Aioli is a thick creamy garlic sauce used in the cooking of Provence, France, and of Catalonia in Spain. It is usually served on the side at room temperature. It is often compared to mayonnaise in its texture, but it is not actual mayonnaise. It is mainly served with cold or hot boiled fish. It…
This is a cheat’s version of the classic French sauce, Aioli. It doesn’t pretend to be the real thing, but it is very good for what it is: a garlic-flavoured mayonnaise.
A delicious quiche-like pie that costs only the price of a cup of milk, 2 eggs and a few onions to make. This is a good week-day dish as it is economical, does not require much of your attention, and you are very likely to have all the ingredients on hand
Many chefs complain about our habit of drinking cocktails before sitting down to a meal. Most people find a few rounds of cocktails can get things off to a rolling start, but you can see their point: they want us paying attention to the tastes of their food, instead of just focussing on not sliding…
Appellation of Controlled Origin (AOC) is a French certification system started in 1935. It sets standards for certain products that producers have to meet in order to make products called by certain names, and carrying the letters AOC. The AOC system tries to define a product based on a geographic area, of which the product…
Slices of carmellized onion and bacon on crispy, flaky puff pastry. Serve with a side salad.
This is like a quiche with no crust.
Most debates about baguettes between Francophiles quickly descend into acrimony. People love to reminisce about their holidays, and compare bakeries on ‘rue du this’ versus ‘rue du that’. Before too long, someone will wade in and says the best baguettes, not to mention the best spoken French, can actually be found in Geneva. At that…
Banyuls Vinegar is a wine vinegar that tastes somewhat like a cross between balsamic and sherry vinegar. It has an underlying taste of walnuts, with a hint of sweetness. It is not as harsh as red wine vinegar. The colour varies from a rosy colour to a more golden colour (referred to respectively as “rouge”…
Batavia Lettuce is classed variously as a loose-leaf lettuce, or semi-heading lettuce. In hot weather, the lettuce is slow to bolt, and its crisp leaves that are like Romaine retain their crispness even in hot growing conditions. It’s one of the favourites in France, owing both to its taste and its good shelf life after…
Batavia Red Lettuce © Denzil Green Batavia Red has been in Europe for some time, but began picking up popularity in North America in the early 2000s. In North America, some regions have decided to start calling it Sierra, while other areas call it — well, by its name. Batavia Red has jagged-edged leaves that…
Bauchant is a sweet liqueur made from Curaçao orange extracts combined with aged Napoléon brandies. It is triple-distilled to give it a strong orange fragrance and taste. It comes in a rounded, dark brown glass bottle. Bauchant is made by the Maison Roullet-Fransac in Chermignac, France (Chermignac is in the heart of the Cognac region.)…
Béarnaise Sauce is Hollandaise sauce with shallots and tarragon added. It can be served with meat or fish. When making Hollandaise sauce, you simmer vinegar to reduce it. To turn the sauce into a Béarnaise, you add chopped shallots at this point, so that they will cook and soften at the same time. You then…
This only takes 15 minutes to put together and 15 minutes to cook. Nice served with rice.
A classic French recipe.
Beurre Blanc (“white butter”) is actually a sauce, not a type of butter. And it’s pale yellow, not white. It’s a creamy, thick, but light-textured pale yellow sauce made from butter, shallots, white wine, and white wine vinegar. It has a slightly sweet, slightly tangy taste conveyed by a velvety, underlying richness. The sauce is…
Blanquette Wine is a sparkling wine that is drier and more subdued than Champagne — as well as being historically older than it. It is made in the vicinity of Limoux in the Aude area of France. It is produced in sweetnesses of Brut, Demi-sec and Doux (dry, semi-dry and sweet.) The “base” grape used…
There is no difference between bouillon, broth and stock according to Larousse Gastronomique. In practice, and in today’s English usage, a broth tends to be something that you would serve to someone to eat on its own, while bouillon is something you buy in tins or make from cubes. Much tinned bouillon is actually made…
This is a very colourful, and tasty vegetable side dish, and very easy to prepare, with a flair of a traditional French to it with the braised lettuce. Cooking lettuce might seem a jarring idea, but the French do cook lettuce as well as eating it fresh.
A good introduction to fennel.
Brandy is an alcohol made from fermented fruit, distilled in such a way as to still retain some of the taste of the fruit. Brandy must be aged a minimum of two years; they are usually aged 3 to 7 years in oak casks. Brandies made in France are called in France “eau de vie”,…
Artichoke hearts often come in oil; if so, drain them on paper towel before using in this recipe. You need a jar that is 8 to 9 oz or 250g.
This is dead easy; the long paragraph in the directions is just explaining how to make a rim on the tart squares, which is actually the work of seconds. It took way longer to think of how to describe this than it would to just do it!
Brioche is a French bread made from flour, salt, yeast and water, but enriched with eggs and butter. Sugar is often added, and the water is often replaced with milk or cream. The result is a soft, buttery, slightly sweet and rich dough approaching the category of pastry. Some recipes will call for additional flavouring…
