Ah, the old enemy well, to be fair there are the Scots, the Germans and a host of other people we traditionally fight with.... Don't even mention the Vikings (more properly the Danes). And you may not know that William the Conqueror didn't consider himself French and was actually very recently descended from Vikings
Anyway, France is a big, beautiful and varied country. Normandy with its northern climate, butter and green pastures is just not like Provence with its Sunshine, olive oil and tomatoes.
French cuisine has long been held up as the benchmark though I don't think that's true any more but they are still a leader, if only more in technique than how interesting the food is
You can't take the classics away from them though
This is what cheap olives are for
There's no real recipe for this in terms of proportions, make it how you like and adjust as you go
Potatoes and bacon with wine, cream and cheese. And not just any old cheese - it's Reblochon!
You can make this as a side dish (this recipe) or you can beef it up a bit with chicken and make it almost like a fish pie (a bit more wine and cream) with the potatoes on the top of a creamy chicken and bacon base
Named after one of Meg's school friends, its a bit like coq au vin but tarragon gives it a lovely fresh lift
Do this in a heavy-bottomed casserole and if you can get chicken with skin on so you can roast it and get it lovely and crispy on the outside and gives the stock a lovely flavour. Whole legs are good but if you don't like bones then skin-on breasts are ok
No, nothing at all to do with French Nazi sympathisers
Chicken and wine - them Frenchies know what they're about!
Not the best picture in the world I'll grant you but a lovely thing
Don’t use cheap Lager, Not just for this, it's a general rule.
Beef in beer, Guinness works well or anything brown. You can adapt it with Pork and Cider for a nice change
Not a gravy but not as pretentious as it sounds
So everything is a jus now but there are 2 important distinctions between jus and gravy. Gravy is pretty much a velouté which really means it’s thickened with flour and/or dairy of some sort. And gravy can have lumps of onion or whatever in it. Jus should be clear of any lumps.
It's lots of butter and is the basis of any Cheese Sauce, Parsely Sauce, or . . . you get the idea
It's simple but you can cock it up if you try to rush it. But then it only takes a couple of minutes anyway so why mess around? this makes about half a pint but you just increase each of the ingredients in this proportion. the important bit s that you have equal amounts (weight) of butter and flour
Bechemal for grown-ups. You don’t always want milk in your dinner unless you’re 1yrs old.
Velouté is based on a roux in the same way as Bechemal but you add stock, wine or something else instead of milk. The classic velouté is a “white stock”; not beef or lamb, so think fish, chicken or veg. The absolute classic is veal stock.
Eggs Benedict in a crispy edible bowl
This is taken from a recipe by Rachel Khoo and is lovely. It looked a bit easier when she did it using french sliced loaf which looked a but bigger but it works.