French Recipes
1126 recipes found
Craig Claiborne's Fish Stock
Classic Stuffed Mushrooms
This classic hors d'oeuvres recipe first appeared in The Times in a February 1981 column by Craig Claiborne on the then-popular topic of no-salt cooking. Mushrooms, he said, are “the one basic ingredient best suited to a no-salt cookery,” noting a “depth of flavor” and “a meat-like consistency.” We may have relaxed our beliefs regarding our salt consumption, but this more than 30-year old recipe remains a reader favorite. It's also blessedly easy to make. After removing the stems from the mushrooms, you simply sauté the caps with a little butter, lemon juice and black pepper (we won't tell if you add a little salt). Make a simple stuffing of chopped mushroom stems, shallots, garlic, celery, thyme, egg, bread crumbs and shredded Gouda. Stuff the mushroom caps, drizzle with butter and bake for about 15 minutes. See? The 1980s weren't so bad.
Quiche Lorraine
The first quiche to come to the attention of the American public was the quiche Lorraine in the 1950s. Craig Claiborne, who started as food editor of The Times in 1957, created this classic recipe with bacon, onion and cheese to fill a pie dish. If you use a tart pan, expect to have extra custard. Keys to This Recipe What is quiche: In its most traditional French form, a quiche is composed of a buttery crust filled with a savory egg custard. The pastry is known as pâte brisée. Fillings can include any combination of cheese, herbs, vegetables and smoked meat or fish. How to Make Quiche: For any type of quiche, you start with homemade pastry dough or a store-bought pie crust and fit it into a 9- or 10-inch pie, tart or quiche pan. To prevent a soggy crust, par-bake the dough by baking it alone first, lined with parchment paper or foil and filled with pie weights, such as dried beans. Once the dough is golden, it can be filled with the custard and any other ingredients, then baked again until the custard is just set. Make-Ahead Tips for Quiche: Quiche tastes best when served after 20 to 30 minutes of cooling and within an hour of baking. It can be completely cooled, then covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days, but the crust will get soggy. It’s better to keep a fully baked quiche at room temperature for up to 6 hours and then reheat it, uncovered, in a 300-degree oven for 10 to 20 minutes. (If it has been in the refrigerator, add another 10 minutes or so.) You also can prepare the dough up to 3 days ahead and refrigerate it or par-bake the crust up to a day in advance and keep it at room temperature. Side Dishes to Serve With Quiche: Because quiche is quite rich, it tastes best with a sharp, light salad, such as arugula salad or green salad. Gluten-Free Options for Quiche: You can purchase a gluten-free crust or make your own by swapping a 1-to-1 flour blend for all-purpose flour. Or, you can make a crustless quiche. Why You Should Trust This Recipe This recipe was first published in the fall of 1958, when Craig Claiborne, a pre-eminent food journalist, reported that Gruyère cheese was not yet readily available in grocery stores. It is now, and his recipe for this classic quiche remains a favorite among home cooks.
Sesame-Coated Sautéed Chicken Breasts
Here is a classic recipe from Pierre Franey’s “60-Minute Gourmet,” one that happens not to take quite that long to cook at all. Sesame was a novel ingredient for him, he wrote in 1981, introduced to him by the cooking of “the late Virginia Lee, one of the finest Chinese chefs I have ever met. She used a lot of sesame oil and sesame paste in her flavorings, both in main courses and sauces such as that which accompanies a Mongolian hot pot.” Mr. Franey used sesame seeds as a coating quite a bit after that — on fish fillets, for example — and here adapted the idea to a main course, using whole, skinned, boned chicken breasts. “The dish turned out admirably in texture and flavor,” he wrote. Even better, “it is certainly easy to make, involving nothing more than coating the breast halves with the seeds and sauteing them briefly on both sides in butter. There is a final touch, a light ‘sauce’ made of hazelnut butter to which a dash of lemon juice is added.” (By that, Mr. Franey meant butter that is browned until it is hazelnut in color.)
