FABADA
The bean stew of the Asturians, in
Northern Spain, made with large flat beans that melt in the mouth, salt pork
(or salt beef), perhaps also fresh pork, chorizos, and the wrinkled, smoked
morcilla, the local black pudding (blood
sausage). It takes its name form the
fava (broad beam) but these have long
been replaced by the finest large kidney
beans in Spain de la granja; use butter or dried lima beans outside Spain. One of Spain’s three
great beam pots, along with cocideo and
olla podrid.
FAGGOT
British specially, a type of sausage or meatball, similar to French crepinette.
A ball of minced (ground) offal (variety meats) and
pork including kidney and liver, mixed
with breadcrumbs, onion and well flavoured with herbs. Traditionally wrapped in
caul fat and fried or baked. Once
popular way of serving faggots is with cooked dried peats for with mushy peas) and onions gravy.
FAIENCE
A type of white or patterned pottery widely used for tableware. The earthenware
is covered with tin glaze (lead glaze made opaque by the addition of tin ashes) so that the colour of the earthenware is completely
masked. The pottery takes its name from the Italian town of Faenza.
Very little known about the
origins of fatience pottery, but from the very easiest times a brilliant
vietreous lead glaze, coloure by means of metallic oxides, was known to
potters. It is to be seen in the
hypogeum of Ancient Egypt, on its vases, funeral images and also on the glazed
bricks which decorated the walls of Nineveh and Babylon. The ancient mosques of Asia Minor have preserved
for us the magnificent craftsmanship of
the Persians, who passed on their skill
to the Arabs.
From the 13th century
there were important centres for the manufacture of faience in Spain, at Malaga and in Majorca, which gave its name to
the Italian majolica. Up to the 17th
century the most famous factories were
in Valencia. But it was mainly through the discovery of tin glaze by Luca della
Robbia towards the middle of the 15th century, that the ceramic industry was able to develop, first
at Faenza and then in other Italian
towns, notably Urbino, Gubbaio, Druta, Durante, Venice, Milan and Turin.
In
France in the 16th century,
fareuce pottery called Henri it faience was produced, the most important begin
the very individual pieces made by
Bearnard Palissy. During the same period
Italian potters tried to introduce the
faience industry into France. The
Conradi, coming from Sayona, sellted at Nevers. Early abortive attempts to
produce faience in Rouen were made in the 16th
century, but it was not until the 17th
century that this city began to produce
the beautiful speciments which remain once of the glories of the French faience
industry. These were copied everywhere,
both in France and other countries.
Mousties, from the end of the 17th century, made famous faience pieces in the
style of Tempesta, or copied from Berain and Benard Toro.
At Strasbourg, in the 18th century, the Hannong Family created a style which was quickly adopted by the factories of Luneville and Niederwiller. In Pris,
saint-cloud, Meudon, Lille and Marselle,
there were also a large number of less important factories.
Outside France some of the finest work was produced at Delft
in Holland, which was, for a long time; the most active centre of the faience industry in Europe.
Fine pottery, called day pottery, made its
appearance towards the middle of the 18th century, and this industry was most fully developed in
England, at Leeds and at Burslem in Staffordshire, where josiah wedgood
operated the first of his factories.
In France; the is type of pottery
was made especially at Poontaux-Choux, Paris, Luneville and Orleans.
With the advent of porcelain,
Faience becomes less sought-after and less highly prized, but modern
manufacturers have given it a new lease of life.
FAIRY-RING
MUSHROOM A small mushroom with a pleasant smell that is fairly common in
meadows. Its Latin name is Marasmins
oreades and in France it is known as
marasme d’orcade or faux mousseron.
The stalk is tough and should be
discarded, but the cap can he dried. The dried caps can be crushed and used as
a condiment, or rehydrated by soaking in
water and then added to meat dishes, sauces,
omellettes and soups.
FAISSELLE
A type basket with perforated sides used for draining cheese. The materials from
which it is made varies, depending on the type of cheese and the region where it is manufactured. Faisselles may be square, cylindrical or
heart-shaped and can be made of wood,
earthenware, pottery, wicker or plastic. In france the word faisselle is also
used for a table on which the apple residue is drained after the brewing of
cider.
FALAFEL Spicy snack made from a puree of chick peas, rolled into small balls or shaped into
patties and then fried in oil. Popular
throughout the Middle East, especially in Israel, where they are traditionally
eaten in pitna bread. They are sometimes made from other pulses, for example dried broad (fava) beans
are used in Egypt where the patties are
also known as ta’amia.
FALERMO
An Italian wine harvested on the sunny slopes of the Messica mountains, in Campania, to the
north of Naples. Three styles are prodduced: Bianco, a dry white made from Falanghina
grapes, Rosso, from mainly Aglianico and Piedirosso variates, and Primitivo.
The Falermo of today is nothing
like the highly prized Falermian wine of the ancient Romans, which rivalled the prestigious Greek wines. The poet
Horace praised it in verse but deplored its high price --too expense for him to drink it in the quantities that he would have liked ! Pliny the Elder
described three types red a light dry
white, a fairly sweet yellow, and a dark red -
all very highly regarded. He also
divulged that Falernian was the only
wine was also reputed to keep
indefinitely, the Greek physician Galen was of the opinion that it was nor good until it had matured for
ten years and that it was at its best
between 15 and 20 years old. Although it
is not
known which grape the ancient
Felernian was made from, it
supposed to have resembled the present day Lacrina Christi.
FALETTE
A specially of the Auvergne, particularly, Espalion. It is made with breast of mutton browned with carrots and onions, and cooked slowly in
the oven for a long time, then sliced
and served with harricot) navy)
beans.
RECIPE
Falattes
Bone
and season 2 breasts of mutton.
Make a stuffing with 300 g (11
oz. 4 cups) chopped Swiss chard leaves,
200 g (7 oz. 2 ½ cups) spinach, 50 g 92 oz., 1 cup) fresh parsley, 2 garlic
cloves and 1 large onion. Mix the
ingredients with 100 g ( 4 oz. 4 slices) crustless bread soaked in milk and 100
g (4 oz, 2 cup) sausagemeat. Season with salt and pepper.
Flatten out the boned breasts on of some bacon rashers ( slices). Spread the stuffing along the length of each breast and roll up, including
the bacon, then tie. Brown the falettes in a flameproof casserole with
200 g (7 oz. 1 ½ cups) sliced onions and 100 g (4 oz. 1 cup) sliced carrots. Degalze the
casserole with some white wine
and add a generous quantity of mutton stock. Add ½
garlic clove and bouquet garni, and cook, covered, in a preheated oven
at 180°C
(350°F,
gas 4) for 2 ½ hours.
Meanwhile, soak 500 g (1 lb 2
oz. 2 ½ hours. Cot (navy) beans in cold water for 2 hours. Drain and boil in fresh water for 10
minutes. drain and cool quickly by
rinsing under the cold tap.
Sauté 100 g (4 oz. ¾ cup) sliced onion, 100 g (4 oz. ¾ cup) chopped auvegne ham and 100 g
(4 oz. ¾ cup) chopped tomatoes in a large saucepan until salt.
Add the beans, a bouquet garni and
enough mutton stock to cover the beans generously. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and
cover the pan. then simmer gently for about 1 ½ hours.
Remove the falettes from the casserole and leave to cool briefly, then
untie them, remove the bacon and cut
them into slices. Strain and reduce the cooking liquid and pour it over the sliced falettes. Serve
the beans separately.
FALLOWER
DEER A small deer of temperate
regions, The strong-tasting flesh
of adult stags should be marinated in a tannin-rich wine; methods of
preparation are as for roebuck. Females and fawns yield meat with a
less pronounced flavour and may be roasted.
FANCHONNETTE
Also known as fanchette. A little tart
made with puff pastry filled with confectioner’s custard (pastry filled with
confectioner’s custard (pastry cream), coated with meringue and decorated with
tiny meringue balls. The larger version known as gateau fanchette.
Fanchonnette and fanchette are
also the names of certain petits fours. One type consists of a boatshaped piece
of nougat filled with hazenut flavoured confectioner’s custard and covered with coffee-flavoured
fondant icing (frosting). Another consists of a macaroons base with strawberry-flavoured butter cream and covered
with pink fondant icing.
FAR
BRETON A flan (tart) with prunes that may be eaten warm or
cold. The French word far was originally
used for a porridge made with durum wheat, ordinary wheat or buckwheat flour,
with added salt or sugar and dried fruit.
It was a popular dish throughout. Britany. Traditionally, it was cooked in a linen bag, pocket or sleeve,
hence its various dialect names, far such far pouch and far much. Slices of the
flan may be served as a dessert or as an accompaniment to meat or
vegetables.
RECIPE
Far
breton
Soak
125 g (4 ½ oz. 1 cup) currants and 400 g
(14 oz. 2 ¼ cups) stoned (pitted) overnight in warm weak tea, then drain
them. Make a well in the centre of 250 g (9 oz. 2 ¼
cups) plain (all purpose) flour and mix in a large pinch of salte, 2
tablespoons sugar and 4 well-beaten eggs to make 1 batter. Thin the batter with 400 ml (14 fl.
oz. 1 ¾ cups) milk and mix in the currants and prunes. Pour
into a buttered tin (pan) and
bake in a preheated oven at 20 °C
(400 °F,
gas 6 ) for about 1 hour, until the top is brown. Sprinkle with icing (confectioner’s ) sugar.
FARCI
A specialty of Pengord consisting of
forcemeat wrapped in cabbage leaves. It is traditionally cooked inside a boiling fowl in meat or vegetables stock.
However, it is now more usually
made by wrapping the stuffed cabbage
leaves in muslin (cheesecloth) or securing with string and cooking directly in
stock.
RECIPES
Farci
Crumble
350 g 912 oz. 12 slices) stale
crustless bread and soak in fatty stock
or in milk. Mix together 350 g 912 oz. 2 cups) fresh chopped
ham or bacon, 2 chopped garlic cloves, 2 chopped shallots (or 1 chopped onion)
and a bunches of chopped parsley, tarragon or other herbs. If liked, add some
chopped chicken liver: Squeeze out the
bread and mix it with the chopped ingredients.
Seasoned with salt, pepper and a
generous pinch of mixed spice and bind with 2 or 3 eggs yolks, mix well until
smooth, and keep in a cool place.
Blanch some large cabbage leaves
in boiling water for 5 minutes. cool
quickly under cold running water, pat them dry, and arrange them like flower petals on a flat surface. Shape
the forcement into a ball, place it on the cabbage leaves and fold them
over to wrap it up. Secure with string to keep the
shape, or wrap the leaves in muslin (cheesecloth). And cook in vegetable or meat stock for about 1 ¾
hours. Remove the Muslin or string. Cut
the farei into slices and serve very hot with the stock or with a chicken,
depending on the recipe. (Farce can also
be served cold).
Small
stuffed provencal vegetables
Trim
the tops off 6 onions, 6 small aubergines (eggplants), 6 round courgettes
(zucchini), 6 sweet (bell) peppers and 6 medium-sized tomatoes to reduce them
to three-quarters of their original height, and cut the aubergines and peppers
in half. Uses a teaspoon to hollow out the vegetables and mix the pulp with the trimmings. Fry the pulp
lightly in a little olive oil, then leave to cook. Cut 5
slices of bread into small dice and soak in 100 ml (4 fl. oz. 7 tablespoons)
milk. Milk with vegetables pulp and add 400 g (14 oz) sausagemeats. 5 garlic
cloves, chopped, 75 g (3 oz. 1¼ cups) finely chopped parsley, 3
tablespoons chopped basil, 3 whole eggs (beaten), 100 (4 oz. 1 cup)
grated. Parmesan cheese, salt and
pepper. Stir the mixture until smooth with a wooden spatula.
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and cook the onions
lightly, followed by the courgettes, peppers and aubergines, cooked
separately. Drain each batch on a cloth
or paper towels.
Stuff all the vegetables with
sausagemeat mixture and arrange them in a roasting pan (tin), greased with
olive oil.
Carefully remove the flowers of 6 courgettes finely and
fry gently in 2 tablespoons olive oil for 5-8 minutes, stirring often. Remove
from the heat and add 2 chopped basil leaves, 1 tablespoon finely
chopped parsley and 1 finely chopped garlic clove. Leave to cool, then incorporate 1 tablespoon fresh breadcrumbs and half a beaten eggs.
Fill the flowers with the sausagement mixture, fold over the petals
and place the flowers side by side in a
second roasting pan (pin). Pour over
mixture of 120 ml (4 ½ fl oz, ½ cup)
boiling water, 1 chicken stock
(bouillon) cube and 2 tablespoons olive oil.
Cover with foil.
Cook both batches of vegetables
in a preheated oven at 200°C
(400°F, gas 6) for 15-20 minutes. The stuffed
vegetables and corrugate flowers may be eaten hot or cold.
FARCIDURE A speciality of Limousin of poached balls of
forecemeat or chopped ingredients. In Gueret, where farcidure (or farce alure – literally ‘hard stuffing’) is
particularly famous, the balls are made
with buckwheat flour and a mixture of chopped
green vegetables, such as sorrel, Swiss chard and cabbage. When made with
wheat flour, they are known as poule sans as (‘boneless chicken’),
contain chopped bacon and sorrel, and are deep-fried. If garnished with salt
pork, they are boiled in cabbage soup.
Farcidure with potatoes is made with a
mixture of pureed potatoes, herbs,
garlic, onions and rashes (slices) of bacon, to which beaten eggs are sometimes added. The balls are poached and then fried in lard
or goose fat.
FAREE
A specially of Charentes, consisting of cabbage stuffed with bacon or sorrel and served with bacon and crustless
breatless bread. It is cooked in the
stock from a port-au-feu or a soup.
FARINACEOUS Containing flour, or a high, content of
starch. The terms, lentils and broad (fava0 beams.
FARINADE
A corsican gruel made from chestnut
flour mixed with olive oil. When cooked, it is poured on to a floured cloth so that it forms a ball. It is
then sliced and either served on its
own, while still hot, or with fresh
Broccio or goat’s milk. The slices may also be fried in oil.
FARINAGE
The French term for any dish or dessert
based on flour. Generally, it is
used to describe pasta dishes served as a main course; as well as
quenelles, knodel, knepfleis, floutes
(quenelles made with mastered potatoes) and gnoochi, which are popular dishes
in Italian, Austrian, German and Alsatian cookery. Farinages, also include
dishes made with conmmeal
(maize), such as polenta., gaudes and miques, and potato flour, such as gruels and panadas and
also semolina. Puddings. Pasries and
crepes are not included.
FARINETTE A sweet savoury pancake made with beaten eggs
and flour. There are several variations
to be found in different parts of the Auvergene, where they are also known as omelette enfarinee (‘floured omelette’),
pachade (in Aveyron) and farinade.
FAST To avoid eating food or abstain from certain
foods. Fasting is associated with
religion - Christians abstain from eating certain foods during
lent; Muslims fast during Ramadan. Complete fasting or avoiding certain foods is practices on
certain days in religious calenders.
In the Roman Catholic Church
fasting meant abstaining from eating
meat and fat during Lent and on
fast days. Originally only vegetables
were allowed to be eaten on fast days with meats and
all animal products (butter,
fats, milk, and eggs) prescribed. Over the
years the rules were relaxed, and
gradually eggs, then fish and shellfish, were allowed to be eaten on
fast days. However, the eating of butter
necessitated the payment of extra offerings .
when fish was permitted, wild duck and other waterfowl were also
included. Brillat-Savarin tells the
amusing story of a fasting cleric who enjoyed an omelette with tuna tongues and car’s roe. The
last restrictions were removed for
Catholics in 1966 with the lifting of
Friday fasting, but the tradition of serving
fish on that day remains.
In cookery, dishes prepared an
maigre (sauces, stuffings, salpicons), as opposed to those prepared au gras, do not include lard (shortening),
bacon sausagemeat or any other meat-based
ingredients, especially pork. Butter, however, can be used.
FAT Lipid substances containing glycerol and
fatty acids. Fats are solid at love
temperatures; oils however, are liquid at room temperature, due to their higher contents of unsaturated fatty acids,
and will solidify in the refrigerator.
Fats and oils do not dissolve in or mix
with water, but they may be emulsified with water.
There are two types of fats.
Saturated fats (or saturates) and unsaturated fats 9these include monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated
fats). Saturated fats are found in dairy
products (butter, milk, cheese) and animal meats and fats (lard, pork,
fat, suet). They are also in some vegetable fats, such as coconut oil and palm oil. Unsaturated
fats are found in vegetable oils: monounsaturated in olive and peanut oils;
polyunsaturaes in corn, sunflower, grapsed, rapeseed (canola) and soya oils.
They are also found in oily fish, such
as herring and machend.
§ Fat
in cooking Fats are used as a cooking medium for frying and roasting. They are also used to based food during
grilling. Their role is far broader than, this including moistening ingredients and
mixtures; forming the base for creamed cakes, giving pastries their inimitable
textures ; and acting as dressings or sauces. Fats make starches and dry
ingredients taste more appealing.
They also improve or enhance the flavour of many foods, either raw (for
example when butter is eaten with bread) or cooked by giving a crisp finish, for example when frying.
Traditionally,
of the animal fats, lard (shortening),
obtained from pork fat, is most widely used for cooking in Europe. However,
beef suet is also used sometimes,
particularly in England Shep suet or sheep-tail fat is used especially in Oriental cookery. In France, goose fat which is highly esteemed
by gastronomes, is specific to Gascony,
Bearn and languedoc, being used
especially for confits. Calf fat is used
in certain forcemeats. The use of some
fats is limited to particular
culinary traditions, smen in North Africa and ghee in India, for example.
In
French cooking, recipes or dishes are described as au gras 9literally, ‘fat’)
when they contain meat products, and au
maigre when they do not contain meat, being
based on fish or vegetables. The
introduction of vegetables oils has led to a significant reduction in the role
of animal fats in cooking.
Vegetables
fats are traditionally used for cooking in many African and Eastern Countries,
usually taking the form of white waxy rectangular blocks. Their melting point is lover than that of animal
fats but, like oils, they have high
boiling points, which enables them to be used for frying food.
With
greater awareness of the roles of different
nutrients in the died, and in particular
concern about increased
consumption of fat in the Western died,
vegetables oils are often sued in place of animals fats in some traditional dishes. This applies
particularly to everyday eating and to
fats used for cooking, where olive oil
and other vegetables oils have
grown in popularity among those who
traditionally relied on lard or butter.
A broader range of fats are used by cooks who once used only butter and meat dripping
for cooking, with one or two vegetables oils reserved solely of salad dresings.
FAUBONNE
A thick soup made with a puree of white haricot (navy) beans, split peas or peas, mixed with a white stock or a consomme containing
finely shredded vegetables (carrots, turnips, leeks, celery) and seasoned with
parsley and chervil. Fomerly, Foubonne
soup was garnished with thins strips of roast or braised pheasant.
FAUCHON,
AUGSTE FELIX A famous French grocer (born 1856 died Paris). He arrived in Paris from Normandy in 1886 and
opened a food store in the place de la
Madeleine that dealt exclusively in the
best French products, including groceries, poultry, charcuterie, cheese,
biscuits (cookies), confectionery, wines and liqueurs. Auguste Fauchon did not stock exotic products, and sent customers requiring such
items to his friend Hediard. Between
the two wars, he opened a slar de the patisserie and also started a catering service. After the death
of its founder, the store began
to stock specialties from all over the world, at the same time maintaining a selection of luxury French
products.
FAUGERES. A spicy, roboust red AOC wine produced in a languedoc region mainly from
Carignan, Syrah, Mourvedere and Greenache. Whites from Marsanne, Viognier, Roussane, Grenache
blanc and Rolle aare sold as Coteaux du Languedoc.
FAUX-FILET
(TENDERLOIN) Also known as conref-filet. Part of the beef sirloin located on
either side of the backbone above the
loins. It is fattier and les tender than
the filet but has more flavour; when
boned and trimmed, it can be roasted or braised. Unlike fillet, it is not essential to bard
the meat, unless it is to be braised. Slices of faux-faux-filed can be grilled (broiled) or fried.
RECIPES
Faux-fillet
braised a la bourgeoise
Marinate
some lardons of bacon in brandy for about
30 minutes. season with salt,
pepper and ground all-spice. Insert the lardons into the faux-filet (tenderloin).
Seasoned and marinate the meat for 12 hours in red or white wine flavoured with thyme, bay
leaf, chopped parsley and 1 crushed garlic clove. Drain the meat and brown it in either butter or oil. Fry 2
large sliced onions and 2 large diced carrots in butter,
and brown a few crushed veal bones in
the oven. Place the vegetables in the bottom of a braising
pan and lay the faux-filter on top. Add
the browned bones. 1 or 2 blanched boned calves’ feet, the marinade,
2-3 tablespoons tomato puree (paste) and enough stork to just cover the meat. then add a bouquet garni and season with salt
and pepper. Cover, bring to the boil on the hob (stove top) and then transfer to a preheated oven at 150°C
(300°F,
gas 2 ) for about 2 ½ hours. Add some wedges of carrot and continue cooking for another
hour. Prepare some small glazed
onions. When the meat is cooked, drain it, and keep it ,
warm I a deep dish. Skim the fat off the cooking liquid, boil to
reduce and add a knob of softened butter.
Dice the meat from the calves’ feet and arrange it around the meat together with the carrots and
small onions. Coat with the cooking .
Roast
faux-filet
Bone
and trim the meat. bard it on top and underneath, shape into a square and tie.
Cook in a preheated oven at 240°C
(475°F,
gas 9) so that the outside is sealed but
the inside remains pink or rare,
allowing 10 minutes per 450 g (1 lb). the meat can be untied and debarted to
brown the outside thoroughly 5 minutes
before the end of the cooking time. Season with salt and pepper.
FAVART A Sumptious garnish for poultry or calves’ sweetbreads,
dedicated to Cahrles Simon Favart, an 18th
century playwright and director of the Opera-Comique. It is made of poultry
quenelies with tarragon, and small
tarts’ filler with a salpicon of cep mushrooms and cream. The
accompanying sauce is a chicken veloute
falvoured with craysfish butter.
The name is also given to a
preparation of sot boiled (soft-cooked )
or poached eggs, served in little tarts
garnished with a salpicon of lamb sweetbreads, truffles and mushrooms in a
veloutee sauce.
FAVORITE,
A LA Describing various preparations
created during the last century in honour of a popular Donizette opera, La
Fauvorita (1840). Soup a la faourite is a cram soup of asparagus and
lettuce garnished with asparagus tips asparagus tips also feature in a garnish
for small sautéed joints, of meat (together with slices of foie grass topped with slivers
of truffle, coated with the meat juices
deglazed with. Madiera and demi-glaxed) and in a mixed
salad. There is another garnish of the same name for large roasting
joints, consisting of sautéed
quartered antichoke hears, celery hearts and chatteau potatoes.
RECIPE
Salad
a la favorite
Arrange
in a salad dish , in separate heaps, asparagus
tips, shelled crayfish and sliced white truffles. Season with oil, lemon
juice, salt and pepper. Sprinkle with chopped celery and herbs.
FAVRE,
JOSEPH Swiss-born chef(born Vex, 1849);
died Paris, 1903). After his
apprenticeship in Switzerland, Favre finished
his studied in Paris, with Chevet, then worked in Germany, England and
again in Paris, with Bignon. He is best known as a theoretician his Dictionnaire
universed de cauisine e d’bygiene
alimentaire (1st edition 1889-1891, 2nd edition 1902)
contains not only a large number of recipes but also a very interesting history of cookery, in 1877 he
founded the journal La Science culinaire in Geneva, and in 1893 he found the
first Academy of Cookery.
FEDORA
A garnish for large coasting joints
consisting a barquettes filled with
asparagus tips pieces of glazed carrot
and turnip, quarters of orange and
braised shelled chestnuts.
FEET
AND TROTTERS The feet and trotters
of slaughtered animals are classified as
white offal (variety meat). shee’’s or
lamb’s trotters, which can be obtained
from the butcher already blanched, must be boned, singed and the little tufits
and hair between the cleavage in the hoof
removed. They are first cooked in a court-bouillon, and can
then be braised grilled (broiled), fried
prepared a la puolette or used for
a fricassee or a salad. They are also included in the Provencal speciality
pieds et paquets, particularly popular
around marseiell.
Pig’s trotters are also sold
blanched and cleaned. A particularly savoury way of cooking them is a la Sainte-Menebould: thy are parboiled, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs,
then grilled (broiled and served with mustard or Sainte-Menehould sauce. They
may also be boned and mixted with forcemeat, often with truffles. Pig’s trotters may also be coooked
in a flavoured stock, grilled, cooked en daule or braised.
Calves feet are used primarily
as a source of gelatine in a stock, but they may also be prepared separately
after being boned, cleaned, blanched and
then cooked in white stock. They can
then be fried, curried, prepared a la poulette, or dipped in egg and breadcrumbs, grilled and served
with devilled or tartare sauce. All the
recipes for calf’s head can be used for calves’ feet.
RECIPES
Calves’
feet
Cookign
calves’ feet
Calves’
feet can be bought already blanched and partially boned (the long foot bones
only). They are usually cooked in a white court-bouillon for about 2 hours.
Like a calf’s head. They can be served with a curry sauce and rice,
for example.
Alternately, they can be left to
cool under a press, brushed with melted
butter and 1 coated in breadcrumbs, grilled (broiled) and served with a tartare
sauce.
Calves’
feet a la Custine
Soak
2 pigs cauls (pieces of caul fat) in cold water and bring to the boil. Boil for
5 minutes, remove the calves’ feet, drain and leave to cool. Ad 4 tablespoons four, 4 tablespoons oil, the
juice of 2 lemons, 4 litres 97 pints, 4 quarts)
cold water, some salt and the calves’ feet. Bring to
the boil and simmer gently about 2 hours (the feet must be very tender).
Mix 4 chopped shallots with 800
g ( 1 ¾ lb) chopped button mushrooms in geneva, and in 1893 he founded the
first Academy of cookery.
FEDORA
A garnish for large roasting
joints, consisting of barquettes filled
with asparagus tips pieces of glazed carrots and turnip, quarters of orange and braised shelled chestnuts.
FEET
AND TROTTERS The feet and trotters of
slaughtered animals are classified as white offal (variety meat). sheep’s or
lamb’s trotters, which can be
obtained from the butcher already) blanched,
must be boned, singed and the little tuffs of hair between the cleavage in the hoof removed.
They are first cooked in a
court-bouillon, and can then be braised,
grilled (broiled), fried . prepared a
la poulette or used for a fricassee or a
salad. They are also included in the
provencal speciality pieds et paquets,
particularly popular around Marseille.
Pig’s trotters are also blanched
and cleaned. A particular savoury way of
cooking them is a la ainte-Menebould:
they are parboiled, dipped in eggs and breadcrumbs, then grilled (broiled’ and
served with mustard or Sainte-Menehould sauce. They may also be boned and mixed with forcemeat, often with truffles. Pig’s trotters may also be cooked
in a flavoured stock, grilled, cooked en
daube or braised.
Calves feet are used may also be
prepared gelatine in stock, but they may also be prepared separately after begin boned, cleaned, blanched and then
cooked in white stock. They can then be
fried curried, prepared a la poulette, a
dipped in egg and breadcrumbs grilled and served with devilled or tartare sauce. All the recipes for calf’s head can be
used for calve’s feet.
RECIPES
Calves’s
Feet
Cooking
calve’s feet
Calves
feet can be bought already blanched and partially boned (the long foot bones
only). They are usually cooked in a
white court-bouillon for about 2 hours
like a calf’s head. They can be served with
a curry sauce and rice, for example.
Alternatively, they can be left
to cool under a press, brushed with
melted butter and coated in breadcrumbs, grilled (broiled) served with
a tartare sauce.
Calve’s
feet a la custine
Soak
2 pigs’ caluls (pieces of caul fat) in cold water: Place the calv’es feet in a
large pan, cover them with cold water and bring to the boil. Boil for 5 minutes, remove the calve’s feet, drain and leave to cool. Add 4 tablespoons flour, 4 tablespoons oil,
the juice of 2 lemons, 4 litres (7 pints, 4 quarts) cold water, some
salt and calves’ feet. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 2 hours
2( hours (the feet must be very tender).
Mix 4 chopped shallots with 800
g (1 ¾ lb.) chopped button mushrooms; season with salt and pepper and sprinkled
with the juice of half a lemon. Cook the
resulting duxelles over a brisk heat until the mixtures is dry. Add a small
glass of Madira.
Drain the calves’ feet, remove
the bones and dice the flesh finely. Mix it the duxelles. Divide
the forcemeat into 6 equal portions.
Wipe the cauls, spread the out flat on the work
surface and cut into 6
equal pieces. Shape the portion of forcemeat into rectangles and wrap
each one in a piece of caul. Brown them
lightly in hot butter. To serve, sprinkle with the butter in which they have been cooked.
Pigs’
Trotters
Cooking
pigs’ trotters
Buy
blanched trimmed pig’s trotters (feet). Tie them in pairs and place them in a
pan of cold water. Bring to the boil, skim and add carrots, turnips, leeks,
celery, an onion studded with cloves and a bouquet garni. Simmer gently for 4 hours. Drain
and leave to cool. If they are to
be grilled (broiled), place then between 2 thin boards tied with string, while
still hot, to press them as they cool.
Daube
of pig’s trotters
Cut
3 pigs’ trotters (feet) in half and
place the 6 halves in a stewpan, together with a slightly salted knuckle of veal and 2 slightly salted pig’s tails. Cover with
cold water and leave to soak for 3 hours. Drain and rinse the meat, then place
an flameproof casserole. Cover with cold
water. Bring to the boil, skim and cook gently for 10 minutes with the lid off.
Drain the meat.
Rinse and wipe the pan. add 3
tablespoons groundnut (peanut) oil and return to the heat. When the oil is hot,
add 4 diced carrots, 3 diced onions, and 2 chopped celery sticks. Cook for
about 6 minutes until the onions are transparent, 3 or 4 crushed garlic cloves, a few chopped sage leaves. 1
tablespoons flour, 1 tablespoon tomato puree (pase) and 4 peeled diced tomatoes. Cook for 2
minutes. add 3 tablespons dry white wine 2 pinches of caster
(superfien) sugar and 3 pinches of curnin seeds tied in a muslin (cheesecloth)
bag. Add the meat, remove from the
heat, cover the casserole with a
lid and cook in preheated oven at 140°C (275°F,
gas 1 ) for at least 3 hours.
Arrange the meat on a heated
serving dish, cover it with the sauce
and vegetables and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Pigs’
trotter sausages
Soak
a large pig’s caul (caulf fat) in cold water.
Cook the trotters (feet) in stock until really tender and bone then
completely. Dice the flesh and mix it
with an equal quantity of the fine pork forcemeat (diced truffle may be added if wished). Add salt pepper, a pinch of mixed spice and a
dash of cognac. Divide the mixture into
4 portions of about g (4 oz). Shape into little flat sausages (crepinettes) and
top with a slice of truffle if wished. Wipe
the caul, spread it out on the work
surface and cut it into pieces. Wrap
each crebinette in a piece of
caul, coat with melted butter, roll in
fresh breadcrumbs and cook gently under the grill (broiler).
Sheeps’
Trotters
Fricassee
of sheeps trottees with pieds-de-mouton mushrooms.
Boil
10 trimmed blanched shepps’ trotters (feet) gently for
4 hours in a mixture of water, white
wine and lemon juice, with an onion studded with cloves, a bouquet garni, 2
garlic cloves, salt, pepper and curry powder. Place 800 g 91 ¾ lbs. Sliced musrooms (use the variety known
as pleas-de-Mauton, if available) in a
strainer and plunge then for 3 minutes
in boiling vinegar and water.
Pour 300 ml (1/2 cup) boililng
water into a saucepan containing 6
tablespoons chopped parsley and 1 tablespoon chopped fennel. Cover
the pan and boil for 45 minutes
to reduce by three quarters. Strain
through muslin (cheesecloth) and
twist the muslin to squeeze out the maximum quantity of liquid. Lightly brown 50 g (2 oz. 1/3 cup) chopped onions and
2 tablespoons chopped shallots in butter. Add sheep’s trotters, sauté them for 5 minutes, then add 2 tablespoons
skimmed stock and a dash of lemon juice.
Add 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, I tablespoon chives, 1 ½ tablespoons chopped fennel, salt and curry
powder. Mix and cook for 1 ¼ hours, uncovered, over a gentle heat. Drain the cooked sheep’s trotters, bone
them completely and slice the flesh.
Keep hot.
