French Cookery 4 Classic Main Courses

French cooking traditionally conjures up images of food that is deliciously rich in flavour, stylish in presentation and complex in its preparation. We have selected a few well known French dishes adapted them slightly so as to make for easy making. The second in the new series of French cooking is main courses. In this article we will be giving you recipes for four classic French dishes. They are all easy to make and folow the French style of cooking – Bon Appetit!

DUCK A L’ORANGE

Canard à l’Orange is a classic French dish in which the duck is roasted and served with an orange sauce. Duck à l’Orange is an English interpretation of the classic French dish. Orange Sauce can be made up to 1 day ahead if desired. This recipe is not suitable to freeze or microwave.

1 medium duck
30g butter, melted

ORANGE SAUCE

1 orange
½ cup orange juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 cups water
1 chicken stock cube
3 teaspoons arrowroot
1 tablespoon water, extra
½ cup Grand Marnier

1 Tie duck’s legs together as shown in the photograph. Place duck into baking dish, brush duck with butter. Bake in moderate oven for about 1 hour. Brush occasion ally with juices during cooking.

2 Remove rind from orange, remove any white pith; cut rind into thin strips. Combine rind, orange juice, sugar, vinegar, lemon juice, water and crumbled stock cube in saucepan. Stir over heat until mixture boils, boil rapidly uncovered, without stirring, until mixture is reduced by half.

3 Stir blended arrowroot and extra water gradually into sauce, stir constantly over heat until sauce boils and thickens. Remove from heat, stir in Grand Marnier.

4 Drain pan juices from baking dish, pour sauce over duck, return to oven, bake further 20 minutes, basting frequently with sauce until duck is tender and well glazed.

CHICKEN A LA KING

This dish can be made the day before required and kept covered in refrigerator; it is usually served with rice. This recipe is unsuitable to freeze or microwave.

6 chicken breast fillets
30g butter
250g mushrooms, sliced
1 red pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
60g butter, extra
300ml carton cream
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon brandy

1 Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. Remove any fat and sinew.

2 Melt butter in large frying pan, add mushrooms and peppers, fry until peppers are tender, drain on absorbent paper.

3 Melt extra butter in frying pan, add chicken pieces in single layer, fry until chicken is golden brown (do not allow butter to burn). Add cream, stir over heat until chicken is tender.

4 Remove pan from heat, stir in combined egg yolks and brandy; stir in mushrooms and peppers. Return pan to heat, gently reheat mixture, stirring constantly, without boiling. Serves 4

COQ AU VIN

The flavour will improve if this dish is made the day before required. This recipe is unsuitable to freeze.

1 chicken
60g butter
4 bacon rashers, chopped
375g (about 16) baby onions
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
1 cup water
1 chicken stock cube
2 tablespoons brandy
1 tablespoon tomato paste
250g baby mushrooms
1 tablespoon plain flour
2 tablespoons water

1 Cut chicken into serving-sized pieces; remove any fat.

2 Melt butter in large frying pan, add chicken in single layer, fry until golden brown all over; remove from pan. Drain all but 1 tablespoon of fat from pan.

3 Add bacon, onions and garlic to frying pan, fry until onions are browned. Stir in red wine, water and crumbled stock cube, brandy and tomato paste. Return chicken to pan, bring to the boil, cover, reduce heat, simmer 30 minutes (or microwave on HIGH about 15 minutes).

4Add mushrooms, simmer uncovered further 10 minutes or until chicken is tender (or microwave on HIGH about 10 minutes). Remove chicken to serving plate. Stir blended flour and water into pan, stir constantly over heat until mixture boils and thickens, stir over heat for 1 minute (or microwave on HIGH about 3 minutes), pour sauce over chicken. Serves 4.

BOEUF BOURGUIGNONNE

There are many variations of this classic French recipe, ours is made rich and delicious with the addition of port and red wine. Any good stewing steak is ideal for this recipe. It is best made a day or so before serving to enhance and develop flavours. When flaming dishes it is necessary to have the alcohol warm before igniting it with a match (or taper for safety). Be sure any exhaust fan over the cooking top is off before flaming any alcohol. This recipe can be frozen for up to 2 months but is unsuitable to microwave.

1 1/2kg rlb steak
60g butter
2 tablespoons brandy
250g baby mushrooms
200g baby onions
30g butter, extra
2 cups dry red wine
1 cup port
1 cup water
1/2 cup canned tomato puree
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons cornflour

1 Cut steak into large cubes. Heat butter in a large frying pan, add steak to pan in small quantities, cook stirring, over heat until well browned all over. This will give the dish a good rich colour. Remove steak as it is browned. Return steak to the pan with the brandy, flame the brandy, when the flame
has subsided, remove steak.

