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A Taste of France

Delicious French dishes

By Rasma RaistersPublished about a year ago 7 min read
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Soup 

Vichyssoise is a thick soup that consists of pureed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, and chicken stock. The soup is pureed when ready and traditionally served cold garnished with fresh chopped chives.

French onion soup has become a popular soup all over the world. The broth is flavored with caramelized onions and meat stock. The soup is placed in baking dishes, topped with croutes (pieces of crispy baked bread), and covered with cheese. It is placed in the oven until the cheese melts while the top turns to a golden crust.

Meat

Vol-au-vents are puff pastries that are baked so the center can be removed and filled with savory or sweet fillings. The vol-au-vent, called financiere, is filled with minced chicken, breadcrumbs, and mushrooms in a Madeira sauce. It is served as a snack or appetizer.

Galettes de Bretagne are thin crepes originating in the Brittany region in northwest France. The thin pancakes are made with buckwheat flour. They are filled with ingredients like eggs, ham, mushrooms, and bacon.

Choucroute Garnie is a winter dish from the French Alsace region. The base of this dish is sauerkraut, fermented cabbage, infused with good fat, onions, garlic, juniper berries, caraway, and white wine. The sauerkraut is garnished with smoked or fresh beef and pork sausage, pork loin, pork shoulder, and bacon. 

Tete de Veau is a dish made with a calf’s head, boiled until the meat is tender and the skin develops a gelatinous consistency. The tongue and brain are boiled separately with spices. Three types of meat are served in thick slices on a platter with potatoes and carrots and ravigote sauce.

Daube is a Provencal stew that is prepared with lamb or beef, simmered slowly in wine with various vegetables and seasonings like cinnamon, cloves, thyme, bay leaves, and peppercorns. The ingredients are added in layers, with meat on the bottom and spices and vegetables on top. Traditionally the stew is made in a special earthenware vessel called a daubiere. Some cooks seal the lid with a paste made of flour and water. The stew is served with la macaronade, flat macaroni cooked in a sauce that has been made from the braising juices mixed with a bit of white wine and some mushrooms.

Pate de Paques is a traditional dish from the Poitou area. The dish is made with ground pork, ground veal, and hard-boiled eggs encased in pastry. It is usually eaten as a first course for Easter dinner. After it is baked the loaf is cut into slices and served with pickles and salad on the side.

Pot-au-feu is a stew-like dish consisting of boiled meat and vegetables. It is usually prepared with inferior cuts of meat, and vegetables like potatoes, onions, carrots, leeks, and turnips. Then it is cooked until the meat is tender.

Coq au vin is a peasant stew from the Burgundy region. It is prepared with a rooster cut into pieces and combined with the rooster’s blood, onions, carrots, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, parsley, mushrooms, salt, pepper, and a hefty dose of red wine. The stew is cooked slowly over low heat until the meat is tender.

Confit de canard is a classic dish made by slow-roasting duck meat in its own fat. The meat is seasoned with salt, pepper, and fresh herbs and spices like thyme, garlic, shallots, and bay leaves. The duck is cooked in a copper pot over a fire for up to 24 hours, giving the fat time to render and cover the meat. Once it is done while still hot, the meat and fat are poured into jars and sealed tightly, and stored for later use.

Terrine is a dish that consists of coarsely chopped meat and fat used to form a meatloaf. It is placed in an earthenware vessel called a terrine to cook it. The vessel serves as a mold. The combination of meat is usually goose or duck liver, pork, deer, or boar, marinated in a mixture of herbs and wine and then left to cool as a jelly forms in the dish. 

Boeuf or Beef bourguignon is a rich stew from the Burgundy region. The dish is prepared with robust red Burgundy wine, pieces of Charolais beef, onions, garlic, thyme, carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms. The ingredients are simmered until the meat is tender and the juices have blended into a dark sauce. 