Make the sauce as follows;
prepare a roux with 25 g (1 oz. 2
tablespoons) butter, 25 g (1 oz., ¼ cup) plain (all-purpose) flour, and 300 ml
(1/2 pint, 1 ¼ cups) boiling
salted water. Whisk and incorporate the cooking liquid together with 1
tablespoon double (heavy) cream. Mix the
trotters with the mushrooms, arrange them in a vegetable dish and coat them with the sauce.
Sheep’s
trotters a la rouernnaise
Blanch
the trotters (feet) whole and braise them in
a good strong stock until really tender.
Drain, them remove al bones.
Fill the boned trotters with sausagemeat mixed with I lightly browned chopped onion,
chopped parsley and the stock left over
from the braising reduced and strained.
Dip the trotters in egg and fresh breadcrumbs and deep fry in sizzling
fat. Alternatively, bake until crisp and golden, turning once. Serve
immediately, garnished with fried curly parsley.
FEIJOA
A fruit native to South America, but now grown mainly in New Zealand. Sometimes called pineapple guava, the fruits, which is 2-8 cm. (3/4-3 ¼ in) long, has thin green skin (turning yellow as
the fruit ripens) and curse white flesh containing edible
seeds. The fejona is a aromatic and similar in falvour to strawberries with a hint of pineapple. It can be eaten
raw when ripe or it can be poached. It
can also be used to make sorbets, jams and jellies.
FEIJOADA
A Brazillian speciality whose basic ingredient is the black bean (frifol negro).
It is a compete dish served on special
occasions, not dissimilar to cassoulet. A large pot is used to cook slightly salted and previously
soaked pork meat, such as shoulder, trotter (feet), rib and tail , and black beans, flavourings include chopped onions celery, garlic, (bell) pepper and bay
leaf; other meat may be added, such as
smoked streaky (slab) bacon, dried beef
and cooked sasuage.
Fejoada is served as follows; a
mixture of meat and beans is poured into the centre of the plate and surrounded
by rice au gras, green cabbage (thinly sliced and fried) and a few slices of
orange (peel and pith removed). A mixture of grilled (broiled) manioc flour, onion and other ingredients, together called
farofa, is sprinkled over the whole plate. The dish is served with a
very spicy sauce, molbo carioca, made with cayenne pepper, vinegar, the cooking
liquid from the beans, chopped tomatoes and onions.
RECIPE
Feijoada
Soak 1 kg (2 ¼ lb)
black beans in cold water for 12 hours and in another container,
1 semi-salted pig’s tail and 500 g (1 lb. 2 oz) lean, smoked bacon,
changing the water in both containers several times. Peel 5 garlic cloves. Drain the beans and put them in a large braising pan. cover with plenty of
water and season with salt. Add 4 garlic cloves and 3 bay leaves. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 1 hour. Drain the meats and boil for 10
minutes, then set aside. Seed 2 sweet (bell) peppers and cut into strips. Scaled 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) tomatoes,
peel, seed and crush. Finely chop 1
small bunch parsley and 1 small bunch
chieves. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a frying pan.
add 1 chopped onions and fry
until golden. Add the peppers,
tomatoes, the remaining garlic clove
and the parsley. Cook for 20 minutes over a medium heat, stirring all the time. Season to taste. When the beans can be crushed between the fingers,
remove a ladleful of them and a ladleful
of cooking liquid. Puree the beans and return to the frying pan. sprinkle with chives and set aside. Slice
6 small 1 fresh sausages. 6 small smoked sausages and 1 chorizo. Place
the various meats in the braising
pan, hour, adding the tomato and onion puree halfway through the cooking
process. Stir well.
Prepare the farofa, soak
100 g (4 oz. 2/3 cup) raisins in lukewarm water for 10 minutes. melt 40 g (1 ½ oz. 3 tablespoons) butter in a frying pan and
fry 1 large chopped onion. Add salt and
100 g (4 oz. 1 cup) manoloc flour, then 40 g (1 ½ oz. 3 tablespoons) butter to
obtain a kind of light, sand-coloured mixture.
Add 1 sliced banana, the drained raisins and 50 g 92 oz. ½ cup) grilled
(broiled) cashew nuts. Serve with rice
mixed with slices of orange and onion, allowing each person to sprinkle
over more farofa.
PENDANT A Swiss white wine, produced mainly in the
Valais in the upper Rhone valley. It is made from the Fendant, a local name for
the Classelas grape, and is a dry,
elegant and refreshing wine. Fendant is sometimes slightly sparkling (petillant), which accentuates its freshness. It is generally
sold under the name of the commune in which it is harvested, or, more rarely,
under the name of a vineyard.
FENNEL An aromatic umbelliferous plant of
Mediterranean origin, which is now widely cultivated. It is
a hardly perennial which grows to
½-1.5 m (4-5 ft) high. The fethery leaves and seeds have a slight aniseed
flavour and both are used as a herb and
spice in a variety of recipes. The herb
goes particularly well with fish and chicken the spice is good with lamb and
vegetables particularly in marinades for wild mushrooms. The leaves are also
used as a garnish.
Florence fennel resembles
ordinary fennel as a plant but it produces a swollen leaf base which is eaten
as a vegetables. Known as bulb or head
of fennel, the overlapping stem bases are closely packed around a small tough, central core,
Fennel is similar in texture to celery.
The feathery leaves, which grow to about 60 cm (2 ft), are used as a
herb or as garnish. The fennel bulb be
used raw in salads or cooked in salads or cooked in a wide variety of dishes.
RECIPES
Braised
fennel
Trim,
halve and core fennel bulbs. Put them in
an ovenproof dish. Sauté 2 diced bacon
rashers (slices), 1 chopped onion and 1 diced carrot in a little olive oil until slightly softened,
then sprinkle over the fennel.
Moisten with a few tablespoons of
children stock or dry white wine (or a mixture of both). Season to taste. Cover
and cook in a preheated oven at
180°C
(350°F,
gas 4) for about 1 hour or until tender. Turn the fennel halfway through
cooking and add a little extra stock or
wine, if necessary, to keep the vegetables moist.
Fennel
salad
Hard-boil
(hard-cook) 2 eggs and shell them. Boil
100 g (4 oz. ¾ cup) long-grain rice. Leave to cool. Peel 12 small pickling (baby) onions. Clean 1 large bulb of fennel and slice it
finely. Cut 4 small tomatoes into
quarters. Add a little well-seasoned
vina-grette to the rice and put into a salad bowl. Place
all the other ingredients on top of the rice, together with some black olives. Sprinkle with
chopped herbs and serve with anchovy sauce.
FENUGREEK An aromatic leguminous Mediterranean plant
originating in the Middle East.
Belonging to the pea family, it produces long slender curved pods containing
oblong flattened brownish seeds. The
seeds, which have a slightly bitter taste, are roasted and ground, then used as flouring
in curries. Their flavour is distinct and easily recognized as one of the
ingredients of curry pasts and
powders. They are very hard –
resembling tiny stones - and can only be
ground using a heavy pestle and mortar or a special grinder.
In north Africa, the seeds were
traditionally used to fatten women,
who regularly consumed a mixture of
fenugreek flour, olive oil and caster
(superfine) sugar. The leaves have a very strong smell and in turkey, various
Arab countries and India, they are used
either fresh or dried, as a vegetable or herb.
FERCHUSE A culinary speciality of Burgundy, made from
pig’s offal (variety meat), traditionally prepared on the day the pig was
killed. (Ferchuse is a corruption of the French word fressure,
offal.) The heart, lungs and liver are
cut into pieces, browned in land with shallots and garlic, then floured and
moistened with 2 parts red wine and 1
part stock. The dish is simmered for 1
hour. A bouquet garni, some
sliced onions and slices of sautéed
potato are added and the dish is
cooled for a further 45 minutes.
FERLOUCHE also known as
forlouche. Tart filling from Quebec; It is made by boiling
300 g (11 oz. 1 cup) molasses, 200 g (7 oz., 1 cup) brown sugar
and 750 ml (1 ¼ pints, 3 ¼ cups)
water with a pinch a nutmeg and some orange zest. Off the heat, add
3 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch)
mixed with a little cold water,
then cook over a low heat until thick,
stirring continuously. The hot mixture
is poured into a pre-cooked flan case (pie shell) and decorated with chopped hazelnuts or raisins.
FERMENTATION
The biochemical change brought about the
action of certain yeast or bacteria on certain food substances,
particularly carbohydrates. These
micro-organisms are either naturally
present in the food or are added because of the requirements of a particular
process. The type of fermentation varies
depending on the type of food, the nature of
the fermenting agent and the length of time the process. For example, alcohol is produced by
the fermetnation of natural sweet juices
such as grapes and sugar cane. Vinegar is a dilute solution of acetic acid
produced by the fermentation of various
dilute alcoholic liquids, such as wine
or beer. Lactic acid is produced in the souring of milk by bacteria.
The main foods that are
fermented include dough, milk products
(curds, yogurt and cheese), meat (raw sausage) and alcoholic drinks, such as
beer, wine and cider, certain cereal preparations are also fermented,
especially in India and Africa.
Fermented vegetables includes
sauerkrau, cucumber and beetroot (in eastern Europe) and mixed,
thinly sliced vegetables (in China)
The greatest variety of
fermented foods can be found in the Far East. They are based on soya, rice, leguminous
plants and even fish (nuoc-moran). In the Middle East, cereals and milk are
fermented and in eastern and northern Europe, vegetables, alcohol, bread and cheese. Fermentation is an
excellent method of preservation.
FERMIERE,
A LA a special method of preparing braised or pot-roasted meat, poultry or
fish, using a garnish of vegetables that
have been cooked slowly in butter until tender and are some times added to the main ingredients while it is being
cooked. Vegetables prepared in this way can also be used to garnish omelettes and soups.
RECIPES
Brill
a la fermiere
Thinly
slice 2 carrots, 2 onions, the white part of 2
leeks and 3 or 4 celery sticks.
Cook them slowly in 25 g 91 oz. 2 tablespoons) butter. Place half the vegetables in a greased
ovenproof dish. Clean and season a
medium-sized brill and place it on top of the
vegetables. Cover with the
remaining vegetables and add a few
tablespoons of dry white wine or better still, a concentrated fish stock mace
with white wine. Top with small knobs of butter and cook in a preheated oven at 220°c
(425°F,
gas 7), basting frequently. When the
brill is cooked, place it on a serving dish and keep warm. Add 2-3 tablespoons cream to the cooking liquid from the fish and reduce by half. Pour the sauce over the brill and allow it
to caramelize for a few moments in the
oven.
Omelette
a la fermiere
Slice
2 medium carrots, 1 large onion, the white
part of 1 large leek and 2 or 3 celery sticks and cook gently in 25 g (1 oz 2 tablespoons)
butter. Season with salt and pepper;
Lightly beat 8 egg, add the vegetables and 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, beat
again and adjust the seasoning. Brown 2 tablespoons diced ham in 20 g (3/4 oz. 1 ½
tablespoons) butter in a frying
pan. pour the egg and vegetables mixture into the pan and cook
the omelette. Serve very hot with crusty bread.
Sautéed chicken a la fermire
Sauté a chicken in some butter until brown. Prepare
200 ml, (7 fl. oz. ¾ cup) of the vegetable mixture used for brill a la
fermiere, ensuring that the vegetables remain
fairly firm. Add the vegetables 15 minutes before the chicken
is cooked. Place all the ingredients in an ovenproof casserole
and add 2 tablespoons diced ham. Cover and cook in a preheated oven at 220°C
(425°F,
gas 7) for about 10 minutes. the cooking liquid can be deglazed at the last moment with 100 ml (4
fl. oz. 7 tablespoons) thick gravy or thick veal stock.
Soup
a la fermiere
Finely
shred 2 or 3 small carrots, 1 small turnip, 1 leek (white part only), 1 onion
and 75 g 93 oz. 1 ¼ cups) cabbage heart. Season and cook gently in 50 g (2 oz.
¼ cups) water in which white beans have been cooked, and 600 ml (1 pint, 2 ½ cups) white consomme. Cook gently for 1 ¼ hors. Add 100 ml (4 fl. oz. 7 tablespoons) single
(light) cream, 4 tablespoons cooked white beans and some chervil leaves.
FERN
The young shoots or fronts (also
called violin scrolls’) are harvested in Quebec and new Brunswick in
early spring. They are shaken to remove
the fine reddish dust covering them, then
blanched for a few minutes. The shoots are either eaten cold or reheated in butter and
sprinkled with lemon. They are a good
accomplishment for meat and fish.
FERVAL A garnish
for main courses consisting of braised artichoke hearts and potato croqquettes filled with
finely diced ham.
FESTONNER
A French culinary term meaning to arrange
decorative items in festoons around the
edge of a serving dish. This is a
garnish to add on the dish, rather than
on the food. Croutons, slices of aspic and half slices of fluted lemon can be
used for this purpose.
FETA
The best-known Greek cheese, made from
ewe’s milk, cow’s milk or goat’s milk and containing 45% fat. It is made by
traditional methods, even though it is
now manufactured on an industrial scale.
The curdled milk is separated and allowed to drain in a special mould or a cloth bag. It
is cut into large slices than are salted and then packed in barrels filled with
whey or brine. Feta is often crumbled
over the top of mixed salads and may be cut into cubes and served as a snack
with olives and farmhouse bread.
FEULLE
D’AUTOMNE Round cake consisting of meringue and chocolate mousses, presented in a container made of fine pleated dark chocolate
leaves. Made popular by the patissier
Gaston Leontre, feutille d’automne is made of two layers of vanlla-falvoured
French merinque and one layer of almond-flavoured meringue, sandwich with a butter-based chocolate moussee.
FEUILLETTE
A piece of puff pastry cut into the
shape of a finger or triangle and filled or garnished with cheese, ham
or seafood. Feuilletes are served hot as an entrée.
The name is also given to small
sticks of flaky pastry brushed with a little egg yolk and sprinkled with cumin
seeds, cheese or paprica. They are
served hot or cold as cocktail snacks.
RECIPES
Feuilletes
of chicken or duck liver
Make
the fauilletes with puff pastry and warm them
in the oven. Clean the chicken
or duck livers. Separate the lobes and cut into very thin escalopes (scallops). Season with salt and pepper and
sauté them briskly in butter, then use
of draining spoon to remove them and set
aside. Sauté a small quantity of finely chopped shallots, fines herbs, and a few tiny bottom
mushrooms or wild mushrooms, thinly sliced if large. In the butter remaining in
the pan. use the draining spoon to
remove the mushrooms, then boil the cooking juices until virtually
dry. replace the mushrooms and livers,
then add sufficient. Madeira sauce to
coat all the ingredients. Cook until the
livers are heated through. Cut the middle out
of the feuilletes, reserving the cop as a
lid. Fill the feuilletes with
this mixture and replace the pastry
lids; serve piping hot.
Feuilletes
with calves’ sweetbreads.
Prepare some feuilletes as in the previous recipe.
Braise some calves sweetbreads in well-seasoned white stock and use to fill the feulletes.
Serve very hot with cream sauce.
Roquefort
feuilletes
Prepare
some puff pastry. Mix together 200 g (7 oz) roquefort cheese, 200 g (7 oz) soft
cream cheese, 200 ml (7 fl. oz. ¾
cup) double (heavy) cream, some
chopped herbs and some pepper. Then acd 4 eggs, one by one, beating the mixture continuously. Adjust the seasoning. Roll out the dough
into 2 rounds about 3 mm (1/8 in) thick. Line a tart plate
with one of the rounds and prick with a fork. Spread it with the cheese filling and cove
with the second round. Seal the edges carefully. Bake in a
preheated oven at 230°C
9450°F,
gas 8) for about 35 minute, protecting top with a sheet of foil about halfway
through cooking if it is browning too
quickly. Cut into triangles before serving.
Scallop
feuilletes
Open,
trim and clean 16 scallop. Sauté them
over a brisk heat in a sauté pan with 200 g (7 oz. 1 cup) butter and
some freshly ground pepper for 3
minutes, turning them once. Put 2
tablespoons finely chopped shallots into a frying pan with 250 ml (9 fl oz., 1
cup) vermouth and boil to reduce to a
syrupy consistency. Add 75o ml (1 ¼
pints. 3 ¼ lb), cut 10 thin slices from
a noix or sous-noix (loin) of veal and
falten them into rectangles with a mallet. Season with salt, pepper
and a pinch of mixed spice. Prepare a fine pork forcemeat and add
one-third of its weight of a gratin
forcemeat an equal amount of dry
duxelles. Bind the forcemeat with egg. Cut
a thin slice of pork fat slightly larger than the slices of
veal and spread it with a layer of forecemeat. Top with a piece of veal and spread it with
some forcemeat. Continue to build up the feuilleton in this ways, ending with a
layer of foremeat. Coat the slices of the feuilleton with the remaining
forcemeat and over with a second strip
of pork fat that is also larger than
the slices of veal. Fold the edges of the bottom slice of pork
fat upwards and the edges of the top piece of
pork fat downwards to that the feuilletone is covered.
Tie the feuilleton into a neat
shape. Put it in a buttered casserole
lined with bacon rinds, sliced onions and carrots. Add a bouquet garni. Cover and simmer for 20
minutes. moisten with 250 ml (8 fl. oz. 1 cup) white wine and boil to
reduce by half. Add 250 ml (9 fl. oz. 1 cup) veal stock and
boil to reduce to a concentrated
glazed. Moisten with 500 ml (17 fl. oz,
2 cups) good stock. Cover and cook in
preheated oven at 190°C
(375°F,
gas 5 ) for 1 ¾ hours, bastign fequently. Drain the feuilletron, untie and arrange it on an ovenproof serving dish.
Pour over a few tablespoons of braising stock and glazed in the oven,
basting frequently.
Feuilleton
of veal l’Echelle
Season
a bone fillet of veal and brown it
quickly in very hot butter to seal. Leave
it to cool. Cut it into slices
lengthways, but do not cut completely through
the joint. Prepare a forcemeat
with a mixture of dry mushroom duxelles, chopped lean harm, diced truffles, and
a vegetable more poix, bound with a beaten egg.
Spread each of the slices with the forcemeat and reshape the filet.
Cover the feuilleton with
mirepoix and wrap it in a pig’s caul (caul fat). Braise the feuilleton for 2-3 hours in
butter, very slowly, than place it in an
ovenproof dish. Garnish it with lettuce pototoes that have
been braised in butter. Four over
a little of the pan juices and return it
to the oven to glaze. Make a sauce with
the remainder of the juices in the pan by adding some Madeira and some
veal stock.
This feuilleton may be served
cold in aspit in this case, a boned calf’s foot is cooked in the stock.
FIADONE Several recipes exists for this Corsican cake, one of which consists of
blending stiffly whisked egg whites with a mixture of the egg yolks, sugar, mashed fresh Broccio
cheese and lemon zest. The cake is sometimes
flavoured with a little brandy.
FIASQUE
The French word for a type of Chianti bottle. It is derived from the Italian
Fiasco, meaning flash or straw-covered bottle. The bottle has along narrow neck and is usually
parity wrapped in woven straw.
FICIELLE
A long thin loaf of French bread (the
word literally means ‘string’).
FICELLES
PICARDES Savoury pancakes field with a
slice of ham and chopped creamed mushrooms with cheese. They are rolled up, arranged in an ovenproof dish, covered with cream and
grated. Gruyere cheese, and then browned
in the oven, a speciality of northern France, they are served as a hot entrée.
FIG
Pear-shaped or globular fruit that is eaten fresh or dried Probability originating in Asia Minor and now widespread
throughout the Mediterranean region, figs are mentioned in the Old Testament,
and were highly prized by the Ancients.
§ Fresh
figs These re three types of fig: the
white one (including green figs), the purple and the red. These types are subdivided into a large number of
varieties. The best-known varieties of
French figs ar buissone, belone,
bourjasotte, celestine, col de dame and dauphine violette. These figs are grown in the Midi,
mistily in Var, and separated flesh between June and November. Figs are also grown throughout the Mediterranean
basin. Algena is the principal supplier
of dried figs.
Fresh o canned figs are usually
eaten in their natural state. they can
be served as an hors d'’euvre with raw
ham (parma ham) in the same way as
melon. Figs can also be cooked in various ways.
All recipes for apricots are suitable for figs.
A fermented drinks is made from
figs, and also a Europe roast figs are
used to flavour coffee, as chicory is in
France.
§ Dried
figs. Very ripe autumn fruits is used.
The figs, spread out on trestles, are exposed to the sun. they have
to be turned several times during drying
and before they are completely dry, they
are slightly flattened. Treated in this
way figs will keep for a very long time.
The best dried figs are sold tied up with a piece of raffia and selected for their size
and repines. They may be eaten play or
stuffed with almonds or walnuts. Dried
figs are also sold in block. Figs, like prunes,
are improved by soaking for 24 hours before
use. They are eaten in compotes, cooked in wine, accompanied by milky
rice pudding and vanlla cream. They are also sued in savoury cooking; for
example with pork or rabbit, like prunes, and are particularly delicious
with braised pheasant and guinea fowl
(soaked in port until swollen, then added to the pan at the end of cooking).
A drink is also made from then.
RECIPES
Savoury
recipes
Corsican
anchoiade with figs
Soak
5 anchovy fillets in cold water to remove the salt, them dry. Pound them with 450 g (1 lb) fresh figs and 1 small garlic cove. Spread this paste on slices of bread
moistened with olive oil. Sprinkle with
chopped onions and serve.
Figs
with Cabecou en coffret
Coarsely
chop a small bunch of chives. Cook 400 g
(14 oz. ) very fine green beans in salted water, keeping them all dente. Soak 65 g (2 ½ oz. 1/3 cup)
sultans (golden raisins) in 60 ml (2 fl. oz. ¼ cup) vinaigrette until very
soft.
Cut 2 cabecou goats cheeses into
quarters. Cut 8 figs 1.5 cm (3/4 in from
the top, reserving the tops, and remove
one-third of the flesh. Fill each fig with one quarter of Cabecou. Using a pastry (cookie) cutter with a fluted edge,
cut out 6 cm (2 ½ in) rounds of very thinly rolled puff pastry and coat with beaten egg. Place a fig on piece of puff pastry and bake in a
preheated over at 200°C
(400°F,
gas 6) for 20 minutes. after 15 minutes,
replace the tops of the figs.
Toss the green beans with the
sultana winaigrette and add the chives. Arrange 2 figs in puff pastry on each plate and add some of the bean
salad. Sprinkle with toasted flaked almonds
and serve at once.
Fresh
figs with Parma ham.
Choose
some very fresh or purple figs that are ripe but still slightly firm. Split then into four without completely separating the
quarters (these should be held together by the salt). Gently loosen the skin near the stalk. Roll
some very tin slices of Parma or Bayonne ham into cornets, arrange the figs and ham in a dish and serve cold.
Lamb
cutlets with figs and honey
Wash
and wipe 1 kg (2 ¼ lb). fresh figs, but
do not peel. Place them, stalks upwards. In a generously
buttered ovenproof dish. Cover with a glass of water, add some pepper and a
little ground cinnamon and grated nutmeg, and cook in preheated oven at 200°F
(400 °F,
gas 6 ) for 30-35 minutes. about 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time, melt 40 g (1 ½ oz. 3 tablespoons)
butter in a frying pan and fry4-8 lamb cutlets (depending on their size) for 3-4 minutes per side. Season
with-salt and pepper and arrange the
cutlets in a warmed serving dish. Keep hot.
Melt 2 tablespoons honey in a
little hot water and add the pan juices
from the cutlets to make a sauce. Adjust the
seasoning. Arrange the figs
around the meat. coat the cutlets and the figs with honey sauce. Serve
immediately.
Sweet
Recipes
Fig
jam
Peel
and quarter some large white figs that are just
ripe but firm. Prepare a syrup,
using 200 g (7 oz. 1 cup sugar and 4 tablespoons water per 1 kg (2 ¼ lb.)
fruit. Add the figs to the boiling syrup
and cook until the gelling stage is
reached. Pot and cover in the usual way.
Fig
tart
Prepare 350 g (12 oz)
shortcrust pastry (basic pie dough, see short pastry) and use into line
a 23 cm flan ring. Princk and bake blind.
Allow it to cook. Peel and havle
some fresh fig and leave for 30 minutes.
Mix a little run with some apricot jam, sieve the mixture and spread it
over the base of the flan. Arrange the
drained fig halves on top, coat them with apricot jam and decorate with
Chantilly cream.
Figs
with raspberry mousse
Peel
some fresh ripe figs and cut them into
quarters. Make a rasberry mouse with 200 ml (7 fl oz. ¾ cup)
chantly cream for each 250 g (9 oz. 1 ½ cups) sieved sweetened raspberries.
Arrange the fig quarters in a sallow
bowl, cover with the mousse and
chill for 30 minutes. before serving.
Roast
figs with a coulis of red fruits
Melt
50 g (2 oz. ¼ cup) butter in a frying pan. add 16 fresh ripe figs and 3
tablespoons icing (confectioner’s ) sugar. F ry until lightly golden, them cook
in a preheated oven at 200°C
9400°F,
gas 60 for 8-10 minutes. remove from the oven and, using scissors, cut the figs
open to look like flowers. Fill the figs with 200 g (7 oz. ) fresh raspberries.
Pour 300 ml 91/2 pint, 1 ¼ cups)
strawberry or rasberry coulis on 4
plates and decorate with the figs. Place 1 scoop of vanilla ice creams in the
centre of each plate. Serve immediately.
FICATELLI
A Corsican characturie product in the
form of long thin sausage, smoke
and very spicy, made with liver
(fegato), lean and fat pork, and are eaten raw or grilled (broiled).
FIGUETTE
A drink made from dried figs and juniper berries soaked in water for a week,
using 5 juniper berries per 450 g (1 lb) figs in 5 litres (8 ½ pints, 5 ½
quarts water. The liquid is then
strained, bottled and left for 4-5 days
before drinking.
FILBERT
Fruit of the hazel, a small tree of the Corylacease family, known is the French
grocery trade as noisette franche. It has a hard shell covered by a foliated
envelope. There are several species, the
best known coming from Piedmon and sicily. Filberts 9also known as
hazelnut or colonuts) are eaten fresh or
dried. They provide hazelnut oil (not much sued) and are used to make the
sugared almonds known as avelines.
FILET
MIGNON Piece of a small section of beef, positioned within the thoracic cage, along the first dorsal vertebrae. When
trimmed, the filled mignon makes one or two steaks.
In relation to pork, it corresponds to filled of beef; it
can be roasted or friend, cut into medallions, or cut into small pieces for
kebabs.
FILLET
– The undercut of the sirloin of beef, also used for the same
cut in pork, veal and lamb. In Britain the word can also refer to the
fleshy part of the buttocks of other
animals. Either cut is prime meat, tender and with a delicate flavour.
If
it is to be served whole, fillet of beef
must be trimmed, larded or barded, and
secured with string. It may be roasted in the oven or on a spit, fried or braised, according to the recipe. The fillet
may alternatively be cut into steaks and grilled (boiled) -- chateaubrinds
are cut from the middle of the tillet
and tournedos from the end. The
end of the fillet also provides pieces of meat suitable for kebabs.
In
France, fillet of veal is used for genadins and
for fillet chops (cotes-filet), which are broader than ordinary chops, and fillet of lamb provides
filet cutlets (without knuckle) and
mutton chops. Pork fillet (tenderloin).
Provides particularly tender cuts of
meat, especially from the middle or end of the fillet. The boned end of pork fillet provides a slightly dry roast joint, which it is advisable to band
with rashers (slices) of bacon. Flet de
Saxe (Saxony filled) is a fillete of smoked salted pork wrapped in a cual. It
resembles bacon but is smoother.
§ BEEF
AND VEAL. The filet mignon is a small 1,
choice cut of meat from the end of the fillet. Pork filet mignon is cut from the boned
fillet and is particularly tender. It may be ilghtly braised in a single piece, sliced into two lengthways and
stuffed, or cut into pieces for kebarbs.
§ POULTRY
AND GAME BIRDS. The fillet is the
underside of the breast, or the entire
breast, cut of before cooking and
prepared in various ways.
However, the breasts of poultry and game
are more often known as supremes. (The
fillet of a duck reared for its foie.
Gras is called. A magret.)
§ FISH.
The fillets are cut lengthways off the backbones. (there are four in a flatfish, and two in a
round fish.) They may be removed before cooking and poached, fried, marinated
or rolled into paupietes. When a fish is cooked whole, fillets are removed at the time of serving.
RECIPES
Cold
fillet of beef a la nicoise
Garnish
the cold roasted fillet with small tomatoes that have been marinated in olive of and stuffed with salpicon of
truffles, small artichoke hearts filled
with a salad of green asparagus tips,
large olives, anchovies and pieces of
aspic jelly.
Cold
fillet of beef a la russe
Surround
the cold fillet with halves of shelled hard-boiled (hard-cooked) eggs stuffed a
la russe and covered with aspic jelly, artichoke hearts stuffed with vegetables
in mayonnaise and chopped aspic.
Cold
fillet of beef in aspic.
Cold
roasted filler either whole, or cut into thin slices, may be covered with aspic
jelly. If the piece is big enough to be served whole, place
it on a rack and coat with several layers of aspic jelly, which may be
flavoured with Madeira, port or sherry. (it must be placed in the refrigerator between each coating.
The arrange it on a serving dish
and garnish with chopped aspic for with croutons and watercress. Slices of
fillet are either coated separately or placed in a row on the serving dish and
coated with aspic. They are garnished in the same way.
Serve with a cold sauce. Such as
mayonnaise or tartare sauce, and cold vegetable barquettes
or a salad.
Fillet
of beef a la perigourdine
Trim
the fillet of beef, stud it with truffles.
Cover it with bacon rashers
(slices), tie it with string and braise
in Madiera-flavoured stock. Drain,
remove bacon, glaze in the oven and
arrange it on the serving dish. Surround it with small slices of fole gras that
have been studded with truffles and sautéed
in clarified butter. Reduce the braising stock by half, strain it
and pour it over the fillet.
Fillet
of beef en brioche
Prepare
some brioche dough without sugar, using 500 g (1 lb 2 oz. 4 ½ cups) plain (all-purpose ) flour, 20 g(3/4 oz )
fresh yeast 91 ½ cakes compressed
yeast), 100 ml (4 fl. oz. 7 tablespoons) water, 2 teaspoons salt. 6 medium-sized eggs, and 250 g (9 oz 1 cup)
butter. Melt 25 g 91 oz. 2 tablespoons)
butter and 3 tablespoons oil in a pan and lightly brown a piece of fillet of
beef weighing about 1.5 kg 93 ¼ lb),
tied with string to maintain is shape.
Then place the pan, uncovered. In a preheated oven at 240°C
(475°F,
gas 9) and cook for 10 minutes, basting
the meat 2 or 3 times. Drain it,
season with salt and pepper and leave to cool completely.
Lower the temperature of the
oven to about 220°C
(425°F,
gas 7). Roll out the brioche dough into
a fairly large rectangle. Remove
the string from the beef and place it is in the centre of the
dough lengthways. Brush the meat with beaten egg and fold one of the sides of the dough over
it. Brush the other side of the rectangle with beaten
egg and wrap the fillet completely in
the dough, tucking in the edges.
Trim and cut both ends of the dough just
beyond the meat and seal the edges with beaten egg. Brush the top with
beaten egg. Garnish the top with
the remaining pieces of dough. Brush
with beaten egg. Place on a floured baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 220°C
(425°F,
gas 7) of about 30 minutes. fillet of beef en brioche is traditionally served with a Perigueux sauce.
Fried
fillet steaks.
Cut
the fillet into thick 125-150 g (4-5 oz) steaks. Slightly flatten the steaks, then seal in very hot butter. Season with
salt and pepper. Remove the steaks and
keep them hot. Make a sauce with the pan juices mixed with a little Madeira;
reduce and coat the steaks.
Grilled
beef fillet steaks
Cut
the trimmed fillet into thick steaks, ach
weighing 125-150g (4-5 oz). Slightly flatten each steak, sprinkle with
pepper, brush with oil, season with herbes de Provnce (or
mixed dried herbs) and cook under a hot grill (broiler) or over glowing embes, so that the outside is sealed while
the inside remain pink or rare. Top each
steak with a pat of maitre d’hotel
butter.
Grilled
filets mignons
Slightly
flatten some fillets mignons of beef, each weighing about 125-150 g (4-5 oz.). season with
salt and pepper, dip in melted butter and coat with fresh breadcrumbs. Moisten them with
clarified butter and cook under a low
grill (broiler). Serve with mitre
d’hotel butter. Charon sauce, lemon
butter or tarragon-flavored, tomato sauce mixed with white wine.