Chicken Paillard With Curried Oyster Mushrooms
Alain Sailhac, dean emeritus of the French Culinary Institute in New York and one of New York’s most venerable French chefs, gives inspiration here to recapture the glory of the chicken breast, that popular yet generally overcooked piece of meat. He suggests cutting the breast in half horizontally to make two thin pieces, then topping them with quick-cooking vegetables like mushrooms, zucchini or tomatoes, and roasting everything together. This supremely juicy and complexly flavored dish uses that technique and is a snap to put together.
Original Chicken Cordon Bleu
This classic French chicken dish, adapted from Jane and Michael Stern’s book “American Gourmet,” more than lives up to its name ("cordon bleu" means “blue ribbon”). It's also far easier to make than you may think. A chicken breast is pounded thin (we've been known to cheat by using pretrimmed cutlets), then wrapped around a slice of smoked ham and a bit of Swiss cheese, and secured with toothpicks. The roulade is coated in egg and bread crumbs, then pan-fried until golden brown, and a simple white wine cream sauce finishes it off.
Île Flottante With Fresh Cherries
The name of this French dessert means “floating island.” It consists of soft meringue islands set afloat on a sea of the pourable vanilla custard called crème anglaise. Traditionally it is garnished with caramel sauce and praline powder. Here the dessert is flavored with cardamom and rose water instead, drizzled with cherry syrup and topped with pistachios.
Sheet-Pan Roasted Salmon Niçoise Salad
Here, the classic French salad becomes an elegant dinner, with mustard-glazed salmon in place of tuna, roasted vegetables and jammy eggs served over a jumble of salad greens tossed with a red-wine vinaigrette. Roasting the vegetables, rather than serving some steamed and some raw as you would for a traditional Niçoise, gives this dish great texture and a delicious contrast of temperatures. The vegetables and salmon are roasted on a single sheet pan, making this an elevated take on the one-dish dinner — fit for company and easy enough for a weeknight.
Asparagus, Goat Cheese and Tarragon Tart
Because you don’t have to make your own crust, this gorgeous asparagus-striped tart is so easy it almost feels like cheating. But it’s not. It’s just simple yet stunning, effortlessly chic and company-ready. As there are so few ingredients in this recipe that each one makes an impact, be sure to buy a good all-butter brand of puff pastry. If you can manage to serve this tart warm, within an hour of baking, it will be at its absolute best, with crisp pastry that shatters into buttery bits when you bite down and still-runny cheese. But it’s also excellent a few hours later, should you want to get all your baking done before your guests arrive. If tarragon isn’t your favorite herb, you can use chives, basil or mint instead. And if you can manage to trim all the asparagus to the same length, this tart will be especially neat and orderly looking.
Ludo Lefebvre’s Roasted-Carrot Salad
At Petit Trois, the tiny restaurant in Los Angeles where the chef Ludo Lefebvre serves bistro classics to the film industry and food-obsessed, this salad serves as an appetizer. But it works just as well spread across a platter as a light dinner or lunch, and pairs well with a fresh baguette and a glass of chilled red wine. Toasting the cumin for the carrots and the crème fraîche is very important, but don’t worry if you can’t find all the herbs for the garnish. Just one or two will bring pleasure.
French Grated Carrot Salad
Want to work more carrots into your diet? Make up a batch of grated carrot salad every week. Standard fare in French cafes and charcuteries, this salad keeps well. If you have it handy, you’ll be eating carrots every day. This classic version is made with a salad oil rather than stronger-tasting olive oil. You have a choice here, as extra-virgin olive oil has health benefits that canola oil may not. Still, choose a mild-tasting olive oil rather than a strong green one. For a twist on this version, try it curried, bolstered with capers, cumin and curry powder.
Onion and Thyme Frittata
This recipe is an adaptation of a Provençal frittata that agricultural workers traditionally carried to the fields for the midmorning repast. The French call it the “harvest omelet.”
Evelyn Sharpe's French Chocolate Cake
Just as there will always be a place in the world for an understated but luxurious black dress, there will always be a place for flourless chocolate cake. This recipe from 1969 was one of the first published, long before the cake became fashionable. Today it may be a cliché, but it’s a swanky one. This cake is dense, but not the solid block of sweet that can make you wonder if you’re just eating chocolate ganache in cake form. Of course, since the recipe has so few ingredients, it is imperative to use truly delicious chocolate. The proportion of cacao, in case you’re wondering, should fall between 60 and 70 percent.