2 Remove stalks from mushrooms, remove outer skins from onions, add whole mushrooms and onions to pan with extra butter, cook, stirring, 2 minutes, remove mushrooms and onions from pan.

3 Return steak to pan, add wine, port, half the water, tomato puree and bay leaves. Bring to the boil, reduce heat, cover, simmer 1 hour or until steak is tender.

4 Add mushrooms and onions to pan, cook uncovered 30 minutes. Stir in blended cornflour and remaining water, stir constantly over heat until mixture boils and thickens. Serves 6.

VEAL CORDON BLEU

Le Cordon Bleu, French for “The Blue Ribbon”, is the world’s largest hospitality education institution, with 35 schools on five continents serving 20,000 students annually. Its primary education focus is on hospitality management and the culinary arts. The institute covers all the French classics.

Steaks can be filled and crumbed the day before serving; cover loosely, store in refrigerator. This recipe is unsuitable to freeze or microwave.

8 small veal steaks
4 slices ham
4 slices gruyere cheese
plain flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
2 cups packaged breadcrumbs
2 cups stale breadcrumbs
60g butter
1/4 cup oil

1 Trim veal of any membrane (this will cause the veal to curl up during cooking if left intact). Use a meat mallet or rolling pin to pound veal thinly, trim edges neatly.

2 Place a slice of ham and cheese over 4 of the steaks; filling should come to within 1cm of the edge of the steaks. Cover with remaining steaks, press edges firmly together.

3 Dust steaks lightly with flour, then dip in combined eggs and milk and lemon rind; coat with combined breadcrumbs, press crumbs on firmly. Refrigerate steaks 1 hour. Heat butter and oil in large frying pan, add steaks, cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes on each side or until golden
brown; drain on absorbent paper. Serves 4.

All French Cuisine with Bill & Sheila

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Why You Should Learn How To Cook French Food

Food should be the most important thing in our lives. Without it we cannot survive yet we neglect it almost every day of our lives. Are you sick of eating junk? If the answer’s yes then do something about it.

1. Take care of your family

Make no mistake if you want your family to be healthy you need to give them the best food available. The best food available is NOT hamburgers or pizza or any of the rest of the processed, pre-packaged junk we feed our kids nowadays. Are your kids badly behaved, over-weight, hyperactive? The chances are it’s down to the food they eat. Stop giving them packaged junk- if you want a healthy lifestyle, a longer life and a happier family look to the food that they eat. And if you want to cook them the best food in the world cook them French food. If you know Europe, if you know cooking ,you’ll know that French food really is the best in the world.

2. It’s simple and varied.

You may think that French food is difficult to cook, that even if you want to it would be too difficult for you to learn. This simply isn’t the case. Cooking any food is easy if you’re taught by the right teacher. As with any skill in life learning is easy if you’re given straightforward, simple instructions guiding you through every step of the process. It really is possible, with a little time and common sense to learn to cook French. Truffles, sauces, soups, meat dishes, desserts all are easy to learn and easy to cook. You can with a little patience, become a French cookery expert!

3. Its quick and its natural

Don’t be fooled into thinking that French cooking is complicated and that you have to spend hours and hours creating difficult recipes. This isn’t true. There are plenty of French recipes which are quick. Many take under an hour including preparation and cooking time and at the end of that time you don’t have a meal you have a work of art!! Best of all to cook French properly you have to use natural ingredients. Proper vegetables, delicious fruit, the best cuts of meat, herbs and spices. If you want to eat junk forget French food. If you want to improve your lifestyle and lead a better life then learn to cook like the French!

4. It improves your life

You probably think that I’m exaggerating when I say French food will improve your life. OK- think about it. These are other reasons why you should learn how to cook like the French: It’ll help you learn the language and when you visit Paris or anywhere else in France you’ll know what to eat and how to communicate. You’ll be a native not a tourist.

Throw a French dinner party, entertain your friends. Your new knowledge will be the envy of everyone who knows you.

France is one of the most romantic countries and cultures in the world- one of the reasons for this is their love of food. They treat food as being sexy and a joy , something to be savoured not a quick five minute snack break. This attitude is reflected in all aspects of their lives- slow down, be sexy and enjoy ! If you really want to cook to impress; friends, your boss, your family, your lover then you must cook French.