Roast
fillet of beef.
Trim
the fillet, bard it top and bottom (or brush with melted butter) and tie with
string. Cook it in a preheated oven at
240°C
(475°F,
gas 9) , allowing 10-12 minutes per 450
g (1 lb) and basting it several times
with the meat juices, to which a very small amount of water has been
added. Drain the meat, remove the
barding strips and keep it hot on a
serving dish. Make a sauce with the pan
juices mixed with stock or reduced veal
gravy. Reduce and serve with the fillets.
Sautéed filets mignons
Slightly
flatten some filet mignons at beef, season
with salt and pepper and sauté them quickly in very hot clarified
butter. Garnish as for tournedos.
Spit-roasted
fillet of beef
Trim
the fillet, put it on the spit, season with salt and pepper and coat with melted
butter. Roast allowing about 10-12 minutes per 450 g (1 lb.) remove
form the spit and leave the meat to rest
for a few minutes. cut it into
even slices and serves with the reserved meat juices.
FILLETING
FISH The process of removing the fillets from a whole fish that has been
cleaned by cutting, the flesh off the
main backbone. Small bones and some
stray larger bones may remain in the fillet, but this essentially a boneless
cut. Stray bones should be removed
before cooking. A filleting knife, known in France as a couteau a filts de
sole. Has a long, narrow and flexible blade.
FILO
PASTRY Also known as phyllo, this is a paper-thin pastry made form flour and
water. The pastry is either rolled very
thinly or stretched with the hands until paper thin. Similar
in style to strudel pastry, it is
used several layers thicks. The layers
are brushed with melted butter or oil to
that they adhere but form crisp and
flaky layers when baked. Filo pastries can also be fried.
This type of pastry is used throughout the Mediterranean for making a variety of savoury
and sweet dishes. In Greece it is used
to make fets cheese and spinach
pies, kown as spinakopita, or it is
layered with nuts to make baklava, the famous
sweet drenched in honey syrup.
Baklava is also popular in Turkey, where
yufka is the same type of pastry, used for savoury pastries called
boreks. In north Africa, a similar type of thin pastry, known as maisouqaa or ourka (meaning paper), is used
to make brik, a fried alrge semi-circular pasty filled
with spicy vegetables with an egg nestling in the filling.
§ Buying
and handling Filo is available fresh
or frozen and ready to use. Hawne
exposed to air, the sheets rapidly dry out, becoming crumblyand unusable, so its important to
unwrap only the required number of sheets and to keep the remainder covered
with cling film (plastic wrap) or in a polytene
bag until they are to be used.
Dampening
the pastry it to sticky paste, so the
work surface must be clean and dry. Brushing the pastry with melted butter or
oil (or a mixture of both will stick the
layers of pastry together, sealing the
fold to keep the filing in place and preventing the pastry from becoming flaky and dry around
the edges. When cooked, the fat make the
pastry layers crisp and separate.
Although many traditional recipes use generous quantities of melted
butter, a light brushing is sufficient to give good results,
especially through the middle layers,
with more brushed over the outside or to
seal folds.
Contemporary
cooker, filo is brushed very lightly with oil (olive is good with savoury
fillings) and used as an alternative to fat-rich short and puff pastries. It makes an
excellent casting for fillets of fish,
chicken, mat or vegetables. It is also popular for savoury finger snacks as
little filled parcels and bundies.
FILTER A utensil or a material that is
porous or performed, enabling the separation of solid matter from a liquid by
retraining the former and allowing the latter to pass through. In cookery,
liquids can be filtered through a clean
cloth strainer or a piece of muslin (cheeseloth), a colander or a sieve.
A
coffee filter holds ground coffee and near boiling water is poured over it. It
can be made of perforated metal, earthenware, porcelain or cloth (la
chaussette), or a cone of filter paper that is placed in a special cone-shaped
holder. Café-filtre (or filre) is coffee
made this way filtered directly into the cup.
FINANCIER A cake made from a sponge mixture using ground almonds and whisked egg whites.
Small financiers are oval or rectangular
in shape; they may be sued as a base for iced petits fours.
Large
cakes made with the same mixture are decorated with
shredded almonds and crystallized (candied) fruits. These large financiers may be cooked in cake tins (pans) of
decreasing size and then built up in layers to form a large gateaus.
RECIPE
Almond financiers
Butter 16 tins (pans), each 10 x 5 cm (4
x 2 in). Put 100 g (4 oz. 1 cup) plain
(al-purpose) flour into a mixing
bowl. Add 100 g 94 oz. 1 cup) ground almonds, 300 g (11 oz, 1 1/3
cups) caster (superfine) sugar, 2-3 tablespoons vanilla sugar and a pinch of
salt. Mix everything thoroughly. Add a
pinch of salt to 8 egg whites and whisk them into very stiff peaks. Fold them carefully into the cake
mixture. Quickly fold in 150 oz. 2/3 cup) melted unsalted butter. Divide the mixture between the inc and bake
in a preheated oven at 200°C (400°F, gas 6 ) for 15-20 minuets
until the financiers are golden brown, then turn them out and cool on a wire
rack. They may be coated with kirsch- or
chocolate-flavoured fondant icing (frosting).
FINANCIERE, A LA A very rich class c
garnish for joints of meat, calves’ sweetbread or braised poultry.
It may also be used as a filling for croutes, timbales, bouchees or
vol-au-vent. It consists of a ragout of
cockscombs, chicken quenelles, finely sliced mushrooms and shredded truffles
flavoured with Madeira, all bound with a
sauce containing Madeira and truffle essence. The same ingredients are used to
make atteraux a la financiere, the
quenelles being optional. There is also a financiere sauce flavoured with Madeira and truffles.
RECIPES
Calve’s sweetbreads a la financiere
Soak
the sweetbreads in cold water until they
become white. Poach in salted water, drain and trim, removing skin and membranes. Place between 2 cloths in a meat press. Cut some truffles and some cooked tongue coated with aspic
into matchstick shapes and use them to
stud the sweetbreads. Braise the sweetbreads in a brown stock.
Arrange them in courstades of puff
pastry and cover with financiere
garnish.
Financiere garnish
Prepare some poached children querelles
and some cockscombs. Slowly cook some finely sliced mushrooms and shredded
truffles in butter. Add 1 little Madeira. Bind all these ingredients with
financiere sauce.
Financiere sauce (1)
(from Careme’s recipe). Put some shredded lean ham, a pinch of mignonette (coarsely) ground
white pepper), a little thyme and bay
leaf, some shredded mushrooms and 2 glasses of dry Madeira into a
saucepan. Simmer and reduce over a gentle
heat. Add 2 tablespoons chicken consmme and 2 tablespoons well-beaten
espagnole sauce. Reduce by half, press through a fine sieve, strain,
then heat again, stirring in 3 tablespoons Madeira. Reduce to the desired consistency and serve
in a sauceboat (gravy goat.
When
this sauce is intended for a game entrée, the chicken consommed is replaced by
game fumet. Add a little butter just
before serving.
Financiere sauce(2)
(modern recipe) Make 200 ml (7 fl. oz. ¾ cup) Madeira
sauce, adding 100 ml (4 fl. oz. 7 tablespoons) truffle essence while it
is reducing. This
sauce is usually used to bind the financiere garnish.
Stuffed quails a la financiere
Prepare
some stuffed quails in cases coat
them with a sauce made with their
cooking juices mixed with Madeira, and glaze them in the oven.
Arrange on fried croutons or coursades
of puff pastry. Garnish with finely
sliced truffles and surround with a
financiere garnish.
Supreme of chicken a la financiere. A La a
very rich class c garnish for joints of
meat, calves’ sweetbreads or braised poultry. It may also be used as filling
for courtes, timbales , boutchees or vol-au-vent. It is consists of a ragout of
cockscombs, chicken queneles. Finely
sliced mushrooms and shredded cruffles flavoured with Madeira, all bound with a
sauce containing Madeira and truffle essence. The same ingredients are used to make attereauce a la financiere,
the quenelles being optional. There
is also a financiere sauce flavoured with Madeira and truffles.
RECIPES
Calves’ sweetbreads a la financiere
Soak the sweetbreads in cold water until
they become white. Poach in salted water, drain and trim, removing skin and membranes. Place between 2 cloths in a meat press. Cut
some truffles and some cooked tongue
coated with aspic into matchstick shapes and use them to stud the
sweetbreads. Braise the sweetbreads in
a brown stick. Arrange them in croustade of puff pastry and cover with financiere garnish.
Financiere garnish
Prepare
some poached chicken quenelles and some
cockscombs. Slowly cook some finely sliced mushrooms and shredded truffles in butter. Add a little
Madiera. Bind all these ingredients with
financiere sauce.
Financiere sauce (1)
(frome Careme’s recipe). Put some shredded lean ham, a pinch of migronette
(coarsely ground white pepper), a little thyme and by leaf forme shredded
mushrooms and truffles, and 2 glasses of dry.
Madeira into a saucepan, simmer
and reduce over a gentle heat. Add 2
tablespoons chicken consomme and 2
tablespoons well-beaten espagnole sauce.
Reduce by half, press through a fine sieve, strain, then heat again,
stirring in 3 tablespoons Madeira. Reduce to the desired consistency and serve
in a sauceboat (gravy boat).
When
this sauce is intended for a game entrée, the chicken consomme is replaced by
game fumet. Add a little butter just before
serving.
Financiere sauce (2)
(modern recipe) Make 200 ml (7 fl. oz. ¾
cup) Madeira sauce, adding 100 ml (4 lf. oz. 7 tablespoons) truffle essence
while it is reducing. The sauce is
usually used to bind the financiere
garnish.
Stuffed quails a la financiere
Prepare
some stuffed quals in cases, coat
them with a sauce made with their cooking
juices mixed with Madeira, and glaze
them in the oven. Arrange on fried
couton or courstades of puff pastry.
Garnish with finely sliced truffes and surrowed with a financiere garnish.
Supremes of chicken a la financiere
Sauté
some supremes o fchicken in clarified buter.
Arrange them on fried coutons or puff
pastry courstades. Coat with financiere
sauce and surround with a financiere garnish.
FINE
The French word for a brandy distilled from wine (as opposed to another alcoholic liquid).
It should be distinguished from marc,
which is distilled from the grape debris left after preserving.
FINE CHAMPAGNE A category of cognac coming from the
delimited regions of Grande and Petite
champagne and containing not less
than 50% Grande Champagne cognac in the blend (it has noting to do with the
delimited area producing champagne).
FINES HERBES A mixture of chopped
aromatic berbs, such as parsley,
chervil, tarragon and chives, in
various proportions. The mixture is use to
flavour sauces, cream cheeses, meat, sautéed vegetables and omelettes. In the past chopped
mushrooms were added, and today celery sticks, fennel, basil, rosemary, thyme
and bay leaf my be added.
RECIPES
Omelette garnished with fines herbs
Add enough coarsely chopped parsley, cherivil,
tarragon and chives to the heaven eggs
to colour the omelette green -
allow 3 tablespoons chopped fines herbs for 8 eggs.
Sauce with fines herbe
Make 250 ml (8 fl. oz. 1 cup) demi-glace
sauce or brown stock and add 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, chervil and
tarragon Reduce, press through a very
fine sieve, add a few drops of lemon juice and adjust the seasoning. This sauce
is served with poached poultry.
Veal chops with fines herbs
Sauté
some veal chops in butter in a frying pan (skillet). Drain them and
arrange on a hot serving dish. Add some
chopped shallots and white wine to the butter and cook for a few minutes to
reduce. Then add some chopped parsley, chervil and tarragon, adjust the
seasoning, stir and pour the sauce over
the chops. Formerly, demi-glace sauce was
added to the white wine to make a richer, smoother and creamer sauce.
FINGER BOWL A small individual metal,
glass or china bowl filled with warm water, usually perfumed with lemon, and
used for rinsing the fingers at the table.
It is an essential component of the table setting when serving shrimps or
prawns, which need to be shelled with the fingers, or asparagus or artichoke, which are eaten with the fingers.
The finger bowl is placed to the left of the dinner plate towards the end of
the course and is removed as soon as the course is finished and the guest
has rinsed his or her fingertips, an
operation which should be carried out
rapidly and with the minimum of fuss.
FINISH to complete the preparation of a
dish for example by adjusting the seasoning or the consistency and adding
decorations or garnishes. Certain soups are finished by adding herb
leaves, fresh butter or cream. A civet(
rich game stew) is generally finished by thickening it with the blood of the
animal used in the recipe. A dish coated with Mornay sauce is finished by
browning. A sweet dish is finished by
adding a decoration.
FISH Aquatic vertebrates with fins (for
swimming) and gills (for breathing), which represent an important source of food. At present, more than 30,000 species are
known (as many as all other vertebrates
put together). Most fish live in the
seas and oceans, at varying depths. Freshwater
fish-are much less numerous. Some fish, such as eels and salmon, are
migratory, spending part of their life
in the sea and part in fresh water.
Fish
are classified into two broad groups, according to their skeletons
cartilaginous fish (sharks, rays, dogfish, skate) and bony fish (the vase majority). Several
basic body shapes can be distinguished.
§ tapering adapted to swimming
to the open water (herring, cod salmon, mackerel, carp, pike) – these are the
most numerous;
§ flatfish compressed
vertically, with the eye on the ventral (lower) surface is white;
§ flatfish compressed
laterally, with both eyes either on the right side of the head (plaice,
flounder, dab, sole) or on the left (turbot, brill), the blend side
usually being without pigment.
§ Elongated and spakelike
(eels).
Fish
can also differntiated by colcut, the number and shape of the fins, the width
of the mouth, the presence or absence of teeth, the thickness of the skin and
any spines, spurs and barbel
§ Buying fish There are three
main factors to consider when buying fish: its freshness, its availability
(depending on the season) and the percentage of waste. The season is less
important now then it used to be,
because fish caught off the Afric in or northern coasts are sold almost
all the year round. However, it is
always preferable to eat fish in sense it tastes better and is cheaper.
Freshness is extremely important. Fish is subjects to speedy decay by bacterial
action and often causes food poisoning
if it is not absolutely fresh. It is at
its best when first caught, but the
speed of modern transport and the excellent methods of preservation mean that
fish can be enjoyed far from the fishing
grounds without loss of flavour. Fish is refrigerated for transport and sold in melting ice, care
being taken that the melting water
drains off properly. This practice is
sometimes considered to detract from the flavour, but it still
remains the only method of transporting
fresh fish for long distances from the
fishing grounds.
Most
methods of preserving fish date back to
ancient times, freezing (practiced by the Romans), drying (especially
for herring and cod), smoking (salmon, haddock eel) and salting in casks or
barrels. Preservation by canning has
considerably increased the consumption of tuna, sardines pilchards and salmon in particular and freezing has enabled
many more types of fish to be made available all the year round. The process of freezing ; freshly caught fish in
factory ships has greatly improved the quality of frozen fish. High-quality
frozen fish is often superior to ‘fresh’
fish from some shops where poor handling impairs the quantity. When
selecting frozen fish, the price and
quality are good indicators of the
standard to expect. Packing is also important as poor wrapping leads to freeze burn and
deterioration in texture, moisture
content and flavour.
For
culinary purposes, fish can be divided into
white fish, including all the cod family (haddock, whiting), the white
flatfish (place, sole), and the
perch family (including bass, red mullet and skate); and oily fish
including sardines, mackerel, herring, and trout, tuna, salmon, moray and
lamprey.
§ Preparing fish this depends on the type of fish the dish and
the cooking method. Large fish are usually sold prepared reads
for cooking in the form of cleaned whole
fish. Fillets, steaks or cutelts. Some smaller fish may be displayed whole and
have to be gutted, but the fishmonger
will usually do this. Some very small
fish are cooked and eaten whole, such as
whitebait, and small sardines may be grilled (broiled) whole, then the
fish is picked off the carcassas if it
eaten
Scaly fish, such as salmon are described
or scaled before cook by scraping the skin with
a knife to remove all the scales.
This is messy task, which is easier when carried out under cold running
water. Whole flat fish or fillets may be skinned before cooking the skin may be cut off cutlets or steaks.
Round
fish, such as mackerel or truot, may be
boned with or without their heads in place, alternatively, the fillets can be off
the bones of small or
large fish. Smaller fat fish, such as place or sole, are often sold whole the bones may be removed
to leave a pocket in the fish or the fillets can be cut off the
bones may be removed from the middle of
cutlets or steaks.
§ Cooking fish. This requires care, to avoid overcooking, when the
flesh becomes very flaky and dry. Fish
may be grilled (broiled) or baked, poached
in water or stock. Cooked in fat,
steamed or wrapped in buttered paper
or foil, before cooking in the oven. Raw fish, either lightly cured, marinated or with carefully selected condiments, is
considered to be a delicacy by some, but it needs to be absolutely fresh and carefully
prepared. Such dishes include ceviche from Mexico and Ecuador, gravad lax from scandinavia and sashimi from Japan
Hot or cold fish dishes can be
accompanied by a wide variety of sauces,
flavoured butters, vegetables and even
fruit. Fish can also be cooked in soups
(chaudree, bouillabaisse, cotrivade), in pies (koulibiaca), in mousses
quenelles sapics, salads, in scallop
shels or gratin dishes on skewers
curreid, as a matelote, and in many other ways.
§ History in the middle, Ages, river fish were much more common than
they are today, but even then coasted fish from the English Channel, especially
mackerel and herring, were being sold in
Paris. However the eels of Maine, France
the barbels of Saint-Florentin, the pike of Chalon, the lampreys of Nantes and Bordeaux, the louch of
Bur-sur-Seine, the dace of Aisne and the carp of the lakes of Bondy continued
to be highly regarded. During the Renaissance period, haddock, archovies,
turbot, skate and whiting were eaten
more frequently, but the river continued
so supply mot of the fish markets, the following is an extract from Blasons
domestiques (by G. Corrozet, 1539);
‘there you can see the eel and the lamprey… the fresh salmon, the sub-nosed
carp, the large pike, the frisky sole, the
fat propoise, the savoury shad. Then the sturgeon and the amorous trout, some boiled the others roasted to sharpen human appetities.
In the 15th century, salt cod was
considered to be worthy of the best table, while the so-called ‘royal fish’
(basically dolphin, sturgeon and salmon) were
reserved for the king’s table.
In
France certain fish, especially river species, are now becoming rare (pike,
char, shad. And dace), while other are
less frequently cooked (eel and
sturgeon). On the other had, some are in greater demand than in the past
red mullet, sea bass and sea bream). Concerns about fish stocks and overfishing
the wide variety of ‘exotic’ species, for example from Africa and New Zealand,
offered as alternatives to traditionally popular seafood; and fish farming are
contemporary issues that influence the
availability and promotion of fish.
FISH AND CHIPS Fried battered fish and chips (French fries),
widely considered to be Britain’s national dish. As such, there is great regional variation –
and debate – over the way fish and chips should be prepared. The most popular fish are cod, hadddock and
place, in that order. Haddock is predominantly
caught on the east coast of Britain and
cod on the west, which reflects local preferences. The cooking fat varies, with the North
favouring land or beef dripping the Midlands and the south opting for
vegetables oil. Certain potato varieties are said to give superior results, with the floury
Desiree and Maris Piper being the most
popular.
FISH KETTLE A long, deep cooking receptacle with two
handles, a grid and a lid. The fish kettle is used to cook, whole fish, such as
bake, salmon, pike, in a court-bouillon. The
removable grid enables the fish
to be taken out without breaking it. The
wide turbot kettle is specially designed for cooking large flat fish.
FISH SLICE A table
utensils, in the form of a silverplated or stainless steel spatula, for
serving fish. It is usually
perforated. Since fish cooked in a
courtbouillon, even if it has been drained, is often still rather watery. The blade is rounded, pointed or has its corners cut off. The
French word truelle may also be applied to a cake slice.
FITOU A real AOC wine from Languedo,
produced around Corbieres, south of narbonne.
The appellation divides into two areas-Fitou Maritime producing supple,
lighter wines less tannin, best drunk young, and Fitou Montagneus where the
wines have firmer structure and longer
ageing potential. Both styles must be
kept for a minimum of nine months before
bottling. The main grapes are Caringnan, Grenache and Syrah.
FIVE SPICES. A mixture of five Chinese
spices star anise, clove, fennel,
cinnamon and Schuan pepper. It is widely used in Chinese cookery. The flavour is strong, particularly a anise, and
the spice is used with care, in small
amounts.
FIXIN A fine red burgundy (AOC), from
the most northerly of the Cote-de-Nuits
vineyards. The finest climats or terrior are considered to be les Arvelets, Les
Hervelets, Le Chaptre, La Perriere and Clos Napoleon. Other wines may be sold
as Cote de Nuits Villages. Fixin wines
are particularly fragrant, capable of long lives and appreciated for their finesse and pedigree.
FLAMANDE, A LA A The name given to various preparation
derived from the regional cookery of northern France. The Flamande garish consists of stuffed braised balls of green gabbage,
shaped pieces of glazed carrot and
turnip, potaotes a l’anglaise and,
sometimes, diced belly of pork (salt pork) and slices of sausage that are
cooked with the cabbage. It is also the
name of garnish and a hot pot which is used especially for large cuts of meat (such as rump of beef) or for braised
goose. The entire dish is coated with
demi-glace, veal stock or a sauce made
with the pan juices from the meat.
Among
other perparations described as a la flamane are Brussels sprouts (pureed,
mixed with an equal of potatotes or used
to garnish a consomme) and chicory (endive), either raw in a mixed salad, or
coooked in a chiffonnade for garnishing an
omelette served with cream sauce.
A la flammande is also a method of preparing asparagus with sieved
hard-boiled (hard-cooked) egg yolks.
RECIPES
Asparagus a la flammande
Cook some asparagus in salted boiling
water. Serve hot with melted butter to which sieved yolks of hard-boiled (hard-booked ) eggs and chopped
parsley have been added.
Flemish salad
Cook some peeled potatoes in salted
water and blanch some large peeled onions.
Cut the potatoes into slices and
chop the onions coarsely. Clean some
chicoy (endive) and cut the leaves lengthways and across. Place al the ingredients in salad
bowl and mix with a fairly
well-seasoned vinaigreate. Arrange in a
dome and garnish with fillets of salt herring cut into strips. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and chervil.
FLAMBER A French culinary term meaning
to pour spirits over food; then ignite it, both to enhance the flavour and for
culinary showmanship.
When
flaming a savoury dish, the spirit must be
warned and then ignited, preferably with a along taper. As it catches
fire, it is poured over the dish.
Brandy, rum or whisky are the spirits most commonly used, and the
procedure is usually carried out when
making a sauce from the pam juices.
In
some restaurants, sweet dishes, such as crepes or sweet omelettes-, are
flamed with a rum or a lqueur at the
serving table on special hotplates.
FLAMBE TROLLEY A small table on
castor, fitted with one or two burnes
(spirit or butane) and used in restaurants for flaming dishes at table.
The flambe trolley often has a bottle rack and cabinet for cutlery.
FLAMICHE
also known as flamique. A type of
sweet of savoury tart made in northen France and Flanders (flamiche is the
Flemish word for cake ). Formerly, it
was a cake made of bread dough and eaten freshly baked, spread with butter.
Nowadays, a flamiche contains vegetables
or cheese. The vegetables are cooked
slowly in butter, then mixed with egg yolks and seasoned. The best-known
flamiche is made with leeks, in Picardy,
where it s known as flamique a perions, it is also prepared with pumpkin or onions.
Cheese
flamiches are usually made with a Maroilles or similar full-flavoured cheese.
Flamiche a l’ancienne is made with a three-turn puff pastry mixed with
semi-matured Maroilles cheese and butter. It is
cooked in a very hot oven and is eaten as a hot entrée with beer. Another way of making a flamiche is to line a pie plate with bread dough and fill it with slices of Maroilles cheese,
alternating with cream seasoned with
black pepper and butter. Yet another variation is prepared in Hainaut,
where cheese flamiche is made as a pie
(with a pastry lid). In Dinan the tart tin is lined with shortcrust pastry
(basic pie dough) but the covering is a mixture of strong cheese, butter and
eggs.
RECIPE
Leek flamche
Make 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) shortcrusts pastry (basic pie dough, see short pastry). Roll cut two-birds of dough to line a 28 cm
(11 in) pie plate. Cut and thinly slice
1 kg (2 ¼ lb) leeks (the white parts
only) and slowly cook them in butter.
Add 3 egg yolks and adjust the seasoning. Spread the mixture over the pastry on the pie
plate. Roll out the remaining dough
large enough to cover the top of the dish.
Dampen and pinch the edges together to seal and mark a criss-cross pattern on the top with the tip of a knife.
Glaze with beaten egg. Make a slit in the
centre and bake in a preheated
oven at 200°C (400°F, gas 6) until the pastry is golden
brown.
FLAMMENKUCH An Alsatian specialty, whose
name means literally flame cake. Traditionally
prepared by the baker, it consists of a large rectangle of very thin bread dough with a raised edge; it
is filled with finely sliced lightly
fried onions mixed with fresh cream and topped with small strips of
fried smoked bacon. Flammenkicbe may
also be filled with a mixture of cream
cheese, cream and egg yolks and topped with onions and strips of bacon. It must be cooked very quickly in a very hot
oven.
FLAMRI also known as flamery. A baked semolina pudding prepared with white
wine instead of milk and served
cold. It is coated with a puree of
sweetened red fruit.
RECIPE
Flamari
Place 500 ml (17 fl. oz. 2 cups) sweet
white wine and 500 ml (17 fl. oz. 2 cups) water in a saucepan and bring to the
boil. Gradually stir in 250 g (9 oz. 1 ¼ cups) fine semolina and simmer gently
for 25 minutes. remove from the heat and add 250 g (9 oz. 1 cup)
caster (superfine) sugar, 2 beaten eggs and a generous pinch of salt. Then stir in 6 stiffy and generous pinch of salt. Then stir in 6 stiffly whisked egg whites. Pour the mixture into a buttered charlotte
mould in a bain marie. Cook in a preheated oven at 200°C (400°F, gas 6) for 30 minutes.
allow to cool, then turn out on to a serving dish and coat with a sauce made
from a puree of uncooked red fruit that
has been sweetened with sugar.
FLAMUSSE An apple pudding made in the
same way as clafuotis. It is a
speciality of burgundy and Nivernais.
RECIPE
Apple flamusse
Put 65 g (2 ½ oz. 2/3 cup) plain (all-purpose) flour in a mixing
bowl. Make a well in the centre and add
75 g (3 oz. 6 tablespoons) caster (superfine) sugar, a generous pinch of salt
and 3 beaten eggs. Mix with a wooden spoon until smooth. Gradualy ad 500 ml (17 fl. oz. 2 cups) milk
and mix well. Feel 3 or 4 dessert (eating)
apples and cut them into thins slices. Arrange them on a buttered pie
plate so that they overlap. Pour the butter mixture over the top and cook in a preheated oven at 150°C (300°F, gas 2 ) for 45
minutes. when cooked,, turn that lamusse
over to serve, and sprinkle the apples
generously with caster sugar.
FLAN an open tartfilled with fruit, a
cream or a savoury mixture. A flan may
be served as a hot entrees or as a dessert. The word comes from the old French flaon,
from the Latin flado (a flat cake).
Flans
have been in existence for centuries. They are mentioned in the words of the
Latin poet. Fortunatus (AD 530-609),
and featured in medieval cookery –
Taillevent gave numerous recipes for flans.
The
word flan is also sued in France and Spain for
an egg custard, often caramel-flavoured, that is made in a mould, turned out and serve cold.
RECIPES
Flan case baked blind
Prepare 350g (12oz) pastry dough (short on
shortcrust, sweet fine lining or puff) and roll out to a thickness of 3mm (1/8 in). grease and flour
a 28 cm (11 in) pie plate or flan ring and line it with the pastry, pressing firmly around the edges to
ensure that it stays in place and taking care not to stretch
the pastry. Leave a thicker edge of pastry at the top so that it does not shrink while it is being baked. Trim off the excess pastry by rolling
the rolling pin around the rim of
the plate or by trimming with a sharp
knife. Prick the bottom with a fork and completely cover the pastry with
lightly buttered greased proof (was) paper or foil, greased side down. to keep
the base of the flan flat, sprinkle the surface of the paper with baking
beans or dried peas. Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C (400°F, gas 6) for about 10 minutes. remove the paper or
foil and baking beans, glaze the crust with beaten egg, and return to the oven
for 3-4 minutes, or until the pastry is cooked and dried out.
The flan case (pie shell) may then be filled.
Savoury Falns
Cheese flan
Bake a flan case (pie shell) blind.
Heat 500 ml (17 fl. oz. 2 cups) double
heavy) cream with 50 g (2 oz. ¼ cup) butter.
Season with salt, pepper and
grated nutmeg and add 100 g (4 oz. 1 cup) plain (all-purpose) flour. Whisk over a gentle heat to obtain a fairly
smooth cream. Remove from the heat and
add 4 egg yolks and 150 g (5 oz. 1 ¼
cups) grated cheese. Whisk 4 egg white into very stiff peaks and fold
them into the cream mixture. Fill the flan case and bake in a preheated
oven at 200°C
(400°F,
gas 6) for about 30 minutes, or until
set and browned.
Chicken liver flan chavette.
Baked a flan case (pie shall blind.
Thickly slice 500 g (18 oz) trimmed
chicken livers. Season and sauté quickly
in hot butter. Drain and keep warm. Sauté
200 g (7 oz. 2 ½ cups) sliced
mushrooms in the same butter. Season,
drain and keep warm with the chicken
livers.
Make a sauce by adding 200 ml (7 fl oz. ¾ cup)
Madeira to the juices in the pan in which the chicken livers and mushrooms were
cooked. Reduce a little. Add 350 ml (12 fl. oz. 1 11/2 cups) thin
bechamel sauce and 200 ml (7 fl. oz ¾ cup) single (light) cream and reduce the sauce until it
has a creamy consistency. Strain it,
then add the chicken livers and mushrooms. Simmer gently without allowing the
sauce to boil.
Prepare
some very soft scrambled eggs (using
8-10 eggs) and then add 2 tablespoons grated. Parmean cheese and 2
tablespoons butter.
Arrange
the chicken lives and mushrooms in the bottom of the prepared flan case.
Top with the scrambled egg mixture
and sprinkle with grated cheese. Pour
some melted butter oven the top and
brown very quickly in a preheated oven at 240°C (475°F, gas 9) so that the
scrambled eggs are not overcooked.
Seafood flan
Bake
a flan case (pie shell) blind.
Prepare a ragout of shellfish (such as oysters, mussels and cockles).
Blend the shellfish with a fairly thick normande sauce and fill the flan case
with the mixture. Sprinkle with toasted breadcrumbs and a little melted butter
and brown in a preheated oven at 240°C(475°F, gas 9).
Sweet Flan
Cherry flan
Line a flan ring with sweetened pastry
(pate sucree) and bake blind.
Remove the stalks and stones (stems
and pits) from 400 g (14 oz. 2 cups) black
cherries (Bing cherries). Boil
300 ml (1/2 pint.1 ¼ cups) milk with a vanilla pod (bean) split in
two and then stir in 3 tablespoons
double (heavy) cream. Beat 3 eggs with 100 g (4 oz. ½ cu) caster (superfine)
sugar in a bowl, add the vanilla-flavoured milk and whisk until the mixture ahs
cooled completely. Place the cherries in the flan case (pie shell and carefully
pour the mixture oven. Cook in a preheated oven a 190°C. (375°F, gas 5) for 35-40 minutes.
serve either lukewarm or cold sprinkled with sugar if wished.
FLANDERS The
cuisine of this northern
province has much in common with
that of the neighboring provinces of
Artois and Picarcy. The North Sea provides maritime Flanders with an
abundance of fish, particularly mackerel
and herrings. Crops and
vegetables of the interior include wheat, potatoes, endive (chicory) ,
hops and sugar beet High-quality
livestock is also important and includes pigs and sheep, and also dairy and
beef cattle, whose meat is highly
regarded. With all these resources, the
cuisine of Flanders is a rich one -
dishes are usually cooked slowly
in a covered part.
The
most typical Flemish soups are soupe verte (green soup) and beetroot (red beet)
soup. fish specialities include Dunkerque bloaters, wam
(dried fish), macakerel stuffed with
shallots, spring onions (scallions), parsley and butter, cod a la flamande
(sautéed with shallots and cooked in
white wine), red herring salad (with potatoes and beetroot) and eels in beer.
Typical
meat dishes include smoked tongues of
Valenciennes baby chitterlings (ancluillettes) of Cambrai and
Armentieres, the traditional Flemish hotch-potch, carbonades, potfevfleisch,
rabbit a la flamande (with prunes and raisins), cod a la biere (in beer) and poule au blanc (cihicken cool
in white stock).
