Cocotte de poulet au cidre (French chicken stew with cider)

For ➍
1 large chicken, cut in 6
pepper & salt
1 tbs butter or oil
250 g mushrooms, quartered
2 thick slices salted bacon, diced
3 celery stems, diced
50 cl cider
5 sprigs lemon thyme
2 leaves laurel
10 cl cream*
1 tbs mustard
parsley, cut

Heat the butter or oil in a large pot. Add the chicken pieces. Add salt and pepper. Brown lightly. Remove from the pot.
Add the mushrooms, bacon and celery to the pot. Sauté for a few m.
Put the chicken pieces on top. Add the cider. Add the thyme and laurel.
On low fire, cook for 1.5 h**, half covered.
Remove the meat and thicken the sauce. Add the mustard and cream. Add the chicken pieces. Sprinkle with parsley.
Serve with a crispy baguette*** to dip the sauce.

*Use fresh creamed goat cheese (or Philadelphia cheese) instead.
**Reduce cooking time with smaller or fewer pieces to 45-50 m, such as a pair of chicken legs of +/- 500 g.
***Bake or toast slices.

Moules de bouchot de la baie du Mont Saint-Michel au cidre (French mussels Mont Saint-Michel way)

For ➍
2 kg moules de bouchot*
6 dl Normandy cider (or white wine)
3 red onions, finely chopped (or shallots)
3 cups finely chopped parsley
60 g flour
60 g unsalted butter
3 dl cream
pepper

Clean the mussels. Remove the threads between the mussels, then wash in 2 baths of cold salted water. Keep them cold.
Pour ½ of the cider into the pot, add the mussels and pepper, then cook over high heat. When the mussels are open, remove them from the pot and strain the mussel juice.
Reserve the juice and keep the mussels warm. Place the butter in a pan, then add the chopped onions, cook until they become golden. Add flour, stirring with a wooden spoon to avoid lumps, then gradually pour in the cooking juices, cider and reduce to ⅓.
Stir in the cream, stirring, parsley, make a broth and remove from heat.
Serve and top the mussels with the cream sauce.

*The 'moules de bouchot' are cultivated on wooden stakes planted in the sea to avoid predators. It produces small, delicious mussels. A shipwrecked Irish or Scott seems to have invented the poles to hunt birds in the 13th century, but when mollusks attached themselves to the wood, it became a better trade. It was widely spread along the French Atlantic coast, and was regulated in the late 17th century. After WWII, the production was reactivated in Vivier-sur-mer, and has become a main succes in Normandy, followed by new mussel fields on the Atlantic shores.

Quick mint cider

For ➊ drink
½ tbs white mint syrup*
15 cl brut cider**

Freeze long-stemmed glasses until frosted. Put mint syrup in glass. Pour cider in.

*Avoid syrups that are too sweet, or that contain artificial colouring or flavours.
Or make your own fresh mint syrup.
Or put some sugar and fresh mint leaves in a larger glass and pour over the cider.
**Use a good Normandy bitter apple cider, not too sweet.

This is a quick version of a traditional mint cider punch. (Put a good bunch of chopped fresh mint and 1,5 l apple cider in a pot, bring to boil and simmer for 5 m. Cool and strain. Add 25 cl lemonade or soda and refrigerate. Add 10 cl lemon vodka and 10 cl green apple vodka before serving. Cut the vodka if you want.) This also inspired the Rumor cocktail (mix white old rum, mint, cider, fresh lime and top with soda).
Recently, the Japanese beverage giant Suntory launched a soft drink Cool Mint Cider, with just too much sugar in it, and dressed with icy penguins.

Medaillons de porc aux pommes (pork tenderloin with apples)

For ➍
500 g pork tenderloin, fat trimmed
2 tbs apple cider vinegar
¾ ts rubbed sage (or dried thyme or rosemary)
½ ts salt
¼ ts ground black pepper
1 tbs butter
1 tbs light olive oil
1 large onion, cut into medium strips
2 apples, peeled, cored, cut into wedges
pinch of ground cloves

Slice the pork crosswise into 4 medallions. Place the pork medallions in a small dish and pour the apple cider vinegar over the meat. Allow the pork to marinate in the vinegar for 10 m, turning the meat over halfway through the marinating time.
Pat the pork dry on both sides and sprinkle all the surfaces with the sage, salt and black pepper. Heat the butter and oil together in a large skillet set over high heat. Add the medallions to the pan and allow them to cook, without moving them at all, for 4 m. Carefully flip them over, and allow them to cook, without moving them, for an additional 4 m.
Check the pork medallions for doneness, and continue cooking them for an additional 1 to 2 m if they appear too pink in the center. Remove the cooked pork medallions to a plate and cover them loosely with foil to keep them warm.
Add the onions to the skillet and reduce the heat to medium. Cook the onions, stirring frequently, for 5 m, until they begin to brown. Add the apples and cloves to the skillet and continue cooking the mixture, stirring occasionally, for an additional 5 m, until the apples have just turned tender.
Arrange the onions and apples on serving plates, slice the pork, if desired, and arrange the pork over the caramelized onions and apples. Serve immediately.

