This text is part of the special book Plaisirs
1. Turn “party leftovers” into French toast or bread puddings
Leftover baguettes or pastries cluttering up the freezer? Panettone too dry? You can cook all this French toast style for delicious brunches. Bread puddings are another great way to breathe new life into stale breads and pastries.
2. Taste a galette des rois
The Holidays are over? Not quite ! If you feel like it, the Epiphany is celebrated with delicacy thanks to the traditional galette des rois, which you can get — in traditional or revisited version — from your neighborhood baker or from your favorite pastry chef.
3. Make sprouts
Sprouted legumes are easy to make at home and don’t require specialized equipment. Jar, cheesecloth, elastic and let’s go! We don’t have enough space to explain the procedure to you in detail, but it is explained in several books and on several reliable sites (MAPAQ, Croquarium, Espace pour la vie, etc.). In a few days, you can garnish your soups, salads and sandwiches with spruce alfalfa or crunchy sprouted peas. It should be noted that local producers also put it on market stalls.
4. Vary the soups and stews
We’ve already had time to cook our classics since the onset of cold weather; in January, make way for variety! Why not travel from one bowl of soup to another, while showcasing the local products available? One can, for example, visit Russia with a vibrant beetroot borscht, go through Maine with a potato chowder, stop over in Cuba with a black bean soup, then in Japan with a miso broth enhanced with tofu and seaweed.
5. Squeeze frozen apples
If we can fight fire with fire, it’s a safe bet that a good ice cider at the end of a meal will do us good when the icy winds blow outside. To watch in January: the craftsmen who produce ciders made from apples frozen in the tree. Year after year, producers organize interpretive activities allowing visitors to watch or participate in the harvest. Magnificent Nordic agri-food show.
6. Celebrate Cabbage
Extraordinarily versatile, cabbage is easy to find in January and can be used in everything from crunchy salads to comforting soups, stir-fries and braises. For more diversity, it can also be lactofermented into sauerkraut with various flavors.
7. Cook “white on white”
If we sometimes speak of “tone on tone” in decoration, we can also give our dishes the color of the season. In January, we cook dishes that blend in with the snowy decor! A cheese fondue from here? A potato gratin? A daikon radish condiment? A fillet of turbot with white butter sauce? Scallops in ceviche? For dessert, a panna cotta or a small pot of sweet clover cream?
8. Discover the daikon
Since it was just mentioned above, you’d guess that this elongated winter radish is white (although there are varieties with a pink or green tinge to the skin). Its slightly spicy flavor softens when cooked. It is added to salads as well as stir-fries and gratins, and it is cooked in condiments, marinated or lactofermented.
9. Try it hygge
the hygge is a Danish way of life that rhymes with small daily pleasures, relaxation, connection and contentment. In the heart of winter, you can adopt it to cook comforting meals with your family, share a meal by candlelight with your loved one, enjoy a hot drink while reading your favorite author… And be grateful for it.
10. Order seeds
Since gardening is popular, it’s not too early to explore the selections offered by seed companies in anticipation of your 2022 garden, before some popular varieties have taken off.