Vegetables
are used to make flamiches and also to make such specialities as red cabbage a la lilloise (cabbage, applies and onions, simmered for 3
hours, reduced to a puree and cooked briefly in the oven in a souffle mould.)
The
best-known cheeses, which all have
strong flavuor, are Bergues, Mnt-des-cats, coeur d’Arras. Boulette d’ Avesnes, Dauphin.
Vieux-Lille and Maroilles. Omelettes and
flamiches are made with Maroilles
cheese, as is the goyere (Maroilles
cheese tart) of Valenciennes.
The
production of sugar from sugar beet has given rise to a variety of regional
pastries and confectionery. The best known are the apple pies of Avesnes, plum tarts, craquelins of Roubaix,
carres of Lannoy, galopins (little
oblongs of bread dipped in milk mixed with eggs, and fried ), couques, and the bettises (mint humbugs) of Cambrai.
The
local drink is beer, and good-quality spirits are distilled from beetroot or
cereals, often flavoured with unique berries.
FLANK The abdominal muscles of beef,
which form a second-category joint.
Thick flank steaks cut on the
perpendicular from the internal muscles are lean, tasty, coarse-grained and
slightly tough (they must therefore be hung); they are eaten grilled (broiled)
or sautéed . Thin flank is similar but
slightly tougher. Cuts taken from the
two external muscles give fibrous, external tougher. Cuts taken from the two external muscles give fibrous, rather tough meat, suitable for
broths and stews.
RECIPES
Flank with shallots
Chop some shallots, allowing 1 level tablespoons
chopped shallots for each steakk. Fry the steaks quickly in butter, add the
chopped shallot to the frying pan
(skillet) and brown. Season with salt and
pepper. Remove the steaks and
deglaze the meat juices with vinegar (2
tablespoon per steak) and a little
stock, then reduce. Pour the shallots
and juice over the steaks.
Grilled flank
Brush some steaks with oil,
sprinkle with chopped herbs (fresh thyme and parsley) and grill
(broil) quickly for 7-8 minutes. season with salt and pepper at the end of
cooking.
FLAN RING A ring of tin-plate of varying diameter (6-33
cm. 2 ½ -13 ½ in). Many pastry cooks prefer it to a mould for
preparing tarts and flans. When placed
directly on the baking sheet, it ensures
better diffusion of heat through the pastry and enables the cooked tart or flan
to be easily removed. A loose-bottomed
metal flan tin is often used instead particularly by home cooks.
FLAUGNARDE Also known as flagnarde. Flognarde or flougnarde. A flan made in the Auvergne. Lomousin and Perigord regions of
France. The name is derived from the Old French fleugne,
meaning soft or downy. The flan
resembles clafoutis and is made with
apples, pears or prunes, falvoured
with cinnamon, vanilla, rum brandy,
orange-flower water or lemon. It
resembles a large pancake and is served lukewarm or cold (curnonsky
recommended) the latter), generously sprinkled with icing (confectioner’s)
sugar and sometimes spread with jam.
RECIPE
Flaugnarde
Beat 4 eggs with 100 g (4 oz. ½ cup)
caster (superfine) sugar in a bowl until the
mixture is light and frogthy gradually add 100 g (4 oz. 1 cup) plain
(all-purpose) flour and a pinch of salt.
Slowly beat in 1.5 litres (2 ¾ pints, 6 ½ cups)
milk. Mix well, then flavour with
100 ml (4 fl. oz.7 tablespoons) rum or 4 tablespoons orange-flower water.. peel and core 3 pears, cut them into thin
slices and add them to the mixture.
Butter an overproof dish, pour in the
mixture and dot the surface with small pieces of butter. Bake
in a preheated oven at 220°C (425°F, gas 7) for 30 minutes. serve hot or cold.
FLAVOUR
The sensation produced when food
comes into contact with the taste buds on the tongue. There are four basic tastes – sweet, salty, sour and
bitter – which are detected by taste
buds on different parts of the tongue.
The particular flavour of a dish
comes from the combination of several of
these tastes; when one predominates,
the dish is described is sweet, salty,
sour or bitter.
Extreme
temperatures (very hot or very cold) temporarily numb the sense of taste. When flavours are mixed they can mask each other or bring each
other out. Salt masks the sweetening power of sugar, but a pinch of salt in a sweet dish (especially in
pastries and dough) makes it seems
sweeter. A little sugar added to some savoury foods (peas,
tomatoes, sauces) enhances their
flavour. A contrasting taste will modify
the flavour of foodssuffs, for example
fruit tastes sour after a sweet dish and sweet after cheese or a spiced
dish. The skillful cook combiens contrasting or similar flavours to produce a
barmonious whole, the flavours being
enhanced by texture, consistency, colour and temperature.
FLAVOURING A substance added to a preparation to
improve its flavour. Before the 13th century it was customary
to use exotic flavourings which are now
usually reserved for perfumery, such as essence of rose and other flowers, benzoin, amber and
musk. Today, the herbs and spices commonly used for flavouring
include thyem, by, savory, coriander,
cinnamon, cumin, aniseed, pepper and
ginger Orange-flower water, almond
essence (extract), vanilla and the zest of citrus fruits are used for
flavouring cakes, pastries and confiectionery.
Wines,
fortified wines (Madiera, Frontgaan, port
and sherry), spirits and brandles are used extensively for flavouring
sauces and gravies and for enhancing the
taste of game stews, salmis shellfish a la bordelaise or a l’americaine, and
flamedmeat and poultry dishes. A variety of extracts, esssence and fumets
are also used. Other methods of
flavouring include steam-cooking with
aromatic plants, smoking with specially scented wood, and macerating with spices.
FLEURIE
One of the ten Beaujolais region distinguished by an AOC Charming and
fruity, the wines are sometimes
associated with the ‘flowerness’ of the
place name. They are usually at their
best when drunk young.
FLEURISTE, A LA Describing a
preparation of small cuts of sautéed
meat garnished with chateau potatoes. The latter are hollowed out, slowly
baked and filled with a jardiniere of vegetables mixed with butter.
FLEURON
A small puff-pastry shape used to garnish pie crusts or served with
dishes of fish cooked in sauce. Fleurons are cut into crescents or other shapes from the leftover pastry trimmings,
rolled out very thinly. They are then
brushed with beaten egg and baked or fried.
FLICOTEAUX A Parisian
restaurant, situated in the place de la sorbone, that was frequented in
the 19th century by generations of students, journalists and impoverished writers because of its
fixed-price menus. Balzac gave a vivid
description of the two long low rooms, each with a narrow table. The
tablecloths were changed on Sundays in ‘Flicoteaux 1 and twice a week in ‘Flicoteaux II’ in order to
compete with other restaurants.
He made this comment about the cooking;
‘The female ox prevails and
potatoes are inevitable. When the whiting and mackerel shoals teem on
the Atlantic coasts, they rebound into the restaurant of Flicoteaux.’
FLIP Former, a flip was a hot alcoholic drink made with beer, rum and beaten eggs. Today it
is usually a cocktail made with
wine or spirits mixed with beaten eggs,
sugar, nutmeg and various flavourings. The
best known is the port flip.
FLATING ISLANDS A cold desert consisting
of a light egg custard topped with egg whites that have been stiffly whisked
with sugar, shaped with a tablespoon and poached either in boiling water or in
the milk used to make the custard. In the latter case the dish is more
difficulty to make successfully and the
whites are not as meltingly soft.
Floating islands are served drizzled with caramel or crushed praline.
Lle
flottante, in French, was formerly made with
slices of stale Savoy sponge-cake or brioche that were moistened with
liqueur and sandwiched together with apricot jam containing chopped almonds and
raisins. It was served cold with custard
cream or a puree of strawberries, rasberries or redcurrants.
RECIPES
Floating islands
Boil 750 ml (1 ¼ pints. 3 ¼ cups) milk
with a vanilla pod (bean) or 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar. Whisk 8 egg whites
to stiff peaks with a pinch of salt,
then fold in 3 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar. Using a
tablespoon, gently drop portion of the whisked egg whites into the
boiling milk. Turn the whites so that they are cooked all over. Remove
after 2 minutes and drain on a cloth. Make an egg custard with the same
milk, the 8 egg yolks, and 250 g (9 oz 1 cup) sugar. When completely cold, pour
the custard into a deep, place the cooked egg whites on top, and chill until ready to serve. Serve drizzled with caramel.
Floating island with pink pralines
Make a custard wit 500 ml (17 fl. oz. 2
cups) boiled mil 6 egg yolks, 200 g (7 oz. 1 cup) sugar and half a vanilla pod
(bean). Pour it into a serving dish to
cool completely. Butter a deep cake tin (pan) that has a slightly smaller diameter than the serving dish. Crush
100 g (4 oz) pink pralines with a rolling pin and sprinkle three-quarters over
the place it in a ovenproof dish.
Arrange the supreme on top, coat with
Nornay sauce, sprinkle with grated cheese and melted butter, and brown in a
preheated oven at 240°C, (475°F, gas 9)
FLORIAN A garnish for large joins of
meat made with braised lettuce, small
glazed onions, shaped glazed carrots and
small potato croquettes.
FLOUNDER A flatfish that is often found
in esauaries, although it is actually a sea fish. The European species,
Placitichtbys flesus, has a greenish or brownish mottled skin covered with tiny scales and can be up to 50 cm (20 in) long.
In
France, the flounder is sometimes known as flandre (or flondre) d riviere or le picard. In formet times, it
was incorrectly called fleton, which
means halibut.
In
northern Europe, especially in Norway, flounders are preserved by drying and smoking.
Recipes for turbot, brill, dab
and plaice and suitable for flounderrs. In American cuisine, the world flounder
is used for a larger variety of flatfish
than in Europe.
Flounder
is the only flat fish caught in any quantity in Australia. There
its quality is on a par with place.
FLOUR
Finely ground cereal, such as wheat, burley, oats, rye, rice and maize
(corn). In Britain, the word ‘flour’ usually refers to flour produced from wheat. The milling of grain dates back to
prehistoric times and over thousands of
year this has developed into an
important and highly automated industry.
There is evidence that wheat or
corr was crushed and used as food at
least 6000 years ago. The
pounding stones used for this purpose have been discovered in archaeological digs
throughout Europe.
The
Romans were the first to apply rotary motion to milling. This involved grinding
the grain between circular stones, one rotating and the other stationary. The domestic querm mills were turned by hand;
the larger mills, by slaves or donkeys.
The milled flour was sifted through a bouling bag of linen or rushes., which
separated the white flour from the brain and
wheatgerm.
The
water wheel came to Britain from Rome. The earliest were laid horizontally in
the water, later they were set vertically.
Windmills first appeared about 1200 and were widely used until the
industrial Revolution. After this, steel roller mills were introduced from
Hungary. These produce finer flours as
we know them today and roller milling is
still the system used in all large commercial mills.
The
wheat grain is composed of three parts endosperm, germ or embryo and bran. The
object of milling is to separate the
endosperin form the bran and germ, because white flour is derived from
the endosperm, which generally comprises 85% of
the grain (compares) with 2% germ and 14% bran). Today wheat is cleaned before milling foreign
matter being removed on the basis of shape, size and density. After this the wheat is moistened and allow to temper’, a process that toughens the bran and makes separation more complete.
Wheat
grains are initially ground on break (or fluted) rolls that are designed to
shear open the grains and released the
endosperm: The ground material is then
sieved; the bran flakes with endorsperin still attached to them are reground by
finer break rolls, and large endosperin
pieces are sent to purifiers which
remove small bran particles using air currents. The purified endosperm
pieces (semolina) are then ground on mat-surface rolls (reduction rolls)
to produce flour. A number of reduction
passenger are required to convert the
semolina into flour is removed from the
sifters at various stages throughout the
milling process. These various machine flours are blended to produce a range of flours to meet bakery specifications. Wheatgerm is
removed during the milling of wheat into
white flour and is sold separately.
Hard
milling wheats mill easily to give high yields of granular free-flowing flour,
whereas soft milling wheats produce fine flours of poor sieving and packing
qualities.
§ Flour grades Flour is milled to different specifications
and consistencies, including soft, hard or strong bread and pasta 00 (Italian
grades) and varies form country to country. American flour used to be far finer
than its British counterpart, but these days there is little to differentiate
then, as roller milling process have been standardized.
The
main types of flour available in Britain are plain (all-purpose), used for
general baking and containing 755 of the wheat grain; self-raising
(sell-rising, which is plain flour with baking powder added; strong or bread flour, used for bread
dough brown flour, which contains 85% of the wheat grain; and wholemeal flour, which is 100% wheat
grain. The last two contain more fibre
and are less processed and can be used
in place of whole flour, where appropriate.
Improves in the form of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) are added to the flour
supplied to commercial bakers. This helps to strengthen the
gluten, giving better rising properties.
In
other parts of the world, flour is made form variety of cereals and starchy
ingredients, including spelt, maize (corn), potatoes and rice. In Italy, pasta
is made from 00 flour. Containing 70% of
the wheat grain, this flour is milled from the middle part of wheat’s endosperm, giving a much whiter
result. Whole wheat pasta flour uses
100% of the grain.
FLOURING The process of lightly covering
an item of food with flour, or sprinkling
a mould, cake tin (pin) or work
surface with flour. Items of food are
often floured before frying of sautéing, the excess flour can be removed by
shaking or tapping. Flouring should not be done
too far in advance as the flour be dry. Foods may also be floured before
being coated with egg and breadcrumbs. Finally, items of sautéed meat or poultry may be floured after being browned as a method of
thickening a ragout or casserole
(the French word for this process is
singer).
A
work surface or a pastry board is floured before the dough is rolled out to prevent it form sticking. Some baking tins (pans) and
sheet need to be floured lightly before
mixtures are poured in or before being
lined with pastry. The in or sheet is
usually greased beforehand. This makes it search to turn out the item after cooking or to prevent
a mixture from spreading out to much on a baking sheet when cooking begins.
In
bakery, bannetons (wicker moulds lined
with cloth) are dusted with a special are flour this process is known as
fleurage.
FLOUTES
Speciality, of the Jura consisting
of mashed potato, flour, eggs and
cream, fried in a pan until golden.
Traditionally, floutes accompany meats.
FLOWERS
Throughout history, flowers have been used in cookery. The Romans used
them to flavour certain dishes - the recipes of apicius include brains with rose
petals, sweet marjoram flowers in various
hashes, and a sauce with sufflower petals – and Roman wines were flavoured with roses or
violets. Today flowers are used mostly
in Oriental cookery dried rosebuds are used as a condiment: jam is made from rose petals, salads incorporate
chyrsanthemum, nasturtium or marigold petals ;
jasmine and hibiscus flowers flavor poultry and fish dishes; and yellow
lillies provide seasoning for sauces and
stocks.
In
Europe, flowers are used in aromatic
drinks, wines, hyssop syrup and pink ratafia). Some well-known spices and flavourings are made from flowers and buds,
notably cloves capers nasturtium flowers in vinegar and orange-flower and rose waters.
Several
chefs have invented recipe that include
flowers, either as an ingredient or as decoration. Jules maincave, a great French chef at the
beginning of the 20th century, declared that seasonings were ‘pitifully limited, whereas the progress of
modern chemistry would enable us to use rose, lilac and lily-of-the
valley’. Alexandre Dumas suggested a recipe for herb soup a la dauphine containing marigold flowers. Usually flowers are added to soups at
the end
of cooking. In salads they obviously play a more decorative role,
particularly nasturtium, but also red poppy, borage, violet and honeysuckle.
They can be arrange in a crown or in
bunches, and the colours of the other
ingredients. Vinegar changes the colour
of flowers, and if they are to be used in salad with a vinalgrette dressing,
they must be added at the last movement and the salad must no be tossed until
it is time to serve. Certain flowers re especially suitable
form fritters mimosa, gourd, elder and jasmine. Pumpkin flowers can be eaten
stuffed and are also used to garnish omeletts. Flavoured butters are seasoned
with the petals of jasmine, orange,
lemon or garlic flowers. Flowering mint
is suitable for fish, together with lime and jasmine flowers. The latter may also be used in various
forcemeats. Aromatic infussions are also
made from flowers and may be drunk or used in certain streamed dishes. Wild
violets complement veal; sage is used
with pork; and mind and thyme with mutton.
Flowers
have always been used in confectionery, for example in rose-water jelies, rose jam, crystalized (canided) violets,
minosa, forget-me-nots and primulas, and
praline-floured orange blossoms. These sweet delicacies and decorations were very
popular in France at the tittle of the Second empire.
FLUTE A long thin French roll,
weighing about 100 g (4 oz), midway between a baguette and a ficelle in
size, flutes are usually split in half
and grilled (broiled) for coutes, or served with soups and broths.
In
france, a flune is also a tall thin bottle used traditionally for white Alsace
wines.
FLUTE GLASS A glass with a stem and a narrow body, for serving champagne
and other sparkling wines. The narrow body (as opposed to a wide one)
enables the wine to keep its sparkle as the gas bubbles are not released so quickly.
FLUTING The technique of making V-shaped
grooves over the surface of a pure, cream or mousse, using a spatula. Pieces of pastry are described as fluted when they have been cut out
with a serrated pastry (cookie) cutter. A toothed piping nozzle is also
described as fluted.
FLYING FISH A small fish , 18-25 cm
(7-10 in) long, common in warm and tropical seas. It has a blue back and a
silvery belly and its pectoral fins are winglike, enabling, it to glide above
the surface of the water. It is often fished
in the Carribean islands its tasty flesh prepared like mackerel.
FOCCACIA An Italian olive-oil flat
bread, of very ancient origin, since it
dates to bakestones days. It is a hearth
bread. Traditionally fluing into the
oven just after the fire has been raked
out, when the temperature is still too high to bake a larger loaf without
burning the crust. In northern Italy it
plays a similar role to that of pizza in the south – eaten as a snack (frequently) as street food) or with cheese or antipasti.
Originating
from Genoa (and related to fougasse or
fouace from the south of France0 but now
made all over Italy, including the
south, foccacia all genouese is made with plenty of olive oil and salt. It is
usually baked (traditionally in
large round copper baking tins), but occasionally friend. There are many
different regional variations, for example with onions, chard, salt cod or
mozzarell.
Schiacciata
is the focaccia of Tuscany, often with herbs, and pan sciocco (also pane
toscano) is the unsalted version,
traditionally eaten with sally foods.
FOIE GRAS Goose or duck liver that is
grossly enlarged by methodically flattening the bird. The force-feeding of
geese was done as early as Roman times when figs were used. As soon as the bird
was slaughtered, the liver was plunged
into a bath of milk and honey, which
made it swell as well as flavouring
it. Nowadays the birds are fattened
with maize (corn) each lifer weighs
(675-900 g (1 ½-2 lb) for geese – the record
is 2 kg (4 ½ lb.) - and 300 – 400
g (11-14 oz ) for ducks.
Foie
gras from Toulouse geese savoury-white and
creamy from Strasbourg geese, plaker and fiermer. It is a highly prized delicacy, yet opinion vary
as to is suitably for culinary
preparation in comparison with duck foie gras; the latter is also
delicate (but slightly darker in colour than goose liver but melts and breaks down more during cooking and has a
slightly more pronounced flavour. André Daguin, a leading chief of Auch, prefers duck foie gras. France also imports foie gras from Austria,
the (Zech Republic, Hungary, Israel and
Luxembroug, as demand exceeds French
production.
Charles
Gerard, in L’Ancienne Alsace a table, wrote:
‘The goose is nothing, but man has made of it an instrument for the
output of a marvellous product, a kind of living hothouse in which there grows
the supreme fruit of gastronomy. Foie
gras is available in four forms in
France.
§ RAW FOIE GRAS (foi gras
crue) Increasingly in demand, this is sold during the holiday season at the end of the year. It must be well-lobed,
smooth and round, but not too large (so that no all its fat is rendered down in
the cooking process), and putty-coloured (if yellowish, it has a tendency to be
grain). Its preparation and cooking must
be meticulous, and only worthwhile for
fine-quality livers.
§ FRESH FOIE GRASS (foie gras
froish) this can be purchased cooked
from delicatessens, usually in pots. It
will keep at the most for a week, covered, in the refrigerator.
§ SEMI-COOKED FASTEURIZED FOIE
GRAS (foie grass mi-cuit pasteurise) Sold
in cains, this will keep for
three months in the refrigerator
once opened. It retain the taste of
fresh foie gras quite well, and its manufacture is governed by very strict
regulations. The best-quality products must have a perfect consistency, aroma and flavour,
and must
not exude fat. The labels ‘foie gras ‘doie entier’ (whole goose foie gras prepared with truffles), foie gras de
canand entier truffe (whole goose foie
gras prepared with truffles), foie gras de canard entier’ (whole duck foie gras), and ‘foie
gras de canard entier truffe (whole duck) foie gras prepared with truffles) apply to pure whole livers (formerly labelled ‘foie’ gras au natured’) , goose or duck
‘parfait de foie gras’, with or without truffles, is a liver reconstituted from smalll pieces
(formerly labelled ‘block de foie gras).
Pate de foie d’oie truffe
(goose-liver pate with truffles) is a whole goose liver coated with forcemeat (formerly) called
parfait de foie d’oie truffe). This
labels ‘delice,” ‘lingot’, ‘suprme’,
‘timbale’, ‘roulade’ and ‘tombeau’ designate products caoted with forecemeat or barding, or both
(with a minimum of 20% foie gras).
When the foie gras is referred to
as ‘truffle’, with no other indication, if contains at least 35 truffles.
§ PRESERVED FOLE GRAS (foie
gras de conserve) Sold in jars, this is the
most traditional preparation. Sterilized and preserved in its own f at,
it will keep for years in a cool dark day place and
improves like wine.
In
addition to the labels for semi-cooked
foie grass there is also the lable ‘puree de foie d’oie’(goose-liver pure).
This contains 50-75% finely pounded goose liver, and the term replace, the
former ‘mouse’.
Tradition and innovation Whether from
the goose or the duck, foie his always been considered as a rare delicacy, but the
way in which is it served has changed
according to a culinary fashion. At one time it was served at the end of the
meal. The traditional truffle and aspic
accompaniments are now thought to be superfluous by some, who prefer to
serve it with lightly toasted fannhouse bread (leavened and slightly acid), rather than with
plain slices of toast. Nouvelle cuisine set as much store by foie gras
as classic cuisine, and sometimes gave it novel accompaniments, such as green
leeks, pumpkin or even scallops.
However, the classic recipes, both hot and cold still retain prestige.
Most dishes described as a la perigourdine or Rossini are prepared with foie gras.
RECIPES
Preparation of raw foie gras
Carefully remove all the
tubes and skin from the liver,
using the point of a thin-bladed knife. First
make in incision in each lobe starting from the larger end, where main vein is located. Separate
it. Still using the knife, pull on the vein. It will come away
by itself, showing the rest of
the network, which can then be easily
removed. Once the lobes are open,
seasoned them with ½ teaspoon salt
and ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper per 450 g (1 lb). close up each lobe, wrapping it tightly in
muslin (cheesecloth), and chill
overnight.
The
next day, place the liver is a
terrine, cover it with goose fat and poach it,
allowing 4 minutes per 100 g (4
oz) fole gras when the fat starts to simmer.
When it is cooked, cool and drain
the liver on a wire rack, then chill for
at least 24 hours. Remove the muslin
before serving the foie gras cold, possibly with a hot truffle cooked en
popillote.
The
taste of the liver can be enhanced by
marinating it , for 48 hours in port mixed with 10% Armagnac.
Duck Foie Grats
Cold duck or goose foie gras escalopes
with graves and truffles
Prepare the raw liver and cook as
described in the basic preparation
above. Cut the liver into equalized
slices. On each of these escalopes (scallops)
place 1 large slice of truffle dipped in aspic jelly and leave to set,
then glaze the whole escalope with
aspic. Arrange the escalopes in
crown shape in shallow glass bowl. In the middle of the crown heap a
dome of fresh peeled seeded grapes which have been steeped in a little liqueur brandy.
Coat everything lightly with clear
port-flavoured aspic. Cover and then
chill well before serving.
Duck foie grass with white pepper and
green leeks
Prepare a foie gras weighing 300-400 g
911-14 oz) as above. Boil some young
green leeks in salted water and puree
them with a little cream. Put this puree
in a small greased cake tin (pan).
seasoned the foie gras with salt and coarsely ground pepper and arrange it on the leek puree. Cove the tin with foil and bake in a preheated oven at 140°C (275°F, gas, 1) for 35
minutes. leave to cool for 45
minutes (the last 15 minutes in the
refrigerator).
Duck or goose foie gras mousse
Press a cooked foie gras through a fire
sieve, and place the puree in a bowl.
Four each litre 91 ¾ pints. 4 ½
cups) puree, add 250 ml 98 fl. oz. 1 cup) melted aspic jelly and 400 ml (14 fl. oz. 1 ¾ cups)
chicken veloute sauce. Beat the mixture
lightly over ice. Season, then add 400 ml (14 fl. oz. 1 ¾ cup) partly whipped
double (heavy) cream. Line a round mould with aspic jelly and garnish with
slices of truffle the thinly sliced whites of hard-boiled
(hard-cooked) eggs and tarragon leaves.
Then fill with the mousse up to 1.5 cm
(3/4 in) form the top of the mould. Cover the mousse with a layer of aspic jelly, allow to
cool, and then chill.
Turn
out the mousse on to a serving dish, or
a buttered crouton, and surround it with chopped aspic jelly. The foie gras mousse can also be served in a silver dish or a crystal bowl, at the bottom
of which
a layer of aspic jelly has been left to set. Smooth the top of the mousse, which should be
slightly with any remaining aspic jelly.
Glazed duck foie gras
Season a fine duck foie gras with salt
and pepper then marinate it in port at least 24 hours. Draw a
2.5 kg (5 ½ lb) duck through the neck
remove the breastbone and open out the
tail end. Put the liver
into the duck and truss it up
Brush the duck with oil and cook in a covered casserole in a preheated oven at
200°C
(400°F,
gas 6) for 1 hour 20 minutes. While the
duck is cooking, prick the skin frequently
with a fork so that it does not burst. Remove from the casserole and leave to cool. Add the port marinade and some aspic jelly
made with the ducks’s giblets to the pan juices. Glaze the duck with this clarified aspic and chill.
Poach
some prunes in water, some cherries in a
red-wine jelly, and some apple quarters in butter. Fllavour all these fruits with ginger and glaze with the remaining duck aspic. Stuff some stoned
(pitted) green olives with foie gras or
harm mousse. Peel the segments of a
large orange. Arrange the duck in the serving dish with all the fruits, making the orange segments into a
rosette.
Steamed duck foie gras with sauternes
Prepare seme stock with duck bones, 1
bott of sauternes, 2 carrots, 1 turnips,
2 celery sticks, 2 shallot and the white part of a leek (all sliced). Season
with salt and pepper. Trim the foie gras
and remoe the tubes, season with salt
and pepper and chill (with the strained stock) for 24 hours. Pour the stock into a streamer, place the
foie gras in the streamer basket and cook for about 15 minutes. cut the foie gras into slices pour over a little of the stock and
serve hot or cold.
Goose Foie Gras
Baked foie gras
Prepare a foie gras weighing about 575 g
(1 ¼ lb), season it with coarse salt and keep in a cool place for 24 hours. Wash the liver, wipe it and
marinate for 48 hours with ground paprika, spices and Armagnac brandy. Drain the liver, place it in a ovenproof dish
and half-fill the dish with melted goose fat.
Bake in a preheated oven at 190°C (375°F, gas5), turnips it
over while cooking, for about 15 minutes
per450 g ( 1 lb). To see it is done,
pierece with a skewer, the drop of juice that appears should be only just pink.
Foie gras en broiche (hot)
Soak a pig’s caul (caul fat) in cold
water. Prepare some unsweetened brioche
dough. Take a firm foie gras weighing 675-900 g 91 ½ - 2 lb) and stud it with
truffles which have been seasoned and moistened with brandy and leave to marinate for a few hours.
Drain the pig’s caul, wipe it dry wrap
the foie gras in it. Cook in preheated oven at 190°C (375°F, gas 5 ) for 18-20 minutes,
then leave to cool.
Line
the bottom of a plain greased timbale mould with a fairly thick layer of briorche dough, then add the liver and cover it with another, thinner, layer of dough. Cover
the mould with a piece of buttered greaseproof (wax0 paper and tie with string to prevent the dough from
spilling out when cooking. Leave the
dough to rise for 2 hours in a warm
place, then bake in a preheated oven at 200°C (400°F, gas 6 ) for 50-60 minutes.
To see if the brioche is done, pierce with a needle, which should come out
clean. Turn out the brioche and serve.
Foie gras puree
Prepare
some thick chicken veloute sauce and
double its volume of foie gras, cooked and pressed through
a fine sieve. Stir together over
heat, then bind with egg yolk. This
puree can be used as it is for filling bouchees, barquettes, tartles or
brioches. It can also be mixed with white breadcrumbs to stuff artichoke hearts or mushroom caps, or used plain to garnish cold hors d’oeuvre and eggs.
Goose foie gras with sultanas
Prepare a foie gras weighing about 575 g
(1 ¼ lb) in the usual way. Cook in a
saucepan over a gentle heat for 5-6 minutes, drain and remove the fit.
Fry 1 chopped onion in goose fat, sprinkle with a little flour and add
the liver cooking juices, a little white
wine, 1 chopped tomato, a bouquet garni and some stock. Cook for 30 minutes,
then strain. Put the liver in a
heavy-based casserole with this sauce, add some sultanas (golden raisins) that
have been soaked in warm Madeira until swollen, and leave to simmer to 20 minutes. serve with croutors fried in goose fat and
drain well.
Potted foie gras with truffles
Remove the tubes from a goose foie grase
and divide it in half. Trim the lobes
and reserve the trimmings. Stud the
liver with pieces of truffle.
Season with spiced salt. Pour over some brandy and leave to
marinate for 5-6 hours. Prepare a forcemeat made of 375 g (13 oz) lean pork meat, 450 g (1
lb0fatty pork , the foie gras trimmings. 150 g 95 oz. 1 cup) diced truffles, 3 tablespoons Madeira and 2 tablespoons spiced salts.
Line
the bottom and sides of an oval terrine or ovenproof dish with thin slices or
pork fat, then cover the inside with a
thin layer of the forecemeat. Place half
the ramining foie gras on top of the forcemeat and press down. Cover with another layer of forcemeat, then place foie gras on
top. Finsih with the rest of the forcemeat. Cover with thin
slice of pork fat. Press well to flatten
the ingredients and place half a bay
leaf and a sprig of thyme on top. Cover the terrine, seal the lid with a
flour-and-water paste and place in a bain marie. Bring to the boil, then place in a preheated oven at
180°C(350°F, gas 4) and bake for 1 ¼ -
1 ½ hours, depending on the size of the
terrine.
Cook,
uncover, then leave under alight weight until the next day. Turn
out the potted foie gras by standing the dish in hot water for a few
seconds. Remove the pork fat and dry the
top of the foie gras with a cloth, pressing down a little to firm it. Pour a
thin layer of lard (shortening) mixed with goose fat (rendered during cooking)
over the bottom of the terrine and leave
it to sat. replace the foie gras in the terrine and pour some more
lard and goose fat mixture (just warm)
over the top chill for a least 12 hours
and serve in the terrine.
Truffled foie gras with madeira
Trim a foie gras and remove the tubes.
Stud with truffle sticks and
season with spiced salt. Pour brandy over
it and leave to marinate for a few
hours. Wrap the foie gras in a pigs’ caul (Caul fac) or in thin strips of bacon fat and
place in a braising pan lined with fresh pork skin, sliced onions and carrots
tossed in butter. Cover and simmer for
7-8 minutes. add 250 ml (8 fl. oz. 1
cup) Madeira, port or sherry and simmer
for several minutes. Add 200 ml (7 fl. oz. ¾ cup) concentrated brown veal stock (containing
some dissolve gelatine if the foie gras
is to be served cold) and cook in a
preheated oven at 190°C (375°F, gas 5) for 45 minutes.
Drain
the foie gras, unwrap it, and place it on serying dish. Strain the cooking juices and skim off al the fat. Pour over the foie
gras and serve hot.
To
serve cold, place the drained and unwarpped foie gras in a terrine just large
enough to hold it. Pour over the
strained cooking juices and leave to cook for 12 hours (of which at least 2
hours should be in the refrigerator). Remove the layer of solidified fat on the
surface of the sauce and serve the foie gras from the terrine.
