Ragout...a perfect meal for these cold and snowy days.

One of our favorite winter meals is a French Canadian specialty that is traditionally served on New Years Day. "Ragout de pattes de cochon" literally translated means "stew with the feet of the pig". Well, it's a bit more complicated than that...it is actually a stew of pork, chicken and meatballs in a brown sauce that is traditionally served over boiled potatoes.

2 cups all purpose flour, browned...(technique follows)

4 pigs's feet or ham hocks

2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

2 pounds meatballs (recipe follows)

1 large onion studded with 8 or 9 whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Water, or chicken stock to cover by 2 inches.

MEATBALLS:

1 pound ground beef

1 pound ground pork

1 onion, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 pinch nutmeg

salt and pepper

2 slices of bread, soaked in milk and squeezed dry

1 egg, beaten

TO BROWN THE FLOUR:

Turn the oven to it's highest setting, and place rack in the middle.

Place flour in an oven-proof skillet, place in oven 4-6 minutes , then stir.

Repeat this process watching carefully so it doesn't burn, 4-6 times, stirring each time until the flour is a light caramel color. Remove from oven and reserve.

MEATBALLS:

Mix the meatball ingredients and make balls about 1 inch in diameter. place on a sheet pan and bake 15 minutes at 350°

RAGOUT:

In a large Dutch oven, place the ham hocks, studded onion, bay leaves and salt and pepper. Cover with chicken broth or water by two inches and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer 2 to 2 1/2 hours, until meat is tender. Remove from heat and let meat cool. Discard the skin and fat from the hocks and pull the meat off in chunks. Remove as much fat as possible from the broth.

Return the pork to Dutch oven , add chicken and meatballs and bring to a boil. Make sure the meat is covered with broth (add stock if necessary) and reduce heat to simmer.

Mix the browned flour with cold water a bit at a time, until a thick paste has formed.

Place one large spoonful at a time into the pot and stir until desired thickness is obtained.

Serve over hot boiled potatoes.

Here is how it goes, step by step:

This dish, like so many others evolved from leftovers from the holiday celebrations..it seems much of peasant food did come into being that way.

Since I had no leftover chicken, I put a fryer into the pot with some bay leaves, onion, peppercorns and salt and let it simmer until it fell off the bone.

It was then time to turn my attention to the meatballs...I used a lovely pork, veal and beef mix they had at my local market. The pork shoulder also went into the pot when the chicken came out.

When I tossed the shoulder in to simmer, I also put in an onion that was well-studded with whole cloves...simmered until it was ready to pull.

While that was simmering, I soaked some bread in milk, measured out the rest of the ingredients for the meatballs, and got to work. I like to add the spices to the egg before it goes into the meat mixture...I feel it gets a little better distribution that way.

Then mix it all up and make the meatballs

Into a 350°F oven they go, for about 15 minutes...just want to brown them..they will finish cooking with the other meats.

It was at this point, when I took them out of the oven that I realized I had forgotten the onion and garlic, so I gave then a liberal dusting with granulated garlic and onion salt.

Now it's time to pull the pork and chicken and get everything back into a large stock pot.

Since I keep a large jar of pre-made roux in the fridge, that is what I use to thicken my ragout, rather than going through the painstaking process of browning the flour and smelling up my whole kitchen.

 Let it simmer for a while and have all the ingredients get to know one another, then boil up some potatoes and/or rice and serve.