Matelote de roussette au cidre (Normande dogfish cider stew)

For ➍
600 g skinned & emptied dogfish (a small shark)*
500 g firm potatoes, peeled and sliced in chunks less than 1 cm
1 onion, chopped
½ bottle of Normandy cider
salt & pepper
flour

In a large frying pan, sauté onions in oil.
Cut dogfish into 5 cm chunks. Sprinkle them with flour.
Peel and cut the potatoes into slices less than 1 cm.
Brown the onions and the dogfish.  Add the potatoes. Cover slowly with cider. Add salt and pepper.
Cover and cook over low heat for 30 m.
Adjust the seasoning before serving.

*'Roussette' is sold, cleaned and skinned, as 'saumonette' in France (though visually similar fish like eels might be sold as saumonette.
Instead use regular shark or swordfish, cut in chunks, lightly floured.

Try a similar recipe: peel and slice 3 onions. Sauté them with 60 g butter. Add 800 g dogfish pieces and brown them lightly. Remove fish and onions. Stir in 30 g flour into the melt butter, then pour in the 75 cl cider slowly, continously stirring. Add salt and pepper. Put the dogfish and onions in the pan. Cover and cook in the oven at 200°C for 30 m. Serve the fish in sauce and garnish with watercress leaves. Serve with potatoes or mashed watercress (blanche it, mix it, then add the cream, salt and pepper.

Mussels & cider

For ➋
glug of olive oil
a medium-sized onion, peeled and chopped
a fresh bay leaf
½ ts whole black peppercorns, roughly crushed
2 cloves of garlic, whole, unpeeled
500 g of mussels
25 cl medium or dry cider
crusty bread, to serve

Heat the oil in a large, flat pan and fry the onion with the bay leaf, crushed peppercorns and garlic. Thoroughly wash the mussels, discarding any that are heavy, broken or that remain open when tapped.
Add the cider to the pan and bring it to a gentle boil. Add the mussels, cover the pan tightly with a lid and steam for 2-3 m, or until the mussel shells start to open. (Discard any mussels whose shells remain closed.)
Serve in bowls with bread to mop up the lovely broth.

New York hot apple cider

For ➑ mugs
1.5 l (American) apple cider
100 g brown sugar, tightly packed
¼ ts salt
1 ts whole allspice
1 ts cloves
3 sticks cinnamon (or ground cinnamon)
1 dash of nutmeg

Combine all the spices in a tea-egg (or wrap in a cheesecloth).
Pour cider in a large saucepan. Add sugar and salt. Add spices. Bring slowly to a boil.
Turn down the heat to a simmer for 20 m.
Discard spices.
Add cinnamon stick (or sprinkle ground cinnamon) to each mug.

*When reheating, don't boil.
**Add dried apple for full taste.

American apple cider differs a bit from traditional European cider, called hard cider in the USA: it is unfiltered, unfermented and, sometimes, unpasteurized. Thus it's closer to fresh apple juice than to a alcoholic drink. Cider has been milled in the Eastern states since colonial days, and is frequently used in traditional recipes.
American cider is almost unaivailable outside the USA. Nevertheless, this drink can be made with sweet European apple cider. Avoid boiling.
Picture shows a wintery 5th Avenue in New York City, captured by Alfred Stieglitz.

Poulet au cidre (Normandy chicken)

For ➍
4 chicken parts
4 Golden Delicious apples
8 cl Calvados
8 cl fresh cream*
50 cl sweet cider**
2 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
2 branches of thyme
1 shallot
2 pinches of ginger powder
sugar
salt & pepper

Peel 2 apples. Cut them in quarters. Put in a bowl. Add the Calvados. Let rest for 1 h.

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Brown the pieces of chicken in a frying pan. Add cut shallot, salt and pepper the meat.

Put the pieces and the apples in a large oven-dish.

Arose with the cider. Add thyme, bay-leaves, cinnamon and cloves.

Cook for 30 m.

Cut 2 apples in small pieces. Sauté them with some butter. Add ginger, sugar and a pinch of pepper.

Set chicken and apples aside and half the sauce on low heat. Add the cream* and thicken the sauce.

Serve chicken and apples with some sauce.

*Optional.
**All French cider is American 'hard cider', with an alcoholic component. For this recipe, use cidre doux, the sweet variation. For drinking, serve the dry variety, cidre brut.

Read the chicken cooking tip.

Pumpkin soup

For ➍
1 large onion, chopped
250 g bacon, chopped
500 g pumpkin
1 apple, peeled & chopped
25 cl water
50 cl apple cider
4 cubes chicken stock
dash of salt
2 ts white pepper
100 g crystallized ginger, chopped
100 g brown sugar

Sauté lightly onion and bacon in large pot.
Add pumpkin, water, apple cider, brown sugar, chicken bouillon, apple, salt, white pepper, and crystallized ginger.
Cover and simmer for 1 hour. Stir frequently.
Blend to thicken in blender-size batches.
Serve with sour cream, one dollop on each serving.