I saw a gorgeous bacon roast on Bord Bia, the Irish food board, months ago and vowed to make it for Thanksgiving. The side dishes were traditionally Irish; potatoes and cabbage.
Because this wasn’t to be the typical Thanksgiving feast, I set the table lackadaisically with Haitian ceramic figures, assorted soup bowls from my photography collection and conversation provoking salt and pepper shakers.
We began the meal with a modified soupe joumou or pumpkin soup from Haiti. Instead of pumpkin I used butternut squash and a mild chilli instead of a Scotch bonnet.
Of course, nothing says soupe joumou like Maggi cubes 🙂
A nod to traditional Thanksgiving, I used 2 turkey wings to help create the flavorful broth.
All the makings went inside of my new large, oval Le Creuset that a bought to supplement the one I left languishing in France. I also knew that I would be taking this gratuitous picture 😀
As the afternoon wore on, our natural lightening started to fade, but our son was able to get this picture of his superb slicing with his i-phone.
This meal was pretty good with Irish champ (mashed potatoes with scallions, butter and milk) and creamed cabbage flavored with a bit of the pork glaze.
We ended our meal with espresso, chocolate topped macaroons and white chocolate panna cotta, topped with a blueberry compote. Photo resentfully taken with artificial light.
I hope your celebrations were the best!
Now I’d have been giving thanks with a meal like that! And your Le Creuset the would look perfect in my kitchen toning very well with my new tiles 😉
Maybe I should change my tiles 😀
Happy Thanksgiving – that looks like a feast. I’m impressed you got a Le Creuset with the traditional Bakelite knob – they seem to be making them with a nasty silver one currently 🙂
They are making a lot of tier 2-3 Le Creuset but I bought my from Williams Sonoma.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by that – here they seem to be selling all new Le Creuset with nasty silver knobs instead of the Bakelite black ones. I think they keep changing things because they want people to buy new ones. I suppose it’s difficult when you sell something that lasts a lifetime, but that is reflected in the price.
I mean that you can get Le Creuset here in the U.S. that might be what’s called “seconds” and have slightly different designs and colors and are cheaper.
Ah! Sounds good, they are all very solid. The market is flooded with copies here, but Le Creuset did buy up a lot of the competition in France to keep the prices high. I’ve got a very large one made by Cousances, which is fantastic and the company dates back to 1553, but everything coming out of their factory now is branded Le Creuset.
I’m going to look up Cousances, sounds interesting.
I think Le Creuset owned the brand since the 50s, but were still producing them as Cousances until about 10 or 12 years ago. I never saw any for sale in the UK and they cost a lot less than Le Creuset. I got mine in one of the huge French supermarkets on sale. My ex parents in law were quite obsessed with enameled cast iron and had the most enormous and comprehensive collection. They bought a lot of items at Vide-greniers in new condition for centimes. They own the most enormous Le Creuset I’ve ever seen – it fits across 2 burners on their stove and is a nightmare to wash because of the size and weight – but I’d love to own one!
What a great meal. Who says you have to have turkey on Thanksgiving.
Thank you Gerlinde. I don’t think the only thing you can be thankful for is turkey 🙂
Looks delicious. I have never heard of a bacon roast, it is regular pork roast?
Thank you Nadia. It’s the portion of a boneless loin roast that is brined and fried for Canadian, British or Irish bacon.
I’m a fan of non-traditional Thanksgivings. We’ve even done the Calvin Trillin pasta carbonara one a time or two. Looks delicious. Hope you had a nice holiday.
Thank you Michelle. It was a nice holiday and soon on the 15th, my run-away husband will be home for good and we’ll have an even better celebration.
What a beautiful meal!!
Thank you midi.
Love this. My dad is originally from Dublin and I love to visit Ireland. My favourite place is now West Cork. It’s stunningly beautiful and has the most amazing food scene. Emma xx
I lived in Dublin for a little over 6 months and was surprised and impressed with the quality of cuisine available there.
I agree with you. Ireland have a much higher standard of food culture than the UK. One thing that really impressed me in West Cork was that you could get restaurant standard food in a lot of the pubs for pub prices. You would pay between 3-5 times more for the same quality of food in London or Surrey.
Nice Le Creuset! I like this twist on a Thanksgiving meal. Good to mix it up once in awhile.
Thank you Virginia.
This looks delicious. I like the creamed cabbage with the mashed potatoes. I bet they compliment each other nicely.