Posts tagged with "French food"

French Cuisine – Coquilles Saint Jacques

Posted by Transparent Language No Comments
Jul 3 2009

The summer is underway and the pilgrims on St. James’ Way can be seen making their way to Santiago. One of my very favorite appetizers or first course dishes is Coquilles Saint Jacques or what is known in English as simply ‘scallops’.  I don’t know about you, but I find Coquilles Saint Jacques much more elegant…but then again that seems to happen a lot with French cuisine. The funny thing about them is the fact that their history is actually tied to Spain and that they don’t have such an elegant name in Spanish…Saint Jacques or Saint James was one of the 12 Apostles and the scallop shell is the symbol of the crusaders of the Order of St. James, which was founded to protect pilgrims headed to Santiago de Compostela. The story goes that St. James saved a drowning knight’s life and the knight came out of the water covered in scallop shells. It is also said that the body of St. James, himself, was lost in the ocean on the way to Spain for burial and later washed ashore covered in scallops. There are also other versions. In any case, the order and the French dish were named in his honor.

I thought I would share this very simple Coquilles Saint Jacques recipe with all of you.

Ingredients:
1 lb. of scallops
2 pints mussels
10 oz. shrimp
3 shallots
1 glass of white whine
1 cup of fresh cream
2 tablespoons of olive oil
5 teaspoons of butter
2 small cans of mushrooms
salt
pepper

Mince the shallots and sauté them in the oil until clear. Add the scallops, mussels and shrimp and let them cook for 3 minutes on low heat. Then, add the mushrooms and again let it cook for a minute.
Pour the white wine over this and then pour in the fresh cream and let it cook for 5 more minutes. Thicken the sauce with butter. Salt and pepper.
Serve this in the scallop shells after you have cleaned them.

Street French II – Food

Posted by Transparent Language 3 Comments
Jun 18 2009

French argot (slang) can be difficult to understand, but it’s really quite fun.  So, today, we’ll talk about some expressions involving food that don’t have so much to do with food really, but might be useful to know.  For example, if you want to say that you are a bit down in the dumps, you could say “J’en ai gros sur la patate” because ‘patate‘ although it really means ‘(potato) spud’ in English, is often used to refer to many other things when using French slang.  So, be careful, because ‘patate’ can also mean ‘idiot’ as in “Il est vraiment une patate”.  Or if you want to say that you have a friend who parties all night because he has a lot of energy or stamina, you could say “Il a la patate” or if you are wondering how you can get your energy back when you are sick with a cold, for example, you could ask “Qu’est-ce que je dois prendre pour avoir la patate?”.  If you’ve been overloaded with information and your head is going to explode, you could say “J’ai la tête comme une patate!“.  If you want to encourage someone by telling them to hang in there and not give up, you can say “Lâche pas la patate!” and although we could go on and on with the spuds (the French do grow 20 different varieties and perhaps for this reason, they seem to love using the word) finally, “patati patata” means ‘blah, blah, blah…’.
Moving on to sausages… If someone calls you “une andouille”, don’t thank them as they are calling you ‘a fool’.  If your mother or someone else tells you “Fais pas l’andouille!”, they are telling you not to be silly (or, rather, not to do silly things).
As for other foods, a really bad movie is referred to as “un navet” (a turnip). “Chou” (cabbage) can mean ‘honey’, ‘sweatheart’, ‘granny’ and ‘love’ when talking about another person.  “Bête comme chou” refers to something that is really easy or ‘easy as pie’.  “Faire chou blanc” means to ‘draw a blank’.
And just to throw a few fruits in, ‘”une poire” (a pear) or even “une pomme” (an apple) can mean ‘a sucker’ as in someone who is gullible and falls for anything.  “Avoir la pêche” (peach) means to feel great and energetic just like “avoir la patate” above.
Well, I’m starting to get hungry, so until next time, je m’en vais (I’m outta here)!

