Buttered radishes
A large audience has one major downside: there will always be those among your readers who know more than you do. I remember a few years ago when I first read that the French like to eat fresh radishes with butter and salt, I wrote about it on my website and got a few comments saying, “This is news to me too, I’ve been eating radishes like this since I was a kid”. You read them and think – it turns out that everyone has long been aware of it, but you are the only one who is a fool.
But I have the easiest radish recipe imaginable for those who don’t know yet. And it’s not just “radishes separately, oil separately”, but a complete snack, which is not ashamed to serve to guests, because it looks nice, and you can eat without hassle and without fear of getting dirty. Except that on a picnic it is better to take radish and butter separately because of the latter’s property to melt quickly – but there are enough other pleasures on a picnic.
Tarte tatin
The recipe of this “inverted” apple pie has long become a classic of French cuisine. Probably everyone knows the legend about how one of the Taten sisters, who kept a hotel in a small town south of Paris, by mistake or oversight ruined the apple pie filling and, saving the dish, covered it with dough and sent it into the oven.
The resulting pie, called tarte tatin, became a favorite of the hotel guests, and its simplicity gave rise to many recipes and variations – now tarte tatin is made not only of apples but also of pears, peaches, and even aubergines.
Duck rillettes
Duck rillettes are closely related to duck confit, but serve as an appetiser that is hard to tear yourself away from. Like many classic recipes, yet was not invented for good – the “sealing” with melted fat primarily preserves the product from spoilage, and only then does it help mature the flavor. Well, let’s say to the ancient inventors of riyet our great thanks – indeed, there is something for it.
Beef Burgundy
The Burgundian peasant lived a poor life. All delicacies went to the nobility, and the common people had access only to inexpensive, tough meat and simple root vegetables. But there was always plenty of wine. Thanks to this, beef Burgundy was born, which turned from a simple peasant meal into one of the most famous dishes of French cuisine.
Beef Burgundy became an obsession of the main character in the film Julie and Julia, but it became popular much earlier. After all, it’s a simple, inexpensive and very tasty way to make tough cuts of beef tender and juicy. The tough beef softens in the wine, gelatin forms in the connective tissue, and thickens into a delicious sauce. Yes, you got it right, beef Burgundy is delicious, and you should make it!….
Country-style terrine
Terrine is a dish that is addictive. Given that you can juggle different ingredients, from offal to fruit and vegetables, the number of variations on the theme of terrine tends to be endless. But today we will not fantasise: this dish is called country-style terrine because it contains the simplest products, and the preparation does not take much effort: simple, hearty and tasty.
Onion soup
To take one single (and not the most remarkable!) vegetable and fully reveal its character and flavor, another aggregate state can only be guessed at – oh, only the French could have thought of this! The result is an incredible soup – thick, flavourful, warming, slightly sweet, and not at all “oniony”. I will not lie, there are nuances in the preparation of this soup, the main of which is patience, which should be shown when slowly stewing onions: the longer it will take, the better the final result will be.
Veal liver Lyonnaise
Veal liver is an extremely healthy product, but it is a favorite. Often, housewives self-consciously overdry the veal liver, stew it to the state of a submarine, and pour mayonnaise – in short, they do everything to make these lovers as little as possible. How to avoid this? Cook veal liver Lyonnaise. This is a classic French recipe from the most gastronomic city of France, and here, believe me, they know how to cook not only veal liver, but also offal in general.
Duck confit
This method of preparing duck legs was originally used for preservation purposes: duck confit prepared in this way can be stored in the fridge for several months. Nevertheless, the fact that it is also a delicious dish has made it very popular worldwide. Duck leg confit de canard is the classic recipe, but goose, pork, rabbit and even chicken can be cooked similarly.
Shrimp bisque
Describing prawn bisque to someone who has never tasted it, we will inevitably come to the main feature of this soup: the intense, concentrated flavor of the prawns, which plays its powerful symphony from the first to the last spoonful. To achieve this, the prawns themselves and their heads and shells are used: what you might think of as waste lays the foundation for the flavor and aroma of the bisque.
Preparing prawn bisque is not complicated but is quite labor-intensive. And yet, it is worth it: there is simply no other way to get such a rich flavor out of prawns, which is elevated to an absolute. After that, all you need to enjoy this soup is a spoon and a crouton of white bread. Shrimp bisque belongs to those things that do not tolerate excess.
Ratatouille
When fragrant and ripe vegetables appear on the beds and the shelves, it becomes much easier to create happiness with your own hands: you just need to take all the flavours of summer and combine them. This is how the classic ratatouille – the vegetable dish of Provence cuisine made famous by the cartoon of the same name – came into being. And although one might ask, “Where are we and where is Provence?” this time, that excuse won’t work: all the ingredients of ratatouille are very accessible and simple, just take and cook.
The ratatouille in this recipe (I took it from the book Bouchon by Thomas Keller) is delicious and a small work of art. Beautifully laying out circles of vegetables, you will catch a wave of inner harmony and serenity, and taking ratatouille out of the oven will cause a furore. First – by the unusual, but very beautiful appearance of this dish, and then by its excellent flavour.
