Happy Halloween

This week, avoiding the worst possible floral faux pas and a Halloween recipe for pork in cider with quince and chestnuts.

From the middle of October, all over France roadside stalls, markets, florists and garden centres fill with bright carpets of chrysanthemums, pots and pots of them in white, yellow, lilac, orange and purple. I’ve never had much love for chrysanths, but there’s something impressive about them en masse and I am a sucker for that Fall look displayed on the front porches and stoops of American houses from Brooklyn brownstones to New England clapboard, of large pots of brightly cheerful ‘mums’ by the front door.

Sometimes you see them by front doors here – they bloom for ages, so in a country where flowers are expensive, they represent good value for money – but you can assume, fairly reliably, that these are the homes of foreigners. Most French people wouldn’t countenance them in their homes or gardens, and it if you were to bring a bunch as a gift for a host, don’t be surprised if your cellophane-wrapped offering elicits surprise, even a certain froideur, rather than a cheerful merci.

This is because in France, chrysanthemums are associated with death, rather than ‘thank you for having me’.

On the first anniversary of the end of the First World War, 11 November 1919, French President Poincaré requested that citizens lay flowers on the graves of the war dead. At that time of year, there are few flowers around. Step up, the reliable old chrysanth.

Armistice Day falls very close to All Saints Day on November 1. La Toussaint, as it’s called here, is a public holiday and traditionally the day when families visit the graves of their loved ones. Guess which flowers they take with them.

On a more cheerful note, it’s also Halloween this week, a holiday I imagined I had left behind in England. How foolish. The village has a parade where all the children and many of the adults dress up, followed by a fireworks display on the port. Last year, I had to send Séan to the supermarket in the middle of the afternoon to get more sweets, so many tiny princesses, pumpkins and Supermen rang on the doorbell (my favourite, a tiny policeman who, when I opened the gate, jumped out at me and shouted ‘Bonbon ou prison?’, sweetie or prison).
We got through almost 5kg of sweets and I didn’t end up in prison, so all in all a success.  

Today’s menu is great for Halloween if you’re out and about. You can make almost all of it ahead, and to make life easier, I’m suggesting you have Halloween sweeties for pudding. You know you want to.

Pork in cider with quince and chestnuts

This is a great prepare-ahead dinner, which fits in easily around trick or treating and firework display. I use a boned, rolled joint, which in France, comes with a thin coating of fat, but no crackling. This has taken some getting used to. If you are fortunate enough to have crackling, cut it off, score it (if it isn’t already scored) and roast it separately in a hot oven with a decent sprinkling of salt until puffed up, crisp and golden – you could do this while you’re making the baked potatoes. It is the hors d’oeuvre of champions.

Quince goes beautifully with pork. The good news is you don’t have to peel them. The bad news is they’re very hard when raw, so use your sharpest knife and go carefully, making sure you cut out all of the core as it doesn’t soften up very much in cooking.