THE THOMS SUNDAY TRAVEL SECTION
And a Dinner Here is Never Second Best
What is it about France? And French food? We don’t pull it out of the freezer and nuke it. We don’t pick it up. Let’s grab some Italian, some Chinese, but who gets French cuisine for pick up? Why? There’s just something about French cuisine that requires you to sit down at a table and experience it.
And now, we invite to relax, let us pull up a chair, as the dining room proudly presents
Many people believe that all French cuisine is alike — Au contraire.
There is French food by region (Norman, Lorraine) and even some by a city (Nicoise, Lyonnais). Then to add additional confusion, ingredients are actual French towns with their local spin of recipes. (Dijon, Châteaubriant, Roquefort-Sur-Soulzon).
Prepare and Serve with Flair a Culinary Cabaret
Everyone loves French food. Let’s review what we already know.
- French Toast – An English invention from the 15th century to use stale bread. The French are not big on proteins for breakfast.
- How about French Dressing? – A standard salad dressing in France would be olive oil, vinegar, and Dijon mustard. Not sweet. Our idea of french dressing is probably American born and not a taste France would recognize.
- French Fries – Closer, but still not French. They trace back to Belgium in the 1600s. The French call them Pomme Frites.
- French Onion Soup – Yes and no. Just about every country has their version of a peasant soup made out of whatever they could find. Often, this was beef bones and onions. The French onion soup we enjoy today evolved from the American “discovery” of French food in the 1960s. Merci Julia.
Try the grey stuff; it’s delicious
So what is French food?
- Baguettes – a lean dough, made into a long thin loaf. Local ingredients may tweak the flavor, but this is genuinely a national dish.
Chicken
- Poulet-au-Pot (Chicken in the pot) is poaching a chicken slowly with carrots, leeks, and onions.
- Coq au vin – (Rooster in Wine). Start by sautéeing onions, garlic, and butter, brown the meat, and top it off with mushrooms and some bacon. Then drown it in French white wine until the bird is swimming. Then it’s low and slow braising until the meat falls off the bone. According to those in Burgundy, it is their dish as you can ONLY use white burgundy. We will agree to disagree. This dish is a taste France can boast about proudly.
Beef
- Beef Bourguignon – is similar in many ways to Coq au vin. It involves sautéeing vegetables, browning meat, mushrooms, and onions, before braising in red wine. Recipes date back before Burgundy began exporting wines from that region. The adding of Bourguignon was much later. Again, we will agree to disagree on it being a regional dish. It is a taste France makes everywhere. It IS excellent when made with Burgundy wine.
Seafood
- Sole Meunière is more a national dish as Sole comes from many different regions. The English Channel in the north, the Atlantic to the west and even the Mediterranean. Although all from the Sole family, they have considerably different tastes. The term meuniere, (a miller) refers to the flour the sole is coated with before pan sautéing in butter and finishing with a lemon butter sauce.
- Coquilles St Jacques is similar to Sole as the King Scallop is from the Atlantic and St. James (Jacques) or Great Mediterranean Scallop is from the sea to the south. Coquille (shell) describes the traditional serving plate. The cooking of the scallop is with just a little heat. Too much and it becomes flavorless rubber.
Dessert
- Souffle (To puff) It appears they were making these first in Paris, but they were soon puffing up all over France.
In French Food, It’s All About the Sauce.
Is it true the French began using sauces to make food taste better? That is true today, but probably not when they first started. Stealing from their Roman conquerors, they were perhaps adding sauces to cover potentially “off” food in a time before refrigeration.
The foundation of a sauce is the Roux. This mix is fat (butter) and flour. It is the thickening agent to a sauce. By thickening the sauce, the liquid sticks to the food. There is white roux, equal measures fat, and flour. It is on the heat a short time to take out some of the floury taste. The white roux is more for thickening than flavor.
Blond, brown or chocolate roux starts as a white (light) roux. The longer you cook it, the darker it becomes. The darker the roux, the richer the flavor. With gravies, the fat from the meat it will accompany replaces the butter.
With the foundation of your sauce, you can build one of the five “mother” sauces.
Béchamel
Starting with a light roux, you whisk it with milk or cream to make a white sauce. That is the base (mother) sauce. What you do with it from here are the “Daughter” sauces. Melt cheese into this hot sauce, and you have an excellent topping for macaroni. Other creations from this base include Mornay (Gruyère cheese), Soubise (onion), Nantua (crayfish), and Mustard Sauce.
Velouté (velvet)
Also starting with a light roux but replacing the dairy with a clear stock. (chicken, turkey, fish) The resulting sauce takes on the flavor of the liquid. A favorite over fish or poultry. Daughters from this base include Cardinal (fish), Supreme (cream), Normande (cream, butter, yolks), and Bercy (white wine, shallots, and lemon).
Espagnole (Brown sauce)
This sauce begins with a dark roux, with the addition of a brown beef or veal stock. Tomato puree and browned mirepoix is also part of the mix. This sauce is a foundation of boeuf bourguignon and demi-glaze.
Sauce Tomat
This sauce is made by cooking tomatoes down into a thick sauce. In older days it included roux for thickening. In French food, it has pork and vegetables for additional flavor. Daughter sauces include Creole (red gravy), Hot (pepper), Ketchup, Barbeque, and Vodka sauce.
Hollandaise
Instead of thickening with a roux, this one sauce uses an emulsion of egg yolk and melted butter. Hollandaise is a very delicate sauce because the emulsion can easily break. Her daughters include Béarnaise (shallots and vinegar), Choron (shallots and tomato), Crème Fleurette (crème fraîche), and Mousseline/Chantilly (whipped cream).
French Food Summary.
The French take food just as seriously as they do their wine. And each region protects its recipes and presentations as much as their children. However, today, you are finding the culinary “borders” blurring. In Paris, you can find just about any dish regardless of where it originates.
But it is the “experience” as well. French cuisine is more than just eating. It is the service, the presentation, and the wine. There is no fast food service here, so don’t make plans afterward.
People plan French food trips just like others plan a historical or French Art program.
Please comment in the section below. Would you consider a French cuisine itinerary? What would you like to taste in France?
For more information on French Cuisine, Click Here.
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