French Recipes
1129 recipes found
Julia Child's Berry Clafoutis
This recipe is for a delicately sweet dessert whose elegance should not distract from its ease (it can be made while the rest of dinner is in the oven). Make sure you have fresh berries, and serve the result warm. We call for blueberries or blackberries here, but feel free to try it with whatever seasonal fruit catches your eye.
Le Bernardin's Salmon-Caviar Croque-Monsieur
When the stock market is doing well, people with money to spend go out to spend it — thereby serving as unwitting patrons of the culinary arts. In the late '90s, the chef Eric Ripert said, “Everybody was a bit, I think, crazy and inclined to indulge in excess because of the end of the millennium." His contribution to the madness was this croque-monsieur layered not with ham and béchamel but with something even more indulgent: smoked salmon, Gruyère and caviar on brioche. Make it home, and don't look at the grocery bill. It is in service of luxurious flavor.
François Payard's Chocolate Upside-Down Soufflés
Pan-Roasted Duck With Wild Mushrooms
Magret is the term used for the large breasts of a Muscovy duck, found at many butcher shops and supermarkets or easily purchased online. Each breast weighs about 12 ounces, enough for 2 portions.They are best served rare or medium-rare, like a beef steak. If using smaller duck breasts, reduce the cooking time accordingly. The deeply flavored sauce is made from dried wild mushrooms and a mixture of cultivated mushrooms sautéed with garlic and parsley finishes the dish. If wild chanterelles or porcini are available, by all means, add them to the mixture, too. Mashed squash or sweet potato would make a nice accompaniment.
Angel's Delight
Eggnog Crème Brûlée
A splash of bourbon and a generous grating of fresh nutmeg transform this simple custard into a holiday sensation. Make the custard in advance, but wait to caramelize the topping about 10 minutes before serving. The sugar will not hold its signature crunch if subjected to much extra time in a humid refrigerator. While it may be a single-use gadget, a kitchen torch is an inexpensive tool worth the investment. It does the best job at caramelizing the top without warming the custard, and it’s so fun to use.
Jambon Persillè
Puff Pastry
Chocolate Madeleines
Confit of Citrus Fruits
Creme au Chocolat
To make this classic dish a little less rich, I substitute milk for the heavy cream that conventionally serves as its base, combining it with a dash of flour and a little egg to create a light pastry cream, to which I add enough chocolate to make a dark, intensely flavored dessert that can be served with or without cookies. It will keep in the refrigerator for a week or so. Be certain to cover it well with plastic wrap to keep it from absorbing other flavors in the refrigerator.
Shell-shaped Dacquoise
Radish Sandwiches With Butter and Salt
Steven Satterfield, the chef at Miller Union in Atlanta, included this very French picnic recipe in his cookbook, "Root to Leaf." As he points out, the key is to use a lot of butter, a lot of radishes and plenty of salt. The recipe yields four sturdy desk- or school-lunch sandwiches, or you can divide them further, into a dozen little bites for hors d’oeuvres.
Flaming Babas à l'Armagnac
Pork Chops With Dijon Sauce
In the Burgundy region of France, home of Dijon, pork chops are traditionally served in a sauce made with mustard, cream and white wine, and there are very few pairings that are better. Richard Olney, a prominent food writer and authority on French cooking, sautéed sliced apples and chops and then baked them all together with cream and mustard dribbled on top. I prefer the method here, but you could always fry up some apples and serve them on the side. (For a dish with roots closer to Normandy than Burgundy, make the same recipe but omit the mustard, deglaze the pan with Calvados instead of wine and stir sliced sautéed Granny Smiths into the sauce itself.)
Quatre Epices
Maida Heatter's Chocolate Madeleines
Plum, Almond and Orange Galette
The galette is a free-form French tart that is effortlessly chic, the kind of dish whose imperfections can render it that much more perfect. It makes an exceptionally good showcase for fruit at the height of the season, as with the plums of late August and early September. Orange zest adds wonderful perfume. Typically, buttery doughs are used in galettes, but this recipe calls for a yeasted dough that is not too heavy or rich, a mixture of white and whole-wheat flour (add almond flour for nutty flavor), with significantly less butter. You can use another dough recipe if you like, though, and just heap on this plum filling.
Puree de poireaux (Leeks puree)
Mousse Au Chocolat
Chocolate Amaretto Tofu Mousse With Raspberry Sauce
Molded Chocolate Mousse
Frangipane-Prune Tart
Prunes, or dried plums, are a delicious, often underrated baking ingredient in the United States. In France, the fruit is used in sweet and savory recipes, including this one for a popular dessert filled with frangipane, or buttery almond cream, and plenty of plumped fruit, baked together until the filling turns a golden brown on top and the prunes are as sweet and tender as caramels. You could use a store-bought pie or tart shell, slightly parbaked before filling it up, or follow a recipe for an all-butter pie crust.
Braised Duck Legs With Plums and Red Wine
This is a deep, dark, flavorful braise, perfect for cool weather. The plums and red wine add body, sweetness and a touch of acidity to the rich sauce. Look for small Pekin (sometimes called Long Island) duck legs, about 8 ounces each; they cook more quickly and are more tender than the larger Muscovy duck legs some butchers carry. If small duck legs are unavailable, chicken legs may be substituted. You may be tempted to brown the legs in the Dutch oven rather than the skillet called for in Step 2, but a roomy skillet (cast iron if possible) does the job better and saves time in the long run — you can brown more legs at a time.