Truffled pate de foie gras
Prepare 1 kg (2 ¼ lb). pate pastry
dough, made with butter or lard (shortening), and leave to rest for 12 hours. Prepare 2 frim foies gras in the usual way. Stud the lobes with peeled truffles cut into sticks, seasoned with spiced salt at moistened with brandy. Season the livers
well. Soak them in brandy and Madeira
for 2 hours. Prepare 1 kg ( (2 ¼ lb)
pork and foie gras forcemeat.
Line a hinged pate mould (round or oval) with
some of the bottom and side of the moulds. Put the foie gras into the moule, pressing it
well. Cover with a domed layer of
forecmeat. On top of this lay a slice of pork
fat, half a bay leaf and a small sprig of thyme.
Cover the pate with a layer of dough and
seal the edges. Garnish the top
with decorative pastry motifs shaped
with pastry (cookie) cutters (lozerges, leaves, crescents) or strips of plaited
dough. In the middle put 3 or 4 round
pieces of dough shaped with a fluted
pastry cutter. Make hole in the middle of these so the steam can escape during
baking. Brush with egg. Bake in a preheated
oven at 190-200°C
(375-4000°F,
gas 5-6) until the dough is cooked thoroughly
and golden brown.
Cool.
When it is lukeward, pour into it
either half-melted lard, if it is to be kept
for some time, or
Madeira-flavoured aspic if is it to be used at once.
Pate
de foie gras must be made at least 12 hours before using. The
mould can be lined with a forcemeat made
entirely of foie gras instead of with
pork and foie gras forcement.
FONDANT
Sugar syrup contianing glucos, cooked to the ‘soft ball’ stage, then
worked with a spatula until it becomes a thick opaque paste. This
is then kneaded by hand until smooth, soft and white. In this state,
fondant keeps well in an airtight
container. Professional-quality
fondant is available from specialist cake decorating supplies.
Flavoured
fondant is used in confectionery, to fill chocolates and sweet (candies).
When heated in a bain marie with a little syrup or alcohol, the fondant is used as an icing
(frosting) to coat mazipan, fresh or died fruits and branded cherries. Diluted in this way and flavoured with
chocolate, coffee or lemon, it can also be used to ice (frost) cakes and pastries.
REIPES
Fondant icing
Put the following ingredients in a heavy-based saucepan: 2 kg (4 ½ lb)
lump sugar, 75 g (3 oz. 6 tablespoon) glucose and 120 ml (4 ½ fl. oz. ½ cup) water. Cook over a high heat, skimming regularly.
Take the pan off the heat when the sugar reaches the ‘soft
ball’ stage, at about 118°C (245°F), see sugar. Oil a
marble slab, pour the sugar mixture
over it and allow to cool until just
warm. Working with a metal spatula. Alternatively spreads out
and scrape up the fondant until the mixture
is uniformly smooth and white.
Place in a bowl, cover and keep
cook. When it is needed, heat the fondant gently in a small saucepan and add a little syrup cooked
to the ‘short thread stage - 101.5°c 9215°F) and the selected flavouring (coffee liqueur, essence
or extract, or melted chocolate). Alternatively, add a few drops of edible food
coluring.
FOND DE PATISSERIE A French term meaning
a sweet base or shell used for a gateau or dessert. It may be made of shortcrust pastry (basic pie dough,
flan pastry, puff pastry, Genoese sponge, meringue or various biscuit (cookie) mixture. In the
cattering trade, the fonde are prepared
in advance and filled, decorated,
mounted into set pieces or iced (frosted) when required.
RECIPES
Pearl fond
Whisk 350 g (12 oz) egg whites (10-12
whites, depending on the size) into very
stiff peaks with a pinch of salt. Mix
together 250 g (9 oz 2 cups) ground
almonds and 250 g 99 oz. 1 cup) caster
(superfine) sugar and carefully fold in the whisked egg whites. Place a hot flan ring on a greased and floured baking sheet and fill with the
mixture. Spread evenly with a spoon and dust with icing (confectioner’s) sugar.
Remove the flaming and bake
the base I a preheated oven at 180°C (350°F, gas 4)until
just dried out, crisp and light golden.
Walmnut or hazelnut fond
Crush
250 g (9 oz. 2 cups) walnuts or unblanched hazelinuts, add 250 g (9 oz. 1 cup) caster
(superfine) sugar and mix together. Work
into this mixture 450 g (1 lb)
egg yolks (12-13 yolks, depending on the size) and 100 g (4 oz. ½ cup) butter
softened with a wooden spatula. Mix in 125 g (4 ½ oz. 1 cup) potato starch or
cornflour (cornstarch) and then carefully
fold in 350 g (12 oz ) egg whites (10-12
whites) which have been whisked into
stiff peaks with a pinch of salt.
Spread the mixture on lightly greased and floured baking sheets (it can be used for large geteaux or small individual
cakes) and bake in preheated oven at 180°C, gas 4 ) until light golden
brown.
FONDRE A French culinary term meaning to
cook certain vegetables in a covered pan
in a little fat but no other
apart from their natural
moisture. The contents of the pan
should be stirred regularity to prevent
them from sticking. This method is also used to prepare fondant potatoes.
FONDU CREUSOIS A Limousin speciality
made from cow’s-milk cheese melted over a low heat in a saucepan with water and milk. Butter and
egg yolks are added with seasoning.
This smooth fondu French for melted0 is served with chips
(French fries), which an dipped one by
one into the pan. alternatively, it can
be poured over potato puree and browned under
a hot grill (broiler).
FONDUE A Swiss speciality consisting of
one or more cheeses melted in a special pottery fondue dish with white wine and flavouring. When
the mixture becomes creamy, the
dish is placed over a sprit lamp
on the table to keep it hot. The diners
spear pieces of bread on a long two-pronged fork, dip them in the
fondue and eat them piping hot.
The
fondue recipe which Brillat-Savarin gives in his Physiologue du gout is in fact
a dish of scramble eggs with cheese. Howeever, three are several Savory
and Swiss recipes that may be considered
authentic . antirouet, in La Cuisin an
frommage, mention several, fondue comtoise is made with mature full-flavoured
Comte cheese, semi-measured Combte cheese, dry white wine, kirsch and garlic. Fondue des Moses from Vaud is made with
Gruyere, Appenzell and Bagnes or
Talsitt, dried poletus mushrooms, dry
white wine, garlic and plum brandy. Swiss
jura fondue is made with full-flavoured salty jura Gruyere, dry white
wine, kirsch, garlic and nutmet, Fondue savoyarde uses
mature salty. Beaufort and ‘full-flavoured Beaufort, dry white wine and
kirsch. A classic variant is fondue mormande, made from camembert, Pont l’Eveque and Livarot (with the rind removed), cream, milk, Calvados and shallots. Fondue piemontaise is made with Fontana from the Aosta.
Valley, butter, milk and egg yolks, to which chopped white truffles are
added. This fondue is not served in a fondue dish, but poured into dishes garnished with croutons.
Swiss radette (melted cheese served with
boiled potatoes and pickled) is a rustic variant of fondue.
There
are several other dishes derived from,
or inspired by, cheese frondue, Fondue
bouruignomne, like cheese fromdue, is prepared
on the table in a metal fondue dish placed over a heating device and
filled with hot oil. A long-handled fork
is used to skewer cubes of beef (fillet steak, sirloin or rump steak) and dip
them in the very hot oil until they
are cooked. They are then dipped in one
of an assortment of flavoured sauces
(bearmise, barbecue, aioli. Mayonnaise,
horseradish, tomato) and eaten
. condiments such as gherkins (sweet
dill pickles), pickles chutneys or pickled onions can also be served
at the same time, as well as potato crisps (chips.
Chinese fondue is prepared using te same principle as
fondue bourguignonne. Strips of beef
and pork, thin slices of chicken breast
or little pieces of fish are cooked in a
chicken stock kept simmering in a fondue
pot over a special charcoal burner incorporated into it. This traditional Chinese dish was introduced
to the Far East by the Mongols in the 14th century and was originally made with mutton. It is accompanied by sliced
fresh vegetables arranged in bowls (Chinese cabbage, spinach and onion), a
puree of haricot (navy) beans and nice vermicelli. This frondue is also served
with soy-,ginger-and sesame oil-based sauces.
In Vietnam, where this fondue is
served on festive occassions, it I smade with beef, prawns and fish, cooked in coconut milk and served with
a prawn sauce and sweet and sour condiments.
Scallops and strips of prepared squid are sometimes also
included.
Chocolate
fondue consists of chocolate melted in a
bain marie and kept liquid over a spirit lamp on the table. It I used for dipping pieces of cake biscuits (cookies)
pastries and fruits.
§ Vegetable fondue The name
fondue is also given to preparation of finely cut vegetables cooked slowly in
butter over a very low heat until they
are reduce to a pulp. Vegetable fondue made with chicory (endive), fennel onion, sorrel,
carrots, leeks, celery, or celeraic can be used as an ingredient in another
dish (as a braising sauce for rougouts or baked fish) or is an accompaniement. Tomato fondue is most often used in egg dishes, sauces and Mediterranean
garnishes ( a la madrilene, a provencake
and a la portugaise). It can also be
added to certain forcemeats, and when cold can be used to give piquancy to
hors. D’oeuvre or fish (as can onion
fondue). When seasoned with coriander,
it is used for preparations a la grecque.
RECIPES
Fondue a la piemontaise
Cut 575 g (1 ¼ lb) Fontina cheese into
cubes. Place in a fairly shallow container and cover with cold milk. Leave for
at least 2 hours. Put the cheese and
milk in a saucepan and add 6 egg yolks
and 125 g (4 ½ oz. ½ cup) butter.
Cook in
a bain marie over a medium heat, stirring continuously,
until the mixture melts and acquires a
creamy consistency. The ideal cooking
point corresponds with the first bubbles of the water in the bain marie. Serve
in a soup tureen and garnish the bowls with
small triangles of toasted bread or bread fried in butter.
Fondue du valais
Rub the botrom of an earthenware fondue
dish with garlic. Cut 150-200 g 95-7 oz. Good-cuality Gruyere cheese per person into very thin
slices. (Alternatively , use a mixture of Beaufort, Emmental and Comete). Put the cheese into the fondue dish and just
cover it with dry white wine (in
Switzerland Fendant is normally
used). Stir over the heat until the cheese has melted
then add a little freshly ground pepper
and 1 liqueur glass of kirsch. In
Switzerland this fondue is served with Grisons (air-cured) meat, or raw ham cut
into very thin slices.
Brillat-Savarin’s chese fondue
(from-brillat-Savarin’s recipe) Weigh the number of eggs you wish to
use, according to the number of diners. Grate a piece of good Gruyere cheese
weighing one-third of this and take a piece of butter weighing
one-sixth. Break the eggs into a heavy-bases saucepan and beat them well, then add the butter and cheese. Put the pan over a moderate
heat and stir with a spatula until the
mixture is thickened and smooth. Seasoned with a little salt and a generous amount of pepper, which is one of
the distinguishing characteristics of this ancient dish. Serve in a warmed dish.
Tomato fondue
Peel and chop 100 (4 oz. ¾ cup) onions.
Peel seed and finely chop 800 g (1 ¾ lb)
tomatoes. Peel and crushed 1
garlic clove. Prepare a bouquet garni
rich in thyme. Soften the onions in a
heavy-based saucepan with 25 g (1 oz. 2 tablespoons) butter, or 15 g (1/2 oz. 1
tablespoon) butter and 2 tablespoons
olive oil, or 3 tablespoons olive oil.
Then add the tomatoes, salt and
pepper, the garlic and bouquet garni.
Cover the pan and cook very
gently until the tomatoes are reduced to
a pulp. Remove the lid. Stir with a wooden spatula and continue cooking,
uncovered, until the fondue forms a light paste. Adjust the seasoning strain
through a sieve and add 1 tablespoon chopped parsley or herbs.
FONTAINE BLEAU A soft
fresh cow’s-milk cheese containing 60-75 5 fat, originating in Ile-de-France. It is not matured or salted, but wrapped in
muslin (cheesecloth) and sold in a small waxed cardbourd container. It is
prepared from a foamy mixture of whipped cream and slowly congulating curds,
which is drained for 30 hours and then
smoothed. It is served with sugar and
frequently with strawberries or jam, enthusiasts often add fresh cream.
Fontanebleau
is also name of classic garnish consisting of a macedoine of vegetables cut
into very small pieces, cooked with
butter, and arranged in barquettes made
of duchess potato mixture browned in the oven.
FONTANGES A soup probably dedicated to
Middle Fontanges, who was a favourite of Louis XIV for a short time. It is made of a puree of fresh
peas topped with beef or chicken
consomme, and contains shredded somel cooked slowly in butter. Just before serving, it is enriched with an egg
yolk missed with double (heavy) cream
and sprinkled with chervil.
FONTENELLE, A LA Describing a preparation of asparagus served
with melted butter and soft-boiled (soft-cooked ) egg. The asparagus is dipped first in the melted butter, then in the egg yolk. The
name commemorate the greedliness of
Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenele (1657-17-57), a
philosopher and permanent secretary of the Fresh Academy of
Sciences. Once, when he invited his friend, the Abbe Terrasson, to
dinner, Fontenelle had arranged to have
half the asparagus served with butter (which he preferred) and half with
vinaigrette (favoured by Abbe).
Approaching the table, the Abbe suddenly dropped dead of apoplexy, and
it is said that Fontennelle immediately
shouted to his chief, ‘Serve them all
with butter all with butter!”
FONTINA an Italian cow’s-milk cheese (45% fat content),
with a pressed cooked centre and a
brushed, sometimes oiled, crust. Elastic to the touch, and with a few small
holes, the cheese tastes cedeicately nutty. It originated in the Aosta Valley in the Alps, where it has been
made since the 12th century, and it comes in rounds 40-45 cm (16-18
in) in diameter an d7 – 10 cm (3 –4
in). High. It is made over almost all northern italy and even in France
(under the name of Fontal and made mainly from pasteurized milk). The name Fontina is reserved for the DOP cheese made with unpasteurized milk from the DOP cheese made with unpasteuized milk from the Aosta Valley. Young Fontina is served at the
end of a meal or on coanape; it is also
used in cooking particularly in fondue piemontaise. When matured, it is grated and used like Pamesan cheese.
FOOD A substance eaten to sustain life,
as part of a well-balanced diet, it promotes growth and maintains
health. No one food is nutritionally perfect as it does not supply all the nutrients in the right proportions to support health, so, to
satisfy nutritional needs and individual
tastes, we need to eat, in moderation a variety of different foods. There are many combinations of foods that supply
the right balance of nutrients an
energy. A good diet in Mexico, for
example, is based on very different foods from an equally nutritious diet in France, Japan or Italy, since the daily diet of a country still reflects
its social, religious and family traditions, as a well as its agricultural
practices. The diet will vary according to the habits and way of life of the
individual.
FOOD ADDITIVE A substance added to food
during manufacture or processing to help improve its keeping qualities, taste
or colour; additives do not necessary improve the nutritional value of the food.
Under
European and American law, each food item must show clearly each food additive
on the label or packet under its own E number.
Water that has been added to
foods (such as ham or bacon) must also be listed clearly on the label.
Labelling regulations state that ingredients
must be listed in descending order by weight, as a guide to the quantity of
additives included.
Without
additives many foods would quickly become unsafe to eat and have a very short
shelf life. Salt, sugar spices, vinegar, and such products at caramel or
spinach-green have been used for years. The growth of the food industry,
however, has considerably enlarged the number of additives and changed their nature and conditions of use.
Many food additives are derived from
natural sources and are essential and
harmless, but many are synthetic and non-essential.
FOOD PROCESSOR Electrically
powered item of kitchen equipment
that can do many of the time-consuming
tasks involved in food preparation.
A typical food processor consists
of a motor and a bowl in which
the accessories operate under a protective lid. The accessories usually include a double bladed curved knife
for chopping, pureeing and producing crumbs, a plastic or blunt blade for
beating and mixing, slicing discs; grating discs; a chip (French fry) cutter; and a whisk. The appliance
generally has sufficient power to chop, mix, puree, grate or grind food
(cooking chocolate, Pamesan cheese, nuts); it may even be able to crush ice.
Special attachments are available for mixing dough. Some
models also have a juice extractor.
The
food processor was designed to do the work of several other appliances,
including the blender and mixer, and to
some extent the food mixer. In practice,
results vary and, although the food processor is the most versatile and useful
of appliances, some procedures are
slightly less successful than others. For example, soups and sauces are
far smoother when pureed in a blender
and the texture of processed meat is either
finely chopped or ground to a
near paste consistency rather then being
mince.
FOOD SAFE A type of cage wit a wooden
frame and wine mesh for storing
foodstuffs away from flies away
from flies and other insects. The food
safe was often equipped with a handle
and hung in the cellar or in a cool place. Sometimes food was stored in an
outside larder with shutters or
ventilation grilles, installed in big
old houses under the kitchen window, square
with the wall. Nowadays both types have been replaced by the
refrigerator, but they are still sometimes used for cheeses, which are spoiled
if they are kept at too low a
temperature.
In
France in the Middle Ages and up to the
end of the 18th century, the
world garde-manger was applied to the cool well-aired place where provisions were stored.
FOOD SUBSTITUTE A food product used as a substitute for another, usually because the
batter is very rare or expensive but
sometimes because of
health reasons (artificial sweeteners instead of sugar for
example). During wars or times of shortage substitute are often devised,
such as Guinea pepper (seeds from a
plant related to the cardarmon) for real
pepper and safflower for sufforn.
In
a book of recipes published in 1941.
Prosper Montagne suggested malt extract and concentrated grape juice as
acceptable substitutes for sugar tin pastries, cakes and confectionery.
Some substitutes are for emergency use only, until the genuine article becomes available, like roasted acorns for making coffee, others,
such as chicory (for coffee, margarine and
beet sugar, have acquired universal acceptance. Certain substitutes have remained acceptable in
everyday use, though acknowledged as inferior, for example, slices of gherkins (sweet dill pickles) as
substitutes for pistachios in mortadella and lumpfish roe for caviat.
Some
novel substitutes appeared at the end of the
19th century; at the
time of the Paris Exhibition of 1878, machines ere introduced for cutting out
mare’s udders into the shape of tripe
for twisting ox lights into the shape of petil-gris (edible
brown snails0, for graining cheeses with verdgrins using copper needles to sell
them as roquefort, and for making bread with starch or couch-coach-grass
powder.
The
most famous substitute preparations
were cooked by chuvete, chef of the
Breozn. Restaurant, in order to mystify Monselet, a well-known gastronome. Monselet praised the swllow’s nest soup,
brill, chamois cutlets and capercaille, served with hocks and Tokay wines, which provided to be
puree of noodles and small kidney beams, fresh cod cooked on a fine comb (to
stimulate the brills’ backbone), lamb umarinated in bitters and a young turkey
sprinkled with absinthe; the ‘fokre’
Macon wine mixed with punch, and
the Johnnisberry an ordinary Chablis flavoured with thyme essence.
FOOL A chilled dessert of English
origin, mode of fruit puree strained
through a fine a serve, sweetened and
chilled (but not frozen). Just before
serving, the puree is mixed with twice
its volume of whipped cream.
FORCED FRUIT AND VEGETABLES. Horticulatural
products that appear on the market before
their normal season. Often
expensive and ladding the flavour of
fruit and vegetables it season, these forced products are the result of
cultivation under glass or shelter of
product normally sensitive to weather
conditions, such as peas and asparagus. Improved transport facilities have made forcing less necessary in regions
with a poor climate.
FORCEMEAT OR STUFFING A seasoned mixture of raw or cooked
ingredients, chopped or minced (ground, used to stuff eggs, fish, poultry,
game, meat, vegetables or psta, such as ravioli and cannelloni.
Forcemeats are also the basis for several pates, meat pies, terrines,
galanties and ballotines, not to mentioned all the different kinds of sausages.
They are also used to make forcemeat balls, quenelles and some borders, and to fill barquettes, vol-au-vent and tartlets, a
grutin frocemeats are used to garnish croutes, croutous and hot canapes.
There
are three major categories of forcemeats those made with vegetables, those made with meat game or poultry; and those made with fish. In
addition, there is a fourth, more minor category of forcemeat, based on egg
yolk.
The
composition of a forcemeat depends in principle on the food that it is intended
to stuff or fill. The basis for a
forcemeat is usually minced meat or fish; the additional ingredients, for
example, gherkins (sweet dill pickles), herbs, onion, ham, foie gras, crustless
bread soaked in milk or egg whites, give it character and consistency. Seasoning is also extremely important. A panada may be added to give it some substance, and most forcemeats
made of meat, poultry or game are bound with eggs. The
stuffing for a food that is to be boiled needs to be more strongly seasoned than one for food to
be roasted. However, in the latter case,
the stuffing must contain sufficient fat to prevent the food from drying out,
especially in the case of poultry.
RECIPES
Preparation
The ingredients for some forcemeats need
to be very finely minced or even ground in a mortar or food processor and then forced through a
sieve. Fine forcemeats need to be minced (ground) twice. Sometimes only some of the ingredients need
to be minced. Add seasoning to taste and
about 6 tablespoons brandy per 1 kg (2 ¼ lb.) forcemeat. Allow 1 large egg to
bind 450 g (l lb) forcemeat.
Forcemeats Made with Egg Yolks
Cold egg yolk stuffing
Sieve 10 hard-boiled (hard-cooked) egg
yolks and lace them in a terrine
together with 10 g (4 oz. ½ cup) softened butter. Season with salt and
white pepper and mix all the ingredients
together. This is used as a spread for
cold canapes and as a filing for halved
hard-boiled egg white and artichoke hearts.
Hot egg yolk stuffing
Add some sieved hard-boiled
(hard-cooked) egg yolks to half their weight of hot thick bechamel sauce. Press
through a very fine sieve and season with alt and pepper. A teaspoon of dry duxelles and some chopped
parsley are usually added as well. This mixture is used to fill halved
hard-boiled egg, vol-au-vent or barquettes, or to stuff vegetables prepared au
gratin.
Forcemeats made with fish and shellfish
Cram forcemeat
This is
mousseline forcemeat made by replacing the meat with either boned and skinned whiting or pike.
Forcemeat for fish mousses and
musselines
Skin and bone 1 kg (2 ¼ lb0 fish (pike,
whiting, salmon, sole or turbot) and season with 4 teaspoons salt, a generous
pinch of pepper and grated nutmeg pound
the fish in a mortar, add 4 lightly whisked egg whites (one by one), transfer
to a blender and then press through a
fine sieve. Put the resulting puree in a
terrine, smooth out with a wooden
spatula and chill for at least 2 hours.
Then place the terrine in a bowl of
crushed ice or ice cubes and incorporate
1.25 litres (2 ¼ pints, 5 ½ cups) double (heavy) cram, working it in gently
with a spatula. Keep in the refrigerator
until needed. This forcemeat can also be used for quenelles and to garnish large braised fish or fillets of sole
or turbot.
Prawn forcemeat
Cook 125 g 94 ½ oz. ¾ cup) prawns or
shrimps in some salted water. Pound them
in a mortar with 10 g (4 oz. ½ cup)
butter and then press the mixture through a fine sieve. Add to this mixture half its weight of
finely sieved hard-boiled (hard-cooked) egg yolks. Mix together well.
Shellfish forcemeat
This is a mouseline forcemeat made with
crayfish, lobsters or crab meat. allow 4 egg whites, 1.5 litres (2 ¼ pints, 6 ½ cps) duoble (heavy) cream, 1
tablespoon salt and a generous pinch of white pepper for each 1 kg (2 ¼
lb) shellfish meat.
Smoked herring or sardine forcemeat
Make
a white roux with 1 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons flour. Add 100 ml (4 fl. oz 7 tablespoons) warm
milk and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon.
Remove from the heat when very thick. Add 1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks.
Put either 1 large smoked herring fillet (soaked in a little milk to
remove some of the salt if necessary) or
4 medium sardines in a blende and reduce
to a puree. Incorporated this into the
roux an cook for 3-4 minutes. press through a sieve. This forcemeat is
used as filling for croustade, dertais and small pastry cases.
Forcemeats Made with Meat, Game and
Poultry.
A gratin forcemeat
Fry 150 g 95 oz. 1 cup) finely chopped
unsmoked bacon in a sauté pan until soft. Add 300 g (11 oz) chicken livers, 2 thinly
sliced shallots, 50 g (2 oz), 2/3 cup)
finely chopped mushroom, a sprig of thyme and half a bay lea. Seasoned
with a generous pinch of salt, some
pepper and a little mixed spiced. Sauté
quickly over a high heart.
Allow to one of completely, then
pound in a mortar (or puree in a blender ) and press through a fine sieve.
Cover with buttered or oiled greasedproof ( wax) pepper and chill until needed.
This forcemeat is spread on crouton of fried bread that are used as a base for
small roast game births or served with salmis or civets.
American stuffing
Cut some
smoked belly of pork into very small dice and fry. Add some finely chopped onion and allow to sweat without colouring. Remove
from the heat and add fresh breadcrumbs until the fat is completely
absorbed. Season with salt and pepper, a little ground sage and the finest
thyme. This forcemeat is used for
stuffing young cockerels, young pigeons, guinea fowls and poussins.
Brain forcemeat
Cook a calif’s brain in a
court-bouillon. Drain , pat dry and press
through a sieve. Addan equal volume of bechamel sauce, or one-third of
its volume of either cram or velcute sauce. This forcemeat is
used to fill barquette, vol-au-vent, tartlets or hollowed-cut-croutes.
Foie gras forcemeat
Finely pound in a mortar (or puree in a
blender) 375 g (13 oz lean pork meat 450 g (1 lb ) unsmoked streaky (slab)
bacon and 250 g (9 oz) thinly sliced
foie gras. Add 1 ½ teaspoons
spiced salt and 100 ml (4 fl. oz. 7 tablespoons) brandy, and press through
a sieve. This forcemeat is used for
making pates and terrines.
Forcemeat for poultry
This consist of fine sausagemeat mixed
with one fifth of its wiehgt each of fresh breadcrumbs and
finely chopped onion cooked in a little
butter until finely chopped onion cooked
in a little butter until soft, together
with chopped parsley, chill until required.
Game forcemeat
Prepare with appropriate game meat in
the same way as poultry forcemeat. To make it richer, add tin slices of fresh foie gras or game liver
forcemeat. This forcemeat is used for
making pites and terrines.
Liver forcemeat
Brown 250g (9 oz. 12 slices) diced
unsmoked streaky (slab) bacon in 25 g (1 oz. 2 tablespoons) butter in a
sauté pan. remove and drain. In the same
fat, sauté 300 g (11 oz) pig’s
(pork), calf’s game or children liver
cut into cubes. Mix 40 g (1 ½
oz. ¼ cup) finely chopped
shallots and 75 g (3 oz. 1 cup) finely chopped cultivated mushrooms
together. Replace the bacon in the
sauté pain, add the mashrooms and shallots and season with
salt, ground, white pepper and allspice;
then add a sprig of thyme and half a bay leaf. Mix together
and sauté for 2 minutes.
Remove
the cubes of liver. Deglaze the pan
with (50 ml (1/4 pint, 2/3 cup) dry white
wine, pour the sauce over the
cubes of liver and puree all the ingredients
in a blender or food processor, together
with 65 g (2 ½ oz. 5 tablespoons) butter and 3 egg yolks, until very smooth.
Press the forcemeat through a
sieve and store covered, in the
refrigerator. This forcemeat is used for making pates, terrines or meat
loaves. Minced cleaned truffle peelings
can be added to it if wished. If game liver is
used, add an equal amount of rabbit meat and replace the white wine with
100 ml (4 fl. oz 7 tablespoons (Madiera.
Mousseline forcemeat
Pound
1 kg (2 ¼ lb.) boned veal, poultry or game in amortar (or reduce to a puree in a
blender). Then press through a fine sieve. Whisk 4 egg
whites lightly with a fork and add them to the meat puree a little at a time.
Season with 4 teaspoons salt and a generous pinch of ground white pepper. Press
through the sieve a second time, place
in a terrine and then chill for 2 hours. Remove the terrine from the
refrigerator and lace in a bowl of crushed ice. Them work in 1.5 litres (2 ¾
pints, 6 ½ cups) double (heavy) cream
using a wooden spoon (it is essential to keep the cream and the pate as cold as
possible to prevent curding). The
forcemeat is used for fine quenelles, mousses and mousselines.
Panada forcemeat with butter
Puree 1 kg (2 ¼ lb) minced (grount) veal or poultry in a blender wit
salt, ground white pepper and grated
nutmeg. Also blend 450 g (1 lb) panada
with an equal quantity of butter. Add
the pureed meat and beat the mixture vigorously. Then add 8 egg yolk one at time. Press the forcemeat through a fine sieve,
place in a terrine and work with a spatula until smooth. Chill, covered, until
required. This forcemeat is used for quenelles borders and meat loaves, and to
stuff poultry and joints of meat.
Panada forcemeat with cream.
Pound 1 kg (2 ¼ lb) minced (ground) veal
or poultry in a mortar (or reduce to a puree in a blender).
Season with 2 teaspoons salt, a generous
pinch of white pepper and some
grated nutmeg. Add 4 lightly whisked egg whites one at a time followed by 400 g
(14 oz) bread panada. Beat vigorously until the mixture is very smooth. Press
through a fine sieve over a terrine and chill for 1 hour, together with 1.5
litress (2 ¾ pints. 6 ½ cups) double (heavy) cream and 2 tablespoons milk.
Thenplace the terrine in a basin of crushed ice or ice cubes. Add one-third of
the cream to the forcemeat, working it in vigorously with a spatula. Lightly
bat the remaining cream with the milk
and then fold it into the forcemeat. Chill until needed. This forcemeat is sued
for quenelles.
Poultry forcemeat
Dice 575 g (1 ¼ lb) chicken or
other poultry meat. 200 g (7 oz) lean
veal and 900 g (2 lb) bacon work
together in a blender until smooth.
Add 3 eggs. 1 tablespoon salt and
200 ml (7 fl. oz. ¼ cup) brand. Mix well, press through a sieve and chill
until required. This forcemeat is used for pates and terrines.
Veal forcemeat
Pound 1 kg (2 ¼ lb) lean minced (ground)
veal in a mortar (or reduce to a puree in a blender). Season with 1 tablespoon
salt, some white pepper and grated
nutmeg. Puree 300 g (11 oz0 four panada
when really soft, add the veal, together with 65 g (2 ½
oz. 4 ½ tablespoons) butter, and beat the mixture well. Finally beating continuously, add 5
whole eggs and 8 yolks, one by one.
Then add 1.25 litres (2 ¼ pints.
5 ½ cups) thick bechamel sauce.
Press through a fine sieve and work
with a spatula to make the forcemeat is used for borders and large quenelles.
Forcemeats Made with Vegetables
Forcemeat for fish
Crumble 250 g (9 oz. 9 slices) crustless
bread and soak it in milk. Sauté
75 g (3 oz. 2/3 cup chopped onion and 150 g (1 oz. 2 tablespoons) butter. Add a small handful of chopped parsley and
cook for a few minute. Meanwhile, add 4
tablespoons white wine to 3 chopped shallots in a separate pan and reduce. Add
the shallots to the other vegetables and mix. Squeeze out the bread and place in a terrine.
Add the vegetable mixture and work together will. Then bind with 2 egg
yolks and season with salt and pepper
and, if liked, a generous pinch of grated nutmeg and half a garlic cloves. Chopped.
Forcemeat for vegetable terrine
Peel 500 g (1 lb. 2 oz ) celerine (celery root) and cut into quarters. Steam, drain and puree in
a blender. Dry slightly in a warm oven but do not allow the celeriac to colour.
In the bowl of a mixer, combine the celeraic puree with 2 egg yolks. 150 ml
(1/4 pint, 2/3 cup) single (light) cream
and 2 stiffily whisked egg whites.
Seasoned to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Other vegetable, in equal
quantities, may be added to the stuffing; diced carrots, petits pois, green
beans, blanched or cooked in steam. The
vegetable terrine can them be cooked in the oven or in a bain marie.
Mushroom forcemeat
Sauté
2 peeled and finely chopped shallots and 175 g 96 oz. 2 cup) button
mushrooms also finely chopped, over a high heat in a frying pan, with 40 g (1 ½ oz. 3 tablespoons) butter and a generous
pinch of grated nutmeg. When cooked,
allow to cool. Make 100 g (4 oz) bread
panada and puree it in a blender, add in
the mushrooms and shallots. Finally, ad 3 eggs yolks and mix thoroughly (it is
no necessary to sieve this forcemeat).