Food really is the most important thing in our lives- it can improve us or destroy us. What do you want the food that you eat to do

Copyright 2005 Paul Costelo

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All French Cuisine with Bill & Sheila

French Cuisine

French cuisine is the amazingly high standard to which all other native cuisines must live up to. The country of France is home of some of the finest cuisine in the world, and it is created by some of the finest master chefs in the world. The French people take excessive pride in cooking and knowing how to prepare a good meal. Cooking is an essential part of their culture, and it adds to one’s usefulness if they are capable of preparing a good meal.

Each of the four regions of France has a characteristic of its food all its own. French food in general requires the use of lots of different types of sauces and gravies, but recipes for cuisine that originated in the north western region of France tend to require the use a lot of apple ingredients, milk and cream, and they tend to be heavily buttered making for an extremely rich (and sometimes rather heavy) meal. South-eastern French cuisine is reminiscent of German food, heavy in lard and meat products such as pork sausage and sauerkraut.

On the other hand, southern French cuisine tends to be a lot more widely accepted; this is generally the type of French food that is served in traditional French restaurants. In the south-eastern area of France, the cooking is a lot lighter in fat and substance. Cooks from the southeast of France tend to lean more toward the side of a light olive oil more than any other type of oil, and they rely heavily on herbs and tomatoes, as well as tomato-based products, in their culinary creations.

Cuisine Nouvelle is a more contemporary form of French cuisine that developed in the late 1970s, the offspring of traditional French cuisine. This is the most common type of French food, served in French restaurants. Cuisine Nouvelle can generally be characterized by shorter cooking times, smaller food portions, and more festive, decorative plate presentations. Many French restaurant cuisines can be classified as Cuisine Nouvelle, but the more traditional French restaurant cuisine would be classified as Cuisine du Terroir, a more general form of French cooking than Cuisine Nouvelle. Cuisine du Terroir is an attempt to return to the more indigenous forms of French cooking, especially with reference to regional differences between the north and south, or different areas such as the Loire Valley, Catalonia, and Rousillon. These are all areas famous for their specific specialty of French cuisine. As time has progressed, the difference between a white wine from the Loire Valley and a wine from another area has slowly diminished, and the Cuisine du Terroir approach to French cooking focuses on establishing special characteristics between regions such as this.

As part of their culture, the French incorporate wine into nearly every meal, whether it is simply as a refreshment or part of the recipe for the meal itself. Even today, it is a part of traditional French culture to have at least one glass of wine on a daily basis.

by: Kirsten Hawkins

French Cuisine with Bill & Sheila

French Cuisine

Indisputably, one of modern France’s greatest treasures is its rich cuisine. The French have an on-going love affair with food.

The cuisine of France is remarkably varied with a great many regional differences based on the produce and gastronomy of each region.

Culinary traditions that have been developed and perfected over the centuries have made French cooking a highly refined art. This is true of even the simplest peasant dishes, which require careful preparation and great attention to detail. It is expected that even the simplest preparation be undertaken in the most careful manner, which means disregarding the amount of time involved.

Of course, the secret to success in a French kitchen is not so much elaborate techniques as the use of fresh ingredients that are locally produced and in season.

French cooking is not a monolith: it ranges from the olives and seafood of Provence to the butter and roasts of Tours, from the simple food of the bistro to the fanciful confections of the Tour d’Argent.

A French meal might begin with a hot hors d’oeuvre (or for luncheon, a cold hors d’oeuvre) followed by soup, main course, salad, cheese, and finally dessert. The French operate with a strong sense that there is an appropriate beverage for every food and occasion. Wine is drunk with the meal, but rarely without food. An aperitif (a light alcoholic beverage such as Lillet) precedes the meal and a digestive (something more spirited — say, cognac) may follow. This close relationship between food and wine may, in part, closely parallel the evolution of great cooking and great wine making. It is probably not coincidental that some of the best cooking in France happens in some of her finest wine-growing regions. In Burgundy, Bordeaux, Provence, and Touraine, wine is as prevalent in the cooking process as it is in the glass.

French cooking is considered by many to be the standard against which all other cuisines are measured (it is also referred to as haute cuisine). This standard was introduced into the French courts by Catherine de Medici in the 1500s, and later perfected by Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935), who is considered the Father of French Cooking.

Nouvelle Cuisine, which became popular in the 1970s, was in reaction to the rich cooking of classic French cuisine. This new cuisine has a healthful cooking philosophy: crisply cooked vegetables and fruit based sauces as opposed to flour and cream sauces. From classic French cooking to Nouvelle Cuisine, and the many French regional cooking styles, there is something to satisfy just about every palate.

Visit the French Connections website http://www.frenchconnections.co.uk .