Steak au poivre is a dish that consists of a beef steak coated in crushed peppercorns and fried. It is served with a sauce made in the same pan the steak was cooked in. The dish is served with potatoes and a salad on the side. 

Chateaubriand refers to a cut of beef and also the method used to roast or grill a thick cut of beef tenderloin. When served, the beef is accompanied by a red wine sauce or Bearnaise sauce. It is accompanied by roasted new potatoes.

Seafood

Plateau de fruits de mer translates to “a plate of fruits of the sea.” It is a traditional dish that consists of various kinds of seafood served on a platter, usually over crushed ice. There is a variety of shellfish like shrimp, mussels, lobster, crabs, clams, and oysters that can be served cooked or raw. Lemon wedges and various sauces accompany the seafood platter.

Sole Meuniere is a classic seafood dish that is made with sole filets lightly breaded in plain flour and pan-fried in butter. When done lemon juice is added to the pan and cooked to combine the flavors. The fish is seasoned with salt, pepper, and chopped parsley.

Escargot or cooked snails, have long been a popular French delicacy the world over. It is served as an appetizer. The snails are removed from their shells and cooked in garlic butter, chicken stock, or wine until tender in texture. Once cooked they can be served on toasted pieces of baguette. More traditionally, the snails are placed back in their shells, covered with garlic butter, heated until the butter melts, and served on a platter. Special tongs are used to hold the shell and extract the meat with a special two-pronged snail fork.

Salad

Nicoise salad originates from Nice in the Provence region. The salad consists of fresh tomatoes, anchovies, black olives, capers, beans, and a drizzle of lemon juice. It is traditionally seasoned with a Provencal seasoning of olive oil, garlic, and basil. The salad also includes hard-boiled eggs which can be added at the end.

Quiche

Quiche Florentine consists of a pastry crust filled with eggs, milk, cheese, spinach, and fresh herbs like rosemary and thyme. It is baked until set and cut into slices.

Quiche au fromage is a savory pie made with a thin, flaky pastry crust that is filled with a cheese mixture. The varieties of cheese used include Gruyere, Camembert, or Roquefort blended into a custard of eggs and milk or crème fraiche. It is baked until set and golden on top.

Quiche Lorraine is prepared with a shortcrust dough base that is filled with bacon, eggs, cream, and nutmeg, and seasoned with salt and pepper. Then baked until set. 

Dessert

St. Honore Cake is a dessert that incorporates puff pastry, vanilla custard, choux pastry, and caramelized sugar. The puff pastry base is given a generous piping of custard and topped with cream puffs dipped in caramelized sugar. 

Financier is a small French cake. The cakes are baked in molds that shape them to look like golden bricks. The cakes are prepared with almond flour, almonds, egg whites, brown butter, and sugar.

Tarte Tatin is prepared with sliced apples seasoned with butter, sugar, and cinnamon. It is topped with a buttery pie crust pastry and baked until the apples are golden and syrupy. Then the whole tart is inverted upside-down on a serving platter. 

Fraisier is a cake with its name derived from the word fraise, strawberry. The cake consists of layers of genoise sponge, vanilla-flavored crème mousseline, marzipan, and fresh, sliced strawberries. 

Millefeuilles is a creamy, flaky dessert that consists of thin layers of pastry and fillings, topped with cocoa, almond, or vanilla icing. The fillings can include jam, whipped cream, custard, pureed fruit, or nut paste.

Profiterole are chocolate-covered puff pastries that are filled with whipped cream, custard, pastry cream, or vanilla ice cream. 

Macarons are small round, sweet meringue-based cookie sandwiches that are filled in the middle with creamy ganache to keep the two cookie halves together and crunchy on the outside. Their name comes from the Italian word maccherone or fine dough. These cookies are now popular the world over. 

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About the Creator

Rasma Raisters

My passions are writing and creating poetry. I write for several sites online and have four themed blogs on Wordpress. Please follow me on Twitter.

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