Last night, it was "almost" like Christmas at the Namestka's

So one big plus about being a student is the enormous flexibilty of hours.  For example, by the time it struck 10am yesterday (Thursday) morning, I was ready to start my weekend.

I arrived back in Nantes around 4pm with an extra spring in my step.  As of yesterday, I am officially excepted as an intern for a translation company starting April 1st 2012.  Where?  Nantes, France.  The company is called "Cabinet Martinez" and it is about a 15 minute bus ride from where Benoit lives.  The pressure of passing an interview in a professional translation company for an internship that I need to have in order to get my diploma IN FRENCH has finally passed and I am relieved to know that I will finally be returning and staying in Nantes (at least until September and until my visa is up--but we will cross that bridge when it gets here).  

I was all ready to celebrate with Benoit and cook a big, fabulous dinner with him; however, as time and weather would have it, Benoit is sick with a soar throat, a cold, and the chills.  He humored me and we bought all the stuff we needed to try out a new recipe, "Saucisses en ragoût."  Little did I know, this is the French version of good ol' polish kolbasa.  The French call it "saucisses fumés" (literally translated as smoked sausage), but has almost exactly the same texture, juiciness, and taste as polish kolbasa.  The recipe was very simple and I HIGHLY recommend it.  The great thing about it is, since kolbsa is a heavy meat in general, it is accomanied either with carrots or chestnuts!  Here is France, it is not quite yet the season for chestnuts (november to january), so we opted for carrots.

Saucisses en ragoût


Ingredients for 4 people:

1 1/2 lbs. carrots
3 onions
4 nice size pieces of kolbasa
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

1. Peel, wash, and cut carrots into thick strips and cook in a pot with boiling water for 20 minutes.  Strain.  Peel and chop onions.

2.  In another pot, bring water to a boil.  Boil kolbasa for 5 minutes.

3.  In a frying pan, lightly brown the chopped onions with the olive oil.

4.  Add carrots and kolbasa to the pan of onions and cook 5 minutes (You can puncture the kolbasa with a fork in order to let some of the grease out and to avoid  kolbasa explosion lol)

5.  Place the kolbasa on a bed of onions and carrots on each plate (aethetically pleasing to the eye lol).  KEEP THE SAUCE IN THE PAN

6.  In a small bowl, mix the leftover sauce from the pan with the balsamic vinegar.  Dress the sauce over the kolbasa, onions, and carrots.  Serve hot.

Bon Appétit !! :)