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Posts from the ‘Food’ Category

Sep 29

No. 6: Crème fraîche

www.vermontcreamery.com

photo: vermont creamery

Excuse me while I take a moment to pop the top button on my skinning jeans and ask, “What is not to love about crème fraîche?” Bien sûr, it holds a place on the 365-things-I-love-about-France list. And who’d of thunk that before I landed in Paris, I’d never even heard of it.

According to people in the know, all you need is one willing dairy cow, a set of nimble milking hands, a simple means to separate the milk from the cream, and a little time to let the natural lactic bacteria take over, et voilà, before you know it: crème fraîche; the most delicious and divine “sour cream” you can imagine, albeit with a MUCH higher fat content. I shudder to associate American sour cream with French crème fraîche, there really is no comparison, especially when you buy it from the lively M. Laitier at le Marché Saxe in the seventh arrondissement in Paris.

In regards to French cooking, Julia Childs certainly had it right when she said, “If you’re afraid of butter, use cream.” And boy do the Frenchies know how to use cream. Each time I take a French cooking class, at least one, if not all five recipes call for a minimum of one generous tablespoon. Crème fraîche is used in sauces, dressing, pastry, custards, and soups; with, poultry, beef, pork, fish, chocolate, tartes and crêpes. Of course it is exquisite with fresh fruit; or if you are like me, you could always eat it straight from the pot. Its unique sweet and slightly tangy flavor and creamy texture is, as Button would say, “Like heaven popped on a plate!”

Blanquette de Veau

Blanquette de Veau

Velouté d’Oseille

Velouté d’Oseille

Poule-au-Pot Sauce Suprême

Poule-au-Pot Sauce Suprême

Can’t find it in your favorite grocery store back home, try this do-it-yourself recipe from Emeril Lagasse.

Vocabulaire:

bien sûr – of course

crème fraîche –  fresh cream

le laitier – milkman, dairy farmer

Sep 27

No. 5: Annecy, Alpes-Savoie

Ma belle fille, Button

Ma belle fille, Button

The closest I’ve been able to recreate my natural habitat of Colorado was a breathtaking late spring visit to the lakefront city of Annecy (pronounced: ahn-see) in the French Alps. The scenery is drop-dead gorgeous and travel brochure ready. It tops the mountainside towns of Colorado, say Vail or Aspen, because of its romantic canals, enchanting bridges, crystal clear lake, and its fondue savoyarde (Beaufort and Comté melted and mixed with the local Crépy wine, with an added splash of Cognac thrown in for good measure—c’est délicieux).

12th-century Palais de l’Isle, Annecy

12th-century Palais de l’Isle, Annecy

Often referred to as the Venice of France (un peu exagéré), it is actually a mix of several cultures, namely French, Swiss and Italian. The Swiss are represented in those adorable gingerbreadesque chalets—flower boxes and all, chocolate, wheels of cheese, raclette, tartiflettes, and all things cheesy that Switzerland does so well. The Italians make their mark with authentic wood oven pizza, mercifully light on the cheese, and the glut of mouthwatering gelato shops peppering the historic heart of town.

Raclette Fumé

Raclette Fumé

A nod to Italy: colorful and creamy gelato

A nod to Italy: colorful and creamy gelato

Annecy is one of the most popular cities in France both with the French and with les étrangers, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend coming and staying here to get a way from it all. The throngs of tourists come to admire the beauty as well as be admired, and the traffic can be a nightmare. Early mornings are definitely the best and I imagine the off-season is delightful. That said, I would recommend staying just outside of Annecy (at any time of the year), and making day trips in, exploring the countryside, and hoping over to Geneva for a quick visit. We stayed in a gîte in one of the many hamlets that dot the landscape. Our gîte was amazing and cozy and starlit. In the middle of the woods, with quaint mountain roads to cycle through, a hot tub, a barbecue, and a huge yard for Tazzie to feel at home. Ça fait du bien par où ça passe !

Gite with Japanese Garden, Annecy

Gite with Japanese Garden, Annecy

Lac d'Annecy

Lac d’Annecy

Vocabulaire:

Ça fait du bien par où ça passe !   Just what the doctor ordered!

les étrangers: the foreigners

un gîte: a holiday home available for rent, fully furnished and equipped for self-catering, usually less expensive than other lodging

raclette:  a Swiss dish consisting of cheese melted over a fire and then scraped onto bread or boiled potatoes; also the cheese used in this dish

tartiflettes: a creamy and comforting oven bake of potatoes, cream and bacon – originating from France’s Haute-Savoie region

un peu exagéré: a little bit exaggerated

 

Sep 25

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No. 3: Picard

Picard Sign

The farmers’ markets may be where the purist buys their ingredients, but the rest of us (Frenchies and expats alike) know the true secret of French cuisine, Picard.

When I first arrived in France with not a lick of French, I used to hesitate when I passed these ultra-white, antiseptic stores, glancing furtively, I’d wonder, “What the heck is going on in there? And who are those workers in the crisp white lab coats?” Hmmm…Picard Surgelés?

With my brilliant grasp on the French language, I decided that “surgelés” obviously had to have something to do with surgery; therefore, these must be stores exclusively for pharmaceutical and surgical supply reps. I imagined, freezer after freezer filled with lifesaving vaccinations and disease curing antibodies, but why were all the women filling huge shopping carts with medicine?

Medical Supplies or TV dinners?

Medical Supplies or TV dinners?

It turns out that Picard Surgelés is the French retailer specializing in frozen food started by M. Picard, a purveyor of ice blocks in the early 1900s in Fontainebleau. Now with over 800 stores in France (100 in Paris alone), and more than 1,000 rotating products, Picard is the sneaky solution to every French woman’s dinner party. While it may feel like cheating sometimes, I’m all for cutting out a few hours of slicing, dicing and sautéing, in exchange for some face time with my family and friends. Not only is Picard a huge time saver, it is also the surest way to assuage a maman’s guilt when she dares to leave the family for her annual girls’ weekend: “They have Picard,” she thinks, “Cassolettes aux noix de Saint-Jacques on Friday night.” (A slight step up from the Totino Pizzas, my folks would offer us on their date-night.)

Saint-Jacques

Saint-Jacques

So heartily have the French embraced Picard, I have yet to attend a dinner party where something from Picard is NOT being served. When pressed even the most traditional French hostess will admit to using les ingrédients congelésis in their delicate creations. Heck, I’ve even been to French cooking lessons, where the chef has clandestinely thrown in a handful of something popped fresh from Picard’s freezer. These sterile stores are a sight to behold, row after row of neatly arranged freezers, humming and glowing, what they lack in market romance and charm, they more than makes up for in convenience. When you spot that shining snowflake in the distance, you know dinner is saved.

Les mamans saving grace

Les mamans saving grace

Zut alors! So much grub to try: Australian wild boar, New Zealand doe, flash frozen ostrich, Burgundy snails, frog legs in creamy walnut pesto, lobster tails from Maine, and scallops floating in a Sancerre wine sauce. Need to spice up your spiceless French fare? Pick up some ethnic vittles: Thai, Japanese, Indian, Mexican, Lebanese, Mediterranean, Latin America and Caribbean, to name a few. By God, François Théron even has his own designer-line of gourmand ice creams and sorbets.

Donc, bravo surgelés. When the French do it, they do it right!

Vocabulaire:

surgelés: frozen food

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