It used to stuff vegetables,
poultry game and fish.
FORESTIERE, A LA a
method of preparing small cuts of meat
or chicken (or even eggs or vegetables), which are garnished with mushrooms
(usually chunterelles, mores or ceps) cooked in butter, generally accompanied
by potato noisettes or rissoles and
blanched browned bacon pieces. It is
served with gravy, thickened veal
stock or the deglazed pan juices.
RECIPES
Carrots a la forestiere
Braise some carrots in butter, then add
half their volume of mushrooms, also
braised in butter. Adjust the seasoning
and sprinkle with parsley.
Soft-boiled or poached egg a la
Forestiere
Clean some mushroom and fry them
in. Butter Cut some lean bacon into
small dice, then scald and brown in
butter. Mix the mushrooms and bacon
together and spread the mixture over bread croustades. Place a soft-boiled
(soft-cooked) or poached egg on top of
each one . add a few droops of lemon juice, pepper, a little cayenne pepper and
some chopped parsley to some melted
butter and pour it over the eggs.
FORK
An implement usually made of metal with
two, three or four prongs on the end of a handle used at the table
either for lifting food to the mouth or for serving food. Forks are also used in the kitchen for turning food in cooking.
The
fork has very ancient origins and a mentioned in the Old Testament. It was
first used as ritual instrument to grip pieces of meat destined for sacrifices later it was use in the
kitchen. According to the 11th
–century Italian scholar Damiani. Forks
were introduced into Venice by a
Byzantine princess and then spread
throughout Italy. But it was Henry III of France who first introduced to the
French the custom of using a two-pronged
fork at the table. Before this time, it
had been regarded as a decorative item
fashioned in gold or silver, forks were
mentioned in 1379 in an inventory of the French king Carles V. After visiting
the cour at Venice in 1574, Henri Iii noted that a two –prompted table fork was being used and he launched this fashion
among the nobility. It seemed a very
useful implement for putting food in the
mouth above the high collas and ruffs that were worn at that time1
In 14th century England, it is recorded that Piers
Gaveston, a Favourine of Edward II, ate
a pear with a ford; but it was not until the 18th
century that it became widely used. Louis XIV ate with his firgerts and , in the reign of Louis XVI, it was common to eat food from the
tip of the knife.
Forks then came to have three prongs, and later
four, and their use spread from Italy
and Spain into France and England. Nowadays, only a carving fork has two prongs. These may be straight or slightly curved.
Table forks the more diversified and are
made in many sizes and many metals. They may even be made of wood or plastic. Salad servers consist of a fork and spoon,
and carving sets consists of knife, a fork and often, a steel for
sharpening the knife. There are table forks, fish forks and fruit forks diminishing
in size down to small pastry forks pastry forks. Certain
forks are modified for a particular use for example, snail forks, oyster
forks, shellfish forks and fondue forks.
Etiquette
varies as to the proper way of holding and using a fork. E.
Briffault ends his Paris a table (1846) with this assessment: ‘the two-proned fork is used it northern Europe. The English are armed with
steel tridents with ivory handles – three pronged forks – but in France,
we have the four pronged fork, the height of civilization.
FORM D’AMBERT A
semi-hard blue cheese from the Auvergine, now factory-produced from
pasteurized milk but with a firm ivory paste and a good fruity flavour. The
cheese (45% fat content) is shaped into
cylinders about 20 cm (8 in) high 12-15 cm (4-5 in) diameter. Form de
Montbrison and forme de Forez are similar cheese from neighbouring regions.
They have AOP STATUS.
FORTIFIED WINE Wine to which
a certain quantity of spirit is added in the course of production. Increasing the alcoholic
strength has the effect of interrupting the work of the yeast in the
fermentation of the must, so the
gape sugar cannot be converted into
alcohol. The resulting wine may be dry
or retain a considerable
proportion of its natural sugar.
Fortified wines include port, sherry and Madiera.
FOUACE A also known as fouasse or fougasse. One of the oldes of French
pastries. It was originally a
pancake made of fine wheat,
unleavened, and cooked under the cinders
in the hearth (in Latin focus, hence the
name focaccia pasta, which in turn
became fouace, fouasse or
fougasse). Rabelais gave the recipe
for it in his (Gargantug: Best-Quality
flour mixed with best egg yolks and
butter, best safforn and spices, and water ‘
The fouaces from the region of
Chinon and Touraine have had a fine
reputation for countries.
Fouaces
are still will produced in many areas of
France Nowadays they are usually rustic dough cakes baked in the oven,
sometimes salted and flavoured, and
usually made for Christmas or
twelfth Night . they used to be very widespread in western and
central France (Caen, Vannes. La
Fleche and (Tours), but are now
most common in the south.
At Najac, in rouegue, a ‘fouace festival’ is held every year. In Languedoc, a fouace aux gralous is eaten
with frontignan wine. In
Auvergine, the fouace is made with
crystallized (candied) fruits. In Provence, where it is called fougasse, sometimes a little orange-flower water is
poured on to the pastries and brushed over the top and sides. This is one of
the desserts traditionally eaten at
Christmas. The fougasette, which is made
of brioche dough, is a speciality of the
Nice area. This small fougasse is shaped
like a plaited loaf and flavoured with orange-flower water and saffron. It sometimes contains candied citron.
RECIPE
Fouace
Dissolve 15 g (1/2 oz) fresh yeast (1
cake compressed yeast) in a few tablespoons of warm milk or water. Add 125 g (4
½ oz. 1 cup) strong plain (bread) flour
and then enough milk or water to make a slightly soft dough. Cover the dough
with a damp cloth or greased cling film (plastic wrap) and leave to rise until
it has doubled in volume.
Heap
375 g ( 13 oz. 3 ¼ cups) strong plain flour on a work surface. Make a well in the centre and add a large pinch of salt. 100 g (4 cz. ½
cup) softened butter, 1 liqueur. 1 liqueur glass of rum, brandy or orange-flower water, 4 tablespoons sugar
(optional ) and 4 beaten eggs. Knead
this mixture together adding a little milk or water to obtain a
smooth dough. Then add the risen dough
and (if wished) a filling of 150-200 g
(5-7 oz. 1 ¼ cups) crystallized (candied)
fruits. Work the dough again until
it is elastic. Knead it into a ball, cut a cross in the top and leave it
to rise, loosely covered (it should double
in volume).
Place
the fouace on a lightly buttered baking sheet, in a ball, loaf or crown shape,
glaze with beaten egg and bake in a
preheated oven at 230° (450°F, gas 8) for about 40 minutes or until golden (the
base should sound hollow when topped).
FOUGERU Soft cow’s-milk cheese from Brie
(45% fat content) with a reddish crust, Fougeru is a disc about 13 cm (5 in) in
diameter and 3-4 cm (1 ¼- 1 ½ in). thick, weighing 500-600 g 918-21 oz). Packed in ferm fronds. Its taste is similar
to coulommiers.
FOUQUET’S A restaurant and café on
the Champs-Elysees in Paris. Originally
(in 1901) it was a small
public house for cab drivers, which bore the name of its owner, louis
Fouquet, in 1910 Leopold Mourier, well-known in the Parsian restaurant
trade and the tutor of the founder’s
children, purchased it, anglicized as
name to ‘Fouquet’s’ (like
Maxim’s). redecorated it in the Belle Epoque style (which survived until
19(1) and set up an English bar and a grill room, where
the Longchamp racegoers wre accustomed
to meeting before or after the races, with their grey top bats over their ears, and their
binoculars in deerskir cases their binoculars in deerskir cases over their
shoulder’ (R. Heron de
Villefosse). A restaurant was also
opened on the first floor. Since World War II, most of Fouquet’s regular
customers have been actors.
FOUR FRUITS quatre-fruits The phrase used in French to designate four red
summer fruits - strawberries, cherries,
redcurrants and raspberries – which are cooked together to make jams, syrups
or compotes. The phrase ‘four yellow
fruits’ (quatrefruits jaunes) is sometimes used to refer to oranges, lemons, Sevilla (bitter) oranges and citrons.
In practice, ‘four-fruits’ jams and
compotes may be made from a combination of any four fruits, fresh or dried.
RECIPE
Four-fruits compote
Wash and seed 2 bunches of Muscat
grapes. Peel 4 bananas and cut them
into thick rounds. Peel and finely dice 4 apples and 4 pears.
Put all the fruit into a saucepan’s with the juice of 1 lemon, a pinch of
ground cinnamon, 300 g (11 oz. 1 2/3
cups) caster (supefine) sugar, the juice of 2 oranges and 100 ml 94 fl. oz. 7 tablespoons). Water. Bring to
the boil, cook very gently for 30 minutes and then pour into a glass fruit
bowl. When the compote is cold, chill until ready to serve. If wished, liquid
caramel can be poured over it just: before serving.
FOURME Any of various cow’s-milk cheeses
from central France that usually contain parsley and are used in the same way as blue cheese. The French word fourme is derived from the
Latin forma (a mould); it then become
formage and later fromage.
FOURME D’AMBEET (45%) fat content). This
has a special label of origin (an
AOC) and comes from the Loire, Puy-de-Dome, and the district of Saint-Flour.
It has a firm paste flavoured with
parsley and a dry dark-grey crust mottled with yellow and red. It has a strong flavour and is shaped into tall
cylinders, 13 cm (5 in) in diameter and 20 cm (8 in) high. It is usually served cut horizontally. Fourme de
Pierrestir-Haute. Fourne de Montbrison are
similar cheese.
§ FOURME DU MEZENC (30-40% fat
content). This is also known as Bleu du
Velay, bleu de Loudes or Bleu de
Costaros. It is flavoured with parsley
and has a natural crust. Like fourme
d’Ambert, it is cylindrical and has a promotioned flavour.
The name ‘Fourme’ is also used, albeit incorrectly, for Cantal, Salers
and Laguiole.
FOURRER The French term meaning to
insert a raw or cooked filling into a a sweet or savoury item. For example, omelettes and pancakes may be
filed with various mixtures before being
folded. Choux pastries and sponge’ cakes can be filled with butter cream,
almonds cream, confectioner’s custard (pastry cream) or a fruit filling. Bread
rulls can be filled with various savoury
mixtures.
FOUR SPICES A mixture of spices, usually consisting of ground pepper, grated nutmeg, powdered
clvoes and ground ginger o cinnamon. T s used in stews, civeis, charcuterie, terrines and game dishes. This spice mixture is also used in Arab cookery.
It should not be confused with five
spices (cinq-epices) or all spice(toute-epice).
FOUTOU A traditional African dish based
on casava 9manioc root) together with plantins (green bananas) or yams. The
cassava and plantians or yams are boiled in water, drained and then pounded into a smooth paste
that is shaped into several small rounds or a single large one. Foutou is always served with very rich and
highly spiced sauces, based on meat and vegetables or on fish. These sauces are actually more like ragouts,
and their composition is very
varied. Foutou is very common in Africa,
particularly in Bernin and the Ivory
Coast.
FOVOT A parsiain restaurant which was
situated on the corner of the Rue de
Tournon and the Rue de Vaugirard. It was originally a hotel, and the Emperor
Joseph II, brother of Marie Antoinette, once stayed there, in 1976
it was converted into a restaurant, known as the Café Vahette, and in
1848 it was bought by Foyot, the former
chef of Louis-Philippe, and renamed.
The
proximity of the palais du Luxembourg meant that the clientele included many
senators. The specialities served by
Foyot at that time included the famous
veal chops Foyot, sheep’s trotters (fee) a la
poulete, pigeons Foyot and Ernestine potatoes. No-one is certain that
these dishes were actually invented by Foyot himself, but they certainly made
the restaurant very famous. It was while
breakfasting at Foyot in 1894 that the
poet laurent Tailhade was seriously
injured by an anachist’s bomb.
The
restaurant was finally closed in 1938 and the
building was demolished.
Recipes
Foyot sauce
Make 200 ml (7 fl. oz. ¾ cup) bearmaise sauce and strain it. Add 2
tablespoons meat glaze or stock,
stirring well. If the sauce is not to be served immediately, keep it
warm in a bain marie. ( The meat glaze
is made by boiling down a concentrated meat stock until it become thick and
syrup).
Veal chop Foyot
Make a thick cheese paste with dried
breadcrumbs, 25 g 91 oz., ¼ cup) grated Gruyere cheese, and 20 g (3/4 oz. 1 ½ tablespoons) butter. Season and
flour a large veal chop, weighing about
250 g (9 oz0 and roast it in a preheated oven at 150°C (300°F, gas 2 ) with 20 g (3/4 oz.
1 ½ tablespoons) butter for 20-30 minutes. half-cooked, turn it love and
cover with the cheese paste. Stuff a small tomato with a mixture of
breadcrumbs, parsley and butter and place it in the roasting pan. finish cooking the chop and baste regularly with the butter. Drain the
meat and the tomato and arrange them on a very serving dish. Add a peeled and chopped shallot to the cooking juices and deglazed with 4 tablespoon
dry white wine and an equal quantity of veal stock. Boil and reduce by
half. Add 10 g (1 ½ teaspoons, ¼ oz ) butter and pour the sauce over the
veal.
FRAISIER A gateau consisting
of two squares of Genoese sponge
moistened with kirsch syrup and
sandwiched together with a layer of kirsch-flavoured butter cream and
strawberries. The top of the gateau is covered with a layer of butter cram
coloured red with cochineal and
decorated with strawberries. When the
gateau is cut the strawberries can
be seen, cut in fall.
There
are several variations of this gateau, which is also called fragaria or
fraisalia. The sponge may be made with ground almonds and covered with several layers of kirsch-flavoured strawberry
jam. It is tehn brushed with apricot
glaze, covered with pink fondant icing (frosting) and edged with sugar and chopped blanched
almonds. The top is decorated with a
large strawberry made from red maizipan (almond paste) and leaves made from
boiled sugar. Another
method is to fill the sponge with a
layer of strawberry cream and ice it with a pink frondant icing
containing crashed strawberries. Fresh
strawberries are then used for the decoration, finally, it may be filled
with strawberry jam, covered with a
thin layer of pink almond paste,
dusted with icing (confectioner’s )
sugar and edged with chopped roasted almonds
FRAMBOISE A spirit made from raspberries, especially in
the Alsace region.
FRANCAISE, A LA Describing a preparation
of joints of meat served with asparagus tips, braise lettuce, cauliflower
flortes coated with hollandaise sauce
and small dachess-potato nests filed with diced mixed vegetables. The sauce
served with dishes a la francaise is a
thin demi-glace-or a clear veal gravy.
Peas
a la francaise are prepared with lettuce and onions.
FRANCIACORTA Region in Lombardy
producing good quality white, red and
sparkling wines. DOCG Franciacorta is applied to sparkling wines produced by
the traditional method (see metbode champenoise) from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir,
Pinot blanc and Pinot Gris, whilst DOC Terre di Francia corta refers to
the quality still wines.
FRANCILLON A mixed salad consisting of
potatoes marinated in a white wine vinaigrette, mussels cooked a la mariniere,
and chopped celery, garnished with sliced truffles. The original recipe
was given by Dumas fish in his play
Francillon, first per formed at the Comedie-Francaise on 9 January 1887. The
paris restaurateurs took advantage of the event by putting the new salad on
their menus. The restaurant Brebant-Vachette substuted Japanese artichokes for
the potatoes, and Francillon salad was renamed Japanese salad (is it often
called Japanese salad even when it s made with potatoes).
There
follows passage from the play, in which annette, a cordon-bleu cook , gives
the recipe to Henri, the leading man,
who intends to make the salad as a
special treat.
Annette
Boil some potatoes in stock, cut then
into pieces as for an ordinary salad, and while they are still warm, season
them with salt pepper, very good-quality fruity olive oil. And vinegar…
Henri
Tarragon vinegar?
Annette
Orleans vinegar is better, but that’s
not important. What is important is to add half
a glass of white wine. Chateau-Yquem if possible, and plenty of herbs,
chopped very, very small. At the same
time cook some very large mussels in stock with a celery stick,
drain then thoroughly, and add them to the seasoned potatoes. Mix everything together gently.
Therese
Less mussels than potatoes?
Annette
One-third less. One has to become
gradually aware of the mussels. They must be neither nor imposed.
Annette
Cover it with rounds of truffle. That puts a finishing touch to it.
Henri
Cooked in champagne.
Annette
That god without saying. Do all this two
hours before dinner so that this salad will be cold when
served.
Henri
We could surround the salad bowl with
ice.
Annette:
No! it mustn’t be rushed. It is very
delicate, and all the flavours have to
combine together slowly for this mother, a great gourmand. In the modern recipe.
The truffles are omitted and the vinaigrette is flavoured with Chablis.
A bombe glaze coated with coffee ice
cream and filled with a champagne-flavoures
bombe mixture is known as bombe Francillon.
FRANGIPANE A pastry cream used in the preparation of
various desserts, sweet, cakes and
pancakes. It is made with milk, sugar,
flour, eggs and butter, mixed with
either crushed macaroons (to give a lighter cream) or with ground almonds). A few drops of bitter almond essence (extract) may
be added to intensify the flavour. The name is derived from that of a 16th-century. Italian nobleman, the Marquis Muzo Frangipani, living in Paris. He
invented a perfume for scenting gloves that was based on bitter almonds. This inspired the pastrycooks of the timeto make an
almond-flavoured cream which they named
frangipane. La Varenne mentiones tourtes
de franchipanne (frangipane tarts) several times in his treatise on patisserie.
In
classic cookery, frangipane is also the name of a kind of savoury panada made
with flour, egg yolks, butter and milk and cooked like a choux pastry. It is
used in poultry and fish forcemeat.
RECIPES
Frangipane
Combine 75 g 96 oz. 1 ¼ cups) icing
(confectioner’s) sugar, 175 g (6 oz. 1 ½
cups) ground almonds and 2 teaspoons cornflour
(cornstarch). In a mixing bowl, soften 125 g (4 ½ oz. ½ cup)
butter without making it foam
(which would make the cream rise during its shape ). Add the sugar, almonds and cornflour mixture,
then 2 eggs one by one, stirring with a
wooden spatula. Next add 1 tablespoon
brown rum and finally 300 g (11 oz. 1 ½
cups) confectione’s custard (pastry cream). Cover with cling film
(plastic wrap0 and place in the refrigerator.
Frangipane cream
Boil 750 ml (1 ¼ pints. 3 ¼
cups) milk with a vanilla pod (bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar. Put 100
g (4 oz. 1 cup) plain (all-purpose)
flour, 200 g (7 oz. 1 cup) caster
(superfine) sugar, 4 beaten eggs and
pinch of salt in a heavy based saucepan and mix together thoroughly. Gradually add the hot milk and cook
slowly for about 3 minutes, stirring all
the time, until the cream thickens. Pour the cream into a bowl and stir in 75 g (3 oz. ¾ cup) crushed macaroons and 50 g (2 oz. ¼ cup) softened butter. Mix well.
Crepes a la frangipane
Make some crepes and prepare some frangipane cream, using 500 ml (17 fl.
oz. 2 cups) milk for the cream and an
equal quantity for the crepe batter. Coat the crepes with the cream and fold
into four. Arrange in a buttered
ovenproof dish, dish with icing
(confectioner’s). sugar and lightly caramelize in a very hot oven or
under the grill (broiler). Serve very hot.
FRANGY
Appellation white wine from Savoury, entitled to the prefix ‘Roussette de Savoie’ and made from the Roussette grape. Pleasantly fragrant, it can have a slightly honeyed
flavour, although it is essentially a dry wine.
FRANKFURTER A German smoked sausage
originating from the Frankfurt area,
made of finely minced (ground) pork. Beef or veal may be used with the pork and kosher frankfurters are
made with beef without any pork. Frankfruters are sold blanched or fully
cooked, reading for reheating, and are available fresh (loose), vacuum-packed or in cans.
In germany they are typically served
accompanied by sauerkraut and hot or cold potato salad. Elsewhere, they are often placed in rolls, smeared with mustard or tomato
ketchup and served as hot dogs.
FRANKLIN, ALFREDO-LOUIS-AUGUSTE French
writers (born Versailles, 1850; died Paris, 1917). He
spent most of his working life in the Mazarine library in Paris ,
becoming successively librarian, chief
librarian and, finally, administrator.
He published 2 “ reference life
in bygone days): these serious works contain numerous details about the table menus kitchens and domestic
economy of bygone days subjects to offten neglected by historians.
FRASCATI A gaming house-cum-restaurant
situation on the corner of the Rue de Richelieu and the Boulevard des Italiens
in Paris. It was founded in 1796 by the Neapolitan ice-cream merchant Garchi,
who named it after one of the most famous holiday resorts for well-to-do
Romans. Its gardens were illuminated at night and during the Directory and
the Empire it had the reputation of being the most famous gaming house in Paris. In addition,
the clientele could dine, eat ice cream and watch the fireworks displays. It
was also frequented by women of easy
virtue. The restaurant was eventually closed after 50 years with the
suppressions of gaming houses and was subsequently succeeded by the patisserie Frascati.
The
name Frascati is used for a garnish for meat dishes and for various
dessert. It is also the name of a famous Italian dry white wine.
RECIPE
Fillet of beef a la Frascati
Prepare a demi-glace sauce flavoured
with port. Sauté some very large mushrooms in butter or bake
them in the oven. Cook some
very short green asparagus tips in
butter and quickly sauté some small
slices of foie gras (preferably duck) in
butter. Keep all these
ingredients hot. Roast a fillet of beef and place it on a serving dish. Fil
two-thirds of the mushroom caps with the
asparagus tips and the remainder with
a salpicon of truffles braised in Madeira. Arrange the mushroms and the slices of
foie gras around the meat. pour the demi-glace over the top.
FRASCATI Famous white wine produced in
Lazio, Italy, almost at the gates of Rome.
It has been known and enjoyed
since antiquity. Mostly made from the Malvasia di Candia and Trebb anto
Toscano grape varieties, the wines of
Frascati may be dry sweet or sparkling. The
best of them add the description
‘superiore’ to the label, so long as the alcohol content is over 11.5%
FREEZE-DRYING A method of preerving
food, known also as cryodesication and lyphilization, in which the product is
frozen and then dehydrated. The food is
treated in three stages ; first the product is deep-frozen; next iit is
subjected to a vacuum, which submlimates
the ice trapped-in it; and finally the water vapour is removed, leaving the product dry and stable. A solid fool that has been processed is this
way becomes extremely light because it contains only 1-2% of its original water
content; but it retains its volume, cellular structure and shape, allowing
rapid and even rehydration. The
nutritional qualities remain more or less the same as those of fresh food.
As it is a costly process it is only used for quality products. The best
results are obtained with liquids and
small pieces of food. Coffee is still the
principal freeze-dried product, but mushrooms, onions and prawns are
also preserved successfully in this way.
FREEZER
An electric appliance for freezing food and storing ready frozen food. Either in chest or cupboard form, a freezer is used to store
food at a temperature of –18% C(0°F) after it has been frozen at a - 24°C (-11°F) minimum. The size and type
varies widely, from large chest or upright models to al small compartment in
combination with a separate refrigerator (a fridge-freezer).
Features
include fast-freezer settings, thermometers, alarms to warm of a rise in
temperature (for example if the door is accidentally left open), frost free
operation (no need to defrost the appliance); and fan-assisted cooking t allow
optimum operation in a warm environment (for example in the average
kitchen.). Quality of the cabinet and
level of insulation (which influences running cost) vary according to the type
and cost of the appliance. These are some of the facts to consider; the space available for the appliance and its likely use should also
be assessed before purchase.
The
icebox in a refrigerator is not a frezer as such a storage compartment for
the preservation of ready frozen foods;
it is unsuitable for deep-freezing.
FREEZING submitting a perishable
foodstuff to extreme cold to preserved it. The
temperature at the centre of the
food must be reduced to between -10° and - 18°C (14°F and 9°1) as quickly as possible.
§ What to freeze .
Almost all foods can be frozen, although
some require preliminary
preparation; eggs, for example, cannot be frozen in their shells but can be stored when lightly beaten. The main rule
is that the food is fresh and of good quality.
Prepared ingredients and meals an cooked dishes can be frozen successfully. The possibilities are
broad and depend as much on personal preference and eating patterns.
§ Preparing for food for
freezing always prepare ingredients as
though they are to be cooked – for example, trim and peel vegetables, if necessary, if necessary ;
gut and clean fish; and trim and cut up
fruit
§ VEGETABLES FOR long-term
storage, blanching is recommended.
Blanche quickly in boiling
unsalted water (except for tomatoes and
mushrooms), them drain, wipe, plunge into iced water, drain again and dry thoroughly. However, the majority of
vegetables keep well without blanching, especially for up to 2 months.
§ FRUIT Peel and remove the
stones (pits), wipe thoroughly without washing.
§ MEAT Remove excess fat and
cut into joints or serving-sized pieces.
§ POULTRY Pluck, draw singe,
remove fat, stuff with crumbled foil and truss (or cut into pieces).
§ FISH Gut (clean) scale, dry, stuff with crumpled foil
if whole (or cut into slices), trim and dry.
§ Soft-fat (soft-ripened) CHEESES Choice when just
ripe and wrap.
§ COOKED DISHES Reduce cooking
time by 10-20 minutes.
§ PASTRY (DOUGH) Wrap portions
of pastry or roll out and shape on to foil trays.
§ Packaging The package must be impermeable to smells; it
should be light and riot bulky. Heavy-smells; it should be light and not bulky,
heavy quality polythene bags’ are practical as are rigid plastic containers. Foil wrapping and
containe’s are also useful. Some oven
proof glassware is also freezerproof. Food that is inadequately wrapping foods
closely, then sealing bags with wine ties, helps to prevent surface damage.
§ Defrosting frozen food
preliminary defrosting is not necessary for small cuts of meat, fish or
vegetables. They should be heated immediately to maximum temperature in boiling
water or a preheated oven or under a grill (broiler) so that they are defrosted, sealed and cooked in one. In
general, frozen vegetables cook more quickly than the same fresh vegetables (since the former have been
blanched before freezing), while frozen meats require longer cooking than fresh
meals, Precooked dishes which are placed directly in a
sacuepan or in the oven in their container always heat very quickly. Defrosting is, however, essential for larger
items (whole birds, roasts), shellfish,
pastry, pastry dishes and cheeses. This should preferably take place in the
refrigerator (2-20 hours according to the type and size of the product). No defrosted food should ever be refrozen.
FRENCH BEAN Variety of thick, fleshy,
stringless green or yellow been (haricot
beurre). When picked young, they are known as dwarf French
beans. The yellow beans are usually juicer than the green ones.
FRENCH COOKING Throughout history, bread
has always been an important part of the French diet. In ancient gaul, which was essentially an agricultural,
region, the peasants used to prepare flat cake of millet, oats, barkley and
wheat. They were good hunters and ate game, poultry and also pork, that fat of
which was used in various culinary preparations. Because of the abundance of
herds of wild pigs it the forests, the Gaul perfected the art of preserving;
meat by salting and smoking and the pork butchers (lardarii) of the time had such a high reputation that
they even exported their pork to Rome. Meals were washed down with cervoise
(barley beer), and in the Marseilles region wine was drunk as well, Centuries earlier, the Greeks had
introduced vines into the region and
marseilles also imported wine form Italy.
§ From the Romans to the
barbarians The Romans with their refined
habits and their tradition of great
cookery, exerted a profound influence on the Gauls from the 1st
century onwards, above all on the wealthy classes the recipes of Apicias were
handed down until the Middle Ages. Whereas their ancestors took their meals seated around the table, the Gallo-Roman noblemen dinned on
reclining counches and enjoyed, as had
the Romans, beans, chick peas, grilled (broiled snails, oysters, dormice
stuffed with walnuts, and jam made from
violets and honey. Cooking food in olive oil ‘gained ground, and orchards were developed. It is even recorded
that fig trees used to grow in little Luteria
(ancient Paris). However, the most important and influential factor of
all was the widespread establishment of vine
growing areas : Italian vine plants were introduced into the Bordeaux
region, the Rhone valley, Burgundy and Moseelle. Soon, the wine merchants
of Gaul invaded the markets of the
Empire to the detriment of Roman wines, all the more successfully since the
Gauls had discovered that wine could be kept longer if it was stored in casks.
Competition became so lively than in Ad 92 the emperor Domitian ordered half
the vineyards of Gaul to be destroyed.
After
the Germanic invasions, Gaul went through
a tragic period of food shortage
and famines that marked the beginning of the Middle Ages. The Merovingian and,
later, the Carolingian nobles imitated the luxurious example set by the Romanized
Gauls and feasted on a wide variety of highly spiced game (boar,
wild ox, reindeer and even camel), while
the masses contented themselves with oatmeal gruels, and the basic dish was a
beauty soup made with root vegetables
enriched with bacon. Meat was eaten only
or special occasions. Agriculture techniques regressed, the economy became autarkic - self sufficient - and until the 8th century, there
was a massive slump in trade.
§ The influence of the church
What remained of the ancient culture had found a refuge in the monasteries. The
great religious orders extoolled manual labour and vast areas of land were
cleared for cultivation, Kilns, workshops and hostelries for pilgrims were also
established near the abbeys. The monks
undercook the essential responsbility of reselecting vine plants, and also
supervised the manufacture and maturing of cheeses. Above all, however, the
Church altered the diet of the population by forcing people to abstain on
certain days in the year from eating any
kind of animal fat or meat which ‘kindle lust and passion’s as a result, this
encouraged both fishing and the breeding of pike, eels and carp in the fish ponds. Whale blubber, a greatly
prized food, was permitted during len; furthermore, he increased consumption of
fish brought about improved methods of salting and smoking.
Consequently,
the attic and cellars of the great Carolingian cities and those of the abbeys
were always well stocked, and the
banquets were sumptuous. The emperor Charlemagne personality supervised the
good management of the imperial estates. Above all, he enjoyed hunting, and the word gilbier (game) date from this time. But abundance was still preferred to culinary elegance, and serious
food shortage continued. The study of
monastic meals reveals impressive rations of leguminous plants rich in
proteins: 200 g 97 oz). Dried vegetables, 2 kg
4 ½ lb) bread, 100 g (4 oz) cheese, together with honey, salt and wine. such a keen appetite can be explained by the struggle against the cold,
by fear of food shortages and by the
lack of protein and other fortifying
foods with a small volume. The population
which had dropped to perhaps 8 million inhabitants, lived mainly as its
ancestors had done, but in a world where insecurity and lack of communication
often caused shortages, or even famine. The
absence of methods of food preservation meat that food frequently went
bad: for example, flour infected with
ergot caused ergot poisoning.
§ The opening up of the Mediterranean
region
The setting up of the feudal society in the 8th and 9th
centuries contributed to the restoration of relative security. The resumption of trade caused new
cities to be built and a new
class to develop – the middle class or bourgeois, a group dominating the poorer citizens, such a journeymen, laborers
and unskilled workers. The cities needed
regular provisions, which brought about
the establishment of fairs and
markets.
The
take for fish and poultry predominated, but
products became more varied with the gradual expansion of trade the Mediterranean
region and also because of the
pilgrimages and the Crusades. Plums from Damascus (damsons), figs from Malta,
dates, pomegrates, pistochio nuts, rice,
buckwheat and above all spices (cinammon, ginger, amiseed, cloves and nutmeg)
appeared on the tables of the rich together with various seasoned dishes whose freshness sometimes left much to be desired
soon condiments become indispensable aids to cooking and the citizens of Dijon added their contribution in the 12th
century by discovering mustard, and adaptation from an old Roman recipe. Also,
by the 10th century, the sugar trade was established in the Mediterranean region, centered on Venice.
City
dwellers are traditionally eaters of bread and meat and guilds of butchers and
bakers were powerful organizations in the cities, where people’s fortunes were
assessed by the quantities of bread that they bought. Pork was the main type of meat, but joints of
mutton and beef formed part of the menus of the rich, and at the same time, rotisseurs (sellers of roast meat) and pie makers
multiplied. Cheese were made in all parts of France and, gradually, wine
outsted beer in popularity, except in Flanders
and Picardy, Cider, which had been made for several centuries, gained
ground in Brittany from the 14th
century onwards.
§ Prestigious meals Because of
his rank, the nobleman was obliged to keep open house in his chateau: he was responsible for feeling his maisne, which
included not only his family but also his equerries and vassals. The menservants set up the table with trestles and planks of oak in the communal
rooms. There was no tablecloth and the plates and dishes were very basic, made
by baked clay, wood or tin. The cutlery
consisted of spoons and knives, and in the 12th century a type of
two-pronged fork came into use. As the
kitchen was separated from the keep
through fear of fires, the servant brought the
dish to the table covered with a cloth to keep it warm. The meal consisted of either game or
roast pork, poultry of some kind, eggs prepared in various ways, either cheese
or curdled milk, and cooked fruits.
