Making a papillote may look complicated, but it takes only a little practice to turn a simple piece of parchment paper into a flavor- and moisture-trapping envelope.
Start with a sheet of parchment paper about twenty inches long. Fold it in half, then open it back up. Put the filling in the center of the fold.Next, fold the paper over so the two ends meet, enclosing the food. Beginning at either end of the center crease, make small, overlapping diagonal folds around the filling, sealing the papillote tight.You'll end up with a half-crescent shape that looks sort of like a fried pie. Now just put the papillote on a roasting pan and slide it into the oven.
Herbes de Provence are an aromatic mixture of commonly used herbs from the south of France. The mixture varies but always includes lots of thyme, plus rosemary, bay leaf, basil, savory, marjoram, fennel, sage and lavender. These fragrant herbs are dried and used during cooking to flavor Provençal dishes such as roast chicken, grilled meats, soups and vegetable-based stews.
While popular with Provençal grandmothers throughout the ages, commercial production of Herbes de Provence began in the 1970s. You can now find Herbes de Provence in supermarkets and farmer's markets throughout the world. In Provence, the herbs are stored in handy olive-wood grinders made especially to release the trapped scent of the herbs just before they go in the pot. You can also just crush them gently with your fingers before sprinkling on food or mixing with oil to season a dish.
Béchamel is a creamy, white sauce made with scalded milk plus equal parts butter and flour. A foundational French sauce, béchamel is the starting point for a number of other sauces.
By adding grated cheese, béchamel becomes a mornay. With tomato, it is transformed into an aurore. The Italians use becciamella to hold their lasagne together, and the Greeks use besamel to bind their pastitsio and moussaka. We Americans use it to add gratuitous calories to our macaroni and cheese.
In Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child writes that in the days of Louis XIV, béchamel was a "simmering of milk, veal, and seasonings with an enrichment of cream." She was referring to the apparent inventor of the original crème fraîche-laden sauce, Louis de Béchamel (1630-1703), maître d'hôtel for the Sun King.
Recipe: Macaroni And Cheese
Coq au vin is the name of a classic old French stew that used to mean rooster, or cock, cooked in wine. Old birds who'd been kept around for years needed to be braised slowly to soften up their meat, and the sauce for the dish was thickened with the cock's blood.
These days, we use chicken when making a coq au vin, and a roux to thicken the sauce.
The dish also contains ingredients including lardons, onions, mushrooms, carrots, chicken stock, brandy, garlic and seasonings in addition to the wine. Coq au vin is typically served with pasta, steamed potatoes or latkes.
Pâté is a French word that refers to an everyday spreadable meat terrine. Blended to a silky texture or left chunky to make what is known as a country pâté, it's the French equivalent of meatloaf.
Pâté may include seasoned pork, veal, liver, poultry, game, fish or vegetables, plus herbs, spices and two of our favorite things, fat and alcohol. Pâtés baked in pastry are called pâté en croûte. You can eat your pâté hot or cold, usually as an appetizer or a first course.
A hearty broth-based Vietnamese soup most often made with beef, pho (pronounced "fuh") is eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Different recipes abound, but a traditional beef broth base is made with charred onions, ginger, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and star anise. Thin slices of beef are added, as well as rice noodles and a variety of garnishes that include scallions, coriander, Thai basil, lemon, lime, bean sprouts, fish sauce and sriracha.
Originating in the early 20th century, the first pho may have been influenced by the French dish pot-au-feu; others attribute it to Chinese culinary influences. It can now be found in Vietnamese neighborhoods in many countries, and is often used to name a Vietnamese restaurant, with the addition of its street number, such as Pho 67 or -- Brys's favorite pho joint -- Arlington's Pho 75.
