Image credits: Zone 3 / Rosalie-Anne Lavoie Bolduc
By Nova Waldolf
Typical Christmas Eve dinner for my family. 
Christmas Eve dinner: our annual tradition involving family, gifts and most importantly, food. Sure, my sister, my cousin and I think presents are pretty cool, but, what really excites us is my grandmother’s ragoût de patte de cochons (Pig’s feet ragout. Yum!). 

This is a traditional French Canadian meal, passed down in my family for generations. It was my grandmother’s mom who taught her this recipe when she was younger. It wasn’t necessarily a Christmas dish, but they did eat it on special occasions. My grandma grew up on a farm, so there was constantly meat to eat. They would eat nose-to-tail, and ragoût was a creative way to use all the parts of a pig. This ragoût is made with jarret, a French word for pork hock, the joint where a pig’s foot is attached to its leg. My grandmother also adds meatballs to her recipe, since my grandfather is from Sweden and spent a lot of time eating them growing up. 
Our Christmas Eve dinner is typically served buffet style, with everyone lining up in the kitchen to get their food. And sitting there in the middle of the kitchen island, between the green beans and the beef pie, is the ragoût in all its glory. Angels sing down from heaven as you take your first bite, and the first 5 minutes of dinner are spent in silence because the food is so good nobody feels the need to speak. 
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​My sister and I never loved ragoût growing up, but in the past few years, we’ve become obsessed with it. My grandmother used to make it more often, but when she decided to reserve it for Christmas Dinner once she realized how special it was to us. Our family isn’t huge on tradition, but this meal brings us all together. It's warm and delicious, and it tastes like home and fond memories. 
Image credits: leporcduquebec.com

Ingredients

Part 1:
  • 6 pieces of pork hock (6 lbs)
  • 1 onion
  • 1 tbsp of salt
  • 10 cloves 
  • 1 ½ cups of flour
Part 2:
  • 1 onion (finely chopped)
  • ½ tsp ground cloves
  • ½ tsp ground nutmeg
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup of milk
  • ½ of dry breadcrumbs
  • 3 lbs lean ground pork

Instructions

Part 1:
  1. Cover pork hocks in a large pot and simmer for 2-3 hours.
  2. Add onion, salt and cloves to the simmering water. 
  3. Strain the liquid into a container once the meat falls off the bone. Store the liquid and keep it for later
  4. Cool completely in order to skim.
  5. Discard the fat. 
  6. Remove all lean meat from bones once meat is cool enough to handle. 
  7. Gristle and reserve for later. 
  8. Use a frying pan to brown the flour, stirring and scraping it so it doesn't burn. Save for later. ​
My grandfather making meatballs for Christmas Eve Dinner this year.
                                        Image credits: ricardocuisine.com
Part 2: 
To make the meatballs:
  1. Preheat oven to 375℉.
  2. Mix finely chopped onion, ground cloves, ground nutmeg, salt, pepper, eggs, milk and breadcrumbs in a bowl. 
  3. Add lean ground pork.
  4. Mix thoroughly. 
  5. Form into 1-inch meatballs.
  6. Bake on cookie sheets in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
  7. Add cooked meatballs to simmering pork hock liquid.
  8. Add reserved meat from the pork hock as well.
  9. Cook for approximately ½ an hour.
  10. Stir browned flour in cold water.
  11. Thicken the ragout broth by adding the mixture of browned flour and water.
  12. Serve warm, alongside mashed potatoes, meat pie and cranberry sauce. 

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