The humble but challenging chasseur is a traditional French farmhouse dish that is comfort food at its finest
Like many others during the first COVID lockdown, I made a promise to spend any newly freed time wisely. While everyone else was experimenting with sourdough bread or flexing their gardening skills, I decided to learn a new language. In typical fashion, I opted not for something useful or widely spoken like Spanish or French, but rather a language spoken by a relatively small handful of people in a secluded corner of the United Kingdom — Welsh.
Despite being spoken by fewer than 800,000 people, use of this ancient and unique language is increasing due to encouragement by the Welsh government to promote its use in schools, on official documents, and in the media. The complexity of the Welsh language is delightfully and spectacularly displayed in the country’s longest place name: “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrnd- robwllllantysiliogogogoch.” Yes, it’s a real place.
I lived and went to college in Wales for several years and I regret never learning any of the language while I was there. I was too young and devoted to my boorish Englishness to even try. Many years later, learning this magical language as an adult has been a fascinating journey of discovery. It has opened up a new world, simultaneously foreign and deeply British, like tracing some linguistic family tree. Despite its appeal, it probably has limited application here in Charleston. Today, I’d presumably be best learning Spanish or even Mandarin. According to the Pew Research Center, the Asian-American population in South Carolina has doubled in the past 20 years.
During the 17th and 18th centuries though, French may have been a more useful option. After years of persecution in their home country, the first group of French Huguenot refugees arrived in the Carolina colony around 1680, just as burgeoning Charleston was finding its foothold on the peninsula. They made an instant impact on the culture and landscape of Charleston which persists to this day.
The French Huguenot Church still stands proudly on the corner of Church and Queen Street, and the names of those early settlers are still familiar to many of us today — Huger, Ravanel, Laurens, Manigault. Their enclave in Charleston, now called the French Quarter, remains at the heart of historic Charleston, and in the right light, with some Edith Piaf playing, it can feel downright Parisienne.
In honor of Charleston’s French history, I thought I’d rustle up a typical French farmhouse dish. Derived from the French word for ‘hunter,’ a chasseur is a simple brown sauce, traditionally containing mushrooms and game meat such as rabbit or venison, although chicken chasseur is common these days.
Here, I’ll present a vegetarian version featuring zucchini (courgettes to the French and English), mushrooms, and tomatoes in a rich chasseur sauce. Typical of French cuisine, the recipe is quite complex with several elements prepared separately and then combined. It’s well worth the time and effort. It can be served with rice or some hearty French bread, direct from our friends at West Ashley’s own Normandy Farms Bakery, and will no doubt taste best paired with a nice Beaujolais and a leisurely stroll around the French Quarter. Bon Appetit! Or as they say in Wales, ‘mwynhau’!
Zucchini & Mushroom Chasseur
Ingredients
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3 carrots, finely chopped
• 3 zucchinis
• 8 oz of your favorite mushrooms
• 2 fresh tomatoes, chopped
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• 1.5 cups vegetable stock
• 1 tsp Tamari or soy sauce
• 1 cup of dry white wine
• 1 bay leaf
• 1⁄2 tsp dried tarragon
• 1⁄2 tsp dried basil
• Pinch dried thyme
• Butter for cooking
Directions
1. Prepare the first sauce by melting some butter in a saucepan, frying half of the onion and 1 of the carrots along with the bay leaf and the thyme for 5 mins or so. Sprinkle over the flour, cooking for another 5 mins before adding the tomato puree, tamari or soy sauce, and vegetable stock. Leave on a low simmer until it thickens. This is your first sauce.
2. Prepare the second sauce by melting another knob of butter (yes, it’s a French recipe), and sauteeing the rest of the onion for 5 mins or so. Add 3 or 4 finely sliced mushrooms (save the rest for now), and the chopped tomatoes, and let simmer, covered for 5 mins. Add the white wine and crank up the heat for another 5 mins or so, adding the tarragon and some salt and pepper. Now add this to your first sauce and gently combine.
3. In another saucepan, melt some… you guessed it, butter, and sautee the zucchini and garlic until just soft. Add the rest of the mushrooms and cook until done. Add some salt and pepper and set the vegetables aside.
4. Add some more butter to the same pan, call your cardiologist, and cook the rest of the carrots and the celery, add the red bell pepper after a few minutes, season, and cook until just soft.
5. Combine everything you’ve cooked into one dish and serve it family-style.