Chocolate Soufflé
Some of the most experienced home cooks are afraid of soufflés. They’ll never rise, they’ll immediately fall, they’re difficult to make, they’re temperamental. Yet people do want to make soufflés — or want them made for them. Hence this recipe, which is not only not scary, it’s also easy. It can be made ahead of time, it’s rich and light, it will dazzle your significant other (or anyone else), and it requires no more effort than it takes to beat a few eggs.
Sheet-Pan Ratatouille With Goat Cheese and Olives
Cooking ratatouille on a sheet pan in the oven isn’t just easier than cooking it in a pot on the stove, it’s also better: richer and more deeply caramelized in flavor. To make it, the vegetables are slicked with plenty of olive oil, then roasted until tender and browned, their juices mingling and condensing. Toward the end of the cooking time, goat cheese and olives are sprinkled on top. The cheese melts and becomes creamy, while the olives heat up and turn plump and tangy. Serve this as a meatless main dish, with crusty bread and more goat cheese, or as a hearty side dish to a simple roast chicken or fish.
Pear and Apple Soufflé
Fruit soufflés are dramatic and impressive yet so easy to make. This one will impress everyone at your table. Make the fruit puree well in advance, and beat the egg whites before you sit down to dinner. Then, when you’re too full to eat anything more, fold the two together and put the soufflés in the oven. Just when you’re beginning to think you could eat a little dessert, they’ll be ready.
Grand Marnier Soufflé
This version of the classic French dessert is an adaptation of one attributed to Jean-Jacques Rachou, a former owner and chef of La Côte Basque, a restaurant The Times once called "the high-society temple of classic French cuisine." These acclaimed soufflés were a specialty at the restaurant, which closed its doors in 2004, after 45 years of serving guests like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Babe Paley and Frank Sinatra. Done right, they are airy, perfectly textured and deftly sweetened. The key is the density of the egg whites; they must be whipped until the peaks are firm but not too full of air.
Gruyère and Chive Soufflé
This soufflé is as classic as they come, with beaten egg whites folded into a rich, cheese laden béchamel for flavor and stability. Gruyère is the traditional cheese used for soufflé, but a good aged Cheddar would also work nicely. This makes a great lunch or brunch dish. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Zucchini Soufflé
To keep the soufflé as light as possible, the zucchini is grated (the food processor makes short work of this), and then cooked with onion and garlic until it’s really soft, almost melting. (If there’s liquid in the pan when you’re done, drain it to further lighten the mixture.)
Strawberry Soufflé
This very light soufflé recipe, adapted from Julia Child, uses a base of syrupy fruit to flavor the egg whites, without the addition of fats or starches. And a combination of raspberries and strawberries makes it marvelously pink. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Lemon Soufflé
This soufflé, adapted from Mark Bittman's famous tome, "How to Cook Everything," is rich, fluffy and very easy. You can also make orange or Grand Marnier variations. If you want to make individual soufflés, use a little more butter and grease four 1 1/2- to 2-cup ramekins.
Zucchini Tian With Curried Bread Crumbs
Sweet Potato Aligot
In a classic French pommes aligot potatoes are mashed with butter and enough cheese to turn them into a stretchy purée that’s soft, gooey and eminently comforting. This version, made with sweet potatoes, has a gently caramelized flavor and a deeply satiny texture. Pan-fried sage leaves make a crisp, herbal garnish that’s worth the few extra minutes of work. Note that the bigger the sage leaves, the easier they are to fry. If you can’t find Saint-Nectaire or Tomme de Savoie cheese, you can use fontina or mozzarella. And if you want to make this ahead, or reheat leftovers, let the mixture cool, then store it in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat it on low, stirring in a little cream until the mixture is elastic and smooth. Serve this as a side dish to sausages or roasted meats, or as a meatless entree with a fresh, crunchy salad.
Tomato, Squash and Eggplant Gratin
This is one of the simplest Provençal gratins, a dish that takes a little bit of time to assemble, then bakes on its own for 1 1/2 hours. It tastes best the day after it’s made.