation planned in September 2024 to Paris, France. Paris is on also my bucket list as you can guesss why. My whole life people have asked me "Do you speak french?", "Have you been to Paris?", but I would rather have that then "Are you named after Paris Hilton?"

This was the only smoked ham I could find at Hy-Vee when I went grocery shopping. It is sliced and is only 1.5 lbs. It is also not bone in ham. The flavor was absolutely perfect for the recipe though and the fact that it was sliced did not turn out to be a big deal in the end.

In the first step, the recipe states to place ham in large pot and cover with water. Bring to a simmer for 10 minutes.

In the recipe, it says to use dried cannellini beans. I used 3 cans of already cooked beans. I drained the beans in the sink with a colander.

I mined 5 cloves of garlic. The recipe called for 2 but I do enjoy more garlic flavor. Some cloves were on the smaller size as well.

The technique I use to mince garlic is to peel cloves, rough chop, and then slightly smash the garlic with the flat side of the knife. Once it is slightly smashed it is easier to finish mincing.

If you have a mortar and pestle, garlic can be rouch chop and then grounded into a paste.

I peeled and diced the onion.

I drained the water from the ham. I added the bean, garlic, and onion to the pot.

I did not have bay leaves. I omitted them.

I did not measure the black pepper. I added a good shake of the black pepper bottle.

I also did not have fresh thyme Hy-Vee did not have Thyme at the time (heh.) So, I added dried thyme.

Something that was NOT in the recipe but I had in my fridge was Better than Bouillon onion soup base. This I feel added some thick-ness to the final result.

The recipe recommends adding Dijon Mustard. I had some fancy ground mustard on hand and chose to use this. It has a similar flavor to Dijon.

I also added a rosemary twig. I also added a sprinkle of italian seasoning blend.

I took kitchen shears and cut up the ham.

Next step, Simmer for 1.5 hours.

Next I did veggie prep. I chopped 3 carrots. ( honestly 6 felt like too many for the recipe). I chopped 3 leeks. I just used the white and pale green sections of the leeks. Then, I chopped 1 lb of red skinned potatoes into roughly 1 inch cubes.

Once the time was up on the simmering, I added these veggies. Then, cooked for 15 minutes.

Next, I prepped the green beans. I didn't use a knife, I just washed the beans. Then, snapped the ends, threw the bad ones away, and snapped in uniform shapes.

I added chopped flat leaf parsley at this time. I also ground fennel seeds as added (this was not part of the recipe) .

The recipe called for cooking for 5 minutes. The beans were not personally soft enough for my taste. I cooked the final step for about 15 minutes.

The recipe says to take the ham out of the soup when done.

Of course my ham was chopped up and made into the soup.

So, On that note the recipe I "created" was drastically different.

I served the soup with french bread. and a glass of Sherry

REVIEW:

To make this recipe, you do have to have AT LEAST 2 hours you can dedicate to being in the kitchen and having something on the stove top. I was cleaning my kitchen / prepping veggies when things were simmering. I also have a fun playlist on Spotify I was dancing too.

I understand that the French believe in slow food. Food that allows you to "relax" in the kitchen. For me cooking is almost a therapy so recipes that allow me to "relax" into the recipe, are incredibly soothing. The aroma of this soup was smoky from the ham and garlicky/oniony. The smell of the french bread in the oven also creating such a comfort. This whole recipe/experience of creating the recipe was perfect for a cold sunday in Iowa.

I do think the recipe was lacking seasoning. When it was simmering I added fennel which boost some of the flavors. I had to add quite a bit of salt and pepper even though the recipe stating "you may not need to add salt". I think this could be because I didn't have as much ham as the recipe stated. Ham has quite alot of sodium due to the curing. I know I added italian seasoning but there was something about the oregano and parsley in the blend that added something I needed in the soup. I will be on the look out for a french seasoning blend which may have been more appropriate in this situation.

Overall, It was a great recipe to help me explore a typical french dish.