French Cooking – Quiche Lorraine

Posted by Transparent Language No Comments
May 8 2009

One of my favorite French dishes is quiche and when I was a student living in France, some of the French girls in my dorm used to make Quiche Lorraine for us to enjoy on the weekends.  Here is a recipe I got from one of them:

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
10 ½ tblsp butter
6 eggs
2 ¼ cups bacon
2 cups shredded gruyere cheese
10 tblsp of fresh liquid cream
4 ¼ cups of milk
water
salt, pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
2. Prepare the shortcut pastry.  Sift the flour into a bowl.  Place the salt in the middle of the flour as well as 1 egg yolk and a ½ cup of water.  Mix with a wooden spoon.  Add the softened butter, then mix again.
3. Knead the dough for a few minutes, then make it into a ball and let stand for 20 minutes.
4. Next, dice the bacon and blanch it for a few minutes in a frying pan with a little bit of cold water.  Drain and set aside.
5. Beat the 5 remaining eggs in a bowl along with the fresh cream and the milk, a pinch of salt and some pepper.
6. Roll out the dough and arrange it into a buttered pie pan.  Then, sprinkle the bacon and cheese on the bottom and pour in the egg mixture.
7. Place in the oven for 30 minutes.  Serve hot.

Although many Americans may want to eat this for breakfast or brunch, the French usually eat it for lunch or supper along with a mixed salad and bread.

French Food – Entrecôte

Posted by Transparent Language No Comments
Apr 6 2009

I just finished eating a juicy entrecôte (rib steak) and am feeling thankful to the French for this delicious cut of meat…but, then again…is it really French?  And come to think of it, the French fries…I don’t think they are really very French either.  According to Wikipedia, ‘entrecôte‘ is a piece of meat (beef) cut out between two ribs.  And now, it turns out that what the grocery store sold to me as ‘entrecôte‘ is really a ‘contre-filet‘ or sirloin steak which is the portion of the sirloin on the side of the bone opposite the filet.  Oh well, it was so very tasty anyway, especially since it was smothered in sauce Roquefort!  Here’s my husband’s recipe for Roquefort sauce:

Ingredients
2 cups of softened French Roquefort cheese
2 cups of heavy cream
2 tsp black pepper

Pour the cream into a saucepan, throw in the pepper and boil until reduced by half.  Then, add the cheese and whisk until smooth.  Serve warm drizzled over a juicy, grilled steak.

French Food – What do the French Actually Eat?

Posted by Transparent Language 7 Comments
Mar 31 2009

When I studied in Paris, I lived in a student dorm.  We were given breakfast and supper on weekdays.  For breakfast, we had our choice of hot chocolate or coffee and milk and could eat as much bread with butter as we wanted.  Most of us ate at least a whole baguette so we wouldn’t be too hungry at lunchtime (we wanted to save our meager student finances).  Many of the French students that also lived in the dorm would bring their own cereal and eat it in a big bowl of milk or they would bring Nutella (a chocolately-hazelnut spread) to have with their baguette bread and some of them were even so very kind enough to share their Nutella with us.  Those days were real treats!  For lunch, we would usually have a crêpe filled with ham and cheese, just ham or Nutella again!  Sometimes, we would splurge and get a döner kebab with fries or even eat at one of the Parisian university student dining halls where we would get a three-course meal for a small fee (around 3 Euros).  Then, for supper, the bell would ring in the dorm and all the students would go downstairs to the dining room, where you were served a catered-in family-style meal.  It usually included some kind of meat dish with plenty of sauce and some vegetables, bread and afterwards, a petit suisse (a type of fromage frais made from cow’s milk and cream), yogurt or cheese and water.  When I made a weekend visit to a French friend’s house, the family meals were delicious and again included some kind of meat or fish dish with sauce and some vegetables, some kind of salad, bread and cheese.  When I was an aupair and stayed with a French family, the meals usually were very similar…some kind of meat dish with lots of sauce and some vegetables, some kind of salad, bread and cheese.  In that case, wine was often served along with bottled mineral water.  Some people say the French diet is similar to the American one, but tastier!

Back to the Top