§ These meals were sometimes
veritable feasts. The elaborate arrangement of the dishes on the table,
following the recipes of Apicius, demonstrated the power, generousity, taste and prestige of the
nobleman. The famous 14th-century chef Guillaume Tirel, known as Taillevent was head cook to
Charles V. he was the author of Le
Viandier, a collection of his recipes and a complete record of the cuisine
of that period. The edible game at that
time include almost all species of feathered or furred animals, including the
cormorant, swan and whale. The royal means consisted of five dishes, with roasted peacocks and
herons, partridges with sugar, young rabbits in
spiced sauce, stuffed capons and
kids, together with pies, cress,
creams, pears, walnuts, honeyed wines
and nulles (dessert creams).
The
discovery of the Americas at the end of the 15th century resulted in
the introduction of a new variety of foods, including sweetcorn, games fowls,
turkeys, tomatoes and potatoes. At the same time, table manners became more
refined, individual plates were used and the tables were beautifully decorated
with various items of silver.
§ The splendour of the
Renaissance. The Renaissance herald a new way life. The marriage of Catherine de Medical and the future Henri II
marked the beginning of the Italian influence on French cuisine, destined to
play an important role. It had only very slightly impinged in the reign of
Francois I, a great lover of veal and poultry who
according Rabelais, had revived the days of feasting and drinking.
The middle-classes had also acquired an interesting in cooking. Whale meat and
even donkey were still popular and garlic was widely used as a flavouring, but
new foods had also became part of the
diet: pasta (such as mararoni and vermicelle), Italian sausage,
vegetables which had gradually become
more popular than the traditional herbs inherited from the Romans, such as
cardamon and cumin.
French cooking
in the 17th century . The reign Henri IV is symbolized by the famous poule au
pot, which the king promised that his subjects would enjoy once a week, as a
symbol of modest comfort and an
improvement in the condition of the serfs. In fact, the beginning of the 17th
century was marked by the contribution of the agoronomist Olivier de Services,
who introduced all garden vegetables into cookery, for example, cauliflowers
and asparagus. However the king had a preference for sweet things and so
sugared almonds, marzipan (almond paste) and tarts with musk and ambergris
became fashionable, together with all kinds ofjam. As early as 1555 the Italian
care owners had taught the French how to make sorbets, and ice creams followed
a century later. Heavily spiced food declined in popularity and a number of
cookery books were written, the best known of
which appeared in 1651. It was the first book to fix rules and
principles and thus to establish some order in cooking. It included recipes for
cakes and also for the first mille feulles. In 1691, the cuisineier royal et
bourgeois by Massaliot was published. Its instructions were precise and it
showed that the cuisine was becoming more varied.
In the reign of Louix XIV, cokking was spectacular rather than fine or
delicate, and the festivities of the Prince of Conde at Chantilly, for example,
were particularly sumputous. The famous Vatel was maitreticularly suptuous. The
famous Vatel was maitre d’hotel of Conde the Great, a very important position.A
great number of dishes were served at each meal and there are many descriptions
of the meals served at the table of Louis XIV, who ate too heavily for a true
gourmet.
French cooking
from the Regency to Louis XVI The Regency and the
reign of Louix XV are regarded as the golden age of French cookery.At the same
time, the produce of rural France slowly improved both in quality and quantity
and there was no further famine.The Age of Enlightenment united the pleasures
of the table with those of the mind, and gastronomy, a new word, was the main
topic of conversation, the petit soupers (little suppers) of the Regent and the
choice meals prepared for rthe king and his great noblemen did more to perfect
the culinary art than the showy banquets in the reign of Louis XIV.Great chefs
rivalled each other in imaginative cookery. They discovered how to make stocks
from meat juices and began to use them to add flavour to sauces. Mahonnaise
sauce appeared at the table of the Marshal de Richelieu., the conqueror of Port Mahon, pate de foie
gras garnished with truffles might have
been the idea of Nicolas Francois Doyen chef of the first president of the
Parliament of Bordeaux, La Chapelle the chef of Marie Leszcynska, prepared
bouchees a la reine (chicken volauvent) and Marin., the buttler of the Marshal de Soubise, was the
first to glaze meat and deglaze (make a
sauce from) the juices. It was in the mansions of rich financiers that the
culinary art expanded.Food shops, pastrycooks and confectioners achieved
perfection and people also learnt how to recognize foreign specialities, sucha
s caviar.
The 20th
century At the beginning of the 20th
century, French cooking gained supremacy throughout the world. Its chiefs
reigned supreme in the kitchens of Buckingham Palace, the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg and the great international
hotels. Paris become the Mecca of gastronomy. The Edwardian era was the age when great books were written
about cooking by such authors as Urbain Dubois, Augustine Bernard, Escoffer and
Bignon.The Academic Goncourt organized its first dinner in 1903, and Prosper
Montagne, the most famous chef of the first half of the century opened the most
luxurious restaurant of this frivolous
era. There was also a fashion for local bistrots, run by natives of the Auvergne and Perigord, and also by
gastronomic associations.At the end of the 20th century the
influence of Curimonsky still prevailed and the great classic dishes of the
cuisine of provincial France continued to uphold the reputation of French
cookery, with such dishes as pot-au-feu, blanquette, tripe, bouillabaisse,
cassoulet, bourguignon and tarts Tatin,France cookery has also been introduced
to and influenced by, other culinary
traditions, with the resutl that exotic and foreign restaurants flourish. The
great classics of European cuisine have long been incorporated, but the French
are now discovered Chinese, Indian and Scandinavian cookery.
FRENCH FAIRS AND MARKET foires et marches The oldest market n Paris,
in the heart of the city, was established at the beginning of the 12th
century for the sale of wheat. Not long afterwards Louis le Gros established
another market in the place where Les Halles operated right up to 1969, when it
moved out to Rungis. The art of selecting the right ingredients and looking for
top-quality food is still practised. All
over France, markets take place on fixed days, once or twice a week, in the
open air or in market buildings. No matter how small the purchase, the customer is keen to obtain the
best produce that is available. Careful inspection of the foods on offer is
still available. Careful inspection of the foods on offer is still part of the
shopping process.
The great annual fairs used to be held in the church square on the parish saint’s day. In Paris, the ham fair, which began on the last Tuesday of Lent, was held in the church square of Notre Dame before being mvoed to the Boulevard Richard Lenoir and then to Pantin. The Lendit fair, established by King Dagobert, was held on the Paline Saint Denis for a fortnight in June. The products sold at this fair came from all over France and even from abraod, especially Flanders.The Saint German fair, establsihed by Louis XI in 1482 near the church of Saint Germanin des Pres, started on 3 February and lasted until Holy Week, it flourished until 1785 and sold all types of goods in small wooden booths. Plays were also performed and coffee was served for the first time in France by an Armenian called Pascal.The Saint Laurent fair, the Saint Ovide fair and the Temple fair were the foreunners of the great annual exhibitions now known as the Salon de I agriculture and the Foire de Paris . Several other towns in France specializing in certain types of products laso h old fairs, including Arpajon (beans) and Excideuil (foies gras)
The great annual fairs used to be held in the church square on the parish saint’s day. In Paris, the ham fair, which began on the last Tuesday of Lent, was held in the church square of Notre Dame before being mvoed to the Boulevard Richard Lenoir and then to Pantin. The Lendit fair, established by King Dagobert, was held on the Paline Saint Denis for a fortnight in June. The products sold at this fair came from all over France and even from abraod, especially Flanders.The Saint German fair, establsihed by Louis XI in 1482 near the church of Saint Germanin des Pres, started on 3 February and lasted until Holy Week, it flourished until 1785 and sold all types of goods in small wooden booths. Plays were also performed and coffee was served for the first time in France by an Armenian called Pascal.The Saint Laurent fair, the Saint Ovide fair and the Temple fair were the foreunners of the great annual exhibitions now known as the Salon de I agriculture and the Foire de Paris . Several other towns in France specializing in certain types of products laso h old fairs, including Arpajon (beans) and Excideuil (foies gras)
FRENCH TOAST pain
perdu A dessert consisting of slcies of bread soaked in milk, dipped in
eggs beaten with sugar, then lightly fried in butter.French toast is served hot
and crisp. It was formerly called pain crotte, pain ala romaine or croutes dorees. In the south of
France, it was traditionally eaten on feast days, particularly at
Easter.Originally intended to use up crusts and left over pieces of bread,
French toast today is usually made with milk bread. It may be accompanied by
custard cream, jam or compote.
RECIPE
French toast
Boil 500 ml ( 17 ft oz. 2 cups) milk
with half a vanilla pod (bean) and 100 g ( 4 oz, ½ cup) caster (superfine)
sugar, then leave to cool. Cut 250 g (9 oz) stale brioche into fairly thick
slices.Soak them in the cooled milk, without letting them fall apart, then dip
them in 2 eggs beaten as for an omelette with a little caster sugar. Heat 100 g
( 4 oz. ½ cup) butter in a frying pan and fry the slices. When golden on one
side, turn them over to cook the other side. Arrange them on a round dish, dust
them with caster sugar and decorate with strawberries.
FRENEUSE
A soup made with turnips and potatoes in light stock or consomme,
thickened with fresh cream. It can be garnished with small turnip balls.
FRIAND
A small puff pastry case filled with sausagemeat, minced (ground) meat,
ham or cheese, baked in the oven and served as a hot hors d’oevre.
A friand is also a small sweet pastry-a barquette often made with an
almond paste filling and elaborately decorated.
RECIPE
Sausage rolls
***
FRICASEE.
A
preparation of chicken in a white sauce (veal and lamb may be prepared in this
way). Formerly in France, the term
denoted varius kinds of ragout of chicken meat, fish or vegetables in white or
brown stock. Now a days, the meat is a
cut into pieces, an aromatic garnish is added and it is then sautéed over a low
heat, withut browning. The meat is then
coated with flour, some white stock is added and the meat is cooked in the
thickened liquid. A fricassee is usually
cooked with cream and garnished with small glazed onions and lightly cooked
mushrooms. Fricassess are also made with
fried fish which is subsequently cooked in sauce.
In the l7th century, when La
Varenne referred to fricassees of calves
liver, calves feet, chicken, young pigeon, potato and asparagus, this method of
cooking was very common and not highly regarded. Subsequently, the word became distorted tofricot, which, in populat parlance,
designates any sipmple but popular tasty dish.
RECIPES
Eel
fricassee
Skin
and prepare a large eel weighing about 800g (l ¾ lb) or several small eels
totaling the same weight. Cut the eels
into pieces about 6 cm (2 l/2 in) long.
Season with salt and pepper. Peel
l2 small onions-if they are spring onions
(scallions), trim them first-and blanch them for 3-4 minutes. Place the eel in a buttered frying pan
(skillet, together with the onions and a large bouquet garni. Add a mixture of half dry white wine, half
water until the ingredients are just covered.
Cover the pan, bring to the boil and simmer for l0 minutes. In the meantime, prepare some small croutons
fried in oil or butter. Then add about
l2 thinly sliced mushrooms to the frying an and cook for a further 7-10
minutes. Drain the pieces of eel, the
onions and the mushrooms, place in a dish and keep hot. Strain the cooking juices and reduce by
two-thirds. Blend 2 egg yolks with l00
ml (4 fl. Oz, 7 tablespoons) single (light) cream and chicken carefully. Pour the sauce over the eel pieces, garnish
with thefried crotons and serve immediately.
Fricassee
of chicken a la ber richonne
Joint
a chicken. Brown 350 g (l2 oz. 3 cups)
new carrots in 50 g (2 oz, l/4 cup) butter in a pan. Drain them, and then brown the chicken pieces
in the same butter. Add 250 ml (8 fl.
Oz. L cup)chicken stock, thecarrots, a bouguet garni and some salt and
pepper. Bring to the boil, reduce the
heat, cover the pan and cook gently for 45 minutes. Remove thechicken pieces and keep them
hot. Mix 2 egg yolks and a pinch of
casser (superfine) sugar with 200 ml (7 fl. ¾ cup) double 9heavy) cream, l
tablespoon white wine vinegar, and a few
drops of the chicken stock. Pour the
mixture into the pan and mix thoroughly with the pan juices. Heat with out boiling so that thesauce
chickens a little. Serve the chicken
coated with the sauce and sprinkled with chopped parsley.
Fricassee
of chicken cardinal la balue
Cut
a chicken into 8 portions, season and brown n 40-50 g (l l/2-2 oz, 3-4
tablespoons) butter in a flameproof casserole.
Put the casserole in a preheated oven at 220 oC (425oF, gas 7) and cook
for about 40 minues. Prepare a stock
with l sliced carrot, l sliced onion, a bouquet garni, l40 ml (l/4 pint, ¾ cup)
white wine, 740 ml ( l l/4 pints, 3 l/4 cups) water and some salt and pepper.
Cook for about 30 minutes. Clean a
dozen crayfish, wash them and cook them for 5 minutes in thestock. Drain the crayfish and shell the calls. Pound the shells and press through a fine
sieve to make a puree. Mix the puree with 50 g (2 oz. L/4 cup) butter.
Drain the cooked chicken pieces
and place them in another casserole, with the thighs at the bottom. Add the crayfish tails, cover and put the
casserole in the oven, which should be either turned off or at a very low heat,
so that the chicken does nto become tough.
Pour 500 ml (l7 fl. Oz. 2 cups) double (heavy) cream into the casserole
in which the chicken was cooked, heat up and reduce thecream (but donot boil),
then add thecrayfish butter and whisk.
Arrange the chicken pieces on a heated serving dish and coat with
sauce. Serve very hot.
Fricassee
of chicken with and joy wine
Cut
a large chicken into medium-sized portions and season with salt and
pepper. Peel 24 button onions and 24
button mushrooms. Brown the chicken
portions in butter, then add the onions wine to just cover the chicken, cover
the pan and simmer gently for 30-35 minutes.
Add 200 ml (2 fl oz. ¾ cup)
double (heavy) cream and adjust the seasoning.
Serve very hot, with small steamed new potatoes, or a mixture of carrots
and glazed turnips. A small turkey can
be prepared in the same way.
Fricassee
of sea fish with Bellet zabaglione
To
serve 6, you will need 800 g (l 3/2 lb) young turbot, l.5 kg ( 3 l/4 lb) John
Dory, 4 slices of moakfish. 2 red
muller, 4 scampi and 500 ml (7 fl. Oz. 2 cups) white Bellet wine or a good
Provenical wine. Fillet the turbot and
the John Dory. Was the fillets wine
season with salt and pepper. Heat 3
tablespoons olive oil and 40 g ( l l/2 oz. 3 tablespoons) butter in a large
frying pan. When the mixture foams,
add at the fish and the scampi. Add a large chopped shallot and cook for a
few seconds. Add about 100 ml (4 fl oz.
7 tablespoons) Bellet wine. Remove the
red mullet, fillet them and replace in the pan.
Add 3 tablespoons concentrated fish stock and finish cooking. Arrange the fish on a dish and keep hot.
Make a zabaglione with 8 egg
yolks and 400 ml (l4 fl. Oz. L ¾ cups) white
Bellet wine. Season with salt and
pepper and add 500 ml (l7 fl. Oz, 2 cups) hot double (heavy) cream. The zabaglions should be hot and foamy, but
must not boil, adjust the seasoning.
Coat the fricassee with the zabaglione.
Sprinkle with fresh chervil and serve with lightly cooked (al dente)
French (green) beans, with a knob of butter on top.
Lamb
fricassee
Wash
and wipe some pieces of lamb (fillet, l lean leg or soulder), fry in butter
without browning and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons flour and stir
over the heat. Add some white stock or
consommé and a bouquet garni, and bring to the boil. Simmer with the lid on for 45-60
minutes. Fry some mushroom in butter and
glaze some button onions. Remove the pieces
of lamb from the pan, replace with the onions and mushrooms, and stir them into
the pan juices. Take off the heat and
add an egg yolk to chicken. Pour the
sauce into a large heated dish, add the lamb and sprinkle with chopped
parsley. Serve hot.
Minute
fricassee of chicken
Joint
2 chickens in the usual way and put them in a saucepan with l75 g (6 oz. ¾ cup)
good-quality melted butter. Fry the
chicken without browning, add 2 tablespoons flour and season with salt, pepper
and grated nutmeg, then add sufficient water to make a lightly thickened sauce. Add 6 blanched utton onions and a bouquet
garni and cook over a brisk heat, ensuring that the chicken pices do not burn
and the sauce is gradually reduced.
After 25 minutes test o ne of the thighs to see that it is cooked. Dd 250 g (9 oz. 3 cups) button mushrooms and
skim the fat off the sauce. Blend in 4
egg yolks to thicken the sauce and add a dash of fresh lemon juice.
FRICHTI.
A
colloquial French name for a light meal or snack cooked at home. The word was probably introduced into the
French language I n the l860s by Alsatian soldiers and is derived from the German
Frabstick (breakfast).
FRITELLE.
A
Corsican fritter made with leavened dough containing egg yolks and oil. It contains a mixture of chopped beef, mint
ad marjoram leaves, or a slcie of Corsican sausage, or a square of Broccio (a
fresh cream cheese). Fritelles can also
be made withchestnut flour and flavoured with fennel seeds. They are then sweetened with plenty of sugar.
FRITON
A
chareuterie speciality from southwestern France. Resembling a rillette, it si made with the
residue of melted pork fat and fatty pork pieces, such as belly, which is mixed
with pieces of offal (togue, heart, kidneys or even head)and cooked in lard
(shortening)
The word fritons is also used
for the crisp residues of goose fat and cubes of pork fat, although the more
usual word is grattons or gratterons.
FRITOT
Also
known as friteau. A kind of savoury
fritter made from small pieces of cooked marinated food that are dipped in a
light batter and keep-fried. Fritots are
usually made with frogs legs, shellfish, leftovers of fish, poultry or meat,
various types of offal (variety meats), or vegetables. They are usually arranged on a paper napkin,
garnished with fried parsley and slices of lemon, and served as a hot hors
d’oeuvre, accompanied by a spicy tomato sauce.
Recipes
Friots
of meat or poultry
Bone
some poached or braised meat or poultry (or use leftovers), cut into even-sized
pieces and marinate in a mixture of oil, brandy, chopped parsley, salt and
pepper. Finish as for frogs-leg fritots.
Frogs’
leg fritots
Trim
the frogs legs and mariante them for 30 minutes in a mixture of oil, chopped
garlic, chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper Then dip them in a light batter and deep-fry
until they are golden brown. Drain on
paper towels and serve with fried parsley, quarters of lemon and either curry
sauce or gribiche sauce. The frogs’ legs
can also be threaded on to small skewers before being dipped in the batter and
fried.
Mussel
fritots
Prepare
the mussles a la mariniere, remove from their shells, drain and dry. Finish as for oyster fritots.
Oyster
fritots
Remvoe
the oysters from their shells and poach gently in their own liquor. Drain an dryy, then marinate as for
frogs’-legsfritots, but add a pinch of cayenne pepper to the marinade. Finish as for frogs’-leg fritots and serve
with Italin sauce.
Salmon
fritots
Cut
some raw salmon into thin slices or large dice and marinate in a mixture of
oil, lemon juice, chopped parsley, salt and pepper, finish as for frogs-leg
fricots and serve with tomato or hollandaise sauce or sauce verte.
Sole
fritots
Cut
some sole fillets in two (or four if large gillets) and prepare as for
frogs-leg fritots. Serve with a
flavoured mayonnaise sauce, for example with grated lemon zest and chopped
capers.
FRITTER.
A
preparation consisting of a piece of cooked or raw food coated in batter and
fried in deep fat or oil. Other types of
fritter can be mace using choux paste, yeast dough or waffle batter. Some believe that fritters were of Saracen
origin and were brought back by the Crusaders.
They are served, according to their ingredients as in hos d’oeuvre, a
main course of a dessert, almost always hot and dusted with fine salt or sugar.
When cooking fritters, plenty of
oil must always be used because the fritters drop to the bottom of the pan when
they are placed in the oil and then rise to the surface as the heat cooks the
batter. Fritters should be turned
halfway through cooking. The temperature
of the oil is usually moderate but can vary considerably according to the type
of batter used, whether the food coated in the batter is raw or cooked, and whether the fritter is sweet or
savoury.
The principle of the fritter is
simple, but the dishes vary enormously in shape and taste and range from
regional specialties to classical dishes.
- Fritters made with batter. Some foods containing a large amount of water must be coated with batter for making fritters. Raw ingredients are cut small so they cok 9quickly; ready-cooked ingredients may or may not be marinated. Savoury fritters (made with vegetables, fish or cheese) are served as an hors d’oeuvre, a main course (sometimes with a sauce) or as a cocktail snack, such as prawn (shrimp) fritters.
Sweet fritters are made with fruit or
flowers. The best known of the former
are apple fritters, but they can also be made with bananas and apricots. Flower fritters were very popular in the
Middle Ages, using violets, elderflowers and lilies; today mimosa flowers,
elderflowers and marrow (squash) flowers are practically the only ones still
used. Sweet fritters can also be
prepared with a cold cream sauce, cold rice pudding or semolina cut into
squares or rectangles and coated in batter.
Fritters
made with choux paste. Fritters made using sweet or savoury choux paste re
known as soufflé fritters and are sually called beignets (French for fritters);
they are served as hors d’oeavre or dessers.
In savoury recipes, the pastry can be flavoured with grated cheese,
diced ham and almonds. Sweet choux paste
gives a basic seet fritter.
Fritters
made with yeast dough. These fritters
are made of sweet dough rounds.
Sometimes fileld with jam, plunged into boiling oil. When pulfed and golden they are removed from
the oil and dusted with sugar.
Fritters
made with waffle batter. Fritters made
of waffle bauer are moulded in long-handled waffle irons of various shapes
(stars, boats, hearts, roses). In France
they are mostly used for decoration,but in the USA they are served for breakfast or as a
dessert, often with maple syrup.
Fritters are among the most
ancient and wide-spread of regional dishes.
Made of special flavoured dough, they are often associated with
traditional celebrations. For instance,
bagnes from lyons, mervelles and orellettes from Montpeller, eugnons from
Berry, bignes from Auvergne, roussettes from Strasbourg, fourtesseaux from
Anjou and bottereaux from Nantes.
Recipes
Fritter
batter (l)
Sift
250 g (9 oz 2 l/2 cups) plain
(all-purpose) flour into a bowl. Heat
200 ml (7 fl oz. ¾ cup) water until just lukewarm. Make a well in the flour and add 150 ml (l/4 pint, 2/3 cup) beer, thewarm
water and a generous pinch of salt to the middle of it. Mix, drawing the flour from the sides to the
center of the well. Add 2 tablespoons
groundnut (peanut) oil and mix. Leave to
rest for l hour if possible. When
required for use, stiffly beat 2 to 3 egg whites and fold into the batter. Do not stir or beat. For sweet fritters,
flavour the batter with Calvados. Cognac
or rum. The batter may also be sweetened
with l l/2 tablesppons sugar and the oil replaced with the same amount of
melted butter.
Fritter
batter (2)
Put
250 g (9 oz. 2 l/4 cups) sifted plain (all-purpose) flour in a mixing
bowl. Make a well in the center and add
l teaspoon salt, 2 whole eggs and 300 ml (l /2 pint, l l/4 cup) groundnut
(peanut) oil. Whisk the eggs and oil
together, incorporating a little eo fthe flour.
Add 250 ml (8 fl. Oz, l cup) beer and, striing well, gradually
incorporate the rest of the flour. Allow
to stand for about l hour. A few minutes
before using the batter, whisk 3 egg whites stiffly and fold into the batter
using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
Savoury
Fritters Anchovy fritters
Soak
anchovy fillets in molk to remove all the salt.
Mix together with a fork (or in a blender)some hard-boiled (hard-cooed)
egg yolk, a little butter and some chopped parsley. Spread the mixture on the anchovy fillets and
roll up. Dip in batter, deep-fry in hot
oil and serve with fried parsley.
Artichoke
fritters
Trim
some small, young globe artichokes (harvested before their chokes have formed)
Blanch for 5 minutes until just tender, then drain and cut each one into
four. Sprinkle with plenty of lemon
juice and a little oil, season with salt and pepper and leave to marinate for
30 minutes. Drain dip in batter, deep-fry
in hot oil, drain and serve on a napkin.
(Brussels sprout fritters are prepared in the same way).
Ambergine
fritters
Peel
some aubergines (eggplants), slice them and mariate for l hour in oil, lemon
juice, chopped parsley, salt and pepper.
Continue as for anchovy fritters.
The same methods may be used for broccoli, cardoons, celery, celeriac
(celery root), courgettes (zucchini), cauliflower, marrow (squash) flowers,
salsify, tomatoes and Jerusalem artichokes.
Gernese
fritters
Cut
some Gruyere cheese into rounds 6 cm (2 l/2 in) in diameter. Chop some ham and add to a thick béchamel
sauce; spread on the Gruyere rounds and sandwich the rounds together in
pairs. Dip in batter and continue
As
for anchovy fritters.
Cheese
fritters (l)
Cut
some Gruyebe or Comte cheese into 5 cm (2 in) squares about 4 cm ( l l/2 in)
thick. Dip in batter and contiue as for
anchovy fritters. Serve with highly
seasoned tomato sauce.
Cheese
fritters (2)
Add
grated cheese (Gruyere or Parmesan),
chopped parsley and pepper to a thick bechannel sauce. Allow to cool completely. Dividwe into 25 g (l oz) portions and roll
into balls. Dip in batter and continue as
for anchovy fritters.
Chicken
liver fritters
Remove
the gall from the chicken livers (if present) and marinate for 30 minutes in
oil seasoned with salt, peper and chopped herbs to taste. Then dry and dip in batter. Continue as for anchovy fritters
Lamb’s
or calf’s brain fritters
Poach
thebrains in stock. Slice them and
marinate in oil, chopped parsley and lemon juice. Dip in batter and continue as for anchovy
fritters.
Mushroom
fritters
Wash
some small, fresh, tightly closed button mushrooms. Pat dry and coat with flour. Dip in batter and continue as for anchovy
fritters. They can be served with a
highly seasoned tomato sauce.
Salsify
fritters
Cut
some cooked salsifies into short lengths.
Dry, dip in flour and then in batter.
Continue as for anchovy fritters.
These fritters make a particularly good accompaniment to roast beet,
pork or veal.
Scampi
fritters.
Shell
cooked scampi talls (discarding the heads) and marinate for 30 minutes in oil,
lemon juice and cayenne pepper. Dip in
batter and continue as for anchovy fritters.
Soft
roc fritters
Poach
some soft roes (herring, carp or mackerel, for example) in fish stock, drain
and marinate for 30 minutes in oil, lemon juice and cayenne pepper. Dip in batter and continue as for anchovy
fritters.
Souffle
fritters
Prepare
250 g (9 oz) unsweetened choux paste.
Using a spoon, divide the paste into small balls the size of a
walnut. Plunge into hot oil until the fritters are puffed and
golden. Drain on a cloth and arrange in
a heap on a napkin. The following are
some alternative recipes for soufflé fritters.
-
with anchovies. Add 2 tablespoons finely chopped anchovy
fillets (previously soaked in milk) to the choux paste.
-
A la hongroise. Add 3 tablespoons onions lightly fried in
butter and seasoned with paprika to the paste.
-
With cheese. Add 50
g (2 oz, l/2 cup) grated cheese (preferably Parmesan) seasoned with a little
nutmeg to the paste.
-
A la toscane. Add a little cooked lean ham and a little
chopped white truffle to the paste.
Sweet
Fritters apple fritters
Core
the apples with an apple corer, peel and cut-into rounds about 3 min ( l/2 in)
thick. Sprinkle with lemon juice and macerate for 30 minutes in
Cognac or Calvados. Drain, dip in batter
and continue as for apricot fritters.
Apricot
fritters
Stone
(pit) some ripe apricots and macerate for 30 minutes in sugar and rum (or
kirsch or Cognac). Drain thoroughly, dip
in sweetened or unsweetened batter and deep-fry in hot oil. Remvoe thefritters and drain. Dust with
caster (superfine) sugar and arrange on a napkin. Fritters may also be served dusted with icing
9confectioner’s) sugar and glazed in a hot oven or under a grill (broiler)
Banan
fritters
Peel
some bananas and cut in half lengthways.
Macerate for l hour in white or dak rum with sugar. Dip in batter and deep-fry in hot oil. Drain and continue as for apricot fritters.
Dauphine
(or Viennese) fritters
Sift
500 g (l lb. 2 oz., 4 l/2cups) plain (all-purpose flour. Set aside three-quarters of the flour, place
the remaining quarter in a bowl and make a well in the center. Put20 g (2/3 oz) fresh yeats ( l l/2 cakes
compressed yeast) in the well and stir with a little warm milk or water. Then add enough warm water so that the
mixture can be kneaded into a softish dough.
Shape the dough into a ball, make
a cross in the top with a knife, cover and leave in a warm place.
Make a well in the remaining flour on the
table. Put 4 eggs and 2 tablespoons warm water in the centre of the well and
work together to form a dough, pounding it several times.Dissolve 25 g (1 oz. 2
tablespoons) sugar and 15 g ( ½ oz) salt in a very small quantity of water and
add to the dough. Soften 200 g ( 7 oz, 1 cup) butter and work this into the
dough.Then add 2 eggs, one at a time, working the dough continuously. Pound
several times, then flatten out on the table and put the yeast dough in the
centre. Mix both doughs together, kneading well. Put in a bowl, cover with a
cloth and leave in a warm place to rise for 5-6 hours. Knead the dough again
and leave, covered, in a cool place until required.
Divide the dough in half and roll each piece
out to a thickness of 5 mm ( ¼ in) On one half, arrange at regular intervals
small lblobs of apricot jam, not more than 4 cm ( 1 ½ in) in diameter. Moisten
the dough around each blob of jam with water and cover the other piece of
dough. Press down well between the jam to stick the dough together and cut with
a plain 5 cm ( 2 in0 diameter pastry (cookie) cutter.
Spread a cloth on a plate. Dust with flour
and arrange the fritters on the cloth. Allow to rise for 30 minutes and then
deep fry the fritters in oil at 180 oC(356 oF) When they
have puffed and are light golden on one side, turn and cook the other side.
Drain the fritters. Arrange on a napkin and dust with icing (confectioner’s)
sugar.
Elderflower fritters with honey
Put
250 g( 9 oz. 2 ¼ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add 1 teaspoon salt,
4 teaspoons sugar and 4 egg yolks. Very gently incorporate 325 ml ( 11 ft. oz.
1 ½ cups) light beer to make a smooth dough, but without working it. Allow to
rest for 1 hour in a cool place. Heat oil in a deep-fryer to 180 oC(356
oF_ Whisk 4 egg whites until stiff and fold into the mixture very
carefully. Dip the flowers of 24 racemes of elder-flower into the mixture,
holding them by the stem. Turn them between the fingers to remove excess dough
and fry them head downwards. Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle the fritters with
icing (confectioner’s) sugar and pour a little acacia honey over them. Serve
hot.
Fig
fritters
Peel
and quarter some figs and macenate for 30 minutes in brandy (or liqueur) and
sugar.Dip in batter and continue as for apricot fritters.
Nanette
fritters
Cut
a stale brioche into round slices. Prepare a confectioner’s custard (pastry
cream) and add to it some chopped crystallized (candied) fruit which has been
macerated in kirsch or rum. Spread a little of this mixture on each slice of
brioche and sandwich together in pairs. Moisten with a little sugar syrup
favored with kirsch or rum.Dip in batter and continue as for apricot fritters.
Pineapple
fritters
Slice
a peeled fresh pineapple ( or use canned pineapple).Sprinkle the slcies with
caster (superfine) sugar and kirsch or rum and macerate for 30 minutes.
Continue as for apricot fritters.
Rice
fritters
Prepare
a thick rice pudding. Spread in layer 1.5 cm ( ½ -3/4 in) thick and allow to cool
completely. Cut into small squares, rectangles or lozenges.Dip in batter and
continue as for apricot fritters.
Semolina
fritters
Add
some small raisins soaked in rum to thick semolina pudding and proceed as for
rice fritters.
Semolina
and rice fritters may also be made of two rounds of the chilled mixture spread
with confectioner’s custard(pastry
cream) and sandwiched tightly together.
