Skip to main content
Home
The Foodie Pilgrim

Main navigation

  • Home
  • What's on My Plate?
  • What's in My Glass?
  • What's on My Mind?
User account menu
  • Log in

Breadcrumb

  1. Home

France

By John, 15 February, 2025

Paupiettes of Sole Stuffed with Crab, with Lobster Cognac Sauce

"S"This one is for a special occasion! You make a simple stuffing of mostly crab meat, fold fillets of sole over the filling, and poach. When it's done you reduce the cooking liquid and enrich it with lobster stock and butter.

A paupiette is just a thin fillet of fish or piece of meat filled with something savory. They are typically braised or baked in wine or stock. They're very popular in France, and you can often buy them ready-to-cook.

By John, 28 March, 2024

Trout Baked with Thyme and Lemon

"Trout Baked with Thyme and Lemon"This French trout dish is easy to prepare and you can have it on the table in half an hour. Besides the fish, it uses only 5 ingredients that you probably have in the house already, so it's a good recipe to know if you're sometimes lucky enough to get fresh trout!

By John, 17 February, 2024

Cherry Clafoutis

"Cherry Clafoutis"The Clafoutis Limousin, or cherry clafoutis, is the best known of this traditional and simple dessert style. It can also be made apples, pears, plums, or berries. If a menu says only Clafoutis (also spelled clafouti), they mean the cherry version.

The clafoutis is not elegant or elaborate, it's simple country fare, essentially just a pancake batter poured over cherries and baked, served warm from the oven.

By John, 17 February, 2024

Flamiche (Leek Quiche)

"Leek Quiche"The flamiche is a leek quiche. It's a mild dish because the oniony leeks are first stewed until they are tender. Some cheese enriches the flavor while keeping this quiche suitable for vegetarians.

I don't know where the name comes from: leeks are poireaux. I got this recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but they make no mention of the etymology of the name.

By John, 13 February, 2024

Trout Amandine

"Trout Amandine"We love fresh trout. This is an easy and delicious recipe for a weeknight. You can use either slivered almonds (shown here) or sliced almonds. The slivered ones retain more crunch and less of the buttery goodness, so it's easy to choose.

By John, 5 February, 2024

Mushroom Soup Veloute (French style)

"French Mushroom Soup"This is a tasty soup with few ingredients. The veloute technique is easy, just like making a roux-thickened sauce, so if you find that easy then the whole thing is easy.

The French name for this fall and winter warmer is Potage Veloute aux Champignons.  The French classify soups in three broad ways: a potage is a thick soup, a soupe is a thin soup with veggies and whatever else in it, and a consomme is a perfectly translucent broth clarified from an excellent stock. This potage can be made with chicken, beef, ham, or vegetable stock, or if you use dried mushrooms then the strained mushroom soaking liquid can be used for some or all of the stock. 

For the dinner at which this was served, it was followed by the fish course and one of our diners is vegetarian, so I made a veggie stock from the trimmings of the vegetable course and added the mushroom soaking liquid from some dried wild mushrooms.

By John, 30 January, 2024

Sole Amandine

"Sole Amandine"This is a simple and delicious preparation for fillets of sole or trout that is easy to make on a weeknight. You toast the sliced almonds in butter, and then pan-fry the fish in butter and dress it with the almonds.

I did the one in the photo with a full cup of almonds because Lorna likes it that way!

By John, 31 December, 2023

Snails in the Burgundy Style (Escargot)

"Escargot"Here's the classic French escargot, plump vineyard snails drowning in herbed garlic butter. Old recipes are pretty slow and labor intensive, starting with purging the snails by feeding them cornmeal or something similar, then boiling and cleaning them before finally replacing them in their shells and broiling them with "snail butter". 

I did not pick plump snails from my neighborhood vineyard! I bought the snails cleaned and precooked in a can, and I bought the snail shells on Amazon. 

You see them here served in snail shells on a snail dish. I bought the dishes on Amazon for pretty small money, and special snail tongs for picking up the hot snail shells without spilling the yummy butter.

If you have the snail dishes, then you can do without the shells and the tongs and simply serve them in the wells of the dish with the melted snail butter in the wells, but this is a more eyecatching way to serve them. Please see the notes below.

This recipe is for 18 snails, because that what comes in a small can. The snail dishes that I found hold seven, but on the other hand not all of my diners was ready for a full dish of these garlicky mollusks.

By John, 30 December, 2023

Ratatouille

For this version of the classic Provencal vegetable stew, you slice the vegetables into similar-sized strips, cook them briefly individually (you need two skillets), and then layer them together for a final slow cooking. This can be served either hot or cold.

By John, 30 December, 2023

Provencal Feast for New Neighbors

"Salade Nicoise"We have new neighbors, a fine friendly couple named Mike & Maryann. We invited them over for a Provencal Feast on Sunday, December 17th, 2023. I selected Provencal food because it's different from what we usually see in Plymouth, it's popular with many people, and it was a chance to bring a splash of sunny southern France into our gray December day.

"Black Olive Tapenade"We normally start with an Aperitif in the Living Room, but the Christmas tree made that room too crowded so everything was in the dining room. For the aperitif, we opened with Absinthe cocktails and chilled Lillet Blanc, and:

Pagination

  • 1
  • Previous page
France
The Foodie Pilgrim
Powered by Drupal