French Recipes
1129 recipes found
Omelet
This recipe is for a basic French omelet with three eggs: enough for a hearty breakfast or brunch, or a light supper for one. The key to mastering this recipe is controlling the heat so the eggs do not brown, and whisking the eggs in the skillet so they set on the exterior but remain fluffy inside. A good nonstick or well-seasoned carbon-steel skillet is central to cooking the ideal omelet, which should be tender and slightly runny. Once you’ve got the technique down, you can play around with your seasonings, adding minced herbs, grated cheese, diced ham or sautéed vegetables. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Lamb Tagine
The word "tagine" refers to both a North African cooking pot with a conical lid, and the aromatic stew traditionally cooked inside. Tagine, the stew, classically incorporates savory and sweet ingredients to make a complex dish with a richly spiced sauce. Here, dried apricots, cinnamon, nutmeg and a sprinkling of almonds toasted in butter provide the sweetness, while lamb, saffron, turmeric, tomato paste and a bright garnish of scallions, herbs and lemon juice make it deeply savory. If you have a tagine, the pot, feel free to use it here. Otherwise, a Dutch oven or a different large pot with a tightfitting lid will work well. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Sole Meunière
The dish that made Julia Child fall in love with French cuisine, sole meunière highlights the simple flavors of fresh fish, butter, lemon and parsley. Fish is the center of the dish, so using a quality fillet is important: A true English Dover sole is preferred. Clarified butter, which takes a few extra minutes to prepare, can take on heat without browning, making it ideal for pan-frying fish. A classic sole meunière is made with a bone-in fillet, but boneless sole is faster and easier. You'll find a recipe for clarified butter here. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Melissa Clark's Cassoulet
This slow-cooked casserole of white beans and several kinds of meat has long been considered the pinnacle of regional French home cooking. It takes planning (you’ll need to find all the ingredients), time and a good deal of culinary stamina. But the voluptuous mix of aromatic beans surrounding rich chunks of duck confit, sausages, roasted pork and lamb and a crisp salt pork crust is well worth the effort. Serve this with a green salad. It doesn’t need any other accompaniment, and you wouldn’t have room for it, anyway. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Jacques Pépin's Fromage Fort
This fromage fort recipe's process is almost embarrassingly simple—put cheese in a food processor with wine, a garlic clove, and black pepper, and blend.
Aligot (Mashed Potatoes With Cheese)
Somewhere between buttery mashed potatoes and pure melted cheese lies aligot, the comforting, cheese-enhanced mashed-potato dish from central France. The key to getting a smooth, airy texture is to rice the potatoes while they're still hot, then incorporate cold butter, hot milk and grated cheese over low heat. To build up the stringiness of that melting cheese, Ham El-Waylly, a chef at the Brooklyn restaurant Hail Mary, suggests whipping it with confidence, speed and vigor. This is what will create aligot's characteristic cheese strings: long and sheer, with some elasticity. "They should fight with you," Waylly says. While fresh tomme or Cantal is traditional, Gruyère or Comté work well, too.
Chicken Thighs Confit
For this confit chicken recipe, let the thighs brine overnight with garlic and herbs, then place in a roasting pan, cover with oil, and roast for 6 to 8 hours.
Elena's Crispy Potatoes with Comté
This is pure comfort food, designed to make you feel cozy and satisfied. It's perfect for lazy days when you don't want to make anything too complicated or weeknights when you feel busy but still want something nice and warm to eat. Feel free to get creative and play around with different combinations of fresh herbs or spices to garnish this dish. I chose to garnish with fresh thyme, but you can use anything that inspired you (like rosemary, sage, or a pinch of cayenne).
Omelet Souffle
Much easier to prepare than a traditional souffle and still offers the fluffiness and lightness of it. I find this perfect for week-end brunch as it only takes a couple of minutes to prepare and 5 minutes to cook. Check out my Instagram for the video and you will see how easy it it!
Caper Vinaigrette
This is a star at our dinner table. I pour it over grilled chicken, drizzle over seared scallops or shrimp and use it to dress up green vegetables.
French Toast for Total Flakes
I love breakfast. I love pancakes and I love good French toast. This is a technique I discovered having my morning meal at one of my favorite breakfast hangouts. I didn’t ask the chef for her recipe I just started fooling around with it myself. This is what I came up with. I used stone ground wheat bread dipped in milk and egg and dredged in crushed frosted flakes. You can use another flakey cereal if you prefer. Simple and delicious.
Raspberry Tart
It does not get any easier than this! Plus it looks so nice.
BERRY NAPOLEAN
I love this dessert because it so delicate and very french. I love the crunchiness of the pastry with the smoothness of the whipped cream and the freshness of the strawberries.
Really Good Vinaigrette
I was inspired by the vinaigrette recipe in Heartburn, by Nora Ephron, to get back to making proper salad dressings. This is a doctored-up version of it that I've been making. Nothing groundbreaking, but solid.
Mushroom Soup Gratinée
This hearty soup takes its cue from the classic soupe à l’oignon gratinée. I swapped out the onions for mushrooms and served the hearty soup paved with a layer of toast and cheese as a cold-weather first course. For an informal supper, it could be the main event, especially with additions like potatoes or other root vegetables, shredded cabbage, cooked lentils, buckwheat pasta or even chunks of duck confit, sausage or boneless short ribs or veal shank. As for the finishing glaze of cheese, I suggest Gruyère, though the Bitto of the region, a firm cow’s milk cheese made with a funky touch of goat milk, would be lovely if you can find it.
Coq au Riesling
The chicken stew here does have an authentic origin, but I have lightened it a little by dispensing with the cream that would be added luxuriously in its country of origin. And you can cheerfully use a dry or semi-dry from anywhere in the world. I have nothing against the regular coq au vin, but I might actually prefer this sprightlier version. It's certainly easier to make: in place of all those whole baby onions, which have to be peeled one by one, you can just chop your onions the usual and considerably less bothersome way. And since I always think that the breast meat of a chicken can be a bit stringy when cooked for a long time, I instead choose thigh portions. So no dismembering of a carcass is required either.
The Bitter Frenchman
This is a simple variation on a Bitter French Cocktail 75, but it tastes a world different. The Campari in this recipe gives it an extra sophisticated edge.
Pastéis de Tentúgal
This is your new favorite sweet! This Pastéis de Tentúgal recipe is a crispy, buttery Portuguese pastry filled with egg custard.
Garlic Soup With Pasta and Peas
This garlic soup, which is based on a Provençal recipe, requires a minimal number of the staples that I always have on hand. It calls for garlic; eggs; some sort of pasta; a green vegetable that can be as simple as the limp bunch of broccoli in my crisper or, as I use in this recipe, frozen peas; and Parmesan or Gruyère for the garnish.
Michel Richard's Glazed & Glistening Haricots Verts
Since finding dainty haricots verts isn't a sure thing, you can use this recipe with whatever variety and size of green beans you find.
Caramelized Tomato Tarte Tatin
This tart is a stunning mosaic of red, orange and yellow tomatoes so shiny and candied that the tart really looks like dessert. But it's safely on the savory side thanks to a splash of vinegar and a sprinkling of briny olives.
Brie En Croute
I love brie and when you wrap it in puff pastry and stuff it with sweet filling, it can't really get any better. I make this appetizer for every get together and there is never, ever any left over.
Refreshing French 75
My mom turned me on to this drink and boy is it a good one! So refreshing, especially for summer, with a nod to history, and packs a good punch! This recipe is adapted from Saveur.
Hot Cross Bun French Toast
This is a really great way to use up stale hot cross buns (if they last that long in your house, they don't in ours!).