FRENCH
Essential Ingredients for French Cooking
Bread : Ideally, serve it in
baguette form.
Butter : Butter is not typically
offered on the table alongside the bread. However, it is a key component in
French cooking and baking, so buy the best high-butterfat brand your budget
permits.
Cheese: Considered a separate
course in many French meals, a selection of cheese is always good to have on
hand. French cheeses are a solid place to start (think Brie, Camembert, and
Roquefort).
Fleur de sel: This is a coarse,
hand-harvested sea salt. Usually served to finish the dishes.
Herbs de Provence: Used
liberally with meats and vegetables in French cooking. This dried-herb mixture
typically has rosemary, thyme, oregano, lavender, and a handful of other
flavorful herbs.
Leeks: The slightly oniony vegetable
adds a sweetness and flavor that are distinctive to French dishes.
Mustard: A smooth Dijon mustard
should be on hand for salad dressings, but a grainy mustard that goes with
meats (like steak au poivre) is also a must-have.
Olive oil: The expensive oils
should be used for drizzling on dishes for that extra hit of flavorand
the less expensive oils for marinades, sautéing, and mustardy
vinaigrettes.
Shallots : Shallots offer the
flavors of both onion and garlic. Roasting them alongside a chicken will make
them soft and mild, like roasted garlic.
Tarragon, fresh : Tarragon is the main
go-to fresh herb for chicken dishes.
Vinegar
Red wine vinegar and white wine vinegar are both used for
vinaigrette and marinade bases. Sometimes a dish calls for the more potent
sherry vinegar to provide a little extra kick.
Wine: Used for cooking, both
red and white wines are staples in any French kitchen.
Glossary
Some of the most common terms used in the French Gastronomy
include the following.
A la Meuniere: Meaning "in the
style of the miller's wife" (who presumably had easy access to flour),
this technique applies to fish that is floured, then sautéed in butter, and
served with brown butter, lemon juice and parsley.
Aioli: A garlic flavored mayonnaise
popular in Provence, in the south of France; aioli is traditionally served as
an accompaniment to vegetables and fish.
Bain-marie: The French name for a
water bath, a technique by which delicate foods such as custards are baked at a
gentle, controlled heat: the food is placed, in its container, into a larger
pan into which boiling water is poured. Then the pan is either placed in the
oven, or on top of the stove. Bains-marie are also used in restaurant kitchens
to keep foods warm.
Béchamel: A classic French white
sauce made with milk, bound with a cooked flour and butter mixture called a
roux, flavored with bay leaves, nutmeg and sometimes onion.
Beurre Blanc: A sauce made by reducing
white wine with vinegar and shallots, then whisking in cold butter so that the
mixture emulsifies into a thick, buttery sauce. A beurre blanc is a classic
mate to poached fish.
Beurre Manié: A mixture of flour and
softened butter, which, when whisked into sauces, acts as a thickener.
Beurre Noisette: Butter that has been
cooked until it turns a golden brown color, often used to sauce fish.
Bisque: A shellfish soup,
traditionally bound with rice.
Blanquette: A creamy stew, most
famously of veal.
Bouquet Garni: Perhaps the most famous
herb mix in French cooking, a bouquet garni is a combination of bay leaf,
thyme, parsley and sometimes leek used to flavor stocks, stews, braises and
soups. Traditionally, the herbs may be fresh or dried, and they are either tied
up in a bundle with string (a leek leaf makes a convenient wrapper), or tied in
cheesecloth.
Charcuterie: Cured meats and patés.
Chiffonade: A knife cut, by which
herbs, lettuces and leafy greens are cut into very fine ribbons.
Confit: A technique originally of
preserving, by which meat is cooked in its own fat, then stored covered in that
fat. Duck confit is a traditional dish of southwestern France.
Clarified butter: Butter
from which the milk solids have been skimmed. The solids having been removed,
clarified butter can be heated to a higher temperature without burning, which
makes it an excellent medium for sautéing.
Court Bouillon: A lightly flavored liquid
used to cook fish and shellfish.
Crème Brulée: A rich
egg custard, the top of which is sugared, and then heated so that the sugar
melts to a crisp, caramel crust.
Deglaze (deglacer): A
technique by which a liquid, usually wine, is added to a pan that has been used
to roast or sauté, in order to pick up the bits that have caramelized on the
bottom of the pan. Deglazing is often the first step in making a pan sauce.
Demi-glace: A stock that has been
reduced until very concentrated.
En Croute: Food that is wrapped in a
dough, and then cooked (e.g. beef Wellington).
En Papillote: Food that is cooked in a
parchment (or sometimes aluminum foil) wrapping.
Fines Herbes: A classic mix of herbs —
parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil — used in traditional French cuisine.
(For example, an omelet "aux fines herbes" is an omelet that is
flavored with that combination of chopped herbs.)
Foie Gras: The fattened liver of a
specially raised duck or goose. Foie gras is often poached in a terrine mold,
or cut raw into slices and sautéed.
Flambé: A technique by which
alcohol is added to a dish and ignited, both for effect, and to burn off the
alcohol.
Fond: Means a stock, in French.
Fondue: From the French
"fondre", which means to melt. A dish of warm, melted cheese flavored
with wine, into which bits of bread are dipped. Fondue can also refer to a meat
dish, in which pieces of meat are cooked at the table in a pot of hot oil, or a
dessert, in which pieces of fruit are dipped into warm, melted chocolate.
Ganache: A rich chocolate mixture
made by combining chocolate and cream, used as a filling or icing.
Glace: The French word for ice cream.
Gougère: A type of choux pastry flavored
with cheese, often served as an aperitif.
Gratiner: The technique by which a dish
is browned under the broiler (such dishes are often called "gratins").
Julienne: A knife technique by
which food is cut into slender, matchstick pieces.
Marinade: A liquid, often wine, flavored
with herbs and aromatics, in which food is soaked in order to impart flavor.
The marinade may also be used as a cooking liquid.
Mayonnaise: A cold, emulsified sauce
made with oil, egg yolk and sometimes a little mustard; there are innumerable
variations and flavorings.
Mesclun: A mix of young lettuces and
herbs.
Mirepoix: The name for a mix of
vegetables, usually carrot, onion and celery, roughly chopped, and used as a
foundation for stocks, stews, soups, roasts, braises and sauce.
Mousse: A general word for any number
of frothy, airy dishes, both sweet and savory, usually lightened with whipped
egg whites or cream.
Omelet: An egg dish made by
whisking eggs with seasonings, cooking in butter until firm, then rolling to
the classic omelet shape, with or without the addition of some filling.
Paté: A dish of finely or coarsely
minced fish or meat, seasoned, and baked with or without a crust, in a mold.
Persillade: A mixture of chopped
shallots, garlic and parsley, sometimes with the addition of breadcrumbs.
Pot au feu: A rustic dish of meat and
root vegetables, poached in broth. Traditionally the broth is served first, as
a first course, and the meat and vegetables are served later as the entrée.
Quadrillage: The technique by which
foods are seared on the grill in a crosshatch pattern.
Roux: A mixture of butter and
flour, cooked together, and used as a thickener.
Sauté: From the French verb
"sauter", to jump, a technique by which food is cooked quickly in hot
fat.
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