Simple French recipes to try this week
Fabulous French food
French cuisine varies from region to region, with the sun-soaked south known for seafood and dishes bright with fresh vegetables, Normandy famed for its apple desserts and the towns and villages of the Alps associated with rich, comforting foods. If anything brings it all together, though, it's the combination of classic techniques with top-quality ingredients. And you don't need to have attended Le Cordon Bleu to make these dishes. Here are some of our favourite French recipes that are simple to prepare at home. Bon appétit!
Moules marinière
There are many variations on this classic mussels recipe from Normandy, but the original is still the best. You'll need a large pot to cook the mussels – they're steamed open in white wine, shallots or onion and herbs. You can then add a little cream to the sauce. If you find the mussels are gritty, remove them from the pan then strain the sauce through a fine sieve. Serve with crusty bread.
Croque madame
A traditional cheese and ham toastie with béchamel sauce becomes croque madame rather than monsieur when it has a fried egg on top. Our vegetarian take on the recipe has creamed spinach in place of the sauce for an extra punch of flavour. You could also add a slice of ham or smoked salmon, if you like.
Leek tart
Root vegetables dominate the cuisine of northern France and there are few better examples of this than a leek tart. For this recipe, the leeks are slowly sweated down in butter until sweet and tender, before being baked in a savoury custard of eggs and thick cream encased in crispy pastry. Serve warm with a crisp green salad on the side.
Buckwheat galettes
Hailing from Brittany, these savoury pancakes are usually sold in little crêperies or from food trucks in a village square. The galettes are typically filled with everything from spinach and cheese to ham and eggs. Our recipe suggests chard (though you can also use spinach) and Gruyère cheese, topped with an egg. Lovely for a light lunch.
French onion soup
A really good French onion soup, topped with cheese toasts, is a meal in itself. A couple of things to note to get the best flavour – use the best stock you can get hold of and cook the onions slowly until they are sweet and caramelised. Our recipe uses chicken stock, though you can also use the traditional beef stock for a meatier taste. You need nothing else, except perhaps a glass of red wine.
Duck confit
Confit is a French method that involves salting meat or poultry, slow-cooking it, then preserving it in fat before it's fried until crisp. Duck legs are traditional and this style of preparation means you end up with meltingly tender meat and wonderfully crisp skin. Serve with sautéed potatoes cooked in the duck fat. There are a few stages involved in this recipe but it's very simple and definitely worth the time.
Boeuf bourguignon
A rich, flavourful dish of marinated and slow-cooked beef with vegetables in red wine, boeuf bourguignon (French for Burgundy beef) is often underrated. But, when made in the classical way, it's always a winner. An inexpensive cut of beef becomes meltingly tender after slow cooking and traditionally it would be simmered in Pinot Noir, a typical Burgundy wine. The dish is even better when made the day before serving to allow for a richer flavour to develop, and it freezes extremely well.
Sole meunière
Fish dishes don't come much simpler or more classic than sole meunière, a favourite at the court of King Louis XIV and apparently one of the first things legendary chef Julia Child tried in France. You need super fresh fillets of sole plus flour, butter, lemon and herbs. The fish is dredged in the flour and fried in butter, then the lemon and parsley are added at the end to make the meunière sauce. It's just perfect served with buttered new potatoes and peas.
Pissaladière
Meet the southern French cousin of a pizza. Sliced onions are slow cooked until tender, sweet and caramelised, then spread over bread dough, shortcrust pastry or puff pastry. It's also studded with black olives and anchovies. In France, the dish is traditionally served at room temperature and eaten with drinks before dinner.
Get the recipe for pissaladière here
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Roast leg of lamb with garlic and lavender
Roast lamb with lots of garlic is a very French thing. Traditionally it would have been a leg of mutton, slow-cooked for several hours. This recipe has more of a modern twist and the lavender adds a taste of Provence, a region famous for its lavender fields. You do need to marinate the lamb the day before cooking. Once roasted, the juices make the most wonderful sauce.