Blog: Beef broth --> consommé --> pho (Cookthink)
Blog: Everything About Pho (Pho Fever)
Reference: Mega Pho Page (Viet World Kitchen)
Reference: A Bowl of Pho (SF Gate)
Discussion: The Pho Forum (eGullet)
Recipe: Beef Pho (Cookthink)
Recipe: Chicken Pho Noodle Soup (Viet World Kitchen)
Is it a chickpea or a garbanzo bean? It depends on where your culinary loyalties lie. If you're with the French and Italians, you may think of them as chiche and ceci, respectively. If you're with the Spanish, then you may know them as garbanzos.
Around here, we prefer the punchier English name of chickpea. Either way, we're all talking about the same thing: a fiber-and protein-rich legume with a slightly chestnutty flavor.
Recipe: Ratatouille, Chickpea And Feta Bake (Cookthink)
Recipe: Chickpea And Parmesan Salad (Cookthink)
A confit is a piece of most commonly duck, goose, pork or turkey that is stewed and subsequently stored its own fat, in order to preserve it.
This ancient food-preservation method is a Southwestern French specialty that is eaten hot (like a duck leg known as confit de canard, also a main component of cassoulet) or cold, as rillettes, in which the fat-drenched meat is shredded, and spread on bread and often eaten with pickles.
Goose, which can be tough, is rendered meltingly tender when transformed into a confit. In France, you can find pork or even chicken confit in supermarkets; salmon rillettes, which are made using added olive oil and butter, are a popular spread eaten as an hors d'oeuvre.
In French (and French-inspired) cuisine, a salade composée refers to a salad in which an assortment of ingredients are arranged aesthetically on a plate and drizzled with vinaigrette, rather than tossed with it. (That said, we're not afraid to toss a salad and call it composed.)
Usually, a composed salad is meant to be a meal in itself; one famous example is the salade niçoise, a specialty of Nice that is better made in Los Angeles these days and includes crudités, hard-boiled eggs, anchovies, and sometimes tuna, rice, potatoes or green beans (although what properly constitutes a salade niçoise is a matter of personal taste and heated debate).
A successful composed salad should have a balance of colors, flavors and textures, and may contain crudités such as tomatoes, greens or carrots; cold chicken, tuna, anchovies or eggs; a bit of cheese; and potatoes, pasta, rice or beans with an olive oil-based vinaigrette. The possibilities are really endless.
Recipe: Tuna, White Bean And Roasted Red Pepper Salad (Cookthink)
Recipe: Tuna, Green Bean And Potato Salad With Olives And Anchovies (Cookthink)
A terrine is a French term used to describe a preparation made in a deep glazed usually rectangular earthenware dish with tall sides.
Terrines are often made of mixed meats or game, as in a pâté or foie gras; but the term can also apply to terrines made from vegetables, seafood or fruits.
Ranging in style from the rustic -- served straight from the container and making handy picnic food -- to the elegant, served in neat slices that show off their ingredients, terrines may be served warm or cold, depending on the preparation.
Terrines are flavored with a variety of seasonings, and often enriched with alcohol, then usually cooked covered in a bain marie to ensure even cooking and to prevent the ingredients from drying out.
A meringue is an airy mixture of stiffly beaten egg whites and caster sugar. Said to have been invented by a Swiss chef, the meringue was a favorite of the famously sweet-toothed Marie Antoinette, who introduced it to the French.
Some meringue, like that which is piped on top of a lemon meringue pie, is uncooked (or just browned), while other meringues are baked in a slow oven, at which point they crisp and can be eaten like cookies. Meringue can can be made plain or flavored with vanilla extract or ground almonds or hazelnuts.
Recipe: Meringue Cookies (Cookthink)
Recipe: Lemon Meringue Pie (Washington Post)
Cornichons are adorable little French pickles made from miniature gherkin cucumbers.
The crunchy pickles have a dry, sharp taste, and are often served alongside fatty meats such as pork rillettes or with traditional French pot-au-feu, in order to perk up and cut through the richness of a meaty dish. They are also used in tartare and other sauces.
A staple condiment, cornichons are often the last thing standing in a French refrigerator.