FRITTO
MISTO An Italian speciality (meaning
literally fried mixture) made from an assortment of savoury fritters, sliced
chicken calves brains or sweetbreads, chicken livers, cauliflower, asparagus
tips, artichoke hearts, rice or macaroni croquettes. The ingredients are
sometimes marinated, then dipped in a light batter and plunged into very hot
deep fat. They are served hot, with lemon quarters, and sometimes accompanied
by very small marinated veal escalopes (scallops) coated in breadcrumbs and
sauteed in butter. Fritto misto mare uses an assortment of seafood and fish.
FRIULI The region is situated in the north of Italy,
bordering Austria and Slovenia, and the wines reflect the melange of cultural
influences with a wealth of different grape varieties planted Mainly white
wines are produced in a crisp, dry fruity style.
FROG A web footed amphibian found in damp marshland
or alongside ponds and streams.Certain species are edible but only the leg
meat. Frogs legs were regarded as a tasty dish in the Middle Ages, particularly
during Lent. In France two main species are found the green or common frog, and
the rusty or mute frog (so called because the male has no larynx) The green
frog has three dark bands on its back and is considered to taste better. The
draining of marshlands has considerably reduced its nubmers, but it can still
be found in the Dombes (hence its fame in Lyonnals gastronomy) in Auvergne
Sologne, Britany and Alsace.The rusty or mute frog is darker and only
approaches the water to mate. It generally inhabits cool places, not
necessarily near water. Its flesh is rather less delicate than that of the common
frog.
Most of the frogs eaten in France are
improted from central Europe and Yogoslavia.They tend to be larger and have
more meat than the local species. Frozen frogs legs, from bullfrogs, are also
imported from Cuba or the United States.These are nearly as big as the legs of
guinea fowl but they have very little flavour.
The delicate flavour of the meat is enhanced
by seasoning, and frogs legs are often prepared with herbs, garlic and chopped
parsley.They are also made into blanquettes, soups, omelettes and incuselines,
and can be fried or sauteed. The most highly regarded recipes come from Lyons,
Alsace and Poitou.The Menagiere de Paris contained recipes for cooking them in
soups and in the pie.
Frogs legs are also eaten in Germany and Italy
but they have usually filled the british with disgust. When Escoffer was chef
of the Carlton Hotel in London, he managed to have them accepted at the table
of the Prince of Wales by calling them cuises de nymphes aurore.
RECIPES
Preparation
Skin
the frogs by slitting the skin at the neck and pulling it back. Cut the
backbone so that the legs are still joined to it and can be cooked in
pairs.Cut off the feet. Skewer the legs
and soak them in very cold water. Change the water 3 or 4 times over a period
of 12 hours, so that the flesh writtens and swells. Dry the legs and cook them
according to the recipe. Usually 3 paris per serving are allowed.
Brochettes
of Frogs legs
Marinate
the frogs legs for at least 2 hurs in a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice,
grated garlic, finally chopped parsley and a pinch each of cayenne pepper,
powdered bay leaf, salt and pepper.Drain dry and thread them on to skewers.Fry
for 7-10 minutes in the oil in which they were marinated, or grill (broil) them
gently for 15-20 minutes.Test with a fork to see if they are cooked. Sprinkle
with chopped parsley and serve very hot garnished with slices of lemon.
Fried
frogs legs
Season
the prepared frogs legs with salt and pepper and dip them in flour (or in egg
and breadcrumbs) Saute them in butter or olive oil in a shallow frying pan for 7-10 minutes over
a brisk heat. Drain and arrange in a heated serving dish. Sprinkle with chopped
parsley and lemon juice. If they were cooked in butter, pour it over them,
otherwise use matre d’hotel butter. Serve with boiled potatoes.
Frogs
legs ala lyonnaise
Prepare
the frogs legs and saute them in butter as for fried frogs legs.Add 2
tablespoons finely chopped onion to the frying pan and brown the ingredients.(A
finely chopped shallot may be added to the onions.) Arrange on a heated serving
dish and sprinkle with chopped parsley and vinegar.
Frogs
legs a la meuniere
Prepare
the frogs legs season with salt and pepper and dip them in flour.Saute them in
butter for 7-10 minutes over a brisk heat. Place in a timbale dish and sprinkle
with chopped parsley. Keep hot Heat some butter in the saute pan until it turns
brown, add the juice of half a lemon and, if necessary, a little fresh butter.
Pour this over the frogs legs and serve immediately.
Frogs
legs with garlic puree and parsley juice
Remove
the stalks from 100 g ( 4 oz. 2 cups)
parsley and wash. Cook for 3 minutes in boiling water, leave to cool and then
puree in a blender. Poach the cloves of 4 heads of garlic for 2 minutes in
boiling water seasoned with salt. Remove the garlic from the water, peel and
return to the boiling water to cook for another 7-8 minutes. Repeat 6-7 times
until te garlic is soft. Puree the garlic in a blender and put in a casserole
with 500 ml ( 17 ft oz. 2 cups) milk. Season with salt and pepper. Season the
frogs legs with salt pepper . Heat some
olive oil and a knob of butter and fry the frogs legs for 2-3 minutes until
golden. Heat the parsley puree with 100 ml ( 4 ft oz. 7 tablespoons) water.
Drain the frogs legs on paper towels. Pour the parsley sauce into a warm
serving dish. Arrange the garlic puree in the middle and surround with the
frogs legs.
FROMAGE
DES PYRENEES Uncooked pressed cow’s milk
cheese (50% fat ) with a naturally brushed crust, made inAriege. Beam and the
Basque country. It is drum shaped, 30 cm (12 in) in diameter and 10 cm ( 4 in)
thick weighing 3.5-4.5 kg ( 7 ¾ -10 lb) A supple, cheese pricked with little
holes, it has a slightly acid taste. Fromage des Pyrences can also be made from
sheep’s milk using the same method.
FROMAGE
FRAIS The French term for unripened
fresh cheese. Make from whose or skimmed milk fronage frais has a thick creamy
consistency.Depending on its fat content, it can be rich and creamy or very
light and slightly tangy in flavour. It is used in sweet or savoury dishes, in
dips and salad dressing to make occur a la crème, with fruit or fruit conserves
to make simple desserts, or plain as a dessert topping.
FROMAGE
GLACE A cone shaped ice cream of the 18th
and early 19th century. They originally consisted simply of ice
cream in various flavours, but later became what we now call bombes.At that
time, the name fromage (cheese) was used not only for fermented milk products
but for all preparations based on milk, cream and sugar, provided they were
shaped in a mould, thus a Bavariar cream was known as a fromage bavaroios.
Grimed de la Reyniere stated that it was in error that this name is given to
all sorts of ice cream made in large quantities
in moulds. Whatever one calls them, however, these fluted iced cheeses
are the most beautiful ornamental desserts. They have the advantage over ice
cream served in sundae dishes that they keep longer without melting, and they
are better than slabs of ice cream because they are softer.
Among the fromages glaces popular during the
Second Empire were fromage a la italienne (flavoured with lemon marmalade and
orange blossom) fromage de parmesan (with cinnamon and cloves, poured into a
mould and sprinkled with grated Parmesan) and fromage a la chantilly ( with
whiped cream and citron peel)
FROMENT A French term for various types of wheat
soft, hard and spelt. In cookery,the word froment is used in preference to ble
to avoid any confusion with buckwheat, commonly known as ble noir (black wheat)
Fine fleur de fromenti traditionally denotes a superior quality flour used for
baking.
FROMENT
A French term for various types of wheat soft, hard and spelt. In cookery, the
word froment is used in preference to ble to avoid any confusion with
buckwheat, commonly known as ble noir (black wheat) Fine fleur de froment (fine
wheaten flour) traditionally denotes a superior quality flour used for baking.
FRONSAC Fruity and well rounded AOC red wine from
Libournais. The appellation canon fronsee is limited to thecommunes of Fronsac
and Stint Michel de Fronsac
FRONTIGNAN A vin doux naturel made from the Muscat Blac
a Petits Grains grape grown around the town of Fronignan in the Herault.Very
popular at one time as Frontigna or Frontinlac.
FRONTON AOC red and sometimes rose, supple fruity
and with little tannin, made from the Negrette grape on a plateau between the
Tarn and Garonne rivers.
FROST To shake some ice cubes in an empty glass so
that an opaque mist forms on the sides of the glass before a cocktail or a
fruit based spirit is poured in Alternatively, a glass is frosted by moistening
the rim with lemon juice or egg while then dipping it upside down in caster
(superfine) sugar chocolate powder or vanilla sugar.
Frosted fruit is whole pieces or cluster of
fruit brushed with egg white or lemon
juice, then dusted with caster sugar.
Frosted fruit is whole pieces or clusters of
fruit brushed with egg white or lemon juice, then dusted with caster sugar.
FROSTING The American term for icing used as a noun
to describe the mixture applied as a cake covering and filling, and as a verb
to describe the process of applying it. Frosting covers soft icing and cake
fillings, such as buttercream, chocolate icing, or glace icing, but not royal
icing which is known by the same name. Outside America, the soft cake covering
and filling made by whisking sugar syrup into egg whites is usually called
American frosting. The quick version, made by whisking egg whites and sugar
over hot water, is seven minute frosting.
Frosting is also term for applying sugar
coating to fruit or mint leaves by first brushing them with egg white or water,
then sprinkling with caster (superfine) sugar and allowing to set. The rims of
drinking glasses are also frosted with sugar for some cocktails. Frosting also
describes the way chilled glasses become cloudy when removed from the
refrigerator or freezer.
RECIPES
American
frosting
Make
a sugar syrup using 225 g ( 8 oz. Generous 1 cup) sugar and 5 tablespoons
water.Bring to the boil and cook until the syrup reaches 121 oC (250
oF) Meanwhile use an electric beater to whisk 2 egg whites and a pinch of
cream of tartar until stiff in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of hot, not
boiling water. Remove the syrup from the heat. Whisking continuously pour the
syrup into the egg whites in a slow, steady steam. Whisk in ½ teaspoon natural
vanilla essence (extract) Remove from the heat and cool slightly, then spread
the frosting over the cake.
Quick
frosting
Place
225 g ( 8 oz. Generous 1 cup) caster (superfine) sugar, 3 tablespoons water, 2
egg whites and a pinch of cream of tartar in a heatproof bowl. Using an
electric beater, whisk the mixture over a pan of water that is barely
simmering, not boiling for 5 minutes, until the mixture will begin to cook on
the hot bowl . Remove the bowl from the pan and add ½ teaspoon natural vanilla
essence (extract). Whisk for 2 minutes, then use immediately.
FRUIT Botanically speaking the fruit is the part of
the plant that develops from the ovary of the flower and contains the seeds.
This definition covers not only the sweet fleshy fruits but also certain
vegetables courgette (zucchini) aubergines (eggplants), cucumbers and nuts.
Fruit can be divided into three main groups.
Fleshy
fruits with a high water content (up to 90%) These include citrus fruits,
pears, pineapples, apples, peaches, mangoes and strawberries.
Fleshy
fruits with a high sugar content. These includes dates and dried fruits.
Dry
fruits with a high fat contents and low water content. Thee include nuts
(walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds) and are usually considered in a separate
category.
Exotic
fruit. The term covers a wide variety of
fruit and includes many that are now familiar, such as mango, kiwi, papaya,
passion fruit and lychee. Others are still aporadic in availability and not
widely used either as dessert fruit or in cooking. These fruit vary widely in
appearance, texture flavour and culinary characteristics.
Desserts.
Raw fruit for dessert should always be sound and just ripe.Fresh fruit can also
be served chilled flamed with rice,
somolina or soft cheese, in fritters or kebabs, or baked (apples bonne femme, apricot meringue).
Fruit is also used for a wide range of
mouses, creams, ice creams, sorbets, charlotte, souffles, jellies, pies and
tarts. Finally diced fruit can be used in omelettes, pancakes and puddings and
as a sauce or puree to accompany ice creams and desserts.
Preserving
fruit.Various preservation methods are used for fleshly fruit, depending on the
type. Many fruits can be sterilized and then preserved in bottle or jars. This
method does not alter the vitamins content very much but the mineral content
may be affected. Fruits preserved in this way may be used for a wide range of
mousses, creams, ice creams, sorbets, charlotte, souffles, jellies, pies and
tarts. Finally, diced fruit can be used in omelettes, pancakes and puddings and
as a sauce or puree to accompany ice creams and desserts.
Fruit
in cookery. Fruit can be used for making jam, marmalade, compotes and jellies,
as well as for drinks, either alcoholic
or non alcoholic fruits ulcers. Natural fruit extracts are used in
confectionery, baking dairy products and drinks.
Although fruit is mostly used in sweet
preparations, it also goes well with meat, fish, poultry or vegetables. Apart
from lemon, the following fruits can be used in cooking pineapples and bananas
with game and turkey, figs with cured ham and partridge grapefruit with crab
and fish, cherries with duck and game, quince with tafines, mango with beef,
orange with duck and calf’s liver grapes with quail and fish, prunes with
rabbit and pork, and apple with black pudding and red cabbage.
RECIPES
Fondant
coated or marquise cherries
Thoroughly
drain about 50 cherries (complete with their stalks) preserved in brandy or
eau-de-vie. Pat dry, removing any excess liquid. Put 375g ( 13 oz) fondant into
a small heavy based saucepan and heat rapidly, adding 4 tablespoons kirsch, mix
well with a wooden spatula. When the fondant is liquid, remove from the heat
and incorporate 3-4 drops of red food colouring, mixing briskly. Hold each
cherry by the stalk and dip it in the fondant, let any excess drip back into
the saucepan. Then lay the cherries on a work surface or marble slab
sprinkled lightly with icing
(confectioner’s) sugar to prevent the fruit from sticking. Transfer each cherry
to a small paper case.
Alternatively,
add colouring to only half the fondant, to give 25 pink and 25 white
cherries. (The same method can be used
for large blackcurrants preserved in brandy use pink fondant).
Fruit
brochettes en papillotes
Peel
some orange, remove the pith and seeds, and cut the segments into pieces, peel
some pears, apple, and bananas, cut into cubes or slices and sprinkle with
lemon juice, cut some fresh or canned pineapple into cubes. Macerate all these
ingredients for 30 minutes with some sugar to taste and liquier or spirit
(Curacao, brandy, rum or Grand Marnier) then thread the pieces on to small
skewers, mixing the various fruits. Lay each skewer on a piece of lightly
buttered foil or greaseproof paper and dot the fruit with small pieces of
butter. Wrap the brochettes in the foil or paper, lay them on the shelf ( rack)
in a preheated oven at 240 oC (474 oF, gas 9) and cook
for about 15 minutes. Serve the brochettes in their wrapping. To microwave, use
buttered greaseproof paper and cook the brochettes for about 3 minutes on full
power.
Glace
cherries filled with almond paste.
Prepare
some almond paste with (125 g 4 ½ oz, 1 cup) ground almonds, 250 g ( 9 oz. 1
cup) sugar, 4 tablespoons glucose powder, 5 tablespoons water and some kirsch.
Split 50 glace (candied) cherries in half, but without separating the halves
completely. Shape the almond paste into small balls and insert one into each
cherry. Serve on a tray sprinkled with icing (confectioner’s) sugar.
FRUIT
GIVRE A dessert consisting of a
hollowedout fruit skin filled with ice cream, sorbet or iced soeffle made with
the flesh of the fruit.This method is particularly suitable for citrus fruit
(such as oranges, lemons or tangerine) pineapple, melon and persianmon.
FRUITIER During the Ancien Regime, the member of the
royal household charged with supervising the supply of fruit, as well as tapes
and candles.
FRUIT
JUICE The liquid extracted a fruit by
pressure or by certrifugal force. Fruit
juice is a refreshing drink, often rich in vitamins, which can be drunk plain
or diluted with water or soda water. Concentrated fruit juices have been
developed, either in liquid form or in crystals, which can be diluted to taste.
The fruit juices most widely consumed are apple, grape, orange, grapefruit,
mango, pineapple and tomato. For fruits that are more fleshy (apricots,
mangoes, pears) or more acid (gooseberry, blackcurant raspberry) the juices
have a larger proportion of added water and sugar.
Fruit juices are used mainly as drinks but
they are also used to make ices and sorbets, as well as in more general
cooking.Lemon juice has its special uses, in many diets, natural fruit juices
are complemented by vegetable juices served as nonalcoholic aperitifs.
RECIPES
Fermented
cherry juice
Remove
the stones (pits) from 1 kg (2 ¼ lb) red cherries and 100 g ( 4 oz) black
cherries. Press the fruit into a sieve placed over a mixing bowl, crushing then
hard, put the crushed pulp in a fruit press to extract all the juice, then add
this to the juice in the bow and leave to ferment at a temperature of 12-15
oC (54-59 oF) until the juice is no longer cloudy (about 24
hours) Strain through muslin (cheesecloth) or a jelly bag then add 450g (l lb.
2 cups) caster (superfine) sugar to every 600 ml (1 pint 2 ½ cups) juice. Stir
until dissolved, strain again, bottle and seal.
Raspberry, gooseberry or blackberry
fermented juices is prepared in the same way.
FRUIT
PASTE A confectionery item made with
fruit pulp sugar and pectin. It is prepared in a similar way to jam, but is a
much drier mixture. The fruit pulp represents 50% of the finished product (40%
for quinces and citrus fruits) In industrially manufactured fruit paste, this
pulp usually consists of one third apricot pulp, one third apple pulp and one
third pulp of the fruit that give its name to the paste, usually with a
flavouring and sometimes a colouring. The pulp is cooked with sugar, glucose
syrup and pectin, then flavoured, coloured and poured into moulds of starch (or
on to trays to be cut into shapes later) After 12-24 hours the fruit pastes are
turned out, brushed if they have been moulded in starch) and dried, then relied
in caster (superfine) sugar or icing (confectioner’s) sugar.They are stored at
a moderate temperature in a slightly humid atmosphere.
Certain French regional specialities have a
basis of fruit paste. Vosges apricots
Dijon cassissines Auvergne and Dauphine mulberies.
RECIPES
Apple
paste
Peel
and core some good dessert (eating) apples. Put them in a pan with about 750 ml
( 1 ¼ pints, 3 ¼ cups0 per 1 kg ( 2 ¼ lb) apples and cook, turning them over
occasionally with a wooden spoon, until they are soft.. Remove the apples and
put them in a sieve over a bowl. When they are cold, press them through the
sieve and reduce the pulp by half over the heat. Pour the thick pulp into a
glazed earthenware dish or a terrine. Make a syrup with the same quantity of
sugar, cook it to the soft ball stage, take the pan off the heat and pour in
the apple pulp. Stir well over a low heat with the mixture gently bubbling,
until the bottom of the pan can be seen. Pour into a mould (as for apricot
paste).
Apricot
paste
Stone
(pit) some very ripe apricots, put them in a pan, just cover them with water
and bring to the boil. Drain and peel the fruits, then pass them through a
vegetable mill. Weigh the pulp obtained,. For 1 kg (2 ¼ lb) pulp, weigh 1.1 –
1.2 kg (2 ½ - 2 ¾ lb) caster (superfine) sugar. Mix 100 g ( 4 oz. ½ cup) of
this sugar with 60 g ( 2 oz. ½ cup) powdered gelatine. Pour the pulp into a
heavy based saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the sugar gelatine mixture and
bring back to the boil, stirring with a wooden frame, specially for making
fruit paste. Pour the paste inside the frame smooth the surface and leave to
cool completely (about 2 hours) Then cut the paste out into squares or
rectangles, roll them in caster sugar and store them in an airtight tin,
separating the layers with grease proof paper.
Cherry
paste
Stalk
and stone (pit) the cherries and put them through a vegetable mill. Prepare as
for apricot paste but use equal weights of sugar and cherry pulp and 65 g (2 ½ oz, 2 ½ tablespoons) powdered gelatine
per 1 kg ( 2 ¼ lb ) pulp.
Plum
paste
Use
ripe plums or greengages and the same procedure as for apricot paste.
Quince
paste
Peel
1 kg ( 2 ¼ lb) quinces, seed and cut
into pieces. Put in a saucepan with 150 ml ( ¼ pint, 2/3 cup) waste and cook
until the fruit is reduced to a puree. Strain through a vegetable mill using
the disc with medium sized holes.Return the puree to the pan. Add 1.25 kg ( 2 ¼
lb) sugar and cook for about 45 minutes, until the mixture comes away from the
bottom of the pan. Stir continuously to make sure the mixture does not stick.
Pour the mixture into a frame placed on a marble slab coated with granulated
sugar. The next day, when the quince paste is very cool, cut into pieces. Dip
into granulated sugar and leave to dry.
Strawberry
paste
Wash
and hull the strawberries and put them through a vegetable mill. Use equal
weights of sugar and strawberry pulp and 65 g ( 2 ¼ lb) pulp. Prepare as for
apricot paste but note that the brisk boiling stage should last only 5 minutes.
FRUIT
SALAD A dessert consisting of pieces of
sliced or chopped fruit or whole small fruit( such as grapes) stored (pitted)
and peeled if necessary macerated in sugar and often in alcohol (sweet wine or
liqueur) and served in a fruit dish. Traditionally a syrup was used to coat the
fruit, but fruit salads are often served unsweetened, moistened with fruit
juice. The dish is placed on crushed ice or chilled and the fruit, salad may be served with cream or ice cream.
The fruit used varies according to the
season, soemtimes exotic fruit are used, such as lychees, kiwi fruit, mangoes,
or passion fruit. The fruit can be raw, poached and cooled, or dried, soaked
and poached. Canned fruit can also be used
(in this case the fruit juice or syrup is used instead of sugar0 and
crystallized (candied) or dried fruit can be used as decoration.
RECIPES
Exotic
fruit salad with lime
Peel
a very ripe pineapple and dice the flesh. Peel and stone (pit) 3 mangoes, cut
the flesh into strips. Peel 3 bananas, slice them and roll (but do not soak)
the slices in the juice of a lime. Put all these ingredients in a bowl, sprinkle
with 3-4 tablespoons sugar and chill for at least 3 hours before serving.
Fruit
Salad a la maltaise
Macerate
an assortment of sliced bananas, stoned (pitted) cherries and cubes of fresh
pineapple in a mixture of Curacao and sugar. Chill, Put a layer of orange
flavoured ice cream in the bottom of glass fruit bowl, arrange the drained
fruit on top. Decorate with whipped cream and peeled orange segments.
Alternatively, the ice cream can be omitted and orange juice mixed with Curacao poured over.
Fruit
salad a la normande
Peel
and core a pineaple and cut the flesh into cubes. Peel and slice some bananas.
Peel and core some apples, cut them into cubes and sprinkle with lemon juice.
Macerate all the fruit in some Calvados mixed with sugar.Chill. Arrange the
fruit in a glass bowl and pour the fruit liquid over it. Cover with single
(light) or Chantilly cream.
Fruit
salad a I occitaninne
Peel
and core some pears, slice thickly and sprinkle with lemon juice. Peel and
slice some f gs. Peel some large black and
white grapes. Arrange the ingredients in layers in a glass bowl, sprinkle with
sugar and pour over some Blanquette de Limoux ( sparkling white wine) and a
little brandy.Chill for at least 1 hour. Cover with Chantilly cream and
decorate with peeled grapes.
FRUIT
STONER (PITTER) A special utensil designed to remvoe the stones (pits) from
certain fruits particularly cherries and olive, without spoiling the flesh
it type of pincers with a cupshaped
depression at the end of one arm in which the fruit is held and a short rod at
the end of the other arm that acts as a pusher and inserts itself in the fruit.
When the pincers are squeezed together, the stone is pushed out. The stones are
removed from olives before stuffing them. A type of cherry stoner with a receptacle
for catching the stones is quicker and more efficient to use.
FRUMENTY A very old country dish, consisting of a
porridge or gruel made from wheat boiled with milk, then sweetened and spiced.
Originating in Touraine it is mentioned as a dessert in Le Menagier de Paris
(1383) being made with milk in which almonds have been boiled to give flavour
and served either warm and semi-liquid or cold and set.
In the Berry region, frumenty was made with
water and served with butter or fresh cream.
FRYING
Cooking food in hot fat, Different types
of fat may be used, including lard, dripping, butter or oil. Fat can be heated
to a far higher temperature than water so this is often a fierce cooking
method. The type of amount of fat used depends on the particular method and the
result required. The minimum fat can be used to prevent food from sucking to
the pan, a shallow layer can be used or the food can be submerged in fat. When
the minimum of fat is used it may form the base for a sauce or in the case of
butter or olive oil, it may be used to dress the cooked food.
FRYING
PAN (SKILLET) A round or oval shallow
pan with a long handle, used for frying or sauteeing food. The French word pode
comes from the Latin patella, meaning a small dish. Meat, fish vegetables, eggs
and various mixrure (croquettes, omelettes, pancakes) may be sauteed or fried.
The classic frying pan, made of steel with a mart black finish, is thick and
heavy so that it does not buckle and food does not burn. To prevent it from
rusting, it must be dried thoroughly after cleaning and lightly oiled using a
cloth pad or paper towels.
There is now a wide choice of pans and
finishes. Many people prefer lighter pans because they are easier to work with
and maintain, pans of glazed aluminium with a ceramic interior are light and
good conductors of heat.
FUDGE A very soft caramel that melts in the mouth
and is not sticky. It originated in the 19th century from an error
made during the manufacture of normal toffee, when the sugar recrystallized. It
can be flavoured with fruit, nuts, chocolate, or coffee, and is cut into
squares when cold.
RECIPE
Vanilla
fudge
Heat
150 g ( 5 oz) unsweetened condensed milk and 1 vanilla pod (bean) in a large
heavy based saucepan. Add 400 g ( 14 oz, 1 ¾ cups) caster (superfine) sugar, 65
g ( 2 ½ oz, 5 tablespoons) butter and 1 teaspoon vinegar. Bring slowly to the
boiled stirring all the time. Cover and simmer over a low heat for 2 minutes
then remove the vanilla pod and cook until the mixture starts to form a plabble
fall. Place the bottom of the pan in cold water and heat until the mixture
thickens, lightens in colour and loses its shine. Pour immediately on to a
marble work surface or a greased baking sheer. Smooth over with a rolling pin
and cut the fudge into pieces before it has completely cooked.
FUFU Also called fonfou or fontou a traditional starchy African savoury pudding
or thick pordge. Fufu may be made from vegetables, sucha s cassava, yam, sweet
potato and or plantain a flour or meal ground from root vegetables or corn
(maize) or rice. The starchy ingredient is cooked in water to make a smooth,
thick porridge or mixture as thick as a dough which can be shaped in a dish.
Fufu is served as an accompaniment to rich and spicy fish, meat and/ or
vegetable stews or soups .
FUGU
Japanese name for a fish of the Tetraodontidae family, also called blowfish or
puffer.The species valued in Japan is notorious for its poisonous liver and
other innards.The fish has to be prepared with skill to avoid contaminating the
edible flesh with poisons from the internal organs.Chef’s are specially trained
in the preparation of fugu and only those who are qualified are allowed to
prepare the fish, which is served in licensed restaurants.The excitement of possibly dicing with death by
eating the fish is one of the reasons for its popularity (deaths are
occasionally recorded as a result of preparation by unqualified home cooks)
Fugu is served as sashimi, cut in fine slices. It is also served, simmered,
with tofu, and a dipping sauce. The fins are dried, salted and toasted, then
used to flavour sake.
There is a related northern swellfish, puffer
or blowfish that is not poisonous, found in the North Atlantic.
FULBERT-DUMONTEIL,
JEAN CAMILLE French journalist and
writer (born v
ergi, 1831, died Neuilly sur Siene, 1912) He was the author of numerous articles and about 30 books, starting his career with the Mousquetaire newspaper (owned by Dumas pere) and later moving to Le Figaro. In 1906 he published a colleciton of articles on gastronomy entitled La France gourmande, which reflect his Belle Epoque spirit and love of food. He choose as his coat of arms truffles and smiles on a field of roses. Besides gastronomy, he was passionately interested in zoology and travel which inspired some flights of lyricism on exotic cookery.
ergi, 1831, died Neuilly sur Siene, 1912) He was the author of numerous articles and about 30 books, starting his career with the Mousquetaire newspaper (owned by Dumas pere) and later moving to Le Figaro. In 1906 he published a colleciton of articles on gastronomy entitled La France gourmande, which reflect his Belle Epoque spirit and love of food. He choose as his coat of arms truffles and smiles on a field of roses. Besides gastronomy, he was passionately interested in zoology and travel which inspired some flights of lyricism on exotic cookery.
FUL
MEDAMES Also known as foul medames. The
name of the Egyptian national dish, and of the type of bean in which it is
made, a bean as old as the Pharoals comes from the same root as ful in Egypt also embraces the dried
brown broad bean. But the name is specifically identified with a smallish, squart smooth brown bean,
unusual in that the contact point with the pod is on the end. In Egypt it is an
important source of nutrition in the average diet. It is eaten throughout the
Middle East, commonly seasoned with
olive oil, garlic and lemon juice, and eaten with bamine eggs and or bread.
Traditionally the beans are long cooked in a pot burried overnight in the fire
ashes. As such it is Egypt’s national breakfast, and an essential mezze.
FUMET A liquid obtained by reducing a stock or
cooking liquid that is added to as sauce or cooking stock to enhance its
flavour or give it extra body. Literally meaning aroma, the word fumet is used
for concentrated mushroom, and fish stocks, for meat poultry and game stock the
word fond is used.
Mushroom fumet The concentrated cooking
liquid obtained by boiling cultivated
mushrooms in salted, lemon flavoured water with butter, it is used to improve
the flavour of some sauces and can be kept, in a well sealed bottle, in the
refrigerator or freezer. Truffle fumet can be made by cooking truffle peelings
with Madeira and reducing the liquid.
RECIPES
Fish
fumet
Crush
2.5 kg ( 5 ½ lb) bones and trimming of white fish (sole, lemon sole,
whting brill, turbot) Peel and thinly
slice 125 g ( 4 ½ oz, 1 ½ cups) onions and shallots, clean and thinly slice 150
g ( 5 oz. 1 2/3 cups) mushrooms or mushroom stalks and trimmings, squeeze the
juice from half a lemon tie 25 g ( 1 oz) parsley sprigs into a bundle. Put all
the ingredients in a saucepan and add a small spig of thyme, a bay leaf, 1
tablespoon lemon juice and 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt. Moisten with 2.5 litres (4 ¼ pints, 11 cups) water and 500 ml
( 17 ft oz. 2 cups) dry white wine ( or red for some recipes) Bring to the
boil, then skin and boil very gently for 30 minutes. Strain through muslin
(cheesecloth) and leave to cool.
Mushroom
fumet
Bring
500 ml (17 ft oz. 2 cups) water to the boil with 40 g ( 1 ½ oz 3 tablespoons)
butter, the juice of half a lemon, and 1 teaspoon slat, add 500 g ( 1 lb 2 oz)
cleaned mushrooms to this mixture and leave to boil for about 10 minutes.
Remove the mushrooms ( which can be used as a garnish) and reduce the cooking
liquid by half. This fumet will keep in the refrigerator, covered, until
required.
FUNGUS,
CHINESE The white fungus has a sponge
like texture and is brilliant white in colour.Wood ear (black fungus) is a grey
black curly fungus used in soups or chopped up in spring rolls. It is almost flavourless
, but retains its texture after cooking.
FUNNEL A utensil for filling bottles or other
containers.Generally conical (oval for brandy) with a long narrow stem, funnel
are made of glass, stainless steel, tin plate, enamelled metal or plastic. There
is sometimes a tap for controlling the flow.An icing funnel has a wooden stick
to control the aperture and is used to pour certain types of confectionery into
moulds.
FUSION
COOKING A term used to describe cooking
styles making use of techniques, ingredients and seasoning from Asian and
Western cuisines for any one dish. Fusion food, the description often applied
to the resulting dishes may consist of European ingredients cut and cooked by a
Chinese method, seasoned with Asian or Southeast Asian herbs or spices. Stir
frying and steaming are typical cooking methods, noodles dim sum wrappers and
Chinese pancakes are versatile ingredients, dipping sauces are likely
accompaniments, and salads bring together hot and cold. Western and Oriental
vegetables or dressings. Fusion cooking
reflects the fashion for meals that are light, but satisyfing and full of contrasting flavour and textures. Dishes
often have a high proportion of vegetables and a comparatively small amount of
fish, meat or poultry, with a small quantity of thin, but full flavoured sauces
and dresssings.
FUZZY
MELON Also caleld fuzzy squash or hairy melon, this vegetables is used in Chinese and Asian cooking. This long green
squash is covered with short hairs, and the peel has to be removed before
cooking. The flesh is firm and mild, and it readily takes on the flavour of
ingredients with which it is cooked,. It is braised with meat or seafood, stir
fried in a vareity of Chiense dishes or seasoned with curry spices in Indian
dishes.
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