Get the recipe for roast leg of lamb with garlic and lavender here
Bouillabaisse
The aroma and flavours of this soup will transport you straight to the south of France. It's served with grated Gruyère cheese, a saffron aioli (a rich, garlicky mayonnaise spiked with saffron) and garlic toasts. It takes a little effort, but it's a meal in itself. The recipe specifies white fish, but you could add in some mussels and prawns too – do this after reheating the soup, simmering the shellfish in the liquid until cooked.
Get the recipe for a bouillabaisse-inspired Mediterranean fish soup here
Quiche Lorraine
The province of Lorraine, in eastern France bordering Germany, is the home of quiche. It was originally made using bread dough as the base but now shortcrust pastry is more common. Shop-bought versions just can't compare to homemade. It should have a crisp pastry shell and the creamy filling should be just set and golden brown. Best served warm or at room temperature.
Cassoulet
This hearty bean stew hails from around the city of Toulouse. The basic ingredients are white haricot beans and sausage with other additions, such as duck confit, varying from town to town. It's straightforward to make but needs a long, slow cooking time. To taste it at its best, use dried beans and soak them overnight before cooking. This recipe is made with sausages and smoked pancetta, with added texture from a topping of golden, crunchy breadcrumbs.
Tapenade
A black olive paste from sunny Provence, tapenade takes its name from the Provençal word for capers, tapèno. It's lovely served on toasts or crackers, but you should find the best black olives you can or it can be overpoweringly salty. The olives are whizzed up with capers, garlic, lemon and olive oil. You could add a few anchovies to our recipe for a savoury note.
Basque chicken
This is a great one-pot dish, epitomising the traditional flavours of French Basque Country. It uses a local chilli, piment d'Espelette, which is mild and fragrant and comes from the village of the same name – though you can just use chilli flakes instead. The chicken, herbs, vegetables, tomatoes and peppers are all gently cooked in white wine.
Daube de boeuf
There's an old French saying about daube de boeuf or daube of beef: "The longer it stays on the fire, the better it will be." This rich beef stew does take around six hours in the oven and needs marinating the day before, but it's worth the wait. Full of herbs, vegetables and red wine, with a wonderful aroma of fresh orange zest, our recipe serves eight and freezes really well too.
Fougasse
Fougasse is a traditional flatbread from Provence, typically cut into shapes with a blade so it resembles an ear of wheat. It's similar to an Italian focaccia but contains less oil and has a crisper crust. Happily, fougasse is a straightforward bread to make and you can simply shape it into a circle or rectangle if you prefer. Flavour it with herbs or try our version with olives and courgettes.
Salade Niçoise
A vibrant, bright salad which is loved the world over, salade Niçoise epitomises the south of France (Niçoise indicates it's from the city of Nice). There are many versions of it but a classic dish should contain top-quality canned tuna in olive oil, black olives, boiled eggs, salad leaves and tomatoes. You can add in some baby new potatoes or blanched green beans too. It's dressed simply with red wine vinegar and olive oil.
Gratin dauphinois
This dish of thinly sliced potatoes baked in cream and garlic (sometimes called pommes or potato dauphinoise) is perfection alongside roasted meats or steak. It originates from southeastern France but is served pretty much everywhere. You can slice the potatoes using the slicing attachment on a food processor for speed, though the dish needs to be cooked quite slowly so the potatoes absorb the garlicky cream. Our top tip? Add a teaspoon of flour to the cream to prevent the slightly curdled look it can sometimes have.
Beef paupiettes
Paupiettes are thin slices of meat or fish that are rolled and stuffed before cooking. Our recipe, using beef, is a real French bistro classic. The flattened slices of rump or sirloin are stuffed with sausage meat, then cooked with onions, mushrooms, Madeira wine and stock until thickened to make a wonderfully rich sauce. These are perfect served with creamy mash and greens.
Cheese and onion tarte tatin
A classic tarte tatin with beautifully caramelised apples is an enduring favourite but the concept works brilliantly for savoury dishes too. This recipe, made with dairy-free pastry, butter and Cheddar, is just as delicious as it looks. Use ready-made puff pastry (it’s easy to find dairy-free versions) and be sure to slow-cook the onions for that wonderful caramelisation. Perfect served with a crisp green salad.
