Just in time for Thanksgiving in the United States, here’s a chestnut stuffing recipe with a French twist. Herbes de Provence and, especially, fresh sage impart an unbeatable flavor that will have your guests clamoring for more. The stuffing may be prepared in less than an hour and — here’s the beauty of it — can be made ahead of time and frozen until the big day. Then all you have to do is set the table and stuff the turkey.
Farce aux chataignes / Chestnut stuffing
You may not think Thanksgiving is a big deal in France or elsewhere abroad, but in my circle, it is. Every year since the mid-1980s I’ve been c0-hosting a traditional Thanksgiving meal with an American friend who, like me, was on the international reporting circuit. We’ve held Thanksgiving dinners in Moscow and Rome as well as Paris, where our dinners have become something of an event. Every year there are more would-be guests than there are seats at the table, so we rotate the guest list to make everyone happy.
This year, Thanksgiving will be at my place. Here’s the menu: roast turkey with chestnut stuffing (and sausage stuffing, my friend’s specialty, on the side); cranberry sauce; puréed sweet potatoes; green beans; a mixed salad; corn bread if one of the guests wants to bring it; and a couple of pies — pumpkin, apple, walnut or pecan. If I have the energy, I might add a pumpkin gratin, a fabulous dish that I first tasted the year I was invited to help make a Thanksgiving-style meal with one of France’s most famous chefs, Georges Blanc.
That’s a tale in itself. It was back in 2013, not long after I started this blog, when the French TV channel Arte asked me to participate in a program called De l’art et du cochon in which a three-star chef was asked to create his/her take on a meal seen in a well-known painting. After airing episodes on Leonardo’s The Last Supper and Manet’s The Luncheon on the Grass, they got around to Norman Rockwell’s Freedom From Want, which shows an American family gathered around a table as the holiday turkey is presented.
The Arte team took an early morning train down to Vonnas, the site of Georges Blanc’s best-known restaurants. My job was to bring the cranberry sauce — and then to pose for the recreation of the Rockwell scene. (That’s me with Georges Blanc at right). His take on Thanksgiving featured roasted figs, the pumpkin gratin and the smallest turkey I’d ever seen. I wrote about this experience at the time, so if you like you can read more here.
Another thing about French Thanksgiving that may surprise American readers is that serving Champagne is de rigueur. Forget about bourbon at cocktail hour. If there’s no Champagne, the guests revolt. They also often demand a cheese course, but I draw the line there. Thanksgiving is enough of a meal without the cheese.
As for the fresh sage, it’s an herb I use so often that I grow it myself on my veranda. If you’d like to do the same and you live in Europe, you can order fresh sage plants from plant d’Avenir, a nursery in western France specializing in sustainable, drought-tolerant plants. Fresh sage is also available at good markets.
This stuffing may of course be used with a Christmas turkey as well, or to stuff any bird of your choosing — roast chicken and roast partridge come to mind.
And now for some news beyond the culinary agenda. I am delighted to announce the forthcoming publication of my new book, The Rites of Man, a novel set in 1996 in which a woman’s entanglement with an author sparks a national conversation about artistic legitimacy and the rights of women. The book will come out on Dec. 3, with pre-orders beginning in next week. And for readers of The Everyday French Chef, there will be a special offer. Watch this space…
Happy cooking.
