Cacasse à cul nu

Hello everyone,

This time I am going to introduce you to a fairly unknown traditional French dish, it was mostly done by people who didn't have enough money to buy meat which is why it is called "à cul nu" (butt naked) by opposition to "cullotée" (with pants on) which contains meat (usually pork). It is originally from the Ardennes, near the Belgium border, a department of France which remain one of the poorest area of the country and happen to also be my birth place. Now a day people don't cook this meal as much as they used too as the area ain't as poor as it was half a century ago; it however became part of the local heritage and culinary tradition and is kept alive by the people.

When I first describe the meal to my Indonesian wife, she was like... Meh... it is just potatoes, and yes, it would be if it wasn't for the roux and the seasoning, it would be plain boring potatoes. When she actually tasted it, she loved it and despite being quite picky, she regularly ask me to recook this recipe which is both delicious and quite filling despite its lack of meat (which bothers me more than her).

Preparation: 10 mn	Cooking: 1 h	Total time: 1h10
Difficulty: Easy

A cheap filling French meal for that will please your wallet and stomach.

Ingredients:

6 people
1 kg potatoes
4 onions
60 g butter (oil is also an option if you wanna cook vegan but butter makes it much better)
1 garlic clove
4 tablespoons of flour
1 tablespoon thyme
3-4 laurel leaves
Salt
Pepper

Preparation:

1. Dice the potatoes into bites, chop the onion and the garlic clove.


2. Fry the garlic and the onion with the butter into a non adhesive deep pan until they start getting brownish.


3. Add the flour and mix it to make a paste; keep frying while stirring the mixture until the paste turns brownish (this is a roux). CAREFUL not to overcook the mixture, otherwise you dish will taste like burned food; a light brown is good, a dark brown or black is not. You may do your roux on another stove and then add it to the fried garlic and onion but I do not find any variation in the taste by doing so and therefore consider it a waste of time; your call.


4. Add some water on the mixture, then add the potatoes, the laurel and thyme and cover with water; cook until the potatoes are tender (40 minutes give or take or even more so they almost melted).


5. Serve immediately

Advice:

This is a meal that gain to be recooked over and over again as it makes the potatoes even softer, so don't hesitate to make a batch of it and to store some in the fridge to be recooked at a later date.

Variation:
You may add a couple of sausages from Montbéliard, some slices of Morteau sausages and/or some smoked bacon if you want something more meaty with a nice smokey taste. Careful tho not to overdo it and turn a potatoes with sausages meal into a sausages with potatoes meal; 1 to 2 portions of smoked pork for 5 of potatoes is a reasonable ratio, more is overkill.
If you happen to be Muslim, I would be very curious to know if there are any halal ingredient that would give a smokey taste similar to smoked bacon (even if I highly doubt that I could lay my hand on it where I live).

Do Not:
If you are a spicy lover, please do not do like my wife who adds every time some chili powder in it and then regrets because she remembers that it ruin the taste; this is not a meal designed to be spicy.

Enjoy!

Cooking daddy