Chestnut and shallot tarte tatin
This is the dinner party jackpot: a super-impressive dish that’s deceptively easy to prepare. The puff pastry is ready-made, the chestnuts are pre-cooked and preparation only takes around 10 minutes. The main thing is to get a nice char on the shallots and allow time for the brown sugar to give the filling that beautiful, golden brown caramelisation.
Snails bourguignon
You can't really talk about French cuisine without mentioning snails or escargots. This classic dish from Burgundy consists of snails marinated in garlic and herbs and then cooked in garlic butter. They have an earthy taste and a slightly chewy texture and, though they might not be to everyone's taste, the best bit of eating this dish is dunking your bread in the garlicky butter.
Summer berry galette
The word galette comes from the Norman word ‘gale’ – meaning flat cake – and this is basically a kind of freeform pie made with puff pastry that’s roughly folded around a sweet or savoury filling before baking. We’ve filled ours with blueberries and blackcurrants, though you can use any seasonal fruits, and the charmingly rustic look means it’s relatively easy to make too.
French toast
This breakfast classic is called pain perdu, or 'lost bread', in French, because it uses up stale bread or brioche. Our French toast recipe is perfect for a special Sunday brunch. Thick slices of bread or brioche are dunked in an egg, milk and cinnamon mixture, then pan-fried in butter. It's served with apples that have been caramelised in butter and sugar with a splash of Calvados (apple brandy). Add whipped cream on top and it's ready to eat within 20 minutes.
Fig and frangipane tarts
Every region of France has its own fruit tart recipe, making the most of what grows well and what's in season. Fresh fruit are often baked in frangipane – an almond, butter, egg and sugar filling that rises to form a light almond sponge. Figs are always a favourite. Our recipe includes instructions on how to make the shortcrust pastry, though you can buy it ready-made too. Make the dish even more French by serving with a dollop of crème fraîche.
Floating islands
This dessert, known as île flottantes in French, is hugely popular thanks to its delicate textures, sweetness and ability to impress pretty much any dinner guest. Lightly poached meringues 'float' in a rich vanilla custard and are drizzled with warm caramel. You'll need to hone your dessert-making skills for this recipe, but it's a real crowd-pleaser.
Crêpes Suzette
It's time to fall back in love with this wonderfully retro dessert. After all, who could resist the combination of thin pancakes cooked with butter, sugar, fresh orange juice and zest and flambéed with orange liqueur? If you have time, allow the pancake batter to rest for an hour or two before frying and flipping – it should result in a lighter texture.
Tarte tatin
It's said that this dessert was created by the Tatin sisters at their restaurant in Normandy around the turn of the 20th century. Whatever the truth, you can't beat this fabulous upside-down, caramelised apple pie. You do need to use apples that will remain firm after cooking, such as Golden Delicious or Granny Smith, and you'll also need a shallow pan or skillet that can go on the hob as well as into the oven.
Crème brûlée
Rich vanilla custard topped with a crunchy caramel topping, crème brûlée is high on everyone's favourite dessert list. It's not hard to make but we do recommend you use a cook's blow torch for the caramel as it's easier to direct the heat. Our recipe contains a hint of cardamom in the custard – not traditional but it adds a wonderfully warming, fragrant note.
Quince clafoutis
In its traditional home in the Limousin region, clafoutis is made with cherries. But it can also be made with whichever fruit happens to be in season: plums or apricots in summer and dried fruit such as prunes in winter. This vegan recipe uses poached quince, which will fill your kitchen with heavenly aromas.
Lemon cream tart
A fresh, zesty lemon tart is a classic dessert for a reason. In this recipe, the light and creamy filling can be made up to four days in advance, which makes it a great option for a dinner party or special occasion. You can even buy a pastry case rather than baking your own. Serve scattered with fresh blueberries or raspberries.
Macarons
It doesn't seem that long ago that we could only buy these bite-sized filled almond meringues in a chic French pâtisserie. Now much easier to find, they certainly come at a price so why not try making your own with our perfect macaron recipe? It may take a few batches to get it right but you'll have a real sense of achievement (as well as an impressive go-to gift). Our top tip: if the weather is humid, don't even attempt them – they're likely to collapse before baking.
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