French Food Recipes and Dishes
French cuisine has its own unique characteristics, cooking technologies and historical background. To begin with, it should be said that the cuisine of France has three clearly defined directions - domestic, regional and aristocratic. As for homemade dishes, it should be said that they have shaped French cuisine for a long time, as have regional recipes. Aristocratic cuisine originates from the House of Bourbon at a time when Paris became a trendsetter.
The sequence of eating can be outlined based on French culinary etiquette. Any meal begins with hot or cold appetizers, followed by soup. It should be noted that soup or clear broth is a French invention. After the soup comes the main course, and finally desserts, fruits, cheese. The stereotype that has developed in the culinary community that the French eat frog legs is generally not true. Frog legs are imported from Asia and can be found on the table exclusively as a delicacy. An interesting fact is that France for a long time did not perceive such a phenomenon as fast food on its territory.
Wine and French Cuisine
Speaking of France, one cannot fail to mention the use of wine in French recipes. The wine is thoroughly boiled so that the wine alcohol evaporates, and at the end of the preparation of the dish only half of the originally used volume of wine remains. Not only is wine used as an ingredient in recipes, wine often acts as a marinade for meat or fish.
The next factor characterizing French cuisine is the presence of a large number of different sauces. Thanks to this, French chefs, given different sauces and the same ingredients, can prepare the same dish with different tastes.
Peculiarities of Cooking Meat in French Cuisine
Today's trends in French cooking popularize the idea of grilling meat and poultry - either real or electric. Next, we will look at several secrets that French chefs use when preparing meat. For example, meat can be placed in boiling water for a short period of time - 15-20 seconds. This process promotes the formation of a film of protein on the surface of the meat and, thus, prevents the outflow of juices from it.
In general, when considering the topic of meat in French recipes, one cannot help but mention a number of fairly conservative rules that the French adhere to when cooking various dishes:
- add water or broth to a frying pan with meat only after the meat begins to release juice during cooking;
- the final readiness of the meat is determined by touching it with the tip of a knife; beef and lamb release a drop of blood, and pork and veal release colorless juice;
- when cooking meat in an open frying pan, first the frying pan must reach the required temperature, this can be determined by throwing a few pinches of coarse salt on it - as soon as the salt begins to bounce off, at this moment you can start cooking the meat.
Exotic French Dish - Frog Legs
Speaking about culinary stereotypes, one cannot fail to mention the popular French dish - frog legs, which were mentioned above. Frog legs are reminiscent of chicken meat in taste and contain many vitamins and minerals useful to humans, in particular phosphorus and iron, as well as a lot of vitamins. The most popular recipe for making frog legs is with butter, garlic and parsley, but the number of different French recipes is quite large.
French Cuisine and World Cooking
Ultimately, we can say that French cuisine is one of the best cuisines in the world. All the best chefs from different countries studied in France - it was here that the first culinary school, Le Cordon Bleu, appeared, through which all famous culinary specialists and chefs from different countries passed. French cuisine is a trendsetter in world cuisine; it has a significant influence on the development of almost all national cuisines around the world.
Traditional French Cuisine Recipes
Traditional French cuisine dishes - coq au vin, Niçoise salad, onion soup, escargot à la Burgundy, bouillabaisse, chocolate soufflé, crepes, crème brulee, beef tartare, cassoulet, veal blanquette, beef bourguignon, quiche Lorraine, duck confit, mushroom vol-au-vents, ratatouille, profiteroles, tartiflette, tarte tatin, beef bourguignon, sole meagre, terrine, steak frites, jambon bourrée, veal blancmange, pot-au-feu and many other French recipes. In addition, French cuisine offers a variety of sauce recipes - tartar sauce, sabayon sauce, mayonnaise sauce, hollandaise sauce, vinaigrette sauce, vanilla sauce.